SmartNews

'Whew!' MSNBC's Jen Psaki in awe as Trump picks wilt under pressure from fiery Dems

MSNBC's Jen Psaki was floored watching Donald Trump allies face aggressive lines of questioning at the hands of Democrats, telling viewers Tuesday night that Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) attack was so intense, Psaki herself felt like she'd failed the class from the professor.

Psaki opened her show, "The Briefing," on Tuesday night to take stock of how Trump's officials are faring in televised hearings, and particularly homed in on their alignment on pleading ignorance.

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CNN's Jake Tapper pressed on 'withering criticism' by his own network

CNN's Jake Tapper was confronted by fellow network anchor Erin Burnett during a joint interview with Axios' Alex Thompson on their new book detailing explosive allegations about Joe Biden's administration's attempt to conceal his cognitive decline — and specifically, the uproar it has caused.

"So it's an incredibly reported book you have, and I don't know if you expected this. Maybe you did a little bit, but maybe not to the extreme that it has occurred," said Burnett. "You have come under withering criticism ... so President Biden's granddaughter, Naomi, she kind of — I think this summarizes a bit. She says the book 'relies on unnamed anonymous sources pushing a self-serving, false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare ... there are real stories to be told. One day they will be, I suspect history will reward the truth.'"

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'Lawfare plain and simple': Trump's DOJ launches new criminal probe into old foe

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice has launched a new criminal investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as the Democrat and longtime Trump critic mounts a mayoral bid for New York City, according to a new report in The New York Times.

The probe kicked off about a month ago as Republicans accused Cuomo of lying to lawmakers in Congress about his decisions as governor during the coronavirus pandemic, two people familiar with the matter told the Times. The investigation looks into the Cuomo administration's order forcing nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients from hospitals. The administration initially claimed the directive was in alignment with federal guidance at the time. It was later blamed for having placed vulnerable older adults at even greater risk.

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RFK yells at stunned senator during combative hearing: 'Mr. Secretary, seriously?'

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got heated during a Senate grilling Tuesday, shouting at lawmakers at one point, "What have you done about the epidemic of chronic disease?"

Kennedy was in front of Congress to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee about President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 budget for his department. The hearing focused on the administration’s plan to slash HHS's discretionary funding by 26%, which would significantly affect the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other public health programs.

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Judge fires warning shot at cagey Trump officials: 'Seems like it may be contempt'

Trump administration officials got a dressing down from a federal judge on Tuesday over a planeload of migrants apparently being shipped to South Sudan, a country none of them are from, in possible violation of existing court orders, reported The New York Times.

This plane, and the legal complaint filed that mentioned it, was first flagged earlier in the day by American Immigration Council expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, who noted that prior court rulings had said migrants must have greater notice and options to object when being sent to a country they have no ties to.

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RFK gets brutal fact-check from CNN's Sanjay Gupta: 'Simple answer is no'

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is simply not telling the truth about the Trump administration's commitment to supporting lead poisoning efforts, Dr. Sanjay Gupta told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday.

"During the Senate hearing today, [Kennedy] was pressed on whether the lead program, looking into lead contamination and the like at the [Centers for Disease Control], was being funded or not," said Tapper," playing the clip of Kennedy's response.

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'Partisan hack': Top House Dem tears into Trump DOJ prosecutor

The top Democrat in the House took a swipe at Alina Habba, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, after she announced plans to charge a sitting member of Congress with assault.

Habba has held high-profile roles but had no prior prosecutorial experience and limited federal court experience prior to her appointment as interim U.S. attorney in March. On Monday, she sparked fierce backlash for charging Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) with assault during a congressional visit to a federal immigration detention center in Newark.

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Elon Musk insists he's not a 'Nazi' just 'because of some random hand gesture at a rally'

Billionaire Elon Musk pushed back on accusations that he was a Nazi sympathizer because of a hand gesture he made during one of President Donald Trump's rallies.

In a Tuesday interview with CNBC, Musk accused the mainstream media of propaganda.

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'Unsettling': Analyst's jaw drops as Hegseth delivers eye-popping line with straight face

MSNBC editor Steve Benen couldn't believe the words that came out of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's mouth Tuesday regarding his handling of classified information.

Hegseth spent part of the morning on Fox News defending his use of the unsecured Signal chat app to disseminate the timing and coordinates of a Houthi airstrike in Yemen.

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'Doctors brace for attacks' after Trump’s pardon spree of dozens of right-wingers

“Doctors are bracing to be attacked” after President Donald Trump pardoned nearly two dozen activists convicted of targeting specific providers in recent years, according to a new Mother Jones report.

A Google review claiming “I have a bomb waiting to go off” sent panic through a Florida clinic in November 2023. It’s one of the many threats clinics regularly face.

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'Ouch!' Musk's fall from 'Iron Man' to 'Zoolander' mocked on MSNBC

The MSNBC panel on "Deadline: White House" shared a chuckle while mocking Elon Musk after the tech billionaire revealed in an interview Tuesday he plans to spend a lot less on politics going forward.

Speaking to the Qatar Economic Forum, Musk admitted, "I think I've done enough."

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'Not everything is a conspiracy theory!' Doctor smacks down CNN host

Medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner pushed back on CNN's Pamela Brown as she voiced skepticism that former President Joe Biden only learned about his prostate cancer diagnosis recently, as he likely had it for years, or that the medical guidelines did not indicate more rigorous testing earlier.

"He was president of the United States," said Brown. "And I understand that Dr. Conley was following the guidelines, but I mean, do you follow — do you just stick to the book on the guidelines when you're dealing with someone who's running the country, who was then running for re-election?"

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Ex-GOP officials sound off on Trump's 'permanent damage': 'Nobody will trust the US again'

Conservative former officials are warning that President Donald Trump has permanently disfigured America.

New York Times weekly columnist Thomas B. Edsall penned a piece on Tuesday in which he spoke with former GOP-appointed members of the judiciary and Homeland Security who are worried about Trump’s “destructive” and “permanent” moves.

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