
Robert F Kennedy Jr says he is ‘proud’ to have Trump’s praise
Robert F Kennedy Jr., the longshot presidential candidate and latest scion of the storied Kennedy political dynasty, appears to be leaning in to the “Democrat in name only” label that is beginning to follow his campaign. The 2024 hopeful appeared on cable news network NewsNation on Wednesday, where he offered a revealing look at his strategy up until this point and appeared to offer an olive branch to former President Donald Trump. "I'm proud that President Trump likes me, even though I don't agree with him on most of these issues," said Mr Kennedy. "Because I don't want to alienate people, I want to bring people together. I'm proud that all these people like me and that I have independent supporters and Democratic supporters." Mr Trump previously had called him “a very smart guy” who had been “very nice to [him]” in comments to reporters on Monday. "Every Democrat says, 'I want to end the polarization. But how do you do that without talking to people who don't agree with you? How do you do that without appealing to people? My purpose is to find the issues, the values that we have in common other than focus on the issues and the personalities that keep us all apart,” Mr Kennedy went on to claim. At the same time, he declined to agree to support the eventual winner of the 2024 Democratic primary, suggesting that party loyalty is low on his list of priorities. Mr Kennedy spoke with moderator Elizabeth Vargas and members of an audience selected with help from a nonpartisan organisation; Democratic voters peppered him with questions on numerous topics including his well-reported support for conspiracy theories and misinformation about vaccines. Mr Kennedy has long insisted that he is not “anti-vaccine”, but at Wednesday’s event insisted repeatedly that the FDA and other medical authorities were lying about the safety of many vaccinations. For that reason, as well as the fact that the incumbent Democratic president is running for re-election and heavily favoured to win, mainstream media networks and reporting outfits have struggled internally with how best (if at all) to cover Mr Kennedy’s campaign. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has scheduled no primary debates for the 2024 season, and is not likely to do so, much to the chagrin of Mr Kennedy and fellow 2024 Democratic hopeful Marianne Williamson. Mr Biden, 80. is the oldest president to ever hold office and will be 86 when he finally leaves office should he win and serve for a full second term. Many polls have shown that a sizeable chunk of the Democratic Party — not to mention independents — would prefer that the Democratic Party nominate a younger successor, just as most Americans would prefer that the 2024 GOP nominee be someone other than Donald Trump. He remains the heavy favourite to win a Democratic primary, however, and polls showing Mr Kennedy and Ms Williamson with signficant support do not take into consideration the fact that other, more well-known Democrats with stronger national political operations would quickly jump into the presidential field should Mr Biden bow out. Among those other Democrats thought to be eyeing national ambitions in 2024 and beyond include Mr Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, as well as others like governors Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom. Read More Trump demanded to get ‘my boxes’ back from feds as indictment loomed Meet Jesse Watters, the Fox News host helming Tucker Carlson’s primetime slot Judge rejects Donald Trump's request to toss out defamation claims by columnist Accused Jan 6 rioter arrested near Obama’s home after making threats towards ‘public figure’ Editor apologises for publishing RFK Jr anti-vaxx screed: ‘I should have been fired’ YouTube removes Robert F Kennedy Jr video featuring bizarre claim that polluted water makes children transgender
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Gal Gadot says her upcoming film will change the perception of Cleopatra: 'She was more than a seductor'
'I can't reveal a lot, but I can tell you that we're going to celebrate the Cleopatra story,' said Gal Gadot
1970-01-01 08:00

‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’ Season 4 Episode 1 Review: Are Cathy Mueller and Jack Ryan dating? Season 1 character returns
Cathy Mueller and Jack Ryan together give viewers a whiff of romance in ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’ Season 4
1970-01-01 08:00

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend welcome baby boy via surrogate
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend welcome baby boy via surrogate
1970-01-01 08:00

Geraldo Rivera says he quit Fox News after being fired from 'The Five'
Television veteran Geraldo Rivera announced on Thursday that he was leaving Fox News after being fired from the program "The Five."
1970-01-01 08:00

Why did Cathy Mueller disappear after Season 1? 'Jack Ryan' Season 4 sets the stage for answers
In Season 1 of the Amazon Prime Video show, viewers met Dr Cathy Mueller, played by Abbie Cornish, alongside John Krasinski’s Jake Ryan
1970-01-01 08:00

MLB All-Star Week full schedule of events: Celebrity Game, Home Run Derby and more
MLB All-Star week is one of the best times of year for baseball fans. Catch up with all the festivities with the full schedule of events for the week.All-Star week is one of the best times of year for baseball fans. This is a week for baseball players to recover their bodies and spend a bit of t...
1970-01-01 08:00

What is Jack Ryan’s last mission? John Krasinki makes explosive comeback in Season 4 of action series
Amazon Prime Video will drop two episodes of ‘Jack Ryan’ Season 4 every week starting June 30 with the finale releasing on July 14
1970-01-01 08:00

Wall Street execs host Biden fundraisers as president closes out an end-of-quarter campaign blitz
President Joe Biden closed out an end-of-quarter campaign blitz Thursday with a pair of Manhattan fundraisers hosted by Wall Street power brokers, a funding push designed to put Biden on strong financial footing for a 2024 White House contest expected to set spending records
1970-01-01 08:00

The Best And Worst Moments of Geraldo Rivera's Career
Geraldo Rivera is out at Fox News, here's a look at some of his career highlights.
1970-01-01 08:00

John Krasinski explains why final chapter of Tom Clancy's 'Jack Ryan' Season 4 is an 'emotional one'
John Krasinski said, 'For us, it’s a really emotional one because it feels like coming home'
1970-01-01 08:00

Meet Jesse Watters, the Fox News host helming Tucker Carlson’s primetime slot
The man replacing a coveted prime-time cable television slot once occupied by right-wing figurehead Tucker Carlson is a longtime Fox News presence who honed his reputation on the network with brash man-on-the-street interviews and derisive commentary attacking Democratic officials and his liberal rivals. Jesse Watters has been with the network for more than two decades, wearing the influence of a generation of Fox News stars and right-wing radio figures that preceded him. The changeup follows Carlson’s departure from the network in the aftermath of a pair of lawsuits and a $787.5m settlement reached with a voting machine company that sued Fox and its leadership for defamation. A rotating lineup of hosts filled the 8pm hour in the weeks that followed. Watters – who helmed the previous hour – will permanently fill that later slot in the network’s schedule with his Jesse Watters Primetime. “Unlike Carlson, he lacks a well-defined ideological agenda, apart from looking for ways to ‘own the libs’ on whatever the news of the day is,” according to MSNBC columnist Paul Waldman. “There may be plenty of Fox viewers who will happily tune in to that for an hour each night. But Watters is effectively an internet troll who happens to be on TV,” he wrote. “If you want a detailed breakdown of the latest right-wing obsession, he’s not the one you’d seek out; if on the other hand you merely want someone to smirk while delivering a zinger about Hunter Biden, Watters is your man.” Like Carlson, Watters comes from a prominent media family and is a product of exclusive East Coast private schooling. But unlike Carlson, who arrived at Fox after on-air roles at competing networks MSNBC and CNN, Watters is something of a Fox company man, moving up in the ranks over more than 20 years while adopting the hostile posture and talking points of some of its biggest stars, with a self-satisfied grin. Watters ascribes his political awakening to watching Republican members of Congress on C-SPAN. From there, he devoutly listened to right-wing radio and pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, whose influence is seared into his provocative personality. By 2011, Watters helmed his own recurring segment on Bill O’Reilly’s The O’Reilly Factor. His “Watters World” reports would rely on man-on-the-street interviews, quick edits and frequent cutaways to movie clips to ridicule frequent right-wing targets, from college campus culture to people experiencing homelessness. Those reports and his other statements on the network over the years have drawn widespread criticism and accusations of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and election denialism, including incendiary statements aired days before the attack on the US Capitol. In one of his segments in 2015, Watters interviewed homeless New Yorkers at Penn Station to accuse them of breaking the law. He would go on to declare homeless people an “invasive species” on his own programme in 2022. A 2016 “Watters World” segment from Manhattan’s Chinatown was widely derided as a racist and stereotype-driven production that prompted a rare response from Watters. “My man-on-the-street interviews are meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek and I regret if anyone found offense,” he said. That same year, it was revealed that he was accused of stalking and harassing journalist Amanda Terkel seven years earlier, an incident that led to an altercation between Watters and another journalist at an afterparty following a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. “I was at this party trying to enjoy myself. This guy came up to me. He starts putting it in my face,” Watters later said. “I was friendly at first, and then he started getting a little obnoxious. Things happened, and I regret it happened, and that’s all it is.” On The Five, the network’s roundtable talk show on which Watters has been a longtime co-host, he claimed without evidence in 2019 that women reporters sleep with sources “all the time” in an apparent reference to the portrayal of a journalist in the film Richard Jewell. In 2021, Watters encouraged the audience at a conservative political conference to “ambush” Dr Anthony Fauci and deliver a figurative “kill shot” against the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. Fauci, then the chief White House medical adviser, called on Fox to fire Watters. The network defended him in a statement and promoted him a few weeks later. He also has repeatedly defended Mr Trump, including a warning that “people better be careful” and that “the left” doesn’t “understand what they’re getting themselves into” following news of the former president’s criminal indictment in New York City. The Independent requested comment from Fox regarding Watters’ statements. A spokesperson for the network provided a network statement announcing the lineup changes. “FOX News Channel has been America’s destination for news and analysis for more than 21 years and we are thrilled to debut a new lineup. The unique perspectives of Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity, and Greg Gutfeld will ensure our viewers have access to unrivaled coverage from our best-in-class team for years to come,” Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in the statement. Right-wing media watchdog group Media Matters has chronicled Watters’ controversial on-air statements throughout his time at the network. “Crowning odious Jesse Watters as the new face of Fox News is a reflection of Fox’s dogged commitment to bigotry and deceit as well as an indication of their desperation to regain audience share,” Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said in a statement. “It won’t work, though. Fox’s audience abandoned the network post-Tucker, and those viewers never returned,” he added. “Jesse Watters’ buffoonish segments of bigotry and culture war vitriol won’t fix that problem for Fox; he’s a liability and a ticking time bomb. Read More Fox News ousts eight remaining Tucker Carlson show staff as Jesse Watters takes over primetime spot White House condemns Fox News chyron calling Biden ‘wannabe dictator’ as broadcaster walks back accusation Trump reacts angrily as Fox News anchor directly tells him: ‘You lost the 2020 election’
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