According to Red State:
Aides to President Biden are reportedly concerned about what will happen if he passes away while Donald Trump is in the White House. Particularly whether or not Trump will authorize a state funeral in his honor.
A report from CNN details in-depth the thought process of the current president as he confronts his own mortality, seeing exactly how a funeral for a former president is conducted in the wake of the passing of Jimmy Carter.
Like most presidents, the outlet notes that Biden has already approved a plan for his own services. However, concern has seeped in that Trump, who is just days away from being inaugurated for a second term, would eschew decorum. […]
]]>— Read More: redstate.com
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, as of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, and at least five people have died. There have been nearly 13,926 total emergency responses, 92 wildfires and 29,053 acres burned, per the department.
Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard has been deployed to assist the hundreds of firefighters – including many from other states – fighting the fires.
President Joe Biden has approved further federal assistance for Los Angeles County as the fires continue to raze homes, schools, businesses and other structures, in addition to scorching vegetation and wildlife in their wake.
“The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Los Angeles County,” said a Wednesday statement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.”
The White House announced late Wednesday that Biden will not be making a scheduled trip to Italy this week so he can monitor the raging wildfires in Southern California.
Speaking from the White House on Thursday afternoon during a briefing on the fires, Biden said federal funding will cover debris removal, setting up temporary shelters, and paying first responders.
“I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense,” Biden said in noting he’s surging federal resources into Southern California, including 400 federal firefighters, 30 federal firefighting aircraft and other assets.
The president provided some moral support as well for those enduring the fires that have turned portions of Southern California into a hellscape.
“We are with you,” Biden said. “We’re not going anywhere. To the firefighters and first responders, you are heroes.”
There was at least a brief respite on Thursday morning as the Santa Ana winds lessened somewhat, but forecasters warned that critical fire weather conditions would continue over the next several days.
While winds aren’t expected to reach the extremes of Tuesday night – gusts of up to 100 mph were recorded – potentially damaging winds remain in the forecast into the next week.
“High winds and low relative humidity will continue to support critical fire weather conditions in southern California through Friday,” the National Weather Service said on its website as of Thursday afternoon. “Red Flag Warnings remain in effect.”
]]>Why?
Biden trailed President-elect Donald J. Trump in all seven swing states. Trump would’ve smashed the blue wall handily and swept the Sun Belt. Biden led Trump a whopping zero days when he was at the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket. Trump was ahead of Biden in those swing states by 3 and 6 points. It wouldn’t have been close. Biden’s support was collapsing in Northern Virginia. That development got buried since Biden dropped out in July, but it seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Based on the polling data, I categorize Biden's statement that he could have beaten Trump as "flat out bonkers."
Biden was well behind Trump when he dropped out. Biden never led in all of 2024. And no incumbent president who was anywhere near as unpopular as Biden has ever won. pic.twitter.com/lGk9h8pygU
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) January 8, 2025
Biden also had a net negative 19-point approval rating heading into Election Day. No president has ever been re-elected with such atrocious approvals. Biden would likely have had a carbon copy of Kamala Harris’ dismal 2024 performance, though slightly worse, as Virginia likely would’ve flipped for Trump. That’s 325 electoral votes for Trump to Biden’s 213.
Again, a total landslide for the GOP. It’s not quite a 1980s-style beatdown, but a drubbing nonetheless.
]]>Approval for Biden began to plummet after September 2021, hitting an all-time low in June with just 37.4% support from Americans, while his disapproval stood at 56.7%, according to data collected by FiveThirtyEight. During CNN’s “State of the Union,” Finney stated that while Biden’s mental health had recently come as a shock to her, she believed Biden would be remembered for his “accomplishments” in the Middle East and with foreign policy.
“You think the Middle East is in better shape today than when he took office?” Jennings pressed.
“Well, I think he got our hostages home. I think that’s a big deal. I think it’s important — ” Finney responded.
Jennings then jumped in to question which hostages Finney was referring to, to which she responded that Biden has “gotten a number of people home” before Jennings cut her off again.
“There’s still 100 people over there,” Jennings said. “Including some Americans. Look, I think he’s going to, I think he’s going to leave office in disgrace. The Hunter Biden pardon was disgraceful. He’s going to be remembered largely for inflation and for the disastrous Afghanistan pullout.”
“We’re just getting the first draft of this now, but as we continue to learn about the massive cover-up that went on, not about his health, but about his mental acuity to cover that up, the efforts that were undertaken by the White House staff, by his family, not in the last couple of months, but for all four years, I think it’s going to be a really ugly chapter. It’s a diminished presidency because of it,” Jennings said. “I think we still don’t know the full extent of what they did to try to hide what they’ve been doing over in the West Wing.”
During Biden’s presidential campaign against President-elect Donald Trump, polls showed voter concerns over Biden’s handling of the economy, with inflation ranking among their top worries before the November election. Polls also revealed concerns about Biden’s mental fitness following his poor debate performance against Trump in June, in which he was seen freezing mid-sentence and struggling to finish his arguments.
Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have received push back for their handling of the disastrous 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, which resulted in the deaths of 13 service members outside Kabul International Airport. In September, Gold Star family members criticized Harris for “gaslighting” and ignoring them for the past three years after she attempted to call out Trump for filming videos at the third anniversary event at Arlington Cemetery.
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]]>As Biden prepares for the end of his term, Americans’ assessment of his performance shows that just 39% approve of the job he is doing as president, while only 19% expressed satisfaction with the country’s trajectory, according to Gallup’s latest survey.
Since “at least 2010, the nation has been in a public opinion rut,” Gallup said. “Presidential job approval has rarely exceeded 50%, and congressional job approval hasn’t exceeded 36%.”
Biden’s approval rating fluctuated in his early days in office, with slightly positive scores above 50%. However, those swiftly declined due to various economic challenges and policy issues, including his administration’s failure to address rapid rises in inflation, as well as his failed withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden’s approval ratings settled in the high 30s to low 40s leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
According to the poll, Congress’s job approval rating was just 17% in December, remaining under 20% for most of 2024.
The Gallup poll also stated that only 20% of Americans were currently satisfied with the nation’s course, a figure that stayed relatively unchanged in recent surveys.
Approval has not been above the 50% mark since December 2003, two years into the George W. Bush presidency.
“[E]xcept for a brief period before the start of the pandemic in 2020, less than 40% have been satisfied with the direction of the country,” Gallup noted.
It reached its lowest point in October 2008, with only 7% approving of the country’s direction after the economic meltdown that fueled the so-called Great Recession and all but secured the election of Barack Obama over GOP rival John McCain.
Obama’s lowest point—11% in September 2011—equalled that of his successor, Donald Trump, following the U.S. Capitol uprising in January 2021. However, the public’s satisfaction with the direction of the country then was likely impacted somewhat by Biden’s inauguration, as well.
By contrast, the highest number recorded during Obama’s presidency, 37%, came in November 2016, the month that Trump was elected.
The number rose to 45% in February 2020, which also marked the conclusion of congressional Democrats’ first impeachment attempt against Trump. Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted on Feb. 5 of that year to acquit Trump of pressuring new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the Biden family’s corruption involving the Burisma energy company.
Roughly a month later, the first cases of COVID-19 reached the U.S. and Europe, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic emergency and public satisfaction to once again plummet.
As the nation prepares for a leadership transition when Trump is sworn in again on Jan. 20—this time as the 47th president of the United States—these steady yet subdued ratings offered insight into the challenges faced by the outgoing administration and underscored the public’s cautious outlook on the future.
The recent Gallup poll was conducted from Dec. 2 to Dec. 18. Biden’s final job approval reading is expected in January.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
]]>His remarks came a day after outgoing President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 death row prisoners to life in prison, including several mass murderers and child killers.
Trump first criticized Biden’s decision to grant the commutations—in all cases to murder convicts—writing in a post on Truth Social that relatives and friends of the victims are “further devastated” by the move. The president-elect then declared in a separate post his intention to prioritize justice for victims of violent crime and broaden the use of capital punishment.
“As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters,” Trump wrote in the post. “We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!”
Besides generally signaling a tough-on-crime approach for his administration, Trump’s message suggests he intends to pursue legal reform that would restore the use of the death penalty as a punishment in cases of rape.
A 1977 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Coker v. Georgia, however, rendered the death penalty for rape unconstitutional in cases where adult victims survived the assault, further narrowed to include surviving child victims by a ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana in 2008.
This is not the first time Trump has signaled his intention to expand the use of capital punishment and reverse the moratorium on federal executions imposed by Biden. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump signaled he would undo the moratorium and make more categories of criminals eligible for capital punishment, including child rapists and drug and human traffickers.
During Trump’s first term in office, the federal government carried out 13 executions after resuming federal executions in 2020, following a 17-year hiatus. This marked the highest number of federal executions carried out under a single president since the 1950s and reflected Trump’s long-standing pledge to get tough on crime.
The Biden administration, by contrast, has prioritized a shift away from the death penalty in favor of life sentences without parole for nearly all crimes.
Biden, in a Monday statement explaining his actions, said his commutation decision was driven by a commitment to ending the federal death penalty, which he believes is inconsistent with a just and effective legal system.
“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss. But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.
“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Biden’s decision to commute the sentences of convicted killers sparked outrage among many conservatives, while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) celebrated the move, pointing out that it aligned with calls from more than 130 civil and human rights organizations, faith leaders, exonerees, victims’ family members, and law enforcement officials urging Biden to act on federal death row cases.
“President Biden has reaffirmed the power of redemption over retribution and reminds us that state-sanctioned killing does not make us safer,“ Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement. ”The ACLU has long advocated against the death penalty and shed light on its fundamental flaws: it is error prone, racially biased, and a drain on public resources.”
Critics of the death penalty, including the ACLU, argue that the punishment does not serve as a significant deterrent to violent crime and that the high costs associated with capital trials and prolonged appeals could be better spent on crime prevention and victim support.
Supporters of capital punishment argue that it serves as ultimate justice for heinous crimes, provides closure to victims’ families, and that the financial burden of executions is a necessary cost to uphold justice and deter would-be offenders.
In his Dec. 23 decision, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 death row inmates. The three federal inmates who continue to face execution are 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Dylann Roof, who fatally shot nine people at a church in South Carolina in 2015; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018.
]]>On the third day of the conservative Turning Point USA conference, Uygur received standing ovation from the mostly MAGA crowd in Phoenix, Arizona when he took the stage — an act that would have seemed nearly unthinkable for The Young Turks founder years ago.
Uygur, who has since unleashed on his own party following President-elect Donald Trump’s historic victory, told the audience that the Democrat Party should reject the old guard and welcome a populist candidate come 2028.
“I do have to give you guys credit for a revolution well done. And what I mean by that is not a revolution against the Democrat Party or the Left or the country, but a revolution against the establishment,” he said.
Uygur said he started to notice real change when Republicans started bashing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Boos erupted when The Young Turks founder asked, “What do you guys think of Mitch McConnell?” […]
]]>— Read More: headlineusa.com
White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to explain Friday how there could be an 1,100 troop discrepancy in reported U.S. forces in Syria, instead pointing to the Pentagon. Similarly, Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said Thursday at a press conference he couldn’t speak for the Oval Office on whether or not they were aware of the true number of troops in the nation.
“That is their purview,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday. “That is something that we have always been pretty consistent on.”
Ryder said he had “recently learned” that the number had been 2,000 since “before the fall of Assad regime.” The original 900 figure counts the long-term personnel stationed in the country, while the additional 1,100 were described as “temporary rotational forces,” Ryder told the press Thursday.
It remains unclear whether or not President Joe Biden knew of the true number of troops, and the White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment on the discrepancy.
The U.S. operates military bases in Syria to counteract ISIS, most frequently aiding the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). ISIS’ presence was drastically cut down in the Middle East during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
The SDF are fighting the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA). If the SNA continues to push into SDF territory, it may compromise the detainment of 9,000 ISIS fighters in SDF custody, which may allow them to reestablish themselves in the region.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was toppled on Dec. 8 by a rebel group spearheaded by Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). U.S. troops are currently deployed to counter ISIS and aid the SDF.
President-elect Donald Trump may decrease involvement in Syria, as he stated in a post on Truth Social Dec. 7 that he wants the U.S. to stay uninvolved in Syria and that there was not much to gain.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
From confirming progressive judges, to constraining American energy with environmental red tape, to simply spending every last unjustified dollar, the Biden-Harris administration is committed to ensuring its policies carry on into the second Trump administration for as long as possible.
“It comes [down to] setting land mines and making it more difficult for the incoming administration to reverse those changes,” Cato Institute policy analyst Tad DeHaven told The Washington Times. “It matters or else they wouldn’t be doing it.”
The American people have decisively rejected the Biden-Harris agenda. So, naturally, the administration has responded by forcing its agenda upon Americans even harder, right down to Donald Trump‘s inauguration Jan. 20.
Across the bureaucracy, career government employees are lining up lawyers and setting up to lobby against mass firings, reports The Washington Times.
At the end of Trump’s first term, by executive order he created a new class of federal workers (Schedule F) which would be easier to hire and fire. The Biden-Harris administration undid Trump’s change, and now the bureaucracy is afraid Trump might reinstitute it.
Employees in two divisions of the Justice Department are also rushing to unionize, according to the Times. This would make it more difficult to fire them.
It also provokes the question, why? Shouldn’t their unimpeachable integrity and relentless pursuit of nonpartisan justice be enough to protect their positions?
While executive branch employees rush to protect their jobs, executive branch agencies rush to protect their progressive policies. For instance, the Department of Education is rushing to finalize a proposed rule canceling student loans for people with “financial hardships,” which it previously expected to finish in 2025.
Regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency have been particularly busy. They announced $3 billion in grants to facilitate a rule that requires local municipalities to replace lead pipes within 10 years. They finalized a rule Nov. 12 to fine oil and gas companies for “wasteful methane emissions.”
EPA regulators are also rushing to impose penalties and reach settlements with companies accused of violating their environmental regulations. They plan to grant California a waiver to enforce its rule banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles in the state by 2035.
Meanwhile, bureaucrats in the Department of Energy are hurrying to complete a study on liquified natural gas exports that is expected to conclude that they’re not “consistent with the public interest” because of their climate impact, The Washington Post reported.
This won’t directly stop the Trump-Vance administration from restoring America’s energy exports, but could help fossil fuel opponents challenge the new administration in court.
“Biden’s decision on LNG [liquid natural gas] is the most consequential thing he can do on climate and fossil fuels before Trump takes office,” declared Fossil Free Media spokeswoman Cassidy DiPaola.
Other environmental rules the Biden-Harris administration is rushing to finalize include “narrowing the scope of an oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” “restricting drilling, mining, and livestock grazing across nearly 65 million acres … to save an imperiled bird,” and “finaliz[ing] three rules restricting the release of toxic chemicals.”
“From what we can tell, they’ve done a very good job lining this stuff up, so there’s not a whole lot at risk of getting punted into the next administration,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities. “I think everyone learned that lesson in 2016.”
The flurry of administrative rulemaking aimed to meet a late-November deadline that marked 60 days from Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
Rules finalized within 60 days of Trump taking office are subject to the Congressional Review Act, which means that the incoming Republican majority could block them with Trump’s approval.
Another area requiring cooperation between the Biden-Harris administration and Congress is judicial appointments. Senate Democrats are hurrying to confirm Biden-nominated judges to the federal bench, leaving few slots open for Trump to fill.
Positions in the federal judiciary, which are tenured for life, are officially not partisan, but it is generally acknowledged that judges appointed by Democratic presidents tend to lean more progressive, while appointees by Republican presidents tend to lean more conservative.
This means that the federal judges Biden can get through a lame-duck, Democrat-controlled Senate in the final days of his administration will likely look favorably on his progressive policies.
Before the Senate left for Thanksgiving break, Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise deal to vote on as many as 14 Biden nominees for district court appointments, but not to vote on four appellate court nominations.
The Biden-Harris administration is also hurrying to spend the remaining money allocated by Congress’ stimulus spending in 2021-2022, so that it won’t be available to the Trump-Vance administration.
The Washington Times’ reporting cites unnamed officials who plan to spend the remaining $46 billion available in fiscal year 2025, which ends next Sept. 30.
The Biden-Harris administration is also spending its lame-duck session making major foreign policy moves—which it declined or refused to make earlier—in hopes of constraining Trump’s diplomatic options.
Biden is trying to spend $6.4 billion in aid for Ukraine—funds Congress allocated in April but have not been spent—and cancel $4.65 billion in debt owed by Ukraine to the U.S. Also, Biden permitted Ukraine to fire longer-range missiles into Russia, provoking further Russian escalation.
NPR reported that the Biden-Harris administration is working hard to finalize another major loan to Ukraine through NATO, before Inauguration Day.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the administration pressured Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah before Trump takes office.
The Biden-Harris administration is hoping to outfox the incoming Trump-Vance administration in a high-stakes, bureaucratic game of hot potato. Every time the White House changes hands, the incoming administration seeks to undo the rules adopted by its predecessors.
Thus, in 2021, the Biden-Harris administration reversed administrative actions taken by the outgoing Trump-Pence administration, just as the new Trump-Pence administration, in 2017, had reversed policy moves made by the Obama-Biden administration.
This back-and-forth has gone on at least since President Bill Clinton reversed President Ronald Reagan’s Mexico City Policy, but it has recently expanded to cover an ever-growing number of issues.
“It’s unfortunate but expected that [Biden officials] will try to throw as many roadblocks at what President-elect Trump has pledged to do,” Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, told the Post.
The reason why competing administrations play increasingly critical games of bureaucratic football is that they realize the legislative branch lacks either the ability or the will to stop them. And the sad truth of the matter is that progressives—with greater buy-in from employees of the executive branch and greater faith in the government’s problem-solving capabilities—are usually better at playing the game than conservatives.
To the extent that there is a “Deep State” in “The Swamp,” this is it.
Ordinary Americans don’t spend their lives obsessing over politics, except for occasionally wondering why voting for good people never seems to produce the desired results. In my conservative opinion, the answer resides not in electoral results but in the long-term executive and judicial strategies that round out our system of checks and balances (currently tilted in favor of the executive branch).
This is why bureaucratic maneuvering like these by the Biden-Harris administration matter. When Trump takes the keys and slides behind the wheel on Jan. 20, the success of his whole second administration will depend on how quickly he can take America from zero to 60.
This question—and particularly Trump’s first 100 days—will set the momentum for the next four years. And this question depends on how adroitly his deputies can remove these roadblocks thrown in their path by the Biden-Harris administration.
If Trump wants to return America to the prosperous, cruising state of 2019, he must undo four years of rulemaking by the Biden-Harris administration, and he has only four years to do so.
Can his bureaucracy work faster than Biden’s? We’ll soon find out.
]]>The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Auburn University Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences Tiffany Brown and San Diego State University Professor of Psychology Aaron Blashill up to $5 million in grants to “develop and provide” the Promoting Resilience to Improve Disordered Eating (PRIDE) treatment — a virtual “identity-affirming eating disorder treatment for LGBTQIA+ patients,” the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts website states. The PRIDE initiative is undergirded by the idea that “identity-related stress” is an “underlying motivator of disordered eating,” and thus that “affirm[ing] and support[ing]” patients’ beliefs that they are LGBTQIA+ can help cure eating disorders.
“Even when available, many LGBTQIA+ people across the country feel uncomfortable accessing treatment, for fear of discrimination or lack of understanding,” Brown said of the PRIDE initiative. “That is why we are so excited and honored to receive this grant from the NIMH to evaluate a treatment that integrates approaches that affirm and support LGBTQIA+ identities.”
Brown runs Auburn’s Appearance Concerns, Eating, Prevention and Treatment (ACCEPT) lab, which states its aim is to “improve eating disorder treatment for traditionally underserved populations,” according to the Auburn website. Blashill heads San Diego State University’s Body Image, Sexuality and Health lab, which “explores the role body image plays in influencing eating disorders and other health behaviors, with a focus on health disparities among sexual and gender minority individuals.”
Blashill co-authored a study published in November entitled, “The Association Between Minority Stressors, Intraminority Stressors, And Borderline Personality Disorder Symptomatology Among Sexual Minority Men,” which linked “minority stressors” such as “internalized homophobia and sexual orientation concealment” to criteria for borderline personality disorder.
The $5 million in total potential funding for the PRIDE program comes amid a broader Biden administration effort to fund LGBT initiatives across the globe, including the development of a mobile health app in Malaysia that instructs men on how to more safely engage in drug-fueled intercourse and a sex change program in Guatemala.
The incoming Trump administration could be poised to crack down on Biden’s LGBTQIA+ agenda, with President-elect Donald Trump announcing the creation of a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Nov. 12 that will look to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies.”
“The woke mind virus consists of creating very, very divisive identity politics…[that] amplifies racism; amplifies, frankly, sexism; and all of the -isms while claiming to do the opposite,” DOGE co-leader Elon Musk said at an event in Italy in December 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal. “It actually divides people and makes them hate each other and hate themselves.”
Brown, Blashill, Auburn, SDSU and the NIH did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.