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jili41 Jimmy Carter’s ascent to the White House was something few people could have predicted when he was governor of the US state of Georgia. It was no different for Jimmy Carter in the early 1970s. It took meeting several presidential candidates and then encouragement from an esteemed elder statesman before the young governor, who had never met a president himself, saw himself as something bigger. He announced his White House bid on December 12 1974, amid fallout from the Vietnam War and the resignation of Richard Nixon. Then he leveraged his unknown, and politically untainted, status to become the 39th president. That whirlwind path has been a model, explicit and otherwise, for would-be contenders ever since. “Jimmy Carter’s example absolutely created a 50-year window of people saying, ‘Why not me?’” said Steve Schale, who worked on President Barack Obama’s campaigns and is a long-time supporter of President Joe Biden. Mr Carter’s journey to high office began in Plains, Georgia where he received end-of-life care decades after serving as president. David Axelrod, who helped to engineer Mr Obama’s four-year ascent from state senator to the Oval Office, said Mr Carter’s model is about more than how his grassroots strategy turned the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary into his springboard. “There was a moral stain on the country, and this was a guy of deep faith,” Mr Axelrod said. “He seemed like a fresh start, and I think he understood that he could offer something different that might be able to meet the moment.” Donna Brazile, who managed Democrat Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, got her start on Mr Carter’s two national campaigns. “In 1976, it was just Jimmy Carter’s time,” she said. Of course, the seeds of his presidential run sprouted even before Mr Nixon won a second term and certainly before his resignation in August 1974. In Mr Carter’s telling, he did not run for governor in 1966, he lost, or in 1970 thinking about Washington. Even when he announced his presidential bid, neither he nor those closest to him were completely confident. “President of what?” his mother, Lillian, replied when he told her his plans. But soon after he became governor in 1971, Mr Carter’s team envisioned him as a national player. They were encouraged in part by the May 31 Time magazine cover depicting Mr Carter alongside the headline “Dixie Whistles a Different Tune”. Inside, a flattering profile framed Mr Carter as a model “New South” governor. In October 1971, Carter ally Dr Peter Bourne, an Atlanta physician who would become US drug tsar, sent his politician friend an unsolicited memo outlining how he could be elected president. On October 17, a wider circle of advisers sat with Mr Carter at the Governor’s Mansion to discuss it. Mr Carter, then 47, wore blue jeans and a T-shirt, according to biographer Jonathan Alter. The team, including Mr Carter’s wife Rosalynn, who died aged 96 in November 2023, began considering the idea seriously. “We never used the word ‘president’,” Mr Carter recalled upon his 90th birthday, “but just referred to national office”. Mr Carter invited high-profile Democrats and Washington players who were running or considering running in 1972, to one-on-one meetings at the mansion. He jumped at the chance to lead the Democratic National Committee’s national campaign that year. The position allowed him to travel the country helping candidates up and down the ballot. Along the way, he was among the Southern governors who angled to be George McGovern’s running mate. Mr Alter said Mr Carter was never seriously considered. Still, Mr Carter got to know, among others, former vice president Hubert Humphrey and senators Henry Jackson of Washington, Eugene McCarthy of Maine and Mr McGovern of South Dakota, the eventual nominee who lost a landslide to Mr Nixon. Mr Carter later explained he had previously defined the nation’s highest office by its occupants immortalised by monuments. “For the first time,” Mr Carter told The New York Times, “I started comparing my own experiences and knowledge of government with the candidates, not against ‘the presidency’ and not against Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. It made it a whole lot easier”. Adviser Hamilton Jordan crafted a detailed campaign plan calling for matching Mr Carter’s outsider, good-government credentials to voters’ general disillusionment, even before Watergate. But the team still spoke and wrote in code, as if the “higher office” were not obvious. It was reported during his campaign that Mr Carter told family members around Christmas 1972 that he would run in 1976. Mr Carter later wrote in a memoir that a visit from former secretary of state Dean Rusk in early 1973 affirmed his leanings. During another private confab in Atlanta, Mr Rusk told Mr Carter plainly: “Governor, I think you should run for president in 1976.” That, Mr Carter wrote, “removed our remaining doubts.” Mr Schale said the process is not always so involved. “These are intensely competitive people already,” he said of governors, senators and others in high office. “If you’re wired in that capacity, it’s hard to step away from it.” “Jimmy Carter showed us that you can go from a no-name to president in the span of 18 or 24 months,” said Jared Leopold, a top aide in Washington governor Jay Inslee’s unsuccessful bid for Democrats’ 2020 nomination. “For people deciding whether to get in, it’s a real inspiration,” Mr Leopold continued, “and that’s a real success of American democracy”.

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Daily Post Nigeria Alleged Coup Plot: I begged Abacha not to execute Obasanjo in 1995 – Gowon Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport News Alleged Coup Plot: I begged Abacha not to execute Obasanjo in 1995 – Gowon Published on November 30, 2024 By Matthew Atungwu Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon has revealed how he pleaded with late Gen. Sani Abacha not to execute former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the alleged coup plot in 1995. Gowon made this disclosure at the first edition of the Interdenominational Unity Christmas Carol and Praise Festival organised by the Plateau Government. DAILY POST recalls that Obasanjo was arrested in 1995 by Gen. Sani Abacha and convicted of being part of a planned coup to overthrow his government. Obasanjo spent three years in prison before he was released in 1998 after the death of Gen. Abacha on June 8 of that year. “I wrote a letter to Abacha, I pleaded with him that God made him a leader to do good and not evil. “I sent my wife with the letter in the middle of the night to Abacha in Abuja; I pleaded with him that such a thing should not happen. “I’m glad that soon after that, things changed, and not only that Obasanjo left prison, he became our president in 1999. “This is something that only prayers and sincerity can do; I’m happy that today myself and Obasanjo are here to celebrate the unity of Plateau,” he said. Related Topics: abacha Alleged coup plot gowon Don't Miss Okocha emerges parallel APC chairman in Rivers You may like Gowon calls for prayers to end wanton destruction of lives in Nigeria Abacha wouldn’t have taken over if I was Sonekan’s ADC – Bello Fadile Gowon gives reason for splitting Nigeria into 12 states Why l refused to align with any political party, join partisan politics – Gowon Tinubu worse than Abacha, targeted minors to prevent future protests – Adeyanju Gowon is Nigeria’s Winston Churchill – Obasanjo Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media Ltd

The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A president from Plains A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. And then, the world Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” ‘An epic American life’ Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts A small-town start James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. 'Jimmy Who?' His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Accomplishments, and ‘malaise’ Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. 'A wonderful life' At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.

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In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 election , the vast majority of Colorado voters felt like they had more in common with their neighbors than not, according to a recent poll from the Colorado Polling Institute. The poll of 822 Colorado voters from Oct. 25 to Nov. 4 was conducted via calls and online. The margin of error of the survey is plus or minus 3.42%. “Coloradans may not agree on everything, but large majorities agree the state has a bright future and a common set of values that guide us,” said Kevin Ingham, principal of Aspect Strategic, according to a news release about the poll. About 77% of those interviewed said they believe that “Coloradans have more in common than what divides us,” compared to only 23% who disagree with that sentiment, according to the results. The poll found that half of all respondents believed the state is headed in the “right direction.” That’s a slightly higher share compared to the last time the question was asked in March. People who have lived in the state for over 20 years felt the least optimistic about the future of the state, with nearly half of that group saying they feel the state is “off on the wrong track.” Donald Trump voters in Colorado also felt significantly less positive about the future of the state compared to Kamala Harris voters. Responses also showed those who were polled have three top priorities for state lawmakers in the next state legislative session. Health care costs were the highest ranked issue with 48% of respondents saying it was their top priority. Illegal immigration was ranked second highest with 47% saying it was their highest concern. Affordable housing was the third highest with 46% marking it as their primary issue. More than nine in 10 respondents said the laws passed by the state legislature impact their lives either directly or indirectly. Gov. Jared Polis was ranked as very popular in the poll with 54% of respondents saying they have a favorable view of the governor. About 55% of voters said they feel the Democratic Party is out of touch with them, compared to 66% who said the same about the Republican Party. Three out of four Republican voters in the state said they are more of a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump than the traditional Republican Party. The poll honed in on voters unaffiliated with any political party, a group that is growing in the state. About a third of those unaffiliated voters said they feel both parties are out of touch with them. Seventy percent of the unaffiliated voters said it isn’t easy for them to find unbiased information about what is happening in politics.Cidara: Potential To Change Flu Prophylaxis Landscape With CD388

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Rafael Nadal is entering a new stage in his life. Last week, the revered tennis player announced his retirement after a loss in the Davis Cup, letting the world know that he would no longer be playing tennis on a professional basis. This week, he was spotted in the Spanish Costa del Sol alongside his family. enjoying the end of his tennis season. An emotional Rafael Nadal withdraws from Laver Cup; 'I won't be able to compete' Rafael Nadal jokes that parenting has made him a worse tennis player; 'I have not won almost any match' Paparazzi captured Nadal in Marbella, where he was spotted grabbing some lunch with his family. He wore a white t-shirt and camo pants, holding on to a chore coat in his hands. He was accompanied by his parents, Ana María Parera and Sebastián Nadal , and also by his wife, Mery Perelló, and his sister, Maribel. The group was spotted leaving the restaurant Los Marinos Jose, located near the coast, in the Fungirola region. Nadal's emotional retirement Nadal's retirement was announced at the Davis Cup, prompting an emotional response from athletes from all over the world. "I just want to be remembered as a good person and a kid who followed their dreams, and achieved more than what I ever dreamed," he said, following his loss and addressing the crowd. Cup organizers compiled various videos sent in from various athletes, including Spanish soccer players like Iker Casillas, Raul Blanco, Andres Iniesta, who shared their love for Nadal and their pride over having an athlete like himself representing their country. In the case of tennis, various stars shared their love for Nadal as well. Serena Williams , Novak Djokovic , Roger Federer, and more shared their feelings in the video, praising Nadal's personality and character on top of his skills on the tennis court. Federer, Nadal's long-term rival and friend, shared a moving letter on social media, exploring his admiration and love for him. "You made me reimagine my game—even going so far as to change the size of my racquet head, hoping for any edge," he wrote.What do Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance have in common? They both called Donald Trump a Nazi before groveling at his feet for their own political advancement. According to audio obtained by CNN’s KFile of Kennedy during his time as a host of the radio show “Ring of Fire,” in 2016 Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services compared Trump to authoritarians like Adolf Hitler, and lauded critiques calling his supporters “belligerent idiots” and comparing them to “outright Nazis.” In one 2016 episode, during which he interviewed journalist Matt Taibbi, Kennedy heaped praise on his guest for his description of Trump’s base. “One of the things that you write so beautifully, and your stuff is so fun to read, but you write about Trump, ‘The way that you build a truly vicious nationalist movement is to wed a relatively small core of belligerent idiots to a much larger group of opportunists and spineless fellow travelers whose primary function is to turn a blind eye to things,’” Kennedy said, quoting Taibbi’s writing. “‘We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up.’” After quoting the passage, Kennedy told Taibbi that the similarities between Trump and Hitler only extended so far. “Hitler had like a plan, you know, Hitler was interested in policy,” Kennedy said. “I don’t think Trump has any of that. He’s like non compos mentis . He’ll get in there and who knows what will happen.” In other episodes Kennedy — a former climate and energy lawyer — heavily criticized Trump’s environmental policies, describing them as “pollution-based prosperity.” “Trump isn’t just gonna destroy the climate, but he’s also promised last week when he spoke to the oil industry, the shale gas industry, he promised that he would get rid of the Clean Water Act,” Kennedy said. “So he’s just gonna open the floodgates to every kind of pollution.” Editor’s picks The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time He’s not the only member of Trump’s administration who’s compared the incoming president to a Nazi. In 2016, future VP Vance suggested that Trump might be “America’s Hitler,” in text messages with a former roommate. “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” he wrote. In an op-ed written that same year, Vance wrote that Trump was “unfit for our nation’s highest office.” Both men were able to bow and scrape their way into Trump’s good graces. In a statement to CNN, Kennedy said: “Like many Americans, I allowed myself to believe the mainstream media’s distorted, dystopian portrait of President Trump. I no longer hold this belief and now regret having made those statements.” Kennedy abandoned his bid for the presidency in August, endorsing Trump in virtually the same breath. Before his exit, the candidate reportedly begged both of his opponents for a job in their future administrations. Trump accepted. Kennedy is a known vaccine conspiracy theorist, pusher of medical misinformation, and the subject of sexual assault allegations . He is nevertheless inline to take control of the NIH, CDC, and FDA — and is only one of a cadre of scandal-plagued administration picks made recently by the president-elect.. Trending Stories Trump Says Republicans 'MUST KILL' Bipartisan Bill to Protect Press Freedom Pete Hegseth Police Report Shares Disturbing Details of Sexual Assault Claim 2024 CMA Awards: The Complete Winners List Republicans Were Ready to Torch Elon Musk for Blowing the Election. Then Trump Won Related Content Putin Rattles Nuclear Saber With Unprecedented Strike on Ukraine Donald Trump and Eddy Grant Settle Lawsuit Over 'Electric Avenue' Campaign Video Trump Is Stocking His Administration With the People Behind Project 2025 Anti-Abortion Group Hopes to Convince RFK Jr. Abortion Pills Are Poisoning Our Water On Thursday, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) withdrew his nomination as Trump’s Attorney General amid the fallout of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into allegations that in 2017 he had sex with an underage girl at a “sex party” hosted by a now-convicted sex trafficker. After meeting with senators on Thursday, Gaetz wrote in a social media post that “while the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” and that he would be “withdrawing [his] name from consideration to serve as Attorney General.” Gaetz was not the only Trump nominees facing dubious confirmation odds. On Thursday, Vance met with Republican senators to discuss the nomination of Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has been embroiled in allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman during a 2017 trip to Monterey, California. On Thursday, Mediaite obtained previously unpublished details from the police report made to law enforcement regarding the alleged assault. No charges were filed, but earlier this week CNN reported that Hegseth — who denies the accusation — had paid out a settlement to the woman in order to prevent news of the allegation from making its way to his employers at Fox.

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