42 posts from Thursday, December 25, 2025

California Congressman Kevin Kiley he is sounding the alarm in his home state saying under Governor Gavin Newsom's leadership it has become the quote "fraud capital of America." And we have team coverage our national correspondent Alana Austin is on Capitol Hill with more on the investigations into Tim Walz but we start with correspondent Heather Myers who has more on what is going on in California a rainy day out there on the west coast. Heather what can you tell us? Well good afternoon to you Katrina and Andrew this latest report was issued by the state auditor and that's a nonpartisan position that state auditor now puts eight state agencies on the high-risk list of agencies to watch out for for things like fraud and mismanagement as well as waste here's a look at that 92 page report newly added to the high-risk list is California's food stamp program if the state doesn't get the improper payments under control it could cost an extra two and a half billion dollars also on there is the Department of Finance which was tasked with giving out COVID relief funds critics say 32 billion dollars of that was taken by fraudsters then there are infrastructure issues like California's deteriorating dams and also the high speed train that's already cost taxpayers 18 billion without a single section of track complete other reports site 24 billion dollars spent on the homeless issue that critics claim the state lost track of more recently there's a report that says California cell phone users paid a surcharge for years to upgrade the state's 911 system here's Congressman Kevin Kiley talking about what happened to that plan that after spending 650 million dollars on that system the state is totally scrapping it and starting over completely wasted the money because the technology doesn't work mind you we are very close to Silicon Valley in Sacramento and yet the government can't figure out how to make basic technology perform

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There's so many people in the executive branch that support President Trump, but you have these secondary and tertiary level people that are trying to put up every kind of speed stick to try to weight out President Trump's term. And that's a real problem. And that's why I believe that our top tier leaders need to clean out everybody underneath them and start over again.

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She ended up giving us four of these notes they read received November 4th enter as November 2nd These three ladies were entering these ballots in to the verified voter system She also got my attention Turned around her to get me to see her Laptop monitor which I leaned in and saw and she wanted me to see the signature the signature on the Screen was of some huge circles like that the signature signature on the ballot was little tiny vertical sticks It wasn't even the same in the same solar system definitely different signatures and This one lady that was trying to help us ended up being Jesse Jacobs the whistleblower Under the tabulators I witnessed multiple times stacks of 50 ballots being put through the tabulators multiple times if they'd have been cleared we would have no way of knowing because the Supervisors for the tabulators made sure that the metal box as they put the finished ballots in Were so far behind the tabulators and made us stand behind those boxes We were at least 12 feet from them and wouldn't allow us to get any closer to them About signing in and signing out they had a sign in Not out and said that we had plenty of us in there Wednesday night There were ten of us in the room. I mean us as Republican poll challengers. Sorry Yet when I left There were still people in the lobby that were being barred from coming in Still only ten Republican poll challengers in the room. I Witnessed the military ballots being duplicated. I Just thought it was strange that only Biden's name was selected no down ballot and I watched multiples. I don't know how many I watched and not one of them was for Trump I thought that was really strange, especially being military I'm you must know in your heart that this election was fraudulent there's no question of it if you really are sensible and

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We last 11 months have been the most successful 11 months in the history of the American presidency. Think about what President Trump inherited and what we have today. We just got a blockbuster 4.3 percent economic growth report for Q3 for the third quarter today. Smashing expectations, fueled by rising consumer demand, and here's the key word, American exports. Our whole lives. All we've had are imports. Imports from Asia, imports from Mexico, imports from Canada. Now we're an exporting powerhouse. Energy prices are down. Gas prices have been cut by almost 50 percent. We're an energy superpower. We're a manufacturing superpower. And also, very importantly, we are a technology superpower. After years of watching other countries invent the new technologies, beat us in 5G, under President Trump, we have a revolution in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and we're bringing the semiconductor industry back to the United States. A technology superpower, a manufacturing superpower, and most importantly of all, a military superpower. You saw the announcement today about the Golden Dome, the Golden Fleet, the next generation of battleships for the announcement yesterday, sorry, about how the president is making the American military the dominant, overwhelming, lethal force of the 21st century. The border is slammed shut, crime is plummeting, illegals are going home, and America's for Americans again. You could not ask for a better Christmas list than that, Charlie.

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report was issued by the state auditor and that's a non-partisan position. That state auditor now puts eight state agencies on the high-risk list of agencies to watch out for, for things like fraud and mismanagement as well as waste. Here's a look at that 92-page report. Newly added to the high-risk list is California's food stamp program. If the state doesn't get the improper payments under control, it could cost an extra two and a half billion dollars. Also on there is the Department of Finance which was tasked with giving out COVID relief funds. Critics say 32 billion dollars of that was taken by fraudsters. Then there are infrastructure issues like California's deteriorating dams and also the high-speed train that's already cost taxpayers 18 billion without a single section of track complete. Other reports cite 24 billion dollars spent on the homeless issue that critics claim the state lost track of. More recently there's a report that says California cell phone users paid a surcharge for years to upgrade the state's 911 system. Here's Congressman Kevin Kiley talking about what happened to that plan. After spending 650 million dollars on that system, the state is totally scrapping it and starting over completely wasted the money because the technology doesn't work. Mind you we are very close to Silicon Valley in Sacramento and yet the government can't figure out how to make basic technology perform.

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>> We are looking right now at the GDP number at 4.3% is the actual number versus an estimate of 3.3%, Mark Tepper, your reaction. >> So last week we talked about inflation coming in lower than expected. Now economic growth is one full percentage point faster than expected. It was supposed to come in at 3.3, came in at 4.3. This is a direct result of everything President Trump has put in place. Net exports are on the rise because of Trump's tariff policy, which is leveling the trade playing field, AI's increasing productivity, businesses are investing and spending, and the consumer remains strong and just think next, I think, well, next quarter, they'll end up getting an extra $150 billion in refund checks that they can then deploy and spend as well. So great number. >> Great number, 4.3%. And I've got to say, when I see a GDP of 4.3%, I have to believe 5% is not far away and that of course is what Louis Navalier told us last week, Mark, that we're gonna see a 5% GDP handle in the first half of the year. >> He looks like Nostradamus right now. I mean, he almost predicted that on the head. Obviously 5% is well within our reach, especially given the consumer tailwinds I just mentioned.

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So just think, the whole world out there in the third quarter, the United Kingdom grew 0.1, the European Union grew 0.4, and Japan fell 0.6 percent—fell 0.6 percent. Donald Trump's economy grew the United States of America. The biggest economy in the world, 4.3 percent. What that means is that Americans, overall, all of us, are going to earn 4.3 percent more money. We're making a raise. It's a simple way to do it. We've got more jobs, lower energy costs, and lower interest rates coming. This is the Golden Age coming, forthcoming. This is the Golden Age coming, 4.3 percent. This quarter means Americans, on average, are making more money, more money in their pocketbooks. That makes for a great Christmas.

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because they don't want to offend that population. And the early numbers that I'm getting in on the Somalis in Minnesota is 75 percent of the Somalis in Minnesota are on full government assistance. That's full welfare. The whole reason that the Democrats left the border open during the Biden administration was to allow people to come in and what they said would provide jobs, you know, because there's a shortage of workers and I agree there's workers. But you've got a massive population in that one state and the overwhelming majority of that population is on Medicaid and then and other types of government programs. Even when Democrats say there are no illegals on Medicaid, I think that's that that's going to be proven to be false in Minnesota. Right, right. Chairman.

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>> Meanwhile, President Trump is directing the Justice Department to investigate Act Blue. This is a Democratic donation platform. And the focus as the allegations about a illegal straw donors and foreign contributions. Right, Meredith is live in Washington with more. This has been brewing for a while, Mark. What do we need to know? >> Dana, for years, you're right about this, but this is a big development. The White House is directing the Attorney General to investigate the Democratic Party's top fundraising platform. It's called Act Blue. The president says he wants to know if foreign money is being donated to the group and then utilize to sway elections. Democrats are calling this probe a dangerous abuse of power. Act Blue is an enormous operation in Democratic politics. It's raised more than $16 billion since 2004. You may have seen the text pop up from candidates saying, "Please donate. Go to the Act Blue website." Republicans use something similar called WinRed. There was a new memo signed on Thursday directing the Attorney General to investigate if foreign nationals are using the Act Blue platform to bypass campaign finance laws. Trump wants a report out in six months.

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Here in Minnesota, a local realtor reached out to me to tell me about another way that Somalians are scamming Minnesotans out of their taxpayer dollars. In her community alone, Somalians have bought up over 455 homes. They buy these homes claiming they're turning these homes into home health care centers. She says the way we know Somalians have bought these homes is because all of a sudden extremely nice cars start showing up. Mercedes, BMWs and nicest cars are parked in the driveway. And she said, by law, the state will not come out and inspect these homes and make sure these homes even have clients living in these homes. She also said, as a realtor, she cannot disclose to people wanting to buy homes in this neighborhood that Somalians have bought that home and they're using that as a home health care center. She said these homes can even take people in who've just been released from jail. And the neighborhood does not need to know about this. And she says many of these homes do not even have clients in them. But the state is writing them checks every month for the clients that the Somalians say are in these homes and these Somalians are making millions of dollars off of these homes every year. The Somalians have figured out exactly the perfect plan as to how to scam Minnesota taxpayers out of their money. They are banking on this, making millions of dollars. When the government here in Minnesota is too lazy to go and check it out and to see if there's even clients living in these homes, the fraud in Minnesota is so deep. Let me know your thoughts on this one.

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$3 billion gone just to leave California. That is what it cost Phillips 66 to abandon a century-old refinery, dumping more cash into exit fees and toxic cleanup than building anything new. Two days after Governor Newsom signed a sweeping new law, the company chose a staggering loss rather than endure the regulatory grip. Why would a profitable giant take this hit? And what does Newsom refuse to admit? The collapse began with one signature. What happened in those 48 hours changed everything. Spread across 650 acres in the heart of Southern California, the Phillips 66 Los Angeles refinery was more than just an industrial complex. It was the backbone of the region's fuel supply for over a century. The Carson site covered 235 acres, while Wilmington added another 424, and both were linked by a five-mile pipeline that pulsed with gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. At its peak, the facility processed 139,000 barrels per day, accounting for nearly one out of every 12 gallons refined in California. Generations of workers kept the refinery running around the clock. Six hundred employees and 300 contractors maintained the operation, and many spent their entire careers within these gates. Since the early 1920s, the refinery fueled the rise of Los Angeles, powering everything from delivery trucks to the city's endless lines of cars. The site's vast tanks, towers, and pipelines formed a skyline of their own, a constant presence near the port of Los Angeles. This scale and complexity made it one of the most important refineries on the west coast, quietly shaping the daily lives of millions. For decades, the refinery's output fed not just local demand, but also supplied fuel to neighboring states, linking California's economy to the broader southwest. The sheer physical and economic weight of this operation set the stakes for what was lost when Phillips 66 decided to walk away. On October 14, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed ABX21 into law, giving the California Energy Commission sweeping control over refinery operations. The bill required every refinery in the state to maintain a minimum supply of fuel onsite at all times, with the threat of million-dollar penalties for falling short. For Phillips 66, compliance meant building hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new storage tanks and tying up even more capital in inventory, costs that would hit instantly, not over years. Two days later, Phillips 66 released a terse statement. The Los Angeles refinery would close by the end of 2025. The official line blamed market dynamics and long-term uncertainty, but the timing left little doubt about the real trigger. No other state demanded such costly inventory mandates, and no other refinery in Phillips 66's national portfolio faced a bill like the one just signed in Sacramento. The abruptness of the decision caught workers and local officials off guard. Only 48 hours separated Newsom's signature from the closure announcement, a window too narrow for coincidence. A BX21 minimum storage rule was not just another line in a thick rulebook. It was a financial shockwave that made continued operation nearly impossible. The law's text was dry and bureaucratic. But for the people running California's oldest refinery, it landed like a final notice. The aftermath would demand a closer look at the real cost of staying and the math behind $3 billion to escape.

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Why are Michigan's voter rolls so bloated? Going into the 2024 election, Michigan had 500,000 more registered voters than we have voting age adults. Michigan is a slow or no-growth state of 10 million people. So how did Jocelyn Benson find 750,000 new voters just between July and October? Shout out to Anna Hoffman for that report, by the way. Well, she's done it before. This might be a case of history repeating. You remember Eric, the Electronic Registration Information Center, officially states join Eric to compare their voter rolls and eliminate duplicates. In reality, Eric finds eligible but unregistered adults in each state, and member states are required to reach out to them. We've sent Jocelyn Benson foyers for the eligible but unregistered reports that Eric sent to Michigan. Despite calling herself the transparency candidate, Benson has denied them. In September 2020, using Eric data, Benson sent postcards to 700,000 eligible but unregistered adults in Michigan. That was almost 10% of their vote tally in a high turnout election. In four months of 2025, Benson has added almost 10% of new people to our already fat voter rolls. Michigan is shrinking, but Jocelyn Benson's voter rolls keep growing. Maybe she should have led the population study. The purpose of a system is what it does. If doesn't trim voter rolls, it helps inflate them. Until the ecosystem for voter fraud is killed off, the potential for stuffed ballot boxes will hang over the Michigan governor's race like a dark cloud.

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>> I estimated that somewhere between 80 and 90% were going to Joe Biden. Throughout the day, it kept making me sicker and sicker every time I saw another Biden, Biden, Biden, and then I'm going through batches, 100% of the batches were Biden. I find that statistically impossible.

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$2.3 billion sent to L.A. County over four years is completely unaccounted for. That's $2.3 billion that could have been used to clean up this. Or find housing for people who live like this. Or to fix this part of Venice Beach, where people own million-dollar homes but are too afraid to walk their dogs because of this. There have already been two indictments linked to his probe, but U.S. Attorney Bill Isaley says there are a lot more to come. I spoke with him earlier. Bill, how long has this kind of fraud been going on? I mean, the homeless issue in Southern California is a massive issue. Taxpayers have forked over tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to fix it. And people are stealing it? It's unbelievable. And, you know, it's probably been going on for a very long time. But unfortunately, no one's really looked at it until recently. Before this position, I was in the state legislature, and we would ask a lot of questions about the billions of dollars being spent every year to solve homelessness. And we can all see with our eyes and ears that it wasn't being solved. And the money wasn't going to the people who needed it most. So one of the first things I did after being appointed as the U.S. attorney here in L.A. was to create the Homeless Fraud and Corruption Task Force. And frankly, we were starting from the bottom up, and we began brand-new investigations with the IRS and the FBI. And it's already culminated in two separate indictments. And I can assure you that more will come. In the two indictments you've announced thus far, in one case, somebody was taking this money that was meant to build homes for the homeless and spending it on things like tickets to Coachella concert, jewelry and a Beverly Hills mansion. It's frankly outrageous, and this goes to show, when you hand out billions of dollars with little to no oversight, there are people out there that will take advantage, and that's always been our suspicion, is that there's been very little oversight or accountability to the individuals who receive this money. Most of the money goes out to nonprofits or developers who claim they're going to use the money to build housing. And what we saw in just these two investigations, that's not where the money went, and it was used to pay one individual's American Express bill. So how much—I mean, we're talking a massive amount of money that's been set aside to help the homeless. What percent do you think might be stolen? We don't have that number yet. What I can tell you is just in these two cases represent over a $50 million loss. And that's, again, scratching the service surface. We have many more investigations open that I cannot get into, but we are going to follow the money. We're going to follow every dollar. And we want to make sure the money went to its intended objective, which is to assist the homeless. And if any of it was diverted for personal use or other use that wasn't authorized, we intend to criminally prosecute those individuals. And like I said, we have multiple, multiple ongoing investigations. We have the IRS conducting the financial review. We have the FBI going out and conducting interviews. We're issuing subpoenas. We're doing search warrants. There is a lot happening that the public cannot see right now. How did this go unnoticed for so long? Well, to be frank, this is a problem we saw in the Legislature. When you have a state like California that frankly enjoys a supermajority controlled by one political party, there's very little checks and balances in the system to hold that accountability. And when they're passing the budgets and they're dispensing billions of dollars, you know, it does sound good and it feels good to spend $24 billion in the case of California to solve homelessness. And it was almost like that was the end of the story for the legislators and the governor. And a lot of the money was dispensed to nonprofits that have very strong political ties. And there's really, again, never been any oversight. But now you have the federal government, you know, the election was won by the opposite party and you have an election that has consequences and now you have prosecutors in the federal government that are independent and are going to take an objective look. And I frankly do not care who is involved, what position they serve or how high up they are. We will aggressively pursue and prosecute anyone that violates federal law regarding the misuse of homelessness funds. Thank you for watching. Subscribe below and download our News Nation app right now on your phone and you will get fact based unbiased news for all Americans.

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I am, I've not seen the tapes myself, but we do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule. Since 2020, again, we have new leadership and a new building and a new board and new standard operating procedures. And since then, the training has been enhanced. The pool watchers are trained specifically. They've got to sign the tapes in the morning, and they've got to sign the tapes when they're run at the end of the day. When the tapes come back to the hub for, you know, with all the documentation, they are checked again. And if somebody forgot to sign a tape, then Fulton initiates an investigation. But we don't have a, we don't dispute the allegation.

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yet that whether we are black or brown or white we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms and we all salute the same great American flag. And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator. So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words, you will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

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Hey, listen up, this week's CPI isn't just good, it's very good. Trump's economic strategy is working, and the so-called experts missed it again. Prices rose just two tenths of one percent over the past two months. Core inflation even lower. At this pace, inflation is running at 1.2% annualized, well below the Fed's target. And here's the kicker. All 61 economists surveyed by Bloomberg got it dead wrong. Grocery prices are down, gas prices are down, airfares and toy prices are down. So much for the tariff scare stories, wages are finally beating inflation again. Especially for blue-collar workers after years of Biden-era damage. With inflation near 1.2%, the Federal Reserve is now way behind the curve on cutting rates. The data are clear. Trump's agenda is working.

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