TV News LIES

A federal three-judge panel on Wednesday allowed North Carolina to use a redrawn congressional map aimed at flipping a seat to Republicans as part of Donald Trump’s multi-state redistricting campaign ahead of the 2026 elections.

The new map takes aim at North Carolina’s only swing seat, currently held by Democrat Don Davis, an African American who represents more than 20 counties in the state’s north-east. The first district has been represented by Black members of Congress continuously for more than 30 years.

The three-judge panel denied the preliminary injunction requests after a hearing in Winston-Salem in mid-November. The day after the hearing, the same judges separately upheld several other redrawn US House districts that GOP state lawmakers initially enacted in 2023. They were first used in the 2024 elections, contributing to Republicans gaining three more congressional seats.

North Carolina is one of several states this year in which Trump has broken with more than a century of political tradition in directing the GOP to redraw maps in the middle of the decade – without courts requiring it – to avoid losing control of Congress in next year’s midterms.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Monday that House Republicans have been sidelined by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), accusing the Republican leader of only obeying the Trump administration.

In a post on the social platform X, Greene wrote that she and other House Republicans “came courageously roaring into 2025 with legislation that matched the 2024 electoral mandate only to be totally sidelined by Johnson under full obedience of the WH.”

“Executive orders are temporary, [QAnon] memes have not … obliterated the deep state, and my colleagues constantly trying to pass loyalty tests instead of demanding what is right won’t help Americans pay their rent or stop corporations from buying up homes, buy their groceries, provide good paying jobs and stop foreigners with visas from stealing their jobs, stop American tax dollars from funding foreign wars and causes, or rebuild the value of the dollar,” Greene continued.

“Passing effective legislation that gets signed into law is permanent and actually solves Americans problems,” she wrote.

Greene warned that as lawmakers “are switching gears into campaign mode and will be fighting for their lives, our legislative majority has been mostly wasted.”

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President Trump’s heated rhetorical attacks on Democratic lawmakers, whom he called out as “traitors” who deserve to be jailed, have left his Republican allies in Washington dumbfounded and skeptical about any bipartisan dealmaking at the end of 2025.

Republican lawmakers and strategists fear Trump is undermining his own credibility and ability to get anything done before the midterm election.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that Trump labeling his political opponents as traitors was “reckless” and “irresponsible.”

“If you take it at face value, the idea that calling your opponents ‘traitors’ — and then specifically saying that it warrants the death penalty — is reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible,” Paul told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Other GOP lawmakers were quick to distance themselves from the president.

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Arizona’s two Democratic senators said they won’t be intimidated by the Trump administration after the Pentagon announced on Monday an investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) over a video he recorded calling on the military to disobey illegal orders.

“If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,” Kelly, a U.S. Navy veteran, wrote in a post online. “I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”

Kelly flew combat missions during the Gulf War as a naval aviator before going on to serve as an astronaut. He received numerous military awards and retired at the rank of captain.

The Pentagon’s statement, which was posted on social media, cited a federal law that allows retired service members to be recalled to active duty on orders of the defense secretary for possible court-martial or other measures.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) reacted more bluntly to the news of the Pentagon investigation into his Democratic colleague.

“This is fucking insane. We should all point out how fucking insane this is,” Gallego said in a video he posted online on Monday.

“Mark Kelly is a patriot. He’s just doing his duty to remind people of their rights as service members,” he added. “Secretary Hegseth, all these guys ― fuck you guys, you’re not going to be able to scare us.”

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U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin's office said Michigan State Police responded to a bomb threat at her home on Nov. 21, a day after President Donald Trump called her and other Democrats traitors for putting out a video message to members of the military telling them it's their right and duty to disobey illegal orders.

A message posted on social media platform X by a spokesperson for Slotkin, D-Michigan, said the senator wasn't at her home in Holly, Michigan at the time of the threat. State Police searched the premises "and confirmed no one was in danger," the message said.

Slotkin's office didn't provide further details about the threat or Slotkin's whereabouts but referred questions to Michigan State Police, who didn't immediately respond to calls and emails from the Free Press. The social media message added, "U.S. Capitol Police will continue to investigate and hopefully hold accountable those responsible."

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Senator Mark Kelly – whose wife, Gabrielle Giffords, narrowly survived an attempted assassination while she was in Congress in 2011 – says he is worried about “increased threats” to his family’s safety after Donald Trump accused him and other Democratic lawmakers of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH”.

“This kind of language is dangerous, and it’s wrong,” Kelly said on Friday on MS NOW’s Morning Joe, with political violence one of the top topics in the US’s public discourse. He continued: “I’m not going to get into my specific security arrangements, but it would be irresponsible for me not to consider that [Trump’s] words result in increased threats to myself, even to my staff, to my family.

“It would be a rather irresponsible thing for us not to consider this seriously.”

The Arizona senator’s remarks came after he appeared in a video on Tuesday alongside five other federal Democratic lawmakers who have previously served in the military or in intelligence roles – and who all told active US service members that they should refuse illegal orders.

“Our laws are clear,” the senators and US House members in question say in the video. “You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.”

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