Daily Show guest host John Leguizamo was overjoyed to hear about the news of former President Donald Trump’s indictment this week.

On the Thursday edition of The Daily Show, Leguizamo closed out the week by discussing the decision from the grand jury and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Leguizamo played a clip from ABC 7 NY, discussing the charges. The live audience went wild, as did Leguizamo, clapping and fist-pumping with glee.

“That’s right, that’s right. Lady Justice grabbed Trump by the p**sy,” Leguizamo said joyously.

“And, you know, I take a firm stance against mass incarceration. Okay? But for this, I’m willing to make an exception,” Leguizamo added. “I just hope they take it easy on him and put him at least in a cell with his lawyer.”

Leguizamo elaborated that this was a good lesson for kids to learn.

“If you commit fraud to cover up an affair with a porn star, the law will catch up to you — after like seven years and a full term as president,” he said.

“Now, I know we’re all hoping to see him put in handcuffs, but we don’t know how it’s all gonna go down. The report is that they’re gonna try to negotiate his surrender. Either that or they’ll leave a trail of Big Macs leading to the prison,” Leguizamo joked.

Watch above via The Daily Show.

No one likes ads, especially when they get in the way of what you’re actually trying to do. I doubt a single Roku user wants to see obtrusive banner ads while they’re looking for something to watch (unless you wanted to DoorDash dinner from your TV?), but what can you do? Roku wants to show you ads, so ads there shall…

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White House chief national security spokesman John Kirby was asked if the Biden administration feels any “responsibility” for the fire that killed at least 40 people at a migrant center in Mexico.

A fire at a Mexican government-run migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez killed at least 40 people and injured many more, and according to Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was the result of protest fires that got out of hand.

Kirby held an on-the-record briefing with reporters via Zoom on Tuesday morning, during which NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez asked if the administration feels any responsibility for the tragedy because of policies like Title 42 and insufficient “legal pathways”:

FRANCO ORDONEZ: Wanted to ask about the fire in Ciudad Juarez? I just wanted to know if the administration or the White House felt any bit of of responsibility for some of the circumstances that happened? Because certainly some advocates are putting some of the blame on the administration and the use of, the expansion of Title 42 and the lack of legal pathways. So I wanted to ask you about that.

NSC SPOKESMAN JOHN KIRBY: Yeah, we talked about this a little bit yesterday or the day before. I want to again offer our condolences for the families of those who were killed. And certainly our thoughts and prayers to their loved ones. As I said before, we’re working and have been in touch with Mexican officials and we’re working to bring some of the seriously injured individuals to medical facilities here in the United States.

And look, as to your question of blame, the short answer is no.

And I think it’s important to remember that the last administration is the one that forced asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims were being processed. A process that could take years. We’ve been working to end that policy.

The policies that the president put in place in January are encouraging migrants to seek legal, more legal pathways in the United States and avoid crossing through Mexico altogether. We’re allowing up to 30,000 migrants with a sponsor each month to fly directly into the United States.

And as I think we’ve said before, you know, we’ve even created an app here to allow migrants to make asylum appointments from central Mexico so that they don’t have to gather at the border. And I think we talked about this yesterday, but these policies are, we’re starting to see them pay off.

Unlawful migration from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba is down almost 100%, 97%, and it’s down 71% from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. So we’re going to keep doing that.

We need Congress, though, to help us. We need them to act by providing the resources and the reforms that the president has requested and has requested since the very early days of his administration. Fix this broken immigration system.

Watch above via Mediaite.

Disgraced influencer Andrew Tate was portrayed in a recent South Park episode as a “Romanian sex trafficker.”

Tate went viral on social media last year for his controversial and often misogynistic worldview. Tate and his brother Tristan Tate, are currently detained in a Romanian jail on allegations of human trafficking, rape, and organized crime.

The new episode of South Park aired on Wednesday night, titled Spring Break. It featured a character named Alonzo Fineski.

In the episode, a father, Randy Marsh, is determined to show his sons how to party and enlists Fineski for help.

bruh they put andrew tate in the recent south park episode pic.twitter.com/4vsI03r1zS

— schMax (@schmaxelio) March 30, 2023

“I’m just trying to combat the messages that the liberal Left is putting out to young men about their male instincts being toxic,” Marsh tells Fineski.

“The f*ck you talking?” Fineski replied.

“I’m trying to show my son and his nerdy little friend what a real party is because society wants them to be ashamed of their masculine natures,” Marsh explains.

“You want real party?” Fineski asked, “I will — call some friends.”

who decided to put Andrew Tate in South Park pic.twitter.com/AGsDvxqouE

— 𝐬𝐞a✬ (@destroynectar) March 30, 2023

Later in the episode, Fineski is confronted by cops in a shootout as they yell, “That’s Alonzo Fineski — the Romanian sex trafficker!”

It appears Tate will spend the foreseeable future in Romania as a Romanian judge denied their latest appeal for bail on Thursday. They will remain detained until April 21st despite not being formally charged with anything.

Tensions erupted in the House Judiciary Committee when members blew up at each other over the continuity of the hearing procedure and the lack of opportunities to scrutinize witnesses.

The blow-up took place in a hearing for the Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt (R) were both in attendance to give testimony on the Biden administration’s alleged influence over social media content on pandemic safety.

At one point in the hearing, Congressman Stephen Lynch (R-MA) confronted Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) for letting Landry and Schmitt be dismissed without a cross-examination.

“They’ve made some outlandish allegations here,” Lynch said, “and consistent with the work of this committee — especially this select committee, and at congressional hearings in general — we should have the ability to question their statements.”

Lynch continued to accuse Landry and Schmitt of putting forth “false” evidence in their testimony that he wanted to cross-examine under oath. This led to a procedural kerfuffle where Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) accused Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) of presenting “testimony that was pretty salacious, and [the witness] was allowed to leave the room and we’re not allowed to cross-examine him.”

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) joined the fray by demanding the word “salacious” be stricken from the record because “sexual content” was not presented by any witnesses.

“Well, let’s call it ‘outrageous’ then,” Jordan acquiesced. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was the next to call a point of order, and she and Jordan battled over whether Landry was eligible in his position to give testimony before Congress without being sworn-in.

The uproar continued until Lynch said, “If we’re not gonna have the ability to cross-examine, I would move that we move to strike the testimony provided by Senator Schmidt and, and Attorney General Landry.”

“You mean you want to censor it?” Johnson countered.

“I wanna strike it,” Lynch repeated. “If we aren’t able to probe the veracity of their statements, the truthfulness of their statements…”

“You will be given your five minutes here when we get to [the next witness],” Jordan replied.

“They’re not here!” Lynch shot back. “They scurried away with your complicity!”

Jordan and Lynch continued to talk over each other as the latter exclaimed “In a country of 330 million people, you couldn’t find two people to defend their statements. That’s pretty disgraceful!”

Jordan tried to bring on the next witness, though Lynch cut him off and declared a move to adjourn the hearing.

“This is a mockery and a disgrace and it’s shameful!” He said. “There’s a motion on the floor to adjourn, and it is not debatable. If you don’t know the rules of the committee, then talk to your parliamentarian!”

This was hardly the only dust-up the subcommittee saw today.

Watch above via CSPAN3.

There’s a stereotype of the phone-obsessed gym rat hogging equipment while they “just sit there and scroll on their phone.” Excuse me, I am logging my sets and trimming my training videos and, um, scrolling Reddit, and yeah I kind of got sucked into TikTok somehow? And there’s a work email, crap, it could wait until…

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AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, wrote to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on Jan. 20, 2021 that he believed outgoing President Donald Trump pushing claims that the 2020 election was stolen was “pretty much a crime” that led directly to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob seeking to stop the certification of the election.

“The more I think about McConnell’s remarks or complaint the more I agree,” Murdoch wrote, apparently referencing Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) strong condemnation of Trump following Jan. 6.

“Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25% of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan 6th,” Murdoch continued, adding:

Best we don’t mention his name unless essential and certainly don’t support him. We have to respect people of principle and if it comes to the Senate don’t take sides.

I know he is being over demonized, but he brought it on himself.

The bombshell email was made public on Wednesday as it was included in slides presented during a court hearing by lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion alleging defamation. The voting technology company alleges the network knowingly aired election lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election — falsely implicating Dominion.

Fox News pushed back on the new revelations in a statement to Mediaite: “These documents once again demonstrate Dominion’s continued reliance on cherry-picked quotes without context to generate headlines in order to distract from the facts of this case. The foundational right to a free press is at stake and we will continue to fiercely advocate for the First Amendment in protecting the role of news organizations to cover the news.”

“Executives at all levels of Fox — both (Fox News Network) and (Fox Corporation) — knowingly opened Fox’s airwaves to false conspiracy theories about Dominion,” Dominion wrote in the unsealed filing Monday. A five-week trial is currently scheduled to begin on April 17.

Parts of Murdoch’s deposition were also included in the slides, including Murdoch confirming he had asked Scott to ban Trump from the network:

Q. In fact, you talked to Ms. Scott and said, “No more Trump appearances on the network.”?
A. At some time, I certainly said that.

An additional slide, showed Murdoch explicitly stating he did not believe any of Trump’s claims regarding 2020 election fraud, which were at times parroted on Fox News:

Q. It is fair to say you seriously doubted any claim of massive election fraud?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. And you seriously doubted it from the very beginning? …
A. Yes. I mean, we thought everything was on the up-and-up. I think that was shown when we announced Arizona.

Fox News has argued in previous statements that the voting technology company’s lawsuit “has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims.”

Biden NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby gave a withering answer to Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich when she asked if taking in migrant burn victims “risk incentivizing more of this kind of behavior?”

A fire at a Mexican government-run migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez killed at least 40 people and injured many more, and according to Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was the result of protest fires that got out of hand.

At Wednesday’s White House briefing, Kirby joined White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to field questions from reporters, and was asked about the fire.

Kirby told one reporter it was “tragic what happened to these individuals. And a lot of grieving families here as a result of that. And certainly, should Mexican authorities need any support or assistance from us, we would happily provide it.”

He added the tragedy illustrates the need for immigration reform.

Later in the briefing, Heinrich — whose network has long focused on border issues — asked Kirby if taking in injured migrants risks creating some kind of incentive, and Kirby delivered a curt reply:

JACQUI HEINRICH: That we are going to be creating just one follow John, on the migrant tire question. Customs and Border Protection said that they’re going to be granting parole to some of these fire victims so they can enter the US illegally and receive emergency medical care. But since the Mexican president said that this fire did start as part of a protest when the migrants heard that they were going to be deported, is allowing them into the U.S. now on an expedited basis. Does that at all risk incentivizing more of this kind of behavior?

JOHN KIRBY: This is about trying to take care of some folks that badly burned and and really hurt, and we know we can help them. That’s what this is about, Jacqui.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

The first quarter of 2023 saw heavy year-over-year declines across the board in cable news, as the first quarter of 2022 saw a larger audience tuning in for coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

CNN saw the steepest declines, dropping 27 percent in total day viewers and 40 percent in the key 25-53 age demographic for the quarter when compared to last year. Fox News, which still landed in a dominant first place, saw its total day viewership drop 15 percent and 38 percent in the total day demo compared to last quarter.

MSNBC, which came in second place behind Fox News for the quarter in total viewers, dropped only 1 percent and 9 percent in the demo. MSNBC continued its months-long trend of significantly outpacing CNN in total viewers, but falling short in the demo to land in third place among the top three networks.

CNN’s quarter demo performance, while ahead of MSNBC, was the worst the network has seen in the prime-time demo since ratings data became available in 1991. The network has only dropped below 130,000 average prime time demo viewers for a quarter twice in those thirty-some years, this quarter with 124,000 and in Q2 of 2012 with 129,000.

While the end of February marks the 1-year anniversary of longtime CNN chief Jeff Zucker’s exit, the network has yet to regain traction in the ratings under Chris Licht – who took the reins in May of 2022.

CNN’s revamped morning show, CNN This Morning, ended the quarter as the 40th most-watched show on cable news with 359,000 total average viewers. MSNBC’s Morning Joe brought in an average of 846,000 total viewers, while Fox & Friends led cable news in the mornings with an average of 1.21 million total viewers.

Despite CNN’s ongoing ratings struggles, the network does currently boast the youngest audience in cable news with an average at 67, Fox’s viewers average 69, and MSNBC’s average 70. The network’s digital operation remains a silver lining as well, raking in 122 million unique visitors in February — the most of any news website.

CNN’s March numbers, in particular, highlighted the glaring year-over-year decline the network has seen in the past 12 months – although worth keeping in mind that March 2022 was a particularly strong time period in cable news.

In the prime time demo, CNN dropped 73 percent since last March and 61 percent in total viewers. In total day viewers, CNN was down 52 percent and 64 percent in the total day demo. Fox News, by comparison, dropped 27 percent in total day viewers since last March and 53 percent in the total day demo. MSNBC saw more shallow declines, dropping 10 percent in total viewers and 24 percent in the total day demo since last March.

One person to buck that trend was Tucker Carlson, who for the first time in many months dethroned The Five as the top show in cable news. Carlson, who courted controversy during March, ended the month with an average of 3.25 million total viewers and 421,000 demo viewers.

The Five landed in second place in March with 3.06 million total viewers and 317,000 demo viewers. The Five still led the quarter, notching a record six consecutive quarter wins for a non-prime time show. Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Bret Baier rounded out the top five shows on cable news – in that order in both March and the first quarter overall.

While Fox News landed the top 13 shows for the quarter in total viewers, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell led his network with the 14th highest-rated show overall. O’Donnell just edged out Ari Melber, beating his colleague with 1.386 million viewers to 1.370 million viewers – respectively.

On CNN, Anderson Cooper led the network by bringing in 703,000 average total viewers for the 26th highest-rated show overall – Jake Tapper was close behind with 694,000 total viewers.

Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category for the first quarter of 2023.

Total viewers:

CNN: 478,000

Fox 1.36 million

MSNBC: 703,000

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 94,000

Fox News: 174,000

MSNBC: 78,000

Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. — for the third quarter of 2022.

Total viewers:

CNN: 568,000

Fox News: 2.09 million

MSNBC: 1.11 million

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 124,000

Fox News: 259,000

MSNBC: 111,000

Here are the total day averages in total viewers and the 25-54 category during the month of March.

Total viewers:

CNN: 425,000

Fox 1.32 million

MSNBC: 701,000

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 83,000

Fox News: 162,000

MSNBC: 78,000

Here are the prime time averages — encompassing shows which air from 8-11 p.m. —during the month of March.

Total viewers:

CNN: 473,000

Fox News: 2.1 million

MSNBC: 1.14 million

25-54 Demo:

CNN: 100,000

Fox News: 245,000

MSNBC: 107,000

Woot is having another of their massive sales, but one specific deals is sticking out among the rest: The JBL Live Free NC+ True Wireless earbuds are currently 67% off their $150 listing price. For $50, you can get this pair of noise canceling Bluetooth earbuds from now until April 1 (or while supplies last). But…

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In a discussion on a poll declaring patriotism is on the decline, The View’s Sunny Hostin dismissed the issue of internment camps for Uyghur Muslims by declaring the United States imprisons far more Black people.

A Wall Street Journal/NORC survey found only 38 percent of respondents considered patriotism “very important,” which is a drop from 70 percent in 1998.

Alyssa Farah Griffin argued at one point that despite its flaws, the U.S. is the greatest nation and must act as the leader of the free world or communist China will.

“If America is not the number one global power, it’s not going to be Denmark, it’s going to be communist China, a country that right now the government is imprisoning Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps. It is a deeply racist government, it’s a human rights-violating government, it’s a government that if they are the leader of the free world, we are not a free world like we are right now,” Griffin said.

She later declared, “Nowhere else in the world do all these women sit at this table.”

“We all know it’s a great country because we all have benefitted from some of the great things about this country,” Joy Behar said, noting however young people fear regular mass shootings and a broken healthcare system.

Hostin jumped in and circled back to Griffin mentioning China’s internment camps.

“When I listen to Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI, he said white supremacy is the biggest domestic threat to this country and so as a woman of color and with a 6’2″ black kid in college and a 5’7″, 5’8″ Black kid in high school, I don’t see that part of American exceptionalism. I’m sorry,” Hostin said. “I think this country has a lot of problems that could be solved. Yes, maybe they’re putting Muslims in jail in Afghanistan, I think you mentioned?”

“China,” Griffin replied.

“China? They’re putting a lot more Black people in jail here,” Hostin said.

According to an NBC News report, Chinese officials have worked to coverup the torture carried out at these camps. More than one million Muslims are reportedly held captive in these reported camps, which human rights groups have widely condemned. Prisoners reportedly face abuse, work in factories, and are forced to renounce their religions.

According to a report from the think tank Prison Policy Initiative this year, the U.S. had approximately two million people detained in prisons and Black Americans make up around 38 percent of that population, meaning approximately 760,000. None of these prisoners are held in concentration camps, according to any reports.

Griffin asked what country on the planet is ahead of the United States on race. No one offered up the U.S. as leading China and others on race and Whoopi Goldberg described a different America than what she’s seen before.

“This is really about all of things that we believed we were doing that we don’t do anymore,” she said. We don’t teach people that it is your birthright to vote in this country. It’s a gift. We don’t teach people what their rights are as human beings.”

Watch above via ABC.

President Joe Biden tried to answer a few questions about the Nashville school shooting as he left the White House, but eventually gave up when he was drowned out by shouting reporters.

Monday’s mass shooting at the Covenant School, an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee — in which three children and three staff members were killed — has reignited the issue of gun control, as such shootings do with increasing and disturbing regularity.

During a White House event on Monday, President Biden offered words of consolation, and noted “the shooter in this situation reportedly had two assault weapons and a pistol — two AK-47,” and added “I call on Congress, again, to pass my assault weapons ban.”

On Tuesday, the president was peppered with questions as he departed the White House for North Carolina, and expanded on those themes. He also began to explain why he hasn’t announced a trip to Nashville yet, but when reporters began shouting cacophonously during his answer, the president gave up and walked to Marine One:

REPORTER: Mr. President, is there any — is there any action that you can take on guns? Or do you think it’s all up to Congress at this point?

THE PRESIDENT: I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns.

REPORTER: Will you — will you consider-

THE PRESIDENT: Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Wait a minute. The Congress has to act. The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre; it’s a crazy idea. They’re against that. And so, I think the Congress should be passing the assault weapons ban.

I want to remind you, the last time we passed the assault weapons ban, violent shootings went down, mass shootings went down for 10 or however many years it was — 9 years. And so-

REPORTER: So what can you do?

THE PRESIDENT: So I can’t do anything except plead with the Congress to act reasonably.

REPORTER: Will you consider traveling to Nashville to meet with members of the community? Will you consider traveling to Nashville to meet with members of the community?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I’ve spoken with everyone down there, from the mayor, to the senators, to all the players. I spoke to the chief of police today. I’ve spoken to all of them.

What I don’t want to do — I’ve been through many of these myself, as you know, all the way starting way back to the mass shootings (inaudible).

Thank you.

REPORTERS: (shouting indistinctly)

PRESIDENT BIDEN: (gestures, walks to marine one)

Watch above via C-SPAN.

Here’s a familiar travel scenario: You just checked out of your hotel, but you have a while before your flight. That’s fine, because you have plenty of time to relax and explore the city before you leave. But just before you step out into the world for a fun afternoon as a tourist, you realize you have a problem: What…

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AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Israel on Monday night and in a dramatic speech announced he would delay his judicial overhaul effort in order to “avoid civil war.”

Netanyahu’s government, which includes far-right elements, has sought in recent months to pass legislation that would give his government control over who is appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court and the ability to bypass any ruling from the high court with a simple majority vote.

The legislation has led to weeks-long mass protests and domestic turmoil, culminating in a national strike Monday that paralyzed the country.

“When there’s an option to avoid civil war through dialogue, I take a time off for dialogue,” Netanyahu said on Monday. He added that “out of national responsibility” he is delaying the final steps of passing the bill until the next Knesset session after Passover in April.

Netanyahu also struck a defiant tone claiming that the bill will still pass in one form or another and that an “extremist minority” is “tearing Israel apart.”

This is a developing story…

The person who shot and killed six people at a school in Nashville, Tennessee was a female who appeared to be in her teens, according to statements made at a press conference held by the Metro Nashville Police Department. (Update: the shooter is now reported to have been 28 years old.)

The shooting occurred at the preschool and elementary school at the Covenant Presbyterian Church. Three children and three adults were confirmed dead by Nashville PD, as well as confirming that the shooter had engaged with the police and was dead. Neither the victims nor the shooter have been identified yet.

Don Aaron, a spokesman for the MNPD, spoke with reporters Monday morning.

According to Aaron, the first call reporting the shooting came in at 10:13 am CT, and the MNPD officers had “engaged with the shooter” by 10:27 am CT, and she “was fatally shot.”

“We know at this point that this shooter is a female,” said Aaron. “She appears to be in her teens, although her identification has not been confirmed at this juncture. We know that she was armed with at least two assault type rifles and a handgun.”

Aaron added later that were no other wounded victims, but one officer had a hand injury from some broken glass.

UPDATE 2:00 pm ET: CNN is reporting that the shooter has been identified as a 28-year-old woman. Her name has not yet been released.

Watch above via CNN.

Like with yo-yo dieting when you try to “eat healthier,” it’s easy to find yourself trapped in a cycle of unhealthy habits with money, too. And like your relationship with dieting, your relationship with your finances runs deep—it’s never as simple as being “good” or “bad” with money.

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Elon Musk has reportedly told Twitter employees the company which he paid $44 billion to acquire just six months ago is now worth only $20 billion.

According to The New York Times, Musk sent an email to Twitter employees Friday night in which he said the company is now worth $20 billion. He argued “radical changes” were necessary to avoid bankruptcy.

“Twitter is being reshaped rapidly,” Musk wrote.

Musk made the valuation claim in an email outlining the company’s new stock compensation program. Twitter employees will receive stock in X Corporation, which is the holding company the Tesla CEO used to by Twitter. The Times reports the stock will be awarded to employees at the $20 billion valuation.

Times correspondents Kate Conger and Ryan Mac detailed their futile efforts to try to get Musk and Twitter to weigh in on their reporting.

“Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment and an email to Twitter’s communications department was returned with a poop emoji,” they wrote.

Jon Stewart said he doesn’t care whether or not Donald Trump goes to jail over the Stormy Daniels hush money saga, but the former president should be indicted for the sake of holding him accountable to the law.

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria interviewed the former Daily Show host Sunday and started by asking Stewart what he thinks about the discourse surrounding Trump’s possible indictment. While Trump’s foes might want Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to go ahead and indict Trump for allegedly falsifying his business records, Zakaria noted “there are other people who say this is going to turn him into a martyr.”

Asked for his thoughts, Stewart sarcastically remarked “the law should always take into account someone’s popularity.”

What’s happened to our country? It’s as though you can’t even commit financial fraud anymore. You can’t inflate the value of your properties when you need a loan and then deflate it with taxes. I mean, the next thing you know, they’re going to send you to jail instead of your lawyer, and your accountant, and your campaign manager, and everyone else around you. The idea that someone may face accountability who’s that rich and powerful is outrageous, and this country shouldn’t stand for it.

Stewart eventually got serious, arguing that even if the indictment fuels support for Trump, “we either have the rule of law, or we have no rule of law.”

“The rule of law does not take into account if that might make you a martyr to somebody,” Steward said. “I’d much rather have the conversation be what is the law? What exactly are we saying that that he did? His lawyer went to jail for this same situation for a couple of years. So what is the crime? Is it a crime?”

Stewart similarly brushed off the appearance of selective prosecution because “everything is selective prosecution.” He also attributed Trump’s rise to power to Americans feeling “fed up with the lack of accountability for those in power.”

Trump is not immune to this line of thinking though, for Stewart said the question remains “Did he do something wrong? What was it? Explain that to us. What is the law that he supposedly violated?”

“I don’t see him ever actually going to jail,” he concluded. “I personally don’t even care. I just want a system that somehow finds a consistent accountability.”

Watch above via CNN.

A mixed martial arts fight was allowed by the referee to proceed for a full 38 seconds after the announcers began imploring him to stop it.

The stunning moment happened during the Fury Fighting Championships 76 bout between Edgar Cháirez and Gianni Vazquez. During the fourth round, Cháirez locked Vazquez in a triangle choke — and Vazquez immediately went limp and appeared to have his eyes closed.

But despite Vazquez appearing to be totally defenseless and perhaps even unconscious, and despite Vazquez’s own corner begging for the contest to be stopped, referee Frank Collazo stunningly allowed the bout to continue for 38 excruciating seconds.

Cageside announcer Alex Morono screamed at Collazo to stop the fight, to no avail.

“FRANK, IT’S DONE!” Morono screamed. “FRANK, IT’S DONE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, IT’S DONE! WHAT IS HE DOING?! OH MY GOSH, WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”

Vazquez’s eyes finally opened, and he promptly tapped out. Collazo finally recognized that the defenseless fighter was giving up, and mercifully waved off the contest.

After the bout, Vazquez posted a photo of his arm in a sling on Instagram and slammed the referee for not stepping in to protect him when he was out.

“Some stupid referee … didn’t stop the fight when I was out now I have to deal with a potential fracture on my arm and some ligaments damaged too,” Vazquez wrote.

In a statement, Fury Fighting Championships slammed Collazo — who was assigned to referee the bout by the Texas State Athletic Commission.

“It is the referee’s job to protect the fighter when the fighter cannot protect him or herself. In last night’s main event, the referee failed to do this,” Fury wrote. “While the job of a referee is one of the hardest to do in this sport, the need for proper and continued training would help to alleviate things like this incident. We do not hire, train or select refs for our shows, but we would be more than willing to lead a revamp and overhaul of the reffing and judging selection and training process.”

Watch above.

A woman named Barbara read aloud, live on the air, her email to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg comparing former President Donald Trump to Jesus Christ and demanding a stop to the “torture” of Trump.

Trump has been whipping up a frenzy over Bragg’s investigation around hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and reports Trump’s indictment and arrest could be imminent.

Trump deleted a post that featured juxtaposed images of Bragg and Trump wielding a baseball bat shortly after Bragg received a threat on his life in the mail.

But not all of Bragg’s mail is threatening. During a Friday afternoon Happy Hour Special on Real America’s Voice with Ed Henry and Karyn Turk, Henry encouraged Barbara to read her email to Bragg, and earned praise from Turk for “keepin’ it classy”:

ED HENRY: You are telling me you’re tired of these investigations of Donald Trump and you wrote a letter?

“BARBARA”: Oh, yes. I did, to…

ED HENRY: Let’s hear it.

“BARBARA”: Mr. Bragg, I tried to reach him on the telephone but didn’t work. So I decided.

ED HENRY: Wonder why.

“BARBARA”: Let’s send an e-mail. And I said to, “Dear Mr. Bragg, I hope you had a restful weekend and had some time to be on your knees praying to our God Almighty about your decision regarding our precious, precious President, Donald J. Trump. How would you like to be in his shoes? His torture brings to mind what Jesus Christ went through to save us. President Trump is our savior in this country. There is no one else who can make us whole and great again. Please do not continue to tarnish and persecute this precious, precious man. He is only a man. He is only human. And we are all human. Have forgiveness in your heart for all the damage that everyone has done to him. And please do not continue. Thank you.

ED HENRY: All right. What do you think, guys?

APPLAUSE

KARYN TURK: I like it. And keepin’ it classy. Getting to the point and telling the truth.

“BARBARA”: Yes, It came from the heart.

ED HENRY: So what about the state of America right now? We’ve been talking to people all day here. Inflation is hitting a lot of people hard, obviously. And people are you know, there’s action in the South China Sea. You know, the Iranians had a drone strike that killed an American. Ukraine and Russia. It’s like we’re on a knife edge right now. Donald Trump of wanting to push us into World War three, something he would never do and never did. And yet here’s Joe Biden bumbling us maybe into World War Three. What are your thoughts?

“BARBARA”: Oh, no, we need Donald Trump back in the White House. We need peace and prosperity again in our lives. I want to be able to put my head on the pillow. And have sweet dreams again and not nightmares.

Watch above via Real America’s Voice.

Kellyanne Conway predicted “hidden undercover” Donald Trump voters in 2024 and knocked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) for being too focused on Covid ahead of a potential 2024 run.

DeSantis has not officially announced he’s entering the 2024 race, but he’s earned plenty of insults from Trump as more and more predict he’ll be the former president’s biggest competition.

Appearing on Fox Business on Saturday, former Trump advisor Conway predicted a Trump victory in 2024 if President Joe Biden expectedly gets his party’s nomination and it’ll all be thanks to the economy and worries about inflation.

“That’s why Biden’s approval rating on the economy is 31 percent and that’s why there will be many hidden undercover Trump voters in 2024 if he is the nominee because they will say, I want the guy who did the job before on the economy, I’m going to strip away everything else,” she said.

The former Trump advisor also blasted politicians like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for supporting the Inflation Reduction Act. She also blasted Warren for calling for the ousting of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

“I think he’s a dangerous man to have in this job,” Warren recently told CNN.

“That’s why Biden’s approval rating on the economy is 31 percent and that’s why there will be many hidden undercover Trump voters in 2024 if he is the nominee because they will say, I want the guy who did the job before on the economy, I’m going to strip away everything else,” Conway said on Fox Business.

Conway also took a dig at DeSanrtis, claiming he’s been too focused on his leadership during Covid and not talking about the economy enough.

“He should talk more about the economy. Where’s his economic plan?” she said.

Watch above via Fox Business.

Jon Stewart grilled California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) over prison reform during a sit-down interview at San Quentin State Prison.

On the latest episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart, the show dived into “America’s Incarceration Epidemic” with an interview featuring the governor.

Stewart pressed Newsom on if we’re giving prisoners false hope when it comes to certification processes prisoners can go through that don’t necessarily hold value outside of the prison system.

“Are we giving a false hope to a lot of the prisoners in here? Because a lot of what they say is, ‘What was I doing in there? I was told the path to redemption is along this certification process. And then I got out and this is meaningless. I’m considered a pariah and I can’t move on with my life,'” Stewart explained.

“The stigma is real. But I think the stigma and the internal shame and the internal stigma is even more pronounced,” Newsom said. “I think you heard from a young man in there says, he put his name in a byline of the newspaper and he sent it to his mom — first time he said his mom’s ever been proud of him. That’s a kid whose mind is stretched now. It’s not about the certificate. It’s not even about the program.”

Newsom further explained how the internal prison programs help boost the confidence of inmates.

“Now of a sudden he’s found something he never thought he had, which is some self-respect, not just self-loathing, thinks he might actually be worthy. And all of a sudden his mind has shifted. And I see people doing well on the outside, across the spectrum. I just hired two folks up in Sacramento that are working in an office that spend time, quite literally right here, that are doing extraordinary work,” Newsom said.

Stewart highlighted that Newsom wants to turn the prison system from a factory system into something “more human.”

“But you can’t treat them as humans when they live in this alien, dehumanizing factory environment. This system isn’t built to cherish each individual and get them to see their own worth. This is built to keep them from killing each other while they’re in here,” Stewart said.

“We have to actually believe in the core tenets of what we practice in our faith and that’s second damn chances and redemption and the ability to turn your life around,” Newsom said.

Stewart moved the conversation to parole, highlighting two inmates with very different parole outcomes.

“Mary Reese — you wanted to commute her sentence. You sent her back to a parole board. She’s been in prison for a series of burglaries. Not nothing, but clearly not a violent offender,” Stewart explained.

“She failed her parole hearing based on having borrowed, I think hair jail from another prisoner and some other things. And on the flip side of it, you have an offender who was let out and killed a police officer,” Stewart said.

“Devastating,” Newsom said.

“We have a system that cannot tell the difference. And we have a public that demands certainty,” Stewart said.

Newsom said the problem centered on a lack of innovation in the criminal justice system.

“That person that killed the police officer, the district attorney accused me of being responsible for that. I live the realities. I don’t know them. It’s not intellectual. I’m living them,” Newsom clarified.

“And that puts you on your heels,” Stewart pressed.

“It didn’t put me on the heels. Actually put me on my toes,” Newsom said. “I want public safety. I want real public safety. I want people to feel safe. It’s about your own self-interest. You want make sure your kids are safe. You are safe. You don’t have to turn your head when you’re getting the ATM machine.”

Watch above via The Problem with Jon Stewart.

You likely have some wax paper hanging around your kitchen and maybe some parchment paper, too—but it’s important to remember they’re different things with different uses. The coating on wax paper is flammable, whereas parchment paper can be put in the oven, so you might think wax paper is more useless than its peer.…

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Charlamagne Tha God doubted former President Donald Trump will be indicted despite much of the country anticipating the announcement from the grand jury.

On the Thursday edition of Brilliant Idiots, the podcast hosted by Charlamagne and comedian Andrew Schulz, they discussed the latest news surrounding Trump.

During the conversation, Schulz abruptly stopped to check to see if Trump had been arrested. He noted that they were filming the episode on Tuesday.

“Trump’s not getting arrested. Guys, come on,” Charlamagne said.

“Don’t do this. Don’t do this,” Schulz said laughing.

“He’s not getting arrested, guys,” Charlamagne repeated.

Schulz explained that years prior, Charlamagne had said the exact opposite, believing Trump would be arrested eventually.

“If they indict a former president, it’s not gonna be for these charges. These charges are weak as fuck, bro,” Charlamagne replied.

“You did say that he was gonna get arrested. I was like, ‘They won’t arrest a former president,'” Schulz explained.

“I think I agree with you — I don’t see it happening, bro. This man — I can’t change my mind? Upon further review?” Charlamagne laughed. “I believed in the checks and balances. I believed that nobody is above the law. Teflon Don has proven me wrong until further notice. And I still don’t think that they’ll do it.”

A producer chimed in to say, “Basically they’re saying that this small thing is just to hold them and then there’s gonna be a bunch of other charges.”

“What they’re saying is Trump don’t run for president. That’s what they saying. And he’s not getting the message,” Schulz said.

“So why make him bigger?” Charlamagne said. “You know what this shit is, man, you remember on Endgame when Thanos got hit in the chest and he’s like, ‘You should have went for the head.’ If it’s not a head-shot — don’t do it.”

Charlamagne noted that Trump is more than likely raking in campaign donations as the arrival of the indictment news is delayed.

“I mean that is a hundred percent right. If you arrest him and he gets off, he’ll be president guaranteed,” Schulz said.

Watch above via the Brilliant Idiots podcast.

Look, I’m not anti-bidet. I have one at home and I appreciate it. But there are some nonsensical bidet related myths going around that need to be flushed away. Chief among them: the idea that if you don’t use a bidet, you are walking around with a poop-encrusted butthole.

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Trey Gowdy, a Fox News host and former GOP congressman, took aim at former President Donald Trump on Wednesday over his ongoing and “preposterous” attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Gowdy spoke with Fox News anchor Dana Perino on America’s Newsroom to react to DeSantis’s recent interview with Piers Morgan, in which DeSantis hit back a bit at Trump.

“Trey, how do you look at this 2024 race as it’s shaping up? You have Ron DeSantis, who has not declared he’s running, but it seems like he’s going to, taking a little bit of a shot back at President Trump,” Perino asked.

“Yeah Dana, I would actually call that self-defense,” Gowdy replied, adding:

I mean, Ron has been taking on taking on weaponry, taking on attacks for weeks now. I mean, you mentioned he had an overwhelming victory in November, and yet one of President Trump’s surrogates accused Ron of fixing the vote. Another one of President Trump surrogates said that he was backed by George Soros.

So, I mean, at a certain point, whether are running for president or not, you have to defend yourself. I don’t know. I have not. After all, I we served together. I have not asked him if he’s running for president. I think other people are going to get in. But, you know, Dana, I mean, the whole process is really so degrading. I mean, you’ve got allegations of grooming high school students when you were teacher, all this fixation over nicknames.

“I mean, we’re picking the leader of the free world, the leader of the most important country in the world and we are debasing ourselves with having these little quarrels over nicknames and allegations that go back 30 years that are really preposterous. I just think we ought to do better than that,” Gowdy concluded after running through some of Trump’s more bombastic attacks on DeSantis.

Perino quickly pivoted to a discussion of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who is believed to be looking at indicting Trump any day now.

“I want to play one other sound bite for you. This is where Ron DeSantis is talking about the potential of Alvin Bragg here in New York trying to arrest President Trump. Listen here on that,” Perino said before rolling a clip.

“If you are a very strident prosecutor in disguise on the left and you’re not prosecuting a lot of crimes, Manhattan’s gotten less safe. You’re going to go after somebody on the other side for some novel offense. That just does not inspire confidence. And people see that as weaponizing the justice system. So I think it’s fundamentally wrong to do that. And, you know, I just made it be known,” DeSantis told Morgan.

“And House Republicans, where you used to be, they have decided to try to investigate, brag on this, as well as he won’t turn over documents. We’ll see if he ends up having to testify. How do you see this?” Perino asked.

“This would be one of those rare instances where even people on the left ought to be able to say, this is the wrong fact pattern, this is the wrong jurisdiction, and it’s being brought by the wrong person. President Trump may have legal exposure and other cases. I don’t know. He may, but this is the weakest case factually,” concluded Gowdy.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News.

Vegetables are an essential part of eating healthy, but getting enough vegetables can be a challenge for those of us who, to be totally honest, never learned to like them. I was once a vegetable-hater, so I totally get this. But you can learn to like veggies, even if you despised them as a kid.

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Daily Show guest host Al Franken and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) found some common ground during an interview this week with the two colleagues sharing some laughs over one of Graham’s current colleagues, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

In a wide-ranging discussion covering everything from the war in Ukraine to a potential Donald Trump indictment, Franken revealed he and Graham were friendly when Franken served in the Senate. He even called Graham the funniest senator, an answer he admits irks people.

When discussing Ukraine, Graham reiterated his support for the country as it continues to battle a Russian invasion. The senator said the U.S. should have supported Ukraine sooner and claimed with the right weapons support, they can actually defeat Russia.

Franken suggested Graham would need to speak to fellow Republicans who are far more critical of the U.S. supporting Ukraine, like Greene.

“I know you and Marjorie Taylor Greene are very close,” Franken said.

“We spend tons of time together,” Graham joked. “I’m trying to get the [Jewish] space laser taken down, but we’ll see how that works.”

“Yeah, that was a Jewish space laser,” Franken said, laughing.

“I always thought it would be funny to have a laser wear a Yarmulke,” Graham said “Just flying around. Apparently nobody else did.”

In a since-deleted post, Greene referenced “Jewish space lasers” in 2018 in reference to California wildfire at the time. She has since distanced herself from the post, noting it was before she was sworn into Congress and insisting she had “no idea” about any anti-Semitic conspiracy theories she was pushing.

Watch above via Comedy Central.

At a moment when the media has reached a fever pitch in coverage of the possible, if not likely indictment of Donald Trump – with the left cautiously optimistic justice may finally be served and the right denouncing what they see as a politically charged stunt – MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan threw out commentary suggesting former President George W. Bush should also be prosecuted over the war in Iraq.

MSNBC hosts and guests, for years now, have giddily declared the walls are closing in on Trump and cheerleading for an indictment — dating back to the Mueller probe. Hasan took that all one step further and asked his viewers: If we can prosecute Trump, why not Bush?

While Hasan, a longtime critic of the war in Iraq, is obviously both entitled to and justified in his criticism of the war, calling for Bush’s prosecution – without so much as even naming a specific crime or potential charge — only serves to justify those on the right who see politically motivated witch hunts around every corner.

Hasan’s show tweeted his monologue on Monday, writing, “It’s been 20 years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and Mehdi Hasan asks: shouldn’t we be prosecuting George W. Bush over the brutal and illegal war?”

“Of course, American presidents have never been put in handcuffs,” Hasan began, offering context related to Trump’s legal woes and the historic moment facing the country.

While Hasan judiciously and fairly lays out the stakes regarding Trump and the toll it may take on the country, he quickly pivots to wishcasting about seeing another U.S. president in jail.

“Meanwhile, George W. Bush is chilling in retirement, painting up a storm. Why aren’t we having that debate about him as well? If we could talk about criminal culpability in relation to Trump, why can’t we talk about it in relation to Bush? Why the double standard?” Hasan demands.

“I mean, not even the worst of Trump’s alleged crimes, the incitement of an armed insurrection at the Capitol, come anywhere close to the death and destruction that George W. Bush brought to Iraq,” Hasan adds.

Hasan then goes on a lengthy rant accusing Bush of laying the groundwork for Trump’s presidency, “Where else did Trump get the idea that a disengaged tycoon trading on a family name brand could attain the highest office in the country?”

While Hasan wrongly compares the pre-presidency careers of Bush, who served as governor of Texas, and Trump, he accurately notes that the war in Iraq went a long way in helping turn the Republican base against the GOP establishment and traditional sources of information.

Hasan then claims Vladimir Putin used Bush’s “illegal” invasion of Iraq to justify his invasion of Ukraine, concluding, “Thanks to George W Bush and thanks to our tolerance of, our indulgence of George W Bush, America has no real standing or credibility when it comes to calling out the crimes of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine today.”

Hasan’s commentary and later interviews on the topic sparked fury online with The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols objecting: “The Russians are invading Ukraine to overthrow a democratic government and absorb Ukraine into a Russian empire. The Allied coalition in Iraq deposed a tyrant (who violated a cease-fire) and then did everything it could to restore Iraq as an independent state.”

Hasan ends by playing clips of Bush saying he does not regret removing Saddam Hussein from power — the murderous dictator Hasan deliberately omits in his analysis — and slams those on the left who in recent years have praised Bush’s character, everyone from Michelle Obama to Nancy Pelosi to Bill Clinton.

“On this 20th anniversary of his greatest crime, let us remember George W. Bush not hagiographically as the artist with paint on his hands, but more honestly, more bluntly, as the invader with blood on his hands,” Hasan concluded.

In the past, Hasan has offered a more detailed argument for why he thinks Bush committed war crimes by listing specific instances of civilian deaths in Iraq and other tragedies related to the war. However, for better or worse, Hasan’s allegations don’t include any clear statute or law that Bush broke, unlike the various allegations against Trump, which are notably related to his time as a private citizen or a candidate.

Members of the executive branch are broadly protected from litigation regarding their time in office for this very reason, so the judicial system can’t be used to punish individuals over policy disagreements — no matter how profound they may be. Perhaps the closest Bush and other officials in his administration came to prosecution was in regard to revelations of torture of detainees that came out during the Obama administration. While the Department of Justice probed the torture of detainees, evidence was found lacking and, even after an incriminating Senate report, the DOJ did not pursue charges.

Hasan’s commentary is also very unclear when he says “shouldn’t we be prosecuting George W. Bush,” who exactly the “we” is?

In terms of U.S. law, Bush sought and received Congressional authorization to use military force against Iraq. If the “we” means the International Criminal Court or foreign jurisdictions, Hasan certainly can make that case, although one would hope with the acknowledgment that U.S. military officials and soldiers could end up in the court’s crosshairs — which is of course why the U.S. doesn’t recognize its jurisdiction.

Hasan, taking a different view, gleefully wrote in 2019 that Bush “owes the rest of us a prison sentence at The Hague,” but in the 20 years since the invasion of Iraq, the ICC did not see fit to issue any such warrant, like they did last week for Putin.

As we live in a time where norms are being shattered left and right and Trump tells his base, “I am your retribution” — the American left would be better served by not adding fuel to the fire and daydreaming about former Republican presidents rotting in jail. Or, at the very least, just one at a time.

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.