Leave it to The New York Times to try to channel its Fine People Hoax energy to once again twist President Donald Trump’s words to make him seem like a Bond villain who scoffs at the plebeians' struggles against inflation. Times White House correspondent Erica Green took hold of Trump’s comments on affordability during a Tuesday cabinet meeting, and bent them into a pretzel. “Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Con Job’ as His Edge on the Economy Slips,” read her ludicrous December 2 headline. It’s only until the fourth paragraph that Green gives a bit more context that completely upends the spin her headline generated, but still managed to spin that too. “Mr. Trump called the issue of affordability a ‘fake narrative” and ‘con job’ created by Democrats to dupe the public.”  No Erica, he was calling the hypocritical Democrats out for acting crusaders exploiting the term “affordability” on a crisis they themselves created under Joe Biden. And that’s not even taking into acccount the 1-2 percent projected GDP loss for Q4 growth as a result of the Democrat-led shutdown recently. He was not saying the word “affordability” in itself was fake. But hey, journalistic integrity and The Times make strange bedfellows anyway. Green even managed to tip her hand when she had the audacity to distort that Trump was unjustly attacking “Democrats who have championed the issue.” Great Caesar’s toga! It’s like saying someone who detonates a nuclear bomb on a city then promises to clean up the radioactive waste afterwards is a champion for peace! Listening to Trump’s comments clearly clarifies the context, not that Green cared anyway. “The word ‘affordability’ is a con job by the Democrats. I watched the other day where some very low IQ congresswoman talk[ed] about, ‘Affordability! Affordability! Affordability!’ She had no idea — their prices were much higher,” Trump said. He pointed to energy prices between his administration and his predecessor as one defining example. Watch and adjudicate for yourselves:   According to AAA, the highest recorded average price for regular unleaded gasoline was $5.016 per gallon in June 2022 under Biden. Another example is housing. As CNS News reported November 20, all five of the least affordable states for housing are all run by — you guessed it — Democrat governors. Meanwhile, the five most affordable states by comparison are all run by Republicans.  But Green, true to form, continued to ridiculously smear Trump along her phony angle: The comments marked something of a turnabout for Mr. Trump, who just last weekend appeared to acknowledge the salience of the issue, calling himself the ‘affordability president’ and promoting his efforts to bring down prices. Earth to Green: The reason why you’re making it seem like his comments were a turnaround is because you willfully butchered the context of his comments, which seems to be a very common practice at your publication.

Epstein fever appears to have mercifully broken at Politico. Yes, although as recently as this past summer when Politico went full frenzy by publishing SIX Jeffrey Epstein stories in a 24 hour period in the apparent belief  that the  Epstein files would provide salvation from the Trumpocalypse, brutal reality appears to have set in. It isn't that they are any less hostile to Trump but even Trump-hating analyst Ankush Khardori recently admitted the sad truth that the release of those files is unlikely to unlikely  to harm Trump. As a result, Politico has been forced to do something very unusual when it comes to covering Epstein. They actually  wrote a story about the Epstein files and documents that pretty much stuck to the facts and avoided such absurdities as happened a couple of weeks ago when Politico Framed Possible Ukraine War Peace Deal as Distraction from Epstein Files. The person tasked with the strange assignment of writing a Trump-free straight story about the Epstein case was the Politico Congressional reporter, Hailey Fuchs. The refreshing change of pace appeared on Wednesday in "Epstein island photos, videos released by House Oversight Committee." It was unusual but pleasing to see Politico cover the topic of Epstein without a single mention of You-Know-Who. But this was still a story about what Democrats wanted to put out there.  The House Oversight Committee has received new materials from major financial institutions as part of its investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as photos and videos of Epstein’s private compound from authorities in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The files from JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have not yet been publicly released, though Democrats on the panel say they expect to release them in the coming days after a review.... Democrats publicly posted videos and photos Wednesday that were provided by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned his infamous private retreat.... Meanwhile, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers asked Wednesday for a meeting with Justice Department personnel to ascertain what information is in its possession and is subject to release. Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter that that they are “particularly focused on understanding the contents of any new evidence, information or procedural hurdles that could interfere with the Department’s ability meet this statutory deadline.” See, once you drop a certain worn agenda it really isn't hard to simply stick to the facts. And hopefully there will be no (or at least few) relapses on the part of Politico.

We are shocked! The normally august Audie Cornish didn't go full Scarborough—someone known to drop f-bombs. Still, it was surprising to hear Cornish, the mannerly host of CNN This Morning, utter something out of character today. Mike Dubke, who served as White House Communications Director for three months during the first Trump term, suggested that one thing protecting Pete Hegseth from being fired is the difficulty that would be involved in the confirmation process for a replacement.  Responded Cornish:  "So, this is not a military term, but you're saying they're SOL. Basically, there's no other options out there." Dubke responded that Hegseth's "death by 1,000 cuts" could eventually lead to his firing, but that "right now they're not there." Cornish didn't seem to ponder that no one in Biden's Department of Defense resigned over their disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and their subsequent drone attack on innocent civilians. Cornish's "SOL" wasn't her only unusual utterance today. My working assumption has been that the liberal media considers Laura Loomer persona non grata--unfit for mention on its air. Yet Cornish took the initiative to raise her in the same segment today: "I think it's interesting. You have people like Laura Loomer who are online saying like, hey, this Venezuela, like, what's going on here? And it has put the administration at odds with that faction of MAGA, which is always changing a little bit of people who are like, are we going to war? Because we said we're not doing foreign conflicts." Perhaps Audie's fellow members of the liberal media will excuse her mention of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, since Cornish did so for purposes of stirring the pot in MAGA/Trump land.  Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 112/4/25 6:44 am ET AUDIE CORNISH: I think it's interesting, also you have people like Laura Loomer who are online saying like, hey, this Venezuela, like, what's going on here?  And it has put the administration at odds with that faction of MAGA, which is always changing a little bit, of people who are like, are we going to war? Because we said we're not doing foreign conflicts.  MIKE DUBKE: Well, we're not nation-building is what was really -- CORNISH: You think that's the distinction? I thought it was just even doing stuff about it.  DUBKE: I actually think, well, maybe for Laura Loomer. But I think for MAGA et al., and for the Trump administration, it's nation-building. They see themselves as a differentiator from the neo-cons in that sense.  But going back to what Betsy was saying about being bombastic, I do think that that is part of the reason that Hegseth has the support of the administration right now.  I also think it's the dirty little secret of Senate confirmations. If you want to push through X, Y, and Z through the Senate, you do not have time for another round of Senate confirmation hearings for the Secretary of Defense, or Secretary of War, or whatever we're calling Hegseth at the moment.  That is a real distraction. And so this is what the administration's balance is.  CORNISH: I see. So this is not a military term, but you're saying they're SOL. Like, basically, there's no other options out there.  DUBKE: There are no better options at the moment. And depending on how all of these death by 1,000 cuts of Secretary Hegseth are going to mount up, at some point they may make that decision. Right now they're not there. 

“A bombshell report from the Government Accountability Office confirms what Republicans have been saying all along” about Obamacare, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) reported Thursday. “Unaffordable Care Act subsidies are riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse. They benefit insurance companies and cost the American taxpayers BILLIONS,” Scalise wrote in a social media post, highlighting results of the newly-released GAO report: The investigation found: ▪️ 100% of fake applicants were approved by Obamacare’s marketplace as recently as late 2024, and 90% continue receiving coverage in 2025. ▪️ Marketplaces approved coverage with no documents or fake documents. ▪️ 58,000 Social Security numbers belonging to dead people received subsidies. ▪️ $94 million in subsidies were sent to insurers for deceased individuals. The report discusses the preliminary results of GAO’s work on fraud risk management in the advance premium tax credit (APTC), a subsidy that the government pays to insurance companies to make premiums more affordable for eligible Americans under the Affordable Care Act. The covert testing by the GAO found that the overwhelming majority of fake applications it submitted were approved: “Preliminary results from GAO's ongoing covert testing suggest fraud risks in the advance premium tax credit (APTC) persist. The federal Marketplace approved coverage for nearly all of GAO's fictitious applicants in plan years 2024 and 2025, generally consistent with similar GAO testing in plan years 2014 through 2016.  “Plan year 2025. Of 20 fictitious applicants, 18 remain actively covered as of September 2025. APTC for these 18 enrollees totals over $10,000 per month. GAO continues to monitor the enrollments as part of its ongoing work.” The GAO investigation was requested by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).  “Rather than simply rubber stamp more bad spending and failed policies, we must take action to prevent further harm,” Chairman Smith said, commenting on the report’s findings.

In accordance with the liberal media’s obsession with the Pentagon’s alleged “war crime” that took place in early September, MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough lashed out at Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for ridding standard military procedure and “making shit up.” Senior military officials, including Admiral Mitch Bradley, were scheduled to brief top members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees later that day. During Thursday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough began by painting the controversy as a nonpartisan issue that will inevitably damage those responsible: Most conservative, serious conservative thinkers like Andy McCarthy, Jack Goldsmith, others, they think this entire operation is illegal. Not the double tap. They think the entire operation is not a war. George Will put it very, very well yesterday when he said, “Pete Hegseth committed a war crime without a war.” That's quite an accomplishment. So, it is a real mess. And you have the top admiral and the top JAG officer going, “No, no, we're — this doesn't look right.” And, again, it's all going to come out, even though they're scrambling around and trying to protect themselves, there's no protecting themselves from the truth. Scarborough would like you to think respected individuals find the effort definitively wrong. However, according to a CBS News poll, 53 percent of U.S. adults approve of “using military force to attack boats suspected of bringing drugs into” the States. Were none of them “serious conservatives,” Joe? The truth, indeed, shall come out in due time. But considering that the boat operators were covered by President Trump’s Executive Order designating them as Foreign Terrorists, the fact remained that the Caribbean confrontations were unconventional warfare, which should protect the strikes.     Co-host Willie Geist scoffed at comments from those with knowledge of the strikes saying that the alleged traffickers were trying to salvage drugs and were trying to radio for backup (Click “Expand”): GEIST: … you know, the explanation we're hearing a little bit is that maybe these two guys who survived were attempting to get back on the boat and somehow continue the mission. This flaming, smoking vessel that these guys were going to climb back on board and continue their drug run. That's one of the reports — one of the spins we’re hearing. But again, that's just today's explanation. SCARBOROUGH: That's today's explanation. GEIST: There’s something different every day. It appears as though the leftists would latch on to every new emerging detail as further evidence of an ever-worsening scandal. Even ABC reported the night prior that the alleged drug smugglers were attempting to recoup and were “still in the fight” after the initial strike on September 2nd:   ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Wednesday’s ‘World News Tonight’ about drug boat-gate: “And tonight, new information: According to a source familiar with the incident, the two survivors climbed back on to the boat after the initial strike. They were believed to be potentially in… pic.twitter.com/R5eHFzzDql — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 4, 2025   Scarborough scathed Hegseth for (allegedly) failing to follow proper military regulations when conducting the operation: And then there's also the “Oh, well, they had a radio and they were radioing.” Oh, so that — oh, does that mean now the new, sort of, rules of warfare, if you have a prisoner and they're indefensible and they have a radio, you can shoot them in the head. That's now the new Hegseth policy. If they have a radio, you can shoot them in the head. Forget the war crimes. Forget what the U.S. Army manual says. Forget what the military — the DOD manual says. So yeah, they're making shit up as they go along every day. Unorthodoxy does not necessarily mean illegality. And if you look at the video released by President Trump, the boat was not fully destroyed by the first “kinetic” strike — potentially warranting an insurance measure. And to touch on the most obvious point ignored by everyone thus far: The United States held supreme authority to defend and destroy any existential threat to the American people, regardless of its size or severity. The transcript is below. Click "expand" read: MS NOW’s Morning Joe December 4, 2025 6:02:33 a.m. EST JOE SCARBOROUGH: Now let's just back up for one second. Most conservative, serious conservative thinkers like Andy McCarthy, Jack Goldsmith, others, they think this entire operation is illegal. WILLIE GEIST: Yeah. SCARBOROUGH: Not the double tap. They think the entire operation is not a war. George Will put it very, very well yesterday when he said, “Pete Hegseth committed a war crime without a war.” MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Right. SCARBOROUGH: That's quite an accomplishment. So, it is a real mess. And you have the top admiral and the top JAG officer going, “No, no, we're — this doesn't look right.” And, again, it's all going to come out, even though they're scrambling around and trying to protect themselves, there's no protecting themselves from the truth. GEIST: And imagine being that career admiral, Admiral Halsey, who you just talked about in this incredible piece in the Wall Street Journal and being told by Pete Hegseth, “Get on board or else. And when you get an order” — GEIST: “Don't ask questions.” SCARBOROUGH: — “don't ask questions, pal.” That's what Pete Hegseth is saying to these admirals. So we will hear from Admiral — BRZEZINKSI: Yeah. GEIST: — Martin this morning when he talks to Congress. And we — you know, the explanation we're hearing a little bit is that maybe these two guys who survived were attempting to get back on the boat and somehow — SCARBOROUGH: [Laughing] What? GEIST: — continue the mission. BRZEZINKSI: And be a threat. GEIST: This flaming, — BRZEZINKSI: Right. GEIST: — smoking vessel — SCARBOROUGH: Exactly. GEIST: — that these guys were going to climb back on board and continue their drug run. That's one of the reports — SCARBOROUGH: Which is — GEIST: — one of the spins we’re hearing. SCARBOROUGH: —totally insane. GEIST: Which is insane. SCARBOROUGH: Right. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. GEIST: That's part of the spin we're hearing this morning, that those two people were still a threat, therefore the double tap — BRZEZINKSI: [Inaudible] to be annihilated. GEIST: — was warranted. But again, that's just today's explanation. SCARBOROUGH: That's today's explanation. GEIST: There’s something different every day. BRZEZINKSI: [Inaudible] changed. SCARBOROUGH: And then there's also the “Oh, well, they had a radio and they were radioing.” Oh, so that — oh, does that mean now the new, sort of, rules of warfare, if you have a prisoner and they're — BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. SCARBOROUGH:  — indefensible and they have a radio, you can shoot them in the head. GEIST: Right. SCARBOROUGH: That's now the new Hegseth policy. If they have a radio, you can shoot them in the head. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. SCARBOROUGH: Forget the war crimes. Forget what the U.S. Army manual says. Forget what he military — the DOD manual says. So yeah, they're making shit up as they go along every day. And the inconsistency of it all, again, looks very bad. GEIST: And Hegseth is still, Mika, claiming “fog of war,” which — BRZEZINSKI: Right. GEIST: — is to say, there's a lot of stuff that goes on in war in the moment that, you know, you gotta just accept. BRZEZINSKI: It’s utterly ridiculous. GEIST: That’s not gonna fly. BRZEZINSKI: Okay, so, in combat, he calls it combat, that — GEIST: Yeah. BRZEZINSKI: — blowing up a boat.