News From Around the Web
#10 Laken Riley’s ‘Killer’ Jose Ibarra Took Taxpayer-Funded Flight to Georgia, Roommate Says - Germania Rodriguez Poleo for Daily Mail, Greg Price, Congressman Byron Donalds, Gerry Callahan/Riley Gaines on X
Laken Riley's accused killer was given a taxpayer-funded plane ticket to Georgia, where he brutally murdered the college student, jurors at the illegal immigrant's murder trial heard Monday. Jose Ibarra's roommate took the stand in his murder trial on Monday and said she and the Venezuelan migrant moved together from New York City to Athens in September 2023. Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello told the court she met Ibarra in Queens and within a month decided to move to Georgia with him. '[Ibarra] told me there was work possibilities in Athens,' Flores-Bello testified. 'His brother [Diego Ibarra] was always calling him saying there was work in Athens, so we came here.' When asked how they obtained the plane tickets, Flores-Bello said they were provided by NYC officials...
#9 What Is the Federal Vacancies Reform Act? Trump Allies Eye Tool for Gaetz Pick - Andrew Stanton for Newsweek, Bannon's War Room, Leo the Lion, George, Gunther Eagleman, and Coleen Faith on X
Some of President-elect Donald Trump's allies are eyeing a tool they hope could help him push through Matt Gaetz's nomination for attorney general—but the law likely wouldn't apply to the former congressman's Cabinet appointment, according to experts who spoke with Newsweek. Trump last week nominated Gaetz, a staunch conservative and loyalist, to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ), quickly sparking backlash from critics who argue he is not qualified for the position. It is unclear whether there are enough votes for him to be confirmed in the U.S. Senate, but several Republicans have raised doubts on his nomination...
#8 MSNBC's ‘Morning Joe’ Hosts Meet With Trump for the First Time in 7 Years as Viewership Plummets - Rebeka Zeljko for Blaze Media, Nikki Haley, Brigitte Gabriel, Breaking 911, and Cenk Uygur
Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," announced Monday they had met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last week in an effort to reopen the lines of communication for the first time in seven years. Scarborough and Brzezinski, who are married, told the audience that although they disagree with Trump on most issues, they felt it was important to speak with him following the "five years of political warfare" that has divided our country. Notably, this announcement was made after the network's viewership has reportedly plummeted by a double-digit percentage drop since Election Day...
#7 DeSantis Aims to Appoint Marco Rubio’s Senate Replacement by Early January - Kate Payne for AP News, Ron DeSantis, Cryptid Politics, Bill Mitchell, Free, The Texas One, and Tony Lane on X
Floridians will likely know who their next U.S. senator will be by the beginning of January, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday. With Florida’s senior Sen. Marco Rubio tapped to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state, it’s up to the governor to appoint his replacement, should Rubio be confirmed by his colleagues in the Senate. Under the U.S. Constitution and state law, the governor has the power to fill vacancies in the U.S. Senate, while voters decide who should fill vacancies in the U.S. House. DeSantis is gathering names and conducting “preliminary vetting” after receiving “strong interest” from several potential picks, he posted on social media Monday. In the coming weeks, the governor plans to do more extensive vetting and candidate interviews...#6 Hubbard County Election Judge Charged for Allegedly Allowing 11 Unregistered People to Vote - AP News, Candace, Dr. Lynn Fynn-derella, Raw Egg Nationalist and Daniel Thornton on X
A man who served as a head election judge in a Minnesota township has been charged with two felony counts for allegedly letting 11 people vote even though they weren’t registered. Officials began investigating after Hubbard County Auditor Kay Rave could not find any completed voter registration forms among the ballots and other materials returned by Timothy Michael Scouton, 64, of Nevis, who had been head election judge in the Badoura Township precinct, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday. Another election judge told an investigator from the county sheriff’s office that Scouton directed them not to use the registration forms, the complaint said, while another said Scouton told them that new voters needed only to sign the back of a book...#5 Trump Picks Ex-GOP Rep. Sean Duffy for Transportation Secretary - Tara Suter for The Hill, Real Ben Garrison Cartoons, M Gadsen/Monica Crowley, LD Basler, and TinaMariePx2 on X
President-elect Trump said Monday that his selection for the role of Transportation secretary in his upcoming administration is former Rep. and Fox Business host Sean Duffy (R-Wis.). “I am pleased to announce that former Congressman Sean Duffy, from the Great State of Wisconsin, is nominated to serve as the Secretary of Transportation,” Trump said in a statement. “Sean has been a tremendous and well-liked public servant, starting his career as a District Attorney for Ashland, Wisconsin, and later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.”
#4 Pentagon Fails 7th Audit in a Row, Unable to Fully Account for $824B Budget - Stephen Sorace for Fox News, Vivek Ramaswamy, Jerry Dunleavy lV, Mario Nawfal (community note), and John Cremeans USA on X
The Pentagon failed its seventh consecutive audit on Friday as the agency was unable to fully account for its massive $824 billion budget, though officials were confident the Department of Defense "has turned a corner" in understanding its budgetary challenges going forward. The audits resulted in a disclaimer of opinion, which means auditors were provided with insufficient information to form an accurate opinion of the accounts. Of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) 28 reporting entities that had standalone audits, 9 received an unmodified audit opinion, 1 received a qualified opinion, 15 received disclaimers, and 3 opinions remain pending, the Pentagon said...
#3 Georgia Appeals Court Cancels Hearing in Election Interference Case Against Trump - Kate Brumback for AP News, Mark R. Levin, Washington Times, Steve Sadow, and The Constitutionalist on X
A Georgia appeals court on Monday canceled oral arguments that were scheduled for next month on the appeal of a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against President-elect Donald Trump. Trump and other defendants had asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments in the case, and the court had set those arguments for Dec. 5. But in a one-line order with no further explanation, the appeals court said that hearing “is hereby canceled until further order of this Court.” A Fulton County grand jury in August 2023 indicted Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a sprawling scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Four defendants have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors, but Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty...
#2 Pennsylvania’s High Court Sides With Republicans on Misdated Mail Ballots - Hansi Lo Wang for NPR, Charlie Kirk, Agenda47, Rich Zeoli, and Real America's Voice/Sean Parnell on X
In a new ruling on Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court directed all of the state's county election officials not to count certain mail-in ballots for this year's general election that arrived on time but in envelopes without the correct dates handwritten by voters. The order, prompted by a request from the Republican National Committee and Pennsylvania's Republican Party, is the latest development in a long-running legal battle over what to do when absentee voters don't follow an artifact of the state's election rules. The provision, which requires a voter to sign and date their ballot's outer return envelope, has drawn a tangle of lawsuits since Pennsylvania started allowing no-excuse voting by mail in 2020...
#1 Ramaswamy’s ‘Jackhammer and Chain Saw’ Plan to Force Federal Workers Back Into the Office - Laura Strickler for NBC News, Marjorie Taylor Green Press Release (Parody), Ram B Ramakrishnan, Newsweek, Meet the Press, and Olga Nesterova on X
Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk's new effort to increase government efficiency could initially target the nearly two-thirds of federal workers who are still approved to work from home 18 months after the pandemic ended. Vacant federal office space in downtown Washington is costly to maintain and a deep source of frustration to Mayor Muriel Bowser. She told reporters last week that she had requested a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump and that top on her agenda is pushing federal workers to return to downtown Washington...
