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Liz Cheney Was Up for a Prestigious Award. Then the Trustees Worried Trump Might Be Re-Elected.

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Presidential scholar and former White House photographer David Hume Kennerly issued a scathing letter of resignation criticizing the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation after it repeatedly refused to give Liz Cheney its annual award, he says, because the trustees are afraid of possible retribution if Donald Trump wins the presidential election.

The Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service is a prestigious award that has been bestowed upon Republicans and Democrats alike, among them, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, and former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill.

Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), whose strong criticism of Donald Trump and work as Vice Chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack led to “a stream of death threats,” and ended her congressional career, was considered for the Gerald R. Ford Medal, three times, Kennerly says.

Kennerly, according to Politico, “resigned yesterday from the board of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, blasting the group for cowardice in rejecting Trump critic Liz Cheney as the recipient of its top yearly award, Daniel Lippman reports.”

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“Kennerly claimed in a letter to fellow trustees that Cheney’s nomination for the Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service was nixed largely out of fear that Trump would retaliate against the organization if he’s reelected. Cheney, herself a trustee, was rejected three separate times, Kennerly wrote, as other potential honorees declined the award.”

As his photographer, Kennerly writes he “was in the room with [President Ford] almost every day that he was in office,” and blasted the GOP: “If President Ford could see the current state of his former party he would be shocked and royally riled.”

Kennerly said he “strongly supported” efforts to give Liz Cheney the Ford Foundation award.

“To me there was no other choice,” Kennerly continued. “In 2022 Liz also received a Profile in Courage award from the JFK Foundation along with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They said she had been a ‘consistent and courageous voice in defense of democracy’ and that she had ‘refused to take the politically expedient course that most of her party embraced.'”

He adds that after two other people refused the award, “it became crystal clear to me that something else was going on.”

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“A key reason Liz’s nomination was turned down was your agita about what might happen if the former president is reelected. Some of you raised the specter of being attacked by the Internal Revenue Service and losing the foundation’s tax-exempt status as retribution for selecting Liz for the award. The historical irony was completely lost on you. Gerald Ford became president, in part, because Richard Nixon had ordered the development of an enemies list and demanded his underlings use the IRS against those listed. That’s exactly what the executive committee fears will happen if there’s a second coming of Donald Trump.”

Edward Luce, the Financial Times’ chief U.S. commentator, responded, writing, “If Trump can scare the Gerald Ford Foundation from giving an award to @Liz_Cheney six months before the election, imagine the spinelessness we’d see after he won. Really terrible foretaste what would be in store.”

Pete Souza, the famed former White House photographer for both presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, praised Kennerly, writing, “Bravo.”

Yale University professor Howard P. Forman summed it up, saying: “Ford Presidential Foundation trustees afraid of Donald Trump; decline giving an award to a lifetime public servant (Liz Cheney). Profiles in cowardice.”

 

 

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News

Judge Rebukes Trump Admin for Defying SNAP Payment Deadline

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15 hours ago

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November 6, 2025

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A federal judge chastised the Trump administration for defying his order issued last week to fully distribute SNAP payments by Monday, or at least partially by Wednesday. The administration had said it would release 65 percent of the funds but offered no timeline for doing so.

Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island sharply rebuked the Trump administration “for what he said was defying his order to make full SNAP payments by Nov. 5,” Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported on Thursday. “He has ordered USDA to make the *full* payment to states by tomorrow.”

“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said, according to Cheney.

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The judge alleged that “Trump and his allies have admitted to withholding SNAP benefits for ‘political reasons’ rather than to preserve child nutrition programs, which the judge said was a pretext,” Cheney also reported.

Judge McConnell cited a Truth Social post President Trump made in which he vowed to hold up the SNAP funds. The President wrote that food stamp benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The White House later walked back the President’s remarks, claiming he was referring to any future shutdowns.

The judge “said Trump’s Truth Social post was essentially an admission of his ‘intent to defy the court order,'” according to Cheney.

“The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP,” McConnell said, according to the Associated Press. “They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial Snap payments and failed to consider the harms individual who rely on those benefits would suffer.”

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’

 

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‘Make Lots of Trump Babies’: Dr. Oz Highlights Midterm Goals

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18 hours ago

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November 6, 2025

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shared a few of his goals for next year’s midterms with reporters.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Oz promoted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform.

“We’ve dropped the [price of] infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies — I’m hoping by the midterms,” he told reporters, as HuffPost reported.

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Praising President Donald Trump’s plan to lower prices on popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, Oz said, “America will have to get fit in order to rightsize the health care system.”

Dr. Oz has talked about making “Trump babies” before.

“Now I know what you’re all thinking, and you’re probably right, that there are going to be a lot of Trump babies,” Oz said in October at a White House event focused on making in vitro drugs more accessible. “I think that’s probably a good thing.”

“But it turns out the fundamental, creative force in society is about making babies,” he continued. “It’s about creating. And this country, the one that President Trump is leading so beautifully has been a country of abundance, not scarcity.”

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’

 

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‘Clown Show’: House Dem Leader Slams ‘Divorced From Reality’ Senate GOP Head

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19 hours ago

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November 6, 2025

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As the federal government shutdown enters its 38th day with no end in sight, the Speaker of the House and the House Democratic Minority Leader appear united — on one aspect only: blaming the Senate.

Amid reports that a few Senate Democrats might agree to vote to reopen the government if Republicans guarantee a date-certain vote on restoring the Affordable Care Act subsidies, Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to attempt to scuttle that potential bargain on Thursday.

Asked if he would assure that the House would vote on restoring the Obamacare subsidy funding, which would be the basis of a Senate deal, Johnson refused.

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“No, because we did our job, and I’m not part of the negotiation,” the Speaker told reporters on Thursday. “The House did its job on September 19th” when it passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through November 21. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has effectively declared that legislation is dead, unless he can change the end date.

“I’m not promising anybody anything,” Johnson continued. “I’m gonna let this process play out.”

Over on the Democratic side of the aisle, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted the Senate Majority Leader.

“Not a partisan thing, a patriotic thing: We have to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis,” Jeffries declared.

“And John Thune is divorced from reality,” he charged.

“I mean, it’s a clown show over in the Senate,” Jeffries continued.

READ MORE: Democratic Rep. Interrupts Speaker Johnson — Accuses Him of ‘Lies’ 

“Fourteen, fifteen times, you bring the same partisan Republican spending bill?” he said, referring to the House-passed continuing resolution that Leader Thune has been putting before the Senate several times a week.

“Expecting a different result? That’s the classic definition of legislative insanity. Doing the same thing, over and over and over again,” he said while blasting Thune, saying he “has no ability to actually negotiate in good faith.”

Weeks ago, Jeffries told MSNBC, “what I’m saying is that we need an ironclad path forward that decisively addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”

“In terms of the Affordable Care Act, you know, this is a group of people, Republicans, who have tried to repeal the Affordable Care more than 70 different times since 2010. They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer. We need a real path forward to address the crisis that Republicans have visited upon the American people in terms of healthcare, the cost of living, and affordability.”

READ MORE: Trump to Talk About Cost of Living Next Year White House Says

 

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