Latest news with #TheFaulknerFocus
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University of California now Trump administration target
Leo Terrell, senior counsel at the Department of Justice and head of its antisemitism task force, singled out the University of California (UC) system on Tuesday as the next target of the Trump administration. There will be 'massive lawsuits against [the] UC system' and other colleges 'on the East Coast, on the West Coast, in the Midwest,' Terrell said in an interview on Fox News's 'The Faulkner Focus.' 'Expect hate crime charges filed by the federal government. Expect Title VII lawsuits,' he added. The Hill has reached out to UC for comment. It is the first indication of where the Trump administration may move next in its higher education fight after escalating its battle with Harvard University to extreme heights. President Trump has taken almost $3 billion in funding from Harvard, threatening $3 billion more, wants to take away the university's ability to have foreign students on campus and has threatened its tax-exempt status. Harvard has sued over the paused funding and order to take away the Ivy League school's ability to admit foreign students. But Terrell said the Trump administration is ready to 'battle in the courtroom,' taking the fight to the highest level it needs. ''If it goes all the way to the Supreme Court, Trump is going to do that,' he said. Massive lawsuits against UC would signal the first major fight against a state public university, with many of the major actions focused on Ivy League schools thus far. 'We have to bring these universities to their knees,' Terrell told Fox News near the end of the interview. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fox News stars want Scott Pelley arrested and ‘60 Minutes' canceled over anti-Trump free speech defense
After spending the past few years railing against the Biden administration for its supposed attacks on free speech and censorship of social media platforms, Fox News is now calling for a CBS News journalist to be locked up and his show canceled for warning college graduates that 'freedom of speech is under attack.' What appears to be most rankling to the conservative news network's stars are Scott Pelley's comments in a commencement speech at Wake Forest that were sharply directed at President Donald Trump. A week after Pelley delivered an impassioned address, clearly targeted at Trump, MAGA world fully melted down over it after clips were shared online by a pro-Trump account. The speech went viral over the Memorial Day weekend as conservatives lashed out in anger and Fox News picked up the mantle after the holiday. 'Does he hate half the country as much as he hates President Trump?' anchor Harris Faulkner huffed on Tuesday morning's broadcast of The Faulkner Focus. 'He never mentions anything about the 76 million people who voted for Trump as being valuable and loved in the country. He goes after the man they voted for.' The portion that specifically incensed conservatives and Trump supporters was Pelley — whose network is currently facing a $20 billion lawsuit from the president over an edited 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris in the stretch run of the presidential campaign — having referenced Trump's attacks on the media and the nation's sacred institutions. The longtime 60 Minutes correspondent did not mention the president by name. 'But in this moment, this moment, this morning, our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack,' he declared. 'Freedom of speech is under attack. And insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes, and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak in America.' Noting that 'ignorance works for power,' Pelley also pointed out that they first 'make the truth-seekers live in fear' when they 'sue the journalists and their companies for nothing,' an apparent reference to the president's lawsuit. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, is considering a settlement of that complaint in an effort to coax the Trump administration to approve a mega-merger with Skydance Media. The possibility of settling a lawsuit that legal experts describe as frivolous has resulted in the abrupt resignations of 60 Minutes' executive producer and CBS News' chief, along with Democratic senators suggesting that the company could be breaking anti-bribery laws. Pelley also took aim at the administration's efforts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 'With that done, power can rewrite history with grotesque, false narratives,' he stated. 'They can make criminals heroes and heroes criminals. Power can change the definition of the words we use to describe reality. Diversity is now described as illegal. Equity is to be shunned. Inclusion is a dirty word.' Faulkner wasn't done with her hyperbolic and breathless indignation over Pelley's speech. During the midday roundtable show Outnumbered, which she co-anchors, she seemingly accused CBS News of antisemitism while suggesting the White House could soon turn its attention to shutting down the network. 'We know what is happening. They are losing their relevancy and soon will be losing their funding,' she said, perhaps confusing CBS with PBS, which Trump directed to be defunded by an executive order this month. Referencing a previous interview with former Fox News pundit Leo Terrell, who now leads the president's so-called antisemitism task force, Faulkner noted that Terrell told her 'we are not stopping with Harvard' and will be going after other institutions. 'The administration has an answer for this,' she concluded. 'And Scott Pelley – well, I don't know – maybe it won't be 60 Minutes anymore. Maybe he can just go on a speaking tour.' Former Trump press secretary turned Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany went even further during Tuesday's broadcast of top-rated panel show The Five. After the network's resident 'comedian' Greg Gutfeld jokingly brushed off Pelley's warnings by pointing out 'he wasn't arrested after that,' McEnany called for that very thing to happen. 'He should have been, because there was an overt lie,' she exclaimed. 'What do you know about journalism being under attack? What does he know about that? I mean, 60 Minutes should be reduced to zero minutes.' Grumbling that Pelley recently interviewed a Democratic attorney for a segment on Trump targeting law firms, one of several 60 Minutes reports that have drawn the president's ire, McEnany fumed that Pelley knows 'nothing about journalism' and that his commencement speech was a 'load of garbage.' Naturally, the right-wing network's primetime lineup – which includes the president's shadow chief of staff Sean Hannity – kept the outrage flowing through the evening. 'Scott's still a whiny liberal and still bitter,' Laura Ingraham growled during an eight-minute show-opening monologue about Pelley's speech. 'What he will never admit is his own role of tanking the credibility of the press he supposedly is so desperate to save. His influence has waned, the power of his old network is gone. And now he's not shy about showing the rank bias we knew he harbored all along.' Hannity, meanwhile, complained that the former CBS Evening News anchor's address was 'full of rage and anti-Trump rhetoric,' adding that Pelley is a 'biased liberal radical talk show host and here's the proof.' The evidence, according to the Fox News star, was Pelley saying that 'journalism is under attack.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colorado parents unload on liberal lawmakers, prompting changes to controversial gender bill
Parents packed a Wednesday night Colorado Senate hearing to voice outrage over a gender identity bill that critics say could attack parental rights. HB25-1312, which imposes state-mandated gender policies on schools, initially would have considered a parent's refusal to affirm their child's gender identity as "coercive control" in child custody cases. "Pass this bill and history will not remember you as heroes, it will remember you as cowards who sold out the rights of the people for the approval of extremists," one concerned dad declared. Others branded the bill an "attack on parental rights," with one saying the measure could be more accurately called "how to break up families and use the law to steal children from their parents." Colorado Dems Ram Abortion, Transgender Bills Through On Limited Sunday Session Debate: 'Unprecedented' Another more succinctly said, "disagreement is not abuse." Read On The Fox News App After much contention, sponsoring lawmakers, Democratic Sens. Chris Kolker and Faith Winter, stripped the bill of its most controversial provisions before an overnight vote — and while Republicans say it's a big win for them and for parents, their fight against the effort isn't over yet. State Rep. Rose Pugliese, a Republican representing the Centennial State's 14th district, told "The Faulkner Focus" on Thursday that she believes the bill is still an attack on parental rights. "All the grassroots parents that came and waited in line for hours in order to testify really helped make this bill less egregious in some ways and then more egregious in other ways," she said. "While they took out that child custody piece, which was a real problem, especially for domestic violence survivors that I get to work with… they included language that said, 'you no longer are required to get a court order in order to change your name and get a government-issued ID, even if you are in this country unlawfully,' so that jeopardizes public safety in a different way. Colorado's 'Totalitarian' Transgenderism Bill Sparks Concerns From Parents She continued, "So we're still attacking parental rights, but we are now adding an additional public safety element to it." She went on to slam the state's Democratic leadership for pushing measures to make Coloradans less safe and urged parents to continue their pressure campaign by talking to their state senators. "We know that amendments could be offered on the floor. We don't know what this bill will look like when it comes back to the House, so we cannot let the pressure off. We need to have these conversations and continue to get our voices heard, and I think parents are doing that across Colorado and across this nation." According to The Denver Post, if the bill becomes law, it will "still protect transgender people from being misgendered or deadnamed, or referred to by the name they used before they transitioned, in discrimination laws for places like work and school." The hypothetical law could also protect Colorado from other states' "anti-transgender policies" and make changes to existing policies for name alterations and gender markers on driver's article source: Colorado parents unload on liberal lawmakers, prompting changes to controversial gender bill
Fox News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Colorado parents unload on liberal lawmakers, prompting changes to controversial gender bill
Parents packed a Wednesday night Colorado Senate hearing to voice outrage over a gender identity bill that critics say could attack parental rights. HB25-1312, which imposes state-mandated gender policies on schools, initially would have considered a parent's refusal to affirm their child's gender identity as "coercive control" in child custody cases. "Pass this bill and history will not remember you as heroes, it will remember you as cowards who sold out the rights of the people for the approval of extremists," one concerned dad declared. Others branded the bill an "attack on parental rights," with one saying the measure could be more accurately called "how to break up families and use the law to steal children from their parents." Another more succinctly said, "disagreement is not abuse." After much contention, sponsoring lawmakers, Democratic Sens. Chris Kolker and Faith Winter, stripped the bill of its most controversial provisions before an overnight vote — and while Republicans say it's a big win for them and for parents, their fight against the effort isn't over yet. State Rep. Rose Pugliese, a Republican representing the Centennial State's 14th district, told "The Faulkner Focus" on Thursday that she believes the bill is still an attack on parental rights. "All the grassroots parents that came and waited in line for hours in order to testify really helped make this bill less egregious in some ways and then more egregious in other ways," she said. "While they took out that child custody piece, which was a real problem, especially for domestic violence survivors that I get to work with… they included language that said, 'you no longer are required to get a court order in order to change your name and get a government-issued ID, even if you are in this country unlawfully,' so that jeopardizes public safety in a different way. She continued, "So we're still attacking parental rights, but we are now adding an additional public safety element to it." She went on to slam the state's Democratic leadership for pushing measures to make Coloradans less safe and urged parents to continue their pressure campaign by talking to their state senators. "We know that amendments could be offered on the floor. We don't know what this bill will look like when it comes back to the House, so we cannot let the pressure off. We need to have these conversations and continue to get our voices heard, and I think parents are doing that across Colorado and across this nation." According to The Denver Post, if the bill becomes law, it will "still protect transgender people from being misgendered or deadnamed, or referred to by the name they used before they transitioned, in discrimination laws for places like work and school." The hypothetical law could also protect Colorado from other states' "anti-transgender policies" and make changes to existing policies for name alterations and gender markers on driver's licenses.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's first 100 days bring praise from independents and frustration among young Democrats
As President Donald Trump reaches the 100-day mark of his second term, voters across the political spectrum are offering mixed reviews, praising him for swift action on key issues while raising concerns about the pace and priorities of his administration. "What I like most about Trump is that he's doing what he said he was [going to] do, whether you like or dislike his policies," said Dominick, an independent voter, on "The Faulkner Focus." "In the past, a lot of politicians said what the crowd in front of them wanted to hear and then did what they wanted to do. This president is doing exactly what he said in rapid speed." Democrats Accused Of Being 'Out Of Touch' As New Poll Shows Drop In Support From Young Voters That speed has caught the attention of voters across party lines. Republicans on the panel largely support how fast Trump is moving on campaign promises, while some Democrats expressed alarm at the rapid rollout of policies, especially on tariffs and budget cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency. Andrew, a college-aged Democratic voter on the same panel, voiced frustration not only with Trump but with his own party's direction. Read On The Fox News App "I think a big failure with the Democratic Party in recent elections is almost a calling to anoint a person, with 2016 clearing the field for Hillary, a similar thing to a lesser extent for Biden. And now with the most recent election with Kamala Harris," he said. "The last time that we had a truly open primary was, in my opinion, was in 2008. And look at what happened with Obama." Promises Made, Promises Kept: How Trump's First 100 Days Stack Up Against Inauguration Day Pledges Andrew's concerns come as new polling from the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics shows congressional Democrats' approval among young Americans falling sharply, from 42% in early 2017 to just 23% today. Meanwhile, Trump's approval among 18 to 29-year-olds stands at 31%, nearly unchanged from the start of his first term. Immigration has also been a major focus of Trump's early actions, and a point of debate among voters. "I think everything that he has done has excelled beyond. I mean, we don't have anyone coming through the borders anymore," argues Republican voter Maria on the panel, "I think that was big for us." Trump Administration Deports 100K Illegal Migrants Since Inauguration: Report Recent Fox News polling shows Trump receiving his strongest marks on border security, with 55% of respondents approving. On immigration more broadly, the country is split: 47% approve of Trump's approach, while 48% disapprove. Critics continue to raise concerns about student visa revocations and the human cost of mass deportations. For Mary Josephine, another independent on the panel, Trump's emphasis on restoring traditional family values stands out most. Democrats' Identity Crisis: Youth Revolt Rocks Party After Trump Comeback "The basic family structure isn't something that is applauded any longer," she said. "I like the fact that Trump is trying to bring that to the forefront and make people feel comfortable again, just supporting their views, whatever they are." She criticized the previous administration for prioritizing what she described as cultural distractions over core issues like religious freedom. "You can go to school, and it's really difficult to say, if you believe, let's say something that the Bible says, and be forthcoming with it, because you're afraid of what the person next to you is going to say," she said. "We're putting too much emphasis in trans sports and DEI." In his first 100 days, Trump has signed at least 142 executive orders and reversed more than 100 Biden-era policies. Many have targeted cultural and social issues, including banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports and creating a White House Faith Office to support faith-based organizations and places of article source: Trump's first 100 days bring praise from independents and frustration among young Democrats
