TV News LIES

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz condemned President Donald Trump for his use of a slur in a social media post on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and for his characterization of the state's Somali immigrant and diaspora community.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Nov. 30, Walz said Trump's use of the r-word, which the president used to insult to the Democratic governor and 2024 vice presidential hopeful, was "damaging."

"This is what Donald Trump has done. He has normalized this type of hateful behavior and this type of language," Walz said of Trump's social media post. "At first, I think it’s just because he’s not a good human being. But secondly, (it’s) to distract from his incompetency."

While the word was introduced as a medical term in 1961, it has evolved over the decades to become a slur used to demean people with and without disabilities. Disability advocates seek to end its use, and the president's post has ignited backlash.

Walz told NBC that "kids know better" than to use the word, and criticized attempts to brush off outrage as "woke" language policing.

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The Trump administration is framing its boat strikes against drug cartels in the Caribbean in part as a collective self-defense effort on behalf of US allies in the region, according to three people directly familiar with the administration’s internal legal argument.

The legal analysis rests on a premise – for which there is no immediate public evidence – that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments.

As a result, according to the legal analysis, the strikes are targeting the cocaine, and the deaths of anyone on board should be treated as an enemy casualty or collateral damage if any civilians are killed, rather than murder.

That line of reasoning, which forms the backbone of a classified justice department office of legal counsel (OLC) opinion, provides the clearest explanation to date how the US satisfied the conditions to use lethal force.

But it marks a sharp departure from Donald Trump’s narrative to the public every time he has discussed the 21 strikes that have killed more than 80 people, which he has portrayed as an effort to stop overdose deaths.

A White House official responded that Trump has not been making a legal argument. Still, Trump’s remarks remain the only public reason for why the US is firing missiles – when the legal justification is in fact very different.

And it would also be the first time the US has claimed – dubiously, and contrary to the widely held understanding – that the cartels are using cocaine proceeds to wage wars, rather than to make money.

In a statement, a justice department spokesperson said: “These operations were ordered consistent with the law of armed conflict.” The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

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The widow of Jamal Khashoggi slammed President Trump on Tuesday for seeking to discredit her late husband’s reputation amid a visit from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

Khashoggi, who was an opinions journalist for The Washington Post, was killed in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

“@potus There is no justification to murder my husband. While Jamal was a good transparent and brave man many people may not have agreed with his opinions and desire for freedom of the press,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi wrote in a statement on the social platform X.

“The Crown Prince said he was sorry so he should meet me, apologize and compensate me for the murder of my husband,” added Khashoggi, who had married her husband in Virginia in 2018, months before he was killed.

She previously submitted a letter to Trump and first lady Melania Trump requesting they back her demands to have her husband’s body returned and receive financial compensation for Khashoggi’s death during the crown prince’s Tuesday White House visit.

However, when asked about Khashoggi’s death, the president defended Crown Prince Mohammed, telling reporters that the leader “knew nothing about that” and alleging “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman.”

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Lawyers for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, called Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud against her “baseless” on Monday and accused the administration of “cherry-picking” discrepancies to bolster their claims.

After accusing Cook of misrepresenting multiple residences as her primary residence to get a better mortgage rate, Donald Trump briefly fired Cook from her role as a Fed governor and as one of 12 voting members of the Federal Reserve board that sets interest rates. The supreme court reinstated her and will in January hear arguments over Cook’s removal.

In the letter, addressed to Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, and Edward Martin, the deputy attorney general, Abbe Lowell, Cook’s lawyer, outlined for the first time Cook’s detailed defense against the accusations. Lowell said that the dispute involves three of Cook’s properties: a home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a condo in Atlanta, Georgia, and a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lowell said Cook’s primary residence is in Ann Arbor, where she has been a professor at Michigan State University since 2005. While she has been on unpaid leave from the position as she serves on the Fed board, she intends to return to Ann Arbor once her post ends, the letter said.

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David Richardson, who headed up the Federal Emergency Management Agency as acting chief for almost seven months, resigned on Monday, Nov. 17.

The agency has repeatedly drawn concern from members of Congress and others this year about its ability to respond to disasters after more than a third of its staff was removed by the Trump administration amid its efforts to slash the size of the federal government. The agency had been under fire from President Donald Trump even before the election last fall.

Richardson was the second person to step into the post this year. The first, acting chief Cameron Hamilton, was ousted by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after saying in a congressional hearing that he did not support the administration's proposal to eliminate the agency.

Karen Evans, FEMA's chief of staff, will move into the acting chief role on Dec. 1, Dhttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/11/17/david-richardson-fema-chief-resigns/87320836007/HS confirmed.

Criticism is not new for the agency. As the lead organization responsible for coordinating federal disaster assistance, it has often drawn the ire of disaster victims and politicians. But a USA TODAY/Ipsos poll conducted earlier this year found that FEMA still receives broad support from the public.

Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an order to create a FEMA review council. Noem has overseen the group, which is assigned to advise the administration on recommended changes to the emergency organization. The panel's final report to the president is due this week.

The report will "inform this Administration’s ongoing efforts to fundamentally restructure FEMA, transforming it from its current form into a streamlined, mission-focused disaster-response force," DHS said.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene, a longtime Republican ally who previously fiercely defended Donald Trump and his Maga movement, said on Saturday she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” after Trump announced on Friday he was withdrawing his support for and endorsement of the Georgia representative.

In a post on X, Greene said that “a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”, without referring to Trump by name, adding it was “the man I supported and helped get elected”.

Greene said that “aggressive rhetoric attacking me has historically led to death threats and multiple convictions of men who were radicalized by the same type rhetoric being directed at me right now. This time by the President of the United States.”

Greene did not specify any threats against her that had been received by security firms, but said that “as a woman I take threats from men seriously. I now have a small understanding of the fear and pressure the women, who are victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal, must feel.”

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