J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

The House Judiciary Committee has released the 255-page transcript of the deposition of former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, posting it online with some redactions.

On Dec. 17, Smith testified for nine hours in a closed-door session with the House Judiciary Committee regarding his investigations into President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the retention of classified materials at his residence at Mar-a-Lago. Criminal charges were filed against Trump in both cases but he avoided prosecution due to longstanding DOJ policy against indicting a sitting president.

Smith had repeatedly offered to testify publicly but the GOP-majority committee declined. His legal counsel sent a letter to Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Dec. 24 demanding the “prompt public release” of the “full videotape” of his testimony.

As pointed out by Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, Smith “was barred from discussing any nonpublic parts of his classified documents probe by Judge [Aileen] Cannon’s order prohibiting DOJ from divulging any nonpublic info about it.”

In Smith’s opening statement, as previously reported on by the Associated Press, he declared that his office’s investigation “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power” and ” also developed powerful evidence that showed that President Trump willfully retained highly classified documents after he left office in January of 2021, storing them at his social club, including in a ballroom and a bathroom. He then repeatedly tried to obstruct justice to conceal his continued retention of those documents.”

He reiterated that he had been a career prosecutor “[f]or nearly three decades” and had “served during both Republican and Democratic administrations,” making decisions in the investigatory process “without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 Presidential election.”

“If asked whether to prosecute a former President based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that President was a Republican or a Democrat,” he emphasized.

“The decision to bring charges against President Trump was mine, but the basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions, as alleged in the indictments returned by grand juries in two different districts,” said Smith. “We took our actions based on the facts and the law, the very lessons I learned early in my career as a prosecutor. We followed Justice Department policies and observed legal requirements.”

Smith also expressed how he was “both saddened and angered” that Trump had “sought revenge against career prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff simply for doing their jobs and for having worked on those cases,” adding “[t]hese dedicated public servants are the best of us, and they have been wrongly vilified and improperly dismissed from their jobs.”

Trump’s tweet at 2:24 pm on January 6, 2021 “without question…endangered the life of his own Vice President,” Mike Pence, Smith testified, highlighting how Trump had “refused to stop” the attack on the Capitol and was “pushed repeatedly” by his staff to do something to “quell” the violence.

Smith vociferously denounced Trump’s efforts to politicize the DOJ, specifically the firing of prosecutors who worked on the cases against the Jan. 6 rioters or other investigations into Trump and his allies as “contrary to the rule of law” and “contrary to who we are as a country,” explaining the historical precedent warning against returning to such a “patronage” system:

If you take the position that you cannot work in the Federal Government unless you have a political allegiance to the President, I think there are many harms to that. Our country tried that in the past. It’s called the patronage system, and what we learned in our history — and this would be if it’s a Democrat or Republican. It would not matter.

But what we learned is that those systems are rife with not only corruption, but with incompetence, because the people who have these jobs, they didn’t get them because of merit, because they dedicated their career to learning national security law, to learning how to properly investigate a case. They got their jobs because they’re loyal to a particular person. That’s not fair, but it also makes for people who really don’t know how to do the work.

So I think that’s a danger to the country. It saddens and angers me in the short-term, but I think there are great costs to us long-term if that’s the direction we’re going…

I’ve just seen career prosecutors who have served, again, Republican and Democratic administrations over and over again. These are the knowledge sources in the Department in different areas. These are the people who mentor young lawyers, and when you take them away, those young lawyers don’t have anybody to learn from. My experience in the Department, again, it doesn’t matter the administration. These are not partisans. They’re people who have decided they don’t want to make a lot of money. They’re not looking for fame. They just want to do good work, and I think when you lose that culture, you lose a lot.

Read Smith’s deposition transcript here.

This article has been updated with additional information.

The post JUST IN: House Judiciary Committee Releases Jack Smith’s 255-Page Deposition Transcript first appeared on Mediaite.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he expects construction of the “Triumphal Arch” he wants to build in Washington, D.C. to begin “sometime in the next two months.”

The arch is one of several building projects Trump has pushed for as the country enters into its 250th year, proposed to be constructed at the culmination of a bridge that leads from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery. The design of models Trump has shown reporters echoes that of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France and would be designed to honor America’s military veterans.

The president’s other efforts to remake Washington, D.C. have been divisive, from the demolition of the White House’s East Wing for a ballroom to the addition of his name to the Kennedy Center, cheered by his supporters and drawing condemnation — and lawsuits — from critics.

Politico’s West Wing Playbook author Sophia Cai reported on Trump’s latest comments about the arch project Wednesday.

Cai reached Trump by phone at Mar-a-Lago and asked when he expected work to begin.

“It hasn’t started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It’ll be great. Everyone loves it,” replied Trump. “They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch.”

As Cai noted, “critics have raised questions about cost, aesthetics and whether the executive branch has the authority to unilaterally move forward with such construction in Washington.”

The post Trump Says Construction of His ‘Triumphal Arch’ Will Begin ‘Sometime in the Next Two Months’ first appeared on Mediaite.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Open-ear design earbuds have been getting popular, likely because active noise-canceling tech has gotten so good that people have forgotten what nature sounds like. The Ultra Open Earbuds are Bose's attempt at the trending tech, and they're decent. But at their current price of $199.99 (originally $299.99), they are also a steal. This is the lowest price they've ever been, according to price-tracking tools. 

Bose Ultra Open

$199.00 at Amazon

$299.00 Save $100.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$199.00 at Amazon

$299.00 Save $100.00

Open-ear designs are not for everyone—especially audiophiles. They have the same downside as bone conduction headphones: They let noise pollution in, and the bass and some mids are weak. But you can hear if a cyclist is about to pass you as you're running on the bike path.

The Bose Ultra Open are not waterproof, but they are water-resistant with an IPX4 rating, meaning they can take some splashes, but don't put submerge them in water. There is a wireless charging case you can get separately if you don't want to use the USB-C connection to charge it. You'll get about 7.5 hours of juice if you have the Immersive Audio feature off, and about two charges with the case for a total of around 27 hours.

While these earbuds don't have multipoint connection, they do have a feature to pair two devices simultaneously and switch between them by pressing a button on the earbud—a controlled multipoint connection of sorts. They are compatible with Bluetooth 5.3 and work with the AAC, AptX Adaptive, and SBC codecs, so Android devices will get better audio than Apple users. Both users will be able to customize the EQ on the app and use features that you can read more about in CNET's review.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker danced around Fox Business host Ashley Webster’s question about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims that Ukraine had attacked one of his residences.

On Monday, Putin claimed that Ukraine had targeted his residence in the Novgorod region of Russia with drones — a claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vehemently denied.

“This alleged ‘residence strike’ story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war,” wrote Zelensky on his social media accounts. “Typical Russian lies.”

Numerous other journalists and Ukrainian officials pointed out the lack of evidence to support Russia’s claims.

Webster, guest hosting for Stu Varney, interviewed Whitaker Tuesday morning about the latest developments with the efforts to hold peace talks and asked the NATO ambassador about Putin’s claims that Ukraine had attacked his home, playing a clip of President Donald Trump speaking about it.

“So, Ukraine denying this attack ever happened,” said Webster. “What do we know, ambassador?”

Whitaker’s reply did not go as far Trump’s stance essentially believing Putin but danced around actually denying it or pointing out the complete lack of evidence Russia had proffered:

Well, I know that there are reports from the Russian side that this alleged attack at one of the presidential palaces by a drone or drones — it is unclear whether it actually happened. You know, Ukraine is receiving drones and missiles every single night into their capital city, and, you know, all they can do is fight back.

And, you know, it is — seems to me a little indelicate to be this close at a peace deal, Ukraine really wanting to get a peace deal done and then to do something that would be viewed as reckless or not helpful.

So, we’re going to get to the bottom of the intelligence, and for me, the most important thing is what the — the most important thing is what the United States and our allies’ intelligence services say about whether or not this attack actually happened.

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.

The post WATCH: Trump’s NATO Ambassador Tap Dances Around Question About Whether Putin’s House Was Actually Attacked first appeared on Mediaite.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

If you’ve been doing any kind of work around any kind of house for a while, you probably have a few trusty old-school C-Clamps on hand. The C-Clamp has been in use for thousands of years. It’s one of those dead-simple tools that just works. It’s also one of those tools you tend to collect multiple examples of, in different sizes.

Typically, you use a C-Clamp to, uh, clamp stuff together, like two pieces of wood, or to clamp something into place while you work on it (I use them a lot to cut lumber so I can have both hands on the saw, as I am allergic to emergency rooms.) But the C-Clamp is actually a very versatile tool that can be deployed in a number of creative—but useful!—ways. Here are some of my favorite ways to repurpose those old C-Clamps.

A carrying handle

If you need to carry something that’s bulky, heavy, and awkward, having some temporary handles always makes the job easier. If you have a few C-Clamps, you’re golden: Just clamp a couple onto whatever you’re transporting and you have instant handles to make the haul a little easier. They can also be used as handles for rolled-up materials, like rugs or mats—just thread the roll through a pair of C-Clamps, tighten them closed, and carry on.

A quiet hammer

It’s happened to all of us: You need to drive a nail somewhere, but there’s no room to swing a hammer, or for some reason you’re reluctant to make a lot of banging noise. The solution is your trusty C-Clamp: Just place the clamp over the nail head and tighten. The clamping action will inexorably (and silently) drive that nail into place. This isn’t an efficient way to drive a lot of nails, of course, but in a tight spot, it’s brilliant.

An emergency wrench

Need to tighten or loosen a connector, but you don’t have a wrench at hand? Tighten a C-Lamp around the bolt, cuff, or connection point so that it’s gripping tightly, then slowly turn it in the direction you need. Make sure the clamp is tight enough to prevent slippage, and you might want to use something (a handy piece of cloth works) to protect the connection from damage as you work.

A cord organizer

Whether it’s corralling all those extension and power cords on a workbench or work site, or organizing computer cables on your desk with an industrial vibe, C-Clamps can keep all those wires under control and out of your way in a pinch. Just gather the cords at the edge of the desk or table and clamp them down. This is a perfect temporary solution, as the cords can pass freely through the clamps without risk of damage, and the clamps can be removed when the job is done.

Bookends

Need a couple of bookends to hold stuff in place on a shelf? A pair of C-Clamps attached to the outer edge and clamped in as deep as possible will work. This could even be a permanent design choice if your taste runs toward the rustic or industrial.

Anchors

C-Clamps are ideal devices when anchor points are needed, but you don’t want to attach anything permanent that would require fasteners and drilling into a structure. Need a clothesline to dry your laundry when the dryer breaks? Two C-Clamps and some rope or twine are all you need. Need to hang tools, clothes, or anything else? C-Clamps attached to a shelf of any kind, combined with a hook, will work a charm. Need to hold a tablecloth or other covering in place? Nothing clamps stuff down to a horizontal surface better than C-Clamps.

Spool holder

Whether you’re spooling filament to your 3D-printer or feeding twine or wire to yourself as you work on a project, sliding the spool over a C-Clamp and then clamping it into place gives you a sturdy holder that you can pull from. This means you won’t have to juggle your spool every time you need more slack, and you can easily unclamp and reposition the spool if you’re on the move as you work.

Fox News’ Marie Harf and Kaylee McGhee White brawled over President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to deport illegal immigrants on Monday’s edition of Outnumbered.

After playing a clip of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) decrying the fact that many new Border Patrol recruits are Hispanic, host Tomi Lahren prompted Harf, a former Obama administration spokeswoman.

“Alright Marie, I’m coming to you on this. I thought you were looking right at me. I want your take, because when I saw this, the way I translated it was LA Mayor Karen Bass is saying that if you’re Hispanic and you join Border Patrol or ICE, that maybe you hate yourself or maybe you’re just broke. And I don’t think either is a real compliment to the Hispanic community, but I gotta get your take on this one,” said Lahren.

“I would certainly not have worded it like she did. I was reading some interesting stories this morning about all the Hispanic Americans who voted for Trump, which we know a lot, you know, had voted for Democrats before, particularly in places like Texas, voted for Donald Trump. And there are a number of stories where they are saying they are horrified at seeing who ICE is going after, right?” replied Harf. “We know 700, or excuse me, 75,000 as of October, people that have been rounded up by ICE have not been accused or charged with a crime. But I remember before the election when everyone said, ‘He’s going to go after the worst of the worst. Murderers, rapists.’ That’s not what’s happening. They’re going into a lot of primarily Hispanic communities, rounding up people, elderly people, young kids who’ve been here, you know, elderly people who’ve been here for decades, and Hispanic supporters of Trump are like, ‘wait a second, this isn’t what we bargained for.’ And so I think, you know, 170 American citizens have been rounded up mistakenly during these raids. So I think there is something to be said. I’m looking to Hispanic voters who supported Trump who say, ‘Wait a second, this isn’t what we were told ICE was going to do,’ and they’re now having some buyer’s remorse. I think that’s interesting.”

“Which part of ‘Mass deportations now!’ were Hispanic voters not aware of when they voted for Donald Trump? He was pretty explicit on the campaign trail,” chimed in White.

“He did say though, Kaylee, and he did say we’re going to focus on the worst of the worst. Murderers, rapists, people charged with crimes-,” shot back Harf before White interjected.

“Which is what he’s doing, but you want to keep them here, too,” countered the conservative commentator.

“Seventy-five thousand people who have been rounded up by ICE have not been charged with any crime. That’s not the worst of the worst,” asserted Harf.

“No, no. They’re here illegally, they’re still criminals,” replied White.

“That’s not murderers, rapists — that’s not what he said!” protested Harf.

Watch above via Fox News.

The post ‘That’s Not What He Said!’ Fox News Panel BRAWLS Over Trump’s Mass Deportations first appeared on Mediaite.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

When it comes to buying the best headphones at the best price, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra is at the top of the list for active noise-cancelling (ANC) right now, while also excelling in other important categories. Right now, the Bose QuietComfort Ultras (in the "deep plum" color) are $269.99 (originally $429), a record-low price according to price-tracking tools. The other colors are also discounted but not quite as steeply—for example, you can get "white smoke" for $299 or "Lunar Blue" for $349.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra

$269.99 at Amazon

$429.00 Save $159.01

Get Deal

Get Deal

$269.99 at Amazon

$429.00 Save $159.01

Few other brands can compete with Bose's QuietComfort Ultra lineup when it comes to ANC. Apart from the headphone model, they also make some of the best ANC earbuds, both using the same tech. PCMag's "outstanding" review goes into detail on how the headphones do the best job at dialing back low-frequency rumbles, as well as lows and mids.

Despite those plaudits, they're not perfect: Some high-frequency sounds still make it through the ANC technology (that's the case for all ANC headphones, though). But these headphones performed better at ANC than their other two main competitors at the time of their respective release, Apple AirPods Max and the Sony WH-1000XM5. Of course, the new Sony WH-1000XM6 has new ANC technology that outshines the QuietComfort Ultra, but you'd be paying a premium for those.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones launched in the fall of 2023 with many reviewers praising their overall quality, but earning complaints for their pricing, at almost half a grand. At their current discounted price, there is no better value for your money if you value top-tier ANC. Another great feature of the headphones is their transparency mode, meant to be used to allow you to better hear your surroundings (cars, bikes, or people around you) while wearing them.

You can expect about 24 hours of juice with a full charge, or about 18 hours if you're using ANC. The accompanying app has a well-designed, customizable EQ.

A Trump administration official credited the president with making small business owners “excited” to pay their taxes thanks to tax cuts and less regulation.

Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration, told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures that “small business optimism is above its 52-year average.”

Loeffler said a lot of the optimism is due to the Working Families Tax Cut in Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

“Small businesses finally have certainty about what their tax rate’s going to be,” Loeffler said. “That 20% pass-through deduction, now the 179 expensing that means higher limits on the ability to expense immediately for purchases they make in capital equipment, and also R&D expensing.”

Those factors, according to Loeffler, actually have small business owners jazzed about writing a check to Uncle Sam.

“I don’t think small business owners have ever been so excited to pay their taxes thanks to President Trump!” Loeffler said. “He brought us the blue collar boom in his first term, and now he’s going to add to that the small business boom.”

Host Cheryl Casone, in for Maria Bartiromo, asked Loeffler about “those onerous federal regulations under the Biden administration,” and whether removing them “could be another way to boost the health of small business.”

“Absolutely. Regulation is a tax on a small business, and under President Trump in his first year, about $200 billion in regulations have been cut,” Loeffler said.

The SBA’s goal for 2026 is “to make sure that small businesses are able to have relief after four very active years of regulating under Joe Biden that heaped trillions of dollars on the backs of small businesses,” Loeffler said. “So, we’re leading a strike force at the SBA to roll back even more regulations.”

Loeffler has been criticized for aggressively cutting staff at the SBA, and for rolling back Biden administration changes “aimed at easing access to credit for the smallest enterprises,” The New York Times reported.

“The changes are especially problematic for Black, Hispanic and immigrant entrepreneurs,” the report continued. “In the name of eradicating diversity, equity and inclusion practices, the Small Business Administration is shedding programs aimed at helping disadvantaged businesses, including those run by women.”

Watch above via Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News.

The post Trump Official Brags On Fox News: ‘I Don’t Think Small Business Owners Have Ever Been So Excited to Pay Their Taxes!’ first appeared on Mediaite.

(Sergey Bobylev / Sputnik via AP) (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

President Donald Trump posted an optimistic Truth Social message Sunday morning about Vladimir Putin, right before his meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss ending the war with Russia.

“I just had a good and very productive telephone call with President Putin of Russia prior to my meeting, at 1:00 P.M. today, with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” Trump wrote. “The meeting will take place in the main dining room of Mar-a-Lago. Press is invited.”

Zelensky told reporters last week that he has come up with a new 20-point plan for peace that includes a proposed demilitarized zone requiring Russia to withdraw its forces from a stretch of land in Donetsk. Ukrainian officials have described the plan as “an attempt to show flexibility without conceding territory,” Politico reported.

When asked about this new plan, Trump told Politico the Ukrainian president “doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” adding, “So we’ll see what he’s got.”

Trump also told The New York Post he believed there was a “good shot” that Ukraine and Russia were finally ready for a lasting a peace deal.

“I settled eight wars, and this is the most difficult of them all,” Trump said. “But I think we’ll get it done.”

Trump added, “I think they want to do it now, and I think that Russia wants to do it. But every time one wants to do it, the other doesn’t.” Trump has said he believed Russia’s poor economy may force Putin to agree to peace.

“Their economy is in tough shape, very tough shape,” Trump  told Politico.

Russia has shown no sign of ending its bombing campaign against Ukraine. On Saturday, Putin’s troops pummeled the nation’s capital, wounding at least 11 people and leaving nearly a third of the capital without heat, according to Kyiv’s mayor.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died on both sides since Russian invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The post Trump Touts ‘Very Productive’ Call With Putin Just Before Mar-a-Lago Showdown With Zelensky first appeared on Mediaite.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The president of the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Richard Grennell, announced on X that there will be “consequences” for musicians who cancel performances to protest President Donald Trump’s decision to rename the building.

Fox News Digital reported that jazz musician Chuck Redd “abruptly” canceled his Christmas Eve performance over the addition of President Trump’s name above that of assassinated President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

On Dec. 18, the performing arts center’s board said it had voted unanimously to rename the institution the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”

Redd told the Associated Press, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.”

In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Grenell accused Redd of carrying out “a political stunt” that hurt the nonprofit institution, and said he would seek $1 million in damages.

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” he wrote in the letter to Redd.

Grennell posted to X, “The left is boycotting the Arts because Trump is supporting the Arts. But we will not let them cancel shows without consequences. The Arts are for everyone – and the Left is mad about it.”

Redd isn’t the first artist to pull out of the venue over political differences. Last spring, the cast of Hamilton canceled their planned Kenedy Center performances over Trump’s decision to take over the art institution, and others have followed suit.

A Kennedy Center spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “Any artist canceling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn’t courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people.”

The post Kennedy Center Announces Pricey ‘Consequences’ For Musician Who Canceled Show Over Renaming first appeared on Mediaite.

The New York Jets sparked a new wave of outrage when the team decided to rescind a fan’s invite to a $100,000 field goal challenge.

News of the team’s decision was reported Thursday morning by the New York Post. According to the report, the team pulled the invite of Ashley Castanio-Gervasi — a season ticker holder “who attends games in honor of her late, Jets fan dad” — after discovering she was a high school soccer coach.

Castanio-Gervasi argued that she was never informed of the rule beforehand. She even told team representatives that she used to play Division I soccer. The report continued:

Castanio-Gervasi said the decision came as a shock, since the team had reached out to her asking that she join the contest after seeing her kick during a tailgate event in September — and they never mentioned any rules banning coaches, even though she had told them she had been a Division I college soccer player.

“This is life-changing money for me,” Castanio-Gervasi fumed to The Post. “I was confident I could have made it.

“This was the first time I was hearing of any of these [coaching] questions.”

Sports fans online quickly sided with Castanio-Gervasi.

Asked for comment by the New York Post, the Jets organization stood firm in its decision.

The post NY Jets Torched Online for Yanking Fan’s Invite to $100K Field Goal Challenge first appeared on Mediaite.

Channel 4

Jimmy Kimmel delivered a Christmas message that aired in the U.K. in which he told the Brits, “Tyranny is booming over here.”

Channel 4 asked Kimmel to give a speech as an “alternative” viewing that aired after Christmas Day remarks by King Charles III on the BBC. Kimmel was suspended briefly in September after remarks he made about the man accused of assassinating conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. Trump hailed the suspension and last month called for Kimmel to be taken off the air permanently.

In his remarks to the U.K. public, the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! accused President Donald Trump, whom he called “King Donny the VIII,” of wanting to “shut me up because I don’t adore him in the way he likes to be adored.” Kimmel celebrated his return to the airwaves, declaring, “We won, the president lost and now I’m back on the air every night.”

Trump has long criticized Kimmel and other late-night hosts. This week, the president called Late Night host Stephen Colbert “a dead man walking” and said CBS should “put him to sleep now.”

“From the free press, to science, to medicine, to judicial independence, to the actual White House itself, we are a right mess,” Kimmel said before apologizing to British viewers for Trump. “Don’t give up on us.”

The host told the U.K. audience that the U.S. will need “about three years” to straighten out, or about the time remaining on Trump’s second term.

“I want you to know that we’re not all like him, we’re not all like that,” he added. “It may not seem like it, but we love you guys.”

The post Jimmy Kimmel Delivers Grim Christmas Message: ‘Tyranny Is Booming’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Photo by Bryan Dozier/NurPhoto via AP

The 119th Congress made history in numerous ways, including the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the fewest bills passed, and a growing number of retirements.

This year’s Republican-majority Congress set several records — “some more dubious than others,” wrote Washington Post senior congressional columnist Paul Kane.

There were only 38 bills passed by this Congress (as of Monday, Dec. 22), Kane found from a review of C-SPAN archives and data compiled by Purdue University, which “set a modern record for lowest legislative output in the first year of a new presidency.”

Screenshot via The Washington Post.

A contributing factor to this “lack of productivity” was President Donald Trump’s increasing use of executive orders, often controversial and subject to multiple court challenges. So far in his second term, Trump has signed 224 executive orders, compared to the 52 he signed in 2017 and more than he did during his entire first term. President Joe Biden signed 76 in 2021, his first year in office. Trump has currently signed more than 70 percent of the all the executive orders that Biden and President Barack Obama signed during their cumulative 12 years in office.

The House set a record for fewest votes cast during a first year of a two-year congressional session for the entire 21 century thus far. The 362 votes they did cast were “barely half as many votes as in 2017, which was Trump’s first year in office” and another year when the GOP had majority control.

Kane noted that this was probably related to the “unusually large number of House members” who “have decided to leave the chamber either to retire or run for other office,” putting the House on pace to set a 21st-century record for retirements in one Congress.

So far, 24 Republicans and 19 Democrats are heading for the exit door, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who are retiring, Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) who are running for the U.S. Senate, and Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) who are running for governor in their states. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) was running for New York governor but recently announced she was dropping out of the race and retiring from Congress as well, a remarkable fall after she gave up her leadership position when Trump nominated her as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations but then her nomination was withdrawn amid concerns about defending the GOP’s razor-thin majority.

Kane interviewed several members of Congress and found that the Republicans gave a “mixed verdict” for their year in the majority, some calling it “a wasted year that didn’t meet the hype beyond that one piece of legislation [the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act],” he wrote:

“I guess we got the big, beautiful bill done,” Ohio Rep. David Joyce said. The 13-year veteran from the party’s establishment wing paused for five seconds thinking about 2025.

“Other than that,” Joyce finally said, “I really can’t point to much that we got accomplished.”

The 43-day government shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, wrote Kane, and the issue of the expiring Obamacare tax credits is still unresolved and looming over Congress’ work next year — and dividing Republicans, with multiple moderate members allying with Democrats.

A lot of the data, wrote Kane, “paint a picture of a Congress that is steadily doing less legislative work and ceding greater powers to presidents.”

“All the numbers that should be going up, in a healthy and productive balance between Congress and the president, are instead going down,” he continued. “And the numbers that should be falling are instead on the rise.”

Meanwhile, the national debt is $38.5 trillion and counting.

The post Congress Sets Records in 2025 for Longest Shutdown, Fewest Bills, Retirements first appeared on Mediaite.

Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool

Sarah Longwell, the publisher of the “Never Trump” publication The Bulwark, made the case that the latest document dump related to Jeffrey Epstein should “take down” President Donald Trump.

The latest document dump included thousands more pages of material, many of which added additional links between Trump and Epstein, the sex criminal who killed himself while in prison.

“As much as I think that it should have been disqualifying what happened on January 6th, the extent to which his own supporters have wrapped his narrative up in the idea that he is a pedophile buster in the face of the elite cabal that traffics kids, and that everything that they do—whether it’s trans kids or groomers or whatever in school—everything’s happening in school, it’s all about protecting kids. This should take him down,” Longwell argued, adding:

The hypocrisy should take them down. The moral nihilism should take it down. The criminal content should take him down.

“‘Should’ is such a difficult word,” interjected her Bulwark colleague Jonathan V. Last.

“We should not surrender in advance the idea that it should bring with it consequences,” Longwell insisted.

Longwell, a former Republican political operative and pollster, has long been a fierce critic of Trump and officially quit the GOP in 2025. The Bulwark has quickly become one of the fastest-growing anti-Trump publications in recent years.

Watch the clip above.

The post Latest Epstein Files Should ‘Take Down’ Trump, Argues Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell first appeared on Mediaite.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak reported on Wednesday that the Trump White House has been frustrated by the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein files.

Liptak revealed as much after anchor Sara Sidner prompted him by asking him to give viewers “some sense of how White House officials have been responding to all the new information involving Donald Trump in these documents in this latest dump.”

“Yeah, I think there’s a fair amount of frustration at how all of this has been handled, directed certainly at members of Congress who compelled these documents’ release, but also at the Justice Department at how all of this has sort of played out over the last really several months, but also over the several days. There is a sense in certain corners that they have just whiffed all of this, to use the word that Susie Wiles used when she was describing all of this. And I think how these documents have come out over the last several days has only compounded that viewpoint,” answered Liptak, who continued:

What we saw yesterday was pretty extraordinary, and it was a sign perhaps that the Justice Department is looking to do better, at least in the eyes of the White House. They used their own social media accounts to essentially go to bat for President Trump when it comes to these documents to try and bat down what they said were sensationalist claims, and you saw them just out and out say that that disgusting letter that was written in the hand of Jeffrey Epstein and signed by “J Epstein” was false. And so quite an extraordinary move there. It’s a much different approach than we saw them take on Friday when that batch of disclosures included so many mentions of Bill Clinton. You saw the administration officials really kind of fanning those mentions. A much different approach when it came to President Trump. Now we did hear last night from Todd Blanche, the number two at the Justice Department. He has been very much at the center of all of this and he wrote on social media, “Document production is just that. We produce documents, and sometimes this can result in releasing fake or false documents because they simply are in our possession because the law requires this.” And then he goes on to say, “Let’s not let internet rumor engines outrun the facts.” Now, what does seem clear based on our reporting is that these disclosures are not over. There are more to come. And in fact, just last night, senior Justice Department officials asked prosecutors here in Florida, career prosecutors, to volunteer to continue redacting these documents, asking them to work over the holiday stretch to ensure these get out. As he put it, and as I think the sentiment among so many people involved as this is, he says, “I am aware that the timing could not be worse.”

Watch above via CNN.

The post ‘They Have Just Whiffed’: CNN Reports Team Trump Is Frustrated by DOJ’s Handling of the Epstein Files first appeared on Mediaite.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World bundle is in stock at Best Buy after running out of stock very quickly on Amazon. The deal includes the new console with the new Mario Kart for the same price as the standalone console. You can get this one for $449 (down from $499)—the lowest price it has reached yet, according to price-tracking tools. (Note that you can only see the price once you've signed in and it's in your cart, as Nintendo restricts retailers from promoting anything below the "minimum advertised price" of $499.) To top it off, Best Buy is somehow promising to have it delivered to your home by 9 p.m. tonight, Dec. 24—a true Christmas miracle. Not all locations will be available, so make sure you see the "shipping get it by 9 p.m. today" note above "add to cart." You can also pick it up within an hour if time is of the essence.

Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle - Nintendo Switch 2

$449.00 at Best Buy

$499.00 Save $50.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$449.00 at Best Buy

$499.00 Save $50.00

This bundle deal is great, and likely the best one you'll see for quite some time, judging by Nintendo's previous deals. To put it into perspective, the OLED edition of the original Nintendo Switch is $400 right now, meaning you can get the new Switch 2 with Mario Kart for $50 more. The new console is also an upgrade in every way, according to Associate Tech Editor Michelle Ehrhardt's Nintendo Switch 2 review. The ergonomics and design have improved, making it much better to hold and look at. The battery life has also improved, now with about 180 minutes of handheld playtime before the juice runs out.

A big plus is that the Switch 2 is backwards compatible, meaning you can play your old Switch games on it. Some Switch games have the ability to upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition by buying that game's upgrade pack. This is especially worth it for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which will look better on the Switch 2.

There aren't a lot of Switch 2 games out at the moment, but there are some classic Nintendo games to keep you busy until the library expands, like Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment.