The Georgia Senate runoff election is going to be a heated battle and neither candidate is giving up ground. Trump-endorsed candidate and former University of Georgia football legend Herschel Walker (R) is nearly tied against incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock as they continue campaigning for the Dec. 6th election.
Watch Amanda break it down below.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
By President Of Ukraine - https://www.flickr.com/photos/165930373@N06/54169325552/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156221279
Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated the United States may back off from assisting in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that it needs to be determined within days whether achieving a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is “doable in the short term,” warning that he thinks the U.S. will “move on” if it is not achievable.
Rubio has been working alongside Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to broker a 30-day ceasefire agreement with Russia and Ukraine, which has not yet been seen to fruition.
“We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Rubio told reporters Friday while departing from negotiations with his counterparts in Paris. “Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on.”
“It’s not our war. We have other priorities to focus on,” he added, suggesting the U.S. would decide if continued talks were “doable” in a “matter of days.”
But Rubio noted that the U.S. will help if either or both sides are “serious about peace.”
(Miami – Flórida, 09/03/2020) Presidente da República Jair Bolsonaro durante encontro com o Senador Marco Rubio..Foto: Alan Santos/PR
“@POTUS has been clear: The time to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is now. Today in Paris, @SE_MiddleEast, @SPE_Kellogg and I met with leaders from France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ukraine to talk about how we can stop the killing and reach a just and sustainable peace,” Rubio noted in a post on X.
.@POTUS has been clear: The time to end the war between Russia and Ukraine is now.
Today in Paris, @SE_MiddleEast, @SPE_Kellogg and I met with leaders from France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ukraine to talk about how we can stop the killing and reach a just and sustainable… pic.twitter.com/AUUWSXfhMf
While ceasefire negotiations have been slow, Trump has maintained that efforts to obtain a minerals deal with Ukraine are picking up pace. The U.S. leader said access to the country’s critical natural resources would provide a strong interest in maintaining Ukraine’s sovereignty and security for years to come.
The secretary also suggested that the U.K., France and Germany can help “move the ball” on negotiations. Officials who met in Paris have agreed to meet again in London next week with hopes of gearing peace talks toward a secured deal.
Kremlin.ru, via Wikimedia Commons
Despite Rubio’s comments, Vice President Vance said Friday he believes talks will move forward.
“The negotiations, I won’t pre-judge them, but we do feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war to a close,” he told reporters during his visit to Rome, where he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — a day after she met with President Trump at the White House.
Ukrainian Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said she signed a memorandum of intent with the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ahead of a potential agreement.
“I assume they’re going to live up to the deal, so we’ll see. But we have a deal on that,” Trump said Thursday.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks in National Statuary Hall on the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, January 6, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith)
ANALYSIS – Joe Biden has made a bizarre habit of awkwardly and abruptly walking away from important events, often leaving other world leaders and important figures alone waiting for a handshake or photo.
Sometimes Biden also shakes hands with people who aren’t there or walks around dazed and confused.
But now he did this disrespectful walking away schtick at the White House to an elderly Vietnam War hero, Army Captain Larry L. Taylor, to whom Biden had just presented the Medal of Honor.
The heroic Taylor earned the medal by braving intense ground fire for 45 minutes while making low-level attack runs, strafing the enemy with bullets and aerial rockets while flying an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter as a mass of Vietnamese insurgents surrounded a small U.S. Army patrol on the ground.
Running low on fuel and ammunition, Taylor eventually decided to extract the four men on his own with his two-man-only chopper.
As The Blaze reported: “Immediately after setting the Medal of Honor around Taylor’s neck and giving the tearful veteran a handshake, Biden abruptly bolted out of the East Room as if to beat the traffic.”
Biden abruptly walks out of the Medal of Honor ceremony, even before the closing benediction pic.twitter.com/Ck0i8EIf8Q
In the video of the ceremony, one reporter can be seen with a look of bewilderment at the sight of Biden hurrying out since the event was far from over.
Left standing alone next to the American flag, the uniformed 81-year-old Taylor remained stoically at his post, waiting for the closing benediction.
Referring to Biden, former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan wrote on X, “Pardon my French… But what a f***ing idiot.”
Pardon my French… But what a f*cking idiot.
The continuous lack of respect Biden has for anyone is appalling.
Taylor, originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, flew over 2,000 combat missions in UH-1 and Cobra helicopters, was engaged by enemy fire 340 times, and was forced down five times in Vietnam, according to the Army.
He had already received at least 50 combat decorations, including 43 Air Medals, a Bronze Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Silver Star, before being awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest recognition for bravery in the U.S. military.
The actions that earned Taylor the award were courageous indeed. On the evening of June 18, 1968, a four-man Army long-range patrol (LRP) team was trapped and surrounded by a large Viet Cong force.
The team desperately called for fire support. And that’s when Taylor came to the rescue. The Blaze reported that Lt. Col. Ann Hughes detailed Taylor’s brave deeds near the village of Ap Go Cong, prior to Biden’s sudden departure from the stage:
Then-1st Lt. Taylor heard the call and came powering over at the command of a light fire team comprising two [two-man] Cobra helicopter gunships.
Upon arrival, Taylor “immediately requested illumination rounds and supporting artillery to assist with identifying the enemy positions,” even though the fulfillment of that order would make his aircraft similarly easier to see and target.
Hazarding “intense enemy groundfire” and flying “at a perilously low altitude,” Taylor fed the enemy encircling the patrol team a constant stream of hot lead and rockets, and he did so for 45 minutes.
As all good things come to an end, Taylor’s team began running low on ammunition. However, the Americans below were not yet out of harm’s way. The Tennessean appealed to light to stop the encroaching darkness in its tracks.
The outlet continued quoting Hughes, “using his chopper’s searchlight, Taylor began performing fake strafing runs on the enemy, thereby distracting them from the patrol team.”
Running low on fuel, Taylor and his wingman pushed the insurgents back using up their remaining minigun rounds, then “directed the patrol team to move 100 yards towards the extraction point, where First Lieutenant Taylor, still under enemy fire, landed his helicopter and instructed the patrol team to climb aboard anywhere they could.”
Lt. Col. Hughes stressed that an extraction on a Cobra gunship was a “feat never before accomplished.”
The narrow Cobra, an advanced version of which is still flown by the Marines, is a two-seat hotrod of a helicopter gunship made for fast attack, not troop carrying.
This is serious stuff, an award well deserved, but Biden just walked away after giving Taylor his medal.
Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), an Army veteran who also flew helicopters, wrote, “At least he didn’t check his watch this time.”
NEW YORK CITY (September 11, 2022) Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lays flowers for USSS Master Special Officer Craig Miller and participates in the September 11th Anniversary Commemoration Ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City, NY. (DHS photo by Sydney Phoenix)
A Biden administration border official is reportedly being pressured to resign from his role.
Multiple sources close to the matter informed Politico that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Chris Magnus is being pressured by leaders to resign or be fired after criticizing their ineffectiveness at tamping down the border surge.
Magnus was reportedly told on Wednesday by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that he should either resign or be dismissed and, so far, the CBP chief has refused to step down, according to four people.
Some executive assistant commissioners at CBP have indicated they would leave the agency if Magnus does not resign, according to one of the current DHS official and the former DHS official.
Mayorkas has since shifted Magnus’ duties and responsibilities to his deputy secretary, John Tien, and has deputy CBP commissioner Troy Miller, a career government official, running the agency’s day-to-day operations, according to three of the people.
POLITICO reported in October that five current administration officials who work with Magnus described him as unengaged in his job, saying he often failed to attend White House meetings on the situation on the border, badmouthed other agencies to colleagues and superiors, and has not built relationships within CBP and across other immigration agencies to address the influx of migrants at the border. Several also said he fell asleep in numerous meetings, which Magnus blamed on the effects of his multiple sclerosis.
Magnus has been leading the border agency since December and it’s currently unclear who might permanently take over his Senate-confirmed position if he complies with Sec. Mayorkas’ wishes.
CBP is responsible for securing U.S. borders at and between ports of entry. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the agency responsible for arresting and detaining undocumented people within U.S. borders and both agencies are encompassed within DHS.
The latest DHS data shows that for the fiscal year ending in September, nearly 2.4 million migrants were detained at the border, a 37% increase from the year before.
ANALYSIS – The establishment media and liberal elites in the U.S.and Europe regularly condemn Hungarian president Victor Orban’s alleged ‘illiberalism,’ but U.S. conservatives see his domestic model, if not his foreign policy, as a welcome success story.
Most recently American conservatives flocked to Budapest for a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in May.
Sadly, I was unable to attend but would have loved to have been there.
At the next CPAC in Dallas, Texas this August, Orban was given a standing ovation.
So, what is it about Orban that American conservatives like so much?
First, let me say there are things not to like about him and his government.
They have been somewhat authoritarian against the press and opposition parties. Though some would claim that this was a needed housecleaning of entrenched leftist interests.
My biggest complaint though is Orban’s and his Fidesz party’s soft approach toward Russia and Vladimir Putin (in great part due to Hungary’s energy dependence), and his relative lack of support for his invaded neighbor, Ukraine.
I’m also unhappy and extremely concerned by his close ties to Communist China.
Under Orban, Hungary was the first European country to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the country has been called Beijing’s closest European ally.
This makes a mockery of Orban’s original anti-communist ideals and gives Beijing a strategic foothold in the heart of Europe.
However, China’s growing influence in Hungary is increasingly unpopular and has created a growing backlash. It featured prominently in the opposition’s campaign against Orban in the recent elections (which Orban’s party won in a landslide).
I would like to see Orban and his party go back to their roots in opposing Communist China, and all similar regimes, including Putin’s Russia.
But most U.S. conservatives don’t look at Orban’s foreign policies. They are far more interested in his domestic policies. And they like what they see.
…American conservatives find Mr. Orban’s willingness to use the state to fight culture wars tremendously exciting.
He has made gay marriage constitutionally illegal (civil partnerships are allowed) and banned content “promoting” LGBT lifestyles from schools.
He has also banned same-sex adoptions and ended legal recognition for transgender people, making it impossible for them to legally change their sex.
Then in September, he introduced a law forcing women wanting an abortion to listen to the fetus’ heartbeat first.
And then there are his successful battles against immigration and adverse demography.
The Telegraph continues:
It is now illegal to claim asylum at the Hungarian border instead of at one of the country’s consulates, for example, and he has built not one but two controversial walls on the border with Serbia and Croatia.
He has also ushered in rules which mean families having three or more children are effectively exempt from tax in a bid to push up Hungary’s population.
Due to his policies, the fertility rate in Hungary has gone from 1.2 births per woman to 1.6, curbing the need for more immigrants.
I would support all these policies, in whole or in part, here in the U.S.
And compared to the militant secularism of the French right, American conservatives also find his party’s religiosity reassuring, and more aligned with traditional American Christian values.
Meanwhile, the conservative right is winning in other places, such as Italy, with the surprising victory of Georgia Meloni, and soon in the U.S. with Republicans retaking the House, and possibly the Senate too.
In France, in June, the conservative party of Marine Le Pen secured enough seats to form a parliamentary group, giving it more clout, for the first time in four decades.
And the right is about to return to Israel under Bibi Netanyahu.
The only big loss globally was in Brazil, where Jair Bolsonaro apparently just lost to Socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. That loss is likely less due to ideology than personality, but it is a loss, nonetheless.
The takeaway from all this though is that until recently there hasn’t been a global conservative movement with similar ideas to counter the vast ‘Socialist International.’
But things are changing now. And Orban’s Hungary is at the center of it. Or maybe to the right of it.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
Ezra Miller, an actor known for roles in popular movies like “The Flash” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is facing disturbing allegations of grooming minors and then using his own sexual identity as a defense
The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination this year, is speaking out on his decision not to endorse Donald Trump.
“I get asked a lot if I believe Trump is a threat to our democracy,” he writes in a USA Today op-ed. “I am not good at predicting the future, but we can learn from history and we should take heed when politicians tell us what they are going to do.”
Hutchinson says in the piece that he voted for Trump twice, but that insight gleaned from former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) and the Department of Justice on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol changed his mind.
“In terms of history, we all witnessed the violent attack on our national Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by those wishing to overturn the last election,” he writes. “This was not an act of patriots as Trump likes to say, but it was a real threat to democracy.”
“With Donald Trump’s domination of the GOP primaries and the elimination of all primary opponents, including the party leadership and Republican elected officials are clicking their heels in obedience to the victor and presumptive nominee. I have not endorsed Donald Trump for president, and I will not do so,” he writes.
But Hutchinson says he can’t support Biden’s policies either.
“Another important point to make is that I also will not vote for President Joe Biden. Biden’s weak border policies, his poor economic record and his slow growth energy policy do not justify reelection.”
Americans may soon know more about a Biden family business arrangement selling White House access to foreign interests, under a lawsuit from an ethics watchdog.
The non-profit public interest law firm Judicial Watch reports it may receive more records under a “Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for Biden family records and communications regarding travel and finance transactions, as well as communications between the Bidens and several known business associates.”
“This lawsuit is an opportunity for the Trump team to stop the Deep State’s slow-walking of the release of Biden family corruption records,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
The suit was originally filed in May 2023 “after the National Archives failed to respond to a February 2023 FOIA request.”
This lawsuit previously “forced the release of records revealing emails sent by Joe Biden using alias accounts during his vice presidency, in which he communicated with family members, including his son Hunter and brother James. The records also showed that in August 2016, Biden approved ending Secret Service protection for both Hunter Biden and Beau Biden’s daughter, Natalie, during a trip to Kosovo,” Judicial Watch reports.
The emails included messages to Jim and Hunter Biden regarding the then-vice president’s schedule and meetings. Some emails showed Joe Biden using the alias: [email protected].
According to Judicial Watch:
The emails also showed that Hunter and Jim Biden accompanied Joe Biden on taxpayer-funded trips; and then-Vice President Biden in December 2009 emailing an aide after he forgot the password to his West Wing computer.
The records showed that Hunter Biden used an email address ([email protected]) from his now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca Partners and that James Biden used an email address ([email protected]) tied to his consulting firm Lion Hall, which had been the subject of an FBI bribery investigation in the 1990s.
The lawsuit also forced the release of records showing then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter received a May 26, 2016, email detailing a scheduled “8:45 am prep for a 9 am phone call with Pres Poroshenko,” who was the president of Ukraine. Joe Biden’s email address is the alias [email protected], Hunter Biden’s email account is disclosed as [email protected]. (Hunter Biden was on the board of the controversial Ukrainian firm Burisma at the time.)
The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
ANALYSIS – Why do so many of Donald Trump’s former top advisors say he is ‘not fit for office’ due to his character and actions while president? Former White House national security adviser John Bolton, who worked closely with Trump for a year and a half, has said that the former president is not “fit for office.”
The most recent to say that is former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Trump’s ex-defense chief reaffirmed his views on the former president in a recent TV interview.
The segment, reported by Breitbart, which began by discussing the most recent criminal charges being levied against Trump over the January 6 Capitol riot, turned to Esper’s views of his former boss.
Esper, a former Army officer, was fired from his post after Trump lost the 2020 election. He told Kaitlan Collins on CNN that he doesn’t plan on endorsing anyone in the GOP primary but made clear that he doesn’t support Trump because he puts himself first, not America.
Esper said:
I don’t plan on endorsing anybody. I said that I wouldn’t support Donald Trump. I don’t think that he is fit for office because he puts himself first and I think anyone running for office should put the country first. And they should abide by their oath and do a number of other things.
He added that the GOP needs a nominee who will grow the party: “I’m looking for somebody who puts the country first, a person who will abide by their oath, who will advance traditional, Republican policies and objectives and who will bring the Republican Party together and grow the party.”
Esper also said Trump has proven he isn’t a winner: “You have to win elections, and Donald Trump is not winning elections whether they are House, Senate or White House. That’s what Republicans need to do.”
The former Trump defense chief emphasized that at least half of the dozen current Republican candidates for president are very credible and could beat Joe Biden, noting that he was willing to “Assist any one of them, help them.”
Collins concluded by noting: “We talked about this many times, but to hear someone who was the Pentagon chief for a new candidate for president saying that you would willingly help his challengers who are running against him just speaks to the moment that we are in.”
While he didn’t name any specific candidates in this interview, earlier he praised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a veteran of the war in Iraq, as one of those in the “next generation” who looks like a promising presidential candidate, reported the New York Post.
“He did a great job in Florida. He brought more Hispanics on board. He appears to me to be the frontrunner,” Esper said of DeSantis.
Esper first called Trump unfit for office back in November 2022 after he announced he was running again in 2024.
“I think he’s unfit for office,” Esper said in an interview with CNN.
Esper added that Trump “has integrity and character issues as well,” describing one of those “character issues” as Trump’s difficulty with telling the truth, noting that he believes Americans want a trustworthy commander-in-chief.
“I don’t think he’s an honest person. We saw the falsehoods that came out of his remarks last night … Americans need a leader they can trust,” Esper said.
And John Kelly, former Trump Chief of Staff, and a retired 4-star Marine Corps general, agrees with Esper. Since Trump left office, Kelly has reportedly said Trump was the “most flawed person” he has ever met.
“The depths of his dishonesty are just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life,” Kelly told friends, according to a report by CNN in 2020.
Kelly has also warned of the dangers to the country of a second term for Trump, telling the New York Times that it ‘…would be chaotic, because he’d continually be trying to exceed his authority but the sycophants would go along with it.’
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her position after a bombshell ruling by a federal judge that followed President Donald Trump’s recent attempt to fire her.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee based in Washington, D.C., said that she will be moving Cook’s request into a preliminary injunction, which allows Cook to stay in her role, but will last through the entire case until a decision is made, pending any appeal from the government.
The judge said Cook has shown “irreparable harm” in her time away from the Federal Reserve as she is one of the leaders in controlling monetary policy, adding that “she has lost the ability to fulfill a high-ranking, public-servant role to which she is entitled.”
The decision, which follows the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Cook over allegations of mortgage application fraud, is the latest revelation in a high-stakes lawsuit likely headed to the Supreme Court. The probe could further complicate Cook’s fight to stay in her role on the Fed board, the panel of central bankers tasked with guiding the nation’s monetary policy.
After a hearing that lasted more than two hours on Aug. 29, Cobb indicated she would move quickly on the case — specifically on whether Trump acted unlawfully in seeking to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations.
Still, she also acknowledged the inherent complexities of the case and the novel requests that both Cook’s lawyers and lawyers for the Justice Department were grappling with for the first time in court.
Last week, Cobb granted a request from Cook’s attorneys seeking additional time to file their formal motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO).
The TRO is a short-term, emergency court order designed to maintain the status quo until a full hearing can be held. In plain terms, Cook asked the court to pause the firing and keep her in office until a full legal hearing can determine whether Trump’s removal was lawful.
The legal battle kicked off last month when Trump announced in a Truth Social post that he was firing Cook amid claims by his Federal Housing Finance Agency chief, Bill Pulte, that she had committed mortgage fraud.
Trump ousted Cook on Aug. 25, which prompted her to sue him in federal court three days later. Her lawsuit names as defendants Trump, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Pulte claimed that Cook used an Atlanta condo as her primary home, two weeks after taking a loan on a Michigan home she also declared as her primary residence.
“You are hereby removed from your position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately,” Trump wrote in a letter that accompanied the post.
Cook’s lawsuit argues that Trump’s move to fire her is unlawful and undermines the Federal Reserve’s independence. The suit, which was filed in federal court on Aug. 28, does not address the allegations that Cook listed multiple houses as a primary residence on mortgage filings.
Under the law, Cook has not been charged with any crimes.
