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'Dump it on a holiday': Republican calls out Trump for hiding Epstein files on Xmas week

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL) called out the Trump administration for waiting until the week of the Christmas holiday to release files from the Jeffrey Epstein case — even though the documents were required to be shared with the public earlier.

"So you guys may be wondering why it is that they are releasing some of the Epstein files today, you know, Christmas Eve, and tomorrow, Christmas Eve. And I'll tell you a very simple reason, because this is like day one in politics stuff that you learn," Kinzinger explained on Tuesday. "When you want to bury bad news, when you don't want it to get much coverage or when you want it to get like as little coverage as possible, you dump it on a holiday."

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Religious scholar explains how Christian nationalists use and abuse the Bible

Like Islam, Christianity is incredibly diverse, ranging from severe fundamentalists to people who are devout but have a more nuanced and complex view of their faith.

President Donald Trump is not a Christian fundamentalist; he was raised Presbyterian in Queens and comes from a Mainline Protestant background. But some of his most ardent supporters in the MAGA movement are white evangelical fundamentalists and far-right Christian nationalists, who embrace a much more severe form of Christianity than the Presbyterian churches Trump's mother, a Scottish immigrant, attended in Queens and Scotland.

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Experts warn Supreme Court tried to rein Trump in but accidentally gave him his next move

The Supreme Court's decision blocking President Trump from deploying the National Guard into American cities has alarmed legal experts who fear the ruling may inadvertently create a pathway for the administration to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Trump and his aides have repeatedly suggested they would invoke the rarely used law, which would be politically unpopular but give him broad authority to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a footnote that the court's opinion "could cause the president to use the U.S. military more than the National Guard," reported CNN.

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'It won't stop him': Lara Trump shames Supreme Court ban on deploying troops to Chicago

Lara Trump decried the Supreme Court's decision preventing her father-in-law from militarizing the streets of Chicago.

"I think it's such a shame, obviously," Trump told Fox News in a Christmas Eve interview. "You hate to see a ruling like this because our ICE officers around the country have seen an increase of a thousand percent in assaults on them."

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'You dope!' DOJ insults critic's intelligence in snippy retort to Epstein question

The official social media account for the Department of Justice insulted a critic's intelligence in a Christmas Eve post.

The DOJ initially responded Tuesday afternoon to the widely followed "Pop Base" account on X to rebut its post claiming "a newly released Epstein document includes a letter that Jeffrey wrote to fellow sex offender Larry Nassar, alleging that Donald Trump 'shares [their] love of young nubile girls.'"

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'Hegseth stole my video!' Defense Secretary accused of lifting Xmas video from journalist

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was accused of stealing a video of troops wearing Santa hats from a freelance reporter who covers the alt-right and focuses on exposing Nazis.

On Christmas Eve, Hegseth shared a video of National Guard troops dressed in Santa garb. The video did not include any attribution.

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$6 million bounties on the table for securing a Trump pardon: report

Donald Trump's significant increase in presidential pardons during his second term has attracted intense lobbying efforts, with millions of dollars being offered to secure clemency for wealthy convicted clients.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump's pardon activity stands in stark contrast to his first term. Previously, he issued only one early pardon before granting approximately 140 acts of clemency in his final days in office. Less than one year into his second term, Trump has already issued pardons to over 1,500 individuals on his first day and subsequently pardoned 87 additional people and corporations.

The explosion in pardon activity has created what the Journal describes as a "pardon-shopping industry," with lobbyists charging standard rates of $1 million for their services. The report notes that pardon-seekers have offered lobbyists success fees as high as $6 million upon securing a pardon.

A lobbying firm operated by former Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller and former Trump Organization executive George Sorial received $1 million in the first quarter to lobby for a developer convicted of bribing former Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars.

Attorneys representing imprisoned hip-hop executive Sean "Diddy" Combs have reportedly sought out individuals close to Trump to request presidential intervention.

One pardon has raised concerns among Trump advisers about potential legal consequences. The pardon of Changpeng Zhao, founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, drew scrutiny after lobbyists were paid approximately $800,000 before the pardon was granted.

Trump advisers reportedly worry that the Zhao pardon will become a focal point for Democratic investigations should they regain control of the House or Senate in the coming year.

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'It was a miscalculation': GOP strategist admits Trump error is worsening Epstein scandal

The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has hovered like a dark cloud over the first year of Donald Trump's second presidency, and a Republican strategist released a forecast on where the political fallout would land.

The president's longtime association with the late sex offender has periodically exploded into the foreground after backtracking on campaign promises to release investigative files about Epstein's trafficking network, and GOP strategist Malik Abdul told "CNN News Central" that Trump was largely to blame for the scandal's durability.

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White House's Susie Wiles was blindsided by Trump pardon of cocaine kingpin: report

Donald Trump’s aggressive use of his presidential pardon powers has reached such a fevered pitch that some White House insiders are getting nervous about blowback that they are not prepared to push back on.

According to a deep dive from the Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Ballhaus, Josh Dawsey and C. Ryan Barber on the almost weekly presidential announcements of commutations and pardons flying out of the Oval Office, some of the high-profile cases were not vetted and flew under the radar of even some White House insiders.

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'Was I being lied to for my vote?' GOP strategist spots crisis of faith among Trump's base

A Republican strategist warned that President Donald Trump's seeming impunity did not carry over into a scandal that's threatening to consume his presidency.

The U.S. Supreme Court's immunity ruling before he won re-election emboldened Trump, GOP strategist Maura Gillespie told "CNN This Morning," and she said that had set the tone from the start of his second term.

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'Are pouty lips really so bad?' WSJ columnist defends Karoline Leavitt's 'MAGA beauty'

Ridicule of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s change in appearance since she joined Donald Trump’s administration led a Wall Street Journal columnist to rush to her defense by arguing that, while there are some obvious enhancements at work, there is nothing wrong with it.

On the day before Christmas, columnist Louise Perry argued that the furor of a photo of Leavitt in Vanity Fair last week, where injection marks could be plainly seen around her inflated lips, were hypocritical because women on the left have their own aesthetic that is less obvious, but just as calculated.

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'Nasty intraparty fight' looming for Republicans when they return to DC: report

Upon returning from their holiday break, Republican House members will confront significant legislative challenges after a disappointing final session that produced minimal accomplishments and growing discontent with embattled Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

According to Politico reporters Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy, and Benjamin Guggenheim, the affordability crisis and healthcare cost concerns will persist beyond the holiday period. GOP lawmakers face an imminent "nasty intraparty fight" as they attempt to chart a course forward.

Healthcare costs stand at the center of this conflict. With Affordable Care Act subsidies expiring and no comprehensive plan in place to assist struggling Americans, Republicans remain deeply divided on their next steps.

Politico reports, "GOP factions have been divided for months about the prospect of a second reconciliation bill. Some see it as the party's last, best chance to put wins on the board before Election Day, while others believe it is a recipe for failure given the small Republican majorities in the House and Senate and major internal divides over health policy."

Speaker Johnson supports pursuing another reconciliation bill, though he may face opposition from the chairs of the powerful House and Senate Budget Committees, who question the value of additional stopgap measures.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) expressed skepticism about the proposal's viability. "I don't see a path of a second reconciliation ever passing," he told Politico.

One proposal involves redirecting tariff revenue collected by the Treasury Department to voters for healthcare expenses. However, this approach faces criticism and ignores the possibility that the Supreme Court could force the Trump administration to return tariff proceeds to their original sources.

Additional obstacles include concerns that many GOP health initiatives may not comply with strict fiscal rules governing reconciliation procedures. Some leadership members also oppose using tariff revenue for anything beyond deficit reduction.

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'Livid' Trump living in 'alternate reality' after GOP 'forced his hand' on Epstein: column

President Donald Trump's reaction to the release of the Epstein files shows that he is living in an "alternate reality," Chris Brennan wrote for USA Today.

Nothing better exemplifies this, wrote Brennan, than when Trump responded to the controversy over the files by saying "I thought that was finished" and "There's tremendous backlash. A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein."

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