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- Bill Maher Scolds JD Vance To His Face Over Trump’s Election Fraud Claims: ‘...
Bill Maher confronted Vice President JD Vance over President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud during Friday’s Real Time on HBO. Trump has infamously insisted the 2020 election was rigged against him, a refrain that has become a de facto purity test within the Republican Party and even among Trump’s judicial nominees, dozens of whom have dodged straightforward questions from senators about who won the contest. In Trump’s State of the Union in February, he said of Democrats, “They wanna cheat. They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat.” Vance, who was seated behind Trump, stood and clapped. During their interview, Maher speculated to Vance that the 2028 Republican nominee for president would be either him or Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The comedian said that regardless of which Republican is the nominee, the false allegations of voter fraud must cease: MAHER: Here’s my dealbreaker for your side. VANCE: Ok. MAHER: Under Trump, you guys have two outcomes an election can be: either we win, or they cheated. That sh*t has to stop. And the person– and that means the person who has to stop it would be you or Marco. Can you tell me you will do that? Will you bring us back to the middle, at least on that, where we can concede elections, where it’s not either one of those two options? VANCE: Ok, Bill. So this is where I’m probably gonna lose you here, but here’s– MAHER: That happened about eight minutes ago. VANCE: Look, I don’t think that we should not concede elections, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on. I think that if you go back, if you go back to the president’s core argument, he was making an argument about problems that existed in 2020. And here’s the problem that I’m most focused on. The president and I have talked a lot about this, and I think we share a perspective here. But set to the side the stuff that really gets you and your audience very angry about whether the count was legitimate in Georgia, or Pennsylvania, or any of these other states. Is it true that large technology companies – some of whom have financial interests that exist outside the United States of America – were they censoring information in the run-up to an election?… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - ACLU Wins Settlement for D.C. Resident Detained for Playing Darth Vader Theme at...
Screenshots via @freedc20009 on TikTok. The Force — and the First Amendment — are with Sam O’Hara, a Washington D.C. resident who was handcuffed and detained after following National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. playing the Darth Vader theme from the Star Wars film franchise, with the D.C. police agreeing to settle a lawsuit filed on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia. President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops and sent ICE agents into multiple U.S. cities throughout his second term, claiming it was necessary to combat crime and illegal immigration. The interference from the feds invoked strong objections from many of the political leaders and local residents of these areas, with multiple lawsuits filed by elected officials and numerous protests — leading to an additional round of lawsuits as protesters argue the federal government is violating their free speech rights. O’Hara’s TikTok account, @freedc20009, featured dozens of videos of him walking behind or standing near National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., using his phone or a small Bluetooth speaker to play “The Imperial March,” John Williams’ famous musical theme that accompanied the appearance of Darth Vader in Star Wars films beginning with The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Featured prominently in key plot points throughout the various sequels and prequels in the franchise, “The Imperial March” has been used for years in politically-themed videos and protests to oppose oppressive authoritarian regimes. The videos posted by O’Hara mostly show the troops ignoring him, and in some cases, even appearing to enjoy the cinematic soundtrack he was providing for their deployment. In the below clips, one Guard member is seen smiling and another is bopping his head along to Williams’ infectious melodies. Last September, O’Hara was detained and handcuffed by officers with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department after a member of the National Guard complained about him playing the Star Wars song. O’Hara insisted he was exercising his First Amendment rights and peacefully protesting, but the MPD officers “tightly handcuffed and detained Mr. O’Hara for between 15 and 20 minutes,” according to the complaint. The complaint further alleges that O’Hara “complained about the tightness of the handcuffs,” one MPD officer “jerked Mr. O’Hara’s arms while he was handcuffing him,” which was painful because of two shoulder surgeries in 2023, and none of the officers did anything to loosen the handcuffs or otherwise alleviate O’Hara’s discomfort, continuing… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 hours ago - Kaitlan Collins Confronts Republican Who Compared Jewish Democrat to a ‘Camp G...CNN’s Kaitlan Collins confronted the Republican nominee for New York governor about comments he made likening a Jewish Democrat to a “camp guard in the concentration camp.” On Tuesday, former New York Comptroller Brad Lander defeated Rep. Dan Goldman in the Democratic primary for the 10th congressional district. Lander has been critical of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, deeming Israel’s actions in the former a genocide. Goldman has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but has said the U.S. should keep sending aid to the country. In response to Lander’s victory on Tuesday, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who, like Lander and Goldman, is Jewish, said Lander would feel more at home as a concentration camp guard. “And Brad Lander — he’s a disgrace,” Blakeman said on Thursday. “He’s anti-American, he is anti-Semitic, even though he’s Jewish. This guy would be a camp guard in a concentration camp if he could. He’s a disaster. He’s terrible.” Blakeman joined Friday’s installment of The Source on CNN, where Collins aired a clip of Blakeman’s remarks and asked him if he stands by them. Here is their exchange: COLLINS: Brad Lander is Jewish. Do you stand by that comment? BLAKEMAN: I certainly do. I mean, this is a guy who embraces people who will not admit the atrocities that occurred on October 7th. He stands with people who say “river to the sea,” basically to eradicate the Jewish state of Israel. He is someone who denigrates people who feel the same way that I do, that Israel should have a right to exist as a Jewish state. So yes, I think he’s either a collaborator or he’s a coward. And either one of them is unacceptable in my opinion. COLLINS: But he believes that Israel has a right to exist. I mean, he’s Jewish, but you’re likening him to a Nazi? BLAKEMAN: No, I don’t believe he believes that Israel has a right to exist, I think, as a Jewish state, he’s never said that. He basically feels that it should be sorted out some way with the Palestinians. Listen, the Palestinians– COLLINS: His own opponent called him a Zionist. I mean, that’s what Dan Goldman said about Brad Lander. BLAKEMAN: Well, that’s his opinion. My opinion is he’s not a Zionist. He’s somebody that denigrates the Jewish state, and he stands with people who would seek the harm. COLLINS:… [TheTopNews] Read More.3 hours ago
- MS NOW Contributor Says ‘JD Vance Has a Point’ With Trump-Nixon CommentsMS NOW contributor Sam Stein said on Friday that Vice President JD Vance “has a point,” referring to his Thursday comments that Watergate “would be like a 12-hour news story” if it happened today. Appearing at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on Thursday, Vance drew comparisons between President Donald Trump and former President Richard Nixon, saying, “If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.” “And by the way,” the vice president added, “if you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions, tried to do to Donald Trump.” “Honestly, I think he’s right,” said Stein, also managing editor at The Bulwark, on Friday’s edition of All In with Chris Hayes. “I do think there’s actually some validity to what JD Vance was saying, which is that we’ve become so calloused to a whole new breed of scandal from this administration that, frankly, we would probably move on.” He continued: And that doesn’t give me great, you know, joy to say that, but my mind sort of drifted immediately to a scene that was in this new book from Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, in which the Justice Department’s top officials, as well as top cabinet officials and presidential aides, were in the Situation Room scheming on how to not get the [Jeffrey] Epstein files out into the public. It’s the type of situation you could easily put into the Watergate era and say, “Wow, that is incredibly corrupt.” And it was presented to us in a book. There it is — the deputy attorney general scheming, essentially, to do a cover-up for the president. And that was a 10-hour story. And so, some of this stuff is shocking. It’s shocking that JD Vance thinks this is sort of a politically advantageous thing to say out loud, but I do have to say I think there is some validity to the idea that we’ve become so calloused by this stuff. And I’ll just say one last thing, and then I’ll stop talking, which is obviously, the key to bringing down Richard Nixon was not just the FBI — what JD Vance would call “the deep state” — but dogged reporting from The Washington Post,… [TheTopNews] Read More.5 hours ago
- Meta Lobbies for Exemption From Child-Harm Penalties: Report
AP Photo/David Zalubowski Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is pressing California lawmakers to carve out an exemption from a bill that would sharply increase financial penalties for companies found liable in child-harm cases, according to a Friday report from POLITICO. Citing two people familiar with the discussions, the outlet reported that Meta lobbyists have approached Democratic California Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Umberg with proposed amendments to AB 2, legislation authored by Democratic Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal. The bill would allow fines of up to $1 million per child for social media platforms found responsible for harming minors through negligent product design. The measure is scheduled for a hearing before Umberg’s committee on Tuesday. According to POLITICO, Meta’s proposed changes would create a legal safe harbor for social media companies that adopt a series of default child safety protections. Those safeguards would include disabling autoplay, limiting the sharing of geolocation data, muting overnight notifications, blocking direct messages from unknown adults, keeping minors’ profiles from public view, and preventing explicit content from being shown to children. The proposal would also require companies seeking the exemption to provide parental controls allowing parents to limit screen time, hide their children’s profiles from public view, monitor who their children interact with online, and report misconduct. If lawmakers adopt the amendments, the changes could reduce financial exposure in “hundreds” of ongoing lawsuits against Meta and other major platforms, including Google, TikTok, and Snap. Those companies have been accused by parents and young users of designing products that contributed to harms such as addiction, depression, and suicidality. POLITICO noted that a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $6 million in damages earlier this year after finding them liable in one such case. Neither Meta nor Umberg commented on the proposed amendments, according to the report. The report comes amid broader efforts by Meta to strengthen its political relationships. As revealed in Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s upcoming book Regime Change, President Donald Trump reportedly boasted that Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had changed their posture toward him after his 2024 victory, telling Tesla CEO Elon Musk, “They hated me,” before adding, “And look at them now.” “First-class groveling,” Musk replied, according to the book.The post Meta Lobbies for Exemption From Child-Harm Penalties: Report first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.6 hours ago - Man Who Faked Death to Escape Rape Charges Dies for Real in Utah Prison
Screengrab via STV News A convicted sex offender who faked his own death to escape rape charges and sparked a yearslong international manhunt died in a Utah prison Thursday after serving time for rape convictions. Nicholas Rossi was serving a sentence of at least 10 years after being convicted in 2025 in two sexual assault cases. According to the Utah Department of Corrections, the inmate was taken to hospital where he died from “complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment.” The Utah inmate was serving a sentence of at least 10 years after being convicted in 2025 in two sexual assault cases. Richard Piatt, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Corrections, told the Associated Press that Rossi’s victims and family had been notified of his death but declined to provide further details about Rossi’s medical condition, though Rossi had appeared in court in a wheelchair and using oxygen during proceedings. Rossi’s case drew international attention after authorities alleged he staged his own death in 2020 to avoid prosecution. An online obituary falsely claimed he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on Feb. 29, 2020, but investigators in Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, questioned whether he had actually died. He was eventually located in Scotland in 2021 while receiving treatment for Covid-19 after hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos, including a Brown University crest tattoo, despite Rossi never attending the school. After his arrest, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy. Investigators alleged he had used at least a dozen aliases over the years in an effort to avoid detection before he was extradited to Utah in 2024. Authorities first identified Rossi in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit and later prosecutors heard testimony from two victims who claimed he had stolen money and assaulted them. At his sentencing hearing last October, Rossi was sentenced in October, but maintained his innocence.The post Man Who Faked Death to Escape Rape Charges Dies for Real in Utah Prison first appeared on Mediaite. [TheTopNews] Read More.7 hours ago
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