TV News LIES

Pundit Tucker Carlson is expressing regret for voicing support for President Trump.

Carlson, who has been a sharp critic of Trump’s war in Iran, said during a recent episode of his podcast and online show that prominent people on the right who backed Trump ahead of the 2024 election are “implicated” in what’s going on in the Middle East.

“So I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be,” he said. “And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people and it was not intentional. That’s all I’ll say.”

The conservative commentator wondered out loud if it was “always the plan” to go to war with Iran, saying “you don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but like, clearly, there were signs of low character, we knew that, but there are tons of people of low character who, like, outperform their character.”

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Virginia voters approved a complete redrawing of their congressional districts to offset pushes by President Donald Trump to increase the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

The approved maps could transform Old Dominion's 11-member delegation from a 6-to-5 Democratic edge to an overwhelming 10-to-1 advantage.

However, if the margin of victory is less than one-half of 1%, then the defeated side has the right under Virginia election law to ask for a state-funded recount. Republicans could also launch legal challenges to preserve the old maps.

Virginia Democrats celebrated the victory as results rolled in indicating the final tally would be in their favor. L. Louise Lucas, the state's Senate president and a prominent advocate for redistricting, said "THANK YOU VIRGINIA" in a post on X accompanied by an expletive-laden video victory lap.

Both parties pumped millions of dollars and work hours into the campaign, particularly in the last week of the early voting season.

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Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving the Trump administration, the White House announced on April 20.

She is the third Cabinet member to depart this year. All are women. Her exit comes amid allegations of misconduct and after multiple outlets reported that an investigation into her leadership was well underway.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in an X post that Chavez-DeRemer would be leaving the administration to take a job in the private sector. He did not say where.

"She has done a phenomenal job in her role by protecting American workers, enacting fair labor practices, and helping Americans gain additional skills to improve their lives," Cheung wrote.

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Slush funds of anonymous unregulated money are now the dominant institutions in American politics, converting our elections into auctions – and transforming the legislative process into a donor bidding war.

In the last election, independent expenditure groups spent more money than the total amount spent by all congressional candidates combined. One in every $5 flowing through a Super Pac came from organizations that do not disclose their donors. In all, $2bn of “independent” spending was dark money, meaning the public cannot see who is buying elections – even though politicians know exactly who they owe once they are in office.

The current election cycle promises to be even worse: Super Pacs have already spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, fueled by donors in the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency industries demanding policy favors from Washington. Again, much of it is anonymous cash: for example, new campaign finance filings show the second-largest donors to House and Senate Republicans’ Super Pacs are dark money groups.

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former President Barack Obama visited an early childhood education center in the South Bronx on Saturday.

As the two leaders entered the pre-K classroom, a group of 19 students dressed in blue and plaid school uniforms let out squeals upon seeing Mamdani. Their teachers, who knew the mayor was coming but not his special guest, gasped at the sight of the 44th president of the United States.

“My name’s Barack,” the president said, introducing himself to the children. As the two men took seats in front of the kids, the children started shouting out their own names, and with one boy shouting out, “I know who you are, you are Mamdani.”

During the event, which was first reported by Politico, Mamdani and Obama read to the students and joined them in a rousing rendition of the “Wheels of the Bus.” Before meeting with the children, they discussed Mamdani's affordability-focused vision for the city — including universal child care, according to the mayor.

Obama and Mamdani did not take questions.

This marks their first face-to-face meeting and comes months after Obama called Mamdani just before Election Day in November. The former president praised Mamdani's campaign and offered to be a sounding board if he won the election. During the Bronx event, there was also a clear chemistry between Mamdani and Obama, who interacted with the children and teased each other with ease.

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Democrats have moved to stall Donald Trump’s effort to exert greater control over the US Federal Reserve, condemning the president’s “absurd” bid to install a new leader of the central bank while it is targeted with criminal investigations.

Democratic lawmakers on the Senate banking committee urged its Republican leadership on Thursday to postpone the planned confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh, the financial executive and former Fed governor Trump has nominated to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair.

In a letter to banking committee chair Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, the 11 Democrats called for a hearing currently scheduled for Tuesday to be delayed until investigations into Powell and Lisa Cook, a current Fed governor, are closed.

Powell – whom the president has frequently and publicly chastised over his refusal to dramatically lower interest rates – is facing a criminal investigation into the renovations of the central bank’s headquarters, which he dismissed as a “pretext” tied to the Fed’s refusal to bow to Trump’s demands.

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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.

Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.

McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.

“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.

Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”

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A shovel, hand weights and a construction hat now displayed in the foyer of New York City Hall are symbols of what Mayor Zohran Mamdani says are the "pothole politics" behind key achievements in his first 100 days in office. That's where we started our conversation this week during a wide-ranging interview for NPR's Newsmakers video podcast.

Sitting in the ornate Blue Room of City Hall underneath a portrait of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father who helped shape the nation, 34-year-old Mamdani ticked off all that he's been able to get done on his list of promises to voters:

"On day eight, we delivered $1.2 billion to make universal child care a reality across our city."

"We secured more than $30 million in settlements with bad landlords, [and] repaired more than 6069 apartments."

"We were able to secure nearly $100,000 a day for workers and small businesses that had been exploited by mega-corporations and delivery apps."

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