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CNN Begins Mass Layoffs Ahead of Holidays

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CNN Headquarters via Wikimedia Commons

Is this CNN’s idea of spreading Christmas cheer?

The left-of-center news network has been undergoing major changes since CEO Chris Licht took the reigns, eager to undo the damage inflicted on the network and its audience by disgraced CNN President Jeff Zucker. To close out a difficult year for CNN, now Licht says hundreds of employees will be laid off as part of his budget cute strategy.

CNN’s senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy, shared a companywide letter from Licht on Wednesday.

Licht announced that the first round of layoffs will impact the network’s paid contributors, and the network’s remaining staff would be informed of these changes tomorrow.

Read the letter below:

To my CNN colleagues,

Our people are the heart and soul of this organization. It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team, much less many. I recently described this process as a gut punch, because I know that is how it feels for all of us.

Today we will notify a limited number of individuals, largely some of our paid contributors, as part of a recalibrated reporting strategy. Tomorrow, we will notify impacted employees, and tomorrow afternoon I will follow up with more details on these changes.

It will be a difficult time for everyone. If your job has been impacted, you will learn more through an in-person meeting or via Zoom, depending on your location. In those meetings, you will receive information specific to you about notice period or any severance that would apply, and your anticipated last day. I want to be clear that everyone who is bonus eligible will still receive their 2022 bonuses, which are determined by company performance.

I know these changes affect both our departing colleagues and those who remain, and we have resources designed to support you. I will include a link to those resources in my follow-up email tomorrow.

Let’s take care of each other this week.

Chris

Since taking over at CNN, Licht has been vocal about his goal to reorient the network and remove much of its hyper-partisan slant.

“Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter was among those up first on the chopping bloc while primetime host Don Lemon was recently demoted to a morning talk show.

Republican Senator Files to Run for Indiana Governor

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The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.) filed campaign paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday to run for governor.

“That filing did occur yesterday,” Braun said in a brief phone conversation with Politico. “We’ll talk to you down the road.”

“Mike Braun has filed his paperwork to run for governor and will be making an official announcement of his candidacy very soon,” Josh Kelley, chief of staff and senior political advisor to Braun, said in a statement.

The filing puts speculation to rest over whether Braun would seek another term in the Senate or if he would pursue the governor’s office.

Braun’s bid for governor means his seat will be open in 2024 with both Reps. Victoria Spartz and Rep. Jim Banks voicing interest in the seat. However, the two Republicans should expect a crowded primary field in 2024.

This story is breaking. Stay with Great America News Desk for the latest updates.

Nikki Haley Reveals New Timeline for 2024 Decision

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The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is taking some time to mull her options before making any hasty decisions about 2024.

Haley, who served as Ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, has been named a potential contender to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination but says no final decision will come until after the holidays, according to The Hill.

“We are taking the holidays to kind of look at what the situation is,” the former South Carolina governor said at an event at Clemson University. “If we decide to get into it, we’ll put 1,000 percent in, and we’ll finish it.”

“A lot of people have asked if I’m going to run for president. Now that the midterms are over, I’ll look at it in a serious way, and I’ll have more to say soon,” Hayley said at a Las Vegas meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition earlier this month.

“For now, I’ll say this. I’ve won tough primaries and tough general elections. I’ve been the underdog every single time. When people underestimate me, it’s always fun,” she added. “But I’ve never lost an election. And I’m not going to start now.”

Earlier this fall, Haley told reporters that she would not launch her own bid for the White House if Donald Trump runs for president in 2024 but it seems she’s reconsidering.

Trump announced his own bid for the presidency earlier this month but has been met with a lukewarm response from high-profile Republicans- and donors.

Veteran Republican strategist John Thomas, who backed Trump during the 2016 and 2020 elections, recently told The Washington Examiner that he will not be supporting Trump a third time saying the bombastic Republican isn’t a viable candidate to defeat Democrats and take back the White House.

Thomas recently created the Ron to the Rescue super PAC and says he’s committed to spending at least $50 million in the next six to 12 months to ensure the governor earns the GOP nomination over Trump. However, DeSantis has not even announced his presidential campaign.

“The problem is, for Trump, is he needed to announce and pretty much steamroll everybody. He needed all the donors to capitulate his way. He needed all the party leaders to come his way, and while he’s had some success, it’s not been unanimous, and he needed it to almost be unanimous because the cracks that are appearing are going to turn into canyons very soon,” he explained. “He’s going to be constantly trying to, like, plug these leaks. I think his legal challenges, whether they have merit or not, I would think are going to turn his operation into more of a sclerotic beast.”

“I still like the guy. I just think he should move from a party leader to a party elder. That’s kind of the nuanced dynamic here that I want to make sure it’s not lost in the media, and also voters are reminded that it’s OK to vote for somebody else. It doesn’t mean you don’t like Trump,” Thomas continued. “I think at the end of the day, particularly primary voters want to get excited about their nominee, but it really is a sport about winning. If you don’t win, you can’t enact your legislative agenda. It’s not just about rallies and having a good time. It’s about winning, and Trump has kind of called into question at best his ability to do that anymore.”

Arizona Judge Rejects RNC’s Election Lawsuit

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

An Arizona judge has thrown out an election lawsuit brought by state attorney general candidate Abraham Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee (RNC) that sought to challenge the state’s election results.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Randall Warner rejected the lawsuit on Wednesday, arguing the lawsuit was filed prematurely, ruling that the parties can not file a lawsuit until the results are certified, according to The Washington Examiner.

“Under these statutes there can be no election contest until after the canvass and declaration of results because, until then, no one is ‘declared elected,’” Warner wrote in his ruling. “It is undisputed that the canvass and declaration of results for the November 2022 election have not occurred.”

Hamadeh does not need to wait until the recount is complete before filing his lawsuit, Warner noted in his ruling. However, he must wait until the statewide certification is official before he can mount a challenge to the election results. Hamadeh has indicated he will refile the lawsuit after the statewide certification is complete.

The Arizona attorney general race is set to go under a recount once the state canvass is complete but one rural county is threatening to derail the process.

Two Republican supervisors in Cochise County, Arizona, voted to delay the county’s election results until Friday. The key issue is that the state is required to certify its election results by Dec. 5th.

The move has triggered legal fights from state officials as they scramble to certify election results statewide, which requires certified results from all 15 counties.

As Great America News Desk previously reported:

“The voters of Arizona demand answers and deserve transparency about the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the General Election by certain election officials,” Hamadeh said. “Pervasive errors by our election officials resulted in the disenfranchisement of countless Arizonans who had their voices silenced.” 

According to Maricopa County election officials, at least 60 voting locations experienced issues with their ballot-on-demand printers. The assistant attorney general is demanding an in-depth report addressing those issues, as well as the “check-out” procedures at each polling location and each location’s official ballot report.

Hamadeh and the RNC allege that Arizona officials also wrongly disqualified provisional ballots and mis-marked early voters in the system.

Biden’s ‘Puppy Sex Role Play,’ ‘Non-Binary’ Energy Official Arrested for Stealing Designer Bag

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Arrest image via Pixabay

ANALYSIS – Stranger than fiction. Can’t make this stuff up. The cross-dressing, ‘puppy sex role play,’ ‘non-binary’ Department of Energy (DOE) official appointed by Joe Biden, was placed on leave last month after he was reportedly caught on camera stealing an expensive suitcase at a midwestern airport terminal.

This is according to a report in the New York Post.

His criminal case is now in court. 

According to court filings, Sam Brinton, the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy was charged with felony theft after allegedly snatching a Vera Bradley suitcase reportedly worth $2,325 from baggage claim at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on Sept. 16.

Brinton, who has a shaved head, mustache, an affinity for wearing lipstick, women’s dresses, and high heels, and uses idiotic plural ‘they/them’ pronouns, initially denied taking the expensive designer luggage.

https://twitter.com/sbrinton/status/1542288527920185344

However, Brinton was captured on surveillance video grabbing the luggage and quickly removing the real owner’s ID tag, before scurrying away.

Investigators said Brinton was later seen using the stolen Vera Bradley suitcase at least twice while traveling to Washington, DC, within weeks of snatching it.

He is one of the U.S. government’s first ‘non-binary’ (aka – openly mentally ill) officials.

Public Health Service Admiral Richard (who now goes by Rachel) Levine identifies as a woman, so he is binary, just a different gender from what his biology dictates.

Both, of course, are Biden appointees.

Brinton is also a “queer activist” who brags about his “kink” of leading other gay men who are pretending to be dogs around on leashes before having sex with them.

As one Twitter user noted:

He doesn’t care about that. But he does care that this was the reason he was picked by Biden for this senior government post.

Brinton is charged with felony theft of movable property without consent and, if convicted, faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Brinton’s hearing is scheduled for December 19.

It is unknown whether he would be sent to a men’s or women’s correctional facility, or whether he would be allowed to wear dresses.

Please note – unlike too many other news writers, journalists, and outlets, I won’t confuse my readers, and enable mental illness, by also using idiotic plural pronouns to refer to a single individual.

Let’s see how this story plays out.

Hopefully, there will be no gay men ‘puppies’ involved.

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

Amanda Head: Tim Allen Masterfully Strong-Arms Disney Into Christian Content

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Tim Allen is reprising his beloved role as Santa Claus in Disney’s latest Christmas series. The original 1994 “The Santa Clause” movie saw massive success and Allen went on to play the role for two more movies. However, Allen says that he had some big conditions for Disney before returning to the iconic role for the new series- one of them being Disney must incorporate Christianity into the show.

Watch Amanda break down the situation below:

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

Don Lemon says CNN was ‘Never Liberal,’ the Host Can’t Contain His Disbelief

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    Don Lemon via Wikimedia Commons

    CNN host Don Lemon left “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert visibly stunned when he said he never believed the network is “liberal.”

    Despite the network commonly being regarded as a major left-of-center network, especially throughout the Trump administration, Lemon says CNN is just practicing “good journalism.”

    “Word on the street is that you guys aren’t allowed to be liberal anymore. Is that the case?” Colbert asked. 

    “I don’t think we ever were liberal,” Lemon responded. 

    “Well listen, I think what Chris is saying is that he wants Republicans – sensible Republicans, he wants us to hold people to account, but he wants people to come on and feel comfortable with coming on and talking on CNN and appearing on CNN,” Lemon said. “So if you invite someone to your house, you want to make them comfortable but also by the nature of what we do, we have to hold people to account.” 

    “And so that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going liberal or conservative or whatever, it just means that we are doing what we do and that’s good journalism,” Lemon added. 

    “So accountable but not confrontational,” Colbert said. 

    “I think sometimes one must be confrontational,” the CNN host pushed back. “Look, I don’t think that a conversation on television should be any different than a conversation in person. Listen, I have confrontational conversations with people I love and I have unconformable conversations with people I love and I think it’s necessary. And I think it’s also necessary to do that on television, on CNN, but you can do that without being vitriolic. I think not being vitriolic is maybe a better way of putting it, but you can do that and not have vitriol. As people say, you can disagree without being disagreeable. And so I think that’s what our mission is.”

    Since taking the reigns from disgraced ex-CNN president Jeff Zucker, Christ Licht has made it his mission to re-vamp the network.

    Report: President’s Secret Service Spontaneously Explodes After Leaving for Nantucket Vacation

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    Pixabay free images

    President Biden’s rented Secret Service vehicles burst into flames in a parking lot Monday- one day after he left for a Thanksgiving family vacation in Nantucket, Mass.

     The Secret Service rented five vehicles from Hertz to carry the president and his family, and all five of them caught fire in the parking lot, according to footage first obtained by the Nantucket Current.

    per Fox News:

    Footage shows firefighters spraying down the smoldering remains of one vehicle’s engine block. The five vehicles included a Chevy Suburban, Ford Explorer, Infiniti QX80, Ford Expedition, and a Jeep Gladiator.

    The vehicles were parked at the Nantucket airport and the blaze reportedly spread to just 40 feet away from the facility’s jet fuel tanks. It is currently unknown what caused the fire. Fox News reached out to the  White House for information, but they did not immediately respond.

    “At approximately 5:22 am Airport shift staff observed an active fire in the rental car overflow area through the Airport’s Closed Circuit Television System,” the airport said in a statement to the Current. “Staff activated the Alert system and responded to the fire in Airport-3, where they were met by responding units from Nantucket Fire Department and Nantucket Police Department.”

    “Combined fire resources responded and contained the fire. Several vehicles were damaged. The Airport is currently coordinating with rental car agencies and agency partners to ensure scene safety, There is no longer an active fire at this time: the Airport is open, and aeronautical operations are not affected,” the statement continued.

    This story is developing. Stay with Great America News Desk for more updates.

    62% of Americans Want Hunter Biden Investigated – Real Focus Will be on Joe

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    President Joe Biden hugs his family during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)

    ANALYSIS – Despite the still ongoing media-Big Tech-Democrat Party c*llusion to ignore, minimize or denigrate any calls to investigate H*nter B*den’s foreign business deals, Americans are increasingly supportive of the idea.

    This is great news for the incoming Republican House Majority which plans to do just that.

    The latest Rasmussen Reports survey found that a whopping 62% of Americans want H*nter Bi*en’s business dealings investigated, especially those with C*mmunist China.

    Similarly, about 63% told Rasmussen that the H*nter B*den l*ptop computer is an important story.

    Of course, out of this nearly 2/3 majority, Republicans and independent voters are the most eager for a thorough H*nter probe, and Democrats less so.

    But the numbers should still be highly concerning to the White House and its apologists.

    The Washington Examiner noted that:

    …a majority joined Republicans in raising questions about H*nter B*den’s computer files and advice the president gave his son prior to scoring big money payoffs from his overseas businesses

    The survey found the public is gobbling up stories in the media about H*nter B**en and that they are especially interested in those about his computer.

    Conservative media covered the computer stories heavily, but only recently have the liberal media joined in drawing attention to the controversy.

    The Examiner added:

    Frustrated with the liberal media’s slow wake-up to the computer and H*nter B*den controversy, the new House GOP has promised to make a big deal out of probing the president’s son, and the poll of likely voters showed support for that move.

    However, let’s be clear. This isn’t just an investigation into the President’s w*yward son. It is a much-needed investigation into the entire B*den family enr*ching themselves un*thically, if not ill*gally.

    And the real focus is on the ‘B*g Guy’ – J*e Bid*n. 

    As Spectrum News reported right before the GOP won control of the House:

    GOP members of the Oversight and Reform Committee held a news conference Thursday in which they alleged, among other things, that Pre*ident B*den “personally participated in meetings and phone calls” regarding his s*n’s business exploits and that there was personal business conducted on Air Force Two while he was vice president. 

    Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who is poised to chair the panel beginning in January, called the president “chairman of the board” and a “partner with access to an office.” 

    Republicans, who released an interim report Thursday, said they identified more than 50 countries where the B*den family, often led by H*nter B*den, sought business transactions.

    “To be clear, J*e Biden is the b*g g*y,” Comer said. “This evidence raises troubling questions about whether President Biden is a national security risk and about whether he is compromised by foreign governments.”

    Comer made it clear the investigation will focus on the  pr*sident, not his s*n.

    “We’re not trying to prove H*nter B*den is a b*d actor,” he said. “He is. If anybody wants to disagree with that, there’s nothing we have to talk about. Our investigation is about J*e B*den. And we already have e*idence that would point that J*e B*den was inv*lved with Hu*ter Bi*en on this.”

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    GOP Senator Breaks with Trump Over Kanye Dinner

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    Donald Trump’s recent moves in Mar-a-Lago have triggered a distinct uptick in criticism from his Republican colleagues.

    Trump hosted the rapper “Ye,” formerly known as Kanye West as well as white nationalist Nick Fuentes for dinner at his Florida resort last week. Ye has also faced criticism for his recent antisemitic remarks published on his social media channels.

    Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Ye brought Fuentes, who has been labeled a “white supremacist” by the Justice Department, to the dinner and claimed he did not know who Fuentes was. Fuentes has denied that the Holocaust took place. 

    “So I help a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his business and virtually everything else,” Trump wrote. “And who has always been good to me, by allowing his request for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, alone, so that I can give him very much needed ‘advice.’” 

    “He shows up with 3 people, two of which I didn’t know, the other a political person who I haven’t seen in years,” the former president added. “I told him don’t run for office, a total waste of time, can’t win. Fake News went CRAZY!”

    Trump’s recent actions caused Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy to strongly rebuke the former President on Twitter.

    “President Trump hosting racist antisemites for dinner encourages other racist antisemites. These attitudes are immoral and should not be entertained,” Cassidy tweeted.

    Cassidy was among the seven Senate Republicans to vote to impeach the former President but the Senator’s harsh language comes after Trump saw a tepid response from GOP lawmakers after announcing his third campaign.