Day: December 19, 2025
Cynthia Lummis To Not Seek Reelection
Republican Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis announced Friday afternoon she will not seek reelection in 2026. Lummis, who was first elected to the Senate in 2020, cited the “difficult, exhausting session weeks” in her retirement announcement. She is a close ally of President Donald Trump and a leading voice on energy and cryptocurrency issues. “It’s an […]
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum On The Accomplishments of 2025
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum on the Accomplishments at DOI in 2925:
The post Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum On The Accomplishments of 2025 appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
‘We’re still on the air, Tim’: Hockey announcer’s hot mic sexual remarks result in suspension
Philadelphia Flyers radio play-by-play announcer Tim Saunders may have some explaining to do to his superiors.
Saunders has been suspended for two games by the Flyers, and now the organization is apologizing for comments he made on Thursday night.
‘We take this matter very seriously.’
During a commercial break in the third period of the Flyers and Buffalo Sabres game, Saunders went to a commercial break before he was heard making some non-hockey-related remarks.
“Now, they’re going to take the TV time-out. We’ll take it as well. Seven [minutes] gone in the third [period]. It’s 3-2 Buffalo on the Philadelphia Flyers Broadcast Network,” Saunders said, thinking he would then be off the air.
After a few seconds, the announcer is heard humming a tune to himself before more dead air, as muffled audio of in-arena promotions are heard in the background.
It was nearly 20 seconds after the start of a would-be commercial break when Saunders said, “While you’re down there, would you mind blowing me?”
Following a few more seconds of silence, broadcast partner and former NHL player Todd Fedoruk inserted, “I think we’re still on the air, Tim.”
Saunders then seemingly has a good chuckle before stopping to seriously ask, “No, we’re not, are we?”
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As reported by Crossing Broad, Saunders took another long pause before laughing again and asking, “Are we? Do you have us? Mikey, talk to me.”
On Friday morning, the Flyers issued an official statement on their social media saying they were “aware of the inappropriate comment” made during the TV time-out.
“These remarks do not reflect the standards of conduct or values we expect from anyone associated with our organization,” the team wrote.
The Flyers then announced that, effective immediately, a two-game suspension had been issued while they “address this matter with all parties involved.”
“We take this matter very seriously, and sincerely apologize to our listeners, fans and all those affected by these comments,” the statement concluded.
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The majority of Flyers fans on X reacted negatively to the announcement, with one Philly sports fan calling it an “incredible overreaction.”
“A suspension??? World gone soft,” a fan named Ryan said.
Jeff added, “Give him a raise.”
The Flyers would go on to lose the game 5-3.
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VIDEO: Erika Kirk endorses JD Vance for president
Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk announced her endorsement of Vice President JD Vance for president in 2028 during her Thursday speech at the AmericaFest conference.
Vance will speak on Sunday at the conference organized by Turning Point USA, the organization founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012.
‘If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee.’
“We’re gonna ensure that President Trump has Congress for all four years,” she said. “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible!”
The thousands at the conference in Phoenix, Arizona, responded with resounding applause.
Vance has not said if he’s running for president yet, but he’s seen as a prominent front-runner for the nomination.
“My attitude is, the American people elected me to be vice president,” he said in October. “I’m going to work as hard as I can to make the president successful over the next three years and three months, and if we get to a point where something else is in the offer, let’s handle it then.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also considered a potential presidential candidate, said that he would support Vance if the vice president ran for the Oval Office.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio said to Vanity Fair.
RELATED: JD Vance responds to the possibility of Vance-Rubio presidential ticket
Vance has said Kirk’s organization was pivotal in the re-election of Trump in 2024.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024; he helped us staff the entire government,” he said.
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Jennifer Lawrence admits she can’t separate her politics from movies: ‘That’s how I’m digesting the world’
Actress Jennifer Lawrence says her creativity and politics are inherently intertwined.
Lawrence revealed her thoughts during a discussion with fellow Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
‘Maybe she didn’t know that I was on an Ambien.’
Brain trust
Lawrence, 35, and DiCaprio, 51, appeared on Variety’s “Actors on Actors” segment, with the duo discussing their pasts as child actors, upcoming films, and briefly, politics as it pertains to their art.
DiCaprio was discussing his 2025 political film, “One Battle After Another,” when Lawrence asked about bringing politics into the movie industry.
“I think that the creative part of my brain and the political part of my brain are intrinsically linked,” Lawrence prefaced. “Like, I keep finding, like, every time I come up with, like, a movie or, like, it’s more often than not political.”
“I think it’s ’cause that’s how I’m, like, digesting the world. Are you like that?” she asked DiCaprio.
“No,” DiCaprio plainly replied.
Lawrence attempted to move on to another question, but the “Titanic” star was eager to explain why.
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Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Stating that his latest film feels “very topical,” DiCaprio said it is “very difficult to say something about the world we live in” on film.
“It has to have an element of irony or comedy to it; otherwise people — they’re not allowed in. … And it feels like, ‘Oh, I’m watching these people’s vocation and, you know, do I relate to them?'” he explained.
DiCaprio tacked on, “There’s all those political films of the ’70s: ‘The Parallax View,’ ‘Three Days of the Condor,’ ‘All the President’s Men.’ And they were taken very seriously. But nowadays, it feels like there’s such polarity and such extremism that if you pick a side, you’re alienating.”
Pillow talk
Later in the interview, Lawrence had more strange anecdotes that seemed to paralyze the veteran actor. She soon brought up the fact that both she and DiCaprio are “obsessive about sleep” when filming a movie, before reciting some of her on-set drug follies.
DiCaprio seemingly played along, smiling and laughing at times, but clearly had nothing to add.
“I took an Adderall instead of a sleeping pill,” Lawrence said, as DiCaprio smirked. “And then I didn’t sleep all night, and I was taking hot showers, panicking, because I am not somebody who can function without sleep. … I also once took an Ambien in the morning, thinking it was something else,” she continued.
“Wow. Those are key screwups,” the leading man laughed in response.
“Elizabeth Banks got really annoyed with me,” Lawrence said about her Ambien usage on the set of “Hunger Games.”
She continued, “Maybe she didn’t know that I was on an Ambien.”
DiCaprio simply put his head down and laughed, without responding.
RELATED: Jennifer Lawrence claims no women were action movie stars before her
Sigourney who?
Lawrence has made interesting claims during sit-downs on the same program before, including in December 2022 when she claimed she was the first female lead of an action movie.
Also on Variety’s “Actors on Actors,” Lawrence told Viola Davis:
“I remember when I was doing ‘Hunger Games,’ nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work. We were told, girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead.”
Sigourney Weaver (“Alien”), Uma Thurman (“Kill Bill”), and Milla Jovovich (countless “Resident Evil” films) could not be reached for comment.
‘Disastrous program’: Trump administration pauses ‘diversity’ visa Brown University shooter used to enter United States
The United States has paused a visa program after shocking details emerged in the Brown University shooting investigation.
Late Thursday night, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the pause of the DV1 program, a visa lottery system that the Brown University shooter, identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, reportedly used to obtain a green card.
‘At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.’
“The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Secretary Noem said on X. “In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.”
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem added.
Valente, who is also believed to be responsible for the recent slaying of an MIT physics professor, was found dead inside a storage facility Thursday night.
The DV1 program, also known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, makes up to 55,000 visas available to immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The program is “random and blind to the number of family members who might immigrate with the selectee,” according to the State Department website.
The 2026 visa lottery drew from 20,822,624 applicants from over 170 counties all around the world, according to State Department statistics.
The top 10 countries, from highest volume to lowest are: Egypt, Russia, Algeria, Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, and Morocco. Other countries that broke 3,000 are Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey.
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The Oscars will leave TV — and may never come back
A seismic shift is coming for Hollywood’s biggest awards show.
Following a tough decade that has seen the program lose more than 40% of its audience, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has agreed to a multiyear deal that will take it off television airwaves.
In 2021, viewership sank to less than a third of the 2016 audience, with just 10.4 million viewers.
California streaming
Starting in 2029, the 101st Oscars will air in an online format as part of an exclusive deal with YouTube for the global rights to the broadcast. The deal, which runs through 2033, includes the rights to cover the red carpet, behind the scenes, and the Governors Ball.
As reported by Variety, the awards show will leave ABC — where it has been for decades — and will become available on YouTube around the world and to YouTube subscribers in the United States.
Will the show leave extended commercial breaks behind as well? Unlikely. Inside sources revealed to Variety that ads will be a part of the broadcast, and the intent behind the shift was actually to capitalize on YouTube’s captioning and audio translation features.
RELATED: Guillermo del Toro stops awards show music to drop ‘F**k AI’ bomb
Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Falling stars
While the awards telecast has gained some of its viewership back in the last few years, the numbers are still much smaller than they were when President Trump took office the first time.
In 2016, the Oscars saw approximately 34.4 million viewers. That number dropped steadily to 23.6 million by 2020, until a massive free fall in 2021. That year, viewership sank to less than a third of the 2016 audience, with just 10.4 million viewers.
Viewership has climbed back up since and showed decent growth through 2024, when it had 19.5 million viewers. However, the numbers largely stagnated for 2025 with 19.7 million, which is about 57% of what viewership was in 2016.
Still it seems the program will never again reach the peaks it had as recently as 2010, when it garnered over 41 million sets of eyeballs.
RELATED: Can conservatives reclaim pop culture?
Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images for YouTube
Global services
Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor released a joint statement calling the new deal a “multifaceted global partnership with YouTube” that will reach “the largest worldwide audience possible.”
They added, “This collaboration will leverage YouTube’s vast reach and infuse the Oscars and other Academy programming with innovative opportunities for engagement while honoring our legacy. We will be able to celebrate cinema, inspire new generations of filmmakers, and provide access to our film history on an unprecedented global scale.”
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan labeled the Oscars “one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry.”
