Trump’s conversation with Obama draws speculation at Jimmy Carter’s funeral: Live updates

Since winning the 2024 election, Trump has repeatedly spoken about expanding the US, including plays at Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. Wednesday evening proved no different, when Trump reportedly met with Republican members of Congress behind-closed-doors to discuss plans to incorporate Canada into America, the Daily Mail reported.

Kelly Rissman has the story.

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear railed against the acrimony of national politics Wednesday night as he called for a common-sense approach to governing that meets the everyday needs of families worried about access to affordable health care and the availability of good-paying jobs.

Beshear, who has raised his national profile since winning reelection in 2023 in the GOP-dominated state, touted Kentucky’s record-setting pace of economic development since he took office. Those achievements were the result of “pushing out that national noise” and finding common ground, he said.

The governor’s most pointed comments were aimed at the tone of the national political discourse as he delivered his annual State of the Commonwealth speech to state lawmakers.

Senator John Fetterman will meet with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in the near future, CBS News reports.

“I think that one, he’s the president, or he will be officially,” the Pennsylvania lawmaker told CBS News in an interview. “And I think it’s pretty reasonable that if the president would like to have a conversation — or invite someone to have a conversation — to have it. And no one is my gatekeeper.”

Fetterman expects immigration and Greenland will be topics of discussion.

Donald Trump’s attorneys have filed another appellate court brief to block Jack Smith’s report into the then-president’s role in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case calling it “another attempted political hit job which sole purpose is to disrupt the Presidential transition and undermine President Trump’s exercise of executive power.”

While Trump is not listed as a defendant as Smith removed Trump from the case following his election win in November, his employees Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira still are, and the case is still active. The brief is filed to prevent information potentially damaging the president-elect from being made public.

“Attempting to publish the Final Report evidences complete disregard for the district court, which found that Smith is unconstitutionally appointed and funded. Instead of respecting that ruling, [Attorney General Merrick Garland] seeks to defy the district court by publishing the Final Report in a manner inconsistent with the rule of law and the principles of constitutional governance,” attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.

They call on the court to block the entire report, even the separate volume on election interference and January 6, which has nothing to do with this appeals court or the Florida district court, from which this entire saga developed.

“The Government ignores the fact the Volumes cross-reference each other; they are not siloed,” they wrote.

They also claimed that “there is no way” to stop members of Congress from leaking the report, if they are allowed to see the volume on the classified documents case, “especially to attack President Trump.”

Not for Mark Zuckerberg, mind you. If you’ve followed him as long as I have, you’ll know that when the boss of Facebook and Instagram takes off one mask, there’s invariably another waiting underneath.

But for the apps’ parent company Meta, Zuckerberg’s new Donald Trump-friendly reforms expose the emptiness of all the solemn pledges and apologies it made during its past eight years of claiming to care about misinformation and bigotry.

CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings sparked outrage on Wednesday night when he suggested diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies were linked to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

Justin Baragona has more.

A group of former prosecutors, elected officials and legal scholars represented by pro-democracy group State Democracy Defenders Action has filed a brief with the Supreme Court, largely echoing the Manhattan DA’s arguments, and adding this:

…to delay sentencing would subvert the rule of law by elevating a private citizen above the law, absolving him of sentencing for prior conduct because he subsequently won a presidential election. Applicant was convicted for conduct unrelated to the presidency in a trial that occurred when he was not President. He is scheduled to be sentenced before he serves as President again. There is no risk of interference with upcoming presidential duties and no threat to the functioning of the office of the President. The only reason for delaying sentencing is because of the continuing personal stigma associated with being sentenced following a conviction — which Applicant can challenge on appeal. Treating Applicant differently solely because he is about to be President violates the fundamental principle that no one is above the law.