SmartNews

Liberal media watchdog weighs shutting down as it ‘scrambles’ to fend off MAGA assault

The nonprofit media watchdog group Media Matters is reportedly considering shutting down, the New York Times reported Friday, as the nonprofit scrambles to fend off “legal assaults” from allies of President Donald Trump.

“The group has slashed the size of its staff and scrambled to raise more cash from skittish donors, according to documents and interviews with 11 people familiar with the organization’s fight to survive,” reads a report published in the New York Times on Friday.

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'Extremely disappointing': Little Leaguers denied visas into US due to Trump travel ban

President Donald Trump's administration has denied a Venezuelan Little League team from coming into the United States to compete in the Senior League World Series.

Little League International confirmed to Newsweek on Friday that the Cacique Mara team, from Maracaibo, Venezuela, will not be given visas to compete after winning the Latin American championship in Mexico.

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DOJ's new move raises 'huge red flags' — and ‘could blow up in their face’: Legal expert

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met for a second day with Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and a long-time prosecutor and former general counsel at the FBI is warning it could all "blow up in their face."

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace noted on her Friday show that she can't understand why Blanche would ignore the career prosecutors who have been steeped in the case for years and are aware of the details.

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'Don't talk about Trump': Press gets presidential scolding on bombshell Epstein reporting

President Donald Trump got short with reporters while arriving in Scotland, when he was questioned about the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein files controversy, and demanded they talk about anything else.

"Mr. President, were you briefed on your name appearing in the files ever?" asked one reporter.

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'Can't help himself': Trump mocked by economist after botched photo-op

Economist and public policy professor Justin Wolfers explained that President Donald Trump had one job when he toured the Federal Reserve. And he bungled it.

Speaking to MSNBC on Friday, the University of Michigan professor confessed, "One of the reasons I went to Harvard to study for a Ph.D is so I could answer the question, how many buildings does the Federal Reserve have? And yes, there are three of them."

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‘They only know greed’: Ex-CBS anchor torches network for caving to Trump

Former CBS News anchor Connie Chung slammed a controversial merger between Paramount, CBS News’ parent company, and Skydance on Friday as an attack on journalism, while also throwing shots at executives who helped facilitate the merger.

“I fear the end of CBS as I knew it,” Chung said, speaking to CNN’s Brianna Keilar.

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Top official admits quiet part out loud on Trump's South African refugee program

A top State Department official has revealed that a key program to help people from South Africa is meant for white people.

Reuters confirmed Friday that President Donald Trump's February executive order to help "Afrikaners" in South Africa experiencing "racial discrimination" is not available for people of color. The group is primarily made up of descendants of Dutch colonizers.

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‘Prolific Mini-Trump’ leaves agency insiders ‘unsettled and embarrassed'

A lesser-known member of the Trump administration has been driving the campaign to get President Donald Trump to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, The New York Times reported — and it's gotten to the point that insiders are fed up with it.

Specifically, according to the report, Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has championed the effort both on social media and behind the scenes, even writing the draft letter for Trump to use to fire Powell earlier this month, before he reversed course, reportedly persuaded against doing so by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

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'Cowardly': Kristi Noem accused of handing 'bad actors' a 'roadmap to exploit'

Pressing the Trump administration to explain its rationale for allowing federal agents to don masks and drive unmarked vehicles when carrying out immigration raids and arrests, two Democratic members of Congress on Friday pointed to numerous times in recent months when authorities working under President Donald Trump have eroded "public trust and fundamental constitutional rights" by concealing their identities.

"In Los Angeles, agents were photographed in June 2025 wearing face covers during residential raids," wrote Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Summer Lee (D-PA) in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. "In Chicago, witnesses reported masked agents detaining individuals without identification. Similarly, in New York City, then-mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by masked federal agents."

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Judge’s under-the-radar move is a shot at Trump nominee: legal expert

Judge James Boasberg indicated this week he may move forward with disciplinary proceedings for the Justice Department over a previous matter, a move flagged for its implications by a legal expert.

Boasberg was the judge who demanded that the Department of Homeland Security stop the deportation plans of Venezuelan migrants to CECOT prison. If they were in the air, the judge demanded they be turned around. If they landed, the judge said, the 140 men could not leave the plane and would have to be returned.

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'Lying scumbags!' Bannon explodes at PBS reporter when pressed on Trump threats

Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon exploded at PBS reporter Mike Wiser during a Frontline interview, first recorded in April and published this week, when confronted over Trump's constant threats and insults against federal judges and asked whether this was "the type of thing a president should say."

The interview was released just as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan spoke out on the issue during a gathering of judges in California.

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‘Disgusting!’ Conservatives torch abortion ban author accused of secretly paying for them

Texas conservatives are piling on a Republican state lawmaker who, despite carrying a bill that implemented a near-total abortion ban in the state, is now alleged to have “funded several abortions for his own personal gain.”

“These elected officials who proclaim faith & family values, but then break their most sacred covenants with God & their families are disgusting,” said former Texas state senator Konni Burton Friday in a social media post on X. “Their families deserve better and so does the (Republican) party.”

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Republican exposes GOP plot with 'sole purpose' to thwart Trump power play

Tea party Republican Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted on X that he believed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) would call the House and Senate into session to dodge recess appointments.

President Donald Trump can appoint individuals who cannot be confirmed by the Senate using the recess appointment process. The Constitution gives the president the ability to temporarily appoint someone to an office while the Senate is not in session.

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