Latest news with #Watters'World
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Big Balls' Explains His Nickname During Bonkers DOGE Roundtable
Elon Musk's most infamous Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) foot soldier revealed himself to the public Thursday for the first time, sitting down with his colleagues for a wide-ranging roundtable discussion on Fox News. The 19-year-old DOGE staff member Edward Coristine, known by his online moniker 'Big Balls,' is just one of a number of Gen Z employees ripping up the federal government on behalf of his billionaire boss. Coristine, who works in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, told Fox host Jesse Watters about the origin of his nickname during a special edition of Watters' World Thursday night. 'I just set it as my LinkedIn username,' Coristine said, drawing laughs from Watters and others at the table. 'People on LinkedIn take themselves like super seriously and are pretty averse to risk, and I was like, I want to be neither of those things,' he continued. 'Honestly I didn't think anyone would notice.' Coristine, who was absent during a March gathering of DOGE members on Fox News, explained what his job 'working on computer stuff' entailed. 'One of our initiatives is to root out fraud and waste, and to do that we started looking at computers, and as mentioned earlier, there's no accounting of what payments go to where,' he claimed. 'You look at a specific line item, $20 million. Okay, what is it going to? For the majority of payment systems it's like, we don't really know.' Earlier in the show, Musk and his clan claimed once more that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is rife with fraud due to people over 120 years old receiving benefits. Yet similar claims have been debunked. 'Is the small business administration giving loans to dead people, people over the age of 120?' one DOGE member said. 'The answer was yes and it was around $330 million in total.' Musk joined in: 'A birthday that could not possibly be real, meaning they were over 115 years old... Safe to say if anybody is in the system as 115 years or older, that is fake.' Yet, as a former SSA commissioner said when Musk first went public alleging that 150-year-olds were claiming benefits, the reason for this is the coding system in place, which commonly uses May 20, 1875 as a date when a birthdate is missing or invalid. The DOGE crew also discussed their experiences at other government agencies— including one man who visited the federal 'retirement cave,' a facility in Boyers, Pennsylvania where the entire federal government's retirement paperwork is apparently done by hand. The existence of the facility shows the need for widespread IT upgrades across government, he said. Musk also offered specific examples of government waste, arguing that only a fraction of taxpayer funds reach their designated recipients. 'One of the extreme examples of non-accountability in some cases is what has occurred with small entities. The Inter-American Foundation is one of the agencies we visited where, you know, they get $50 million a year, congressional money, for things like farming in Peru,' he said. 'That's a real example. Improving the marketability of peas in Guatemala. Fruit jam. You might expect in the private sector, nonprofit, 80 or 90 percent of their money to grantees. In the case of IAF, that was 58 percent,' he claimed. 'So the other half goes towards management, travel. An example is that even if you agree with supporting alpaca farmers in Peru, actually most of the money never made it out of D.C. It's going into the pockets of people in the neighborhood.' Musk and company's primetime interview Thursday seems to be a bookend to the billionaire's controversial stint in the Trump administration, which saw him slash the federal government at nearly all levels—though he admitted to making a few mistakes along the way. Musk will be leaving his role at DOGE soon to attend to his businesses. Tesla, for instance, has seen a lackluster first quarter due to Musk's unpopularity and the effect of Donald Trump's tariffs, which Musk himself opposed. 'Starting next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,' Musk said on an earnings call for the electric vehicle manufacturer last week. Trump addressed Musk's impending departure during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, while praising DOGE's efforts. 'We all want to thank you for your help,' Trump told Musk at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. 'You really have sacrificed a lot.'
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
‘Big B***s' goes public: Elon Musk's Gen Z whiz kid Edward Coristine speaks out on fraud, dead people, and fruit jam diplomacy
19-year-old Edward Coristine , better known online as 'Big Balls', made his first public appearance as part of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during a special edition of Watters' World on Fox News. The teenager, who works in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, joined his Gen Z colleagues for a roundtable discussion that doubled as a final victory lap for Musk, who is stepping away from DOGE next month. 'I just set it as my LinkedIn username,' Coristine said when asked about his vulgar nickname. 'People on LinkedIn take themselves super seriously and are pretty averse to risk. I was like, I want to be neither of those things.' Musk laughed along with the panel, which took aim at a range of federal agencies, and their favorite target, government inefficiency . 'Computer stuff' and 120-year-olds on social security Coristine explained his job as 'working on computer stuff,' primarily focused on tracing federal payments no one can fully explain. 'You look at a line item, $20 million, what's it going to? For the majority of payment systems, it's like, we don't really know,' he said. The DOGE team revived Musk's earlier claims about the Social Security Administration paying benefits to centenarians—some supposedly older than 120. 'Safe to say if anybody is in the system as 115 years or older, that is fake,' Musk said. But as critics, including a former SSA commissioner, have pointed out, the bizarre birthdates often stem from a default placeholder in outdated systems, May 20, 1875, used when no valid date is available. Jam, peas, and the retirement cave Musk also pointed to wasteful spending abroad, mocking programs like 'improving the marketability of peas in Guatemala' or funding 'alpaca farmers in Peru' through the Inter-American Foundation (IAF). Despite its $50 million budget, he said only 58% reached grantees—'the rest goes to travel, management, and DC overhead.' 'There's a lot of fruit jam, not a lot of fruit,' one DOGE member joked. Another DOGE agent recounted his visit to a federal 'retirement cave' in Boyers, Pennsylvania, where all retirement paperwork is still done by hand. 'It's like time travel,' he said, pointing to the need for sweeping digital reforms. End of the line for DOGE? The primetime appearance comes asMusk prepares to scale back his involvement in DOGE, citing business commitments. Tesla's Q1 performance has been weak, hampered by Trump's tariffs—ironically, policies Musk publicly opposed. 'Starting in May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,' Musk said on a Tesla earnings call last week. At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump acknowledged Musk's contributions: 'You really have sacrificed a lot.' With Musk on his way out and 'Big Balls' now a public figure, DOGE may be nearing the end of its strange, chaotic run. Would you like a few headline options or a social media caption to go with this story?
South China Morning Post
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Who is Emma DiGiovine, current wife of conservative Fox host Jesse Watters?
Meet Fox News TV host Jesse Watters' second wife, Emma DiGiovine, who's 14 years his junior. Photos: @emmawatters__/Instagram, @livavilesbeauty/Instagram Fame and celebrity Fox News conservative commentator Jesse Watters shocked no one when he continued his attacks on former US vice-president Kamala Harris, as well as her husband, Doug Emhoff , in a recent episode of Jesse Watters Primetime . Reacting to photographs released by the New York Post of the couple shopping in Westwood, Los Angeles, he quipped, 'What kind of man gets up in the morning and says, 'I'm going to go grocery shopping with my wife'?' Jesse Watters hosting Jesse Watters Primetime on the Fox News Channel last month. via AFP The comment was met with vitriol from netizens, including ex-Republican politician Joe Walsh, who asserted, 'Only a very weak, insecure man would ask a question like that.' Elsewhere on social media, Watters' own love life was brought into question, particularly his controversial relationship with second wife, Emma, with whom he attended Donald Trump's inauguration last month. What do we know about Emma DiGiovine, who is 14 years her husband's junior? What does Emma DiGiovine do for work? Emma DiGiovine previously worked at Fox News alongside her husband, Jesse Watters. Photo: @emmawatters__/Instagram According to Heavy, Emma DiGiovine graduated from Fairfield University, Connecticut, where she studied journalism. During her college years, she briefly worked as a model. She was also part of Fairfield's dance ensemble and student association, where she served as director of marketing. After a spell as an intern with TV network Showtime she landed a job at Fox News as an associate producer, working on the show Watters' World . According to celebrity-news channel Nicki Swift, the New Jersey native is a trained ballerina and is involved with the non-profit organisation Hope Through Education, for economically disadvantaged children, as an honorary board member. She previously ran a short-lived lifestyle blog. With Emma, Jesse Watters cheated on his first wife Watters and DiGiovine married the same year he divorced his first wife, Noelle Inguagiato. Photo: @emmawatters__/Instagram
