Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) says she was assaulted by a “pro-trans man” at the Capitol on Tuesday night.

She said she is wearing a new wrist brace and has iced her arm after the attack.

A statement from the Capitol Police said the incident was reported by Mace’s office just before 6 p.m. Eastern time and took place in the Rayburn House Office Building. Police arrested a 33-year-old from Illinois, Jamie McIntyre, on a charge of assaulting a government official.

“I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man,” Mace said in a post on X. “One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine. The Capitol police arrested the guy. Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down. FAFO.”

In another post, she added, “All the violence and threats keep proving our point. Women deserve to be safe. Your threats will not stop my fight for women.”

Mace has faced serious backlash for a bill she introduced in November that bans transgender women from using facilities on federal property that don’t correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.

She said that she’s also received death threats. Opponents of the bill say she’s unfairly targeting Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE), who is a transgender woman. “What Nancy Mace and what Speaker Johnson are doing are endangering all women and girls,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said last month.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) previously announced a ban within the House on any person not using the bathroom assigned to their sex at birth.

Mace has vowed not to back down from her bill. “Trying to destroy my career and threatening to kill me because I don’t want to be forced to undress in front of men,” she said before the assault. “Good effing luck! I will not back down nutjobs.”

The Justice Department spied on two House members and several congressional staffers in a leak investigation without telling the courts, the agency’s inspector general found in a sweeping investigation released Tuesday.

As a result, the department obtained phone records from the two members of Congress and 43 staff members including President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, who worked as a staffer on the GOP-led House Intelligence Committee at the time.

The department initiated the probe to investigate leaks to the media of FBI classified information as part of the now-discredited Trump-Russia probe which had recently been shared with Congress.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the Justice Department, in filings with the court, did not reference “the fact that they related to requests for records of Members of Congress or congressional staffers,” despite implicating constitutional separation of powers between two government branches.

You can read the report here.

Patel, who is poised to become the new director of the FBI if confirmed, previously sued former Trump Justice Department officials and FBI Director Christopher Wray, accusing them of violating his Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures when they tried to obtain Patel’s personal records, Just the News previously reported.

Patel said he was completely unaware of the subpoena until December 2022, when Google notified him about it.

Another former staffer, Jason Foster, previously told Just the News that he confirmed that the government successfully asked a federal court to hide its spying on Congress for five consecutive years.

Foster is now the head of the Empower Oversight whistleblower center. In 2017 at the time of the secret surveillance, he was the chief investigative counsel for Sen. Chuck Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The seizure of his personal data occurred in 2017 while he worked for the Senate, and ordinarily under the original court order, Foster would have been notified a year later. But because the DOJ sought court approval ex parte to keep its surveillance secret, he wasn’t alerted until earlier this fall, six years after the initial subpoena.

Grassley on Tuesday claimed that the investigation was an example of the Justice Department acting in “bad faith,” and urged the incoming Trump administration to fix the ongoing problem.

“It’s plain to see DOJ overstepped its authority here,” Grassley said in a statement.

“The Justice Department ought to learn from its mistakes and accept accountability, because Congress won’t accept any less. The incoming Trump administration must take steps to ensure these problems … are fixed.”

Donald Trump announced Tuesday he was appointing ex-Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle as his ambassador to Greece.

Guilfoyle, 55, studied international law and entered public life as a prosecutor in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but made her way into the Trump orbit as fiancee to the president-elect’s son Don Jr, 46.

‘Her extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified to represent the United States, and safeguard its interests abroad,’ Trump said in a Truth Social post.

‘Kimberly is perfectly suited to foster strong bilateral relations with Greece, advancing our interests on issues ranging from defense cooperation to trade and economic innovation.’

The announcement comes just hours after Daily Mail published photographs of Don Jr. hand-in-hand with the Palm Beach socialite, Bettina Anderson, showing the six-year relationship with Guilfoyle is clearly over.

While Don Jnr and Guilfoyle began dating in 2018, the Daily Mail first revealed their relationship was all but over in September after the 46-year-old was spotted kissing the socialite.

While Guilfoyle felt ‘blindsided’ by the revelation, she continued to be photographed with Don Jnr. during Trump’s election campaign. They have not been seen together since November 12, and Guilfoyle didn’t attend the Trump family’s Thanksgiving.

‘There were a ton of people vying for this. It is one of the hottest posts in the world,’ said a source familiar with the president-elect’s thinking.

‘Not just because it’s an amazing place place to live, but because it’s a hotbed of activity with everything that is happening in Syria, throughout the middle east, and the migrant crisis.’

The source added that Guilfoyle, aside from her relationship with Don Jr. had known Trump for 20 years, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaigns.

‘He wants her to represent him on the world stage,’ the source added.

‘She studied international law and will be amazing spokeswoman for Donald Trump.

‘She’ll be the Jackie O of the MAGA movement.’

Guilfoyle was assistant district attorney in San Francisco from 2000 to 2004.

But it was her marriage to Democratic politician Gavin Newsom that brought into the public eye, when she was first lady of San Francisco during his first two years as mayor of that city.

Insiders said that experience would help her cope with the demands of being Trump’s representative overseas.

Guilfoyle was an energetic campaigner for Trump and appeared on stage with the family at the election night party in West Palm Beach.

She addressed foreign policy during her convention speech in Milwaukee.

‘In our vision, America will combat foreign aggressors and ensure our service members are protected, not abandoned, as they carry out their dangerous missions abroad, because we know we can only have peace through strength,’ she said in July.

But the appointment comes as her fiancee Don Jr. has been repeatedly pictured with Bettina Anderson, 38, around Palm Beach, suggesting his six-year engagement in well an truly over.

The new couple’s latest date saw them attend exclusive hotspot Buccan for two hours to celebrate Anderson’s birthday.

The restaurant is just three miles from Bettina’s townhouse, where Don often stays.

They looked every bit a new couple, with Don Jr holding her Bettina’s hand as they left the venue just before 10pm.

Guilfoyle’s new role means she will likely be swapping life in Florida for Jefferson House, the American ambassador’s residence in the Greek capital Athens.

It comes with a swimming pool in the backyard and enough reception space to entertain hundreds of dignitaries.

It was named for Thomas Jefferson who held up Greek democracy as the most important influence on the founding of the American republic.

Rupert Murdoch has been defeated in a Succession-style legal battle against three of his own children, as he failed to cement a Right-wing slant across his media empire.

In a fresh legal ruling, a US court rejected the 93-year-old media mogul’s attempt to change the terms of the Murdoch family trust, which would have handed control of his newspaper and TV businesses to his eldest son, Lachlan, after his death.

In court papers seen by The New York Times, Nevada commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr ruled resoundingly against the Fox News owner, accusing him of acting in “bad faith” and manufacturing a “carefully crafted charade”.

The legal row stems from Mr Murdoch’s attempts to leave control of his media empire, including Fox News and The Times and Sunday Times, to his eldest son Lachlan, as he sought to lock in a Right-wing editorial slant on issues such as climate change.

However, to do this, he had to change the terms of his family trust, which splits control equally amongst his four eldest children, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence.

Lachlan, James and Elisabeth were at one point all considered as potential successors to Mr Murdoch, although the tycoon had in recent years settled on the former, who last year was appointed chairman of News Corp.

He is viewed as the most conservative of Mr Murdoch’s children, unlike Elisabeth and James who both have more liberal politics than their father.

News Corp controls newspapers in the US, UK and Australia, including The Times, The Sun and The Wall Street Journal.

In a 96-page judgment, Mr Gorman wrote that Mr Murdoch’s aim was to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles … regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust.

Mr Gorman said that Mr Murdoch and Lachlan’s representatives had “demonstrated a dishonesty of purpose and motive”.

He also singled out one recently appointed representative of the trust who he said had little knowledge of the family and had researched them primarily through watching “Succession”, a fictionalised TV show inspired by the Murdoch family.

Mr Gorman said the representative’s research consisted of “Google searches and watching YouTube videos about the Murdochs (or the fictional family in the show ‘Succession’).”

Mr Gorman said Mr Murdoch’s attempt to change the trust was “an attempt to stack the deck in Lachlan Murdoch’s favour after Rupert Murdoch’s passing so that his succession would be immutable”.

He added: “The play might have worked; but an evidentiary hearing, like a showdown in a game of poker, is where gamesmanship collides with the facts and at its conclusion, all the bluffs are called and the cards lie face up.”

The ruling comes after days of in-person testimony in the US in September, during which Mr Murdoch and his four eldest children were all present at the hearing.

The commissioner’s ruling will not be the final decision on the case, which will fall to a district judge. They will then decide whether to ratify or reject his recommendation.

If the district judge agrees with the commissioner, Mr Murdoch and Lachlan will still have an opportunity to challenge the decision.

It is also possible that they could turn to other avenues, such as Lachlan attempting to buy out his siblings’ stakes in the News Corp business.

Mr Murdoch’s attempt to change the trust would not reduce his children’s financial interests, but would instead determine who has control over one of the most powerful media organisations in the world.

Adam Streisand, a lawyer for Mr Murdoch, said that they intended to appeal the ruling.

The Daily Wire is looking to possibly partner with a larger company or raise a significant round of capital next year to meet its growth ambitions, its co-CEO Jeremy Boreing told Axios.

The company’s commercial success has caught the attention of investors and potential buyers looking to gain a foothold in the younger conservative culture.

Semafor reported Sunday that Fox Corp. was eyeing potential acquisitions of conservative podcast companies, including Daily Wire.

Asked about a deal with Fox, Boreing said the company isn’t actively looking for a buyer, but “we’re not closed off to an offer.”

“It’s easy to imagine a strategic partnership with Fox or someone like Fox, that could be mutually beneficial. I think that we complement Fox and don’t compete with Fox,” he added, noting Daily Wire’s audience is primarily younger and more coastal urban.

The Nashville-based company, which is on track to surpass $200 million in revenue this year, would come with a hefty price tag.

Daily Wire raised an undisclosed round of capital in 2023 at a valuation well north of $1 billion, a source told Axios.

The firm was initially funded by Republican fracking billionaire Farris Wilks, but until its latest raise, it relied mostly on its profits to fuel its growth.

In addition to subscriptions, the firm makes money from advertising and e-commerce.

Earlier this year, its star podcaster and co-founder Ben Shapiro testified on Capitol Hill as part of a broader fight to get ad agencies not to dismiss conservative media. Boreing said conversations with Fortune 500 advertisers have “opened up enormously” since.

The company made more than $22 million on commerce sales in 2023. This year, it will make more than $20 million on its Jeremy’s Razors business alone, Boreing said. Mayflower Cigars, its cigar startup, has grossed $4.2 million in sales since it launched last November.

Like many modern media companies, The Daily Wire has started to pivot its focus away from social media and more toward its owned and operated channels.

“The big strategic change for us is that we think a big part of the future now is in actually becoming a destination,” Boreing said. “What we want to do over the next three years is really grow the percentage of the audience that engages with our content on our platform.”

For many years, Daily Wire was the top publisher on Facebook. It used that audience to build narrower subscription products.

The company’s streaming service, Daily Wire+, has well over 1 million subscribers, Boreing said. This year will be its biggest in terms of gross subscription additions since it launched in 2021.

Next year, Boreing says the company will expand its podcast suite and will add more focus to its children’s subscription entertainment platform, Bentkey.

Despite their political differences, Boreing says he’s taking cues from the New York Times.

“It’s an unbelievable success, and it shows us that there is a path to serving an audience on-platform and not being completely at the mercy of the social partner.”

Most of Daily Wire’s content today is focused on news analysis and entertainment. But looking ahead, Boreing said the firm wants to invest more in original journalism.

“We think that there’s a real opening for us,” he said.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said there “ought to be repercussions” for anyone who leaked information related to the unreleased Ethics Committee probe into former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) conduct.

The leaks, which have allegedly been traced to the panel’s ranking member, Susan Wild (D-Pa.), could set a dangerous precedent if left unpunished, Johnson told Axios Tuesday.

“In my opinion, there ought to be repercussions for that,” Johnson said in a hallway interview. “We can’t set that as a precedent. It’s dangerous.”

Johnson said he had not discussed the prospect of disciplinary action with House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and did not elaborate on what he thought might be appropriate.

Guest told Axios later Tuesday that he hasn’t spoken to Johnson for “a couple of weeks” but would be “happy to” discuss the situation allegedly involving Wild.

But with Wild’s pending departure from Congress in January, Guest said lawmakers “would be limited on anything that could possibly be done within the Ethics environment.”

Another House Republican close to GOP leadership told Axios they doubt there is time for any repercussions to occur.

Citing anonymous sources,The Hill newspaper reported Monday that Wild was absent from the panel’s meeting Thursday after being traced as the source of press leaks regarding the Gaetz investigation.

Whether she skipped the gathering of her own accord remained unclear, according to the outlet, which cited two sources saying Wild ultimately acknowledged to the panel that she had leaked information.

The committee was investigating Gaetz for a litany of allegations including sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, all of which he denies.

Amid a dispute over whether releasing a report dealing with the actions of a former member would break precedent, the Ethics panel deadlocked in November, thus keeping the Gaetz report under wraps.

The full House last week beat back a Democratic effort to make the report public.

Gaetz resigned his House seat when President-elect Trump tapped him as his attorney general nominee before later withdrawing himself from consideration.

Johnson came out against the report’s release following Gaetz’s resignation.

Gaetz took a public jab at Wild, tweeting late Monday that she, “leaked false allegations about me which were so unfounded that they were rejected by the Biden DOJ.”

Gaetz’s attorneys said last year they’d been informed that the Justice Department would not bring charges against the lawmaker over sex trafficking allegations.

Moderate GOP lawmakers have asserted that if Gaetz — who is set to start hosting a show on One America News network — snags a different senior role in Trump’s administration, they could force another vote to release Ethics’ findings.

One America News Network, (“OAN”) announced today that powerhouse Matt Gaetz will be joining OAN’s prime-time lineup in January. The former eight-year member of the U.S. Congress and recent U.S. Attorney General nominee will be hosting a one-hour political talk show every weeknight.

Mr. Gaetz’s program, branded “The Matt Gaetz Show”, is scheduled to air in coveted time slot of 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern every weeknight. With Gaetz rounding out OAN’s prime-time lineup, the network is poised for a groundbreaking 2025, reaffirming its mission to deliver credible, independent news and unfiltered commentary to audiences across the nation.

Matt Gaetz has earned a reputation as a relentless champion of conservative values, taking on entrenched Washington bureaucrats and exposing government overreach. While serving on key committees including the House Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, Gaetz was a leading voice in defending President Donald Trump and advocating for an unapologetic America-first agenda. His knack for connecting with grassroots Americans and shaking up the status quo makes him a dynamic and timely addition to OAN’s team.

OAN’s evening lineup will pack even more punch in 2025, featuring five powerhouse political talk shows designed to keep viewers informed, energized, and inspired with breaking news and hard-hitting analysis. Gaetz will also take the lead in engaging younger audiences by co-hosting a weekly video podcast with Dan Ball, host of Real America with Dan Ball. This vibrant new podcast, launching in January, will deliver fresh perspectives and unfiltered conversations tailored for Millennials, late Gen Z, and early Gen Xers.

Gaetz shared his enthusiasm, saying, “OAN is blazing a trail in media, embracing not just traditional news but the platforms where Americans are going—streaming, apps, podcasts, and social media. I couldn’t be more thrilled to join OAN’s forward-thinking team and be part of this revolutionary expansion.”

OAN is ending 2024 with historic gains on the distribution front. In 2024, OAN enhanced its reach to over 160 million new homes in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa via deployments on Eutelsat’s direct to consumer satellite delivery platform.

In addition, in 2024 the company made multiple announcements of new broadcast distribution in the United States exceeding 10 million homes. Going into 2025, OAN is deep in discussions with multiple major United States MVPDs with announcements expected early next year.

Charles Herring, President of OAN, praised Gaetz’s addition to the network. “Matt is a remarkable talent and a principled leader. His insider access to America’s top policymakers and unwavering dedication to America-first values will bring unparalleled insight and exclusive content to OAN viewers. We’re thrilled to welcome him to the OAN family.”

Dan Ball, Host of Real America with Dan Ball, is excited for the collaboration as well. “We’ve been big fans of Matt Gaetz from day one. We admire his leadership and authenticity, and we’re confident he’ll really connect with our viewers. It’s an exciting partnership that’s going to take OAN to the next level.”

Born in Hollywood, Florida, and raised in Fort Walton Beach, Gaetz comes from a family steeped in public service. A graduate of William & Mary Law School, he’s no stranger to the demands of leadership. In 2021, Matt married Ginger, and together they’ve built a life grounded in faith, family, and freedom. Whether it’s hosting a backyard barbecue or connecting with locals at community events, Matt and Ginger embrace the values of everyday Americans.

Luigi Mangione’s former roommate said that the suspected killer’s actions were “incompatible” with the person he knew, saying that it was like “two completely different human beings.”

R.J. Martin, the former roommate of Mangione, discussed on Fox News’ Jesse Watters’ Primetime his time with the Ivy League graduate turned suspected killer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, saying that the pair were close friends and shared common pastimes together.

“It feels strange because he was a great friend and I considered him a close friend,” he said. “And that someone who would assassinate somebody is completely incompatible with the person that I lived with, the person I cooked meals with, the person that was part of book club and other activities with.”

“It’s like two completely different human beings,” he said.

Martin said that, to his knowledge, Mangione did not do drugs.

Watch:

Senator Mitch McConnell has suffered a fall in the latest of a series of health emergencies that have left supporters terrified for his well-being.

Medics grabbed a wheelchair and raced to the Kentucky senator’s office after he collapsed during a GOP luncheon on Tuesday.

Moments later, a Washington DC fire and rescue team left his office.

McConnell spoke at the lunch, and GOP leaders exiting the meeting didn’t appear to know what was going on.

The senator’s condition was unclear until a spokesperson confirmed he was doing fine.

When asked what happened, his office said, “Leader McConnell tripped following lunch.

“He sustained a minor cut to the face and sprained his wrist.

“He has been cleared to resume his schedule.”

However, McConnell failed to give his weekly press conference and had to be replaced by Senate Majority Leader-Elect John Thune.

When asked about the frail senator’s condition, Thune also said his colleague was “fine.”

“He’s in his office,” said Thune.

“And any other questions about Senator McConnell, I’ll refer to staff.”

McConnell, 82, who has served as GOP minority leader since 2007, announced in February that he would step down from that position after this year’s election.

However, he planned to fulfill his term as senator until February 2027.

McConnell, who is the longest running GOP leader, has faced a worrying series of health battles and ailments in his final term as Kentucky senator.

In March 2023, McConnell took a brutal fall at a dinner in Washington DC and was left with a concussion and cracked rib.

It took six weeks for the aging politician to recover from those injuries.

In July of the same year, he froze for 19 seconds at a news conference in the Capitol in a worrying moment that was caught on camera.

Addressing assembled cameras and reporters, he suddenly stopped speaking and stared blankly ahead before an aide intervened.

After a while, McConnell was then able to pick back up with his remarks.

Worried colleagues said they’d noticed a decline since he suffered the fall.

McConnell’s office attributed the two freezing incidents to him feeling “momentarily lightheaded ” but provided no further details.

In September 2023, McConnell’s staff released medical notes written to him by Dr Brian Monahan, the attending physician of Congress, which said that the senator wasn’t showing signs of seizure disorders, a stroke, or Parkinson’s disease.

The Office of Attending Physician had cleared McConnell to continue working, the notes said.

Speaking to Face the Nation in October last year, McConnell insisted he had “completely recovered” and was “back on the job,” following concerns about his health and ability to govern.

Thune will take over as the Senate GOP leader in January.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said she will not drop the civil fraud case against President-elect Donald Trump as she waits for the appeal court decision, arguing presidents are not immune from civil litigation.

Trump and his attorneys demanded that James drop her civil fraud case against him, his family and his businesses “for the greater good of the country” last month.

Trump was ordered to pay a $454 million civil fraud judgment in James’ lawsuit against him.

Trump has appealed the ruling, and judges on a New York appeals court seemed receptive to potentially reversing the judgment altogether.

The New York attorney general’s office on Tuesday said they are not going to take action to drop the case against the president-elect.

James’ office argued that presidents do not have immunity from civil litigation arising from unofficial conduct, and said lawsuits “may proceed while the president is in office.”

James’ office also argued that the final judgment does not impact any conduct Trump may undertake as president.

They also said Trump’s inauguration is “irrelevant to the 14 other defendants found liable in our case.”

James’ office also said that they are now waiting for a decision on Trump’s appeal, and said waiting for that decision on the civil matter “does not in any way affect Trump’s ability to serve as president.”

A ferocious wildfire fanned by strong winds spread rapidly early Tuesday in Malibu, spurring evacuations along the coast and threatening homes while firefighters struggled to contain the flames.

The eastern half of Malibu was ordered evacuated. The rest of the city and portions of unincorporated Los Angeles County were under an evacuation warning affecting roughly 18,000 people. More than 2,000 structures are covered by the evacuation order, and an additional 6,000 are under evacuation warnings.

Dubbed the Franklin fire, the blaze was moving at a fierce pace, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, and had exploded to nearly 2,600 acres as of 11 a.m. with no containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a news conference Tuesday morning that a “minimal number” of homes had been destroyed, though he did not have an exact count of structures damaged. He urged residents to limit the use of lawn sprinklers to maintain water pressure for firefighters.

About 700 firefighters were battling the fire Tuesday morning on the ground, building containment lines, as air tankers dropped water on the blaze. The aircraft were able to fly through most of the night and into the early morning even amid heavy winds, Marrone said.

“We’d really like to button this fire up and get some containment by this afternoon,” Marrone said. “I believe that the winds are going to be continuing, so that’s going to create challenges for the Fire Department and for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department with evacuations. We are going to have a coordinated air and ground assault on this fire for as long as it takes.”

The fire was reported a few minutes before 11 p.m. Monday along Malibu Canyon Road in the hills north of Pepperdine University.

Flames were reported on both sides of Pacific Coast Highway, with the fire jumping the road in at least two locations — the area around Malibu Pier and around Malibu Road and Webb Way, just next to Malibu Colony Plaza, where a Ralphs supermarket is located, according to the city.

Structures were “impacted” along Malibu Knolls Road, where there are a few homes and a church, and in the area of Sweetwater Canyon Drive, where there are more than a dozen homes, the city said.

Matt Myerhoff, a spokesperson for the city, told CBS News on Tuesday morning that the Malibu Pier had not been damaged in the fire, which had been a concern overnight as the fire marched toward the ocean.

“I think the preponderance of structures being impacted around here are going to be homes,” he said.

A sheriff’s patrol car was damaged in the fire, but the deputy was not hurt, said L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna.

“I cannot tell you how much we appreciate when a deputy or another official comes to your door, or you get a notification that there is a warning or specifically an order, you need to evacuate,” Luna said. “It saves lives, and it actually impacts the lives of our first responders, because if they have to come in to save a life, they’re putting their own lives at risk.”

Residents described having just minutes to flee as they saw a storm of embers rain down, with hillsides and trees bursting into flames, and having precious little time to decide what to take with them.

Shortly after midnight, sheriff’s deputies went door to door and used air horns to wake residents and urge them to leave.

“I think I’m in shock right now,” said Malibu City Councilmember Bruce Silverstein, who evacuated shortly after he smelled smoke at his home in the hills above City Hall around 11 p.m.

His wife got an alert about the fire and by 11:20 the flames licked the hillside while the sky grew ever redder. The couple packed their bags and drove on Pacific Coast Highway toward Santa Monica to check into a hotel.

The lawn and trees around the home were “just burning wild,” said Silverstein, who watched as fire gradually approached his property through the internet-connected cameras mounted around his house.

“My house has come very close to catching fire multiple times in the last couple of hours,” Silverstein said. The bushes and fence at the top of the property burned, a sight rendered in video, but the fire department showed up and doused the area.

“We thought it was completely under control,” Silverstein said. “Then a bunch of embers came flying into the yard.”

Evangelist Jonny Constantine said he was at the beach Monday night, walking and praying to try to relieve some of the stress from his work, when the winds began to pick up. A wind advisory showed up on his cellphone, but he didn’t initially think much of it, he said.

It was nearing 11 p.m. when he got another notification on his phone: A fire had erupted in Malibu. The fire was small at the time, but grew quickly, prompting evacuation orders. Constantine drove to his friend’s house along Carbon Canyon from Pacific Coast Highway. The orange glow of flames greeted him.

“There was smoke everywhere,” he said. “The whole sky was on fire.”

In a way, Constantine said, driving to the beach allowed him to be more aware of the fire and better able to warn his friend while most of the city slept. “God didn’t let me go to sleep that night,” he said.

When James Perry, 42, got the first emergency notification about the fire at 11:45 p.m. Monday, he and his wife were already packing belongings in their Los Flores home. About 20 minutes earlier their electricity had been cut.

Without cellular service or WiFi, Perry said his family relied on the emergency notifications to prepare and get themselves out of their home — just a canyon over from the growing inferno.

“As soon we as came down [Los Flores Canyon Road] near Duke’s Malibu, we saw the halo of the fire, smoke and the light,” Perry said. “That’s when we realized it was closer than we thought.”

This isn’t the first time that a fire has forced the family from their home. They were evacuated from their previous house in Topanga for two weeks during the Woolsey fire in 2018. Living in a high-risk fire zone has changed the way they think about emergency preparedness, Perry said.

“We don’t have anything expensive on site, and we keep our important documents off site and have printed (copies) with us,” he said. “We love living where we live, but it feels like [fires] are happening more often.”

Jonathan Torres, spokesman for L.A. County Fire Department, told The Times that hundreds of firefighters responded to the fire and had been hampered by winds of 50 to 80 miles an hour.

At around the time the fire ignited, there were gusts of up to 65 mph reported. By around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, the winds were weakening slightly, with gusts in the 40-mph range, said National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall. But patterns seen in past Santa Ana wind events “suggest winds should ramp up around daybreak,” Hall said. Meanwhile, relative humidity was quite dry, as low as 5%.

The cause of the fire was unclear.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said early Tuesday that the governor had been briefed on the blaze and the state had secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help with fire suppression costs.

“Fire officials and first responders are working relentlessly to protect lives and property from the Franklin fire. California is grateful for this federal support, which bolsters these efforts. I urge all residents in affected areas to stay alert and follow evacuation orders,” Newsom said in a statement Tuesday.

There were several power outages in the area of the fire Tuesday morning. Some electricity was cut off for firefighter safety, and other outages were part of widespread public safety power shutoffs — deliberate outages meant to limit the chances that damaged utility equipment could start a fire, according to David Eisenhauer, a Southern California Edison spokesperson.

Across the region, almost 40,000 customers had their electricity cut through planned shutoffs.

Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, the fire had moved into the Serra Retreat area and was threatening structures. The community is less than a mile northwest of Malibu Pier. There are private homes in addition to a Catholic retreat and conference center noted for its views.

A six-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway was ordered closed east of Corral Canyon Road and west of Las Flores Canyon Road, the city of Malibu said. Las Virgenes Road, which continues as Malibu Canyon Road on the way to the coast, is closed south of Mulholland Highway all the way to Pacific Coast Highway, a six-mile stretch of road, the city added.

#FranklinFire map and evacuation zones/ status: https://t.co/AH2MQE7yAw pic.twitter.com/MXVsKtBYdv

— City of Malibu (@CityMalibu) December 10, 2024

An evacuation warning along Pacific Coast Highway extended as far east as the Los Angeles city limits, on the border of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, and as far west as Zuma Beach.

On Tuesday, there were about a dozen residents at the Palisades Recreation Center, which was serving as an evacuation center.

Mimi Teller, spokesperson for the Red Cross, said the organization had the evacuation center was up and running about two hours after word of the fire arrived at 2:30 a.m. The center has space for about a dozen people, she said, but overall the property can take up to 800.

Two evacuees, Jessica Jones and Matthew Ryder, said they saw the flames coming around 11:30 p.m. down a ridgeline overlooking the ranch they rent in Serra Retreat. The pair rushed to grab the essentials — important documents, clothing and their three goats and pot belly pig — before the fire made its way to their home.

Fleeing a wildfire is stressful enough, they said, but adding livestock to the mix can really complicate matters. The kid goats, Willie and Russell, were easy enough to wrangle into the back of the couple’s pickup truck, along with the goats’ mother, Ginger. But the 1-year-old pig, Penelope, put up a fight when it was time to leave.

“She was screaming her head off,” Ryder said. “She doesn’t like to be picked up usually.”

The fire reached their property as the couple left around midnight. They stopped on the side of Pacific Coast Highway to plan where to go next, ultimately deciding to sleep in their truck before heading to the evacuation center early Tuesday.

“It was insane,” Jones said. “The bright red flames and glow of the fire were all around the ridge line as we were leaving.”

While Pepperdine University was in the heart of the evacuation area, the university had directed students and others on campus overnight to remain in the Tyler Campus Center or Payson Library. Around 3:30 a.m., the school said the worst of the fire had pushed past the campus.

The campus lifted its shelter-in-place order early Tuesday after assessing conditions after sunrise, according to the university. Spot fires continue to flare up around the school, so officials encouraged students and staff to remain on campus and stay off Malibu roads.

Pepperdine has a well-documented “shelter-in-place” protocol when wildfires threaten Malibu, given how difficult it can be to evacuate the campus quickly on narrow roads during a crisis.

The university says the campus’ buildings are built with fire-resistant materials, and brush is cleared at least 200 feet away from structures. The school took some criticism for its shelter-in-place plan after the campus used it during the Woolsey fire in 2018, with some students nervous about remaining on campus.

The university, however, has said Pepperdine’s practice of having students shelter in place on campus during wildfires has lasted for decades and is supported by the county fire department. Besides the Woolsey fire, it has been utilized for all fires since 1993, including the Old Topanga in 1993, Calabasas in 1996 and the Canyon and Corral fires in 2007.

Classes and final exams were canceled Tuesday on the Malibu campus. Public schools in Malibu were also closed because of the fire.

Pepperdine student Nick Gerding told KTLA-TV on Tuesday morning that hundreds of students sheltered in place in the campus library overnight as the flames moved closer.

“Once we got news it jumped Malibu Canyon Road, you could really see it come over the hill,” Gerding said. “It was so close that we got the warning to stay away from the windows because the trees that were a good 20 feet ahead of it were on fire.”

It wasn’t clear if the burning trees were a part of a defensive fire set by crews, he said. Meanwhile, some 200 to 300 students lined up to grab breakfast while another few hundred slept, Gerding said.

Even though Pepperdine’s process for the fire made him feel relatively safe, the experience still frightened Gerding, he told KTLA.

“My brother attended Pepperdine here about five years ago and they had a campus fire … and did the same process,” he said. “I was familiar but it was a panic I’d never experienced before, so I wasn’t ready for that.”

Malibu resident Alp Toygar said he had taken a drive through Malibu in the early morning hours for a closer look at the conflagration.

“Flames are everywhere,” he told The Times around 3:30 a.m. “People are running away in vehicles from Malibu both directions on the coastal highway. I just passed through the blazes … on the highway. No traffic lights. Police cars and fire trucks are everywhere.”

The National Weather Service has issued a “Particularly Dangerous Situation” red flag warning for wide portions of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, which will last through Tuesday afternoon. Gusts of up to 80 mph are possible, and relative humidity is forecast to be alarmingly low, while vegetation is extremely dry.

The weather service said that within the Franklin fire area, strong and damaging winds from the north and northeast were expected to peak around sunrise Tuesday, and last through late Tuesday morning.

Relative humidity levels were as low as 9% just before midnight. It could fall even lower — forecasters said that relative humidity could fall to as low as 1% in Oxnard and Thousand Oaks in nearby Ventura County.

This is the second time this fire season that the weather service has issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation red flag warning. The last time the warning was issued was on Nov. 5, and a day later, the Mountain fire ignited in Ventura County and, whipped by powerful winds, razed more than 240 buildings. It became the third most destructive wildfire in Southern California since 2013.

The dry, strong Santa Ana winds are being driven by a system of high pressure building in the Great Basin, which is sending air hurtling through canyons and mountain passes to the coast, where there is low pressure.

The region has also been quite dry. Since the water year began on Oct. 1, just 0.14 inches of rain has fallen in downtown Los Angeles. That’s sharply below the average for this time of the season, when 1.87 inches on average has already fallen. And there’s not too much hope for significant rain for the next week in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Malibu and neighboring communities in Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and Agoura Hills saw tremendous destruction in the 2018 Woolsey fire, which destroyed more than 1,600 structures and burned about 97,000 acres.

Kenklippenstein obtained a copy of suspected killer Luigi Mangione’s manifesto.

Here’s the manifesto:

“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience.

The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done.

Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.

United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy?

No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it.

Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain.

It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

The family of Luigi Mangione, the Ivy League graduate charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, said they were “devastated” by his arrest — as it was revealed the 26-year-old alleged gunman spiraled after undergoing “traumatic” back surgery.

“Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” the family said in a statement shared by his cousin Nino Mangione, a Republican Baltimore County delegate, late Monday.

“We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved. We are devastated by this news,” the Mangione family said.

The relatives added that they “cannot comment on news reports” regarding the accused killer, who was arrested at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Monday morning following a frantic, five-day manhunt.

“We only know what we have read in the media,” the family said.

Luigi Mangione was reported to police by an Altoona McDonald’s employee who recognized the suspected gunman from photos released by the New York Police Department.

Local cops approached him while he was eating at the restaurant and said he “started to shake” when they asked if he had been to New York recently, according to a criminal complaint.

He provided them with a fake New Jersey ID — believed to be the same one he used when checking into a Manhattan hostel before the killing — and was taken into custody.

Police discovered a ghost gun with a silencer on him and other items that sources said were “consistent” with what police were seeking, including a rambling, handwritten manifesto that claimed “these parasites had it coming.”

“I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done,” he wrote.

Luigi Mangione, a University of Pennsylvania grad, comes from a well-off real estate family prominent in their Maryland community.

He was raised outside Baltimore in Towson and his family owns two sprawling country clubs, a local radio station and several other real estate holdings.

In the weeks leading up to the shooting, he became estranged from his friends and family, according to law enforcement sources.

Mangione’s mother reported him missing Nov. 18 — possibly from a home in San Francisco, where he lived for a time — and reached out to his peers as they tried to track him down.

One of his former classmates at the Gilman School in Baltimore told the New York Times that he believed he went dark after undergoing back surgery several months prior.

A friend and former roommate in Hawaii also told CNN that Mangione had previously spoken of his back issues.

“When I first interviewed him, before he moved in, I remember he said he had a back issue, and he was hoping to get stronger in Hawaii,” RJ Martin said.

The roommate said Mangione’s back issues were so “traumatic and difficult” that one basic surfing lesson left him bedridden for a week.

When he underwent surgery, Martin said, his friend sent him images of the X-rays.

“It looked heinous, with just giant screws going into his spine,” he said.

Other former high school friends said the high-achieving valedictorian went “absolutely crazy” after the surgery, according to Jack Mac, a staffer at sports and pop culture outlet Barstool Sports.

“Spoke with a source that had a lot of friends that went to high school with Luigi Mangione. What keeps coming up is a back surgery that ‘changed everything’ for him and he went ‘absolutely crazy,’” Mac revealed on X.

Mangione “hasn’t made any statements” since his arrest, law enforcement officials said during an evening press conference in Pennsylvania.

Hours after he was arraigned on weapons and forgery charges in Pennsylvania, he was charged in New York with murder.

Thompson, 50, was gunned down last Wednesday as he walked alone and without security to a Hilton hotel where UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, was holding its annual investor conference.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the recent drones which have been sighted in the state are “very sophisticated,” saying, “the minute you get your eyes on them, they go dark.”

In a Monday press conference, Murphy acknowledged public frustration about the recent surge of mysterious drone sightings but emphasized that authorities have found no evidence of a threat to public safety.

“The most important point to say is we don’t see any concern for public safety,” he said, adding that local, state, and federal authorities, including the FBI and Homeland Security, are working together to uncover the drones’ origins.

Murphy disclosed that there were 49 reported sightings on Sunday, predominantly in Hunterdon County, though he noted some reports might overlap. “These are apparently very, as I understand it, very sophisticated. The minute you get eyes on them, they go dark,” he said.

“We’re obviously most concerned about sensitive targets and sensitive critical infrastructure,” he said. “See, we’ve got military assets. We’ve got utility assets. We’ve got the president-elect, one of his homes here. This is something we’re taking deadly seriously.”

Murphy urged residents to report drone sightings to local law enforcement or the FBI, promising transparency: “If we have news, I’ll let you know the minute we know something.”

The sightings, which began last month, have alarmed residents and led to an ongoing FBI investigation.

Drones have reportedly been spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military facility, and President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course. In response, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily restricted drone flights over these locations.

The drones, often described as large, brightly lit, and loud, have also been reported over reservoirs, electric transmission lines, and police stations. Some eyewitnesses have said they are the size of small cars.

A viral video claiming to show a drone crash circulated online, though no official confirmation has emerged.

Joseph Orlando, Florham Park Police chief, called the drones’ presence “nefarious in nature,” though authorities maintain there is no imminent threat.

Unusual phenomena have been linked to the sightings, including a family’s report of their car clock changing while a drone hovered overhead.

Last week, Murphy met with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other officials, later posting on social media, “we are actively monitoring the situation and in close coordination with our federal and law enforcement partners on this matter. There is no known threat to the public at this time.”

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is awake and conscious after undergoing an emergency brain surgery that adds to the delicate political moment he faces in Brazil.

Lula will stay in the intensive care unit of a Sao Paulo hospital for 48 hours as a precaution, and should be able to return to Brasilia early next week, Doctor Roberto Kalil told journalists on Tuesday.

The 79-year-old president felt headaches Monday and a brain scan showed an intracranial hemorrhage resulting from an accident he had suffered at home in October, doctors said. He was immediately flown to Sao Paulo for surgery, which went on without complications, according to his medical team.

“He’s now stable, talking normally and eating,” Kalil said at the Sirio-Libanes hospital where Lula is being treated. “He had no brain injury.”

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who was supposed to attend an event in the state of Sao Paulo, returned to Brasilia to host Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico. He will represent Lula as vice president as no formal power transfer has happened.

Lula’s health has been the subject of speculation since he suffered the fall in October. At that time, his doctor said the president had recovered and at no point had lost consciousness or had become disoriented.

Nevertheless, that accident led to the cancellation of a trip to the BRICS summit in Russia and another to the APEC summit in Peru. It also raised questions of whether he would be fit enough to host the Group of 20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro in November.

In the lead-up to that event, Lula declined to fly by plane — including to meet President Joe Biden in the Amazon — and he also presided over a chaotic summit in Rio where he didn’t hold a habitual news conference at the end.

Mounting Problems

Since returning to Brasilia, Lula has been busy discussing a package of spending cuts needed to appease investors who are worried about the deterioration of the country’s finances. After much resistance by the leftist president, the plan proposed by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad was submitted to Congress, though it failed to boost financial market sentiment.

The Brazilian real recently sold off past the level of 6 per dollar for the first time in history. It’s currently the worst-performing major currency since the beginning of the year, having weakened 20% in the period.

Lula has been directly involved in political negotiations about the fiscal plan, holding a meeting with the heads of the both houses on Congress on Monday to push for the swift approval of the measures.

Fiscal uncertainty may increase in Brazil if he remains hospitalized for too long, according to former central bank director Tony Volpon.

“Without him, nobody decides anything,” Volpon said. “This is a government that heavily relies on Lula’s decision-making process.”

The Brazilian real rallied as much as 1.1% when markets opened in Sao Paulo amid reports that the government is making a push to approve the fiscal measures in congress.

With inflation expectations soaring and the central bank expected to raise interest rates for a third consecutive time on Wednesday, Lula’s challenges seem to be only growing. He’s also expected to host the COP30 climate conference in the Amazonian city of Belem next year, while also dealing with the likely opposition of Donald Trump. The US president-elect has been a strong supporter of Lula’s main political rival, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Yet another gruesome gang horror has played out in Haiti, as at least 184 people — most of them elderly — were variously slashed, hacked or shot to death on the orders of a warlord who’d been advised that aging slum residents had used sorcery to give his son a severe illness. Interim Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé called it “a barbaric act of unbearable cruelty.”

The brutality was reportedly ordered by Monel “Mikano” Felix, who leads the Wharf Jeremie gang. The carnage took place on Friday and Saturday in the densely-populated seaside slum of Cité Soleil, a neighborhood in the capital city of Port-au-Prince which The Guardian has called Haiti’s “most notorious slum…Much of the slum is an open sewer…infant children bathe in water contaminated with sewage. The stench is unbearable.”

According to a human rights group, Felix’s son had contracted a serious illness, and he sought the counsel of a Voodoo priest, or “bòkò,” who advised the murderous warlord that elderly people in the gang’s area of operations were harming his son through the use of witchcraft.

“He decided to cruelly punish all the elderly people and Vodou practitioners who, in his imagination, might be capable of sending an evil spell to his son,” said Haiti’s Committee for Peace and Development in a statement reported by the Haitian Times.

Members of the gang surrounded the neighborhood, then proceeded to search the shacks for people over 60 years old, who were then hacked with machetes, slashed with knives and shot with guns.

The victims included some younger people who tried to defend the gang’s elderly targets. Bodies were dragged into the streets where they were mutilated and torched, filling the neighborhood with a foul stench of death. Felix’s ailing son died as the massacre was being carried out.

In a statement issued via Facebook, Haiti’s feeble government said “A red line has been crossed, and the state will mobilize all its forces to track down and eliminate these criminals. Justice will strike with exemplary rigor.”

Given Haiti’s police forces have been plagued by mass desertions amid the country’s deep descent into chaos, that promise rings hollow to say the least. “These latest killings bring the death toll in Haiti this year to a staggering number of 5,000,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Monday.

As domestic law enforcement grows ever-more-desperate, foreign governments have failed to follow through on their commitments to send help:

In June, a Kenya-led multinational police force was deployed to help Haitian authorities regain territory from gangs but has since made few advances amid chronic shortages of funding and personnel. A little more than 400 of the 2,500 foreign officers pledged to the mission have been deployed. — Wall Street Journal

Haiti’s descent into a Hellscape accelerated in 2021, when President Jovenel Moise was assassinated. Since then, gangs have ruled almost the entire capital city, perpetrating extortion, kidnapping, rape and murder on mass scale.

Mass murder is frequently used to punish neighborhoods accused of undermining a gang — as was the case with an October massacre that killed at least 70 people, including women and children, in Pont-Sondé, 60 miles north of Port-au-Prince. More than 700,000 Haitians have fled their homes, and half live in hunger as gangs control ports and thwart food and fuel distribution.

Last weekend’s attack is not the first time Felix’s gang has lashed out at supposed practitioners of witchcraft: In 2021, his thugs were accused of killing a dozen elderly women under that same suspicion, according to the National Human Rights Defense Network.

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray plans to resign on or before Inauguration Day, The Washington Times reported.

Mr. Wray is calling it quits because he doesn’t want to get fired by President-elect Donald Trump, according to sources inside the bureau who are familiar with the director’s thinking.

“He’s going to be gone at the inauguration. On or before the inauguration,” a source said.

Following Mr. Wray’s departure, Deputy Director Paul Abbate will become acting director and appoint an acting deputy director. Mr. Abbate’s original plan was to stay until May or June so he could help with the transition to a new FBI director.

Kash Patel, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, is meeting Republican senators on Capitol Hill this week. Mr. Patel, who has served as the defense secretary’s chief of staff and senior adviser to the National Security Council, was tapped by Mr. Trump to shake up the FBI management.

Mr. Wray knew his days were numbered at the FBI.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who will become chairman of the Judiciary Committee next month, sent a scathing letter Monday to Mr. Wray saying he should be ousted before his 10-year term as FBI director is up — and he said Mr. Abbate should go, too.

Mr. Grassley’s letter changed Mr. Abbate’s plans, and he is now looking for an alternate acting deputy director to appoint.

“For the good of the country, it’s time for you and your deputy to move on to the next chapter in your lives,” Mr. Grassley wrote in the letter to Mr. Wray. “I therefore must express my vote of no confidence in your continued leadership of the FBI.”

Mr. Grassley, who is a leading lawmaker advocating for the protection of whistleblowers, has repeatedly clashed with the FBI over whistleblower reports of abuse of power and other misconduct at the bureau.

The allegations included politically biased investigations and a bizarre chain of events in which the FBI appeared to try to discredit Mr. Grassley and GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin as the two senators probed the Biden family.

The raid on Mr. Trump’s home, where agents sought classified documents, also loomed large in Mr. Grassley’s complaints.

“In that raid, roughly 30 armed agents entered the home of a former president of the United States, with full authorization to use lethal force if needed to execute its warrant, and even searched the former First Lady’s clothing drawers,” Mr. Grassley wrote.

The FBI responded with a statement to The Times.

“The FBI has repeatedly demonstrated our commitment to responding to Congressional oversight and being transparent with the American people. Director Wray and Deputy Director Abbate have taken strong actions toward achieving accountability in the areas mentioned in the letter and remain committed to sharing information about the continuously evolving threat environment facing our nation and the extraordinary work of the FBI,” the statement said.

Sen. Joni Ernst signaled Monday that she is warming to Defense Secretary designee Pete Hegseth after days of being reticent over the accusations leveled against him.

The 54-year-old Ernst, who is a rape survivor, revealed that she had “encouraging” discussions with the embattled former Fox News host after their second known meeting in a week — and echoed his frustrations with anonymous sources attacking the Cabinet pick’s personal history.

“I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s responsiveness and respect for the process,” Ernst (R-Iowa), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.”

She specifically commended Hegseth for backing key Pentagon reforms that she’s been after — including better financial stewardship and improvements toward preventing sexual assault in the military.

“Following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks,” she added.

The Pentagon has failed an audit seven years in a row.

Ernst and Hegseth are both Army veterans. Ernst had been floated as a potential contender to be the Pentagon boss prior to Hegseth being tapped as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick.

Ernst had taken heat from conservatives after it became clear that she was hesitant about Hegseth, whom she’s known personally for about a decade.

The pressure campaign included Trump allies at the national level and even local officials such as Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who penned an op-ed on Breitbart pushing for Hegseth to get confirmed.

“The more we talk, the more we are reminded that we are two combat veterans and we are dedicated to defense,” Hegseth told reporters after what he described as a “very good meeting” with Ernst.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who at one point called the accusations against Hegseth “disturbing,” also lauded the Pentagon boss designee after what he called a “positive, thorough and candid meeting” with him.

“Everyone in his unit in Afghanistan — including our Afghan partners – had nothing but great things to say about Pete. He is smart, passionate, and loves our men and women in uniform and our country,” Graham said.

“I told Pete that he will be given the opportunity to defend himself and that his confirmation hearing should not be allowed to become a three-ring circus,” Graham added, noting his record of backing presidential cabinet picks regardless of party affiliation.

Hegseth has been dogged by revelations that he paid an undisclosed amount of money to a woman in 2017 who accused him of raping her at a California Federation of Republican Women conference.

The 44-year-old has strenuously denied the accusation and his attorney Timothy Parlatore has underscored that after a police report was filed, there were no charges made against Hegseth. Moreover, Parlatore has dangled the possibility of suing the woman in question if his Defense bid goes up in flames.

There have also been a handful of other accusations lodged against Hegseth, who co-hosted “Fox & Friends” on the weekends from 2017 to 2024, including that he had struggled with alcohol.

None of those accusers have been named, though an outcry of Hegseth’s former colleagues have rallied to his defense and publicly denied the accusations against him.

Hegseth has also admitted to cheating on his wife.

Given the small incoming 53 to 47 Republican majority in the Senate, Hegseth can only afford to lose four GOP votes at most.

Later in the week, he is expected to meet with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), two moderate Republicans who have been willing to break from party lines in the past.

Thus far, Ernst had been the most prominent senator to harbor apprehensions about Hegseth. The senator has publicly alleged that she was raped by a boyfriend in college and that she was physically assaulted by her ex-husband.

She has grappled with accusations against appointees in the past, including Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whom she voted to support.

Kashyap “Kash” Patel is receiving high marks from Senate Republicans in his quest to be President-elect Donald Trump’s next FBI director.

The 44-year-old former federal prosecutor and national security official, considered a Trump loyalist by many, has promised major changes to the country’s top law enforcement agency.

Like many of the president-elect’s supporters, Patel has been a vocal critic of the “deep state” or longtime members of the country’s national security bureaucracy.

“Kash Patel is an agent of transformation. He’ll do a great job,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, told USA Today.

Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, said he hadn’t met Patel one-on-one but had spoken to him previously.

“Kash is great,” he said. “Can’t wait to get Kash there.”

Patel’s nomination signals Trump wants to remove current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who the former president nominated in 2017 to what was supposed to be a 10-year term.

“We still don’t know what Director Wray’s plans are,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters Monday. “But eventually I assume Mr. Patel will be confirmed as the next FBI director.”

Wray has fallen out of favor with Trump and his GOP allies in Congress, who hold resentment toward the bureau for its investigations aimed at the former president, such as his possession of national security documents his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, which were discovered after he left the White House.

Other Republicans have called out the FBI for a federal court ruling in July that said the agency failed to alert social media companies that a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was real rather than Russian disinformation days before the 2020 presidential election.

In a stinging 11-page letter, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blasted Wray for what he described as “failed” leadership. The incoming Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Monday he has “seen enough” and that Wray should step aside.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he thinks Patel will do a “good job,” but notes he didn’t serve with Patel and doesn’t know him as well as other Trump cabinet picks, such as Pam Bondi who has been nominated for attorney general.

“Honestly, I don’t know anything about him,” Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, said.

“His name was vaguely familiar to me, but I don’t know his background, his experience. I’m going to need to do a lot of work on his nomination. The FBI post is a really important one, but I just don’t have an opinion.”

Republican Tim Burchett was targeted with a bomb threat at his Tennessee home, The Daily Wire has learned.

A source familiar with the matter said that the congressman’s Tennessee home was threatened on Monday, and that law enforcement visited the congressman. A spokesman for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Daily Wire that the sheriff’s office received a threat to Burchett’s home but that the threat is considered “unfounded at this time.”

“However, there is an ongoing investigation,” she added, “therefore, I am not at liberty to discuss the nature of the threat.”

The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement to The Daily Wire: “Anytime a Member of Congress is the victim of a ‘swatting’ incident, we work closely with our local and federal law enforcement partners. To protect ongoing investigations and to minimize the risk of copy-cats, we cannot provide more details at this time.”

News of the threat comes after several of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted with dangerous threats in swatting incidents during Thanksgiving week, including Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, Agriculture Department nominee Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Labor nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Department of Housing and Urban Development nominee Scott Turner, and former Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz.

“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement in late November.

“These attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting.’ In response, law enforcement and other authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”

The FBI similarly said at the time that it was aware of ” numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees, and we are working with our law enforcement partners.”

“We take all potential threats seriously, and as always, encourage members of the public to immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement,” the FBI statement added.

And Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. said in a post on X at the time: “The violent left has been calling in bomb threats and swatting incoming members of the Trump Administration. Enough is enough with this type of deranged crap!”