White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sparred with NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor during Thursday&#8217;s briefing after Alcindor claimed that President Donald Trump had presented an &#8220;unsubstantiated&#8221; video of crosses marking the graves of white farmers in South Africa.
Alcindor repeated several times that the video was &#8220;unsubstantiated&#8221; and &#8220;not true&#8221; before asking what the process was for vetting such videos before showing them to world leaders like Trump did during an Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Leavitt, who was having none of it, fired back immediately.
WATCH:
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> nukes Fake News <a href="https://twitter.com/Yamiche?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Yamiche</a> for LYING about the burial ground of white farmers killed in South Africa <a href="https://t.co/BhCTGumnoz">pic.twitter.com/BhCTGumnoz</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1925606797441671315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The president showed a video that he said showed more than 1,000 burial sites of white South Africans that he said were murdered. We know that that was not true and that the video wasn&#8217;t true, and so I wonder, why did the president choose to show that —&#8221; Alcindor said.
&#8220;What&#8217;s not true, Yamiche?&#8221; Leavitt interrupted.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not true that the video was showing a burial site. It is unsubstantiated that&#8217;s the case —&#8221; Alcindor continued.
&#8220;No, it&#8217;s — it is true that that video showed the crosses that represent —&#8221; Leavitt pushed back.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not the burial site and that&#8217;s what the president claimed —&#8221; Alcindor tried again.
&#8220;The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin, and those crosses are representing their lives and the fact that they are now dead and their government did nothing about it,&#8221; Leavitt said as Alcindor continued to try to talk over her.
&#8220;Are you disputing that there&#8217;s no —&#8221; Leavitt pressed.
&#8220;I&#8217;m disputing the fact that the video showed what the president claimed it showed, because it did not show that,&#8221; Alcindor insisted. &#8220;But even more, who at the White House is responsible for —&#8221;
&#8220;It did show that, it showed white crosses representing people who have perished because of racial persecution,&#8221; Leavitt continued.
&#8220;— verifying the videos that the president shows, and what protocols are in place when there&#8217;s unsubstantiated information being put out for the world leaders —&#8221; Alcindor tried one more time.
&#8220;Yamiche, what&#8217;s unsubstantiated about the video?&#8221; Leavitt asked again — and then she noted that The Associated Press had also shared a photo of the same memorial, along with a caption that read, &#8220;A view of crosses planted at the White Cross Monument, each one marking a white farmer who has been killed in a farm murder, is seen on a hillside in Ysterberg near Polokwane, South Africa.&#8221;
&#8220;So it is substantiated, not just by that video and the physical evidence that everybody saw on display in the Oval Office, but also by another outlet in this room, The Associated Press, so you should take it up with them if you believe the claim is unsubstantiated.&#8221;
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FYI: <a href="https://twitter.com/Yamiche?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Yamiche</a> — this is from the <a href="https://twitter.com/AP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AP</a> <a href="https://t.co/UfzMhbUuDK">pic.twitter.com/UfzMhbUuDK</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1925605871842660506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt

Karoline Leavitt Spars With NBC Reporter In Briefing Room Spat Over White South African Murders

Karoline Leavitt

Media

NBC News

Politics

White House

An AI-generated list of recommended reading for the summer, published by the Chicago Sun-Times, included several books that don’t exist.
Per <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai">NPR</a>, at least one edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer used the same flawed list, titled “Summer reading list for 2025.&#8221; Suggested titles included “Tidewater Dreams,” purportedly authored by Chilean American novelist Isabel Allende, which was described as her &#8220;first climate fiction novel.&#8221; Allende is a real person, but the suggested novel is not a book she or anyone else published.
Another suggestion was “The Rainmakers,” which is described as a story set in a &#8220;near-future American West where artificially induced rain has become a luxury commodity.” This faux novel was said to be written by 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett.
The outlet noted that only five of the 15 books suggested were real titles. 
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The Chicago Sun-Times printed a &quot;summer reading list&quot; featuring real authors but mostly made up books, generated by a freelancer using AI.
This comes two months after the newspaper cut 20% of its staff. <a href="https://t.co/TLMbDxuey0">pic.twitter.com/TLMbDxuey0</a>
&mdash; Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) <a href="https://twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/1924999492824399991?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We are looking into how this made it into print as we speak,&#8221; Victor Lim, marketing director for the Chicago Sun-Times&#8217; parent company, Chicago Public Media, said in a statement. He also noted that the content did not come directly from the newspaper’s staffers. 
&#8220;This is licensed content that was not created by, or approved by, the Sun-Times newsroom, but it is unacceptable for any content we provide to our readers to be inaccurate. We value our readers&#8217; trust in our reporting and take this very seriously. More info will be provided soon as we investigate.&#8221;
The article&#8217;s author, Marco Buscaglia, addressed the error, writing in an email to NPR, &#8220;Huge mistake on my part and has nothing to do with the Sun-Times. They trust that the content they purchase is accurate and I betrayed that trust. It&#8217;s on me 100 percent.&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memorial Day Sale – Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
The paper also <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/press-room/2025/05/20/chicago-sun-times-response-to-may-18-special-section">issued a response</a> to subscribers, noting that the person responsible for the error had been terminated and promising the mistake would not happen again. They said subscribers would not be charged for the premium edition and said more care would be put into checking for AI-generated content in the future.
“We are in a moment of great transformation in journalism and technology, and at the same time our industry continues to be besieged by business challenges. This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued — and valuable — because of the humanity behind it,” the statement said.
“At Chicago Public Media, we are proud of our credible, independent journalism, created for and by people. And part of the journalistic process is a commitment to acknowledging mistakes. It is unacceptable that this content was inaccurate, and it is equally unacceptable that we did not make it clear to readers that the section was produced outside the Sun-Times newsroom.”

Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times Published A.I.-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don’t Exist

Chicago Sun-Times Published A.I.-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist

Artificial Intelligence

Books

Chicago

Journalism

Legacy Media

Newspaper

U.S.

Explosive new allegations about who really ran the country during Joe Biden’s presidency are shaking up Washington. Border czar Tom Homan gives us a sneak peek into his deportation plans and how ICE will handle hostile sanctuary cities. And, the Supreme Court hands a big win to an elected official in Maine who was speaking out about the state’s transgender policies.
It’s Thursday, May 22, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>Biden&#8217;s Inner Circle &amp; Cognitive Decline Cover-Up</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-923711" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_20_09.Still004.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_20_09.Still004.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_20_09.Still004-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: As new details continue to emerge regarding the White House cover-up of former President Biden’s decline while in office, the legacy media is facing new pressure for its role in the scandal.
The slow drip of stories on Biden’s decline has turned into a waterfall. On Tuesday, the authors of the new bombshell book &#8220;Original Sin&#8221; – CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson – revealed the existence of what they called a “politburo” of longtime advisors who were, if not making the decisions for President Biden, heavily influencing his decisions: Mike Donilon, Steve Burschetti, Ron Klain and Bruce Reed.
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We’ve also learned that during the 2024 campaign, Biden’s team spent millions of dollars organizing a staged town hall event, with hand-picked attendees asking friendly, pre-written questions. The plan was for clips of that orchestrated event to be used in TV ads. But according to reporting in the new book, the 90-minute event was a disaster, with Biden unable to string together coherent answers. As one staffer put it, “the man could not speak.” It was so bad that the campaign never aired any footage, blaming poor lighting instead of the president’s mental capabilities. That story and countless others have drawn outrage from folks asking just how many people were involved in concealing Biden’s cognitive decline.
Much of that outrage has been directed at the former president’s inner circle, but people are also asking questions about the media’s role. For years, many of the country’s most prominent outlets and news anchors parroted White House talking points that President Biden was totally fit for office and locked in behind closed doors. For example, just to pick a name out of the hat, in a 2020 interview with Lara Trump, Tapper himself was <a href="https://x.com/LaraLeaTrump/status/1806420367415914571">so incensed</a> by claims that then-candidate Biden was showing signs of cognitive decline that he ended the interview early. Tapper has since admitted that conservatives were right all along for questioning Biden’s mental fitness.
But plenty of people don’t buy the excuse that the legacy media were totally in the dark about Biden’s mental and physical decline and believe journalists are only changing their tune now because they’re trying to save their credibility.
“Now that Joe Biden has no power anymore and can&#8217;t hurt them, now that he is a cancer-ridden old senile man, they are lining up to kick him,” author and journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon told The Daily Wire. “Acting like somehow they deserve credit for speaking truth to power now that he no longer has any more power.&#8221;
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<h2>Tom Homan Tells Morning Wire His Plan To Ramp Up Deportations</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-923707" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_16.Still002.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_16.Still002.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_21_16.Still002-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: Border czar Tom Homan called for the passage of the Trump budget bill that the House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-one-big-beautiful-bill-in-massive-win-for-trump?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Daniel+Chaitin&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=House+Passes+%E2%80%98One+Big%2C+Beautiful+Bill%E2%80%99+In+Massive+Win+For+Trump">passed</a> on Thursday morning, which he says is crucial to carrying out the president’s immigration agenda.
Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan spoke with Homan on Wednesday.  He made a case for why ICE needs more money to continue to secure the border, increase deportations, and clean up sanctuary cities.
“We&#8217;ve made a lot of progress on the border, but we want to keep it permanent,” Homan told The Daily Wire. “We need the money, not just for the border, but interior enforcement operations… ICE is in the hole right now. They got about 50,000 people in beds. We&#8217;re funded for 34,000. Ice is already in the hole, so if we want to continue this massive deportation operation, we need more money.”
Homan said that if Congress authorizes the spending, ICE will prioritize getting more teams on the streets and more bed space for detainees, as well as more frequent flights to remove illegal aliens from the United States more quickly.
“There&#8217;s no downside on a secure border and there&#8217;s no downside in less trafficking of women and children. There&#8217;s no downside in less fentanyl, there&#8217;s no downside in less people on terrorist watch list coming across, there&#8217;s no downside in taking billions of dollars away from the cartels. There&#8217;s no downside in removing public safety threats and national security threats from this country. We should all be on the same page. So step up, get this done. Give us the money we need so we can keep President Trump&#8217;s promise to American people alive.” 
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<h2>Supreme Court Sides With Maine Republican, Restores Voting Rights</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-923709" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_17_16.Still003.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_17_16.Still003.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_17_16.Still003-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline:  The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with a Maine Republican after Democrats punished her for drawing attention to controversial transgender policies in the state.
Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby was censured by Democrats back in February in a party-line vote over a post she published on Facebook that highlighted a male athlete winning a state championship in the girls’ high school pole vault competition. In Maine, males who identify as transgender are allowed to participate in female sports – which, according to all polling, is not a policy supported by the American people, even in a liberal state like Maine.
“The Democrat majority in the Maine House voted to censure me and at the same time to strip my constituents of their voice and their vote,” Libby told The Daily Wire. “Following that, the censure vote is when Speaker Ryan Fecto declared that until I apologize, I would not be allowed to speak or vote on the floor.”
Libby refused to take down her Facebook post and would not apologize. For that, she’s been stripped of her right to vote and speak on the House floor for months. Libby told The Daily Wire she knew &#8220;immediately&#8221; that she had to take legal action to challenge her punishment. She lost at the district and appeals court levels, before she appealed to the Supreme Court in April. The court sided with Libby and ruled 7-2 that she can vote while her legal battle is playing out. There were only two dissents, from liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor. 
The Trump administration is still fighting the state’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills over her decision to defy President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive order barring males from girls&#8217; spaces and sports. The feds have frozen federal funding for the state, and last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bondi-unleashes-on-maine-announces-new-lawsuit-against-state-for-violating-title-ix">announced a civil lawsuit</a> against Maine’s Department of Education. 
There have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/janet-mills-and-her-family-are-getting-rich-off-the-maine-governors-transgender-battle?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo+and+Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Janet+Mills+And+Her+Family+Get+Rich+Off+The+Maine+Governor%E2%80%99s+Transgender+Stance">also been questions raised</a> about the network of transgender groups surrounding Mills and her family. The governor’s sister, Dora Anne Mills, is the chief health improvement officer at MaineHealth. That health system was a <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/officeholders/janet-t-mills/contributors?cycle=2022&amp;id=9941379">top donor</a> to Mills’ 2022 gubernatorial run and offers irreversible “procedures” for gender-confused minors, such as puberty blockers, and what they call “gender affirming hormone therapy,” and “menstrual suppression.”

052225 MorningWire Thumbnail V1

Morning Brief: Biden’s ‘Politburo’ & Homan’s Sanctuary City Plan

Deportations

Jake Tapper

Joe Biden

Maine

Morning Wire

Sanctuary Cities

Tom Homan

Transgender

Transgender Athletes

&#8216;Welcome To The Party&#8217;: Peter Doocy Hits Back At Claims Reporters Didn&#8217;t Ask About Biden&#8217;s Decline
Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy weighed in on the conversation surrounding &#8220;Original Sin,&#8221; the new book from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, which digs into former President Joe Biden&#8217;s cognitive and physical decline — and the lengths to which the White House went to keep the situation under wraps.
Doocy responded specifically to those who were wondering why &#8220;nobody asked&#8221; about Biden&#8217;s condition or whether it was being covered up by his family and his White House.
&#8220;I have some unique insight on President Biden, having dedicated six years of my life to covering him,&#8221; Doocy wrote on X. &#8220;If you are wondering why nobody asked about his mental fitness, and why nobody asked if White House staffers were covering up his decline … then you weren’t paying attention. Here are 7 times I did just that.&#8221;
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I have some unique insight on President Biden, having dedicated six years of my life to covering him. If you are wondering why nobody asked about his mental fitness, and why nobody asked if White House staffers were covering up his decline… then you weren’t paying attention.…
— Peter Doocy (@pdoocy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pdoocy/status/1925261948381241460?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Doocy then shared a series of news clips, primarily from 2023 and 2024, in which he had directly challenged members of Biden&#8217;s administration.
In the first clip, Doocy is seen asking about Biden&#8217;s ability to handle any situation that might arise, even if it happened to be past his bedtime. &#8220;Say that the Pentagon at some point picks up an incoming nuke. It&#8217;s 11:00 p.m. Who do you call? The First Lady?&#8221; he asked.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed off the question, saying only that Biden had a team of the best people around him to handle emergencies.
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<a href="https://t.co/jOK74CaY8P">https://t.co/jOK74CaY8P</a>
— Peter Doocy (@pdoocy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pdoocy/status/1925261951933849931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In the second clip, Doocy presses Jean-Pierre about a fundraiser at which Biden had told a story about white nationalist riots in Charlottesville inspiring his campaign — and then repeating it in a way that suggested he&#8217;d already forgotten telling the story the first time.
A third clip shows Doocy asking about a similar lapse, saying, &#8220;How is President Biden ever going to convince the three-quarters of voters who are worried about his physical and mental health that he&#8217;s okay even though in Las Vegas he told a story about recently talking to a French president who died in 1996?&#8221;
Jean-Pierre dodged the question entirely: &#8220;I&#8217;m not even gonna go down that rabbit hole.&#8221;
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<a href="https://t.co/0OAIosZDhe">https://t.co/0OAIosZDhe</a>
— Peter Doocy (@pdoocy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pdoocy/status/1925261956417474626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Citing Franklin Foer&#8217;s book &#8220;The Last Politician,&#8221; Doocy asks in the next clip about reports that Biden was treated &#8220;like a baby&#8221; by his staffers. Jean-Pierre waved that claim off as well, saying it was &#8220;ridiculous.&#8221;
Quoting former Special Counsel Robert Hur, Doocy pressed Biden directly on Hur&#8217;s assessment that he was a &#8216;well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,'&#8221; and then pressed him on how bad his memory actually was.
Biden claimed he was fit to serve, and then jabbed at Doocy, &#8220;My memory is so bad I let you speak.&#8221;
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<a href="https://t.co/up4Zkofwr3">https://t.co/up4Zkofwr3</a>
— Peter Doocy (@pdoocy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pdoocy/status/1925261960175558952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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He also included a clip from 2019 in which he confronted Biden about whether or not there was a pledge in place for him to serve only a single term as president. There was not one.
The last clip shows Doocy once again in the White House briefing room, where he asked Jean-Pierre about medical testing that could provide new information about Biden&#8217;s condition.
&#8220;And are you guys just not — since February, testing President Biden for Parkinson&#8217;s or for dementia because, if he gets a bad result, it&#8217;s all over that day?&#8221; Doocy asked, later adding, &#8220;I know that especially as adults get into their 80s, health conditions can pop up more than just once a year when he&#8217;s getting his physical &#8230; Why doesn&#8217;t anybody in the President&#8217;s family urge him just to go to get checked out to say the coast is clear?&#8221;
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to everyone that missed the first few years of questions about whether or not President Biden’s inner circle mislead the American people about his acuity: welcome to the party.
— Peter Doocy (@pdoocy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pdoocy/status/1925261964311199900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;To everyone that missed the first few years of questions about whether or not President Biden’s inner circle mislead the American people about his acuity: welcome to the party,&#8221; he concluded.
In addition to the Fox News White House correspondent, numerous conservative reporters and outlets covered Biden&#8217;s missteps and raised questions about his overall health and cognitive acuity. During a recent interview, Tapper was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jake-tapper-flails-when-confronted-with-his-role-in-biden-cover-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forced to concede</a> that they had been right about the former president from the beginning.

President Biden Departs The White House For Illinois

‘Welcome To The Party’: Peter Doocy Hits Back At Claims Reporters Didn’t Ask About Biden’s Decline

'Welcome To The Party': Peter Doocy Hits Back At Claims Reporters Didn't Ask About Biden's Decline

Peter Doocy

Former FBI Director James Comey embarked on a media tour to save face after an Instagram post landed him in hot water, and he doubled down on claims that he&#8217;d had nothing to do with creating the shell formation he&#8217;d photographed during a casual &#8220;beach walk&#8221; — and that he&#8217;d had no idea the term &#8220;86&#8221; might imply a threat.
Comey first found himself at the center of heated conversation when he shared a photo from the beach, showing seashells that &#8220;someone&#8221; had arranged to form the numbers &#8220;86&#8221; and &#8220;47.&#8221; Critics immediately noted that &#8220;86&#8221; was generally understood to mean &#8220;get rid of&#8221; and &#8220;47&#8221; was a clear reference to President Donald Trump, the 47th president — and they pointed out the fact that Comey should have known better than to post something that so many would interpret as a threat.
The former FBI chief, who was fired by Trump in 2017, claimed at the time that he did not realize the term implied violence and deleted the post — but not before it caught the attention of current FBI Director Kash Patel, and it earned Comey a visit from the United States Secret Service.
Comey doubled down during an appearance on CBS&#8217; &#8220;The Late Show&#8221; with Stephen Colbert, saying again that he and his wife had simply stumbled on the arrangement of seashells — and that he&#8217;d interpreted the message as entirely political.
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🚨JAMES COMEY: “My wife and I were walking on the beach, and saw those numbers in shells on the beach&#8230;somebody else did it!” <a href="https://t.co/LZ6GOX8inv">pic.twitter.com/LZ6GOX8inv</a>
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1925185777530474968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;My wife and I were walking on the beach, and saw those numbers in shells on the beach,&#8221; he said, adding, &#8220;Somebody else did it!&#8221;
&#8220;We were on a walk, preparing for this week,&#8221; Comey continued. &#8220;And she said, &#8216;Why&#8217;d somebody put their address in the sand?&#8217; We looked at it, trying to figure out what it was. She&#8217;d long been a server in restaurants. She said, &#8216;You know what I think it is? A reference to restaurants. When you&#8217;d 86 something at a restaurant.&#8217; I said, &#8216;No, I remember as a kid, you&#8217;d say &#8217;86&#8217; to get out of a place. This place stinks, let&#8217;s 86 it.&#8217; So I said, &#8216;I think it&#8217;s a clever political message.'&#8221;
Comey then tossed his wife under the bus, saying that she was responsible for encouraging him to take the photo and post it to his Instagram page. &#8220;She said, &#8216;You should take a picture.&#8217; I said, &#8216;Sure.&#8217; She said, &#8216;You should Instagram that.&#8217; And then, boom.&#8221;

James Comey

Damage Control: Jim Comey Insists He Found Trump Threat On Beach, Didn’t Know What ’86’ Meant

Damage Control: Jim Comey Insists He Found Trump Threat On Beach, Didn't Know What '86' Meant

Donald Trump

After years of dismissing the Hunter-centric scandals that plagued former President Joe Biden&#8217;s White House, CNN anchor Jake Tapper unloaded on Hunter Biden during a recent interview with longtime journalist Katie Couric.
Tapper spoke with Couric alongside Axios reporter Alex Thompson — with whom he wrote the new book, &#8220;Original Sin,&#8221; about the obvious physical and cognitive decline of the former president and the lengths to which those around him went to cover that up. But when the conversation turned to Hunter Biden, Tapper said that he&#8217;d found former President Joe Biden&#8217;s embattled son to be &#8220;unethical, sleazy, and prone to bad decisions.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: Jake Tapper GOES SCORCHED EARTH on Hunter Biden🚨
TAPPER: &#8220;I think he is provably, demonstrably, unethical, sleazy and prone to horrible decisions.&#8221;
COURIC: &#8220;Tell me how you really feel.&#8221;
TAPPER: &#8220;Just look at the record: after his brother died, he cheated on his wife… <a href="https://t.co/MF6d02j5t1">pic.twitter.com/MF6d02j5t1</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1924912836146561130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;How big a factor was the Hunter stuff?&#8221; Couric asked, referencing the now-infamous laptop, which the Biden White House and dozens of former intelligence community officials had repeatedly tried to pass off as &#8220;Russian disinformation.&#8221;
&#8220;I think it was considerable,&#8221; Tapper began as Thompson nodded in agreement. &#8220;I think Hunter was driving the decision-making for the family in a way that people — he was almost like a chief of staff of the family.&#8221;
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&#8220;Does that strike you as pretty bizarre?&#8221; Couric pressed.
Tapper agreed: &#8220;It&#8217;s bizarre because I think he is provably, demonstrably, unethical, sleazy and prone to horrible decisions, I mean —&#8221;
&#8220;Tell me how you really feel,&#8221; Couric interjected.
&#8220;Well, I — Just look at the record: after his brother died, he cheated on his wife with his brother’s widow and then got her addicted to crack,&#8221; Tapper continued. &#8220;That&#8217;s just one thing I could say. I mean, there — I don&#8217;t have a lot of personal regard for him, and just based on — having nothing to do with — I barely have ever met him, I&#8217;ve met him once or twice. But I knew Beau. Beau was a great, upstanding guy.&#8221;
&#8220;I knew him too,&#8221; Couric said. &#8220;A really —&#8221;
&#8220;A real loss,&#8221; Tapper said. &#8220;For the country too, not just for his family, for the country. But Hunter is not that, and the idea of letting him drive the family car, as it were, is just really, really questionable.&#8221;
Nearly five years earlier, however — as Joe Biden neared the finish line of the 2020 presidential election and shortly after the New York Post had dropped the bombshell that was the Hunter Biden laptop story — Tapper had dismissed the allegations against Hunter Biden as &#8220;wildly unhinged&#8221; and &#8220;too disgusting&#8221; for him to repeat on air.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨FLASHBACK🚨
On Oct. 22, 2020, CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper declared that the growing allegations made against Hunter Biden following the NY Post&#8217;s reporting on Hunter&#8217;s laptop were &#8220;too disgusting&#8221; to repeat on-air and &#8220;wildly unhinged.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/djhFlDK8kz">pic.twitter.com/djhFlDK8kz</a>
— Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancisBrennan/status/1805334046513184799?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-BIDEN-ARRIVAL

Jake Tapper Unloads On ‘Sleazy’ Hunter Biden After Dismissing Scandals During Biden Admin

Jake Tapper Has No Kind Words For Hunter Biden: 'Unethical, Sleazy, And Prone To Horrible Decisions'

Hunter Biden

Katie Couric

Vice President JD Vance made it clear on Monday that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration was far from finished fighting t to enforce federal immigration laws and deport illegal aliens from the United States en masse.
During an interview with The New York Times&#8217; Ross Douthat, Vance addressed the injunctions and lower court rulings aimed at preventing the Trump administration from enforcing federal laws and delivering on one of the the president&#8217;s chief campaign promises.
“You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement, and the courts tell the American people they’re not allowed to have what they voted for.” — <a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JDVance</a> 🔥 <a href="https://t.co/Ls2eEgw3Ly">pic.twitter.com/Ls2eEgw3Ly</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">— Taylor Van Kirk (@VPPressSec) <a href="https://twitter.com/VPPressSec/status/1925150182909313106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement, and the courts tell the American people they’re not allowed to have what they voted for,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;And that&#8217;s where we are right now.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re gonna keep working it through the immigration court process, through the Supreme Court as much as possible,&#8221; Vance continued.
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&#8220;And look, success to me is not so much a number, though obviously I&#8217;d love to see the gross majority of the illegal immigrants who came in under Biden deported. That actually is a secondary metric of success. Success to me is that we have established a set of rules and principles that the courts are comfortable with, and that we have the infrastructure to do what allows us to deport large numbers of illegal aliens when large numbers of illegal aliens come into the country. That to me is real success.&#8221;
Vance went on to defend Trump&#8217;s decision to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected criminal illegal alien gang members, arguing that the people who have opposed it have never seen the impact of allowing unfettered illegal immigration to flood their communities.
&#8220;One thing I&#8217;d love for the American media to do a little bit more is really go to a migrant community where you have, say, 60% legal immigrants and 40% illegal immigrants. The level of chaos, the level of violence, the level of, I think, truly pre-modern brutality that some of these communities have gotten used to — whatever law was written, I think it vests us with very serious power to take very serious action against this,&#8221; he explained.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JDVance</a> on why the Alien Enemies Act is justified 🔥🔥
“One thing I&#8217;d love for the American media to do a little bit more is really go to a migrant community where you have, say, 60% legal immigrants and 40% illegal immigrants. The level of chaos, the level of violence, the… <a href="https://t.co/HmyY2avFX8">pic.twitter.com/HmyY2avFX8</a>
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href="https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1925172668896334107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

JD Vance

Vance Blasts Courts For Blocking Trump Admin Immigration Policies

Vance Blasts Court Interference In Immigration Law Enforcement: 'You Cannot Have A Country'

Illegal Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

President Donald Trump shakes up Capitol Hill while pushing forward on his tax cuts and budget. A new bombshell Senate report claims former President Joe Biden’s federal health agencies were aware of COVID vaccine dangers &#8212; including myocarditis — but intentionally delayed alerting the public. And, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is blaming Trump for the Golden State’s $12 billion deficit — but are Newsom’s own spending decisions to blame?
It’s Wednesday, May 21, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trumps-budget-bill-stump-covid-vax-lies-5-21-25/id1576594336?i=1000709241608" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>Trump On Capitol Hill</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-923067" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_34_27.Still002.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_34_27.Still002.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_34_27.Still002-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: President Trump traveled to Capitol Hill Tuesday, where he pushed GOP members of Congress to pass his “big, beautiful” budget bill.
President Trump’s budget has been moving through Congress for months and is now approaching the finish line. Rather than breaking the bill up into smaller pieces to be voted on piecemeal, the president has urged Congress to pass the whole thing at once — in “One Big Beautiful Bill.” This law would amount to what the White House calls the largest tax cut in American history.
Among other things, it would codify his plan for no taxes on tips, overtime, or Social Security payouts. It would also increase child tax credits, remove more than a million illegal immigrants from Medicaid, increase funding for border wall construction, overhaul the Federal Aviation Administration, and make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent. Without this bill, the tax cuts would expire this year. According to the White House, Americans earning between $30,000 and $80,000 a year would pay around 15% less in taxes, with a projected increase of around $5,000 to median household income.
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At the moment, the House plans to vote on the bill by Thursday, although it’s uncertain whether it will pass. Because House Republicans hold such a slim majority (220-213), they’ve got to have almost total unity to get anything passed – President Trump has only signed five new laws since taking office, which is the fewest by a president at this point in their term since 1953. On Tuesday, Trump took a rare trip across town to the Capitol, where he delivered a blunt message to House Republicans: Get in line.
“Anybody who didn’t support it as a Republican, I would consider to be a fool,” Trump <a href="https://x.com/Voz_US/status/1924873406396166377">said</a>. “It’s a great bill.”
“The high level message is, ‘Hey, you all have done a lot of work,’” Congressman Blake Moore (R-UT), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Daily Wire. “If you force this perfect world that you have in your vision, you&#8217;ll actually get nothing. Let&#8217;s go out, move the ball forward, get something.”
<h2>COVID Lies Exposed?</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-923069" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_41_13.Still003.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_41_13.Still003.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_41_13.Still003-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: A bombshell report released from the Senate says federal health agencies were aware of COVID vaccine risks for months prior to alerting the American people.
Morning Wire got an early look at a report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which claims that Biden-era federal health agencies were aware of severe adverse health reactions associated with these COVID vaccines, but they downplayed health concerns and delayed alerting the public about these risks for months. Specifically, they allegedly knew about risks like myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, which is inflammation of the thin sac surrounding the heart. The report includes more than two thousand pages of documents allegedly showing evidence of this apparent cover-up.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), the chairman of the investigations subcommittee, will hold a full hearing on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has revised its guidance on COVID vaccination. The FDA says that it will continue to approve COVID vaccines for seniors and people at high risk, but the agency is now requiring vaccine makers to conduct new clinical trials before approving these vaccines for the wider public. These companies will have to conduct &#8220;randomized, placebo-controlled trials&#8221; before the FDA will approve their shots for healthy Americans between the ages of 6 months and 64 years old.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who leads the National Institutes of Health (NIH), upset some bureaucrats at the agency when he said at a town hall event that he believes the COVID pandemic was likely started by research that the NIH funded. “If it&#8217;s true that we sponsored research that caused a pandemic, and if you look at polls of the American people, that&#8217;s what most people believe,” Bhattacharya <a href="https://x.com/HansMahncke/status/1924850304727781389">said</a>. “What we have to do is make sure that we do not engage in research that&#8217;s any risk of opposing any risk to human populations.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also made news this week talking about the origins of the COVID pandemic. He <a href="https://x.com/SecKennedy/status/1924790453682970951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1924790453682970951%7Ctwgr%5Ef59c1be2d5f7a6251ac3b65eca8d6354a1d0f055%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Frfk-jr-slams-world-health-organization-in-message-to-groups-annual-meeting">scolded</a> the World Health Organization at the group’s annual meeting over its ties to China.
“While the United States has provided the lion&#8217;s share of the organization&#8217;s funding, historically other countries, such as China, have exerted undue influence over its operations in ways that serve their own interests and not particularly the interests of the global public. This all became obvious during the COVID pandemic when the WHO, under pressure from China, suppressed reports at critical junctures of human-to-human transmission and then worked with China to promote the fiction that COVID originated from bats or pangolins rather than from a Chinese government-sponsored research at a biolab in Wuhan. Not only has the WHO capitulated to political pressure from China, it&#8217;s also failed to maintain an organization characterized by transparency and fair governance by and for its member states. The WHO often acts like it has forgotten that its members must remain accountable to their own citizens and not to transnational or corporate interests.”
<h2>California Fiscal Crisis</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-923071" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_35_24.Still004.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_35_24.Still004.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_35_24.Still004-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced his state faces an astounding budget deficit next year — $12 billion.
The economic outlook for the so-called Golden State has darkened since January, when the budget looked almost balanced. Newsom is blaming the budget hole on a “Trump slump” brought on by the president’s tariffs, as well as Washington’s &#8220;attack&#8221; on California’s economy. But according to the budget document Newsom released, less than half of the deficit is from reduced tax revenue.
“California is increasing their spending faster than they expected,” Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute, told The Daily Wire. “And the big driver of that higher spending is Medicaid, or Medi-Cal as it&#8217;s known here, the health insurance program for the poor. In the rest of the country, Medicaid covers about 20% of people. But in California, it’s about a third, and has been growing very rapidly. One of the reasons it’s been growing is more coverage for illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers.”
Medicaid is supported both by the federal government and the states, and the federal government has made clear it doesn’t pay for insurance for illegal immigrants. But starting in the 2010s, several states, including California, began using their own money to cover some illegal immigrants, and those states have kept expanding that coverage. Just <a href="https://calmatters.org/health/2023/12/undocumented-health-insurance-new-california-laws-2024/">last year</a>, California became the first state to offer Medicaid coverage to all illegal immigrants, of any age.
“Just a few months ago, Newsom announced that the state needed to borrow an extra $2.7 billion because more immigrants were enrolling in the new program than expected,” Glock told The Daily Wire. “The previous estimate was that the program for illegal immigrants would cost about $10 billion a year. Now the estimate’s gone up again. One could say this entire budget problem could be solved just by stopping this one medical program for illegal immigrants.”

MRN_052125_Thumbnail_V2

Morning Brief: Trump Stumps For The Big, Beautiful Bill & A COVID Vaccine Bombshell

COVID-19

Gavin Newsom

Jake Tapper scrambled to respond when confronted directly over his new book — written with Axios reporter Alex Thompson — and the assertion that any &#8220;cover-up&#8221; of former President Joe Biden&#8217;s obvious cognitive and physical decline would only have been possible with the help of journalists.
Tapper and Thompson&#8217;s book, &#8220;Original Sin,&#8221; details Biden&#8217;s decline and his decision to run again despite that – and Tapper struggled to defend the fact that he, like many others in media, had failed to report on what was obvious to so many in Right-leaning media and to the American people.
Tapper was ultimately forced to admit that the conservative journalists — who&#8217;d been reporting on Biden&#8217;s obvious impairment for months, if not years — had been right all along.
&#8220;Alex and I are here to say the conservative media was right and conservative media was correct and that there should be a lot of soul-searching, not just among me, but among the legacy media to begin with, all of us, for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently 100 percent,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This Tapper quote goes out to everybody in conservative media who’s gotten a belligerent late night Tapper DM: “Alex and I are here to say the conservative media was right and conservative media was correct and that there should be a lot of soul-searching, not just among me, but… <a href="https://t.co/jZ1MJv2oXZ">https://t.co/jZ1MJv2oXZ</a>
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) <a href="https://twitter.com/peterjhasson/status/1924964444557176944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
The admission came during an interview with Sirius XM host Megyn Kelly, who said Biden&#8217;s decline was &#8220;obvious&#8221; to the actually curious media.
&#8220;Over here in my ecosphere, we were covering all of these things,&#8221; Sirius XM host Megyn Kelly began. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t just falling down, it was getting lost. It was some of the stuff you report in your book, we knew and we were reporting on. Like the multi jump-cuts in the videos of him, where it was obvious he couldn&#8217;t get through a one minute take.&#8221;
&#8220;It was clear to us that he was using a teleprompter, and there was some reporting on that at the time — all of which the White House was denying,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Now, the current White House, I have some connections. With the Joe Biden White House, I had none — but you did. There was an attempted cover-up. It could only ever work if you allowed it, if the press allowed it. Some of us tried not to and some of us were complicit.&#8221;
Tapper pushed back then, saying that the Biden White House had not been terribly fond of him either — but Kelly argued that he&#8217;d gotten some 200 people in Biden&#8217;s orbit to talk to him for the book. Tapper noted that they spoke to him after the election, but Kelly said that he could have &#8220;called and worked&#8221; them before that.
&#8220;No, that&#8217;s the point, they were not being honest,&#8221; Tapper protested. &#8220;That&#8217;s the point.&#8221;
&#8220;Well, how did The Wall Street Journal get it in June of 2024?&#8221; Kelly asked. &#8220;And Jake Tapper and CNN couldn&#8217;t find sources for this story then, before he dropped out?&#8221;
Tapper noted that he&#8217;d had the reporters who broke the story for the WSJ — Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes — on his show to discuss their reporting after the debate he&#8217;d hosted alongside Dana Bash. However, he was forced to admit the fact that he didn&#8217;t have them on when the story broke – and had instead had them on after Biden&#8217;s disastrous debate performance.
Tapper claimed that he was &#8220;sure&#8221; he&#8217;d wanted to have them on when the story broke, but that he wasn&#8217;t aware of what the &#8220;booking situation&#8221; was at the time. Kelly noted that he&#8217;d instead booked a Democrat who spent the time smearing the WSJ report as propaganda from Rupert Murdoch.
&#8220;If we&#8217;re going to do this, let&#8217;s stick to the facts here, okay?&#8221; Tapper said.
&#8220;Jake, I&#8217;ve — that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been doing all along,&#8221; Kelly shot back. &#8220;One of us didn&#8217;t miss the story of the century when it comes to presidential politics, and one of us did.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;One of us didn&#8217;t miss the biggest story of the century when it comes to presidential politics, and one of us did.&#8221;<a href="https://twitter.com/megynkelly?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MegynKelly</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/jaketapper?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JakeTapper</a> debate Biden&#8217;s cognitive decline and the media&#8217;s role.
FULL interview out soon:<a href="https://t.co/YJPxz5Gu8d">https://t.co/YJPxz5Gu8d</a><a href="https://t.co/F96HgI7HIW">https://t.co/F96HgI7HIW</a> <a href="https://t.co/0GBVN29mZR">pic.twitter.com/0GBVN29mZR</a>
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/MegynKellyShow/status/1924884165968769062?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>

Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront 2024 – Show

Jake Tapper Flails When Confronted With His Role In Biden Cover-Up

Axios

In a moment that recalled former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton&#8217;s frustrated exclamation during the Benghazi hearings, &#8220;The View&#8221; host Whoopi Goldberg lashed out at everyone who has been questioning former President Joe Biden&#8217;s cognitive and physical fitness for the job he held until January 20.
&#8220;Why is this important to know now?&#8221; she demanded to know during Tuesday&#8217;s broadcast — the same day that &#8220;Original Sin,&#8221; the book from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson on Biden&#8217;s obvious decline, hit bookstores everywhere.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Whoopi decries the American people learning Democrats lied to them about Biden&#8217;s health: 
&#8220;Why is this important to know now?!&#8221; 
Joy Behar tries to distract from the fact she and the cast took part in the coverup by manically ranting about &#8220;Trump&#8217;s atrocities.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/VLhiOV2Oa7">pic.twitter.com/VLhiOV2Oa7</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1924847259490943363?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Golberg began by attacking the authors&#8217; reliance on &#8220;anonymous sources&#8221; to write the book — and wondered why those people, if they were willing to provide such damning information after the fact, had not been willing to speak up earlier.
&#8220;But my question is, why is this important to know now?&#8221; Goldberg asked — sounding much like Clinton, who during the Benghazi hearings had asked, &#8220;What difference, at this point, does it make?&#8221;
&#8220;It just seems to me, you know, we got a lot of stuff to be concerned about at the moment,&#8221; she continued, suggesting that it no longer mattered that Biden&#8217;s decline was hidden from the American people even thought many of the people responsible for hiding it were still in positions of influence and power.
Alyssa Farah Griffin pushed back on the rest of her cohosts, saying that if they wanted to claim they were supportive of a free press, they couldn&#8217;t attack the press when it reported things they didn&#8217;t like.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sara Haines actually acknowledges the audio of Hur&#8217;s interview with Biden where he forgets major moments of his life. 
Whoopi defends, arguing that sure he&#8217;s &#8220;83 and &#8220;a little stumbly, a little rumbly&#8221; but &#8220;I can&#8217;t point to anything that he&#8217;s done as president [that&#8217;s evidence of… <a href="https://t.co/mkLQ6aa8j0">pic.twitter.com/mkLQ6aa8j0</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1924853941956673744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Cohost Sara Haines mentioned the recently-released audio from former Special Counsel Robert Hur&#8217;s interview with Biden, acknowledging how damaging that was to Biden — but Goldberg pushed back and dismissed Biden&#8217;s failure to recall important events as him being just &#8220;a little stumble, a little rumbly.&#8221;

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goes Full Hillary On Biden Cover-Up: What Difference, At This Point, Does It Make?

Benghazi

Hillary Clinton

The View

A CNN panel discussion went off the rails on Monday as Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky refused to address a question about former President Joe Biden&#8217;s obvious cognitive and physical decline — and the lengths to which his White House went to cover that up — without pivoting to complain about current President Donald Trump.
As the panel discussed Biden&#8217;s term in the White House — in the context of &#8220;Original Sin,&#8221; the book written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson — Roginsky repeatedly interrupted to shoehorn in her issues with President Trump, demanding several times that he should be made to submit to a cognitive test in spite of the fact that he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-got-every-answer-right-trump-swipes-at-biden-after-annual-physical" target="_blank" rel="noopener">already has</a>.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
ME: The Biden cover-up is pretty bad.
DEM: bUt TrUmP!
ME: Ok but the story is the Biden cover up, right?
DEM: tRuMp cOgNiTiVe TeSt!
ME: &lt;Ron Burgundy voice&gt; We are laughing! <a href="https://t.co/XPhQluYek5">pic.twitter.com/XPhQluYek5</a>
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1924812929427218848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Republican commentator Scott Jennings sparked a reaction from her when he asked whether she was defending Biden&#8217;s time in the White House and saying that he was &#8220;fine&#8221; during that time.
&#8220;Are you arguing the Joe Biden was fine during his term?&#8221; Jennings asked.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not arguing that he was fine, I&#8217;m arguing that Donald Trump —&#8221; Roginsky said.
&#8220;You keep pivoting back to Trump, who&#8217;s clearly fine,&#8221; Jennings pushed back. &#8220;I&#8217;m just asking you if you&#8217;re arguing that something was not wrong with Joe Biden.&#8221;
&#8220;But let me ask you — let me ask you a question,&#8221; Roginsky continued. &#8220;Scott, I&#8217;m so glad you asked that question. Because Joe Biden&#8217;s no longer the president.&#8221;
&#8220;But he was, and that&#8217;s the story tonight,&#8221; Jennings pointed out.
&#8220;Donald Trump — Donald Trump —&#8221; Roginsky protested. &#8220;Well, no, actually, stop. Stop! Stop! Let me finish, let me finish what I&#8217;m saying. Let me finish something. Donald Trump is the President of the United States. I would dearly love to see a cognitive test from him, because as somebody who&#8217;s lived in the New York media market for the last forty years, I can tell you, that the Donald Trump that I knew in the 80s is not the Donald Trump that I hear today.&#8221;
&#8220;So your answer to the cover-up is &#8216;Trump,'&#8221; Jennings prompted.
&#8220;My answer is —&#8221; Roginsky began.
From Jennings: &#8220;No, your answer to every question is &#8216;Trump.&#8217; The cover-up is the story tonight.&#8221;
&#8220;My answer is the president — yes, the cover-up is also the President of the United States, who happens to be Donald J. Trump today, is not – yeah, you could laugh all you want — you know why you&#8217;re laughing? Because you don&#8217;t —&#8221;
At that point, Jennings spliced in a clip of actor Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy for effect: &#8220;We are laughing!&#8221;
&#8220;No, no, no, we&#8217;re not laughing. You don&#8217;t want to answer the question, Scott,&#8221; she complained.

President Biden Addresses NAACP Convention In Las Vegas

CNN Panel Explodes Over Biden Cover-Up When Dem Strategist Just Can’t Quit Trump

Scott Jennings

CNN Republican commentator Scott Jennings defended President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration for moving forward with charges against one of the House Democrats involved in a physical scuffle with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside a New Jersey detention facility — but CNN host Abby Phillip tried her level best to make the conversation about President Donald Trump instead.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-charge-new-jersey-democrat-over-clash-with-agents-at-ice-facility" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver</a> (D-NJ) stemmed from a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newark-mayor-arrested-after-dem-reps-storm-new-jersey-ice-facility-charge-past-security-officers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dust-up</a> outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, where she was allegedly caught on body-cam video getting physical with federal agents during a protest that also involved two other House Democrats — New Jersey Reps. Bonnie Watson-Coleman and Rob Menendez — and Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Jennings argued during a Monday panel discussion that Trump&#8217;s Justice Department was well within its rights to level charges against McIver for her actions — but Phillip jumped in to run interference.
WATCH:
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Feds well within rights to charge Rep. McIver for assaulting law enforcement at ICE facility in Newark.
The video doesn’t lie &#8211; it ain’t no cheap fake! Amazing how much energy Dems put into illegal aliens. Week after week. They’d never fight that hard for the American people. <a href="https://t.co/yjP0GiJSdr">pic.twitter.com/yjP0GiJSdr</a>
&mdash; Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1924675029792354769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Mayor Baraka began the discussion by claiming that he believed the videos would ultimately clear McIver of any wrongdoing, but Jennings was not buying it.
&#8220;I mean, the videos are pretty clear, are they not?&#8221; Jennings asked. &#8220;I mean, she&#8217;s shoving — elbows — pushing, I mean, this is violent activity against law enforcement, is it not?&#8221;
Barak attempted to downplay the scene, saying simply, &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of pushing and shoving. I don&#8217;t know if —&#8221;
&#8220;Would a regular person, if they came and did that to a federal officer, get away with it?&#8221; Jennings pressed.
&#8220;A regular person —?&#8221; Baraka asked.
&#8220;Just a regular person, a non-politician,&#8221; Jennings clarified.
&#8220;They might get pardoned,&#8221; Phillip interjected, clearly referencing the people Trump pardoned for their involvement in the riots on January 6th, 2021.
&#8220;If they showed up at a federal facility —&#8221; Jennings continued.
&#8220;They might get pardoned,&#8221; Phillip repeated. &#8220;By this president.&#8221;
&#8220;But were they charged?&#8221; Jennings pressed. &#8220;Were they charged? Were they convicted in court? Would a regular person get away with it?&#8221;
Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky then tried to convince Jennings that the video of McIver was not clear, and that he&#8217;d be able to see that if he took off his &#8220;MAGA goggle glasses.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s not a &#8216;cheap fake,&#8217; I can tell you that,&#8221; Jennings said of the body cam footage.

US-POLITICS-IMMIGRATION-ICE

Scott Jennings Defends Trump For Charging New Jersey Dem. CNN Host Has Wild Response.

January 6

New Jersey

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