DeSantis says conservatives won’t be ‘gaslit’ by ‘people who think we’re dumb’ after Newsom debate
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a hit at California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom following their debate, saying conservatives won’t be gaslit into thinking liberal policies are working. DeSantis, a GOP presidential hopeful, made the comments during a campaign rally Saturday in Sioux City, Iowa. “And one of the things I think, it’s like what the left is trying to do to this country, what people in the media are helping them do, is they are just trying to lie to the public about almost everything that’s going on,” DeSantis said. “When that White House press secretary goes to that podium and tells you that the border is secure, they think you’re stupid. They’re willing to say anything.” DeSantis then referred back to his debate between Newsom on Thursday, saying the California leader lied about his own policies. DESANTIS LOSES ANOTHER SUPER PAC OFFICIAL, THE SECOND IN THE LAST 2 WEEKS TO LEAVE HIS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN “When [Newsom] was on the stage with me saying Biden is a great president and he’s clicking on all cylinders, that was a lie, we know that was a lie. When he says that California has lower taxes than Florida, I mean, not only is that a lie, even the people that like what’s going on in California acknowledge that one of the prices you pay of living there is you pay higher taxes than elsewhere,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to be gaslit by people who think we’re dumb. We’re not going to be lied to and just take it. We’re going to stand for the truth. And ultimately we need truth in this country,” he added. DESANTIS SAYS NEWSOM IS ‘OBVIOUSLY PREPARING’ TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT AFTER ‘HANNITY’ DEBATE During Thursday night’s debate, Newsom claimed that Florida taxes lower income workers more than California taxes millionaires. “He has one of the most regressive tax rates in the United States, America’s number three, most regressive state in America. And what that means is simply this – Who does he tax? He taxes low income workers more than we tax millionaires and billionaires in the state of California,” Newsom said. DeSantis responded, saying people don’t move from Florida to California to pay less in taxes. “How many people leave Florida to go to California because they pay less taxes? I’ve not seen that. Are people going from Florida to New York because they pay less taxes? Of course not. They come to Florida because they pay lower taxes. We don’t even have an income tax. And yet California has a higher sales tax than we do,” DeSantis said.
Joint Chiefs chairman says ‘we all should be’ worried about China possibly invading Taiwan
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said during an interview that Americans should be concerned about the possibility of China invading Taiwan. Brown made the comments during an interview Saturday in Simi Valley, California, at the Reagan National Defense Forum with “FOX News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream. “Seventy-three percent of people responded to the survey this year that they were somewhat worried about possibility of China actually invading Taiwan. You’ve said in the past you don’t think it will be an actual, you know, physical operation to take Taiwan. It’s logistically very difficult to do that. But there are other ways that China will pressure Taiwan. So how do you see that playing?” Bream said. “Well, just think about what happened in Hong Kong. And the first thing I would say is we want to be, and we all should be, worried whether it’s going to happen or not. And part of the reason why deterrence is so important, so that conflict does not occur,” Brown responded. XI TELLS BIDEN TAIWAN IS ‘MOST POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS ISSUE’ BETWEEN US, CHINA Brown said the U.S. has to pay attention to the pressure that China is putting on Taiwan, even if it’s not in a military form. “But if you look at what happened in Hong Kong and even some of the things that the PRC is doing today is, you know, putting pressure on Taiwan, putting pressure on countries in the Indo-Pacific, whether it be economically or somewhat militarily, that we’ve seen continued pressure to wear in this case Taiwan down or others down to their own gain,” Brown said. China is testing just how much restraint Taiwan has, as its military performs almost daily flights and naval vessel routes around Taiwan, sometimes getting uncomfortably close to the island. BIDEN AGAIN CALLS XI JINPING A ‘DICTATOR’ AS CHINA VOWS TO BE ‘UNSTOPPABLE’ IN RETAKING TAIWAN On Sunday morning local time in Taiwan, the country’s Ministry of National Defense wrote in a post on X that 4 Chinese military aircraft and 6 naval vessels were located around Taiwan. During the U.S.-China summit in San Francisco in November, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying released a blunt warning about America’s relations with Taiwan, calling it “the most important and most sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations.” “The U.S. side should take real actions to honor its commitment of not supporting ‘Taiwan independence’, stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification. China will realize reunification, and this is unstoppable,” Chunying wrote in a post on X.
Trump calls out immigration crisis during Iowa caucus rally, says he will keep world peaceful, safe
Former President Donald Trump rallied voters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, during a “Commit to Caucus” campaign event Saturday, focusing on his agenda and calling out “the worst, most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America.” “We don’t like corrupt politicians like Joe Biden. Without question, this is the worst president, most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America without question,” Trump exclaimed, in anticipation of next month’s Iowa GOP presidential caucuses. “And I promise you this, if you put me back in the White House there, rain will be over and America will be a free nation once again.” When speaking about keeping America safe, Trump said he would immediately implement travel restrictions on terror-plagued countries. “I will immediately restore and expand the Trump travel ban on entry from terror-plagued countries and I will implement strong ideological screening on all immigrants as we have no choice,” he said. “If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihad[ists], then we don’t want you in our country, and you’re not going to come into our country.” TRUMP CAMPAIGN CALLS DESANTIS ‘THIRSTY ONLYFANS WANNABE’ FOR DEBATING NEWSOM: ‘KISS OF DEATH’ Adding to his remarks on a travel ban and current unrest in the Middle East, Trump pointed to the historic Abraham Accords, and described how he would make sure there was worldwide peace once again if elected. “So for four straight years, I kept America safe. I kept Ukraine safe. None of this stuff would have happened. And I kept the entire world safe,” Trump said. DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL 99 IOWA COUNTIES, BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP, STAY AHEAD OF HALEY? Trump added he would do everything in his power to keep the United States out of a war. “I will prevent World War III. I will prevent it. On my first day back in the White House, I will terminate every open-border policy of the Biden administration, stop the invasion on our southern border, and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” Trump said. RAPPER SAYS HE ‘WISHES’ TRUMP WERE STILL PRESIDENT, ‘BIDEN GOT TO GO’ BECAUSE OF HIGH GAS AND FOOD PRICES “We are a nation that has lost its way, but we are not going to allow this horror to continue. Three years ago, we were a great nation, and we will soon be a great nation again,” he said.
With GOP priorities unfinished, Texas House plans to wrap fourth special session Tuesday
The decision to end work Tuesday leaves long odds for bills to boost school safety funding and make sure that election challenges don’t delay the implementation of property tax cuts, teacher pension raises and infrastructure spending.
DeSantis loses another super PAC official, the second in the last 2 weeks to leave his presidential campaign
Another blow to Ron DeSantis‘ presidential campaign as another top official of his main political action committee (PAC) has left his campaign, the second to step down in the last two weeks, according to the Associated Press. Former Nevada attorney general and Never Back Down Chairman Adam Laxalt submitted his resignation letter last Sunday, according to a spokesperson from the campaign, which was first reported by The New York Times. According to the report, Laxalt turned in his resignation to the group’s board on Nov. 26, just four days after Jankowski’s exit, explaining that he needed to shift his focus. “Effective immediately, I am resigning from the Board of Directors of Never Back Down. After nearly 26 straight months of being in a full scale campaign, I need to return my time and attention to my family and law practice,” Laxalt wrote to the super PAC board. “I will continue to support Governor DeSantis in whatever ways I can, and I hope and pray that his campaign will be successful.” TOP DESANTIS BACKER RESIGNS FROM SUPER PAC AMID INTERNAL TURMOIL: ‘UNTENABLE’ ENVIRONMENT Last week, the super PAC’s chief executive, Chris Jankowski, was the first top official to resign from DeSantis’ campaign. Both departures come as DeSantis struggles to energize his presidential campaign, which officials say has fallen short of expectations. According to reports, the departures mark a dark chapter for the super PAC, which launched earlier this year with more than $80 million in seed money. HALEY CELEBRATES MOMENTUM AS GOP RIVALS RAMP UP ATTACKS: ‘THESE GUYS KNOW WE’RE SURGING’ Despite losing Laxalt and Jankowski, Never Back Down remains fueled by DeSantis supporters as another super PAC led by DeSantis loyalists has just launched, Fight Right, which is focused on leading the charge for television advertising for DeSantis. In a note sent to donors Monday, DeSantis campaign manager James Uthmeier outlined his vision for the roles the super PACs would play. DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL 99 IOWA COUNTIES, BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP, STAY AHEAD OF HALEY? “In the final push for the Iowa Caucus victory, this campaign will proudly fight alongside NBD’s impressive ground game, and Fight Right’s television team, to show the people of Iowa that this is a time for choosing, and Ron DeSantis is the candidate that can WIN!” Uthmeier wrote. “We are blessed to have both an NBD-army and Fight Right-air force out there fighting for us.”
Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers
Some members of the committee said such a ban, proposed two months after a prominent conservative activist was caught meeting with a famous white supremacist, might be a “slippery slope” or too vague.
Santos vows to file ethics complaints against multiple lawmakers hours after expulsion from House
Former New York Republican Rep. George Santos vowed to file a handful of ethics complaints next week against several of his former colleagues just hours after he was expelled from Congress in a vote by the House of Representatives. In a series of social media posts Friday night, Santos said he would be filing ethics complaints Monday against four different members of the House — Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Nick LaLota R-N.Y., and Rob Menendez, D-N.J. — over alleged campaign finance violations and stock trading habits, among other alleged ethics violations. Santos, expelled Friday by his House colleagues in a 311-114 vote, has not been convicted of a crime, but he has been indicted on 23 counts related to wire fraud, identity theft, falsification of records, credit card fraud and other charges. Santos has been accused of using campaign funds on a number of luxury goods and treatments such as botox. He has pleaded not guilty. EMBATTLED GOP REP GEORGE SANTOS EXPELLED FROM HOUSE As for the complaint against Malliotakis, Santos said it will prioritize “her questionable stock trading since joining the Ways and Means committee this Congress.” “Let’s talk about hypocrisy. Can someone ask Nicole MalioStockTips when did she become a savant in stock trading?” Santos wondered in a post to X. “The signature bank trades she did REEKS of insider trading much like Paul Pelosi’s every trade!” he added, referring to the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Before joining the committee the congresswoman didn’t have an active trading habit or a high volume stake,” Santos continued in remarks about Malliotakis. “The question is, what set of information is she trading with?” The complaint against Lawler, according to Santos, deals with the congressman “engaging in laundering money” by funneling campaign funds through a company he owns stake in. “The concerning questions are; is Mr Lawler engaging in laundering money from his campaign to his firm then into his own pocket?” Santos wrote in one post. “I will let the Office of Congressional Ethics be the judge of that.” As for LaLota, Santos questioned whether the Empire State lawmaker was a “no-show” at his local board of elections position during his tenure in law school. “Did Rep Lalota no-show to his tax pay funded job while going to school and if so he can potential have stolen public funds form the tax payers of NY,” Santos wrote in another post. “I will let the Office of Congressional Ethics determine the validity of this grave allegation raised in his local media.” Will Kiley, a LoLota spokesperson, told The Hill that Santos “is just mad the congressman has three actual degrees, while he lied about one.” FETTERMAN DEMANDS SEN. MENENDEZ TO BE EXPELLED FROM SENATE ON ‘THE VIEW’: ‘SENATOR FOR EGYPT NOT NEW JERSEY’ Santos also called into question Rob Menendez’s relationship with his father, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who has been federally charged for allegedly participating in a bribery scheme. Santos specifically raised concerns over what Menendez may have known about his father’s crimes, asking “what did he know and when did he know it.” “I think it’s a fair point to make sure we weed out the doubt surrounding Rep Menendez and his business associations with his father,” Santos added. In a statement to The Hill, Menendez spokesman Michael Zhadanovsky dismissed Santos’ threat. “George Santos is neither Rep. Menendez’s colleague nor a constituent, so we will not expend any energy responding to his Botox-fueled fits of rage,” said Zhadanovsky. Aside from those he’s seeking to file ethics complaints against, Santos also signaled he’s looking forward to seeing “who will be the Republican that will have the testicular fortitude to pick up my privileged motion to expel Bowman and reintroduce it!” Fox News did not receive an immediate response from the four lawmakers’ offices about Santos’ comments. The House’s vote against Santos made him the first House lawmaker to be expelled in more than 20 years. Expelling a member of Congress takes a two-thirds majority vote. The last time a House lawmaker was expelled was more than two decades ago, when late former Rep. Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, was voted out of Congress in 2002. Santos said he expected to be expelled from Congress during a Friday morning interview on “FOX & Friends.” Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
DeSantis says Newsom is ‘obviously preparing’ to run for president after ‘Hannity’ debate
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday said that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, with whom he engaged in a feisty debate on “Hannity” this week, is “obviously preparing” to run for president — despite denials from his Democrat rival. DeSantis was in Sioux City, Iowa and took aim at what he said were the “failed” policies in the liberal California state, as he had done at the televised debate between him and Newsom on Thursday night. “It’s the policies. It’s the policies that are driving people out. This is ultimately the choice for the country: Are we going to embrace freedom like Florida has or are we going to embrace failure? The same policies that have failed in Illinois and California and New York aren’t all of a sudden going to work well nationally,” he said. NEWSOM, DESANTIS DEBATE GETS HEATED OVER COVID, TAX POLICIES “What they’ve done in California is the petri dish for what I think the Democrats would want to do nationally,” he said, before speculating as to which potential president that would be under. “Maybe that’s a [President] Biden second term. Maybe that’s [Vice-President] Harris, Maybe it’s Newsom,” he said. “He’s obviously preparing to potentially go in. I think America saw, though, that what he’s selling is not something that is very appetizing.” LIBERAL COLUMNIST PRAISES ‘PATRIOTIC’ NEWSOM FOR ‘SHADOW CAMPAIGN,’ SLAMS DEMOCRATS FOR BACKING BIDEN Newsom has been the subject of significant speculation about a potential presidential run, but has repeatedly denied that he is gearing up for a White House run. DeSantis, meanwhile, is running for the Republican nomination in 2024, although polls show him significantly behind former President Donald Trump. Newsom took a jab at DeSantis over his standing in the polls in the debate on Thursday night. “There are profound differences tonight, and I look forward to engaging them. But there’s one thing…that we have in common, is neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024,” he said. DeSantis later accused Newsom of wanting to run for president: “You just won’t admit it,” he said.
King Charles: Pay $5 trillion annually to prevent climate catastrophe
How much money do you think it will cost to save the world from a climate catastrophe? According to King Charles III, it’s about $5 trillion. Every year. That’s what the British royal told a packed conference of green advocates and state leaders on Friday who flew from all around the world – many on private jets – to meet up at the plush United Nations climate summit in Dubai, known as COP 28. US COMMITS TO SHUTTING DOWN ITS COAL PLANTS DURING COP28 Warning that the world is “hurdling into dangerous, uncharted territory,” Charles, 75, said he was praying for “transformational action” to come out of the gathering. “How can we bring together our public, private, philanthropic and NGO [non-governmental organization] sectors ever more effectively, so that they all play their part in delivering climate action?” Charles asked the crowd, which included former Vice President Al Gore and Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres. Public finance alone won’t cut it, he added. “But with the private sector firmly at the table… we could mobilize the trillions of dollars we need, in the order of four-and-a-half to five trillion a year, to drive the transformation we need.” To put that figure into perspective, it is about 20% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2022 which was $25.46 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Charles did not give a breakdown of who should pay what, or where exactly the money would go, although he did say that the funds should flow to projects driving sustainable changes and away from practices that “make our world more dangerous.” Part of the funds, at least, would likely be placed in the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations fund tasked with helping developing countries mitigate and combat climate change. On Saturday, the U.S. pledged $3 billion to the fund, on top of an additional $2 billion previously delivered by the United States. U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced at the summit that the United States will not build any new coal plants and will phase out existing plants to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius. In his speech, Charles also called on different types of organizations to come together to fight climate change and asked for the world to ramp up investment in green, renewable energy. “Some important progress has been made, but it worries me greatly that we remain so dreadfully far off track,” Charles said. It is unclear if Charles will be donating to the fund. The Royal family is worth $28 billion, according to Forbes.
Texas will have to cut methane emissions from oil fields under new federal climate rule
The Biden Administration announced a crackdown on methane emissions, a major driver of climate change. Major oil and gas companies also signed on to a voluntary net-zero commitment.