Former President Joe Biden was recently observed to have a bandage on his forehead covering a gash, reported The Daily Beast — and a spokesperson has confirmed it was from surgery to remove skin cancer.
"Biden, 82, received Mohs surgery, a spokesperson told the Daily Beast, a procedure in which thin layers of skin are cut away until no signs of cancer remain," reported Erkki Foster. This development "marks the newest health challenge for Biden, who is currently battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer."
That prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones and was announced earlier this year, sparked a flurry of renewed speculation about the former president's health while in office, as experts suggested he likely had the cancer for years prior for it to be in such an advanced state — although prostate cancer in early stages often has no or mild symptoms, leaving it to go unnoticed.
“Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support,” Biden wrote when the diagnosis was announced.
The former president initially sought re-election, but dropped out of the race after key party officials and a large chunk of the Democratic electorate lost confidence in his fitness for office following longstanding concerns about his age.
For much of his later career, Biden put intense focus on cancer research as a government priority, as he lost his elder son, Beau, to brain cancer, likely as a result of his exposure to toxic "burn pits" while on military deployment.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) unravelled as CNN's Manu Raju asked her about Donald Trump during an interview Friday, hitting out at the host for focusing on "the past" and trying to "trap" her with his questions.
Raju began asking about why President Donald Trump hadn't endorsed her in her run for governor — a contest many Republicans are nervous about because they consider her "all but hopeless."
"This is one of the biggest races in the country. We're two months from the campaign," Raju said, suggesting puzzlement at Trump's silence before Sears interrupted.
"Oh, here we go! You want to talk about the past, and nobody wants to talk about the past," Sears complained, as Raju tried to move the subject along. But Sears wasn't having it and continued to talk over him.
"Do you want to talk about my opponent supporting Biden 100% of the time? Do you want to talk about the past, where she is part of the Clinton machine? Do you want to talk about the past, where the rogue nations of the world understood that Joe Biden was not altogether there, and they were with him and saw his action and saw he was delayed? Do you want to talk about where my opponent has said she was always in the room with Joe Biden, and so she knew that he was in cognitive decline and yet she did nothing?
Raju attempted to interrupt, saying, "Hold on, hold on. Let me just get in because we have actually tried to talk to [Democratic opponent] Abigail Spanberger —"
"You're trying to trap me and that's not why I'm here!" Sears exclaimed.
"No one's trying to trap you!" Raju protested.
"Yes, you are! And I'm from a third-world country where I've seen this happen. I did not think that here in America we would be talking like this. The people want to talk about the issues."
"And I want to ask about the issues right now!" Raju managed to say.
A prominent White House reporter revealed what he called the "most striking" detail to come out of Hunter Biden's meltdown Monday at the media and Democrats.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper brought Axios' Alex Thompson, who co-wrote a damning book about President Joe Biden and an alleged cover-up over his mental fitness, onto his show, "The Lead," on Monday to discuss Hunter Biden's lash out.
"Hunter made headlines of his own in a more than three-hour-long interview on a podcast, touching on a number of issues, including the 2024 campaign. He vehemently defended his father while revealing a new detail about the debate," said Tapper.
In the clip, Hunter Biden said he knows "exactly what happened" in the disastrous debate between Joe Biden and then-candidate Donald Trump, in which a frail Joe Biden fumbled through answers and sent panicked Democrats into a frenzy.
"He flew around the world basically and the mileage, he could have flown around the world three times. He's 81 years old. He's tired as s---. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage, and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights," said Hunter Biden.
Tapper asked co-author Thompson what he made of the new detail about the Ambien being a part of the performance.
"Well, the fact that we didn’t know it beforehand, even though the doctor had been public about trying to say what Joe Biden was on, what he was taking, the fact that we did not know that the President of the United States was on Ambien, I would also imagine it is very difficult to do the proverbial '3 a.m. phone call' crisis when you are on Ambien in the middle of the night. I think it’s really striking," said Thompson.
Thompson acknowledged that while the public hasn't heard from a doctor that Joe Biden was on the sleeping medication, the fact that his son said Joe Biden was taking the drug in the weeks before the debate "is a telling new detail about the president’s abilities at the time."
Tapper later played a clip of Hunter Biden melting down at Democratic strategists James Varville and David Axelrod, in which Hunter Biden unleashed a profanity-laden rant aimed at the two.
"James Carville, who hasn’t run a race in 40 f---ing years. And David Axelrod, who had one success in his political life and that was Barack Obama. And that was because of Barack Obama, not because of f---ing David Axelrod. And David Plouffe, and all of these guys — and the Pod Save America guys — who were junior f---ing speechwriters on Barack Obama’s Senate staff, who have been dining out on the relationship with him for years, making millions of dollars."
He then tore into what he called the "Anita Dunns of the world, who’s made $40, $50 million off the Democratic Party. They’re all going to insert their judgment over a man who has figured out, unlike anybody else, how to get elected to the United States Senate over seven times?"
Thompson flagged the eyebrow-raising statement.
"The most striking thing is that he attacked Anita Dunn, who, by the way, helped steer his father to the Democratic nomination in 2020. She was also in the White House for the majority of those four years, until, basically, she was driven out because of this rift with Hunter Biden. She is also set to be interviewed by the House Oversight Committee in the coming weeks."
Democratic strategist Karen Finney noted Dunn didn't want Joe Biden to drop out, either.
"100%. And — I write it in our book. It is striking: Hunter is clearly establishing himself as the carrier of the family’s grievances. And he is also, you know, completely obliterating the fiction from last summer that Joe Biden was doing sort of the honorable thing. Joe Biden was driven out of this race by the elites of the Democratic Party. And Joe Biden — his entire family — deeply resent it.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) praised Donald Trump for his "transparency" after the White House disclosed the president has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that causes blood to pool in the veins.
"I think he's been the most transparent president we've ever had," Fine said Thursday on CNN. "You talked about the health conditions -- we had to have Joe Biden's doctor take the Fifth Amendment last week over their lack of transparency."
"No, I think the president is, you know, a man in his 70s. He's going to have the kinds of conditions that people of that age do. But what I appreciate is the fact that, again, they are being transparent about them."
Fine continued, "I mean, Joe Biden tried to tell us for years there was nothing wrong with his brain when it was obvious there was something to the point that his doctor had to take the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination of a crime last week. He's basically admitting they committed crimes and covering up Joe Biden's health conditions. So, I think we should all celebrate the fact that Donald Trump is willing to tell us what's going on."
Keilar interjected, "I do just want to note that this disclosure came after his ankles were visibly swollen, and we could see makeup on his hand covering up a bruise, which they say is because of an aspirin regimen and a lot of hand shaking," Keilar said.
Donald Trump's new claim about Jeffrey Epstein's criminal files has observers wondering if the president is indeed somehow connected to the documents.
Trump unloaded on his own fans on Saturday, begging them to leave his attorney general alone and stop blaming her for a botched release of the Epstein records. MAGA threw a fit because the information didn't back up right-wing conspiracy theories, and Trump blamed Obama and Biden for whatever may be in them.
"They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein," the president wrote. "For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 'Intelligence' Agents, 'THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,' and more?"
The stunned reactions from observers came in quickly.
"Trump just stooped for Epstein again, claiming the Epstein Files are akin to the 'FAKE Hillary Clinton/Steel Dossier'. Then he says the Epstein documents are 'radical-left inspired,' and that 'nobody cares about' Jeffrey Epstein," he said. He then asked, "MAGA are you seriously ok with this crap?"
"So Trump is trying to now claim it was a CIA created doc which means, I don’t know, maybe he is in it."
Kinzinger also said in a separate post, "Oh he’s scareeeeeddddd."
Another liberal commentator, Brian Tyler Cohen, agreed with Kinzinger's initial assessment.
"The irony is that I was actually VERY skeptical about the files or the existence of a client list. After reading this, I'm not skeptical at all," he said on Saturday.
GOP strategist Mike Madrid wrote on X, "PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!"
Douglass Mackey, who went by the online persona of "Ricky Vaughn," wrote in all caps on X Wednesday, "The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out my conviction for lack of evidence. The case has ben remanded to the district court with orders to immediately dismiss."
Mackey was convicted of election interference after tweeting in Nov. 2016 about "limiting black turnout," then posting an image "that featured an African American woman standing in front of an 'African Americans for Hillary' sign," according to the DOJ indictment. "The image included the following text: 'Avoid the Line. Vote from Home. Text 'Hillary' to 59925. Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.'"
A second image Mackey tweeted shortly thereafter depicted "a woman seated at a conference room typing a message on her cell phone. This deceptive image was written in Spanish and mimicked a font used by the Clinton campaign in authentic ads. The image also included a copy of the Clinton campaign’s logo and the 'ImWithHer' hashtag," according to the DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Mackey's prison sentence was suspended in 2023 pending appeal.
In its decision, the appeals court wrote, "the mere fact that Mackey posted the memes, even assuming that he did so with the intent to injure other citizens in the exercise of their right to vote, is not enough, standing alone, to prove a violation of Section 241. The government was obligated to show that Mackey knowingly entered into an agreement with other people to pursue that objective."
CNN's Brianna Keilar pushed back hard Tuesday on a former Trump official's claim that President Donald Trump had to make a new "policy call" by allowing some undocumented migrants a "temporary pass" to remain in the United States to fill certain jobs.
Keilar asked Chad Wolf, Acting Homeland Security secretary during the first Trump administration, "Is that just an admission that the American economy relies on labor from undocumented immigrants, and that they need work visas even if they're here illegally? Even if you are putting them in the same category as criminals who are here illegally?"
Wolf said the president had to weigh "all these different considerations" to keep the workforce at capacity.
"But that's not new, right, Mr. Wolf? Has he been failed by his advisors if he's only learning now what policymakers, including Republicans, have known for decades — that undocumented immigrants are essential to the U.S. economy?"
Wolf answered, "If you look at four years of the Biden administration, you'll see absolutely no one removed, right? Which is why we're in the crisis that we're in today."
"That's not true and you know that," Keilar interjected. "You're saying no one was removed in four years?"
"Excuse me? I really don't think you understand what you're talking about here at all," Wolf snapped.
"You're saying no one was removed in four years, period," Keilar asked again. "Just be clear. Explain what you're saying — no one was removed under the Biden administration from the United States who was undocumented?"
"The vast majority of removals from the Biden administration happened at the border. They were removing almost no one from the interior of the country," Wolf said, adding that's the main reason the American people voted for a second Trump administration.
Wolf continued, "They're not going to exempt all individuals from the law, right? So, if you say we're only going to remove criminal aliens and that's it, we're going to stop. Well, then, you invite a whole class of individuals to come into the country and not to offend and say, well, you're not going to be removed."
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was forced to admit Friday on "The Benny Show" that he had little evidence to support a right-wing theory that the Chinese government conspired to interfere in the 2020 election — and then blamed Joe Biden for a cover-up.
To introduce the topic, MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson said Congress had "credible whistleblowers" showing the Chinese government was trying to "put fake IDs into the system here, in this country in order to rig the mail-in balloting process, which makes a ton of sense to us knowing how loose those systems and securities were."
He continued, "The border patrol were able to nab 20,000 fake ballots that were printed for Chinese nationals trying to smuggle across our border...and now we have Chinese students voting illegally in the 2024 election — they're being charged. So, this really does stand to reason — can you explain, like, the evidence that you have right now for this scheme?"
"Well, in terms of the evidence I have, it's pretty minimal," Ron Johnson admitted. He then pivoted to attack Biden.
"You've had four years of the Biden administration being able to cover this stuff up. If they found evidence themselves they probably destroyed it," Ron Johnson claimed. "You got people not talking, getting the story straight. So, it's always difficult to prove criminal activity beyond a reasonable doubt because criminals cover up their activity.
"So, this is not easy to do. What you can do is, you can find threads and you gotta pull on those threads to see if there's more documentation, more evidence. But, again, just don't expect some bombshell revelation that provides you all the information, all the receipts, all the evidence you need to convict people. That's not how these investigations work."
Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced it filed a criminal complaint charging one University of Michigan student, Haoxiang Gao, who was "a citizen and national of the People’s Republic of China, with false claims to register or vote and voting by aliens."
The news release also took a swipe at Biden.
Gao surrendered his passport, the release said, "but on January 19, 2025—the day before the new administration took office in Washington—Gao jumped bond and fled the country on a flight bound for Shanghai, China."
MAGA adherents spent Juneteenth on social media protesting the very existence of the federal holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, while President Donald Trump went about his business like it was any other day.
The conservative Washington Examiner posted to Truth Social, "White House lists no Juneteenth celebration plans for Trump," linking to an article that read, "Despite Juneteenth’s status as a federal holiday, President Trump has a full schedule at the White House on Thursday in sharp contrast with Joseph R. Biden, who gave staffers the day off and didn’t hold public events."
President Biden declared the date, June 19th, a federal holiday in 2021 after a bill unanimously passed the Senate and received "broad bipartisan support" in the House. It commemorates the day at the end of the Civil War in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were told that slavery had been abolished and they were free.
The unfortunately named MAGA account of Catturd told its 3.7 million followers on X that "nobody ever heard of" the holiday "until five years ago," while right-wing PJ Media posted, "Juneteenth: Dems’ Holiday to Claim They Weren’t the Racists," with a link to an article of the same name.
Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, who recently told a forum of young women that college was a "scam" but a good place to find a husband, posted to X, "Juneteenth should not be a federal holiday." Podcaster and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly reposted his sentiment.
In a lengthier post, Kirk explained that "the official name of this holiday, as declared in the 54-word-bill Congress passed to create this holiday in 2021, is 'Juneteenth National Independence Day.'
He continued, "The real reason it's called that is because our real Independence Day is just two weeks later. The goal of the Juneteenth holiday is to displace the unifying importance of the 4th of July and to replace America's 'racist' founding with a new one that places DEI and left-wing race politics at the center of our national myth."
The Federalist echoed Kirk's assertion, linking to an article titled "Park Service Wrongly Celebrates Juneteenth As ‘National Independence Day.'" The article went on to say, "The rhetoric around Juneteenth celebrations is clearly intended to compete with and marginalize the Fourth of July."
On the left, podcast host Tara Dublin wrote, "Any Republicans tweeting about #Juneteenth need to STFU when they’re all fine with hanging the Confederate flag & restoring the names of Confederate Generals for military bases while trying to whitewash American history."
@MeachamDr wrote, "The fact that Trump can’t even celebrate slavery ending is very on brand for MAGA."
Politics editor Andrew Perez obtained an email from Hegseth's office that "requested 'a passive approach to Juneteenth messaging' for the holiday on Thursday commemorating the end of slavery."
The email was sent by "the Pentagon’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs, which said it wasn’t planning to publish Juneteenth-related content online," Perez wrote.
The date June 19th was declared a federal holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021 after a bill unanimously passed the Senate and received "broad bipartisan support" in the House. It commemorates the day at the end of the Civil War in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas were told that slavery had been abolished throughout the United States.
Dwayne E. Campbell with the African American Veterans Liaison, explained the significance of Juneteenth for Black veterans like himself in an article for VA News, "an official website of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs."
"Juneteenth is not just a day of celebration—it’s a day to remember the price of freedom and the ongoing work needed to preserve it," Campbell wrote. "For Black Veterans, it is a moment to reflect on the sacrifices of those who paved the way, recognizing that military service has always been at the tip of the spear."
He added that "Black Veterans, past and present" stand as a "testament to the resilience of a people who fought for their country even when their country did not fully fight for them."
When Rolling Stone asked the Pentagon for comment on Juneteenth, the outlet was told that the DOD “may engage in the following activities, subject to applicable department guidance: holiday celebrations that build camaraderie and esprit de corps; outreach events (e.g., recruiting engagements with all-male, all-female, or minority-serving academic institutions) where doing so directly supports DoD’s mission; and recognition of historical events and notable figures where such recognition informs strategic thinking, reinforces our unity, and promotes meritocracy and accountability.”
Since taking office, President Trumphas vowed to replace diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives with "merit-based" programs.
In a Senate hearing Wednesday, Hegseth declared, “DEI is dead. We replaced it with a colorblind, gender-neutral, merit-based approach, and the force is responding incredibly.”
As Trump began to rehash his usual talking points, claiming former President Joe Biden allowed "murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails," into the United States, the Canadian leader — and host of the meeting which is being held in Alberta — stepped in.
"If you don't mind, just — I'm going to exercise my role, if you will, as G7 chair, since we have a few more minutes with the president and his team, and then we actually have to start the meeting to address some of these big issues," Carney said.
As the press yelled questions, and Trump appeared willing to talk more, the event was hurriedly ended.
Holmes noted the significance of Carney's action.
"I do just want to point out one thing that we all just took away from that, was that the prime minister learned his lesson from the last time he had this kind of interaction with Donald Trump, where it went completely off the rails," she said, referring to Trump's Oval Office meeting with Carney in May.
"The longer that Donald Trump took questions, the more aggressive it got, the more tense that Carney got in that meeting in the Oval Office. Here, he set the boundaries. He set the timeline. And, you saw the president there. He would have continued to take questions. Carney stepping in to say, 'We're moving forward now. We need to finish our conversations, the behind-the-scenes.'"
Holmes said that normally, when the U.S. president meets with a head of state, they "have these pleasantries, exchange a couple questions, and then it's over."
Donald Trump, however, "has been opening up these meetings to the public with the cameras," she continued. "And you can tell, Carney, here wanted to shut that off."
A Wisconsin farmer is suing the Trump administration's Department of Agriculture over its continued use of diversity, equity and inclusion programs that he says are keeping white, male farmers from receiving loan forgiveness.
The AP quoted Faust saying in a statement, “The USDA should honor the President’s promise to the American people to end racial discrimination in the federal government. After being ignored by a federal agency that’s meant to support agriculture, I hope my lawsuit brings answers, accountability, and results from USDA.”
Faust's lawsuit alleged that the current USDA continues to implement Biden-era DEI programs subjecting "2 million white male American farmers...to discriminatory race-based policies" by putting "white men at a disadvantage" and violating "the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment by discriminating based on race and sex."
As an example, the lawsuit alleged that Faust and other white, male farmers are charged a $100 "administration fee" to participate in one program that exempts women and minority farmers from paying the same fee.
In another example, Faust "participates in a USDA program that guarantees 90% of the value of loans to white farmers, but 95% to women and racial minorities," according to the report.
Both instances put Faust at a disadvantage, the lawsuit alleged.
The AP reported that Faust and several other farmers "successfully sued the Biden administration in 2021 for race discrimination in the USDA’s Farmer Loan Forgiveness Plan."
A Trump administration spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to the report.
A Maryland judge has stopped President Donald Trump's firings of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Bloomberg News reporter Zoe Tillman said on X.
The CPSC is independent of the U.S. government, its website explains. It endeavors to "save lives and keep families safe by reducing the unreasonable risk of injuries associated with consumer products and fulfilling its vision to be the recognized global leader in consumer product safety," the page continues.
Richard Trumka Jr. told NPR in May, "I think U.S. consumers should be a little bit worried right now, because we did not get stronger and we did not get safer today overall."
In a statement following the firing, 21 members of the U.S. Senate and 27 members of the U.S. House issued a letter warning that it appeared the Trump administration was attempting to dismantle the entire agency.
“Since its inception, the CPSC has played a vital role safeguarding American families, and in particular infants, children, and older Americans. Thanks to the CPSC’s critical work, residential fires and fire-related deaths have decreased by over 40 percent. Crib deaths and child poisonings have dropped by 80 percent. The Commission’s work continues today, identifying emerging threats and protecting Americans from dangerous and banned imported products,” the members wrote.
