Fox News Suffers Blow as Billionaire Joins Lawsuit Against Network

One of the founders of LinkedIn, billionaire Reid Hoffman, is backing a voting technology company that is suing Fox News and Newsmax for defamation.

The Washington Post reports that Hoffman has invested millions of dollars into the company partly to help it finance the lawsuits. Smartmatic says that the two conservative news outlets hurt the company’s image with their claims of electoral and vote-counting fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

“Smartmatic built a global business by using technology to better engage citizens, regardless of party or ideology, by making voting simple and trustworthy,” Hoffman said in a statement. “After Donald Trump lost in 2020, however, Smartmatic became a target of the defamatory campaign to overturn his defeat.”

Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica issued a statement refuting the right-wing attacks against it.

“Smartmatic’s technology has counted seven billion votes on six continents with zero security breaches,” Mugica said. “Voters, candidates, and election officials in all of those elections are watching to see if we still stand up for the truth against lies. Rest assured, we do.”

Billionaires have attempted to aid lawsuits for ideological reasons in the past. Right-wing tech mogul Peter Thiel infamously backed a series of lawsuits against Gawker Media after it published a story outing him. This isn’t the first lawsuit that Hoffman has backed against conservative figures, either: He also helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit accusing Trump of rape and defamation.

There’s no trial date as of yet for Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox. The media network settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023 to the tune of $787.5 million, nipping what would have been an unprecedented trial process in the bud. Will Hoffman want Smartmatic to seek a settlement, or will he want to get his money’s worth and force Fox News to trial?

While the world was digesting examples of President Joe Biden’s faltering health, Donald Trump was quietly having his own terrible, no-good, very bad week.

The former president had a relatively bonkers week on the campaign trail, thoroughly illustrating in his own right that he’s just another candidate unfit to retake the White House. In the span of a matter of days, the 78-year-old demonstrated poor impulse control, a thirst for revenge, an unwavering God complex, and his affinity for dangerous QAnon conspiracy theories that stroke his ego.

On Truth Social, Trump shared an image of himself and Melania Trump at the White House, superimposed with the QAnon catchphrase, “Where We Go One We Go All.” Trump has for years shared messages and iconography from the cultlike, fringe group that heralds him as a messiah against the pedophilic evils of the Democratic Party, including wearing pins and badges prominently featuring the letter “Q,” and elevating other phrases that originated in the group, such as “The storm is coming.”

Trump also used his social media platform to amplify an attack against billionaire financier George Soros and his family, vaguely accusing the investor and his connections of being “treasonous traitors.”

Trump extended that moniker to former Wyoming GOP Representative Liz Cheney,  baselessly claiming she was “guilty of treason” and deserved a “televised military tribunal.” Cheney was one of just a small handful of Republicans who criticized Trump’s tenure as U.S. leader following the events of January 6.

“Donald—This is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult—and are not fit for office,” Cheney wrote in response on X.

Trump also shared an image of several other prominent lawmakers that he believed should be headed to prison instead of his far-right ally Steve Bannon, who began his federal sentence last week for defying a congressional subpoena. Those politicians include former Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who all committed the egregious crime—according to Trump—of hiding “the January 6 footage.”

The former president was riding such a high after the debate that he went so far as to claim that his candidacy was divine ordainment, resharing a post by another user that claimed “God has chosen him.”

Donald Trump helped draft a 2024 Republican Party platform that was adopted Monday, effectively cementing his extreme views as the de facto stance of the party.  According to Maggie Haberman with The New York Times, the policy platform was “overwhelmingly” adopted on Monday, despite initially scheduled meetings on Tuesday.

According to The Washington Post, Trump’s policy platform makes mass deportations the party’s official platform, calls to “deport pro-Hamas radicals,” seeks to build a “great Iron Dome” over the United States, and calls to “end the weaponization of the Department of Justice”—by which Trump likely means preventing the DOJ from prosecuting him and instead converting it into his personal attack dog.

The platform also targets transgender people, who make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. adult population, promising to “keep men out of women’s sports, ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, [stop] taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX education regulations, and restore protections for women and girls.” As the Post notes, the proposal doesn’t seek to ban gender-affirming care for minors. However, the threats toward schools “promoting gender transition” and “protections for women and girls” hint at policies akin to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” ban on classroom discussions of LGBTQ issues and appears to promise a reversal of the Biden administration rule that prohibits transphobic bathroom bans in schools.

The platform takes a much less extreme approach to abortion than Trump’s anti-abortion supporters would like, opting instead to support access to IVF and birth control while opposing late-term abortion and leaving abortion access up to the states. It also avoids taking a stance on same-sex marriage, which the Post notes scales back the party’s 2016 platform, which condemned the legalization of same-sex marriage and endorsed conversion therapy.

“Republicans will promote a culture that values the sanctity of marriage, the blessings of childhood, and the foundational role of families, and supports working parents,” the proposed platform says instead. “We will end policies that punish families.”

The 16-page platform was allegedly largely written by Vincent Haley, anonymous sources told the Post, with revisions and some portions written by Trump himself, according to Politico. Haley is a Trump campaign speechwriter who worked under Stephen Miller during Trump’s presidency and was Newt Gingrich’s policy director and campaign manager during his 2012 presidential campaign, according to Axios. The draft proposal circulated on Monday and was intended to be discussed on Tuesday night by members of the RNC’s platform committee, all of whom were handpicked by Trump, according to The Washington Post. According to Haberman, the policy “passed overwhelmingly.” It’s unclear whether any amendments or revisions were made.

Donald Trump doesn’t think Fox News is doing enough to help him.

The former president and convicted felon raged against the conservative news network on Truth Social on Monday, demanding that Fox “STOP PUTTING ON THE ENEMY!”

The post follows two posts on Sunday, where Trump gave more detailed complaints. It’s odd that Trump would take shots at Fox, especially just hours before Sean Hannity is set to air a major interview with him. The network has gone to great lengths to help Trump’s presidency and candidacy, even boosting his false claims of 2020 election fraud and having to pay a hefty legal settlement as a result. But Trump is apparently upset at Fox’s guests, whom he feels aren’t defending him or his claims strongly enough.

For example, he complained on Saturday about Wall Street Journal editor John Bussey, claiming that the journalist “refuses to say, even though he knows it to be true, that everything I got accused of is a Biden inspired HOAX for purposes of Election Interference.” Late last month, Trump was angry that a Fox poll showed Biden narrowly leading him by two points.

In short, Trump demands total loyalty from everyone around him, no matter what they’ve done for him in the past. Fox has a long record of going above and beyond to support Trump, whether it’s editing interviews to make him look better, pushing his blatant lie about the FBI plotting to kill him, and covering up whatever makes him look bad. The network has always pushed Republican goals and messages, throwing its weight behind Trump once he captured the GOP electorate, and is putting its thumb on the scale for Trump in this election.

Trump can continue to take shots at Fox without worrying about their support, as the network doesn’t want to risk angering his supporters. But ultimately, the voters he has to convince may not be hanging on the network’s every word.

France’s New Popular Front Coalition pulled off a stunning parliamentary election victory on Sunday, blocking Marine Le Pen’s far-right ultranationalist party, the National Rally, from overtaking the country’s government.

After a strong showing from a coalition made up of the Republican right-wing party and the National Rally in the first round of voting last week, France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal called upon candidates from President Emmanuel Macron’s party who were caught in three-way races to begin dropping out—and, quite amazingly, they did.

As a result, the New Popular Front, a four-party left-green alliance, came in first with 192 seats. Macron’s center-right alliance came in second, winning 163 seats, and Le Pen’s far-right movement came in third, winning only 143 seats. While the New Popular Front did not achieve an absolute majority, and the way forward for the government remains unclear, the surprise victory marked a rare instance of the traditional democratic alliance winning against fascism.

Across France, members of the far-right coalition were left dumbfounded as the results of the election rolled in.

A video posted to X by France 3 Rhône-Alpes showed a crowd at the National Rally headquarters in Rhône, where onlookers eagerly counted down to the results—and then couldn’t hide their abject disappointment when they realized they had lost. In the murmur of the crowd, a word favored by the French, “impossible!” can be heard.

At an election-night party in Bois de Vincennes, journalist Alison Tassin captured far-right activists who looked more than a little displeased to see the shocking election results.

Meanwhile, at the headquarters of the far-left La France Insoumise party in Paris’s Place Stalingrad, journalist Maxime Dubernet captured the inverse of far-right distress: leftist triumph.

French television network BMFTV put reactions from the two camps side by side: the overjoyed La France Insoumise on the left and the dejected National Rally on the right.

Online, far-right conservatives have decried the election results as the death of France. But many are rejoicing that the National Rally, with its history of antisemitism and Holocaust denialism and vehemently racist, anti-immigration rhetoric and platform, has been kept out of power for now.

Voters may be concerned by President Joe Biden’s age, but one Republican lawmaker appears to have taken the story a little too far.

Speaking with Fox Business’s Cheryl Casone on Monday, Senator Roger Marshall suggested that Biden’s choice of footwear could be a sign that the chief executive has developed Parkinson’s disease, a nervous system disorder that results in tremors in a person’s hands and feet.

“People have taken a good look at the fact that he used to wear dress shoes,” said Casone. “Now he wears those tennis shoes. Does this all factor into what you’re hearing and seeing?”

Marshall quickly agreed. “Exactly, first of all, there’s several different types of Parkinson’s,” he said. “Some of them have a bigger impact on his cognitive abilities than other types of Parkinson’s do. So, again, if there’s nothing to hide, then the president should do a cognitive test.”

“My guess is he has done one. Certainly, they’ve done a neurological examination. That would be part of an annual examination.… I guarantee you that this Parkinson’s disease doctor that showed up did an in-depth neurological exam—and America deserves to know,” Marshall continued. “Again, I don’t know if the president has Parkinson’s or not, but we’re concerned about it. And four years is a long time.”

To make the argument, the Kansas senator fell back on his medical expertise as a former ob-gyn, a specialty that has practically zero medical crossover with diagnosing a neurological illness such as Parkinson’s.

Marshall’s theory may have been sparked by reports from over the weekend that a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders was seen at the White House eight times between last summer through the spring. It is unclear whether the doctor was attending routine White House medical team meetings or if he was there specifically to consult on Biden’s health. The White House says Biden is not exhibiting signs of Parkinson’s.

Biden, meanwhile, has rejected the notion that he should be subject to a cognitive test during his high-profile one-on-one interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday, arguing instead that the daily grind of the presidency is testing enough.

“I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden said. “Everything I do. Not only am I campaigning, I am running the world.”

But Marshall did let one detail slip in his closing comments on Biden’s health: The conservative lawmaker believes that Vice President Kamala Harris has a future running the Oval Office.

“Any way you look at this, I think we end up with Kamala Harris as the president, either going into the future or the nominee now,” Marshall said.

Biden released a letter to congressional Democrats on Monday warning that discussions about him stepping aside need to come to an end as calls for him to leave the race continue to dog him more than a week after his disastrous debate performance sent Democrats into a massive tailspin.

The letter, first published by Axios reporter Stephen Neukam on X (formerly Twitter), appeared on a personalized letterhead for Biden, not the White House. In the letter, Biden noted “extensive conversations” he has had with “the leadership of the party, elected officials, rank and file members, and most importantly, Democratic voters over these past 10 days or so.” He briefly acknowledged that he is well-aware of the “good faith fears and worries about what is at stake” but ultimately warned that he will not step aside.

“I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” Biden wrote.

Biden made the case for himself by noting that he’s already the presumptive nominee by a wide margin after primary voters largely chose him in a re-election campaign he reportedly told aides in 2019 he would not pursue. “I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin,” Biden noted before detailing some wins the Democratic Party has secured during his presidency, such as student debt relief and lowering the cost of insulin for seniors, and casting his campaign in stark contrast to Trump’s.

“We have an economic vision to run on that soundly beats Trump and the MAGA Republicans. They are siding with the wealthy and the big corporations and we are siding with the working people of America,” Biden wrote. “It wasn’t an isolated moment for Trump to stand at Mar-A-Lago and tell the oil industry they should give him $1 billion and he will do whatever they want. That’s whose side Trump and the MAGA Republicans are on.”

Biden’s letter concluded with a call to end discussions around him leaving the race and focus on unifying behind him to defeat Trump, a sticking point leading Democrats, influential donors, editorial boards of numerous media and news outlets, and voters have struggled to embrace.

“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end,” Biden warned. “We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump. We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”

Biden’s letter was issued at the start of a week described by CNN as “the most critical days of his 50-year career” and a day before the Congressional Black Caucus is slated to meet, which some members anticipate will be incredibly consequential, according to CNN.

President Joe Biden believes that the American public wants him to stay in the 2024 race, even though his perspective seems to be a bit askew.

The forty-sixth president told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday that, despite growing calls from inside the Democratic Party for him to withdraw, his rallies around the country have inspired him to remain resolute.

“I want to make sure I was right, that the average voter out there wanted Joe Biden, and I’m confident they do,” Biden said. “We’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere.”

But the people don’t actually seem to want Biden. A new poll by Black Futures Lab, conducted long before the president’s disastrous debate performance last month, indicates that Black voters—whose historic turnout put Biden into the White House in 2020—would lean toward Vice President Kamala Harris if given the option.

The poll, which ranked the popularity of electable politicos among more than 200,000 Black voters, saw Harris soar with a 71 percent approval rating. Biden was close behind, with 68 percent of Black Americans approving of the job he’s doing. Donald Trump, meanwhile, tanked, with just a 5 percent approval rating among the Black community.

Dissent against Biden’s campaign is center stage even at his own rallies. Steps away from the podium at his Wisconsin rally on Friday, a protester waved a sign urging him to “pass the torch.”

In the days since Biden and Trump’s painful face-off, the former president has solidly overtaken Biden in the polls. Several national polls published in the aftermath of the rocky debate figure Trump with a multipoint lead over Biden. A New York Times/Siena College poll pegged Trump with a seven-point lead when independent candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were thrown into the mix, a CBS News/YouGov poll found Trump to have a four-point lead under similar circumstances, and a Wall Street Journal study listed Trump with a six-point advantage.

Other Democratic options didn’t fare much better in postdebate polling against Trump—all except for one unexpected, left-field candidate: Michelle Obama, who in two separate Reuters/Ipsos studies polled with an 11- and 12-point lead over Trump in a possible November matchup.

Harris, meanwhile, has skirted addressing direct calls for her to overtake the top of the ballot by focusing her joint campaign with Biden on one objective: defeating Donald Trump.

“People voted in record numbers in 2020,” Harris said at the Essence Festival in New Orleans on Saturday. “This is what was able to happen, and when everyone votes in those numbers again in 122 days, we can see it through.”

Donald Trump wordlessly threw a bone to his Islamophobic followers Sunday night, by mocking President Joe Biden’s outreach to the Muslim community.

The presumptive Republican nominee posted a caption-less screenshot of a post from Biden’s X (formerly Twitter) account to his own Truth Social account.

“Jill and I wish a Happy Islamic New Year to all families who celebrate. May the arrival of the 1446 Hijri New Year bring you love, peace, and prosperity,” read Biden’s original post. Although Trump’s screenshot bore no caption, his intention was clear: to stir up his followers’ anger that the president would deign to well-wish Muslims.

Since the beginning of his first presidential campaign, Trump has used Islamophobia to attract voters. After Trump first called for a nationwide ban on Muslims entering the United States, while on the campaign trail in 2015, hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs nationwide spiked 23 percent. After he was elected, Trump implemented this overtly racist policy.

During his first election, hate crimes seemed to follow Trump wherever he went. Counties that hosted Trump rallies in 2016 saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes, according to one study.

During the presidential debate earlier this month, Trump said Biden had “become like a Palestinian,” the second time he has publicly referred to the victims of an ongoing genocide as if it were some kind of slur. Trump urged Biden to let Israel “finish the job”—the job being a deadly military campaign that has killed more than 38,000 people, primarily women and children; displaced nearly one million refugees; and resulted in a widespread famine and humanitarian catastrophe.

Since the beginning of Israel’s military campaign, the Republican front-runner promised that if elected, he would bar immigrants who “support Hamas” from entering the United States and arrest and deport pro-Palestinian protesters.

As questions remain about Joe Biden’s fitness for the presidency after his disastrous debate less than two weeks ago, some Democrats are now floating a unique plan to replace him as the Democratic presidential nominee.

The plan would have Biden step down as the party nominee in the next couple of weeks, followed by the announcement of a “blitz primary” before the Democratic National Convention in August. Candidates would use the next few days to enter the race, and then pledge to run positive-only campaigns for a quick primary in the month or so before the convention.

The “blitz primary” would include candidate forums every week to engage voters, hosted by celebrities such as Michelle Obama, Oprah, and Taylor Swift, among others. The eventual nominee would be chosen by delegates using ranked choice voting before the convention begins on August 19.

“In the midst of malaise and crisis, we can forge an uplifting path,” said Ted Dintersmith, a Democratic philanthropist and one of the two architects of the plan. The other person behind the proposal is Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations and volunteered for Biden’s 2020 campaign.

Brooks and Dintersmith outlined their plan in a memo that they sent on Tuesday to donors, campaign officials, Biden appointees, and other powerful Democrats. But it remains to be seen if any such Democrats will sign on. Biden said in a Friday interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that only “the Lord Almighty” could persuade him to drop out.

In the past couple of days, the wagons appear to be circling. A group of Democratic senators led by Virginia’s Mark Warner is seeking to convince Biden to withdraw, and several top Democrats in Congress are making public calls for him to go. For the “blitz primary” plan to work, Biden would need to drop out quickly, but he’s clearly not there yet. Plus, while the GOP is more than happy with Biden as their opponent, they are already strategizing on how to handle a replacement nominee.