Tuesday, December 24

Comcast to spin off cable networks and Susan Smith up for parole: Morning Rundown

The release of the House Ethics Committee’s findings on Matt Gaetz is being considered. It is anticipated that Comcast will announce a cable network spinoff. Additionally, Susan Smith, who gained notoriety for the murder of her boys thirty years ago, is eligible for parole.

What to know today is as follows.


House Ethics Committee weighs whether to release report about its Matt Gaetz investigation

This afternoon, the House Ethics Committee will convene to decide whether to release a report on its investigation of former Representative Matt Gaetz, the man President-elect Donald Trump selected to lead the Justice Department.

For the past three years, the bipartisan committee has been looking into allegations that Gaetz, who represented Florida, used illegal drugs and engaged in sexual misconduct. It has also looked into claims that he accepted inappropriate gifts, gave special favors to people with whom he had personal relationships, and obstructed the investigation. Gaetz has refuted every accusation.

The committee can choose from a number of choices. It could decide whether or not to make the report available to the public. It might send it on to the Senate. Or it might decide to do nothing.

A number of Senate Democrats and Republicans have stated that they would like to see the House report prior to Gaetz’s confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee. The committee’s senior Democrat, Rep. Susan Wild, stated that the report should be submitted to the Senate at the very least and made publicly available.

According to a lawyer for two women who spoke before the committee behind closed doors earlier this year, accusing Gaetz of repeatedly paying them for sex, his clients are unwilling to appear in public. Rather than having to repeat the same accusations, the ladies hope the committee will make the probe public, according to lawyer Joel Leppard.

According to a source, a hacker obtained a file that contained the two women’s sworn depositions. Whether any of the compromised data had been released to the public was not immediately apparent.

Meanwhile, Trump ally House Speaker Mike Johnson opposes the report’s release. Johnson contends that the Ethics Committee can only hear cases involving active members of Congress. Following his appointment as Trump’s choice for attorney general, Gaetz resigned from his position last week.

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However, the Ethics Committee has previously released reports following the resignation of a member of Congress.Go here to read the entire story.

Trump is sticking to his decision in the face of criticism and discussion.On Gaetz’s behalf, he has personally called Republican senators to solicit their support. Additionally, a number of Republican senators said that Gaetz himself had called them to discuss the nomination. According to a Trump transition team official, they are aware that Gaetz is by far the most difficult Cabinet confirmation they will have to battle for.


More politics news:

  • Trump named


    Linda McMahon

    as his pick to lead the Education Department. McMahon, a former World Wrestling Entertainment executive, would oversee a department that Trump has said he plans to get rid of as it currently exists.

  • Trump said he will nominate


    Mehmet Oz

    , a former Pennsylvania Senate candidate and TV personality, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

  • Trump announced billionaire financial services executive


    Howard Lutnick

    to lead the Commerce Department. Lutnick has led and been the public face of Trump s transition.

  • Trump is creating a political problem for himself with his Cabinet selections, NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd writes. He s appointing folks he says share his vision so no excuses of being jammed by the ol establishment wing of the GOP.


    Read the full analysis here.

  • New York prosecutors told a judge that sentencing in Trump s hush money trial, which was scheduled for next week,


    should be postponed

    .

  • Trump has


    started receiving intelligence briefings

    after having declined them during his campaign.

  • Three maps of major blue wall cities shows


    how weak voter turnout contributed

    to Vice President Kamala Harris election loss.

  • Despite her loss, Harris


    has a final chance to defy Trump

    .

  • Senate Democrats who won their 2024 races in states where Trump won said their victories weren t rocket science.


    Here s what worked for them.


Comcast to announce spinoff of cable networks

Comcast is expected to announce a plan today to spin off its cable networks into a separate company, two people familiar with the matter said. The split would include some of NBCUniversal s best-known brands, including MSNBC, E!, Syfy, Golf Channel, USA, CNBC and Oxygen. NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, is owned by Comcast.

President Mike Cavanaugh said on a quarterly earnings call last month, when the company alluded to a possible spinoff, that broadcast network NBC and streaming service Peacock would remain with Comcast. Bravo is also expected to remain part of Comcast, CNBC reported.Here s what else we know.


U.S. closes Kyiv embassy over significant attack threat

The United States said this morning that its embassy in Kyiv had closed after receiving specific information of a potential significant air attack.

The Ukrainian capitalcame under attackby Russian drones early this morning, part of an intensified wave of strikes targeting energy infrastructure that has killed more than a dozen people. The renewed threat to Kyiv follows news that Ukraine carried out its first strike on Russian territory with U.S.-supplied long-range weapons yesterday.

The Kremlin has reacted furiously to the relaxation of U.S. restrictions on its ally, and yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin formally revised his country s nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for his country s use of nuclear weapons.


Susan Smith up for parole 30 years after killing her sons

A parole board will consider today whether Susan Smith is fit to re-enter society 30 years after the South Carolina woman shocked the nation by admitting to killing her two sons. Smith s case drew national media attention in 1994, when she claimed she was carjacked by a Black man and that the man drove away with her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex. The boys disappearance sparked a nine-day manhunt, only for Smith to confess to killing her sons by letting her car roll into a nearby lake with the boys inside, watching as they drowned.

Smith, now 53, has argued in her own defense while in prison. In 2015, she wrote that she was not myself on the night of the killings. But several people, including Smith s now ex-husband and father of her sons, are expected to ask that she stay behind bars. The parole boardwill also likely consider the multiple disciplinary actionsagainst Smith in her three decades in prison, which have involved sexual encounters with prison guards and drug use.

Read All About It


  • A powerful atmospheric river event

    in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest could bring up to 15 inches of rain and heavy snow, as well as near-hurricane-force winds, forecasters warn.

  • Rafael Nadal


    played the final match

    of his legendary pro tennis career, losing in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup.

  • A child in California


    tested positive for bird flu

    despite having no known contact with an infected animal, public health officials said.

  • Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno


    is recovering from a major fall

    . He arrived at his latest comedy show with an eye patch broken wrist and bruised face.

Staff Pick:

Another blow for Mississippi s embattled capital

I think Jacksonians, like most of the country, were still taking in the results of the 2024 presidential election, when the news broke Nov. 6. that the city s charismatic mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, was facing federal bribery charges.

Mississippi s capital has taken some hits over the years, including a drinking water crisis and high homicide rate. I m not sure the latest blow, the indictments of Lumumba and two other elected officials, has fully settled.

Residents and community leaders I spoke withthink the fallout won t be limitedto what happens in a federal courtroom. And they worry the case could open the door for state lawmakers to grab more control over the city s affairs infringing on the right of a major Black city to self govern.Bracey Harris,enterprise reporter

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

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