Today a joint session of congress was convened to certify the 2024 election. With the Senate having confirmed the electoral counts, the President of the Senate, Kamala Harris, reads the results and certifies the incoming President and Vice-President. WATCH (prompted):
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the details and mechanics of the House legislative agenda for 2025. As Johnson notes the large legislative constructs are what President Trump wants to kickstart the agenda and that is the timeline the Speaker is working with.
Within the discussion Mike Johnson outlines the specifics of the legislative packages and the expected timelines he is targeting for completion. WATCH:
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Consider this Elon’s first test of his political power. If he succeeds, there are strong indications he will eventually call for MAGA to remove President Trump.
Elon Musk did not like the responses during an interview that Nigel Farage gave GB News. Elon Musk is now calling for the U.K Reform Party that Nigel Farage created, to remove Farage from leadership. Musk wants Farage kicked out of the movement Farage created….
… Why? Because Farage doesn’t support Tommy Robinson with the same ferocity as Elon Musk.
I’ll put the interview below and you can listen to Farage explain his contacts with Elon Musk and his praise for the work Musk did to assist President Trump in the 2024 election. However, due to domestic issues within Great Britain, Farage feels the Reform Party needs to keep Robinson out of the movement.
Expecting Nigel Farage to embrace Tommy Robinson in the Reform Party would be akin to expecting President Trump to embrace Alex Jones in the new Republican Party. Elon Musk is currently testing the limits of his political demigod status.
With the full support of President Trump working the members, House Speaker Mike Johnson won the speakership again on the first round of voting with only Republican Thomas Massie voting against Johnson. This was the first test of Republican resistance to President Trump and the DeSantis House coalition, aka the Freedom Caucus, conceded their first defeat.
President Trump called Texas opposition member Chip Roy personally, to put pressure on him to stop opposing the MAGA movement. It appears the pressure campaign was successful.
(Washington DC) – In a surprising move, Mike Johnson managed to tamp down a conservative rebellion and secured the support to remain speaker on the first ballot Friday, after two Republicans who initially opposed him flipped their votes.
After a long break, Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Keith Self (R-Texas) switched their votes to Johnson after initially backing others for the top House job. (more)
There’s a good background article on some of the discussions HERE. This is also a significant loss for the House Democrats and the left-wing of the UniParty apparatus. A prolonged speaker battle would have been good for their interests; however, President Trump intercepted the issue quickly and pulled Mike Johnson over the line in order to keep momentum moving forward.
When Joe Biden recently awarded Liz Cheney the Presidential Award for Outstanding Citizenship, we previously said, “whoever is the architect behind this is digging deep into a very dark place for our nation. The one thing I am certain of, is that as a country we need to be prepared for some very unAmerican activity in the next year or more. The Marxist and Communist movements within our nation are going to counter the 2024 election result with every tool in their playbook.”
The intent of the outgoing administration is to purposefully antagonize President Trump. The announcement to keep the USA flags at half-mast for 30-days to recognize Jimmy Carter is simply one more dig.
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Asked about Trump’s post at the Friday briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House would not consider reversing or reevaluating the half-mast plans. [LINK] The professional political left love their optics.
Morgan Ortagus is a very special kind of obvious Intelligence Community asset who always eats in the kitchen of the State Dept Restuarant. Ortagus reeks of tradecraft when you are around her. A convert to Judaism having married Jonathan Weinberger (2013), another dual passport holding IC asset (foreign govt) and former vice president of the Center for Global Innovation Policy, Mrs Ortagus is deeply entrenched with the Israeli intelligence community and political lobby.
Those IC credentials (specifically USAID/CIA) are what brought Morgan Ortagus to be spokesperson for the U.S. State Dept under the tutelage and alignment with former CIA Director turned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This is the deep kitchen crew; DEEP, as in VERY DEEP.
Without any doubt whatsoever, this appointment was demanded by President Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio, deep state and AIPAC Senate control agent, Lindsey Graham, some very key and influential donors connected to AIPAC, and the one figure that I predict will be first dispatched by President Trump, national security adviser Mike Waltz. This aforementioned crew all hold an agenda to support those who eat in the kitchen.
President Trump likely cannot call out the kitchen diners without seriously disturbing the network that keeps the Deep State operating. Instead, he references them by saying, “These things usually don’t work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them. Let’s see what happens.” Where “strong Republican support” means the elected officials, majority funded by AIPAC.
A remarkable statement to witness within the announcement; literally jaw-dropping when you know specifically what President Trump is inferring.
Merchan is expected to deliver an unconditional discharge the “most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options.”
ABC […] Trump’s legal team is expected to try to stop the Jan. 10 sentencing, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. His lawyers intend to ask an intermediate New York appellate court to intervene and stop the sentencing hearing from going forward, the sources said.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung, in a statement, called Merchan’s ruling “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s Immunity decision and other longstanding jurisprudence.” “President Trump must be allowed to continue the Presidential Transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the Witch Hunts. There should be no sentencing,” the statement said. (more)
President Trump responded via Truth Social:
Every Legal Scholar and Pundit, including the highly respected, and sadly recently passed, David Rivkin, as well as Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig, Andy McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett, Elizabeth Price Foley, Katie and Andy Cherkasky, Paul Ingrassia, and many others, have unequivocally stated that the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt is a nonexistent case, which is not only barred by the Statute of Limitations but, on the merits, should never have been brought.
House Speaker Mike Johnson appears with Larry Kudlow to discuss his contest for the House Speaker vote on Friday, as well as his perspective on the terrorist attack in his home state of Louisiana.
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During an earlier press conference, the police were not 100% certain of the identity of the driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and were awaiting DNA verification.
The police have now confirmed the identity as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, an active-duty Army soldier who was based in Germany and home in the USA on leave.
(Via Reuters) […] the FBI said it was not yet clear if the blast was an act of terrorism. The FBI said it had so far found no definitive link between the New Year’s Day New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas later on the same day, which left seven people with minor injuries.
The Cybertruck driver was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, an active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs, and police said he acted alone.
Livelsberger killed himself with a gunshot to the mouth, police said, citing a report from the Clark County Coroner/Medical Examiner, according to a post on X by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Despite the FBI saying there are no connections between the New Orleans terrorist attack and the Las Vegas attack at Trump hotel, alarming connections continue to be made by the public between both the New Orleans attack using a truck which killed 15 people, and the Las Vegas attack using a truck that was unsuccessful (except in killing the driver).
NEW ORLEANS – Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old Texas man accused of crashing a truck into New Year’s Day revelers in New Orleans, killing 15 and injuring dozens of people, served in the U.S. Army for 13 years including a deployment to Afghanistan, the Army said. (read more)
LAS VEGAS – According to senior law enforcement sources, 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger was the driver and had several Colorado Springs addresses associated with him. […] “Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger enlisted as an 18X and served in the active duty Army from January 2006 to March 2011. Livelsberger then joined the National Guard from March 2011 to July 2012, followed by the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012. He entered the active duty Army in December 2012 and was a U.S. Army Special Operations Soldier.” “Additionally, U.S. Army Special Operations Command can confirm Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on approved leave at the time of his death.
According to early media reporting, Matt Livelsberger, aka Matt Berger, was on duty station in Germany and on leave at the time of his death in Las Vegas. His wife was reportedly unaware of his location. After the Tesla Truck Explosion in Las Vegas, officials are saying that they found a Military Identification, Desert Eagle pistol, an SLR B-30 AR Pattern Rifle, an IPhone, and a Smart watch all in Matthew Livelsberger’s name. Also, Livelsberger had sustained one gunshot wound to the head.
From Paul Sperry: “Federal records reveal the anti-Trump ex-wife of suspect who detonated a Cybertruck bomb outside the Trump Hotel in Vegas donated cash to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) around the same time as the Bourbon Street terrorist’s donation to the DCCC.” (link)