National Spelling Bee Adds Feminist Spelling of ‘Womyn’

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National Spelling Bee Adds Feminist Spelling of ‘Womyn’

(Maire Clayton, Headline USA) The Scripps National Spelling Bee approved the feminist spelling of “womyn” on the study words list for third grade students.

Libs of TikTok shared the now-viral image of the study list on social media.

“You can’t make this up,” the account posted.

The list stated “women” was the preferred spelling, but “womyn” was acceptable.

A representative for Scripps tried to justify the inclusion of the word while speaking with Fox News.

“All of the words used in the Scripps National Spelling Bee program are pulled from our official dictionary, Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary,” the representative said. “During competition, our policy is to accept any correct spelling listed in our official dictionary that isn’t marked archaic or obsolete.”

The representative proceeded to explain how the study lists are constructed.

“In building our study lists, we aim to include alternate spellings for any words that have them listed in Merriam-Webster,” the representative continued. “The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is the final authority and sole source for the spelling of all words offered in competition.”

Social media users were quick to call out the change.

“What happens when the kid asks for a definition of the word?” one user questioned.

Others stated it was a Babylon Bee skit that came true.

The comedy skit featured a boy competing in a spelling bee, and he asked for the definition of “woman,” leading to the judges struggle to give a definition.

Some users offered their own alternative spellings for the word.

“Why not ‘whimxn’? It’s equally as arbitrary as ‘womyn’ and equally wrong,” one user added.

The Merriam–Webster dictionary previously amended the definition of “male” and “female” in 2022.

The change stated a “female” as “having a gender identity that is the opposite of male.” The “male” definition also had the same change.

And in 2019, the dictionary added a definition for the nonbinary pronoun “they” and made it the “word of the year.”

Trump Wants to Turn the Clock on Daylight Saving Time

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Trump Wants to Turn the Clock on Daylight Saving Time

(Headline USA) President-elect Donald Trump wants to turn the lights out on daylight saving time.

In a post on his social media site Friday, Trump said his party would try to end the practice when he returns to office.

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,” he wrote.

Setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall is intended to maximize daylight during summer months, but has long been subject to scrutiny.

Daylight saving time was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942.

Lawmakers have occasionally proposed getting rid of the time change altogether.

The most prominent recent attempt, a now-stalled bipartisan bill named the Sunshine Protection Act, had proposed making daylight saving time permanent.

The measure was sponsored by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump has tapped to helm the State Department.

“Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said as the Senate voted in favor of the measure.

Health experts have said that lawmakers have it backward and that standard time should be made permanent.

Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said that it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun—and human biology.

Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do, the date that clocks are changed varies, creating a complicated tapestry of changing time differences.

Arizona and Hawaii don’t change their clocks at all.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

EXCLUSIVE: Judicial Watch Helps Unearth 911 Call Made by Trump Shooter’s Dad

Ken Silva
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EXCLUSIVE: Judicial Watch Helps Unearth 911 Call Made by Trump Shooter’s Dad

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Thanks to the help of the non-profit transparency group Judicial Watch, Headline USA has obtained a recording of the 911 call Thomas Crooks’s father made on the day his son allegedly tried assassinating Donald Trump during his July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Allegheny County—where Crooks lived with his parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks—provided the call to Headline USA on Friday after a four-month legal process.

The call lasts roughly 2 minutes before abruptly ending. Matthew Crooks initially called Allegheny County 911 dispatch, which transferred him to the Bethel Park Police Department.

“Hi, yes. Uh, my name is Matthew Crooks. I was calling in regards to my son, Thomas. Uh, he belongs to the Clairton Sportsman Club in Clairton, and I don’t have the number for Jefferson Police on hand. The reason I’m calling is he left the house here at about a quarter to two this afternoon, and we’ve gotten no contact from him, no text messages, nothing’s been returned, and he’s not home yet,” Matthew said.

“That’s totally not like him. So we’re kind of worried, not really sure what we should do.”

The recording ended after Matthew confirmed his son was 20 years old. Headline USA is filing an appeal in an attempt to obtain the rest of the recording—if it exists.

Obtaining the 2-minute recording was a lengthy process in the first place.

After requesting the call on Aug. 12, Bethel Park Police denied disclosure nine days later— citing Section 708(b)(18) of the RTKL, which exempts 911 recordings from public disclosure.

However, the exact same RTKL paragraph cited by Bethel Police also states that law enforcement can release 911 recordings that are in the public interest.

Headline USA appealed accordingly, but an appeals officer ruled that he didn’t have the power to force disclosure. Only a police department or a court has the power to force disclosure of 911 calls, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruled in October. The Office of Open Records made a similar ruling that same month in an appeal filed by NBC News, which also sought the call.

That’s where Judicial Watch came in. The non-profit watchdog agreed to take on this publication’s case, filing a lawsuit in late October in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas to force Bethel Park Police to disclose the 911 call.

“Disclosing the 911 recording would further aid the public’s interest in completing a timeline of events surrounding the attempted assignation of President Trump on July 13, 2024,” attorney J. Chadwick Schnee argued on behalf of Judicial Watch and Headline USA—asking the court to reverse the appeal office’s decision and to deem the 911 recording to be in the public interest.

However, a judge never had the chance to rule on Judicial Watch’s lawsuit. Last week, ABC News published a story about the call, reporting that it obtained the 911 call via a Right to Know Law request—the same method by which both Headline USA and NBC had requested it. Though Headline USA’s request was with Bethel Park Police, NBC had tried obtaining the recording via Allegheny County—and the county fought NBC all the way to appeal, and won.

It’s not clear why Allegheny County disclosed the call to ABC after denying it to NBC—and successfully arguing in October that it wasn’t in the public interest. However, Allegheny County only disclosed the call after Judicial Watch filed its lawsuit.

ABC did reveal that the call was made at 10:56 p.m., which settles conflicting reports of whether the father called before or after his son shot at Trump at 6:11 p.m.—grazing Trump’s ear, killing a firefighter, and seriously wounding two others before dying from law enforcement’s return fire.

The timing of the call wasn’t included in the response Headline USA received.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Bragg Begs Merchan to Pretend Assassin Had Succeeded in Bid to Salvage Trump Conviction

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Bragg Begs Merchan to Pretend Assassin Had Succeeded in Bid to Salvage Trump Conviction

(Headline USA) President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a judge again Friday to throw out his conviction in a Manhattan porn-star case, balking at the prosecution’s suggestion of preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies. They called the idea “absurd.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a blistering 23-page response.

In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork earlier this month asking for the case to be dismissed.

They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won’t include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn’t sentenced and his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity.

Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option was overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less would interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment.

It’s unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump’s request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution’s suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option.

In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution’s suggestions.

Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the “ongoing threat” that he’ll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20.

“To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these thuggish tactics,” the defense lawyers wrote. “However, the threat itself is unconstitutional.”

The prosecution’s suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they argued.

Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump has tabbed for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution’s novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump had died.

Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to “fabricate” a solution “based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump” who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September “and a hypothetical dead defendant.”

Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted.

It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate once again in a slipshod case that has already stretched the law well beyond its breaking point.

“This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn’t “precipitously discard” the “meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers.”

Prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation” during Trump’s impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury’s verdict, which came when he was out of office.

Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.

Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

In their filing Friday, Trump’s lawyers citing a social media post in which Sen. John Fetterman used profane language to criticize Trump’s prosecution. The Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that Trump deserved a pardon, comparing his case to that of President Joe Biden’s pardoned son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges.

“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.

Trump’s conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon—issued by Biden or himself when he takes office—would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.

Trump had been scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November. But following Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president’s sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds.

A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence.

Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has ended his two federal cases, which pertained to Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in all.

The prosecutors in all of the cases are now among those who may be seeking preemptive pardons from Biden as they come under scrutiny for the potential laws they violated in targeting a political enemy with spurious lawfare cases.

Bragg is likely to face multiple lawsuits in a separate high-profile case following the acquittal of Subway Samaritan Daniel Penny in a murder charge earlier this week. Penny, a retired Marine, is due to join Trump on Saturday at the Army–Navy football game.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

NYC Mayor Meets w/ Trump’s ‘Border Czar’

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NYC Mayor Meets w/ Trump’s ‘Border Czar’

(Headline USA) New York City Mayor Eric Adams met with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar” on Thursday, with the Democratic mayor expressing an enthusiasm to work with the incoming administration to pursue violent criminals in the city while Trump promises mass deportations.

The mayor’s meeting with Tom Homan, who will oversee the southern and northern borders and be responsible for deportation efforts in the Trump administration, came as Adams has welcomed parts of the president-elect’s hardline immigration platform.

Adams told reporters at a brief news conference that he and Homan agreed on pursuing people who commit violent crimes in the city but did not disclose additional details or future plans.

“We’re not going to be a safe haven for those who commit repeated violent crimes against innocent migrants, immigrants and longstanding New Yorkers,” he said. “That was my conversation today with the border czar, to figure out how to go after those individuals who are repeatedly committing crimes in our city.”

Homan said the two connected as career law enforcement officers and that he came away from the meeting with “a whole new outlook on the mayor.”

“I’ve called him out this past year, many times, about being more of a politician than a police officer. I was wrong,” Homan said during an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw on his Merit TV network. “He came through today as a police officer and a mayor that cares about the safety and security of his city.”

The meeting marked Adams’s latest and most definitive step toward collaborating with the Trump administration, a development that has startled critics in one of the country’s most liberal cities.

In the weeks since Trump’s election win, Adams has mused about potentially scaling back the city’s so-called sanctuary policies and coordinating with the incoming administration on immigration.

He has also said migrants accused of crimes shouldn’t have due process rights under the Constitution, though he eventually walked back those comments.

The mayor further stunned Democrats when he sidestepped questions last week on whether he would consider changing parties to become a Republican, telling journalists that he was part of the “American party.” Adams later clarified that he would remain a Democrat.

For Adams, the recent comments on immigration follow frustration with the Biden administration over its immigration policies and a surge of international migrants in the city.

He has maintained his positions have not changed and argues he’s trying to protect New Yorkers, pointing to the law-and-order platform he has staked out throughout his political career and while running for mayor.

At his news conference Thursday, Adams reiterated his commitment to New York’s generous social safety net.

“We’re going to tell those who are here, who are law-abiding, to continue to utilize the services that are open to the city, the services that they have a right to utilize, educating their children, health care, public protection,” he said. “But we will not be the safe haven for those who commit violent acts.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Counter-Sniper Who Shot Would-Be Trump Assassin Put on Desk Duty, Wasn’t Interviewed by Secret Service

Ken Silva
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Counter-Sniper Who Shot Would-Be Trump Assassin Put on Desk Duty, Wasn’t Interviewed by Secret Service

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Secret Service counter-sniper who shot alleged would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks was put on desk duty, and was never interviewed or debriefed by his superiors, according to newly released interview transcripts from the House Task Force investigating the Trump assassination attempts.

The Task Force’s interview with the sniper, who’s full name hasn’t been released, took place on Nov. 21 (crowd-sourced research indicates his last name is King). One of the first questions from the Task Force was whether the sniper had been debriefed by the Secret Service, and what his duties were following the July 13 deadly campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“And what was the duration of that desk duty or administrative leave you were placed on?” a Task Force investigator asked, to which the sniper responded: “I’m still currently on desk duty awaiting full clearance for me to continue to do my protective travel.”

The Task Force investigator then asked whether the sniper has been debriefed. The sniper, who’s been with the Secret Service for over 21 years, said he hadn’t.

“Have you been told that the Secret Service is planning to interview you at any juncture?” the investigator pressed further. Again, the sniper said he had no indication if or when he’d be interviewed.

Later in the interview, the sniper was once again asked whether he’d been interviewed by anyone other than the Task Force. The counter-sniper said he spoke to the FBI and Pennsylvania State Police in a “joint interview” on July 19, but that was it.

“Did you participate in any debriefings after the shooting?” the Task Force asked, apparently just to be sure.

“No,” the counter-sniper responded.

“Did you speak at all with [REDACTED, REDACTED], who is the former assistant director of the Office of Protective Operations?”

“No.”

“Did the counter sniper team hold its own debrief?”

“No,” the sniper said yet again.

“Is that normal?” he was asked.

“It’s our first shooting, so we’ve never done this before,” he responded.

The Secret Service sniper was also asked about when he first saw Crooks, and when he fired. Headline USA has reported extensively on the fact that the Secret Service didn’t return fire until 15 seconds after Crooks started shooting—and some 10 seconds after a local cop shot at him first.

The counter-sniper said he only saw Crooks after the would-be assassin took his first eight shots, and after the local cop fired back. A Secret Service lawyer present during the interview also disputed the 15-second timeline—even though that information was provided by his own boss, Acting Director Ronald Rowe.

“I don’t know what the basis of the director’s statement about 15 seconds is,” the lawyer said, adding that he didn’t “accept the representation” provided by the video evidence.

The Secret Service counter-sniper’s interview was one of 46 federal, state and local transcripts released by the Task Force. Headline USA is in the process of reviewing them all.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Veteran Daniel Penny Will Join Trump’s Suite at Football Game

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Veteran Daniel Penny Will Join Trump’s Suite at Football Game

(Headline USA) Daniel Penny, a military veteran who choked an agitated New York subway rider and was acquitted of homicide this week, has been invited by Vice President-elect JD Vance to join Donald Trump’s suite at the Army-Navy football game on Saturday.

The Marine veteran was cleared of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely ‘s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week.

Vance said Penny, 26, accepted his invitation to join the president-elect and him at the game.

“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance said in a post on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”

Political figures on the right have defended Penny since he was charged for the death in May 2023.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination and was tapped by Trump last month to lead an effort along with billionaire Elon Musk to cut government spending, donated money to his legal defense fund.

After the acquittal, Penny gave an extensive interview to Fox News and declared he’s “not a confrontational person.”

He told the network that he wouldn’t have been able to live with “the guilt I would have felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do.”

“I’ll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me, just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed,” Penny said.

Trump has not referred to the case publicly recently, but last year he told The Messenger that he thought Penny and other people on the subway were “in great danger.”

Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, including in Iraq, said this week that “justice was done in this case” and Penny never should have been prosecuted.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Cruz Says Conspiracy Theories ‘Proven Right’ as 26 Feds Found on Jan. 6

Julianna Frieman
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Cruz Says Conspiracy Theories ‘Proven Right’ as 26 Feds Found on Jan. 6

(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Friday on his podcast that conspiracy theories were “proven right” as it was revealed 26 FBI informants were present at the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

Only three of 26 confidential human sources present were directed by the FBI to attend the event on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report released Thursday.

On Verdict, Cruz reacted to the report by saying, “Everything that is decried as a conspiracy theory just a few months later is proven right.”

The senator recalled how “screaming” Democrats and media pundits decried the COVID-19 lab leak theory and President Joe Biden’s mental decline as “crazy” conspiracy theories, making the point that both were eventually determined to be true.

“It wasn’t that long ago that if you said that the FBI had confidential human sources, had undercover agents at the January 6 riots, participating in those riots, as we did on this podcast that was decried as a crazy conspiracy theory, all three of those statements Verdict was ahead of the curve,” he said.

Cruz confidentially suggested more information will be made public as soon as Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, and the president-elect’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, are confirmed in the Senate.

“I think they both understand the public has a right to know what was the FBI’s level of involvement, what was the culpability? I think there, there is significant public interest in the answers to that,” he said.

Cruz stated he believes the Biden administration doesn’t want Americans to know the truth.

“And I think the Biden Department of Justice desperately wants to avoid anyone from knowing that. But you know what?” Cruz continued. “That’s the Democrats lost the election, and elections have consequences.”

Cruz ripped into Democrats for their unwillingness to be transparent.

He reflected on asking FBI and Department of Justice officials questions during hearings, but said they “stonewall” to no avail.

“I think they’re getting ready to tell us, because when Donald Trump becomes the president, puts new leadership there, I think they understand that they’re accountable to the American people in a way that the arrogance of this current administration believes they have zero accountability,” he said.

Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and the American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.

Fla. Woman Charged w/ Threatening Health Insurance Co. Using ‘Delay, Deny, Depose’

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Fla. Woman Charged w/ Threatening Health Insurance Co. Using ‘Delay, Deny, Depose’

(Headline USA) A Florida woman has been charged with threatening her health insurance provider during a phone conversation after police say she uttered the same words found on the bullet casings used in the killing of an insurance executive in New York.

Briana Boston, 42, told a representative of Blue Cross Blue Shield, “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next” as they ended a phone call Tuesday in which she unsuccessfully challenged the company’s denial of her insurance claim, Lakeland police say a recording shows.

The words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the casings left at the scene of the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City street on Dec. 4.

The words reflect the “delay, deny, defend” strategy some insurance companies use in dealing with expensive claims: Delay the decision, deny the claim and aggressively defend themselves.

Luigi Mangione, 26, is charged with murder in Thompson’s killing.

According to police, when Boston was questioned by officers Wednesday, she told them she used the words because “it is what is in the news right now.”

She told officers she owns no guns and is accused of adding that insurance companies “are evil” and “deserve karma.”

Boston was arrested and charged with threatening to conduct an act of terrorism. She was being held without bail Friday at the Polk County jail.

Court records do not show whether she has an attorney, and a phone listing at her home address was disconnected.

The charge is a second-degree felony, which could be punished by up to 15 years in prison if she is convicted.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Lisa Murkowski Admits She Isn’t Really a Republican

Jacob Bruns
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Lisa Murkowski Admits She Isn’t Really a Republican

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told the press on Thursday that she was not particularly attached to the Republican Party, Politico reported.

Murkowski admitted that she felt “more comfortable” with no party label during a Thursday event for the centrist group “No Labels” at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.

“I’m not attached to a label, I’d rather be that ‘no label,’” the embattled senator added. “I’d rather be that person that is just known for trying to do right by the state and the people that I serve, regardless of party, and I’m totally good and comfortable with that.”

However, Murkowski later backed off her initial anti-Republican statement, telling the group that she had little choice but to reluctantly accept a party label.

“We’ve got a system in the Senate where there are two sides of the aisle, and I have to sit on one side or I have to sit on the other,” she said, clarifying that she does not support Trump.

“I don’t think I’ve made any secret of the fact that I’m more of a Ronald Reagan Republican than I am a Trump Republican,” Murkowski added, noting that “you can call me whatever you want to call me.”

Murkowski, whom president-elect Donald Trump has called the “disaster from Alaska,” has a lengthy history of opposing Republican Party principles, but perhaps most notorious was her support of Democrats’ efforts to impeach Trump after he already had left office in 2021.

Along with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Murkowski also has a dubious record of voting against conservatives and for radical Democrats during tight confirmation battles. The two both initially refused to support Justice Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court (although Murkowski later relented). Neither had any hesitation, however, backing Biden nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Murkowski has continued her RINO ways in recent days, casting doubt on Trump Cabinet selections such as Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Defense secretary, even though she did not hesitate to confirm Biden nominee Lloyd Austin.

According to the senator, the Hegseth dispute was the first of many that she and her D.C. colleagues expected to have with the Trump administration after he became just the third Republican presidential candidate in the past 50 years to win re-election and to win the popular vote.

“It’s going to be hard in these next four years,” she told the No Labels audience, alluding to time working with the Trump administration, because Republicans will be unfairly expected to “tow the line” on major issues.

“Don’t get on Santa’s naughty list here, because we will primary you,” she added.

Fortunately for Murkowski, Alaska’s peculiar political dynamics have enabled her to pad herself somewhat against political accountability.

She was initially appointed to the job in 2002 to finish the term of her father, Sen. Frank Murkowski, after he was elected governor. After narrowly winning re-election in 2004, she lost her primary in 2010 but subsequently staged a write-in campaign, stealing the election from Republican nominee Joe Miller under highly suspicious circumstances.

Miller and Murkowski faced off again in 2016, with the former as a libertarian and Murkowski clinching the GOP primary, edging him out again in the general election. In 2022, she faced a challenge from Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, who led Murkowski among Republican voters.

However, ahead of the election, Murkowski allies had helped lead a ballot referendum for ranked-choice voting—a system that inherently favors centrist candidates and well-funded establishment candidates. After a two-week tallying period, Murkowski was declared the winner over Tshibaka. Gov. Sarah Palin, who had been running to fill the state’s only House seat, lost her race as well.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

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