GOP Candidate Matt Van Epps Wins Special Election in Tennessee

Tennessee’s 7th Congressional seat was vacated by Republican Mark Green in July. Republican Matt Van Epps carried 53.9 percent of the vote—and the progressive Democrat Aftyn Behn came in with 45 percent. It was close, but not the nailbiter we’d been led to believe was coming (NBC). Dmitri Bolt at Townhall: [Van Epps] has vowed to work with the president to make America more affordable, to reshore manufacturing jobs, and to unleash American energy. It was clear that the economy was voters’ number one priority in this election, and that is unlikely to change heading into 2026 (Townhall). Scott Jennings: Aftyn Behn (D) lost tonight’s special election in TN, but make no mistake: She’s the median Democrat, a lunatic radical progressive. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dems continue to run the most Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs candidates they can find. Is this really who we want running the country? Defund the police radicals who look down their noses at rural America? (Jennings)

Putin Meets With Kushner and Witkoff for Five Hours

The administration continues the full-court press to put an end to the fighting. New York Times: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia held talks for nearly five hours late Tuesday with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, negotiating with the two U.S. emissaries as Washington pushed for an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine. The negotiators discussed the substance of U.S. peace proposals but did not delve into the wording of any provisions, reach any specific compromises or agree to a new summit between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told journalists after the marathon talks concluded. “The discussion was very useful, constructive and very substantive and lasted for not five minutes but five hours,” Mr. Ushakov said…. “Ukraine’s leadership is currently preoccupied with other matters than the situation in the war zone. It’s as if they live on another planet,” Mr. Putin said on Tuesday, referring to a corruption scandal that has been roiling the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky. “And then, constantly on the move begging for money, they have no time for current affairs, either in the economy or at the front” (New York Times).

Trump Voiding All Biden Pardons and Other Actions Executed by Autopen

The announcement came via a posting on Truth Social from the President: Any and all Documents, Proclamations, Executive Orders, Memorandums, or Contracts, signed by Order of the now infamous and unauthorized ‘AUTOPEN,’ within the Administration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., are hereby null, void, and of no further force or effect. Anyone receiving ‘Pardons,’ ‘Commutations,’ or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter! (Truth). Dimitri Bolt of Townhall: While the president made a similar post last week, his latest post includes any “pardons” or “commutations.” This means that the protections for people, including Hunter Biden, Rep. Liz Cheney, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and January 6 committee members and aides, may now be called into question. Former President Biden issued more than 4,245 clemency actions during his presidency, including roughly 2,500 in his final month, the most in U.S. history. Many of those pardons were signed in his final weeks using an autopen (Townhall). The action is sure to be challenged in court.

Supreme Court Hears Key First Amendment Case on Pro-Life Pregnancy Center

First Choice is a crisis pregnancy center in New Jersey. In 2022, the state’s Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a subpoena to First Choice, demanding 10 years of documents, including information on donors. In Tuesday’s argument, Justice Clarence Thomas got right to the heart of the matter: In his line of questioning to Platkin’s chief counsel, Sundeep Iyer, Thomas asked the defendant about the Democrat attorney general’s rationale for investigating First Choice to begin with. He specifically probed whether Platkin received “any complaints that formed the basis of [his] concern about the fundraising activities [by First Choice].” Iyer seemingly attempted to skirt the senior justice’s question. He began by saying that they “certainly had complaints about crisis pregnancy centers,” but was cut off by Thomas, who more specifically asked about “this crisis pregnancy center.” In a stunning admission, Iyer acknowledged that the New Jersey AG’s office hasn’t “had complaints about this specific [center],” claiming he “thinks” this was made “clear from the outset.” The answer prompted Thomas to interject and ask, “So, you had no basis to think that [First Choice was] deceiving any of their contributors?” Iyer disagreed with Thomas’ summation and claimed that Platkin and his team “had carefully canvassed all of the public information that is provided on the website of First Choice in making a determination that we wanted to initiate an investigation.” “But you had no factual basis?” Thomas asked, to which Iyer again disagreed. “But you had no complainants?” Thomas more specifically asked (Federalist).

High Court Looks Likely to Side With Crisis Pregnancy Center

PBS summed up the tone of the court on the New Jersey pregnancy center: The Supreme Court seemed likely on Tuesday to side with a faith-based pregnancy center challenging an investigation into whether it misled people to discourage abortions (PBS). Thomas Jipping: When the American Civil Liberties Union agrees with pro-life, gun rights, and business groups in the Supreme Court, there must be a pretty clear and important principle at stake. The case is First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, and the court heard arguments on Dec. 2. The important principle is whether the First Amendment allows a state to pry into private organizations’ internal communications and uncover donor lists, supposedly in the name of the “public interest,” even when those organizations have not been accused of violating any law. Every organization across the ideological spectrum will be affected by the court’s decision…. The fact that both liberal and conservative justices asked similar kinds of questions, and the court’s own precedents protecting similar information from government-forced disclosure, suggests that First Choice is likely to win here. The dozens of groups filing briefs as interested parties suggests that the real question is how such a win will affect all of them (Daily Signal).

House Considers Bill on Muslim Brotherhood Designating Entire Organization a Terrorist Group

The House is looking to go further than the Trump administration did in the president’s executive order. Jewish Insider: Just over a week after the Trump administration announced moves to designate branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to discuss and vote on legislation that aims to classify the entire organization globally as a terrorist group on Wednesday. The bipartisan House legislation, led by Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), would instruct the Department of State to assess whether each branch of the Muslim Brotherhood operating globally meets the requirements for designation as a terrorist group. It would then use those determinations to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group in its entirety. The legislation may go further than the current executive action on the issue, which does not specifically mandate assessments of each Muslim Brotherhood branch and does not directly aim to proscribe the entire Muslim Brotherhood (Jewish Insider). The administration’s designation was celebrated, but  criticized for the notable exclusions of Turkey and Qatar.

Senator Bernie Moreno Introduces Legislation to End Dual Citizenship

The freshman Republican representing Ohio was himself born in Columbia. He became an American citizen at age 18 and subsequently renounced his Columbian citizenship. Becky Noble of RedState: On Monday, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) introduced the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025. The bill would end the practice of U.S. citizens holding dual citizenship. If passed, it would prohibit any American citizen from maintaining citizenship in another nation. Moreno cited concerns of divided loyalties and national allegiance for the introduction of the bill. At the core of the legislation is, as Moreno mentioned, national allegiance. Some of the details of the bill include: U.S. citizenship would be prohibited at the same time an individual held a legal status requiring any obligation to another country. Anyone who obtained citizenship in another nation voluntarily after the law took effect would be seen as forfeiting their U.S. citizenship. Anyone who currently holds dual citizenship would have one year to decide which nation’s citizenship they would be renouncing, U.S. or foreign citizenship (RedState).

Mexico Has Now Turned Over 55 Major Cartel Leaders in ‘a pair of cloak and dagger missions’

Impressive work from our Drug Enforcement Administration and Derek Maltz, interim head. In-depth report from the Wall Street Journal: Dozens of Mexico’s most dangerous prisoners, cuffed hand and foot, boarded army jets under heavy guard this year, a rogue’s gallery of cartel leaders responsible for smuggling tons of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine to insatiable U.S. buyers. The men were rousted from prisons, where money and corruption provided them with weapons, cocaine, booze, women and phones to run their lucrative underworld empires from behind bars, coordinating drug shipments as well as ordering killings and kidnappings, U.S. and Mexican officials said…. a total of 55 men who face charges that could keep them locked in maximum-security prisons for the rest of their lives…. Transferring 55 drug leaders to U.S. custody was a high-stakes undercover mission that drew 2,000 Mexican special forces. Officials feared that if word got out, kingpins would attempt escapes, set off riots or file legal appeals. Authorities also believed cartels might try to assassinate their own leaders, rather than risk them spilling secrets to U.S. law enforcement (Wall Street Journal).

CNN to Co-Sponsor Media Event in Qatar

After opening a bureau in Doha less than a year ago, CNN is deepening their cozy relationship with the terror-sponsoring state. Free Beacon: CNN will co-sponsor a Qatari government confab next week featuring a slew of Israel-bashing Arab officials and spokesmen for America’s enemies. The Doha Forum is an annual event that claims to bring together foreign leaders to discuss the Middle East and spotlight Qatar’s “well-intentioned” diplomatic efforts…. The forum’s speakers include Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who has condemned Arab states that normalize relations with Israel. He will be interviewed by CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who said in October that Israeli hostages tortured by Hamas were likely treated better than the average Gazan. Other speakers include Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif; a Saudi professor and “specialist of Saudi-Israel relations,” Abdulaziz Aluwaisheg, who has accused the Jewish state of attempting to “ethnically cleanse” Gazans (Free Beacon).

Israel’s ‘Iron Beam’ Laser System Set to Deploy—and Will Rewrite Air Defenses

What used to cost $50,000 for an Iron Dome missile will now—as a pattern—cost 50 cents. Lt. Col. “Y” explains: If until now talk about laser weapons was in the future tense, now it is turning into the present. Sometime in the coming month, the operational launch of Iron Beam will be carried out, and a line of new laser cannon batteries will be deployed near Iron Dome batteries. Iron Beam, to be called Iron Beam abroad, is a ground-based high-power laser weapon system, 100 kilowatts, the first of its kind in the world to enter regular operational service. The system proved effective in intercepting rockets, mortar bombs and UAVs at ranges of up to 10 kilometers. Iron Beam is operated using Iron Dome’s warning and command and control systems. In a split second, the system identifies whether an approaching threat requires a $50,000 Iron Dome missile or a laser shot costing about half a dollar. The considerations will be purely operational, of course, but the savings in interception economics will be enormous (YNET).

Designer Behind the “Woke” Rebrand of Jaguar Has Now Woke Up to the Fact That He’s Unemployed

First, a reminder: Media consumers and car aficionados were baffled with a rebranding that seemed to have eliminated all the distinctive qualities that made Jaguar Jaguar. Then—in July: Jaguar sales in Europe plunged a shocking 97.5% following a botched rebrand that included a commercial featuring men in skirts to announce its upcoming pivot toward an all-electric fleet — but the cars have yet to arrive at dealerships (New York Post). Now: Gerry McGovern, who was formerly Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) chief creative officer, was told he was being dismissed with immediate effect on Monday. He was then escorted out of the office, according to reports…. The turmoil comes just days after PB Balaji, the former finance boss of Tata Motors, succeeded Adrian Mardell as chief executive of JLR…. The backlash was dismissed as “vile hatred and intolerance” at the time by Rawdon Glover, the managing director of the Jaguar brand…. Mr Glover has repeatedly supported the rebrand. He told US broadcaster ABC earlier this year: “We’re not looking for everybody to say, ‘That’s nice.’ I think great design does polarise, whether that’s in fashion or architecture or whatever else (Telegraph). Yet, design might polarize. But a carmaker that sees a 97.5 percent drop in sales is not polarizing. They are out of business.