WASHINGTON - Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson appears on MSNBC’s Morning Joe discussing the massive security efforts for the inauguration in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19, 2017. The show features interviews with top newsmakers and politicians and in-depth analysis of the day's biggest stories. Official DHS photo by Jetta Disco.
NBC News president Noah Oppenheim is stepping down after nearly half a decade at the helm.
The announcement was made Wednesday by NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde who also revealed New York Times editor Rachel Blumenstein is taking over the position.
According to The Hill, Blumenstein most recently has served as deputy managing editor of the Times and comes to NBC after a long career in digital and print journalism, but lacks any network news experience.
With Oppenheim’s departure, two other top NBC News executives will be promoted, the company said. Libby Leist, who has overseen the TODAY show, will now be an executive vice president, TODAY and Lifestyle, while Janelle Rodriguez, who has spearheaded the network’s news streaming service, will join the leadership team as executive vice president, NBC News NOW, the company said.
“The appointments of Rebecca, Libby and Janelle provide a powerful foundation for the News Group as it continues to grow its leadership position,” Conde said
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Pope Francis has named Cardinal Robert McElroy, a known advocate for migrants and outspoken critic of President-elect Donald Trump, as the new Archbishop of Washington, D.C. The decision underscores the pontiff’s preference for church leaders who align with his progressive vision, even as it risks further deepening ideological divisions within the millennia-old Catholic Church.
Cardinal McElroy, recognized as a strong supporter of LGBTQ inclusion and other liberal causes, has consistently aligned with Pope Francis on key social and theological issues. His appointment was announced two weeks before Inauguration Day, conspicuous timing that drew widespread attention given the cardinal’s history of publicly criticizing Trump’s policies on immigration and social justice. This is particularly notable in light of McElroy’s emphasis on synodality (dialogue with one another in the presence of the Spirit of God) and church reform, which have drawn both praise and criticism from Catholic observers.
The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
As Forbes’ Conor Murray reports, the move to elevate McElroy comes as a stark contrast to Trump’s nomination of Brian Burch as ambassador to Vatican City. Burch, a conservative Catholic activist and president of the right-leaning advocacy group CatholicVote, was instrumental in rallying Catholic support for Trump during the 2024 campaign. His organization has frequently clashed with the more progressive stances of Pope Francis and his allies:
McElroy has largely slammed Trump because of his views on immigration, including his promise to conduct mass deportations. McElroy was one of 12 Catholic bishops from California who co-authored a statement last month voicing support for “our migrant brothers and sisters,” acknowledging the “calls for mass deportations and raids on undocumented individuals” have created fear in migrant communities. After Trump’s first election victory in 2016, McElroy called it “unthinkable” that Catholics would “stand by while more than ten percent of our flock is ripped from our midst and deported.” He called Trump’s mass deportation plan an “act of injustice which would stain our national honor” and compared it to Japanese interment and Native American dispossession. McElroy criticized Trump’s plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy in 2017 for lacking any “shred of humanity,” stating Jesus Christ was “both a refugee and an immigrant during his journey.”
In a 2023 column for America magazine, McElroy urged greater welcoming of divorced and LGBTQ Catholics into the church, stating the church’s “disproportionate” focus on sexual activity as sin “does not lie at the heart” of a Christian’s relationship with God and “should change.” McElroy called it a “demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities.” In a February 2024 speech, McElroy considered the lack of support among Catholics for blessing same-sex marriages to be the result of “enduring animus among far too many toward LGBT persons.” McElroy has also criticized abortion being considered a “de facto litmus test for determining whether a Catholic public official is a faithful Catholic.” McElroy, however, called Biden’s lack of support for anti-abortion legislation an “immense sadness” in a 2021 America magazine column, and called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “day to give thanks and celebrate.”
Burch, founder and co-president of CatholicVote, was once a Trump skeptic but praised him in 2020 for making a “concerted effort to reach out to Catholics in a way that we haven’t seen in the past.” That year, he authored the pro-Trump book, “A New Catholic Moment: Donald Trump and the Politics of the Common Good.” Burch has slammed Francis for “progressive Catholic cheerleading” and accused him of creating “massive confusion” over his approval of blessing same-sex marriages in 2023.
Also on Monday, Francis appointed Sister Simona Brambilla, an Italian nun, to lead a Vatican office, making her the first woman to lead a major Vatican department. The department, the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, is responsible for religious orders. Francis has long voiced support for greater roles for women in the church, though he has ruled out ordaining women as deacons or priests.
McElroy’s appointment also highlights Pope Francis’ broader engagement with U.S. politics. In 2024, the pontiff made headlines when he urged voters to carefully consider their choices, describing the act of voting as a moral responsibility. During a press conference aboard the papal plane, Francis remarked on the complexities of American politics, advising voters to choose “the lesser evil” when faced with challenging decisions.
While the pope has criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policies, he has also expressed concern over Vice President Kamala Harris‘ unwavering support for abortion rights. Both stances, Francis noted, conflict with the Church’s teachings on the sanctity of life. “One must choose the lesser of two evils,” the pope reiterated. “Who is the lesser of two evils? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know. Everyone with a conscience should think on this and do it.”
Despite the pontiff’s cultural influence, his impact on American politics was negligible. In the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump secured a notable share of the Catholic vote, surpassing his performance in previous campaigns. According to exit polls conducted by The Washington Post, Trump won the national Catholic vote by a 15-point margin, with 56% supporting him compared to 41% for Vice President Kamala Harris.
This represents a notable shift compared to the 2020 election, where the Catholic electorate was nearly evenly split, with 50% supporting Trump and 49% favoring Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic.
The 2024 election also saw variations within the Catholic demographic. Trump’s support among white Catholics increased, with 59% backing him compared to Harris’s 39%, a 20-point margin. This was an improvement over his 15-point lead in 2020.
Marburg79, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Among Latino Catholics, there was a significant shift toward Trump. In 2020, Biden led this group by a substantial margin, but in 2024, Trump’s support increased notably, contributing to his overall gains among Catholic voters.
The appointment of McElroy is likely to spark further debate within the Church, where a widening schism between liberal and conservative leaders continue to grow. However, it also reflects Francis’ commitment to shaping the Church’s leadership in a way that emphasizes his vision for pastoral care and inclusivity, even at the expense of unity.
Yet, in the United States, voting trends strongly suggest that Trump’s campaign strategies—including selecting Senator JD Vance, a Catholic, as his running mate, and making explicit appeals to Catholic voters—resonated with this demographic, contributing to increased GOP support in the 2024 election and possibly beyond.
Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.
Joe Biden is likely breathing a sigh of relief right about now…
On Wednesday, Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (W.V.) revealed he would not be running for president in 2024, a letdown for those hoping the moderate Democrat would pose a challenge to unpopular President Biden.
“I’m not running for President of the United States,” Manchin told MetroNews during a radio interview broadcast from the State Capitol in Charleston, West Virginia.
However, the two-term senator and former governor refused to say if he has decided to seek another term in the Senate as Republicans eye his seat as a top target to flip in 2024.
West Virginia Attorney General and failed 2018 Senate hopeful Patrick Morrisey has already been named a likely challenger to seek Manchin’s seat.
While speaking to The Hill, Morrisey said Manchin lost significant political capital when he voted in favor of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which included major components of President Biden’s agenda.
In November, Rep. Alex Mooney (R- W.Va.) announced that he will run for Senate in 2024 in a bid to unseat Sen. Joe Manchin.
Manchin stonewalled President Joe Biden’s original Build Back Better plan but ultimately was the deciding vote for the renegotiated Inflation Reduction Act.
“SEN. MANCHIN DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED WEST VIRGINIANS AND LET THEM DOWN TREMENDOUSLY WHEN HE SUPPORTED THE ‘BUILD BACK BROKE’ BILL LAST SUMMER. THAT LEGISLATION REALLY HIT OUR STATE VERY HARD. YOU CAN DRESS UP THE PIG ANY WAY YOU WANT BUT MOST PEOPLE IN WEST VIRGINIA UNDERSTAND THAT THAT BILL IS GOING TO HURT US,” MORRISEY TOLD THE OUTLET.
“HE LET THE AIR OUT OF HIS BALLOON AND IT’S NOT GOING TO BE SO EASY TO PUMP IT BACK UP,” HE SAID.
MORRISEY, WHO IS “EVALUATING OPTIONS” ABOUT WHAT TO DO IN 2024, SAID “WE’RE LOOKING VERY CLOSELY AT THE SENATE RACE.”
While President Biden has indicated he plans to seek a second term in the White House, some Democrats seem undeterred by his plans. While some saw a Manchin 2024 campaign as a potential way to appeal to undecided voters due to his more moderate policies compared to his progressive colleagues another Democrat says she’s ready to step out of the shadows and challenge Biden.
Former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, 70, recently teased a rematch against Biden.
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An explosive new report from The New York Times revealed the disturbing frequency billionaire Elon Musk consumed illicit drugs while on the presidential campaign trail with Donald Trump.
The article comes as Musk is exiting the Trump administration after a whirlwind several months in which he led efforts to cut down on the government’s size.
Musk told people he was using ketamine so often that it was impacting his bladder, along with utilizing psychedelic mushrooms and taking ecstasy, the Times reported. The Times reporting included interviews with dozens of individuals Musk worked with or knew, along with obtaining private messages.
The tech executive, who was advising the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) panel on federal government cost-cutting measures, would travel every day with a box containing 20 pills, the Times said, citing individuals who have seen the box and the photo of it. Some of the pills were marked as Adderall.
Musk has publicly spoken about his mental health before, describing “great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress.” The tech billionaire has also refused the use of traditional antidepressants and said he was prescribed ketamine for depression, taking it “about every two weeks.”
According to the Times, some of Musk’s friends have severed ties with the tech billionaire over his public behavior.
“Elon has pushed the boundaries of his bad behavior more and more,” Philip Low, a neuroscientist, told The Times.
The Times also reports Musk received advance warning of employee drug tests at SpaceX, despite the company’s obligations as a federal contractor to maintain a drug-free workplace.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2024 that Musk has used cocaine, LSD, psychedelic mushrooms and ecstasy at private parties, prompting concerns from board members and executives at SpaceX and Tesla.
“After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA’s request, to do 3 years of random drug testing,” Musk wrote in a social media post shortly after that article was published. “Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol. @WSJ is not fit to line a parrot cage for bird.”
After that one puff with Rogan, I agreed, at NASA’s request, to do 3 years of random drug testing.
Not even trace quantities were found of any drugs or alcohol. @WSJ is not fit to line a parrot cage for bird 💩
The report comes after Musk announced Wednesday that he would be departing the White House as his 130-day period as a special government employee expires.
As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.
The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.
Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
On Sunday, the Trump administration filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, aiming to secure permission to fire the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers.
The emergency appeal, obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, could likely be the start of a steady stream of court filings by lawyers of President Donald Trump and his administration aimed at reversing lower court rulings that have delayed his priorities for his second term in office.
The appeal seeks to prevent Hampton Dellinger from resuming his role as the head of the Office of Special Counsel.
A lower court judge previously temporarily reinstated Dellinger to his position, which he was appointed to by former President Joe Biden. Now, the Department of Justice is calling on the high court to lift the judge’s order.
Dellinger has argued that by law, he can only be dismissed from his position for job performance problems, which were not cited in an email dismissing him from his post.
The Trump administration’s petition came hours after an appeals court refused to lift the order on procedural grounds, which was filed last Wednesday and is expected to expire on Feb. 26.
The case is not expected to be placed on the docket until the Supreme Court returns after the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. Once filed, the earliest the justices will be able to act will be Tuesday.
Dellinger sued the Trump administration in D.C. federal court last Monday following his firing on Feb. 7.
President Joe Biden briefly sported a Donald Trump 2024 hat while visiting a Shanksville, Pa., fire station in what the White House said was a show of unity on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“At the Shanksville Fire Station, @POTUS spoke about the country’s bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that,” White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates posted on X. “As a gesture, he gave a hat to a Trump supporter who then said that in the same spirit, POTUS should put on his Trump cap. He briefly wore it.”
At the Shanksville Fire Station, @POTUS spoke about the country's bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that.
As a gesture, he gave a hat to a Trump supporter who then said that in the same spirit, POTUS should put on his Trump cap. He briefly wore it. https://t.co/7VKZnkVMY7
Biden put on the hat during a meeting with community members that was closed to the press. A photo of the moment quickly went viral among Republicans, including some who used it to attack Biden’s mental sharpness and his support for Vice President Harris.
“BREAKING: Kamala did so bad in last night’s debate, Joe Biden just put on a Trump hat,” the Trump campaign’s rapid reaction team posted on X.
“Thanks for the support, Joe!” the campaign added in a separate post.
Biden, Harris, Trump, and GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) all attended a Sept. 11 memorial event in New York City on Wednesday morning. Trump and Harris were seen shaking hands hours after their televised debate in Philadelphia.
Biden ended his reelection bid in late July and has since been replaced by Vice President Harris, who is locked in a neck-and-neck campaign with Trump.
There’s a wealth of new polling data on the Democratic presidential nomination contest, with polls from The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press both finding that even Democratic voters are concerned that President Joe Biden is too old to run.
The AP/NORC poll of adults (not registered voters) found that 77 percent of respondents believed Biden was too old to serve another term.
And for the hardened Team Blue partisans who shout “ageism!” at such findings…69 percent of self-identified Democrats said Biden’s age is a big issue (among Republicans, it was a whopping 89 percent – which shouldn’t come as a surprise).
But this must be a fluke, an outlier, and a one-off. Surely, the age issue can’t be that big a deal for Mr. Biden. Except The Wall Street Journal poll confirmed it is.
The Journal asked a split question – one if voters think Biden’s mental fitness is sufficient for the job, the other specifically on whether he is “too old.”
On the mental ability, 60 percent questioned Biden’s mental ability. On age, a total of 73 percent said he is “too old.”
What are the comparable numbers for former President Donald Trump?
A 49-46 split says Trump isn’t mentally up for the job. On age, another spilt, with 47 percent saying he’s too old and 45 saying he isn’t.
As always with polls, the numbers are snapshots in time and subject to change.
What these data points do, though, is reinforce narratives that have long been whispered in Democratic circles: Biden’s time has passed, and he would be wise to bow out and allow someone else to take the fight to what looks like Donald Trump in 2024.
But such whispers against an incumbent are very hard to translate into hard reality. What could bring them a tad bit closer to the fore are the other items in the Journal poll, particularly the sense that most people think the economy has hit a rough patch, and they are feeling the effects:
…58% of voters say the economy has gotten worse over the past two years, whereas only 28% say it has gotten better, and nearly three in four say inflation is headed in the wrong direction. Those views were echoed in the survey by large majorities of independents, a group that helped deliver Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Voters were almost evenly split on the direction of the job market.
It’s not a wipeout for Biden, but the data are hardly comforting to an incumbent who has staked his presidency on a massive reworking of the economy, with government intervention and support leading the way. Team Blue partisans will say it’s early, these things take time, etc., etc. And they aren’t entirely wrong.
But there’s also the iron law of politics to contend with: if you’re explaining, you’re losing. And until the data show voters are feeling better about their own particular economic situation, then Mr. Biden will need more than a slogan – “Bidenomics” – and promises of widespread prosperity to save his own political future.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Great America News Desk. It first appeared in American Liberty News.Republished with permission.
Tuesday’s midterms produced lackluster results as ballots continue to be tallied across the country. While the red tsunami appeared to be more of a wave Republicans and Democrats are still waiting to know which party will control the House of Representatives and the Senate on Wednesday morning.
The midterm results have spurred questions about Trump’s potential plan to announce his third presidential campaign next week. The former president has been heavily involved throughout the midterms but some are left wondering if Trump will push his announcement.
During an interview with Markie Martin on NewsNation ahead of the midterms Trump noted he’s made over 300 endorsements.
“You’ve endorsed more than 330 candidates this election cycle,” Martin said. “Tonight, win or lose, the results for Republicans, how much of that will be because of Donald Trump?”
“Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit. And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all, okay?” Trump said. “But it’ll probably be just the opposite. When they win, I think they’re going to do very well, I’ll probably be given very little credit even though in many cases I told people to run and they ran and they turned out to be very good candidates. You know, they’ve turned out to be very good candidates.”
“But usually what would happen is when they do well, I won’t be given any credit and if they do badly, they will blame everything on me,” he continued. “So I’m prepared for anything, but we’ll defend ourselves.”
Former President Donald Trump sat down with NewsNation's @MarkieMartin for an exclusive interview. He says if the candidates he's endorsed win tonight he should be given credit, but if they lose, he should not be blamed. #Election2022
Advisers close to Trump say the former president is certainly running but he’s yet to make any formal announcement as doing so will link him to specific election laws.
During a Monday evening rally in Ohio, former President Trump declared he plans to make a “big announcement” next Tuesday.
“I’m going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla.,” Trump said toward the end of a rally near Dayton, Ohio, where he was campaigning for a host of candidates in the state, including Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance.
“We want nothing to distract from the importance of tomorrow,” Trump said.
“I can’t thank President Trump enough for his support,” Vance said. “His endorsement and the work he did to drive turnout – including a huge rally in Dayton on election eve – made all the difference in this race, and led us to the largest battleground victory in the nation.”
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Lawyers for former President Trump filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss charges related to the 2020 election brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
In their legal filing, the Trump team claims Smith was unlawfully appointed.
“President Donald J. Trump respectfully requests leave to file this proposed motion to dismiss the Superseding Indictment and for injunctive relief—which is timely and, alternatively, supported by good cause—based on violations of the Constitution’s Appointments and Appropriations Clauses,” the filing states.
The Appointments Clause says, “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.” Smith, however, was never confirmed by the Senate.
“The proposed motion establishes that this unjust case was dead on arrival— unconstitutional even before its inception,” the Trump filing states.
Trump lawyers argued that in November 2022, Attorney General Merick Garland “violated the Appointments Clause by naming private-citizen Smith to target President Trump, while President Trump was campaigning to take back the Oval Office from the Attorney General’s boss, without a statutory basis for doing so.”
Trump attorneys argue that Smith “was not appointed ‘by Law,'” and argue that he “has operated with a blank check by relying on an inapplicable permanent indefinite appropriation that was enacted in connection with a reauthorization of the Independent Counsel Act in 1987.”
“Smith was not appointed pursuant to that Act, which expired in 1999. The appropriation contemplates the possibility of appointment by some ‘other law,’ but no ‘other law’ authorized Smith’s appointment,” the attorneys continue. “The appropriation also requires that the prosecutor be “independent,” in the very particular, rigorous sense that attorneys appointed pursuant to the defunct Independent Counsel Act were meant to be independent.”
They added: “That is not true of Smith’s appointment, either.”
“For these reasons, Smith should have never been permitted to access these huge sums of money, and his use of this funding violated the Appropriations Clause,” the filing states. “Based on these violations of the Appointments and Appropriations Clauses, the Superseding Indictment should be dismissed with prejudice. In addition, an injunction against additional spending by Smith is necessary to prevent ongoing irreparable harm and to ensure complete relief for the Appropriations Clause violation.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Smith has until Halloween, Oct. 31, to file his response.
