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Hunter Biden Is in Full Revenge Mode for Fox News Revenge Porn

The embattled first son is suing the network.

Hunter Biden looks forward
Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Fox News is facing another bombshell defamation lawsuit, this time featuring accusations from Hunter Biden.

A letter sent to the network and obtained Monday by NBC News revealed that the president’s son will be filing a lawsuit against the conservative media behemoth “imminently,” alleging “conspiracy and subsequent actions to defame Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light.” The letter was dated April 23 with a request that Fox respond by April 26, which they did not. It’s the second such attempt by Biden’s legal team to reach Fox regarding the suit.

In a statement, Biden attorney Mark Geragos claimed the network had “relentlessly attacked” his client for the last five years, and had “made him a caricature in order to boost ratings and for its financial gain.”

“The recent indictment of FBI informant [Alexander] Smirnov has exposed the conspiracy of disinformation that has been fueled by Fox, enabled by their paid agents and monetized by the Fox enterprise,” Geragos said. “We plan on holding them accountable.”

Another Biden attorney, Tina Glandian, told Axios that in addition to “routinely defaming and disparaging Mr. Biden, FOX has simultaneously sought to profit by the unlawful exploitation of Mr. Biden’s image, name, likeness for commercial purposes and reprehensible dissemination of salacious photographs depicting Mr. Biden,” referring to the network airing nude images of the president’s son.

The letter claimed Fox knew the images were “hacked, stolen, and/or manipulated digital material” but continued to publish them, “in violation of the majority of states’ laws against the nonconsensual disclosure of sexually explicit images and videos,” also known as revenge porn.

Republicans have continually published the nude images taken from Biden’s laptop in an effort to discredit his character. One of the most egregious instances was when Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene waved around poster-sized printouts of the images during a House hearing and then sent those photos out in her email newsletter (potentially showing them to minors).

Fox News’s last major defamation suit was brought by Dominion Voting Systems for the network’s platforming baseless allegations brought by allies of Donald Trump, who claimed that the electronic voting machine company had partaken in a conspiracy to rig the 2020 election against Trump. Fox ended up settling the lawsuit for a historic $787.5 million settlement, and released a statement admitting that the network had aired a false story.

Fox is still working through other lawsuits related to the network’s coverage of alleged 2020 election fraud, including a $2.7 billion suit filed by another electronic voting systems company, Smartmatic, and several others brought by Fox’s shareholders, accusing the company of embracing a business strategy that placed profit over journalism and verifiable facts.

In a statement, Fox claimed that they had accurately covered relevant events pertaining to Hunter Biden, including investigations by the Department of Justice and Congress, and indictments by U.S. Attorney’s offices.

“Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered these highly publicized events as well as the subsequent indictment of an FBI informant who was the source of certain claims made about Mr. Biden,” a spokesperson for the network said.

This story has been updated.

Columbia Hands Down Unbelievable Ultimatum to Pro-Palestine Protesters

Columbia University has no interest in meeting student demands related to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Columbia University has a message for the pro-Palestine student protesters: cut it out or get suspended.

After nearly two weeks of national attention on Columbia University’s student-led protest encampments calling on the university to divest from weapons manufacturers and other companies associated with Israel’s war on Gaza, university officials’ declared Monday they won’t won’t commit to any real policy changes.

The university told student protesters they must leave the campus by 2 p.m. Monday or else “be suspended pending further investigation” and prohibited from completing the spring semester.

That threat achieved exactly nothing.

Interestingly, Columbia’s X account also posted a summary from Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s statement, noting that after a dialogue between “academic leaders” and student organizers, the university would not commit to divesting. Instead, Shafik outlined steps to consider student proposals and allow for more transparency in the university’s investments. The university ended up deleting that post and replacing it with a much shorter summary, presumably after blowback.

Since students set up protest encampments at Columbia over the war in Gaza earlier this month they have been met with a massive police response. Similar protests quickly spread at other campuses across the country, as many politicians missed the point and urged more punitive measures. Some pundits and politicians even tried to compare the peaceful, diverse protests to the white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

As commencement approaches, university officials are desperate to make these protests go away, and avoid a situation like that of University of Southern California, where commencement ceremonies were ultimately canceled, following keynote speakers backing out and the initial cancellation of pro-Palestinian valedictorian Asna Tabassum’s speech. But as long as the U.S. continues its support for Israel’s deadly war on Gaza, students will continue to protest against their university connections to the war. And if universities persist in ignoring protest demands, or worse, massively cracking down on protests, they will not surely ignite a firestorm. 

George Santos’s Newest Money Grab Is His Most Hypocritical Yet

The former congressman is reviving his drag queen persona.

George Santos speaks
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Disgraced former Representative George Santos is still trying to hold on to his 15 minutes of fame—even if it means blowing up his purported beliefs.

The ousted lawmaker announced Monday he was gunning for another Cameo grabbag, this time offering up $350 videos featuring his long-denied drag alter ego Kitara Ravache.

“Y’all weren’t ready for this drop?” Santos wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, alongside a Cameo booking link. “I’ve decided to bring Kitara out of the closet after 18 years!”

In a video posted on the personalized messaging platform, Santos claimed that the campaign would only last a couple of days, with 10 percent of the proceeds going to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which donates to first responders and military veterans, and another 10 percent going to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. His last run on the platform in December ushered in thousands of video requests, raking in more than six figures—a sum significantly more than his $174,000 congressional salary.

The campaign is a complete reversal of where Santos stood little more than a year ago, after news first emerged that the Queens resident had actually been a queen. At the time, Santos claimed that the anecdotes and photographs of his alternate persona were simply “​​outrageous claims” peddled by the media.

“The most recent obsession from the media claiming that I am a drag Queen or ‘performed’ as a drag Queen is categorically false,” Santos said in January 2023. “I will not be distracted nor fazed by this.”

But just a couple of days later, Santos fessed up, claiming the photographs were from a time when he was “young and [having] fun at a festival.” Still, the admission didn’t sway Santos, who is gay, from his war on the rest of theLGBTQ community, which included “full blown support” for Florida’s 2022 Don’t Say Gay law, speaking out against Drag Story Hour, and even suggesting that LGBTQ Americans were grooming children.

And with the way the rest of the year is shaping up for the known fabulist, he’ll definitely need the extra cash on hand. Last week, Santos announced that he was dropping his bid for New York’s 1st Congressional District against his apparent Long Island nemesis, Representative Nick LaLota. But he still has a huge hurdle on the horizon.

The reputed hustler—who was caught fabricating his entire résumé and lying about his relation to Holocaust survivors, his connection to the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, and the kidnapping of his niece, among many other things—is currently facing 23 counts related to illegally receiving unemployment benefits, aggravated identity theft, and credit card fraud. Santos’s next court proceeding is scheduled for August 13, with a trial expected in September.

What Did Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump Talk About in That Meeting?

Ron DeSantis reportedly had a private meeting with Trump in Miami.

Ron DeSantis sits at a table next to Donald Trump who smiles smugly with his arms folded
Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Ron DeSantis is apparently considering helping the man who once called him “Ron DeSancitmonius,” “Meatball Ron,” and “Pudding Fingers.”

DeSantis privately met with Donald Trump in Miami Sunday morning, according to The Washington Post. Trump’s hope is that DeSantis will help him raise a lot of money for his presidential campaign, as the former president grows increasingly desperate for cash.

Trump and DeSantis clashed very early on in the 2024 presidential race, with DeSantis becoming an early favorite of Republican donors eager to shed Trump and his baggage, in spite (or possibly because) of the Florida governor’s disturbing authoritarian streak. A story that DeSantis once ate pudding with his fingers became fodder for an entire campaign ad from a Trump-aligned political action committee. Trump had quite a few nicknames for the Florida governor, calling him Meatball Ron, Rob, Ron DeSanctimonious, and Ron DeSanctus— and even went as far as to call him a “groomer.”

In the end, DeSantis failed to gain ground on Trump in the polls, quickly alienating voters with his weird people skills and mannerisms. Nikki Haley ended up overtaking him among Republican voters desperate for an alternative to Trump, and DeSantis dropped out of the race in January.

Now, DeSantis is probably looking at the future and seeing that he doesn’t have one without at least tolerance from Trump. The two reportedly haven’t spoken since the primaries, even though DeSantis endorsed Trump the day he dropped out. The fact that DeSantis scoffed at a proposal for Florida to pay Trump’s legal bills probably didn’t help, and who can blame him? The former president’s bills keep piling up, and he reportedly can’t even pay his legal counsel.

Most Powerful Republican in Congress Complains He Has No Influence

Mitch McConnell has admitted he can’t control the Republican Party.

Mitch McConnell looks up
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

One of Congress’s most powerful Republicans apparently feels powerless in the face of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Sitting for an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell explained that he didn’t see any other option than to endorse the GOP presidential nominee—despite having made previous declarations against Trump, including blaming him for the violent events that unfolded on January 6.

“The issue is, what kind of influence, even if I had chosen to get involved in the presidential election, what kind of influence would I have had?” McConnell said after insinuating he was duty-bound as the most powerful Republican in the Senate to support the candidate that Republican delegates voted for.

“I’m the Republican leader of the Senate. What we do here is try to make law,” McConnell continued. “I like us to be in the majority. I’m spending my political time and my political capital, whatever amount I have, on trying to flip the Senate so that my successor is the majority leader and not the minority leader.”

In a heated back-and-forth with host Margaret Brennan, McConnell continued to dodge questions that poked at his purported policy agenda, skirt overtly offering advice to Trump’s campaign, and refuse to admit that he was ideologically more aligned with President Joe Biden’s idea of American leadership.

“Look, I wouldn’t have withdrawn from Afghanistan. I wouldn’t have submitted four budgets in a row for defense that don’t even keep up with inflation. I’ve got plenty of differences with the current administration,” McConnell said, referring to actions taken during Biden’s administration. “Whether I will have differences with the next administration remains to be seen. And so I’m not going to predict what might happen on this issue. I know what I think and it doesn’t make any difference what the outcome of the presidential election is. I’m going to be focusing on this remainder of my time in the Senate.”

McConnell has struggled in recent months to unify his party, even around typically popular Republican issues. He is one of a shrinking number of GOP lawmakers who support sending more military aid to Ukraine in its counteroffensive against Russia, and he was forced to watch as his party tanked a bipartisan border security bill at Trump’s behest.

The Kentucky Republican has spoken out against the right’s fight for a new brand of American isolationism—which includes Trump’s threats to withdraw from NATO and Republican infighting over aid for Ukraine, among other national security issues—but he placed the blame on former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson rather than Trump.

“He had a huge audience among rank and file Republicans. And I think it was very destructive, very impactful on regular Republican voters and created a big problem,” McConnell said about Carlson, adding that the political conspiracy peddler “certainly ended up where he should have been all along, interviewing [Russian President] Vladimir Putin.”