by Matt Margolis, PJ Media: A new bombshell report has exposed the intricate behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to Joe Biden stepping down from the 2024 presidential race. While many assumed the tipping point was Biden’s poor performance during the June CNN debate against Donald Trump, it turns out that the groundwork to push Biden aside […]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said over the weekend that President-elect Donald Trump plans to implement a $100 billion agenda to secure the U.S. border and deport illegal aliens in the United States. Graham made the remarks during a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” with Margaret Brennan when asked about Trump’s border agenda. “Do you have a top line number yet on how much this is all going to cost?” Brennan asked. “Yes, $100 billion for border security through reconciliation would be enough to hire ICE agents, create new detention beds, and finish the wall and put technology in place over four years,” Graham said. “$200 billion will be given to the military to make it more capable of deterring China. $100 billion for border. $200 billion for the military.” “I met with Mike Johnson yesterday,” he continued. “He has a political problem in the House. He wants to do one big, beautiful bill. I have never been more worried about an attack on our homeland than I am now with the rise of ISIS in Afghanistan and wars all over the world. I think the number one priority for the Republican Party should be to secure that border. You need new money to do it. And if we don’t, we’re playing Russian roulette with our own national security.” “You need to secure that border like our life depended on it,” he added. CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT WATCH:

As the sun sets on the Biden presidency, the Regime Media has turned their focus on his legacy. Across the dial, Sunday programming discussing his legacy turned mostly funereal.   Tonally upbeat but nonetheless mournful, CBS’s Nancy Cordes tried to cobble together off a highlight reel of sorts in order to depict the Biden presidency as something other than catastrophic (click "expand" to view transcript): Celebrating Biden’s great achievements, @NancyCordes on @CBSSunday: “In many ways, he did deliver. His administration oversaw the successful rollout of the Covid vaccines, the stock market steadily rose to record highs, while unemployment fell to a near record low. Overseas, he… pic.twitter.com/abuec10vib — Brent Baker ?? ?? (@BrentHBaker) January 19, 2025 CBS SUNDAY MORNING 1/19/24 9:16 AM NANCY CORDES: In many ways, he did deliver. His administration oversaw the successful rollout of the covid vaccines, the stock market steadily rose to record highs, while unemployment fell to a near-record low. Overseas, he expanded NATO, strengthened alliances in Asia with the goal of containing China, and cobbled together lasting support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. JOE BIDEN: The duty of the president is to defend what is best about America.  CORDES: He did so while racking up legislative victories, including massive new investments in clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing. BIDEN: I believe to my core that there isn't a single thing this country cannot do when we put our mind to it. CORDES: And scored a win that eluded his predecessors, signing a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Cordes’s upbeat presentation contrasted with discussion at ABC and NBC, which both used “tragedy” as a descriptor of the Biden legacy, preceded by discussion of the New York Times process piece on Chuck Schumer’s trek to Delaware to talk Biden into dropping out (click "expand" to view transcript):  Discussion of Biden's legacy turned mournful at @ThisWeekABC. I wish @JMart were allowed to finish his "It's the great tragedy" sentence. pic.twitter.com/SV2rIkdZLX — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 20, 2025 JON KARL: And you have some new reporting. I mean, Pelosi -- the Pelosi-Biden tension is not faded away one iota. JONATHAN MARTIN: Just the opposite- in my column today I report that Joe and Jill Biden have not reached out to Nancy Pelosi since she fell in December and broke her hip in Europe, which is an extraordinary sort of silence from two people who are known for their personal decency and kindness. That’s sort of bigger than politics, and she's been a longtime ally and I spoke with one of Pelosi's daughters, Alexandra yesterday who referred to Jill Biden as Lady McBiden, and urged the First Lady to “put on your big girl pants and start thinking about your husband's legacy.” KARL: Interesting. And how is that coming? MARY BRUCE: Well, I was going to say, legacy certainly is going to be at the front of so many people's minds come tomorrow afternoon as they sit there and watch Donald Trump be sworn in. Certainly Joe Biden has been out there trying to define his own legacy, but you can't help but remember and think that when he dropped out of the race, he was doing it in part -he thought- to save his legacy, that he would be defined by how he put his party over his personal interests, paving the way for Kamala Harris to come in and drive his agenda forward, and now it's quite the opposite. Now you are seeing so many Democrats, and I think a lot of people in the country, and you have to wonder, you know, what Joe Biden and whether he is thinking this as well, you know, wondering whether his decision to drop out when he did, his decision to run again. Now that is going to define his legacy for the role that he played in Donald Trump's return to Washington. KARL: And Democrats, I'm hearing and I'm sure you are, Rachel especially on The Hill, real frustration with Biden on the way out. RACHEL SCOTT: Oh, absolutely. KARL: I mean anger. SCOTT: Yeah. Anger, frustration, I think, across the board. And a little bit, I think, this has to do with also how Vice President Kamala Harris ran her campaign as well. Frustration, fingerpointing, it is a blame game, but look. They are all confronted with the same reality. It is President-Elect Donald Trump who is going to be there on Inauguration Day taking the Oath, and he was elected by the people of the United States and they are trusting him to carry out his vision for the country. MARTIN: It's the great tragedy… BRUCE: And remember, Joe Biden still says that he thinks he could have defeated Trump. So this is something he's still very much actively wrestling with, whether he likes it or not. He still isn't ready to accept, it seems, the political reality. KARL: All right, thank you all. We will be right back. Over at NBC’s Meet the Press, the conversation ranged from a wrapup of Biden’s term to the “oligarchy” narrative, to Amna Nawaz wishcasting “shininess” for Bidne in the years to come. After the liberal media panelists got time to prattle on, former Trump official Mike Dubke got 15 seconds: MIKE DUBKE: Look, Joe Biden was a tragedy in three parts. From his young years to the middle and the vice presidency and at the end. And he left the stage too late and at the end of the day that's what the Democrats are going to have to struggle with and deal with. WELKER: That’s what history will be looking at for years and decades and centuries to come. Thank you for a fantastic conversation. The Regime Media are preparing to snap back into Resistance Mode, but not before they hold their version of an Irish wake for Joe Biden. Would that they also held one for their own legacies, forever tarred by their abetting of this presidency. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective shows on Sunday, January 19th, 2024: ABC THIS WEEK 1/19/25 9:53 AM JON KARL: Joe Biden still in office. (The) New York Times had a couple of stories that I thought were very interesting about Biden, including this one. I think we have the graphic here of Schumer. “‘I'm Urging You Not to Run’: How Schumer Pushed Biden to Drop Out.” So I have to say, as I read that article, it made me think of something that we, you know, back in July on this network at the Republican convention, here's what I reported.  KARL AT THE RNC: I am told that this was a one-on-one meeting, just the Senate leader and the president, and that Chuck Schumer forcefully made the case that it would be better for Biden, better for the Democratic Party, and better for the country if he were to bow out of the race.  KARL: Okay. Now when I reported that, Jonathan Martin… JONATHAN MARTIN: Yes. KARL: There was pushback from the Democratic leader's office saying it was idle speculation. Now it seems they're very eager to embrace what he did. MARTIN: That's the difference between an unplanned leak and a planned leak, okay? Last year -- last summer, Chuck Schumer didn't want that leaking out in that fashion. Now this is about history and posterity, and Chuck Schumer wants the textbooks to record that when the moment came in the summer of 2024, he too was pushing out Joe Biden. You and I know it was much more Nancy Pelosi than it was Chuck Schumer, but he's playing for history now, Chuck is. KARL: And you have some new reporting. I mean, Pelosi -- the Pelosi-Biden tension is not faded away one iota. MARTIN: Just the opposite- in my column today I report that Joe and Jill Biden have not reached out to Nancy Pelosi since she fell in December and broke her hip in Europe, which is an extraordinary sort of silence from two people who are known for their personal decency and kindness. That’s sort of bigger than politics, and she's been a longtime ally and I spoke with one of Pelosi's daughters, Alexandra yesterday who referred to Jill Biden as Lady McBiden, and urged the First Lady to “put on your big girl pants and start thinking about your husband's legacy.” KARL: Interesting. And how is that coming? MARY BRUCE: Well, I was going to say, legacy certainly is going to be at the front of so many people's minds come tomorrow afternoon as they sit there and watch Donald Trump be sworn in. Certainly Joe Biden has been out there trying to define his own legacy, but you can't help but remember and think that when he dropped out of the race, he was doing it in part -he thought- to save his legacy, that he would be defined by how he put his party over his personal interests, paving the way for Kamala Harris to come in and drive his agenda forward, and now it's quite the opposite. Now you are seeing so many Democrats, and I think a lot of people in the country, and you have to wonder, you know, what Joe Biden and whether he is thinking this as well, you know, wondering whether his decision to drop out when he did, his decision to run again. Now that is going to define his legacy for the role that he played in Donald Trump's return to Washington. KARL: And Democrats, I'm hearing and I'm sure you are, Rachel especially on The Hill, real frustration with Biden on the way out. RACHEL SCOTT: Oh, absolutely. KARL: I mean anger. SCOTT: Yeah. Anger, frustration, I think, across the board. And a little bit, I think, this has to do with also how Vice President Kamala Harris ran her campaign as well. Frustration, fingerpointing, it is a blame game, but look. They are all confronted with the same reality. It is President-Elect Donald Trump who is going to be there on Inauguration Day taking the Oath, and he was elected by the people of the United States and they are trusting him to carry out his vision for the country. MARTIN: It's the great tragedy… BRUCE: And remember, Joe Biden still says that he thinks he could have defeated Trump. So this is something he's still very much actively wrestling with, whether he likes it or not. He still isn't ready to accept, it seems, the political reality. KARL: All right, thank you all. We will be right back. NBC MEET THE PRESS 1/19/24 11:09 AM KRISTEN WELKER: And speaking of Democratic messaging, President Biden has been very focused on his own messaging. He's dealing with some real headwinds. Let's look at the headlines just from this week. “How Biden Destroyed His Legacy (The Atlantic).” “One of the great tragedies of American politics: Biden ends 5 decades in public life (NBC News).” “Biden's Presidential Legacy, An Era of Change Forever Marked by Trump (NYT).” How is he trying to write the first draft of his legacy, and you have new reporting on what we might see from him in the next 48 hours. PETER ALEXANDER: Well of course, he came into office the first go-around as the president who defeated Donald Trump and, in the eyes of many of his supporters, protected democracy. Now he departs and the fatal flaw, perhaps, is that he has paved the way for Donald Trump's return to power. The thinking was he would be this transformational figure early on with some of these big legislative achievements he celebrated. He would be a transactional- transitional figure as well but, of course, the transition is back in the hands of Republicans. And I think that’s going to tarnish his legacy, certainly in the near term right now by choosing to run again and then waiting too long to decide to drop out. In terms of how he can still impact his legacy in these waning hours, even as we were speaking I was waiting for this conversation- had been told by White House officials yesterday there would be more pardons and commutations coming out today, as clockwork, they came out this morning. So he has the record of pardons and commutations but the ones to wait on are still the preemptive pardons. Will there be some for those that many in his circle and he included thinks could be targeted- the Liz Cheneys, the Adam Schiffs, the others, and I’m told the president is, quote: “considering this very seriously, even at this hour”, that if they happen they're likely to happen tomorrow morning just before he leaves office. There have been meetings in the last several days, even, with senior staff. WELKER: Boy. That would be significant, Amna. What are you going to be watching for and what are the takeaways from what we heard from President Biden this week in that farewell address where he warned an oligarchy was taking root? AMNA NAWAZ: I think it’s very in line for the president, right? He's someone who’s always looking ahead to the next thing. I think the warning of what's to come was sort of in line with what we’ve seen from him in 50 years of public service. I come back to this idea, paraphrasing Walt Whitman, that presidencies are like people- they contain multitudes. It’s very, very complicated. They tend to get shinier the more time goes on. So all of these things Peter mentioned- he came in at a time of chaos, led us through a pandemic, pushed through historic investments the fruits of which, I think, we'll be seeing in the future, as well. Pushed through the ceasefire deal. All of that’s part of his legacy. So, too, is this idea that 46,000 deaths of Palestinians are also part of his legacy. This idea that he questions around whether he should have run or not are also part of his legacy. It is very, very complicated. But I will say, if you can say anything about Joe Biden and tomorrow will mark the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr., is this idea of never losing infinite hope. 50 years of public service, the legacy will be written over time. (CROSSTALK) JEN PSAKI: I was going to say watching that speech on Thursday night it was not at all what I expected. I thought the first part of it was going to be largely talking about his legacy of legislative achievements and lists. That's- that’s often what you hear in his speeches. And what it marked to me- what the message was sent to me, he was saying to people at home- he rarely speaks directly to the public. That speech was voiced to the public. He was saying I am no longer here. I can't protect. No one is protecting you, American people. The Supreme Court is not protecting you, Congress is not protectioning you, the person sitting at this desk is not protectioning you. There's an oligarchy of rich people who are close to the guy who is going to sit here. It's up to you. You are the keepers of that. That is not a Joe Biden message, which I think- that is what was striking to me about this. ALEXANDER: Can I just say, progressives wanted this to happen a lot sooner, right? They’re like, why is this the final speech right now? And ironically, the MAGA faithful tomorrow are going to be outside for the inauguration, all of the elites will be with him inside of the Capitol. WELKER: Well, how’s that going to play? 15 seconds. MIKE DUBKE: Look, Joe Biden was a tragedy in three parts. From his young years to the middle and the vice presidency and at the end. And he left the stage too late and at the end of the day that's what the Democrats are going to have to struggle with and deal with. WELKER: That’s what history will be looking at for years and decades and centuries to come. Thank you for a fantastic conversation.  

Appearing as a guest on Thursday's The ReidOut, MSNBC contributor Matthew Dowd compared poor Americans who voted for Donald Trump to poor whites who defended wealthy slave owners during the Civil War. How on Earth can he state that this is "the same thing repeating itself"? During a discussion of the billionaires who supported Trump or are attending his inauguration, as if there weren't also plenty of billionaires who voted Democrat, Dowd fretted over how much money they have: "The combined wealth of the few hundred billionaires in America -- which Elon Musk and Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos are part of or the leaders of -- have more wealth ... than the 75 million people who voted for Vice President Harris combined..." He then invoked the American Civil War and poor whites who fought for the Confederacy as he continued: And I think it's ... an incredible situation, and the problem I see is the same thing repeating itself from what happened in the Civil War and the aftermath where the working class whites of the South who had nothing to benefit by maintaining the system. ... They got nothing out of the plantations. They got nothing out of it. But were convinced because of cultural sort of language and division that the white working class who should have sided with the North in this and should have sided with more freedom and should have sided with the freed slaves, ended up becoming part of that sort of awful thing, and that led through civil rights and that powerful people -- and this is my fear today. Joy Reid smirked throughout, and began nodding. Dowd, who was once a Republican, soon reiterated this bizarre comparison of MAGA backers to slavery backers: Back then, powerful people convinced the white working class was not the -- well, [that] the rich was not the enemy who were gobbling up everything -- it was these cultural elites that were the enemy in their mind. And it's the same thing is happening today. The powerful people are trying to segment off the white working class who are getting no benefit from this and will suffer in ... the Trump presidency -- but the same thing is repeating itself in our country again. Reid then jumped in to agree: Yeah, and -- Amen, Amen, and I think you're going to get an Amen from Baratunde [Thurston], too. I mean, that is the reality, Baratunde. We started as an oligarchy, and it was a planter class oligarchy, and then we became a railroad and industrial magnate oligarchy. And the only hundred years in which we have not been an oligarchy is the 20th century, right? ... And I do think that the greatest trick that the billionaire class played was they figured out how to make themselves cool to working class -- mainly white, but even some non-white -- people who aspire to them. After listing several big business owners attending Trump's inauguration, Reid added: "They now control the media so that they can tell white working class and brown working class and black working class people. 'No, no, no, no, no, no. The billionaires aren't the enemy -- it's the gays, it's the trans, it's the immigrants, it's the brown people. Don't focus on us -- focus on them.'" Transcript follows: MSNBC's The ReidOut January 16, 2024 7:12 p.m. Eastern MATTHEW DOWD, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: The combined wealth of the few hundred billionaires in America -- which Elon Musk and Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos are part of or the leaders of -- have more wealth, more wealth than the 75 million people who voted for Vice President Harris combined -- the few hundred billionaires, more wealth than 75 million people who voted for the Vice President combined in this. And I think it's incredible -- an incredible situation, and the problem I see is the same thing repeating itself from what happened in the Civil War and the aftermath where the working class whites of the South who had nothing to benefit by maintaining the system. Nothing -- because they got nothing out of it. They got nothing out of the plantations. They got nothing out of it. But were convinced because of cultural sort of language and division that the white working class who should have sided with the North in this and should have sided with more freedom and should have sided with the freed slaves, ended up becoming part of that sort of awful thing, and that led through civil rights and that powerful people -- and this is my fear today. Back then, powerful people convinced the white working class was not the -- well, [that] the rich was not the enemy who were gobbling up everything -- it was these cultural elites that were the enemy in their mind. And it's the same thing is happening today. The powerful people are trying to segment off the white working class who are getting no benefit from this and will suffer in the Trump primacy -- the Trump presidency -- but the same thing is repeating itself in our country again. JOY REID: Yeah, and -- Amen, Amen, and I think you're going to get an Amen from Baratunde, too. I mean, that is the reality, Baratunde. We started as an oligarchy, and it was a planter class oligarchy, and then we became a railroad and industrial magnate oligarchy. And the only hundred years in which we have not been an oligarchy is the 20th century, right? And not even all of the 20th century. We had to fight the Robber barons, right? And I do think that the greatest trick that the billionaire class played was they figured out how to make themselves cool to working class -- mainly white, but even some non-white -- people who aspire to them. And they said, "No, Donald Trump is your aspiration -- you can get there. I mean, he was born with $317 million, but you can get there." And now look at these guys. Here's the people who are going to attend the inaugural -- David Sacks of OpenAI, the Uber CEO, PayPal CEO, the SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, Amazon CEO, Meta CEO, on and on and on. They now control the media so that they can tell white working class and brown working class and black working class people. "No, no, no, no, no, no. The billionaires aren't the enemy -- it's the gays, it's the trans, it's the immigrants, it's the brown people. Don't focus on us -- focus on them." BARATUNDE THURSTON, HOST OF LIFE WITH MACHINES: The old technique of divide on conquer is at work here again...

Stair Force One: President Joe Biden Takes Final Flight Aboard AF1 Before America Soars Again

Time Magazine Reveals Trump Cover That’s More Animated than ‘Journalists’ Have Been for Four Years

In the early morning hours of Wednesday at Melbourne, Florida's city hall, the city council voted 6-to-1 to end water fluoridation, The Washington Post reported.

Dozens of senior career diplomats are resigning from the State Department as Donald Trump is inaugurated on Monday after receiving requests from the president-elect's aides to do so, The Washington Post reported.