Exclude NB

Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, faced an emotional and pointed question during a CBS News town hall on Saturday night when a Utah student urged her to condemn violent political rhetoric from President Donald Trump. The question came from Hunter Kozak, the last person to speak to Kirk before his assassination at a campus event. Kozak acknowledged Erika Kirk’s calls for peace but pressed her to use her platform to urge Trump — whom he described as “the most powerful and influential person on earth” — to lower the temperature surrounding political violence.

Asked directly whether she would condemn Trump’s rhetoric, Erika Kirk declined to single out the president, instead emphasizing her personal opposition to violence and shifting the focus to family and individual responsibility. “No, I will never agree with political violence,” she said, adding that what people absorb from the outside world can influence behavior. Her response, while reiterating a rejection of violence, stopped short of addressing Trump’s specific statements, highlighting the ongoing tension over political rhetoric in the aftermath of her husband’s killing.

A leaked Veterans Affairs memo reveals plans for major staffing reductions that could further strain an already overburdened health care system serving millions of veterans. Under the leadership of VA Secretary Doug Collins, the department is preparing to cut as many as 35,000 positions, many of them currently vacant, according to reporting by The Washington Post. The Veterans Health Administration has instructed managers to cancel thousands of job openings, including roles for doctors, nurses, and support staff — a move employees warn will worsen wait times and limit access to care for former service members.

The proposed cuts come on top of roughly 30,000 positions already eliminated and could shrink the VA health care workforce by about 10 percent, reducing staffing levels to as few as 372,000 employees. Union officials and frontline workers say the reductions risk pushing the system past its breaking point. “The VA has been chronically understaffed for years,” said Thomas Dargon Jr. of the American Federation of Government Employees, while Colorado VA nurse Sharda Fornarino warned staff are being asked to “do more with less.” The staffing overhaul is expected to coincide with a broader reorganization that may also reduce the VA’s regional office structure overseeing hospitals and medical centers nationwide.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of disgraced financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, may be positioning herself for a presidential pardon after receiving what critics describe as preferential treatment in federal prison. Maxwell was recently transferred to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas following an unusual interview with the Justice Department in which she reportedly sought to distance President Donald Trump from Epstein’s crimes. The move has raised eyebrows among legal observers and advocates for Epstein’s victims, particularly as no administration officials have ruled out the possibility of a sentence commutation or pardon.

Speaking with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie Brown said Maxwell appears to be calculating her next steps carefully. Brown suggested Maxwell is acutely aware of the sensitive information she possesses about Epstein’s network and those who enabled his crimes. If a pardon does not materialize, Brown speculated that Maxwell could begin leaking damaging details as leverage, signaling to powerful figures that she “knows where the skeletons are buried.” According to Brown, Maxwell may be waiting to see how the political and legal landscape evolves before making her most aggressive move.

Newly leaked emails show Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign repeatedly sent messages to Jeffrey Epstein’s account — which, after Epstein’s death, was addressed using the shocking nickname “Pedophiles.” The emails add to mounting evidence of Epstein’s long-running fixation on Trump, including buying exposés, coordinating travel around him, and maintaining ties that stretched back decades.

Watch the video below.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan warns that Trump’s once-loyal base is eroding in his second term. Plummeting poll numbers, vulgar attacks on perceived enemies, and public mood swings are pushing voters and congressional supporters away. Even high-profile allies like Marjorie Taylor Greene are distancing themselves, signaling cracks in Trump’s influence. Noonan suggests the upcoming State of the Union may be his last chance to stabilize support amid political fatigue and rising discontent.

Watch the video below.

Leaked emails suggest Donald Trump offered to fund a 2006 Jeffrey Epstein-backed modeling venture — an offer that was described in the correspondence as “ridiculous and insulting.” The messages involve Epstein, his aide, and Elite Model Management co-founder Alain Kittler, and note Trump’s possible stake and debts in the proposed company.

Watch the video below.

Donald Trump’s own ranks unraveled again Friday as Julianne Murray, his acting U.S. attorney in Delaware, abruptly resigned and blamed a “flawed” Senate Blue Slip process for blocking her future in the role. Her exit stunned Trump allies, prompting attorney Alina Habba to sound the alarm that political pressure and partisan maneuvering are forcing out qualified Trump picks and eroding the Justice Department’s integrity.

The Blue Slip process is a Senate tradition in which a slip is sent by the Senate Judiciary Committee to the two home-state senators of a federal judicial nominee requesting feedback before a nomination proceeds to a full committee hearing and vote.

Donald Trump is considering an executive order to speed up federal marijuana reclassification, potentially moving it from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III, the Washington Post reported. The idea prompted resistance from House Speaker Mike Johnson, and no final decision has been made. Trump can only direct agencies to expedite the process, echoing earlier steps taken — but never finalized — under President Joe Biden.

Watch the video below.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny was visibly stunned on-air after host Jake Tapper broke news that Indiana Republicans had overwhelmingly rejected a Trump-backed push to redraw the state’s election map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Despite holding a dominant 40–10 majority in the state Senate, 21 Republicans crossed over to join Democrats to kill the proposal — a sharp rebuke to Trump’s pressure campaign and a public call-out he made of Senate leader Rod Bray on Truth Social.

Watch the video below.

Donald Trump triggered a wave of online backlash Thursday night after referring to his son Barron as “her boy” while praising Melania’s latest initiative, prompting critics to call the comment bizarre and unsettling. Trump told the crowd Melania “has a wonderful boy” and is “very proud of her boy,” language many noted seemed to distance him from his own son.

Watch the video below.

A White House press conference turned tense when a reporter publicly dismantled President Donald Trump’s latest boast that his administration “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites during a bombing campaign, pointing out that Trump's own National Security Strategy says the strikes only “set them back.” Trump insisted an Atomic Energy Commission assessment backed him, even as the reporter pushed back.

Watch the video below.