NEWSPEAK: New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia came to the podium for the first time yesterday spewing scripted propaganda about President Trump’s midterm campaigning and the greatness of his administration while burying the lead that Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle had been asked to resign.

  Eleven minutes into her briefing in which to that point she announced nothing new, Zacharia answered a question about Guilfoyle and said, “We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign.” The embarrassment for Trump was that the Wall Street Journal had reported that when she was about to be vetted for her position, Guilfoyle asked a wealthy donor to pay down her $100,000 American Express bill.

    The announcement came later that Guilfoyle, who had been Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée for four years, had resigned. Guilfoyle had been treated as a family member until she and junior broke up. But Trump said yesterday, “She, I guess, dated my son but that was a long time ago.”

  Zacharia did not appear entirely comfortable or even prepared to be in front of the press. She took only three questions from reporters in about 14 minutes, all from Trump-friendly outlets. The White House press reported that Trump’s staff was not happy with her first outing.

PARTYING POLITICS: The Wall Street Journal dug up a 2024 video of Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton celebrating New Year’s Eve on a high-rise balcony in Dubai with his mistress and two men indicted in the US and dodging arrest.

  Nevertheless, Paxton and his high profile backers including Vice President JD Vance have been smearing the character of Democrat James Talarico. Vance suggested that Talarico is gay or some kind of sex pervert.

   The Journal reports that President Trump had been warned that damaging revelations were likely to be dug up about Paxton, but the President endorsed him anyway in lieu of incumbent John Cornyn.

   The two fugitives with Paxton that night in Dubai were Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail, who had been indicted on charges of embezzling $15 million from a Chicago hospital. Ahmed was later charged in a scheme involving at least $195 million in what the indictment says were payments from the government for fraudulent Covid-19 tests. Both men donated campaign money to Paxton.

  Paxton has previously been impeached as the Texas attorney general and accused of securities fraud, dodging the bullet every time. His wife divorced him because of his infidelity.

  A Paxton senior adviser responded to the Journal story saying, “Like President Trump, Ken Paxton has been politically persecuted for years, and every time, voters have seen through it and sent him back to office because they know he has always fought for Texas.” 

PAPAL SURGERY: Doctors found cancer yesterday during surgery on Pope Leo and removed the lower lobe of his right lung. The cancer was diagnosed as adenocarcinoma, a fairly common lung cancer that can develop in non-smokers.

  The removal represents about 15 percent of the Pope’s lung capacity. His doctors made no announcement about possible further treatment.

ENEMY OF THE STATE: The Homeland Security investigation into Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar centers on claims that she or her late father may have lied on decades-old immigration paperwork to secure legal status and eventually US citizenship, the Washington Post reports according to its sources.

  DHS agents raided Omar’s Washington home on Monday, taking away boxes marked as evidence. The paperwork would have been from when Omar was a teenager and DHS under the previous administration declined to take any action.

TEACHABLE MOMENTS: Still investigating and following up on the claim of a gang rape at one of its fraternities in 2024, Cornell University has banned all fraternity parties for the rest of the academic year and says it will add sexual assault investigators to work with its police force. 

  CNN reports that students at Cornell found responsible for sexual assault in recent years were punished with extra study programs and written reprimands.  

  Between mid-2020 and mid-2024, Cornell reviewed 51 formal sexual assault complaints, found students responsible in 16 cases, and expelled just two students, CNN reports.

INFINITE SCROLL:

— A federal judge ruled late yesterday that until the case goes to trial President Trump cannot ban news organizations from covering him at the White House because he doesn’t like what they report. Judge Timothy Kelly found that Trump’s barring of more than 70 journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico violated their right to free speech as well as their rights to due process. 

— Desperate to keep control of the House and Senate, Donald Trump is running a campaign of fear. He denounced Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim, saying, “You look at the guy running in Michigan, he’s a jihadist. He’s a jihadist. And you know what bothers me. Even the mainstream, but the media gives him so much publicity.”

— An inspection revealed that the new bottom coating at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool failed in 85 places, not as the result of vandalism as President Trump claimed.

THE SPIN RACK: Former LA gangster Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, was sentenced yesterday to 40 years to life in prison for the 1996 Las Vegas murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. — The owner of the iconic Mel’s Drive-In diner in Santa Monica has filed for permission to knock it down and build an eight-story apartment building. Preservationists are pushing for an historic designation to protect it. Mel’s was built in the mid 20^th Century “Googie” style influenced by automobile culture, the Atomic Age, and the dawn of space exploration.

BELOW THE FOLD: As Britain celebrates the 100^th anniversary of AA Milne’s children’s book “Winnie the Pooh,” England wants its bear back. The original stuffed bear, Winnie, went on tour to America and never came back.

  Winnie is in a glass case in the New York Public Library. Also in residence are Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and Kanga, all of whom have overstayed their visas. 

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