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‘Lunatic Sliding Into Senility’: Fox News Lawyers Feared Rupert Murdoch Would Be ‘Disgraced on the Stand’ – Report

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Gabriel Sherman, who literally wrote the book on Fox News, reports one of the reasons the right-wing media conglomerate settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million instead of going to trial in the $1.6 billion defamation case is the company’s attorneys feared putting Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch on the stand.

Sherman’s Tuesday article at Vanity Fair focuses on what he calls a “new theory” of why Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox, but he includes damning news about the company’s 92-year old leader.

Noting that “multiple theories about why Fox fired Carlson” have “circulated in the media,” Sherman points to “fallout from the $787.5 million Dominion settlement; punishment for vulgar text messages published in Dominion court filings; or a consequence of former Fox producer Abby Grossberg’s lawsuit, which alleged Carlson oversaw a hostile work environment. (Fox News has vowed to ‘vigorously defend’ the company against ‘Grossberg’s unmeritorious legal claims.’)”

“But none of these potential reasons fully add up,” Sherman writes – offering his new theory: “According to the source, Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch removed Carlson over remarks Carlson made during a speech at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary gala on Friday night.”

READ MORE: Trump a No Show at His Rape and Defamation Trial, Says He Will Be a No Show at the GOP Debates

“Carlson laced his speech with religious overtones that even Murdoch found too extreme,” his source says. “Carlson told the Heritage audience that national politics has become a manichean battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ Carlson said that people advocating for transgender rights and DEI programs want to destroy America and they could not be persuaded with facts. ”

“The answer, Carlson suggested, was prayer.”

“’I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will,’ he said. ‘That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,’ the source said.”

Sherman then focuses on Murdoch’s hastily-voided engagement.

“Rupert Murdoch was perhaps unnerved by Carlson’s messianism because it echoed the end-times worldview of Murdoch’s ex-fiancée Ann Lesley Smith, the source said.”

READ MORE: Far Right Anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist Mark Robinson Launches Bid for Governor

“In my May cover story,” Sherman notes, “I reported that Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was ‘a messenger from God.'”

“In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch’s Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. ‘Rupert just sat there and stared,’ the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex’s favorite show.”

He calls the broken engagement “part of a string of erratic decisions” Murdoch has made “that raises questions about Murdoch’s leadership of his media empire.”

Sherman reports his sources say there is concern about Murdoch’s leadership.

“’It’s like the King is senile but no one wants to say anything,’ the source said.”

“Once the [Dominion] trial began, the lawyers told Fox execs that Murdoch would be ‘disgraced on the stand, run out of the boardroom, and his testimony will expose him as a lunatic sliding into senility.’ (The person close to Murdoch disputed this. ‘Rupert was very well prepared to testify.’)”

 

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News

White House Mocks GOP With ‘Worst Person You Know’ Meme After Matt Gaetz Blames McCarthy for Shutdown

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10 hours ago

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September 20, 2023

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In a rare move the Biden White House on Wednesday mocked House Republicans with a popular internet meme to highlight remarks made by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz that show how the Florida Republican  is blaming the impending, likely shutdown of the federal government on Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Congressman Gaetz specifically says “We cannot blame Joe Biden” and “We cannot blame House Democrats” for it.

Gaetz, who did not vote to hand McCarthy the gavel back in January, for weeks has increasingly been targeting the House Speaker. Last week he threatened he would get McCarthy removed as Speaker, going as far as to say he was “out of compliance.” On Tuesday a reporter found a resolution with links to Gaetz declaring the Office of the Speaker “vacant” on a baby changing table in a House restroom.

Fox News’ Liz Elkind reported on Gaetz’s comments via social media, “MATT GAETZ pins shutdown on McCarthy: ‘We will have a government shutdown and it is absolutely Speaker McCarthy’s fault. We cannot blame Joe Biden for not having moved our individual spending bills. We cannot blame House Democrats. We can’t even blame Chuck Schumer in the Senate.”

READ MORE: ‘Brazen and Misguided’: Schumer Decimates Tuberville’s ‘Act of Desperation’ – and Threatens to Hold Senators in DC

The White House reposted them, and the “worst person” meme, known as the “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point.” The meme was published in 2018 by Clickhole. a satirical website.

The federal government will shut down in 10 days if Speaker McCarthy cannot pass legislation to keep the government funded after September 30. That legislation will need to be acceptable to the Senate, and President Joe Biden. House Republicans, intent on stripping funding for Ukraine, defunding Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations, along with the Dept. of Justice and FBI, are digging in their heels amid “chaos” and “infighting.” Some have called it a GOP “civil war.”

See the White House’s post below or at this link.

 

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‘Brazen and Misguided’: Schumer Decimates Tuberville’s ‘Act of Desperation’ – and Threatens to Hold Senators in DC

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12 hours ago

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September 20, 2023

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Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took strong action on Wednesday, slamming U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, vowing to get several officers in the U.S. Armed Forces confirmed to top posts, and threatening that if the Georgia Republican lawmaker who has blockaded well over 300 military promotions does not release his holds he will hold Senators in D.C. over the weekend.

“In an act of desperation, Sen. Tuberville is trying to use a procedural step to overcome his own holds,” Majority Leader Schumer wrote on social media Wednesday afternoon, before delivering a floor speech. “You read it right. His own holds.”

“He is trying to make himself the gatekeeper of which officers are promoted or languish,” Schumer added. “We can’t allow this to continue. We’re taking action.”

On the floor of the Senate he added: “We cannot allow Senator Tuberville to decide which of our dedicated and brave service members get promoted and which get to languish. Which military families are able to settle in their new posts, and which must remain in limbo. We cannot we should not allow that to be the case.”

READ MORE: Tuberville Refuses Responsibility but Says He’s Blocking 300 Military Promotions Because ‘We’re Not a Communist Country’

“So I have just filed cloture on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Army Chief of Staff. These men should have already been confirmed. They should already be serving in their new positions,” Schumer said. “The Senate should not have to go through procedural hoops just to please one brazen and misguided senator.”

“But this is where we are. In the end, the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to overcome Senator Tuberville’s blockade of these three nominees by voting for cloture then the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to confirm them,” he vowed. “And these three honorable men will finally be able to assume their positions and the abortion policy that Senator Tuberville abhors will remain in place. Senator Tuberville will have accomplished nothing.”

It is rare for a Senate Leader to target one member of the body, and even more rare to do so by name, but Senator Tuberville’s blockade, which he began in February, has harmed military readiness, according to multiple top Pentagon officials and former officials.

Tuberville has said he has blocked at least 319 military promotions, which require Senate confirmation, in response to the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing service members who need to travel out of state to obtain abortion health care services. Many GOP-majority states have imposed abortion bans, forcing out-of travel.

READ MORE: ‘Years to Recover’: Tuberville’s 300+ Military Holds to Have Long Impact Says Top Biden Navy Pick

But Schumer’s reference to “gatekeeper,” and later, in his floor speech saying, “which of our dedicated and brave service members get promoted,” may also refer to Tuberville’s unprecedented personal attacks on individual officers awaiting promotion.

Last month the Georgia freshman Republican Senator targeted over 20 individual U.S. Military officers, promoting an attack on their remarks supporting diversity and equity programs, or even, in one case, blasting one officer for their “celebration” of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Tuberville, who denied holding up hundreds of promotions is having a damaging effect on the military and morale, also has said he is blocking these promotions because the Biden administration is “woke.”

Recently, Tuberville told Bloomberg News each military officer’s promotion takes two hours of voting by the Senate, which could take them up individually despite his block. Tuberville falsely said voting on all the promotions would take “no time at all” to complete.

READ MORE: ‘A Nazi Movement—All the Way to the Top’: Critics Denounce Trump’s Antisemitic Attack on ‘Liberal Jews’

Watch Majority Leader Schumer below or at this link.

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‘Knock It Off’: Matt Gaetz Thinks Merrick Garland Should Tell the President to Not Allow Hunter Biden at State Dinners

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16 hours ago

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September 20, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) challenged the Attorney General of the United States on Wednesday, wanting to know if he has ever told the President of the United States to “knock it off” and stop allowing his son, Hunter Biden, to come to the White House and attend State Dinners. The Florida Republican made his remarks during a House Judiciary Committee on alleged politicization and weaponization of the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

“I guess I’m just wondering, Mr. Attorney General, has anyone at the Department told President Biden to knock it off? With Hunter?” Congressman Gaetz, a far-right Republican rumored to be weighing a run for governor of Florida, asked Merrick Garland.

“I mean, you guys are charging Hunter Biden on some crimes, investigating him on others, you got the President bringing Hunter Biden around to State Dinners,” charged Gaetz, who is currently pushing for the House to defund the FBI, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. “Has anyone told him to knock it off?”

READ MORE: Trump Worried He Will Lose Secret Service Protection and Have to Wear ‘One of Those Jumpsuits’ if He Goes to Jail: Report

Attorney General Garland, a former federal appeals court judge and chief judge, replied, “Our job in the Justice Department is to pursue our cases without reference to what’s happening in the outside world –” before Gaetz cut him off.

“Just yes or no: have you done that?” Gaetz demanded to know.

“That is what –” Garland began, before Gaetz again interrupted.

“So it’s a no?” the Congressman asked.

“No one that I know of has spoken to the White House about the Hunter Biden. case –” AG Garland replied before again being interrupted.

On social media observers lambasted Rep. Gaetz.

READ MORE: ‘This Is Stupidity’: House Republican Slams McCarthy and His ‘Clown Show’ of ‘Lunatics’ as Clock Ticks Toward Shutdown

“This exchange is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of DOJ,” said one user on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Gaetz seems to believe that DOJ is the President’s attorney. Garland correctly understands that this is not DOJ’s role and further understands that DOJ doesn’t exist to tell a President how to parent.”

Another wrote: “This is why impeachment is a loser for the Republicans. Attacking a father who has buried two children to abandon a third child is something most Americans will find repugnant, regardless of Hunter’s crimes, and R’s will look heartless rather than judicially-minded.”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘A Nazi Movement—All the Way to the Top’: Critics Denounce Trump’s Antisemitic Attack on ‘Liberal Jews’

 

 

 

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