List of All Articles with Tag 'us politics'

Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign said he "will have to leave the rapping to the real slim shady".

After performing his rendition of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" at the Iowa State Fair, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has been asked by the Real Slim Shady to stand down.

Former President Donald Trump spoke out in favor of country singer Jason Aldean amid controversy around one of his new music videos. “Jason Aldean is a fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song. Support Jason all the way. MAGA!!!” the former president wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. Online critics blasted the “Try That In A Small Town” music video after discovering it was filmed outside the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where 18-year-old Black teenager Henry Choate was lynched in 1927, as well as where the Columbia race riot was held in 1946. As of Wednesday, Country Music Television said it refused to air the music video, USA Today reported. His music video was released Friday. Critics have accused the song of “promoting violence” and lynchings. Mr Aldean responded to the criticism in a lengthy tweet on Tuesday. He said for him, the song “refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.” He added, “while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music – this one goes too far.” The country singer is a mass shooting survivor. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, reacted to the song’s lyrics: Mr Aldean “who was on-stage during the mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert in 2017 that killed 60 people and wounded over 400 more - has recorded a song called “Try That In A Small Town” about how he and his friends will shoot you if you try to take their guns.” Fellow 2024 presidential candidate and Florida Gov Ron DeSantis also chimed in with support for the country singer in an interview on “Fox & Friends”: “We need to restore sanity to this country. I mean, what is going on that that would be something that would be censored? I mean, give me a break. We’re off the rocker here.” South Dakota Republican Gov Kristi Noem posted a video on Wednesday with her reaction to the music video’s backlash: “I’m shocked by what I’m seeing with people attempting to cancel the song, cancel Jason.” She added, “Thank you for writing a song that America can get behind.” Read More ‘A modern lynching song’?: Jason Aldean and the most controversial song in country Jason Aldean responds as row continues over ‘Try That in a Small Town’ The Jason Aldean video is just the tip of the country music iceberg

Fox News' Maria Bartiromo served up a new conspiracy theory to the network's viewers, suggesting the US was "drumming up" news of internal strife in Russia to distract from Hunter Biden news. During Fox & Friends on Sunday, Bartiromo complained about a "double standard" she sees when it comes to Hunter Biden, and insisted that the biggest story of the weekend was not the dramatic break between the Wagner Group mercenaries and their Russian benefactors, but rather the president's son. “I know that the State Department and the White House would like everybody to move the Hunter Biden story off of the front page and start talking about all the drama in Russia over the weekend,” Bartiromo said. “We’re not going to do that on Sunday Morning Futures. The biggest story of the week was that WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden, and he is basically doing a shakedown that you would expect in a Francis Ford Coppola Godfather movie.” The "story of the week" Ms Bartiromo was referring to was a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden dropped his father's name to pressure a Chinese business associate to pay him. The message was reported after Hunter Biden accepted a plea deal from federal prosecutors over a misdemeanour tax charge and a felony gun charges. Bartiromo suggested the news out of Russia that the notorious Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation the carries out military operations for Russia, was revolting against its benefactors was a distraction handed to the media from Joe Biden. “The White House wanted to give the media something else to cover, and this is the MO. This is exactly the way they do things,” she said. She claims she predicted that the White House would try to cover up the WhatsApp message with a different story. "On Friday I said ‘Wow, what a blockbuster WhatsApp message. I’m sure there will be an enormous story over the weekend that the White House is gonna be pushing to take this story off the front page.’ And sure enough, we’ve got the State Department drumming up the drama that took place over the weekend in Russia," she said. "So I don’t know if it’s going to break through. The mainstream media has an excuse again not to cover it. They’re covering everything about Russia and the Wagner Group as if it really matters to the US right now." But even Bartiromo's network was covering the dramatic in-fighting in Russia, albeit with its own tinge of conspiracy theory. The day before, a Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed that the US might be pulling the strings behind the Wagner Group's short-lived uprising. Despite her insistence that the Wagner Group's actions would be of little import to Americans, she led her Sunday Morning Futures show with an interview featuring Congressman Michael McCaul about the mercenary outfit. Read More Fox News choose Jesse Watters to replace Tucker Carlson in primetime shakeup Trump hits out at Fox News’s Bret Baier after incriminating interview: ‘It was nasty, unfriendly, no smiling’ Trump fumes about ‘illegally leaked’ CNN tape of him boasting about classified documents The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Tucker Carlson ridiculed his former employer Fox News and Democrats over the broadcaster’s chyron that briefly described Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator”. Releasing the fourth episode of his Twitter show Tucker on Twitter on Thursday, Carlson questioned the apology tendered by Fox News following the gaffe. He likened Mr Biden’s personality to that of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, North Korea’s Kim Il-sung and Romania’s tyrannical communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. “But why were they angry? If the banner on Fox was false? Why the hysteria?” asked Carlson in his show that was launched as a counter to his Fox primetime slot after being forced to resign. On Tuesday night, Fox News broadcasted a chyron – a caption superimposed over the lower part of a video image – beneath split-screen videos that showed Donald Trump addressing supporters live in New Jersey and Mr Biden speaking at the White House earlier in the day. “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested,” read the chyron. Fox News said the “chyron was taken down immediately and was addressed”. Carlson claimed the Fox News producer responsible for the chyron resigned. “Those words were up for less than 30 seconds, but the effect was immediate. Inside Fox, the women who run the network panicked,” he said in his long rant. He said the channel “scolded the producer who put the banner on the screen” and claimed the producer later resigned. He questioned why Democrats reacted to the chyron with anger. “But why were they angry? If the banner on Fox was false? Why the hysteria? Lies don’t seem to bother anyone anymore. If some cable news producer had called Joe Biden a genius or accused him of being secretly Sudanese, would anyone be yelling about it?” Carlson said. “Would Fox News have apologized for it? Probably not. But calling Joe Biden a wannabe dictator, that stung.” In a mocking tone, Carlson proceeded to enumerate the various ways in which Mr Biden “could never be” considered a dictator. He sarcastically referred to government surveillance of phones and bank accounts, as well as a purported suppression of “peaceful protests” such as the events that unfolded during the Jan 6 riot. The comments come as Daily Beast reported that Fox News producer Alexander McCaskill had parted ways with the network. Fox News has sent Carlson a cease and desist letter ordering him to stop releasing shows on Twitter. Fox’s attorneys wrote to Carlson demanding he stop posting Tucker on Twitter videos, the first two episodes of which attracted a combined 169 million views. The right-wing network has been locked in a bitter contractual dispute with its former primetime anchor since he left in the aftermath of the $787m Dominion Voting Systems pay out in April. Read More Fox News cuts off White House briefing just as ‘wannabe dictator’ Biden chyron mentioned White House condemns Fox News chyron calling Biden ‘wannabe dictator’ as broadcaster walks back accusation Tucker Carlson spins new conspiracy on Trump’s arrest as his new Twitter rant defies Fox threat AP News Digest 3 am Trump's promise of payback for prosecution follows years of attacking democratic traditions Biden is returning to his union roots as his 2024 campaign gears up

Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93. Robertson's death Thursday was announced by his broadcasting network. No cause was given. Robertson’s enterprises also included Regent University, an evangelical Christian school in Virginia Beach; the American Center for Law and Justice, which defends the First Amendment rights of religious people; and Operation Blessing, an international humanitarian organization. But for more than a half-century, Robertson was a familiar presence in American living rooms, known for his “700 Club” television show, and in later years, his televised pronouncements of God’s judgment on America for everything from homosexuality to the teaching of evolution. The money poured in as he solicited donations, his influence soared, and when he moved directly into politics by seeking the GOP presidential nomination in 1988, he brought a huge following with him. Robertson pioneered a now-common strategy of courting Iowa’s network of evangelical Christian churches, and finished in second place in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of Vice President George H.W. Bush. At the time, Jeffrey K. Hadden, a University of Virginia sociologist and a Robertson biographer, said Robertson's masterstroke was insisting that three million followers across the U.S. sign petitions before he would decide to run. The tactic gave him an army. ″He asked people to pledge that they’d work for him, pray for him and give him money,” Hadden told The Associated Press in 1988. ″Political historians may view it as one of the most ingenious things a candidate ever did.″ Robertson later endorsed Bush, who won the presidency. Pursuit of Iowa’s evangelicals is now a ritual for Republican hopefuls, including those currently seeking the White House in 2024. Robertson started the Christian Coalition in Chesapeake in 1989, saying it would further his campaign’s ideals. The coalition became a major force in Republican politics in the 1990s, mobilizing conservative voters through grass-roots activities. By the time of his resignation as the coalition's president in 2001 — Robertson said he wanted to concentrate on ministerial work — his impact on both religion and politics in the U.S. was “enormous,” according to John C. Green, an emeritus political science professor at The University of Akron. Many followed the path Robertson cut in religious broadcasting, Green told the AP in 2021. In American politics, Robertson helped “cement the alliance between conservative Christians and the Republican Party.” Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson was born March 22, 1930, in Lexington, Virginia, to Absalom Willis Robertson and Gladys Churchill Robertson. His father served for 36 years as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Virginia. After graduating from Washington and Lee University, he served as assistant adjutant of the 1st Marine Division in Korea. He received a law degree from Yale University Law School, but failed the bar exam and chose not to pursue a law career. Robertson met his wife, Adelia “Dede” Elmer, at Yale in 1952. He was a Southern Baptist, she was a Catholic, earning a master’s in nursing. Eighteen months later, they ran off to be married by a justice of the peace, knowing neither family would approve. Robertson was interested in politics until he found religion, Dede Robertson told the AP in 1987. He stunned her by pouring out their liquor, tearing a nude print off the wall and declaring he had found the Lord. They moved into a commune in New York City’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood because Robertson said God told him to sell all his possessions and minister to the poor. She was tempted to return home to Ohio, “but I realized that was not what the Lord would have me do ... I had promised to stay, so I did,” she told the AP. Robertson received a master’s in divinity from New York Theological Seminary in 1959, then drove south with his family to buy a bankrupt UHF television station in Portsmouth, Va. He said he had just $70 in his pocket, but soon found investors, and CBN went on the air on Oct. 1, 1961. Established as a tax-exempt religious nonprofit, CBN brought in hundreds of millions, disclosing $321 million in “ministry support” in 2022 alone. One of Robertson’s innovations was to use the secular talk-show format on the network’s flagship show, the “700 Club,” which grew out of a telethon when Robertson asked 700 viewers for monthly $10 contributions. It was more suited to television than traditional revival meetings or church services, and gained a huge audience. “Here’s a well-educated person having sophisticated conversations with a wide variety of guests on a wide variety of topics,” said Green, the University of Akron political science professor. “It was with a religious inflection to be sure. But it was an approach that took up everyday concerns.” His guests eventually included several U.S. presidents — Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. At times, his on-air pronouncements drew criticism. He claimed that the terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans on Sept. 11, 2001 were caused by God, angered by the federal courts, pornography, abortion rights and church-state separation. Talking again about 9-11 on his TV show a year later, Robertson described Islam as a violent religion that wants to “dominate” and “destroy,” prompting President George W. Bush to distance himself and say Islam is a peaceful and respectful religion. He called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2005. Later that year, he warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town not to be surprised if disaster struck them because they voted out school board members who favored teaching “intelligent design” over evolution. And in 1998, he said Orlando, Florida, should beware of hurricanes after allowing the annual Gay Days event. In 2014, he angered Kenyans when he warned that towels in Kenya could transmit AIDS. CBN issued a correction, saying Robertson “misspoke about the possibility of getting AIDS through towels.” Robertson also could be unpredictable: In 2010, he called for ending mandatory prison sentences for marijuana possession convictions. Two years later, he said on the “700 Club” that marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government’s war on drugs had failed. Robertson condemned Democrats caught up in sex scandals, saying for example that President Bill Clinton turned the White House into a playpen for sexual freedom. But he helped solidify evangelical support for Donald Trump, dismissing the candidate's sexually predatory comments about women as an attempt “to look like he’s macho.” After Trump took office, Robertson interviewed the president at the White House. And CBN welcomed Trump advisers, such as Kellyanne Conway, as guests. But after President Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, Robertson said Trump was living in an “alternate reality” and should “move on,” news outlets reported. Robertson’s son, Gordon, succeeded him in December 2007 as chief executive of CBN, which is now based in Virginia Beach. Robertson remained chairman of the network and continued to appear on the “700 Club.” Robertson stepped down as host of the show after half a century in 2021, with his son Gordon taking over the weekday show. Robertson also was founder and chairman of International Family Entertainment Inc., parent of The Family Channel basic cable TV network. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought IFE in 1997. Regent University, where classes began in Virginia Beach in 1978, now has more than 30,000 alumni, CBN said in a statement. Robertson wrote 15 books, including “The Turning Tide” and “The New World Order.” His wife Dede, who was a founding board member of CBN, died last year at the age of 94. The couple had four children, 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, CBN said in a statement. ____ Former Associated Press reporter Don Schanche contributed to this story.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that he "had nothing to do with" a poem recently being moved from an elementary school library to a middle school library.

CNN's ratings appear to have taken a hit in the wake of its much-maligned town hall featuring former President Donald Trump. More than a week after the controversial television spectacle, the network weathered its lowest-rated week since June 2015, according to The Daily Beast. The network averaged approximately 429,000 total daily viewers between Monday and Friday of last week. The network's viewership was also down by double digits when compared to the same week last year. Those numbers remained consistent for its primary advertising demographic of 25-54 year-olds. CNN's cable news rivals had far better viewership during the same time period; MSNBC had more than double CNN's daily audience, with 976,000 total viewers, while Fox News went beyond that with 1.4m. The Independent has contacted CNN for comment. Despite those numbers, Fox News is weathering its own storms with the abrupt firing of Tucker Carlson. Its numbers are down 41 per cent in its key demographics year-to-year, and down 24 per cent in total viewership. Its weekday demographic audience immediately after Carlson's departure was the lowest it has been since the first week of September 2001. Both Fox and CNN are suffering in their primetime time slots. Several of their weeknight primetime offerings have been beaten in the ratings by Newsmax, a far-right media channel that has served as a landing spot for conservative viewers fleeing Fox News in the wake of Carlson's departure. Newsmax saw a similar boost immediately after the 2020 election after Fox News accurately called Arizona for Joe Biden before any other news outlet. Chris Wallace's Friday night interview show on CNN scored only 224,000 total viewers in its 10pm slot; 60,000 more people were watching Newsmax during the same time slot. The only network actively gaining viewers is MSNBC, which saw its audience numbers increase 44 per cent — likely a result of the CNN exodus. CNN's town hall with Mr Trump and moderated by Kaitlan Collins included the former president further maligning E Jean Carroll — whom he was found by a court to have sexually assaulted and defamed — calling 6 January 2021 a "beautiful day," and promising to pardon Capitol rioters who attempted to thwart the nation's democratic transfer of power after his 2020 election loss. He also continued to push the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. Blowback to the town hall was so severe that CNN star anchor Anderson Cooper made a statement on-air about the debacle, ultimately asking them to view the event as a warning about Mr Trump's political aspirations. Read More Trump defames E Jean Carroll yet again after she sues him over CNN town hall insults Trump Media files $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post over Truth Social reporting Trump slams Fox News’ Laura Ingraham over ‘hit piece’ saying DeSantis would do better against Biden than him Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has filed to run for president in 2024, according to the Federal Election Commission's website.