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Fox News top rated cable network in second quarter of 2022
Fox News was the most-watched cable news network during the second quarter of 2022, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Fox, which typically pulls an audience that dwarfs its competition, outpaced CNN and MSNBC combined in total day and primetime with total viewers, including within the 25-54 and 18-49 age demographic for the month of June.
Netting an average of 1.5 million viewers in total day, Fox earned 2.3 million viewers in primetime, on average. CNN averaged 670,000 total viewers in primetime, down 27 percent from second quarter of last year. MSNBC earned 1.1 million in total viewers, down 23 percent from the same period last year.
Fox’s The Five was the top-rated program across cable news during the second quarter of this year, earning 3.1 million viewers on average, with Tucker Carlson’s weeknight primetime program coming in second place with just over 3 million.
Special Report with Bret Baier, Fox’s straight newscast, earned only 2.3 million viewers on average.
Fox took heat from critics this week for not airing live continuous coverage of the first hearing of the select committee investigating the attack on U.S. Capitol on its main cable channel.
The network did air the proceeding on Fox Business Network that night and on its various streaming platforms and has aired each of the subsequent hearings, which have all taken place during the day, on Fox News Channel.
Source: TEST FEED1
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Former Trump aide defends Hutchinson: 'They’re scared of how damning this testimony is'
A former press aide in the Trump White House defended her former colleague Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony on Tuesday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, tweeted that “[a]nyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump [White House] worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is.”
Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified Tuesday that former President Trump tried to grab the steering wheel from a Secret Service agent when he was told he couldn’t go to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and that Trump knew people in attendance at the Ellipse rally that day had weapons.
Before joining the administration in June 2020, Matthews worked for Trump’s reelection campaign. She departed the White House alongside a handful of other aides immediately after the Capitol riot and she sat down with the House committee in February to discuss the White House’s activities on Jan. 6.
Matthews, who now serves as Republicans’ communications director for the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, weighed in Tuesday as Trump took to social media to go after Hutchinson’s testimony, with the former president dismissing her as “bad news” and claiming he hardly knew who she was.
The committee abruptly scheduled its latest hearing this week after previously saying it would continue its public hearings in July. Hutchinson previously testified before the committee in private.
Other Republicans, like Rep. Troy Nehls (Texas) and the House Judiciary GOP, have issued tweets downplaying Hutchinson’s testimony as hearsay.
“For those complaining of ‘hearsay,’ I imagine the Jan. 6 committee would welcome any of those involved to deny these allegations under oath,” Matthews wrote.
Source: TEST FEED1
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Trump offered Jan. 7 remarks amid fears of 25th amendment: Hutchinson
Former President Trump gave a recorded address on Jan. 7, 2021, in which he acknowledged he would leave office and condemned violence at the Capitol under pressure from a group of White House advisers, former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified Tuesday.
Hutchinson, who served as a top aide to former chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riots that Trump initially resisted giving a speech the day after the attack on the Capitol.
Ultimately, a group of White House aides convinced Trump it was necessary to say something both to condemn the violence and to quell talk of invoking the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office before the end of his term, Hutchinson said.
That group included Meadows; former White House senior advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the then-president’s daughter and son-in-law; former White House lawyers Pat Cipollone, Eric Herschmann and Pat Philbin; and former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
But, Hutchinson testified, Trump did not agree with certain parts of the speech that was drafted for him.
She said there were “several lines that didn’t make it in there about prosecuting the rioters or calling them violent.”
“He didn’t want that in there. He wanted to put in there that he wanted to potentially pardon them,” she said. “This is just with the increased emphasis of his mindset at the time which was he didn’t think they did anything wrong. The person who did something wrong that day was Mike Pence.”
In the address, Trump ultimately said a new administration would take office on Jan. 20, 2021, and he said those who broke the law on Jan. 6 would face consequences.
Source: TEST FEED1
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Mulvaney on Hutchinson: 'I know her. I don't think she's lying'
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney called virtual and in-person testimony from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Tuesday “explosive stuff” and said “I know her. I don’t think she is lying.”
“My guess is that before this is over, we will be hearing testimony from Ornato, Engle, and Meadows. This is explosive stuff,” Mulvaney tweeted, referring to former deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato; Robert Engel, the special agent in charge for Secret Service on Jan. 6; and former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
“If Cassidy is making this up, they will need to say that. If she isn’t they will have to corroborate. I know her. I don’t think she is lying.”
Hutchinson testified Tuesday before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and revealed explosive new information.
She said former President Trump fought so badly to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after making his speech that he lunged at a Secret Service agent. She also discussed how Meadows worried ahead of Jan. 6 that things could go “real bad” that day and said Trump was frustrated that security measures were keeping some of his supporters with weapons from joining the crowd.
In taped testimony, she had previously offered insight on warnings Meadows had received about the possibility for violence on the day of the riot and information on some of the lawmakers who wanted pardons from the former president.
Trump took to his Truth Social during the hearing, seeking to cast doubt on Hutchinson’s testimony.
“I hardly know who this person, Cassidy Hutchinson, is, other than I heard very negative things about her (a total phony and ‘leaker’),” he wrote in part.
Sarah Matthews, a former White House aide in the Trump administration, defended Hutchinson’s recounting of the events over Twitter.
“Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump WH worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is,” Matthews tweeted.
“For those complaining of ‘hearsay,’ I imagine the Jan. 6 committee would welcome any of those involved to deny these allegations under oath,” Matthews added in a follow-up tweet.
Source: TEST FEED1
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Gun legislation provision puts drug supply chain profits over patients
Buried on page 55 of the bipartisan gun bill Congress passed this week: A provision to further delay the implementation of a rule to lower prescription drug prices. It’s another demonstration of the lobbying power of drug supply middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and why it’s so hard to achieve real reform to lower medication costs. No wonder Americans hold Congress in such low regard.
The gun legislation delays the implementation of a Health and Human Services rebate rule finalized in 2020 until 2027. The rule requires PBMs to pass along their massive rebates received from drug manufacturers to Medicare patients in the form of lower costs at the prescription counter. Originally slated to take effect at the beginning of this year, Congress already delayed the rule until 2026 as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year.
The gun bill kicks the can further down the road at the behest of the PBM lobby that wants to continue profiteering off this rebate scheme. In 2019, PBMs made $28 billion in profits off the backs of patients.
Little known to the general public, PBMs are oligopolistic middlemen between pharmaceutical manufacturers and insurance companies. They control the prescription drug supply chain and drive up drug costs by demanding massive kickbacks (known as “rebates”) from drugmakers in return for access to insurers’ preferred list of covered drugs (known as formularies).
For instance, if a manufacturer sells a drug for $100, but the PBM requires a $75 rebate to access the insurer formulary, the drug’s list price rises to $175. These extra costs are then passed on to patients. In total, these rebates account for nearly 50 percent of list prices, artificially increasing drug prices by nearly $200 billion annually.
To understand why PBMs are the main reason for increasing drug prices, consider that net drug prices (sticker prices minus rebates) have actually fallen over the past several years. In other words, rebates account for the entire increase in medication costs.
The divergence between list prices and net prices absent rebates is especially apparent with insulin, whose increasing costs have attracted significant political attention. According to a recent JAMA study, insulin list prices rose by 40 percent since 2014, but net prices, absent rebates, fell by more than 30 percent.
Last year, a Senate Finance Committee report revealed that between 2013 and 2018, insulin rebates charged by one PBM increased from 2 percent to 56 percent of the list price. Drawing on this report, the nonprofit drug research organization 46Brooklyn finds that rebates made up 80 percent ($339) of the $429 list price of a standard box of insulin pens. No wonder insulin prices have become unaffordable for so many.
Despite the gun bill setback, patients have reason to hope that PBM reform is on the horizon. Last month, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced bipartisan legislation to prohibit some of PBMs’ most inflationary pricing practices and require them to disclose others to the Federal Trade Commission. And earlier this month, the FTC voted to move forward on a long-awaited study of PBM practices, potentially a precursor to Executive Branch action to reign them in.
In the meantime, patients can bypass this cartel and enjoy substantial prescription drug savings by visiting direct primary care physicians or independent pharmacies. Many direct primary care doctors save patients hundreds to thousands of dollars each year by sidestepping the inflationary PBM rebate system entirely by contracting with independent pharmacies that work directly with drug wholesalers. Until lawmakers put PBMs in their crosshairs, however, patients will unfortunately have to work at cross purposes with Congress on this vital issue.
Dr. Molly Rutherford is an independent physician practicing in Kentucky and a member of Job Creators Network.
Source: TEST FEED1
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Jill Biden calls Roe reversal 'so unjust – and so devastating'
First lady Jill Biden on Tuesday called the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade “unjust” and “so devastating” for the nation and millions of women who live in states that can now restrict abortion access.
“But my message is let’s not give up, let’s keep working,” Jill Biden said during an interview with CBS. “If that means getting out there, everyone has to get out there and work hard during the elections. We cannot go back.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling last week ended the constitutional right to abortion, clearing the way for around half of all states to ban or severely limit access to abortion.
The Biden administration has condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling and has vowed to protect access to contraception and abortion pills, which are federally approved.
In a speech on Friday, President Biden called the overturning of Roe a “tragic error.”
“It’s a sad day for the country in my view, but it doesn’t mean the fight’s over,” Biden said in a speech from the White House. “If any state or local official, high or low, tries to interfere with a woman exercising her basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply un-American attack.”
Still, some have called on the Biden administration to do more after Congress failed to codify Roe v. Wade into law over the spring.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is leading calls for Biden to sign executive orders that will allow women to get an abortion on federal lands and to provide vouchers to women who must travel out of state to get an abortion.
Vice President Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash on Monday that allowing women to get an abortion on federal lands is not part of the discussion right now, but the administration would ensure women have access to abortion pills and can freely travel out of state.
Source: TEST FEED1
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Six-week abortion ban goes into effect in Tennessee
A federal court on Tuesday lifted an injunction on Tennessee’s six-week abortion ban in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In its order, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated its 2020 injunction on a Tennessee state law banning abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, directly citing the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Mississippi case that led to Roe being overturned.
About a third of women are not aware they are pregnant before six weeks, while younger people, people of color and those living with food insecurity are less likely than others to learn they are pregnant before the six-week mark, according to a University of California San Francisco study published in November.
Tennessee was among the 13 states with trigger laws in place that would enact abortions bans immediately or soon after Roe was overturned.
The original injunction was issued after the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other abortions rights groups filed a lawsuit against the ban.
Since Roe was overturned last week, several of these organizations have been quick to file lawsuits to block abortion bans in multiple states, with some courts issuing injunctions in response.
Many of the lawsuits are seeking to block abortion bans by arguing abortions are still protected under state constitutions and laws regarding privacy and self-determination.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU did not indicate plans of attempting to block the abortion ban in Tennessee as they have in other states.
“The ban will disproportionately impact those who have always faced systemic barriers to care – including communities of color, young people, and people with limited incomes,” Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, said in a statement.
As noted by The Tennessean, the state is also expected to enforce a 2020 “fetal heartbeat” law. Under both abortion laws, physicians can face felony charges if they perform abortions.
Source: TEST FEED1
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R. Kelly fan charged with threatening prosecutors
New York authorities have arrested an R. Kelly fan and charged him with threatening three federal prosecutors who helped convict the disgraced R&B singer for sexually abusing young girls.
In court documents unsealed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, federal prosecutors said Christopher Gunn, of Bolingbrook, Ill., was upset that R. Kelly was convicted of sexually abusing underage girls last year and planned to “storm” the New York office of three female prosecutors who worked on the case.
Gunn was arrested after federal authorities obtained an arrest warrant on Saturday. Prosecutors presented evidence that Gunn made threatening messages on his YouTube account and purchased ammunition several times ahead of R. Kelly’s sentencing date.
R. Kelly, an R&B superstar throughout the ’90s and 2000s who was known for his remake of “Ignition” and the hit song “I Believe I Can Fly,” was convicted in September of racketeering, sexually abusing children and forced labor.
At his sentencing date on Wednesday, federal prosecutors are expected to ask for at least 25 years in prison for the singer because they said he ran a sex-trafficking ring that essentially amounted to a criminal enterprise.
According to court documents, Gunn was listed as an attendee of the September trial against R. Kelly. And in October, Gunn vowed “that if Kellz goes down, everybody’s going down” in a video posted to his YouTube account under the name of ““DeBoSki Gunn.”
“That’s where they at. That’s where they work at … We’re going to storm they office,” he said while showing images of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.
Ahead of the sentencing trial on Wednesday, Gunn posted more videos that suggested he would “free R. Kelly” and take action against the federal prosecutors working on the case, according to court documents.
Gunn also purchased ammunition via CashApp several times from February through June, at one time asking for “30 rounds on the haters,” federal prosecutors said.
Source: TEST FEED1
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G-7 nations endorse investing in natural gas amid Russia crisis
The Group of Seven (G-7) countries are endorsing investments in natural gas as many seek to reduce their dependence on Russian fuels.
In a communiqué issued on Tuesday, the group, which is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S., also backed increased deliveries of the fuel.
“In this context and with a view to accelerating the phase out of our dependency on Russian energy, we stress the important role increased deliveries of [liquified natural gas] can play, and acknowledge that investment in this sector is necessary in response to the current crisis,” their statement said.
It continued that in some cases, government investment in the gas sector can be “appropriate as a temporary response.”
The support for the fossil fuel comes as Russia has moved to cut off gas supplies to several countries when they have refused to pay for it in Russian rubles.
Russia has been a major supplier of European gas, providing 40 percent of the European Union’s gas consumption in 2021.
However, the endorsement miffed climate advocates, who argue that the countries should be moving more towards energy sources that don’t contribute to global warming.
“Public support for gas infrastructure is not the climate presidency Joe Biden promised. Climate activists will not sit idly by while our tax dollars lock in another generation of extraction,” said a statement from Kate DeAngelis, international finance program manager for Friends of the Earth U.S.
“The G7 countries are failing as true climate leaders by abandoning their Glasgow commitments and holding up LNG as an energy response,” DeAngelis said.
The G-7 memo also further floated putting a price cap that has been discussed on Russian oil, saying it may do so by banning services that help Russian oil travel by sea, unless the oil is purchased below a certain price.
“As for oil, we will consider a range of approaches, including options for a possible comprehensive prohibition of all services, which enable transportation of Russian seaborne crude oil and petroleum products globally, unless the oil is purchased at or below a price to be agreed in consultation with international partners,” the statement said.
Additionally, the countries said they hope to create an international “Climate Club” by the end of this year.
Source: TEST FEED1