Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson are urging Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader of the House of Representatives in the hope of heading off a messy battle for the role in the new year.
Should other contenders for the speakership emerge with any significant support following last week’s spending bill battle, it could delay the certification of the president-elect’s own victory, according to some lawmakers.
Democrats have also said that they won’t step in and rescue Johnson this time.
The House Ethics Committee report into former congressman Matt Gaetz “determined there is substantial evidence” that he paid tens of thousands of dollars for sex and used illicit drugs while he was a member of Congress.
Gaetz sued the committee to try to block the release of the report, which found that he paid for sex with more than a dozen women — including a 17-year-old girl — but he withdrew his legal battle after the report was published.
Meanwhile, there is continued international incredulity over Trump’s desire to see the United States retake the Panama Canal and buy Greenland, with the latter’s prime minister saying his country will “never be for sale.”
Key Points
- Speaker’s allies call for Trump to back him to avoid another round of Republican civil war
- If Mike Johnson is hoping for help from Democrats, he might be disappointed...
- Ethics committee report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid 17-year-old-girl for sex
- ‘These claims would be destroyed in court,’ Gaetz says
All the allegations against Matt Gaetz revealed in explosive report
14:15
Alex Woodward
As a sitting member of Congress, Matt Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old high school student, used cocaine and ecstasy, and spent thousands of dollars on sex- and drug-fueled partying, according to a bombshell report from the House Ethics Committee.
Monday’s report found “substantial evidence” the now-former Republican congressman “regularly” paid for sex and met women through a “sugar dating” website through a former associate who has since pleaded guilty to sex trafficking.
We combed through the report.
Gaetz report states some women said drug use at parties ‘impaired’ their ability to ‘fully consent’
14:00
Gustaf Kilander
The House Ethics Committee report into Matt Gaetz states that “all of the women interviewed by the committee said their sexual relationship with Gaetz was consensual, but at least one woman said the use of drugs at the parties they attended with him may have ‘impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.’”
“Indeed, nearly every woman that the Committee spoke with could not remember the details of at least one or more of the events they attended with Representative Gaetz and attributed that to drug or alcohol consumption,” according to the report.
Gaetz has rejected the allegations.
The women also discussed instances where Representative Gaetz would try to convince them to have sex with him or Mr. Greenberg: “[H]e would make me feel bad about not having sex with him or [] Joel Greenberg” and that he would say, “Why don’t you want to have sex with me” or “[Mr. Greenberg] looks very sad over there … Make him happy.”
Another woman said that their relationship at some point was a “loving friendship,” but over time came to feel like a “task.”
A third woman said, “[W]hen I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
One woman said, “I think about it all the time . . . . I still see him when I turn on the tv and there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s frustrating to know I lived a reality that he denies.”
Johnson allies call for Trump to back him to avoid another round of Republican civil war
13:00
Oliver O'Connell
Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson are urging Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader of the House of Representatives in the hope of heading off a messy battle for the role in the new year.
Should other contenders for the speakership emerge with any significant support following last week’s spending bill battle it could delay the certification of the president-elect’s own victory.
So far, there has been silence on the matter from Mar-a-Lago since Friday night’s vote on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through mid-March — a struggle that did not bode well for Johnson’s future.
Oliver O’Connell reports.
Trump considering attempting to boot Mike Johnson: report
12:00
Gustaf Kilander
President-elect Donald Trump is considering attempting to boot Speaker Mike Johnson from his post, according to Politico.
This comes after Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown on Friday night.
Trump is reportedly unhappy with the funding deal and that he didn’t get the debt ceiling hike he sought.
“The president is upset — he wanted the debt ceiling dealt with,” a person in Trump’s circle told the outlet.
“In the past couple weeks, we’ve questioned whether [Johnson has] been an honest broker,” another person said.
“I don’t see how Johnson survives,” yet another individual told Politico.
Trump declares Elon Musk is ‘not going to be president’ amid ongoing taunts over who’s really in charge
11:00
Justin Baragona
While Donald Trump still thinks his “first buddy” Elon Musk is a “great guy,” he wants to make it clear that only one man is calling the shots.
“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump declared in a Sunday night speech. “That’s not happening.”
The president-elect’s snarky remark comes as Democrats have sought to drive a wedge between the world’s richest man and the notoriously thin-skinned Trump by highlighting Musk’s growing influence and describing him as the “real president.” The taunts have only grown following last week’s chaos on Capitol Hill after Musk raged against House Republicans’ original spending bill, prompting lawmakers to race against the clock to strike another deal to prevent the government from shutting down.
Read more:
Chair of Ethics Committee did not vote to release report
10:00
Gustaf Kilander
The chair of the Ethics Committee, Republican Rep. Michael Guest said that while he does “not challenge the Committee’s findings,” he did not vote to release the report.
I believe, have publicly stated, and remain steadfast in the position that the House Committee on Ethics lost jurisdiction to release to the public any substantive work product regarding Mr. Gaetz after his resignation from the House on November 14, 2024.
While I do not challenge the Committee’s findings, I did not vote to support the release of the report and I take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee’s jurisdiction, an action the Committee has not taken since 2006.
Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress. The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing practice and is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Biden commutes most federal death row sentences. Here’s the full list
09:00
Ariana Baio
Thirty-seven people on death row had their sentences commutated by President Joe Biden on Monday morning and will now serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, rather than face execution.
Maintaining the tradition of offering clemency in the last few weeks of a presidency, Biden exercised his power to remove most inmates from federal death row. Only three people will remain.
It comes a little less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Unlike Biden, Trump supports the death penalty and has suggested more people should be given death sentences – though he has not offered specifics on that. Trump restarted federal executions after a 17-year pause during his first term, with 13 being carried out.
Read more:
Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory: ‘We are not for sale’
08:00
Justin Baragona
The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.
“Greenland is ours,” Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Egede’s comment comes after the incoming president announced that he wanted to revisit the idea of buying the semi-autonomous land from Denmark. During his first term in the White House, Trump expressed a desire to make a “large real estate deal” because “strategically” it would be “very nice.”
Read more:
Lord Mandelson ‘open to working with Farage to win over Trump’
07:00
Millie Cooke
Lord Mandelson is reportedly set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump in his new role as UK ambassador to the US.
He is said to be ready to work with the Reform UK leader, as part of an attempt to persuade the president-elect not to target Britain with tariffs.
Experts have warned of a looming trade war after Mr Trump himself said: “Tariff is my favourite word”, and promised to implement 10 to 20 per cent tariffs on all goods coming into the country – a figure that rises to 60 per cent for those from China.
Read more:
Biden cheered by Democrats and civil rights groups for commuting dozens of death row sentences
06:00
John Bowden
Civil rights groups who were anxiously preparing for the onset of Donald Trump’s presidency breathed a sigh of relief on Monday as President Joe Biden announced the largest single-day commutation of federal death row inmates in modern history.
The White House announced early Monday morning that the president would commute the sentences of 37 inmates awaiting execution in the federal prison system. Now, just three people will remain on death row following the commutations: mass murderers Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers.
Read more:
Watch: Ethics report finds ‘substantial evidence’ Matt Gaetz violated statutory rape law
05:00
Gustaf Kilander
‘We are not for sale’: Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory
04:43
Oliver O'Connell
The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.
“Greenland is ours,” the territory’s prime minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Justin Barangoa reports.
Biden to decide on US Steel acquisition after no consensus on national security risks
04:20
AP
A powerful government panel on Monday failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of a nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase U.S. Steel, leaving a decision to President Joe Biden, a longtime opponent of the deal.
Continue reading...
Who is Matt Gaetz’s wife, Ginger? The woman proudly standing by her man amid sex allegations
04:00
Rhian Lubin
Ginger Gaetz beams as she stands beside her husband in loved-up photos curated on her Instagram page.
The 30-year-old wife of the former Florida congressman and Donald Trump’s original pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, proudly describes herself as his “wifey” in her profile bio.
Her supportive posts about Gaetz, 42, signaled an intent to stand by him as he battled resurfaced sexual allegations from his past.
She also stood by him after he announced he was withdrawing from the process of becoming Trump’s next attorney general.
Read more:
Biden signs defense bill despite objections to ban on transgender health care for military children
03:40
AP
President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law a defense bill that authorizes significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members, aims to counter China‘s growing power and boosts overall military spending to $895 billion despite his objections to language stripping coverage of transgender medical treatments for children in military families.
Biden said his administration strongly opposes the provision because it targets a group based on gender identity and “interferes with parents’ roles to determine the best care for their children.” He said it also undermines the all-volunteer military’s ability to recruit and retain talent.
“No service member should have to decide between their family’s health care access and their call to serve our nation,” the president said in a statement.
Continue reading...
Eric Trump posts Amazon shopping cart of other countries
03:25
Oliver O'Connell
Further adding fuel to the fire over his father’s comments about the US taking over the Panama Canal, adding Canada as a 51st state, and purchasing Greenland, Eric Trump posted the following to his X account this evening:
We are so back!!! pic.twitter.com/PvybVULeAz
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) December 24, 2024
Who are the three federal death row inmates Biden chose not to save?
03:20
Oliver O'Connell
Joe Biden made history on Monday and commuted the sentence of nearly everyone on federal death row to life in prison without parole, sparing 37 people from the execution chamber.
Biden, whose (in)famous 1994 crime bill expanded the list of crimes eligible for a death sentence, framed the decision as part of his wider commitment to criminal justice reform.
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
The commutation decision falls short of Biden’s original, and unprecedented, broader 2020 campaign promise to seek to entirely eliminate federal capital punishment, and Monday’s announcement leaves in place three death sentences for some of the most notorious killers in recent U.S. history.
Josh Marcus looks at who they are.
Gaetz was Trump’s first choice to be attorney general
03:00
Mike Bedigan, Alex Woodward
The former Republican representative was Donald Trump’s first choice for attorney general of the United States, the most powerful law enforcement official in the country.
He resigned from Congress after he received the nomination, then dropped his name from the running for the top job at the Department of Justice amid renewed scrutiny and imminent release of the report.
The committee had been set to release the findings of its years-long probe last month, two days after Trump nominated Gaetz on November 13. His resignation effectively killed the investigation.
But lawmakers ultimately voted to release the report after all. The former congressman, who has denied all misconduct allegations, raged that “the people investigating me hated me” and gave him “no chance to ever confront any accusers.”
Speaker’s allies call for Trump to back him to avoid another round of Republican civil war
02:30
Oliver O'Connell
Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson are urging Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader of the House of Representatives in the hope of heading off a messy battle for the role in the new year.
Should other contenders for the speakership emerge with any significant support following last week’s spending bill battle it could delay the certification of the president-elect’s own victory.
So far, there has been silence on the matter from Mar-a-Lago since Friday night’s vote on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through mid-March — a struggle that did not bode well for Johnson’s future.
Read on...
Watch: Johnson speakership math is ‘very bad'
02:10
Oliver O'Connell
.@anniekarni on Johnson’s speakership: “I talked to Johnson people earlier tonight… The best version of his position right now is that only one Republican member has said, ‘I will not vote for Mike Johnson.’... He can't lose more than two. The math is very bad for him.”… pic.twitter.com/a5UjHviYVb
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) December 24, 2024
Some women ‘cited a fear of retaliation from the congressman'
02:00
Alex Woodward
The committee said there is evidence of Gaetz’s obstruction of the probe, pointing to his refusals to answer committee questions while publicly attacking the report and denying allegations that the committee was asking for information about.
The committee also was investigating allegations that “Gaetz may have sought to tamper with witness testimony in connection with its investigation or the DOJ’s investigation.”
Prosecutors “refused to provide a copy of an audio recording in which Representative Gaetz discussed the DOJ’s inquiry with one of the women he paid for sex,” according to the report.
The committee “did not find documentary evidence that Representative Gaetz directly acted to prevent any woman from testifying” for either of those probes, but some women “cited a fear of retaliation from the congressman when declining to speak on the record with the Committee.”
Panama president hits back at Trump’s canal takeover threat
01:28
Oliver O'Connell
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino fired back Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump twice threatened to take control of the Panama Canal.
“As president, I want to express clearly that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zone belongs to Panama, and will continue to do so,” Mulino said in a strident video statement. “The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable.”
He added: “The canal is not under direct or indirect control, neither by China, nor by the European community, nor by the United States, nor by any other power. As a Panamanian, I strongly reject any manifestation that distorts this reality.”
Panama “respects other nations and demands respect,” he insisted.
Mary Papenfuss reports.
Why Trump can’t take back the Panama Canal on his own
01:20
AP
Teddy Roosevelt once declared the Panama Canal “one of the feats to which the people of this republic will look back with the highest pride.” More than a century later, Donald Trump is threatening to take back the waterway for the same republic.
The president-elect is decrying increased fees Panama has imposed to use the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He says if things don’t change after he takes office next month, “We will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in full, quickly and without question.”
Trump has long threatened allies with punitive action in hopes of winning concessions. But experts in both countries are clear: Unless he goes to war with Panama, Trump can’t reassert control over a canal the U.S. agreed to cede in the 1970s.
Here’s a look at how we got here:
‘There was a general expectation of sex’
01:00
Gustaf Kilander
The House Ethics Committee report into Matt Gaetz states that “Many of the women interviewed by the Committee were clear that there was a general expectation of sex. One woman who was paid more than $5,000 by Rep. Gaetz between 2018 and 2019 told the Committee that ‘99 percent of the time that [Representative Gaetz and I] were hanging out, there was sex involved’.”
Gaetz has rejected the allegations.
“Text messages obtained by the Committee show that Representative Gaetz would also ask women to bring drugs to their rendezvous, in some instances requesting marijuana cartridges and repaying the women directly, but in other cases requesting ‘a full compliment [sic] of party favors,’ ‘vitamins,’ or ‘rolls’,” the report states.
Johnson allies hope Trump will ‘chime in’ with support ahead of possible speaker battle
00:37
Oliver O'Connell
Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson are urging Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader of the House of Representatives in the hope of heading off a messy battle for the role in the new year.
Should other contenders for the speakership emerge with any significant support following last week’s spending bill battle it could delay the certification of the president-elect’s own victory.
Florida Republican congressman Carlos Gimenez unpacked a possible scenario for Fox News Digital, telling the outlet: “If we have some kind of protracted fight where we can’t elect a speaker — the speaker’s not elected; we’re not sworn in. And if we’re not sworn in, we can’t certify the election.”
He added: “I would hope that President Trump would chime in and talk to those who are maybe a little hesitant, and say, ‘We’ve got to get going. We don’t have time.”
Gimenez is not alone in hoping that Trump shores up support for Johnson.
Republican Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas told Fox News Digital that “it would be immensely helpful” if the incoming president said something publicly.
“Any time would be great, but right after Christmas if President Trump said, ‘You know, listen’ — it would even be really cool if somehow Mike Johnson ended up at Mar-a-Lago for Christmas… wherever the president is,” Fallon said. “I think it would be incredibly powerful.”
The timeline for electing is tight after the holidays, hence why Johnson allies are speaking up now.
Lawmakers return to Washington, D.C. in the new year for a vote to elect the speaker of the House on Friday, January 3, 2025.
On Monday, January 6, the House meets to certify the results of the 2024 election.
Republicans are doubtless concerned given the protracted battles to elect the past two speakers.
Kevin McCarthy faced 15 rounds of votes to be elected in early 2023 with lawmakers nearly coming to blows at one point.
When he was ousted in October of the same year following a motion to vacate by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, the House was in limbo for the three weeks it took to elect Johnson.
During last week’s battle over the spending bill, one of Johnson’s biggest critics — Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky — said he would not vote for him as speaker in the new year.
Other lawmakers have also backed away from the speaker, and alternative names have been floated, including Tom Emmer, Byron Donalds, Jim Jordan, and even Elon Musk (the speaker does not need to be a member of Congress).
Johnson has a margin of three votes to retain his role as speaker, with Democrats saying they won’t rescue his speakership again, so Trump’s influence will be vital.
What is likely weighing on the speaker’s mind is that 38 Republican lawmakers voted against the president-elect’s preferred spending bill before a compromise was worked out.
Can they all be convinced to back him even with Trump’s support?
Gaetz report states some women said drug use at parties ‘impaired’ their ability to ‘fully consent’
00:15
Gustaf Kilander
The House Ethics Committee report into Matt Gaetz states that “all of the women interviewed by the committee said their sexual relationship with Gaetz was consensual, but at least one woman said the use of drugs at the parties they attended with him may have ‘impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.’”
“Indeed, nearly every woman that the Committee spoke with could not remember the details of at least one or more of the events they attended with Representative Gaetz and attributed that to drug or alcohol consumption,” according to the report.
Gaetz has rejected the allegations.
The women also discussed instances where Representative Gaetz would try to convince them to have sex with him or Mr. Greenberg: “[H]e would make me feel bad about not having sex with him or [] Joel Greenberg” and that he would say, “Why don’t you want to have sex with me” or “[Mr. Greenberg] looks very sad over there … Make him happy.”
Another woman said that their relationship at some point was a “loving friendship,” but over time came to feel like a “task.”
A third woman said, “[W]hen I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
One woman said, “I think about it all the time . . . . I still see him when I turn on the tv and there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s frustrating to know I lived a reality that he denies.”
Giuliani dresses up as Santa in odd coffee ad
Monday 23 December 2024 23:50
Oliver O'Connell
As his financial woes look ever bleaker in light of the $150 million defamation ruling against him in favor of two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of interfering in the 2020 election, Rudy Giuliani appears to be resorting to more unusual efforts to raise cash.
Monday 23 December 2024 23:38
Oliver O'Connell
NOW AVAILABLE AT: https://t.co/zgX6rUMSYj
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) December 23, 2024
Donald Trump Truth Social 05:36 PM EST 12/23/24 pic.twitter.com/FpGwfetKSE
Report: Gaetz ‘made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women'
Monday 23 December 2024 23:30
Gustaf Kilander
The Ethics Committee states that “From 2017 to 2020, Rep. Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use. Payments were made to these women using peer-to-peer payment platforms such as PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp; while Representative Gaetz had accounts in his name on each of those platforms.”
Gaetz has rejected the allegations.
“In one text exchange viewed by the Committee, Rep. Gaetz balked at a woman’s request that he send her money after he accused her of ‘ditching’ him on a night when she was feeling tired, claiming she only gave him a ‘drive by.’ The woman asserted to Rep. Gaetz that she was being ‘treated differently’ than other women he was paying for sex,” the report adds.
Katie Miller, wife of key Trump aide Stephen Miller, tapped for Musk’s DOGE panel
Monday 23 December 2024 23:05
Oliver O'Connell
Katie Miller will join the Trump administration’s much-watched non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, the president-elect announced on Sunday, where she will join Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in attempting to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal budget.
“She has been a loyal supporter of mine for many years, and will bring her professional experience to Government Efficiency,” Trumpwrote on Truth Social. “Katie is a deeply experienced communications professional respected by all. Congratulations to Stephen and Katie!”
Josh Marcus reports.
‘$400 is not a problem. Are you both enough to drink?'
Monday 23 December 2024 22:55
Oliver O'Connell
An exchange from former Gaetz ally/associate Joel Greenberg and a 20-year-old woman, from the Gaetz ethics report:
— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) December 23, 2024
"$400 is not a problem. Are you both enough to drink?" pic.twitter.com/sQFqNoMsdw
BREAKING: Bill Clinton admitted to hospital with fever
Monday 23 December 2024 22:45
Oliver O'Connell
Former President Bill Clinton was admitted to a Washington-area hospital on Monday.
“President Clinton was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center this afternoon for testing and observation after developing a fever,” Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña wrote on X.
Josh Marcus is monitoring this breaking story:
If Mike Johnson is hoping for help from Democrats, he might be disappointed...
Monday 23 December 2024 22:27
Oliver O'Connell
House Democrats have made it clear to Speaker Mike Johnson that they won’t launch another rescue attempt to allow him to retain the speakership.
Johnson is set to have the narrowest of majorities in the next Congress and will have little room to maneuver with a caucus in which some members are angling to take him out.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has said that he’ll vote against Johnson as speaker on January 3. A number of other members of the party have said that they’re undecided, according to Axios.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Almost half of Americans support Trump’s plan to pardon Jan 6 rioters
Monday 23 December 2024 22:20
Oliver O'Connell
Though most Americans oppose Donald Trump’s plan to pardon January 6 rioters charged with a crime, more than 4 in 10 said they support the decision, according to a new poll.
President-elect Trump has promised to issue pardons for those charged or convicted of a crime related to their actions on January 6, 2021, on his first day in office — a move that would validate his narrative of the day.
Despite the images, videos and convictions that show the tragic results of the attack on the Capitol, 43 percent of Americans said they support Trump’s decision to pardon rioters, according to the CNBC All-America Economic Survey.
Ariana Baio has the details.
Fetterman says he hopes Trump is successful as president
Monday 23 December 2024 22:00
Gustaf Kilander
Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman tells @JonKarl he hopes President-elect Donald Trump is successful in his second term and that he's not "rooting against him."
"If you're ro
