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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) shut down Trump Office of Management and Budget nominee Russell Vought on Wednesday when he tried to defend right-wing economic policies on Medicaid work requirements and taxes.

During the confirmation hearing for Vought, who was also a leading architect for the controversial Project 2025, Merkley zeroed in on his past support for making having a job a prerequisite for being on the federal government's Medicaid program.

Fox News has released the text of the letter that President Joe Biden left on Monday in the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office for the first time.

Each president leaves a letter for the president that follows. President Donald Trump told the press that the letter was "nice."

With a stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Tuesday that overturned government policies going back six decades that banned discrimination and required affirmative action by federal contractors. This order canceled directives established by previous orders, including those issued by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Barack Obama. The move, executed late Tuesday, came just a day after President Trump rescinded executive orders requiring diversity and affirmative action in the federal workplace.

In 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, banning federal contractors "from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin," according to the U.S. Department of Labor, which was charged with ensuring its compliance. Until President Trump rescinded it on Tuesday, EO11246 also required "contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that equal opportunity is provided in all aspects of their employment."

MAGA activist Steve Bannon called for "massive criminal investigations" of federal judges who participated in cases related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

During a Wednesday interview with self-styled MAGA reporter Julie Kelly, Bannon noted that mainstream media were "melting down" after President Donald Trump issued 1,500 pardons for Jan. 6 rioters.

A Wednesday morning interview with a Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on CNN spiraled into chaos when host Jim Acosta tried to get a straight answer out of him about Donald Trump's blanket Jan. 6 pardons and the cornered far-right lawmakers responded with a fusillade of insults.

That led the CNN anchor to eventually remind his guest, "This is not Fox" -- the conservative network competitor notorious for not restricting their Republican guests to the facts.

Focusing on Trump's blanket release of almost 1500 Jan. 6 Capitol rioters that included violent offenders, Acosta asked, "Do you defend what Donald Trump did, releasing these people from prison, pardoning them, commuting their sentences? Yes or no?"

ALSO READ: Inside the parade of right-wing world leaders flocking to D.C. for Trump's inauguration

"I was offended as anybody if they crossed those barriers, they were breaking the law," Burchett offered. "But you got to realize too, they are charged under federal law. Many of them never even saw their day in court and were sitting in a jail cell. So the whole thing is––."

"Congressman, I asked you a yes or no question. Do you agree with President Trump's decision to pardon these violent people and releasing them?"

When the Tennessee lawmaker attempted to change the subject and point the finger at President Joe Biden, Acosta again cut him off with, "That is absolutely false. Congressman, are you going to respond and say whether or not it is right to let these people out of jail?"

"I don't know if it is or not. I'm not a lawyer, but I'll tell you what is --," he replied.

"You're a congressman a member of Congress. You're an elected official. –– take a stand!" the exasperated Acosta interrupted.

That was when Burchett started with the personal attacks, at one time telling the CNN host, "Jim, why don't you just give an editorial and not let me come on?"

"Look what happened to the last four years with police, what happened with all the riots that took place all across the country?" the increasingly argumentative Burchett complained. "Police officers were murdered. Courthouses were burned, over 22 police cars were burned. Yet no one went to jail for that."

"Congressman, you're engaging in a game of whataboutism," Acosta accused, which was followed by more crosstalk.

"This is not Fox, congressman. You can't just spin a tale and pull the wool over people's eyes," Acosta told him. "This is CNN, this is the news. We are asking you to come on and tell the truth."

"And that's why more people are watching the Cartoon Network, SpongeBob reruns right now, Jim," the GOP lawmaker sneered.

You can watch below or at the link.

President Donald Trump may have signaled that he's growing tired of his so-called co-president Elon Musk, according to MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle.

The president on Tuesday announced a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure related to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, but the CEO of one of those companies is the archenemy to Musk, who poured at least $277 million of his own money into Trump's re-election campaign and has been at his side as a key adviser since the election.

by Sebastien Ash

A knife attacker in Germany killed a two-year-old child and a man and seriously wounded two other people on Wednesday, said police, who arrested an Afghan suspect at the scene.

President Donald Trump campaigned on the idea of ending the war against Ukraine quickly once entering office by using his relationship with President Vladimir Putin.

On Wednesday, Trump sang the praises of Russia on Truth Social saying, "Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process."

If January 6th defendant Daniel Ball believed his legal woes were over after his case got dismissed in the wake of President Donald Trump's mass pardon, he would have been mistaken.

Politico's Kyle Cheney reports on BlueSky that Ball was arrested on Wednesday for pending federal gun charges, which Cheney notes is "the first arrest initiated by the Trump-led Washington Field Office."

While Senate Democrats are being questioned about how they intend to fight back against the new Donald Trump administration, state leaders are stepping up.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong told MSNBC on Wednesday that he refuses to be intimidated by unconstitutional executive orders and threats from the Justice Department.

British Defense Secretary John Healey told parliament Wednesday the Royal Navy was tracking a "Russian spy ship" that passed through UK waters, warning Russia's President Vladimir Putin: "We know what you're doing".

Healey said the Yantar vessel was being "used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure".