Scalise’s exit comes after failing to persuade Trump allies in the House of Representatives and following former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s jab that Scalise overestimated his GOP support.
Scalise called on Republicans to rally behind a new leader while addressing the media at a press conference.
“If you look at over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conferences there’s still work to be done. Our conference still has to come together and is not there,” he told reporters. “There are still some people that have their own agendas. And I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs.”
Scalise’s decision comes after failing to persuade staunch conservatives in the House, following McCarthy’s humiliating ousting. He had initially faced opposition from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
“This House of Representatives needs a speaker, and we need to open up the House again,” he stressed. “But clearly, not everybody is there. And they’re still schisms that have to get resolved. I never came here for a title I’ve had some great titles. I’m the Majority Leader of the House, and I love the job I have.”
Despite winning the majority of votes to be speaker nominee, Trump still raised concerns about Scalise’s health concerns.
“Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News Radio, referring to Scalise’s health concerns, as he battles blood cancer.
“I just don’t know how you can do the job when you have such a serious problem,” Trump added.
Donald Trump on Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) as potential House Speaker:
“I like [Scalise & Jim Jordan] very much, but … Steve is a man that is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer. I mean, he’s got to get better — for himself. I’m not talking about even country.” pic.twitter.com/Mc7F1CnBYh
The spotlight now turns to Jordan, who has indicated his interest in the speakership should Scalise exit the race.
Meanwhile, a faction of centrist Republicans is eyeing a potential McCarthy return. However, McCarthy has asserted that he will leave the final decision to the House conference.
(Brett Rowland, The Center Square) Prosecutors have accused New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife of conspiring to have the senator act as a foreign agent of Egypt.
In a superseding indictment filed Thursday against Menendez, who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time of the allegations, prosecutors said the senator took bribes from Egyptian officials and intelligence agents who wanted to use his power in the Senate.
A superseding indictment means federal prosecutors have rewritten their indictment.
In September, prosecutors charged Menendez and his wife with federal bribery offenses in connection with a “corrupt relationship” with three New Jersey businessmen.
That three-count indictment says Menendez and his wife, Nadine, received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bribes beginning in 2018 in exchange for using the senator’s influence to enrich the businessmen, one of whom has ties to the Egyptian government.
The bribes were in the form of a luxury car, gold bars and cash.
Both Menendez and his wife have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
(Headline USA) A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people pleaded guilty to a federal charge Thursday in an agreement with prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she was deeply troubled by his actions that affected Trump and thousands of other people.
“When we have people, for whatever reason, take the law into their own hands society doesn’t function,” she said. “Make no mistake, this was not acceptable. If anyone tells you the ends justify the means, they’re wrong.”
Nonetheless, despite the judge’s disappropbation, it appeared unlikely that the punishment would fit the crime given the sweatheart plea deal Littlejohn was offered by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s deeply corrupted Justice Department.
Littlejohn pleaded guilty to just one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. The count carries up to five years in prison, but the ultimate sentence will be decided by the judge. He is set to be sentenced Jan. 29.
His attorney Lisa Manning declined to comment.
The outlets were not named in the charges, but the description and time frame align with stories about Trump’s tax returns in the New York Times and reporting about wealthy Americans’ taxes in the left-wing grant-funded ProPublica.
The 2020 New York Times report found Trump paid $750 in federal income tax the year he entered the White House and no income tax at all some years thanks to colossal losses.
ProPublica, meanwhile, reported in 2021 on a trove of tax-return data about the wealthiest Americans. It found the 25 richest people legally pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than many ordinary workers do.
Both publications have declined to comment on the charges, and ProPublica reporters previously said they didn’t know the identity of the source.
The stories sparked calls for reform on taxes for the wealthy—and calls for investigations into the leaking of tax information, which has specific legal protections.
The IRS has said any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable and the agency has since tightened security.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Joe Biden has made the decision to block the release of $6 billion in frozen assets that were recently transferred to Iran as part of a contentious prisoners’ swap.
The move follows the barbaric terrorist attack against Israel by Hamas, an Iranian-backed group based in the Gaza Strip.
These funds were granted in the wake of Iran’s agreement to release six American citizens from custody. Bipartisan congressional critics suggested Iranian involvement in the recent terrorist attack on Israel.
A second report, citing U.S. intelligence officers, noted that while Iran was aware of the attack, it was not immediately aware of the timing.
“We have not currently seen anything to suggest Iran supported or was behind the attack,” a U.S. official said. “Our experience tells us though that it is premature to draw any final conclusion on the issue.”
On the other hand, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan asserted Iran’s undirect complicity in the attack.
“They have provided the lion’s share of the funding for the military wing of Hamas,” he said during a press conference on Wednesday. “They provide training, they have provided capabilities, they have provided support, and they have had engagement in contact with Hamas over the years and years.”
Despite his scorching remarks, Sullivan initially refused to confirm whether Biden would block the $6 billion in frozen assets. “We have not yet had a dollar of that $6 billion spent. And I will leave it at that,” he stated.
According to Axios, pressure from within the Democratic Party also played a role in the decision to block the funds. Concerns about the 2024 election prompted several Democratic senators, including Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Jon Tester, D-Mont., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Bob Casey, D-PA., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohi.
Jake Sullivan refuses to say whether or not Biden will seek to re-freeze $6 billion in assets for Iran. pic.twitter.com/uxNSXdi9KW
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) An internal CBP memo has alerted agents to the existence of bounties and torture threats aimed at agents.
NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley disclosed these alarming findings on Tuesday, leaving agents fearing for their safety.
“We will pay for any addresses of border patrol agents,” one message said. Another offered a chilling incentive: “$200 your way if you get me a border patrol agent’s address.”
These unsettling messages indicate a targeted effort to expose the agents to potential harm.
NEW: “We will pay for any addresses of border patrol agents!!”@CBP sends out internal alert to agents after intercepting messages seeking the home addresses of agents and their families with an intent to do harm—
The text message obtained by CBP states, “$200 your way if you… pic.twitter.com/98PA8pYdWv
A second message contained a more sinister tone, offering a substantial sum: “$1k if you get me they mommas [sic] address.” Another ominous text read, “We offer $$$ for information on BP [Border Patrol] agents,” alongside what appeared to be a Mexican flag.
“Top dollar on good info. I’ll post us torturing any bp agent u [sic] send,” one last message read.
The recipients of these messages responded with thumbs up and a fiery emoji, indicating their willingness to cooperate.
In statement to the press, CBP said they are taking the threats serious. “CBP takes all threats, including those directed towards agents and their families, very seriously. While counter-measure are law enforcement sensitive, we deploy necessary precautions accordingly,” the statement read.
All of these military-age men were apprehended at our southern border TODAY.
Tonight, they were released into the United States without repercussion, and are calling home, saying, “Come. The border is open.”
As reported by Bradley, the FBI launched an investigation into these alleged threats. The agency, however, chose not to comment publicly on the matter.
“In keeping with DOJ standard practice, the FBI neither confirms nor denies the existence of an investigation,” the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs said, before adding, “We do not have a comment.”
Data has revealed that assaults involving firearms against CBP officers are on the rise.
In August 2023, a group of Border agents faced a dangerous encounter with armed human smugglers. As they encountered these violent individuals, the smugglers opened fire on the agents.
“The backup agents also reported gunfire and witnessed muzzle flashes,” Border Patrol Agent Justin Castrejon told NBC 23 in California. “We have seen an increase in acts of violence here among the San Diego sector.”
Castrejon highlighted the escalating danger at the southern border. “These smuggling organizations are becoming more desperate,” he added. “Our message to people is do not put your lives in the hands of these human smugglers.”
We have no clue who is in our country.
There are people on the terror watch list entering our wide open border. People bringing drugs, crime, and terror into the United States.
(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The true intentions of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were exposed once again when the former asked Americans, among whom were many Jews, to pay for the evacuation from Israel and the latter helped Americans to go back home safely.
The U.S. State Department which is controlled by the Biden administration demanded that Americans must sign promissory notes as a precondition for any assistance in evacuating from the crisis-hit region.
US STATE DEPARTMENT TELLS CITIZENS STUCK IN ISRAEL IT MAY HELP THEM EVACUATE – BUT ONLY IF THEY SIGN A PROMISSARY NOTE. pic.twitter.com/PfFI0i5mk1
In the email to the American citizens, the DOS wrote that it would help Americans get to a “safe location” instead of their homeland, adding that Americans would also need to pay for everything.
“Travelers should be prepared to arrange their own lodging at the safe location and pay for their own onward travel from the third country to their chosen destination. Departure assistance is provided via a loan from the U.S. government which requires travelers to sign a promissory note (an agreement to repay) prior to departure,” the email said.
One of the people who stuck in that situation was the communications manager at the American Accountability Foundation, Yitz Friedman.
“While Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Romania and other countries sent planes to bring their citizens home from the war zone, our government told us to fend for ourselves. I literally called our embassy asking for help and was essentially told to pound sand,” he wrote.
My wife and I have finally gotten ourselves on the way home to the US from Israel after days of fear and tremendous anxiety. Our original flight was canceled.
While Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Romania, and other countries sent planes to bring their citizens home from the war zone,…
However, Friedman and his wife were still able to go back home safely, despite the U.S. government abandoning them and many other Americans. The reason why that happened, he said, was because of Trump’s foreign policies.
“I would like to thank President Trump… My wife and I just flew from Tel Aviv – passing three or four armed military checkpoints to get to the airport – and are now safe in Dubai waiting for our connecting flight to the US,” Friedman wrote.
I would like to thank President Trump.
After days of fear and anxiety in Israel, I am finally on my way home to the US.
Almost every airline canceled all flights, including our flight home. We we're sure what to do.
Luckily, one if the few airlines still running flights is…
He then explained that the reason why he, his wife and many other Americans are now safely back home is because of Trump’s Abraham Accords.
“If not for the Trump’s Abraham Accords, this would be unthinkable. There would be no flights from Israel to the [United Arab Emirates]… Thanks to Trump’s efforts, thousands of American citizens have a way home from a very dangerous situation. Even as it seems the Middle East is imploding, this historic peace agreement is making things a little better,” he wrote.
(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) A pair of social-justice warriors at the Pennsylvania State University got more than they bargained for after attempting to disrupt a visit by alumna Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer and staunch advocate for women’s sports, the Daily Mailreported.
The students, protesting in support of allowing transgender athletes to participate on women’s teams, obviously never got the memo that free speech applied to everyone, not just those who agreed with them.
They proceeded to bully people working at information tables during the event Tuesday, even cursing at them and telling them to “die.”
“What do you think about trans people?” one protester asked another student in a video posted to Twitter by the College Fix.
After the student refused to respond, the activist added: “You can probably f*** yourself too.”
The snowflakes, who were hiding behind COVID masks despite being outdoors, also knocked items off an information table and flipped the table over.
The video became increasingly unnerving as one of the protestors confronted another student, yelling, “You’re anti-trans! You’re a piece of s***! I hope you f***ing die!”
When the police arrived and handcuffed one of the protestors, they called the officer a “b***h.”
The sequence of the events led to a potentially profound moment. Another protester walked up to a man, who turned out to be Republican state Sen. Cris Dush, and shouted, “You’re a f***ing loser!”
Dush responded, “I appreciate it.”
“We are going to have free speech on this campus. This is my district,” Dush said on the video—and also threatened to pull funding from Penn State during the protests.
“You wanna lose $150 million to the campus for your friends. I’m state Sen. Dush. If you guys don’t behave yourselves, you very well…,” said Dush, who was cut off, Newsweekreported.
Gaines delivered her remarks over a bullhorn for what she dubbed “Real Women’s Day.”
Meanwhile, demonstrators chanted “Trans lives matter” and mocked the 12-time All-American swimmer by claiming she could not swim.
The speech, which was hosted by the school’s chapter of Turning Point USA, did not take place inside the school due to a conflict over the booking—so Gaines made other arrangements, the Daily Mail reported.
“No way President of Penn State (Neeli Bendapudi ) makes a whole video explaining why public institutions are legally obligated to let ‘bigots’ apparently like me on campus to speak then proceeds to CANCEL my speech tomorrow for real women’s day (X/X),” Gaines said in an Oct. 9 tweet. “Have it your way. See ya tomorrow with a soap box and megaphone, Penn State!”
(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In an appearance Wednesday on CBS’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., acknowledged that American voters were not sending the most intelligent or best suited people to represent them in Washington, D.C., RealClear Politics reported.
“Sometimes you literally just can’t believe these people are making the decisions that are determining the government here,” said the cognitively impaired Fetterman, who is known for his inability to speak in public after having suffered a stroke several months before he was elected to office.
“It’s actually scary too,” the senator added.
According to the hoodie-wearing lawmaker, “you all need to know America is not sending their best and brightest to Washington, D.C.”
With the possible exception of President Joe Biden, 81, the 54-year-old Fetterman—who received an allowance from his parents until he was 49—has stood out as the least capable of the lot.
He spent several of his early months as a senator on a psychiatric ward while recovering from depression—fueling concern, at one point, that he might be clinically brain-dead.
Not only have reporters and debate moderators been obliged to make special accommodations due to his mental disabilities, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. even temporarily relaxed longstanding dress-code requirements to allow Fetterman on the chamber floor.
The widely lambasted rule change, which Schumer later reversed, was colloquially called the “Fetterman Rule.”
Nonetheless, it did not appear that Fetterman’s recent wisecrack was intended to be ironic or self-effacing.
Rather, he appeared to be attempting, in his own obtuse way, to snipe at House Republicans for refusing to concede ground on a recent appropriations bill to fund the government.
“You know, before the government almost shut down, it came down to a couple hours,” Fetterman said.
“I was in my office and they finally came over from the House and they were like ‘OK, well, this has to be unanimous in the Senate,'” he continued. “Out of 99 of us, if one single one of us would’ve said no, the whole government would have shut down.”
For this reason, he argued, it was “dangerous” to put “that kind of power” in the hands of a normal person—especially the “very less gifted kinds of people” that he sees in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Aside from his own well-documented gaffes, Fetterman has also brought his crass ways to the Senate floor.
As Republicans contemplated a potential impeachment inquiry into the Biden family, Fetterman called the investigation “a big circle jerk on the fringe Right.”
A memo sent to all officers on Wednesday stated, “All uniformed members of the service in every rank, will perform duty in the uniform of the day and be prepared for deployment.”
NEW: A Jewish school in Queens New York is closing on Friday after former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal called for a global day of jihad.
In response to Palestinian aggression, *all* New York City Police officers have been told to report for duty in uniform on Friday.
The infamous “Day of Jihad” was initially issued by Hamas founder Khaled Meshaal, who, in statements to Reuters, urged Muslims to unite Hamas in their barbaric bid to destroy Israel.
“[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday,” Meshaal declared. “Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan… This is a moment of truth and the borders are close to you, you all know your responsibility.”
The NYPD has responded by increasing security presence across all 77 police precincts and initiating the Joint Operations Center at police headquarters.
City emergency agencies have also been put on high alert, required to report to special operations “as soon as they become aware of any incidents related to this event.”
As reported by the Post, the Fire Department, the Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority and the Sanitation Department are among those local agencies.
Hamas’s alarming calls were echoed by the terrorist group’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who made a horrific statement in a YouTube video.
“This is the battle of not only the Palestinians or the Gazans, it is the battle of all the Arab and Muslim nations,” he asserted. “Simply for the reason that it is a battle for Palestine, it is a battle for Jerusalem.”
In response to these developments, several pro-Hamas protests have taken place across the United States. Notably, in New York City, the Democratic Socialists of America, a political party with ties to the DNC and from which Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., hails, organized a demonstration in support of Hamas’s cause.
The backdrop to this heightened state of alert came after Hamas terrorists launched an attack on southern Israeli cities, resulting in the tragic deaths of over 1,300 Israelis, including 22 confirmed Americans and 500 children. In response, Israel carried out military operations in Gaza, leading to the loss of over 1,500 Palestinian lives.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the early 1990s, Brian P. Haughton was playing music in a neo-Nazi punk band with at least one member of the Aryan Republican Army—a gang of white supremacist bank robbers who used the proceeds of their crimes to fund domestic terrorism, possibly including the Oklahoma City bombing.
After a career as a Philadelphia police officer, Haughton was hired by the Justice Department several years ago to track domestic terrorism threats through its Regional Information Sharing Systems program, or RISS. Headline USA understands that Haughton was still working for the department at least as of last November.
Haughton’s employment through the DOJ was first reported in November 2021 by The Progressive Magazine. The left-leaning publication suggested that Haughton’s hiring at the DOJ was due to his “white privilege.”
But Haughton’s government position could also stem from him spying on the early-90s neo-Nazi movement, according to Frank Meeink—a former neo-Nazi who now works on deradicalizing people from the movement, and whose life story helped inspire actor Edward Norton’s character in the hit film, American History X.
If that’s the case, Haughton would have been spying on neo-Nazis involved with the deadliest domestic terrorism attack in American history, the OKC bombing.
Meeink, who knew Haughton when they were both in the neo-Nazi movement, told Headline USA that he “heard through the grapevine” that Haughton may have been working for law enforcement in an undercover capacity in the early 90s—which would explain how he was hired as a police officer around that same time.
“We’ve heard through the grapevine that he was undercover even back then. That does go to the fact that: Why would they support him? Because he was a major part of one of the leading neo-Nazi bands in America. So were they propping him up even then?” Meeink asked.
Meeink added that he believes Haughton may have provided information about the ARA bank robbers to law enforcement. The FBI arrested the ARA members in early 1996.
Members of the ARA bank-robber gang were arrested in early 1996. PHOTO: FBI
“I believe he did inform on the ARA, but I think [the FBI] already had enough to get them, and that Brian probably helped a little bit,” he said.
“Either way, it’s either corrupt or stupidity on the country’s part. Because if he was undercover, he helped propagate white supremacist beliefs in a major way, which led to so other major stuff.”
Meeink said another anomaly about Haughton’s career is the fact that the Philadelphia Police Department kept him as an officer, even after media reports began circulating in the 90s about the department’s employment of neo-Nazis. Meeink said several neo-Nazis were purged from the department, but not Haughton—though that could have been because he had family members working in the department who protected him.
“[Philadelphia purged its racist cops] because they knew defense attorneys would eventually find this information, and anytime a neo-Nazi was involved in the arrest of a black person or anything like that, the defense attorney is going to tear them up on the witness stand,” Meeink explained.
“But they kept Brian on because his dad was involved in the Fraternal Order of Police. When a lot of the shit started coming out, they took him off the streets and let him train at the academy.”
Haughton’s unexplained employment with the DOJ adds yet another layer to the wider conspiracy surrounding the ARA and the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing.
As Headline USA has extensively reported, federal law enforcement had foreknowledge of the OKC bombing: ATF informant Carol Howe warned her handlers in early 1995 that neo-Nazis were planning the attack from Elohim City, a Christian Identity compound in eastern Oklahoma.
Evidence also suggests that the OKC bombing may have been a failed sting operation. According to FBI informant-turned-whistleblower John Matthews, the bureau was aware of some of OKC bomber Timothy McVeigh’s movements beforehand. Former FBI official Danny Coulson has also revealed that the bureau knew McVeigh visited Elohim City, where some of the ARA bank robbers were staying at the time.
Additionally, criminologist Mark Hamm tracked the ARA and McVeigh’s movements throughout 1994 and 1995, finding that the bomber was often in Arizona, Kansas and Oklahoma at the same time as other ARA members.
“It is highly improbable—if not statistically impossible—for nine men with such violent predispositions and such deep connections within the white power movement … to randomly come together at the same time in the same geographical area,” Hamm concluded, referring to McVeigh, his accomplice Terry Nichols and the ARA.
Even more shocking is that Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue obtained an email from former FBI agent Don Jarrett—who investigated right-wing terrorism in the 1990s—saying that the ARA was thoroughly infiltrated by FBI informants.
All of that raises the question: Was Haughton a part of that failed sting operation that was targeting McVeigh?
FBI records do show that the bureau’s Philadelphia office had at least one informant monitoring the ARA for possible links to the bombing—though that informant was operating in 1996, which was after Haughton was already a sworn police officer.
One of the ARA members, Kevin McCarthy, was also allegedly having FBI intel leaked to him through his uncle, who was a police officer with connections to the bureau.
However, the DOJ didn’t respond to numerous emails from Headline USA about the matter. The DOJ today, of course, is headed by Merrick Garland, who helped prosecute McVeigh and continues to insist that the bomber acted alone on April 19, 1995.
Haughton couldn’t be reached for comment. Haughton’s former neo-Nazi bandmate and ARA bank robber Scott Stedeford didn’t respond to a letter seeking comment.
Despite acknowledging the possibility that Haughton was an undercover informant in the early 90s, Meeink said he doesn’t think that’s why he was hired by the DOJ some 25 years later. Rather, he said he thinks Haughton was hired during the Trump era to track Muslin and left-wing terrorists.
“The Trump administration wanted to allocate more money to [countering] Muslim extremists than the right wing. I feel they were bringing people aboard who were sympathetic towards right-wing extremists,” said Meeink, who also said he doesn’t believe that the ARA bank robberies were used to fund McVeigh.
“Why would they put him at a hub gathering intel on domestic terrorists? They were hiring him to go against Antifa.”
