'He’s not serious'

'These are John Reid’s own words'

Former “Today” cohost Bryant Gumbel was reportedly rushed to hospital after suffering a “medical emergency” in New York City. Sources with direct knowledge of the situation told TMZ that first responders transported Gumbel on a gurney from his Manhattan apartment building just after 9pm Monday. The outlet reported that Gumbel has not yet been released […]

Former President Barack Obama plans to sweep into Virginia to buttress the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat nominee Abigail Spanberger as polls show a suddenly tightening race. Spanberger announced Tuesday morning that Obama will join her in Norfolk, Virginia, for a rally on Nov. 1, three days before election day. In a news release, the former congresswoman highlighted the importance of the rally’s location, noting that Obama last visited the Hampton Roads area in 2012 during his presidential reelection campaign. A month ago, Spanberger was leading the polls by upwards of 12 points. A Christopher Newport University poll of likely voters showed Spanberger with 52% to Republican nominee Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears’ 40%, with 8% undecided. Quantus Insights conducted the most recent poll showing Spanberger now ahead of Sears by five points. The survey of 1302 likely voters had 51% for Spanberger and 46% for Sears, with 2% undecided. The Spanberger rally announcement comes days after President Donald Trump endorsed Earle-Sears. Obama endorsed Spanberger in a new ad funded by her campaign. “Virginia’s elections are some of the most important in the country this year, and I am proud to endorse Abigail Spanberger for governor,” Obama said in the ad. “Republican policies are raising costs on working families so billionaires can get massive tax cuts,” he claimed. According to the White House, the Trump administration has saved the average American family over $1,300 per year just with deregulatory initiatives. In August, after Congress passed The One Big Beautiful Bill, the White House announced taxpayers should see an average tax cut of over $3,500 in 2026. Earlier this month, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared at a fundraiser for Spanberger in Northern Virginia. In an almost identical ad, Obama endorsed Mikie Sherrill, the Democrat gubernatorial nominee in New Jersey. The post Obama’s Last-Minute Rally for Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger as Earle-Sears Closes Gap appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In 2022, Washington, D.C., passed a new crime bill so radical that even dozens of Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate voted to strike it down, and President Joe Biden agreed—but Abigail Spanberger, now the Democrat nominee for Virginia governor, voted to defend it. “If you want to know how much Abigail Spanberger will value Virginians’ safety, look at her record: she backed reducing penalties for violent crime in D.C.—a bill so extreme even radical liberal Joe Biden rejected it,” Peyton Vogel, press secretary for Spanberger’s Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday. “Virginians know exactly what ‘safety’ would look like under Spanberger: none at all.” The Revised Criminal Code Act of 2021, which the D.C. Council unanimously passed in November 2022, would have rewritten the entire D.C. code, eliminating all mandatory minimum sentences except for first-degree murder and reducing the maximum sentences for many violent crimes. Critics focused on the lax approach to carjacking, in particular. While Mayor Muriel Bowser vetoed the bill, the council overrode her veto. Bipartisan Opposition In February 2023, the House voted to pass a resolution striking down the bill, 250-173. Thirty-one Democrats joined the Republican majority to oppose it. The Senate vote proved even more lopsided: 81-14. Thirty-one Democrats joined Republicans in voting against it, as did two Independents who caucus with Democrats. Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, voted to kill the bill. Even Biden—who would go on to issue thousands of prison commutations after encouraging federal prisoners to ask for clemency—opposed the bill, signing into law the congressional resolution against it. “I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule—but I don’t support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections—such as lowering penalties for carjackings,” the president posted on Twitter. “If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did—I’ll sign it.” Spanberger, however, voted the other way. Spanberger’s Rationale Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, condemned the bill as “one of the most extreme criminal-first, victim-last measures we’ve seen across the nation.” He said legislation like this “has led to a crime explosion and tragically an explosion of more victims,” and warned that D.C. crime spills over into the northern parts of Virginia. Spanberger’s office laid out a justification for the congresswoman’s vote in responding to Miyares. “Rep. Spanberger also believes there is a high bar for elected officials from Virginia or any other state to intervene in Washington, D.C.’s local affairs, and as D.C.’s local code change would have increased maximum penalties for horrific crimes like attempted sexual assault, attempted murder, and assaulting a police officer, Rep. Spanberger did not vote to interfere,” a spokesperson told the ABC News affiliate 7News in a statement. Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, called Spanberger’s response “disingenuous.” “Even if the maximum sentences were going to be increased, under the sentencing guidelines and the sentencing practices of the local D.C. judges, it would be basically impossible to get the maximum sentence for most crimes,” he told The Daily Signal. As for local control in D.C., Smith noted that it’s an “anomaly.” “The Constitution is clear that Congress has the final say, has final authority over what happens in the District of Columbia and the home rule system that’s set up now is a relatively recent invention of the 1970s,” he explained. Congress has often exercised more direct rule, as the Founders envisioned when they set up a federal district to protect the safety of Congress. As for the D.C. crime bill, Smith noted that “other Democrats said this was too far. Joe Biden said this was too far, and Joe Biden pardoned how many criminals at the end of his term?” “So, if Joe Biden is saying this is too radical, that should really send a message,” he added. Police Support for Spanberger Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment, but it has touted law enforcement support. The national Fraternal Order of Police presented her with an award for her leadership on the Social Security Fairness Act, which secured benefits for Virginia’s retired police officers, among others. The Virginia Police Benevolent Association endorsed her campaign in August. Yet the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police and the association both called on Jay Jones, the Democrat candidate for attorney general, to step down after Jones admitted to fantasizing about shooting his political opponent. When asked about his wish that the children of his political opponent would die, he said, “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” Jones said he regrets the messages and has apologized for them, but he has not dropped out of the race. Spanberger has condemned the remarks but has not called for Jones to drop out. Neither the Fraternal Order of Police nor the Virginia Police Benevolent Association responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about Spanberger’s support for the D.C. crime bill. The post Spanberger Voted to Protect Radical DC Crime Bill Even Biden Opposed appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Several blue cities, led by Chicago, want federal money to keep flowing but aren’t willing to abide by the Trump administration’s condition of dropping diversity, equity, and inclusion policies to get it. Joining Chicago in the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are Boston; New York; Baltimore; Denver; Minneapolis; St. Paul; and New Haven, Connecticut.  The cities filed the case of Chicago v. Noem in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois Monday. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is named in her official capacity as the defendant.  “This is yet another example of a lawsuit trying to obstruct President [Donald] Trump’s agenda and the will of the American people,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Daily Signal in an email Tuesday.  “Recipients of federal funds are required to follow anti-discrimination laws and may not use those funds for climate activism, DEI initiatives, or other unrelated activities,” the DHS spokesperson added. “At the direction of Secretary Noem, FEMA has implemented additional controls to ensure that all grant program activity is consistent with law and does not promote fraud, waste, or abuse, as it has in the past. We will continue to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and for mission-critical efforts.” The DHS and FEMA dollars in question are not for responses to emergencies or disasters. Rather, the funds are intended to help cities train first responders, modernize emergency operations centers, purchase equipment such as hazmat suits, or to build public alert systems.  The lawsuit says DHS conditions would require jurisdictions to certify that they don’t operate any “programs that advance or promote DEI, DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility], or discriminatory equity ideology” in order to get the funding.  Plaintiffs claim that putting the conditions on funding violates the separation of powers, since Congress has already appropriated some of the funding that the executive branch is now trying to put conditions on. Further, they allege that the decision to withhold the money was arbitrary and violates the Administrative Procedures Act, which sets out specific rules by which the government can adopt new regulations, including the requirement to seek public comment on those proposed regulations.  Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have already been on the front lines of legal challenges to the Trump administration during Trump’s second term. In a similar case this summer, Chicago sued to oppose the administration’s withholding of federal funding for sanctuary cities that refuse to assist federal law enforcement with the enforcement of immigration laws. And Illinois recently sued to block National Guard troops from being deployed to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago.  “Chicago will not stand by while the federal government weaponizes emergency funding to attack our values,” Johnson said in a public statement.  “Chicago will always uphold the importance of our diversity. Ensuring that all Chicagoans have an opportunity to succeed is not discrimination; it’s just basic fairness,” he added. “We will fight to ensure our first responders have the tools they need, that our commitment to equity and inclusion remains strong, and that we receive every federal dollar intended for public safety.” The Department of Homeland Security is following an executive order that Trump signed on the first day of his second term to stop DEI and DEIA programs in the federal government pushed by the Biden administration and also to halt federal grant money going to such programs outside the federal government.  “Terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ offices and positions (including but not limited to ‘Chief Diversity Officer’ positions); all ‘equity action plans,’ ‘equity’ actions, initiatives, or programs, ‘equity-related’ grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees,” Trump’s executive order says. The post Chicago Sues Trump, Refusing to Drop DEI as Condition for Federal Money appeared first on The Daily Signal.

NEW: Fetterman Tells GOP to Nuke the Filibuster And End the Schumer Shutdown

No Truth Allowed in Switzerland Now

ABC’s Good Morning America had an exclusive interview on Tuesday’s show with Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner about the upcoming Thanksgiving season and the overall state of the economy, but with co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos at the helm, it was framed as a hitjob on the Trump economy. Unfortunately for Stephanopoulos, Furner wasn’t having any of it and pointing out the company’s been lowering prices and consumers are “very resilient.” Worse yet, the segment prior to this focused on....falling gas prices. Stephanopoulos started with Thanksgivings costs: “Let’s talk about Thanksgiving first. Food prices are up, especially turkey. What you doing to help customers keep costs down?” Hilariously, Furner immediately rebutted him by saying Walmart’s turkey prices would be the lowest since 2019 and its Thanksgiving meal basket would be 25 percent cheaper (or $14 lower) than last year’s edition, meaning it’d cost “just under $4 per person when serving ten people”   With the chyron flipping to “Walmart U.S. CEO on Keeping Costs Down,” Stephanopoulos second of three failed attempts focused on Trump’s tariffs, which he said have “contribut[ed] to higher costs across the board.” Thus, he wondered, “how much is going to be passed onto consumers as they turn to holiday items?” Furner didn’t budge, first noting “about two-thirds of what we sell is either made, grown, or assembled in the United States and so, our merchants have done a really nice job of mixing things out.”     He also mentioned the decades-old Walmart Rollbacks as a way of sharing “as we stand here today...we have about 7,000 items on rollback, so — which is up about 1,000 from where we began the beginning of the year.” Stephanopoulos made one last pass: “You know, a lot of American families are tightening their belts right now, borrowing more to pay bills, falling behind on credit card payments. Are you seeing any change in your customer’s behavior and what can you to alleviate that?”     Furner made it 0-for-3 for Stephanopoulos. This time, he hailed Americans as “very savvy” consumers who are “thinking about value, they love quality, and they’ve been very resilient.” “So, we are doing what we can to ensure we are being as efficient as possible, so that we can deliver low prices. And the big change from — from just — even the year before...I’ll just reiterate...the price of the basket being down 25 percent...And then having over 7,000 items that we have taken the price down on key items, things like 50-inch Vizio television that is selling for $214. Those are great values that will really come in handy as people get ready to celebrate the holiday season,” he added. To see the relevant ABC transcript from October 21, click here.

Andrew Stiles and Jameson Mitrovich at the Washington Free Beacon captured all the funniest takes at a MSNBC fan event, "MSNBC Live '25" at the Hammerstein Ballroom in midtown Manhattan. They wrote the event drummed up "several busloads worth of gray-haired radicals," humming with "the sound of walkers, canes, and Medicare-approved stability sneakers shuffling on the brocade carpet." It sounds like the speakers offered exactly the same paranoid hot takes you can get as part of your basic cable package:  Chris Hayes, one of several Rachel Maddow look-a-likes scheduled to appear, kicks things off by comparing Trump to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. He's hopeful that American democracy will survive because Putin is "defter, smarter, and more effective" at tyrannical governance. Michael Steele, the disgraced former Republican, isn't so sure. He predicts Trump will soon declare martial law to facilitate his efforts to abolish elections.  The “mood brightens” when Nicolle Wallace interviewed Martin Sheen, who acted as the president in The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin’s Democrat fan fiction series that aired on NBC from 1999 to 2006. Sheen went viral for saying it's about time Trump realized he was "the biggest nothing in the world" and should "get in touch" with his humanity. Actor Martin Sheen on Donald Trump: “You are the biggest nothing in the world. Stop listening to all these people around you, these sycophants, who are encouraging you to be your non-human self. Get in touch with that humanity. Stop fussing with your hair. Speak from your heart… pic.twitter.com/cBvftK1HXq — Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) October 13, 2025 A fictional president lectured the actual president that he was nothing. Stiles and Mitrovich noted all this could get pricey: "When the morning session ends, VIP ticket holders who shelled out $900 or more are invited to attend the Capstone Lunch with Chris Hayes, Mika Brzezinski, and Hillary Clinton's former servant Huma Abedin." Then came the afternoon session, featuring MSNBC host Ari Melber and failed New York mayoral candidate Maya Wiley: Wiley urges the crowd to "stay woke, stay woke, stay engaged," while Melber almost bursts into tears while quoting Kendrick Lamar's verse on the Kamala Harris campaign anthem "Freedom" by Beyoncé. Moments before they took the stage, we overheard an elderly Indian woman musing that this is what it must have felt like to be in Gandhi's presence. "I feel like I'm standing on the edge of change," she said. Then came MSNBC host Jen Psaki having a chat with podcasters Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan, who used to be Bravo reality TV stars. They were….funny, according to the audience: The first of several cracks about Trump's "cankles" is enough to win them over. By the time Welch delivers her rant about "failed drag queen" J.D. Vance, the crowd is cackling like Kamala. Apparently, their nickname for Trump is "Cankles McTacoTits." Psaki asked the duo what they might to say to win over the opposition: There's no point in trying, the ladies said, because of all the "patriarchy." Most women just do what their husbands tell them to "as long as they get a new handbag." Sullivan says she refuses to engage with conservatives, including her own mother. She just tells them it "makes me sad you can't have empathy for poor people" and asks them if Jesus would be a MAGA supporter. It all ended with the very special Rachel Maddow:  Rachel Maddow tells one truth and two lies after taking the stage to a huge ovation. She calls MSNBC a "really special" place because the hosts are "making a lot of money and having a big audience and growing, and at no risk of becoming state TV."  ....It's certainly not accurate to describe MSNBC's audience as huge or growing. And while no one would describe the network as "state TV" during a Republican administration, MSNBC's fawning coverage of Barack Obama and their vigorous defense of Joe Biden's mental sharpness is another story.