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Vivek Ramaswamy Secretly Thinks Elon Musk Is in “China’s Pocket”

Resurfaced audio shows Vivek Ramaswamy sang a very different tune about Elon Musk not too long ago.

Vivek Ramaswamy gestures while speaking at a podium during a Donald Trump rally
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk may be on the same team now that Donald Trump has named them co-chairs of the still-in-the-works Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE, but behind closed doors, Ramaswamy has reportedly spent years bad-mouthing the Tesla CEO.

A new report by CNN’s K-File uncovered audio and video recordings in which Ramaswamy openly derided the SpaceX founder, routinely referring to Musk as a “circus monkey,” while accusing him of “bending the knee to Xi Jinping” when it came to international economics.

“I think Tesla is increasingly beholden to China,” Ramaswamy said in May 2023, while discussing Musk’s decision to build a battery plant in Shanghai. “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”

Ramaswamy’s more pointed critiques honed in on Musk’s comments about Taiwan, after the carmaker drew praise from Chinese officials in 2022 for claiming that the former Chinese colony should become a “special administrative zone.” That, according to Ramaswamy, was little more than a successful political ploy for Musk to obtain regulatory approvals and tax breaks from the Chinese Communist Party for his Shanghai factory, which singularly accounted for more than half of Tesla’s global sales in 2023.

Musk’s apparent aptitude for political games for the benefit of his own companies ultimately calls into question his appointment to a (still nonexistent) agency with high ambitions of cutting government spending, and whether he’ll follow through on those claims or simply restructure the government from the inside to line his own wallet.

“Both Tesla and SpaceX quite likely would not exist as successful businesses if it were not for the use of public funding, either through subsidies, through the electric car industry, or through actual government contracting in the case of SpaceX,” Ramaswamy said in 2022 on a Fox News podcast. “Elon Musk has, I think, demonstrated his willingness to change his political tunes based on the favors that he gets to be able to do business in China.”

In a lengthy 2023 post on X in which Ramaswamy openly targeted Musk, the biotech billionaire wrote that “the U.S. needs leaders who aren’t in China’s pocket.”

In a statement to CNN, Ramaswamy said that the pair had “aired some of these issues” the first time they spoke.

“I love him and respect the hell out of him, and I’m proud to call him a friend. The only country he puts first is the same one I do: the United States of America,” Ramaswamy told the network.

Tucker Carlson Returns to Russia for Shameless Propaganda Interview

The former Fox News host proves yet again that he’s a total Putin stooge.

Tucker Carlson makes a weird face while speaking
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Tucker Carlson is back in Russia to gush over how much he loves the country under Vladimir Putin.

The former Fox News host posted a video on X Tuesday from Moscow’s Red Square announcing that he’s interviewing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The purpose of this visit to Russia, Carlson said, is because U.S. support of Ukraine has “driven the U.S. ever closer to a nuclear conflict with Russia.”

“We are, unbeknownst to most Americans, in a hot war with Russia,” Carlson said. “An undeclared war, a war you did not vote for and that most Americans don’t want but that is ongoing.”

Carlson attacked President Biden for allowing Ukraine to strike Russian territory with American-made missiles and made the misleading implication that the U.S. military is directly involved in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

“And because of that war, because of the fact that the U.S. military is killing Russians in Russia right now, we are closer to nuclear war than at any time in history. Far closer than we were during the Cuban missile crisis,” Carlson said.

Carlson claimed that the State Department blocked him from interviewing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and attacked American media outlets for failing to offer “the Russian perspective” on the war. He also said he asked Lavrov whether Trump’s election meant that the war with Ukraine could be ending soon, echoing a promise from Trump that Putin has already thrown cold water on.

According to a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Carlson’s interview lasted about 90 minutes and will be released in a few days after being edited and translated. There was no word on whether the Russian government itself is doing the editing and translating, or whether Carlson’s interview would face government censorship.

That’s a legitimate question to ask, considering that the last time Carlson went to Russia, six months ago, his interview with Putin was so deferential to the Russian leader that even Putin mocked Carlson’s interview skills. At one point during that interview, Putin made fun of Carlson’s failed attempt to join the CIA.

Carlson’s show on X is so pro-Russian that it was aired on Russian state television at one point, although Carlson’s producer swore that it was without permission. When Carlson’s interview is posted within the next few days, we’ll all see how pro-Trump and pro-Putin he is now that Trump is returning to the White House.

Pete Hegseth’s Mom Desperately Tries to Take Back Her Own Words

Things are seriously not looking good for Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary.

Pete Hegseth surrounded by press walks through the Capitol
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Pete Hegseth called his mom to come do some damage control.

Penelope Hegseth appeared on her embattled son’s former show, Fox & Friends, on Wednesday and was asked about the email she sent him in 2018 in which she begged him to stop lying, cheating, sleeping around with, using, and abusing the women in his life. Instead of answering the question, she chose to point the finger back at the media in a public plea for her son’s nomination for defense secretary.

“We all believe in him, we really believe that he is not that man he was seven years ago; I’m not that mother.… I am here to tell the truth. To tell the truth to the American people, to the senators on the Hill, especially our female senators. I really hope that you will not listen to the media, and that you will listen to Pete.”

She then turned her scorn on the media, and on The New York Times, saying that they threatened her, and described them as “almost criminal” for reporting on the 2018 email she sent to her son, who could likely become the head of the Pentagon. “They are in it for the commission, for the money, and they don’t care who they hurt: families, children,” she claimed.

Pete Hegseth is on the Hill today trying to convince senators that he’s a changed man, as his nomination has been upended by troubling allegations of rape, sexual harassment, and financial mismanagement in previous workplaces. Beyond all that, he is an unabashed Christian nationalist who would bring a violent, incendiary energy to the Pentagon. The status of his nomination is yet to be determined.

Trump Considering Most Embarrassing New Choice Possible for Defense

At least Plan B isn’t an alleged sex pest?

Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis smile and stand next to each other at a podium
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

With growing scrutiny mounting against Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump is reportedly looking at replacements for his defense secretary nominee—but the number two pick might be an even more dangerous selection to run the Pentagon.

The president-elect is having casual conversations at Mar-a-Lago about tapping Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the highly coveted Cabinet position, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Unlike the majority of Trump’s “anti-qualified” picks to run his government, DeSantis would, at least, have some level of experience for the role. The 46-year-old briefly served as a Navy lawyer in Iraq and was part of a legal team that advised the Guantánamo Bay detention center, where he backed torture methods such as force-feeding.

DeSantis was also one of Trump’s more outspoken primary challengers, sparking a bitter—if lopsided—rivalry that cast the Florida governor as disloyal to the MAGA cause. But the pair’s shared perspective on “woke” politics in the military might be enough to get him in the door.

But DeSantis isn’t the only option being floated. Also on the list of Hegseth replacements is former Pentagon official Elbridge Colby, a friend of Vice President–elect JD Vance, and Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, according to sources that spoke with the Journal.

Conservatives have grown increasingly concerned about Hegseth’s ability to pass the Senate confirmation process in light of sexual assault allegations against the ex–Fox News host. Even Hegseth’s own mother couldn’t defend the white nationalist–connected conservative, accusing her son of “using women for his own power.” (Hegseth’s mother has since changed her tune—on Tuesday, she told Fox News that her son was a “changed man” whom she hoped “our dear female senators” would get to know.)

Elon Musk’s Real Plan Is Starting to Appear

Musk isn’t just out to make himself even richer via his connection to Trump. He also wants to gut Social Security and Medicare.

Elon Musk in folds his hands like a supervillain.
Chesnot/Getty Images
Elon Musk in 2023

Senator Mike Lee wrote out a blueprint for dismantling Social Security on X Monday night that Elon Musk amplified, hinting at disturbing GOP plans for the program.

In a thread now pinned to his X profile, the Utah Republican laid out a case for overhauling the program and amending the 1933 Social Security Act itself, claiming that the law allows for the government to steal taxpayer funds for its own purposes rather than safeguard Social Security itself.

A screenshot of an X post from the account Social Security Works, which includes a screenshot of Elon Musk quote-tweeting a post from Senator Mike Lee making the case for overhauling and cutting Social Seucirty.

Musk, along with Trump crony and business executive Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tasked by Trump to run the figurehead Department of Government Efficiency, where their mission will be to eliminate government waste. It’s no secret that their vision of waste includes Social Security, and they seem to have the backing of Trump and Vice President–elect JD Vance.

Lee is a leading Republican senator and, with Republicans controlling Congress, could be an architect for the GOP’s designs on the program. Lee would have plenty of allies in the House, with one congressman, Richard McCormick, alluding to overhauling the program along with Medicare and Medicaid, in a Tuesday interview. Earlier this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson promised to cut Social Security and increase defense spending, and the right-wing Project 2025 manifesto also includes drastic cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

With control of the Senate, the White House, and a very thin majority in the House, it seems quite clear that Republicans will take aim at the popular government program, despite the fact that most Americans oppose making any cuts to Social Security along with Medicare. Right now, Republicans are building a case for making dangerous changes. The question is whether they will follow through over popular opposition, and whether Democrats will put up a fight.

Eric Adams Really, Really Wants Trump to Pardon Him

And he’s barely hiding it.

Eric Adams smiles
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images
New York City Mayor Eric Adams

Hunter Biden’s federal pardon has Eric Adams holding out hope for a way out of his own legal troubles. 

When asked about President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter of tax evasion and possession charges, New York City Mayor Eric Adams responded by reading a sentence from The New York Times: “‘President Biden and President-Elect Trump now agree on one thing: The Biden Justice Department has been politicized,’” Adams intoned. “Does that sound familiar? I rest my case.”

In that same interview Adams went on to strike a particularly conservative tone, even daring an unspecified group of people to “cancel” him.

“Those who are here committing crimes, robbery, shooting at police officers, raping innocent people … I would love to sit down with the border czar and hear his thoughts on how we are going to address those who are harming our citizens,” the mayor said. “This is not a new position. In the era of cancel culture, no one is afraid to be honest about the truth. Well, cancel me.”

Adams seems to be not so subtly angling for a pardon in the near future from President-elect Donald Trump. Adams has been federally indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting political donations from the Turkish government in exchange for favors. 

Trump has already shown Adams public sympathy for his indictments, telling him at a charity event in October that they were both “persecuted.” Trump is also very likely to replace the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case against Adams, instead appointing someone who better aligns with his yes-men preference.   

Adams’s pardon pandering is shameless, and who knows? He might have a pretty good chance at getting one. Trump would love to have a loyal MAGA ally in charge of his hometown.

Kash Patel’s Bonkers Enemies List Doesn’t Just Target Democrats

Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI is out for revenge.

Kash Patel gestures and speaks into a microphone
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, has hopes of enacting the president-elect’s revenge plot against anyone he deems to be part of the so-called “deep state”—and that includes a number of Republicans.

Patel’s list, which can be found in his 2023 book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for our Democracy, includes a number of prominent Republicans and former Trump appointees.

Those people include Christopher Wray, whom Patel is set to replace before his 10-year term is up. Trump and his Republican sycophants went after Wray after he testified about the failed assassination attempt on Trump, saying he wasn’t sure whether Trump had been struck by an actual bullet.

The list includes Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general who publicly endorsed him even though he previously called Trump “nauseating” and “despicable.” Also on the list are Rod Rosenstein, a deputy attorney general; Pat Cipollone, Trump’s White House counsel; and Pat Philbin, a deputy White House counsel.

Ex–communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin appears on the list, as well as Stephanie Grisham, the former chief of staff for Melania Trump who sounded the alarm against Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who turned star witness for the House January 6 investigative committee is mentioned too. Hutchinson publicly described a hostile work environment ruled by Trump’s volatile temperament.

The list also includes John Bolton, an outspoken critic of the president-elect who once said Trump “can’t tell the difference between what’s true and what’s false,” and Mark Esper, Trump’s former secretary of defense, who said that reelecting Trump would put our “nation’s security at risk.”

Patel’s list mentions special counsel Robert Hur, who investigated President Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents but declined to prosecute because there was not enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The list also included the names of Ryan McCarthy, a secretary of the Army under Trump; Miles Taylor, a Department of Homeland Security official under Trump; Charles Kupperman, a deputy national security adviser for Trump; and Sarah Isgur Flores, who was head of communications for Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions.

Something that many of these Republicans have in common is that they were distinctly not anything like the “deep state” actors Patel wishes to persecute, but rather a group of people who were once defenders of Trump but failed to execute his wishes after he left office. Patel plots to chase them down for the biggest crime in Trump’s book: disloyalty.

Hypocrite Mitch McConnell Complains That Democrats Are Too Partisan

McConnell, who has done more to undermine the integrity of the legislative branch than anyone in the last half-century, thinks judges who are unretiring after Trump’s win lack integrity. Good grief!

Mitch McConnell does a creepy toothless grin as he looks down
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Mitch McConnell

Senator Mitch McConnell is upset that two Democratic judges are reversing their decisions to retire, complaining Monday that “this sort of partisan behavior undermines the integrity of the judiciary.”

After Donald Trump was elected to his second term as president last month, two judges appointed by Democratic presidents changed their minds about retiring. U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn, appointed by President Obama, announced that he would remain active on the court for the Western District of North Carolina after previously saying he would move to part-time status in 2022.

Before Cogburn, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, a Clinton appointee, changed his mind about moving to senior status on the court for the Southern District of Ohio. To McConnell, this “exposes bold Democratic blue where there should only be black robes.

“It’s hard to conclude this is anything other than open partisanship,” the former Senate majority leader added, before offering a warning to Democrats: “It would be especially alarming if either of the two circuit judges whose announced retirements created the vacancies currently pending before the Senate—in Tennessee and North Carolina—were to follow suit.”

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, highlighted McConnell’s hypocrisy in his complaints about partisanship, pointing out that McConnell blocked President Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland for one year in 2016. The Kentucky senator’s delay tactic allowed Republican Donald Trump to appoint Justice Neil Gorsuch immediately upon taking office.

“When I hear the senator come to the floor, from Kentucky, and talk about whether there is any gamesmanship going on, I don’t know but I can tell. We saw it at the highest possible level in filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court when Antonin Scalia passed away,” Durbin said.

McConnell made it his personal mission to confirm as many conservative federal judges as possible when his party controlled the Senate during Trump’s first term. The appointees generally signed off on whatever Republicans and Trump wanted and were younger and less qualified than previous judicial appointments. They also gave the GOP favorable decisions in restricting voting rights to help Republican candidates.

It was all part of McConnell’s legacy of serving the interests of powerful conservative billionaires. He’s crying foul now because Democrats are using tactics that he pioneered when he was in power. In fact, he probably would have far exceeded them. While McConnell has now ceded leadership of Senate Republicans, and by extension the Senate, to his ally John Thune, it remains to be seen if the next Senate majority leader will pursue Republican goals as brazenly as McConnell.

Shocking Exit Poll Reveals Why Trump Beat Harris

Voters were most concerned with these three issues.

Donald Trump raises his fist during an Election Night party
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

When it came time to hit the voting booths, Americans sided with Donald Trump on their top three biggest concerns.

A poll published Tuesday by Navigator Research revealed that Trump’s stance on—and his ability to elevate—three key issues drastically swayed American voters at the ballot box. Those issues included inflation and the cost of living, immigration and the border, and jobs and the economy. Navigator Research surveyed 5,000 voters in the 2024 general election, some of whom self-reported as new Trump voters.

Across the survey pool, 43 percent of voters ranked inflation as their top priority, followed by a tie between immigration and the economy for second and third place with 31 percent of the vote. Swing voters and first-time Trump voters were even more concerned by those same issues, with approximately 45 percent of swing voters ranking inflation as their first priority and 55 percent of new Trump voters doing the same.

And Trump’s messaging resonated with those voters, with the president-elect winning by double digits on those issues over Vice President Kamala Harris. On the issue of inflation, voters sided with Trump by a matter of 34 points. He won by 31 points with voters who ranked jobs and the economy as one of their most important issues and by a massive 71 points with voters who prioritized immigration and border policies.

Harris won on the next four issues most significant to voters, though the significance of the issues was obviously relatively minimal. Those included abortion, Social Security and Medicare, health care, and threats to democracy—the last of which Harris won by 60 points.

The Democratic candidate also won on guns and climate by 43 and 70 points, respectively, though voters ranked those issues much lower on the totem poll.

Stunning Memo Exposes Which SCOTUS Justices Want to Keep Being Crooks

Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas weren’t alone in opposing an ethics code.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito stand next to each other
Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/Getty Images

A few Supreme Court justices went out of their way to fight back against enforcing the court’s new ethics rules, The New York Times reported Tuesday—and it’s not that surprising.

In a series of secret offline memos and meetings, the justices toiled away over how they would formulate their code of ethics, and—crucially—whether it could actually be enforced.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson all supported enforcement rules for the court’s code of ethics. Kagan even pitched a panel of “safe harbor” judges that justices could go to about ethics concerns. Her proposal failed to gain wider support.

Meanwhile, Justice Neil Gorsuch railed against enforcement of the ethics code, essentially arguing that not abusing his seat of power should be voluntary. One of his memos raising concerns over enforcement stretched to more than 10 pages, according to the Times.

Gorsuch warned that ethics enforcement would threaten the court’s independence, and Justice Samuel Alito echoed his concerns, the Times reported. Justice Clarence Thomas, who has failed to report that he accepted exorbitant gifts and trips from conservative megadonors such as Harlan Crow, argued that the court’s critics could not be appeased.

Gorsuch, Thomas, and Alito compromised and agreed to some enforcement mechanisms—but only ones that couldn’t reasonably be enforced. Ultimately, the court decided to place no real restrictions on accepting gifts, travel, or real estate.