Friday, September 6, 2024
BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA
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Donald Trump is trying to juice his campaign by offering up top jobs to high-profile backers with crackpot ideas, presenting a vision of his next administration staffed by a team of wing nuts.
- Disgraced former President Donald Trump has been breezily tossing out plumb assignments to people he wants to help him win this election — including folks who, if he wins, would make his theoretical future cabinet look like a "Star Wars" bar scene. Trump wants to let billionaire conspiracy theorist Elon Musk cut costs at government agencies. And he’s tapped roadkill enthusiast Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to help staff his White House as a member of his transition team, and, as RFK Jr. put it, to “make America healthy again.” Which sounds downright unnerving, coming from an anti-vaxxer with a voice like an ashtray, whose big moment of this campaign was admitting that a worm ate part of his brain and died there.
- Putting Musk in charge of cutting government costs looks downright reckless when you consider what Musk did after buying Twitter, renamed X. Musk promised not to make the platform into a “free-for-all hellscape.” But… guess what? That’s exactly what it became. Musk dramatically cut costs, nixed safety measures, fired key employees, removed labels that identified state media of countries like Russia and China, and promoted content from questionable accounts. The tech bro and his investors are estimated to have lost $24 billion since the takeover two years ago.
- Then there are the eye-popping conflicts of interest. Musk’s companies — including X, Tesla and SpaceX — are regulated by federal agencies, which raises big questions about how he’d wield power over government spending. Putting Musk in charge would create absolutely bonkers opportunities for self-dealing. His history of sparring with the Biden administration over regulation hardly suggests he’d waste the chance.
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Meanwhile, alarm is growing that RFK Jr., who ditched his own campaign to endorse Trump, might become Trump’s next health and human services secretary.
- This guy didn’t just have that one run-in with the brain worm. He also stuffed his freezer with roadkill, posed with a dead bear cub biting his hand, cut off a whale’s head, might’ve eaten a dog, and is against vaccinations. He seems certain to push Trump to embrace his antivax views. RFK Jr. is now calling on his supporters to vote for Trump no matter where they live, backtracking on his previous plea for them to vote Kennedy in uncompetitive states. Hours ago, judges in North Carolina and Michigan ordered the states to remove his name from ballots before being sent out to voters.
- Other names floated for top jobs include Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Trump’s former golf buddy, as secretary of state; Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who advocated for using military force to quell protests following George Floyd’s death, as defense secretary; and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a staunch climate change skeptic and former rodeo cowboy, as secretary of agriculture. During his first term, Trump faced resistance from within his administration on his radical policies, cycling through top officials who didn’t jive with the authoritarian vibe. This time around, Trump is planning on corralling loyalists who won’t waver — and who will help him push legal and governance boundaries to the extreme, according to people who often talk with him.
Crazy thought: Let’s give qualified, sane people the jobs that affect everyday Americans’ lives. Fingers crossed that Elon Musk figures out how to get to Mars — and brings all his buddies with him.
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The father of the suspected Georgia high school shooter was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder, in the latest instance of authorities seeking accountability for the parent of an alleged underraged mass shooter.
This time prosecutors brought the most severe charges ever filed against an involved parent. The father, Colin Gray, “knowingly allowed” his son to possess the military-style rifle used in the shooting, leading to the charges, Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told reporters Thursday night. Gray is also facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children.
His 14-year-old son is facing four charges of felony murder, following a court appearance on Friday. Preliminary hearings for both of them are set for December 4.
Gray’s charges come five months after a mother and father in Michigan became the first school shooter parents ever to be sentenced for involuntary manslaughter. This new case suggests that the legal system will continue to put heightened scrutiny on the role parents play in preventing, or allowing, such tragedies to take place.
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The first ever Presidential debate between Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is set for September 10th—assuming someone doesn't chicken out. Will we see a heated exchange of policy ideas? Or will it be a masterclass in dodging questions? Honestly, your guess is as good as ours. One thing’s for sure, you won't want to miss it. Join our Friends of the Pod discord community for a Subscriber Live Chat to process your debate feelings and anxieties with fellow crooked listeners in real time. Head to crooked.com/friends to sign up for access and other subscriber exclusive content!
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Israeli troops fatally shot a 26-year-old American woman who was taking part in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank on Friday, two witnesses told the Associated Press. Two doctors told the outlet she was shot in the head. The State Department confirmed the woman’s death but didn’t say Israeli soldiers killed her, and the White House called on Israel to investigate.
Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal sentencing in New York City was postponed until after the election, and is now set for two days before Thanksgiving instead of later this month. Nothing says “healthy democracy!” like wondering if one of the candidates may be ordered to prison right after the vote!
Elon Musk appears to have boosted conservative influencers who were part of a Russian scheme to interfere in the election, interacting with many of them more than 100 times on X, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Scrolling through X on any given day makes me want to throw myself into the void, so this helps explain that impulse.
Donald Trump spent several minutes during a Friday press conference ranting about Jessica Leeds, a woman who accused him of groping her on an airplane decades ago before testifying in his recent sexual assault and defamation trial. “What are the chances of that happening?” he said. “It didn't happen, and she would not have been the chosen one.” Um… The chosen one? EXCUSE ME??
GOP veep nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) is declining to denounce far-right propagandist Tucker Carlson after the talk-show host praised and promoted the views of a Holocaust revisionist. Instead, Vance’s campaign said he “doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson.” The White House, on the other hand, called the comments “disgusting and sadistic.” Who knew that Vance could bootlick Trump and Carlson at the same time? Impressive!
A North Carolina man was charged this week with fraudulently streaming music by boosting listens using artificial intelligence, in order to collect massive royalties on numerous platforms, to the tune of roughly $1.2 million annually. I’d be more intrigued by this plan if his music sounded anything like these AI-generated country bangers. |
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Dozens of top business leaders across the country endorsed Kamala Harris for president in a letter on Friday, including leaders at Box, Yelp, Snap and even James Murdoch, an heir to his family’s media empire. Electing Harris is “the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy,” the letter reads. Put your money where your mouth is! Give all your money to down-ballot candidates fighting for democracy!
Four teens won $50,000 for developing a flood forecasting technology they believe could help over a billion people worldwide to prepare for dangerous weather. Seriously, they already sound more qualified for the agriculture secretary job than the guy Donald Trump’s considering, Sid Miller. |
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