NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (Dec. 7)

This is NTD Evening News. Live from our NTD Global Headquarters in New York City, here is Tiffany Meyer. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. New details emerge in the investigation into the deadly shooting at the University of Nevada. Police say three people were killed and a fourth person is in critical condition. Plus, more information about the shooter. A law enforcement official told the Associated Press the shooter was a professor who was rejected for a job at the school. The source said the shooter previously worked at East Carolina University in North Carolina. Another law enforcement official said the suspect is 67-year-old Anthony Pulido. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information publicly. Police didn't immediately identify the victims or the motive behind the attack. Investigators searched an apartment in nearby Henderson, Nevada last night. They retrieved several electronic devices. Former President Trump back in court today for the New York civil fraud trial. He's not testifying, but he's there to listen to a witness who testified for him. He reviewed fully the documents that this horrendous security general put forth. And he found absolutely no fraud, accounting fraud of any kind. This is a highly respected man. I don't know him, but he's an expert witness. And he found no fraud whatsoever. He found no accounting fraud whatsoever. And like everyone else, he said, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? This is a political witch hunt. Eli Barthoff is an accounting professor at New York University. He testified today as the Trump team's second-to-last witness. His testimony aimed to boost Trump's argument that his family business didn't manipulate the values of its holdings. Before going into the courtroom, Trump again criticized New York Attorney General Letitia James as biased against him. The former president added that his company did nothing wrong and that there were no victims in the case. Trump has appeared as a witness once already. He is expected to testify as the final witness on Monday. As the border crisis persists, Republicans insist that addressing the rising threat to the homeland is just as important as sending aid to Ukraine, if not more so. They're lighting a fire under border security negotiations. President Biden expressed openness to compromise, but how far is he willing to go? NTD's Melinda Weisskopf reports from Capitol Hill. Well, it looks like we've finally gotten President Biden's attention. Republicans making their point on Wednesday, tanking a supplemental package with aid to Israel and Ukraine, insisting that Democrats compromise on border security in order to get funding for Ukraine that's now running dry. This is something that they're going to pretend like they're voting for Ukraine when they're voting for the border. President Biden, like Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, is pinning blame on Republicans for not yet finding a common ground solution, while the president still leaves the door open to compromising further. From judges to more border security. This is the leverage we need to get something serious done to protect our southwest border. Bipartisan negotiations in the Senate appear to be struggling to survive, with Senate Leader Schumer saying Republicans are simply asking for too much without being willing to compromise on changes to immigration policy. But we do know of at least one area of common ground, and that is asylum reform. Border security is a tough issue, and we need to determine in a rapid fashion whether or not those who seek asylum under our law are in fact eligible for asylum. Negotiators could try to settle for a smaller package with one or two areas of common ground solutions, considering the urgency of funding Israel and Ukraine's defense. But as for now, it looks like Republicans are still trying to push the limits to see what kind of border policy changes they can get with the Democrats sitting in the White House. And in the end, the question remains, how much will Democrats be willing to accept here? And will Republicans accept anything less than a return to a Trump-era policy known as Remain in Mexico? Reporting from Capitol Hill, Melina Wisecup, NTD News. As border talks in D.C. continue, the U.S. reportedly set a new record for most single-day crossings at the southern border. American cities are paying the price from the influx. NTD's Erin Postar has a border update. How many Americans would love to have the border secured like President Trump was able to do it? GOP senators on Thursday speaking on the ongoing border crisis. This as the U.S. hit a new record for single-day crossings on Tuesday. Fox News reports that CBP encountered 12,000 people at the southern border in one day. This includes 10,200 border patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants. This number doesn't include any so-called getaways who are not being registered. Overall, CBP encounters have been increasing steadily over the last few years. Back in fiscal year 2021, we saw approximately 1.7 million encounters. In 2022, the number rose to over 2.3 million. Now in 2023, we saw almost 2.5 million encounters. The influx is causing difficulties across the country. On Thursday, New York Representative Nicole Malliotakis told NTD how illegal immigration is affecting the Big Apple. The unsustainable crisis in New York with migrants is going to bankrupt the city. And we're cutting services, police officers, 15% cut across the board, hiring freeze. I mean, this is really dangerous what's happening. It's destructive to this country. Now this comes amid record low approval ratings for New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A new Quinnipiac College poll found that only 28% of New Yorkers approve of the job Adams is doing. This is the lowest approval rating for any New York City Mayor ever. This comes shortly after Adams decided to redirect financial funds in order to keep up with the influx of immigrants. Ariane Pastar, NTD News. GOP legislators move one step closer toward impeaching President Biden. The inquiry is expected to soon be authorized by the full House of Representatives. House Republicans filed the resolution today and the vote will take place next week. The resolution also allows the House Judiciary Committee to issue articles of impeachment. President Biden, his son Hunter, other family members and business associates are being accused of receiving payments from foreign entities like Russia and the Chinese Communist regime. The probe so far traces payments through various shell companies. What will come out of the impeachment inquiry? Joining us now to discuss, we have Kash Patel, Senior Trump Advisor on National Security and Defense. Kash Patel, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Hey, great to be with you. Look forward to the conversation. Now, House Republicans have filed a resolution to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. How does this impact the process that was started under Kevin McCarthy? Well, basically it was an informal process before, which was committees of jurisdiction investigating constitutional oversight of FBI and DOJ into matters like Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, etc. And when you formalize an impeachment inquiry, you put together staffing and you put together a budget for it. And you are saying to the members in Congress, the American public, we're going to bring it to the floor for a vote. And before all that happens, they need to formalize the evidence and start marshalling the resources together to say, hey, we got bank documents. It says Hunter Biden paid by CCP, paid Joe Biden. We got to see the evidence. That's what's really good about this formalization. On that note, this is still an inquiry. No articles of impeachment have been introduced, not yet. Anyway, subpoenas have gone out, though, to your point about evidence. What type of evidence does the House need to get to that stage? It's like any other just pretend you're watching, you know, Matlock or whatever, you know, Perry Mason. They need evidence to use in court. The court is the court of public opinion for the world and Congress, which will sit and oversee this hearing. This impeachment hearing should get there and its documents, its witness testimony, its audio tapes, its videotapes. It's anything else that would be evidence in any other case. Now, I've always said money, following the money and bank documents is some of the best evidence you can have, especially if you're alleging fraud or pay for play or bribery. And I think they have that. They need to cull through that and get the best versions of that evidence out to the American public. And then they actually need to enforce the subpoenas, as you said, that have been lingering and violated by FBI, by DOJ, by Biden, by the White House counsel's office, et cetera, for failure to produce documents. This two-tier system of justice cannot exist in the administrative state in Congress if we're supposed to get answers. You can't just give them the Heisman. But to date, Republicans haven't enforced a single subpoena. Now, the White House has shot back at this whole thing, saying voting for the impeachment inquiry would demonstrate that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is, quote, truly calling the shots. How do you read that statement? Well, it's political theater at its best. Who cares what the White House is saying when it comes to the political nature of this? My focus is on the evidence. First, Joe Biden says he never talked to his son, Hunter Biden, about any business dealings. Then he's got 17 different email aliases with 54 different emails saying exactly that, not just talking to Hunter Biden, but talking to Eric Sherwin, who's the guy who set up all of the business entities for Hunter and Joe Biden and others. So the president has been caught flat out lying. Of course, they're not going to address those issues. They're not going to address the money that President Biden said Hunter Biden received no money from CCP affiliates, and now we've proven a seven-figure amount. There's another lie from the president. So those are impeachable offenses, even on themselves. But I think it's more important not necessarily to focus on a conviction that won't happen in the Senate, but focus on enforcing these subpoenas and getting the documents to the American public. That's what we deserve as voters to adjudicate that decision on. Looking at history, three presidents have been impeached, Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and, of course, Trump. None were convicted. How is the American public likely to view this latest process? Well, it's going to split the way it normally does. A lot of people will see it as political theater. But I think the one difference here is, unlike with President Trump, where they impeached him for solely political purposes, here they are impeaching Joe Biden for an allegation of a very serious crime that they have substantiated. Bribery, fraud, bank fraud, using foreign governments' leverage to enrich your family as a government official, a former government official, those are serious acts. Now, I don't think, again, it'll lead to a conviction in the Senate. But what it will do finally is get the evidence out. Because as we saw with the Trump impeachment, when you don't have evidence, everything just gets politicized. The fake news and mainstream media carry your headlines, and then you have a political attack. What I want is the evidence that everyone in Congress has been talking about, and I need them to enforce the subpoenas so that the American public can make the decision and not have Congress and government dictated to us. Kash Patel, thank you so much for your time. Thanks. Have a great day. It's now been two months since the war began between Israel and Hamas terrorists. Thousands of people have been killed, and many more have been displaced. And it now appears that Hamas is launching attacks alongside those displaced people. NTD's Jason Perry reports. Israel Defense Forces on Thursday released a video showing Hamas terrorists operating within a residential neighborhood in the Gaza Strip, and one of the terrorists fired an anti-tank missile. The IDF then directed a precision aerial strike at the terrorists. Meanwhile, Hamas released its own video just the day before, showing terrorists making their way through destroyed buildings before focusing on what appear to be Israeli tanks in several locations. The video highlights the tanks in red before the terrorists fired on them. Hamas, which is known for using civilians as human shields in residential areas and hospitals, has now taken things a step further, as said by the Israeli government spokesperson. Hamas has shifted to launching attacks on the Israeli people from within the designated humanitarian zone. Hamas terrorists launched 12 missiles towards the Israeli city of Beersheba from inside the Al Mawassi humanitarian zone, launching those missiles from near the tents of evacuated Gazan civilians and from right next to United Nations facilities, as you can see in the aerial images that the army has supplied. The IDF then struck the launch site. But looking beyond the safe zones and battle zones, the Gazan people were already relying heavily on humanitarian aid to survive, even before the war, according to the United Nations. Yes, there is aid that comes in, but it isn't enough at all. It isn't enough for the families. On Wednesday, the UN said that although humanitarian aid trucks have been entering Gaza from Egypt, the UN staff has had difficulty distributing the aid since the ceasefire ended last week. Israel, on the other hand, said this. Today, we can expect up to 250 trucks every day in Nizana. And as I said, the problem is not Nizana. The problem is the capability of the UN agencies to collect all the international assistance that, after we are checking it, goes to Rafah. This is the main problem. Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, high school students decorated menorahs on the first eve of Hanukkah for the 138 hostages still held captive by Hamas. It feels not very good this year because this year there are a lot of anti-Semitism and people want to kill us, so we need to fight back. It's now been two months since Hamas terrorists crossed into Israeli territory and killed over 1,200 innocent people. That terrorist act started the war between Israel and Hamas. Jason Perry, NTD News. While some celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, some families remain separated as their loved ones are still being held by Hamas. The White House tells NTD that it's not getting any easier to find them in Gaza. Our White House correspondent Iris Tao has more. Nursing marks a painful milestone for some families as it's been exactly two months since their loved ones were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th. The White House today vowing to get the remaining hostages out from what it calls under the jackboot of Hamas terrorists while also telling NTD that search efforts remain difficult. Has it become more difficult or less difficult after the temporary ceasefire? It's always been difficult. We don't believe Hamas holds all of them. We don't believe they're all being held in one group and it's entirely likely that they're being moved around. The U.S. on Thursday once again started to fly drones over Gaza to search for hostages and the White House told me that would give them a valuable extra pair of eyes. And as the war in both Israel and Ukraine drag on, the White House said today that in 2024, it aims to continue strengthening our alliance with NATO as well as focus on Indo-Pacific region. Just today, Jake Sullivan's in Seoul meeting trilaterally with Japan and South Korea. And as the White House sends its top national security advisor to South Korea, the State Department has recently raised concerns over China's economic coercion against South Korea, specifically in an incident in which the Chinese embassy in Seoul was using its economic leverage to pressure theaters in Korea to block an American performing arts company called Shen Yun. The White House told me today that China's economic coercion will likely come up in this week's talks. During upcoming talks with counterparts there, is China's economic coercion part of the discussion and how concerned is the administration about that? I don't know of too many conversations that we've had with our Korean and Japanese counterparts where in some form or fashion, China's economic bullying practices don't come up. So it wouldn't surprise me. And John Kirby told me that in meetings, we focused on boosting U.S. cooperation with both Japan and South Korea, especially in security and defense. Back to you. The House has voted to censure Democratic Representative Jamal Bowman for pulling a false fire alarm in a Capitol Hill office building. The vote was mostly along party lines with three Democrats voting with Republicans, while four Democrats and one Republican voted present. Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and received a fine and probation. Republicans argued that the censure holds him accountable for breaking the law, while Democrats said the legal process has already served its purpose. Bowman was caught on tape pulling a fire alarm in September at the Cannon House office building. He did it as the House was scheduled to vote on a government funding bill. He said it was an accident. A censure is an official public reprimand carrying no further consequences. Welcome back. Are Americans' email communications protected? That may depend on who you write to. The House Intelligence Committee today unanimously approved legislation that permits agencies to spy on foreign email communications, but they may include communications with Americans. NTD's legal correspondent Arlene Richards unpacks the issues. A controversial surveillance program will likely continue for the next five years. After a brief discussion on Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee unanimously voted to approve a bill that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. What is FISA? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, established safeguards on intelligence operations regarding the collection of foreign intelligence. The act was created in 1978 to minimize government surveillance abuses that resulted in rampant privacy violations. But after the 9-11 attacks in 2001, concern grew over foreign persons using U.S. technologies for radical purposes. Section 702 was eventually enacted in 2008 to permit federal agencies to use spy tools to gather information about non-U.S. citizens living abroad. It's set to expire on December 31st unless Congress reauthorizes it for the third time. Every five years, congressional committees can make changes to the statute through the reauthorization. The law then makes its way to the president for signature. Thursday, some members raised concerns about the FBI's abuse of the tools. The problems are primarily within the FBI, where the bureau for many years demonstrated an unacceptable record on compliance with the standards for querying U.S. persons, a record that is well documented in audits performed by the DOJ, as well as declassified opinions from the FISC. So how does a 702 query work? The executive branch works with tech companies to get e-mails from court-approved e-mail addresses. The information is stored in a computer bank. Intelligence agencies can access the data using specific identifier information on targeted persons who should only be non-U.S. citizens living abroad. But the FBI has been using it for U.S. law enforcement. The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday advanced a bill that would require all U.S. intelligence agencies to obtain a court warrant before targeting Americans. Two days ago, Wray warned a Senate panel that placing restrictions on the FBI's use would interfere with their ability to ensure national security. Arlene Richards, NTD News. The Biden administration wants to seize the patents on certain drugs to lower drug prices while declaring that health care should be a right, not a privilege. What are the big-picture long-term consequences? NTD's Emma Hsieh investigates. The Biden administration wants to seize the patents on certain drugs. This action would promote the federal government's ability to license a patent, such as those used to create lifesaving drugs, to a competitor with the goal of increasing competition and bring costs down for families. Drugmakers spend many years and billions of dollars to create a new drug. Once they finally succeed, the patent gives them the exclusive right to sell it so they can hopefully make a profit after all the work. The Biden administration says that if some of these drugs are too expensive, it will seize the patents and give them to other companies. Multiple companies selling the same drug means there will be price competition. This will lower prices for patients who buy those drugs. This is a disaster. It's wrong-headed. It is just, it's a populist policy that is going to be, the consequences are going to be much worse than what they envision. Economist Wayne Weingarten says this will harm a company's ability to profit after all its hard work. So companies may no longer want to create any new drugs, preventing patients from receiving future medicines. Weingarten does admit that some people will benefit. It's kind of like saying, are there pros to stealing? Well, I guess, yes, the person who stole the product, they now have it. There's no doubt that patients are struggling with high drug costs. I mean, we can't ignore that. The question is, what's the solution? And stealing people's property is never the solution. Around 30% of Americans report it's difficult for them to afford the drugs they need. Weingarten blames the complicated American health care system, which he says needs to gradually change. He also admits that some drug makers have abused the patent system, but he doesn't think seizing patents is the answer. Emma Shi, NTD News. A historic strike hitting a legacy media outlet. Hundreds of staffers of The Washington Post today launching a 24-hour walkout from the newsroom. This as pressure mounts over a stalled agreement between the company and union members. NTD's Sam Wong brings us more. We're here in downtown Washington, D.C., and right now, right behind me here, we're witnessing one of the biggest labor strikes in the city. And several hundred staffers from The Washington Post today decided to walk off their job and join the picket line. And just bear in mind that the newsroom has lost over $100 million this year. And to fill that gap, the company's leadership decided to lay off 240 jobs. And I spoke to some of the protesters here, and they told me that they have been negotiating with the company in good faith, but the management has refused to take the bargain. Watch. So if you want a real newsroom that is really concerned about this community and hear everyone's voices and deliver stories that are important to you, we deserve fair pay. They're paid less than the cost of living in D.C., and we think that's unacceptable. The unfair labor practice has to do with sometimes dragging out, walking away from the negotiating table without sufficiently good reason. We have demonstrated that our labor brings value to readers, to audiences, and we want that to be rewarded. The one-day strike follows 18 months of stalled contract negotiations in which the union is demanding pay equity, salary hikes, and better remote work policies. Employees and union leaders have asked readers to not engage with any Post content throughout the day. Back in October, the Post announced voluntary buyouts, hoping to trim a quarter of its staffs in D.C. The company also said that layoffs would be on the table if enough people didn't take the incentive. This isn't the first walkout at a legacy media outlet this year. Tech workers at The New York Times staged a half-day strike back in October, saying that the company was forcing them to work in the office. Like many other legacy outlets, the Post has been grappling with a slowdown in advertising and subscriptions since hitting its peak during the Trump administration. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Sam Wong, NTV News. Welcome back. If you're just joining us now, here are some of today's top headlines. Three people were killed in the shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and one person was critically injured. An anonymous law enforcement source said the shooter was a professor who had been rejected for a job at the school. Israel Defense Forces reported that Hamas terrorists have been launching attacks from inside humanitarian zones in the Gaza Strip. It's been exactly two months since the Hamas attack on Israel that started the war. Former President Trump appeared at a New York courthouse to listen to a defense witness in the civil fraud trial. The witness, who is an accounting professor, said the Trump organization committed no fraud. Senate Republicans said they are using the Ukraine funding package as a leverage to address the border crisis. President Biden blamed Republicans for not finding a common ground solution and also expressed openness to compromise. Republican presidential candidates hoping to take on former President Trump battled it out in the fourth primary debate last night. News Nation hosted the event at Tuscaloosa's University of Alabama. The four GOP hopefuls told voters why they should be considered a viable alternative to the dominant frontrunner. Former President Trump skipped the event and used his own means to reach voters. He attended a fundraiser in Florida for his Super PAC instead. NTD's Jeremy Sandberg has takeaways from the GOP debate. GOP candidates vying for second place in the polls tried to chip away at the no-show frontrunner's lead in their appeals to voters Wednesday night. The fact of the matter is, he is unfit to be president. Rivals weren't taking any chances with former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on a recent hot streak. Candidates up here like Nikki Haley, she caves any time the left comes after. Nikki Haley, who thinks the government should identify every one of those with an ID, that is not freedom, that is fascism, and she should come nowhere near the levers of power, let alone the White House. I love all the attention, fellas. Thank you for that. DeSantis dug in on Chinese regime connections, accusing Haley of being the top-ranked among governors when it came to bringing the Chinese Communist Party into his state. Her donors, these Wall Street liberal donors, they make money in China. They are not going to let her be tough on China, and she will cave to the donors. She will not stand up for you. Because those Wall Street donors used to support him, and now they support me. Issues ranging from border security, immigration, foreign affairs, COVID vaccines, and election integrity were also hit on throughout the night. Not shy of personal attacks. Nikki, I don't have a woman problem. You have a corruption problem, and I think that that's what people need to know. Haley said as UN ambassador, she was hands-on when it comes to China and Taiwan. She said the way to keep the Chinese regime away from them is to let them know there will be hell to pay by winning the war in Ukraine. Chris, your version of foreign policy experience was closing a bridge from New Jersey to New York. So do everybody a favor. Just walk yourself off that stage, enjoy a nice meal, and get the hell out of this place. The vague Ramaswamy-led speaking time once again in the news nation hosted debate, defending former President Trump in his absence. All three of them have been licking Donald Trump's boots for years, for money and endorsements. Contender Chris Christie, claiming to be the only one brave enough to chastise Trump. This is an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president because he wants to exact retribution. The fifth guy, who doesn't have the guts to show up and stand here. The battle over electability will continue with Trump currently leading most opinion polls by more than 40 percentage points. Ramaswamy is calling for the fifth debate to be held on X. Jeremy Sandberg, NTD News. So who stood out during the GOP primary debate last night and who had the worst performance? Joining us now to offer his reactions, we have Bart McCoy, former presidential campaign policy advisor and former deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the energy department. Bart McCoy, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you back on the show. Thanks, Tiffany. It's always a pleasure. In your view, who stood out? Who won the fourth GOP presidential debate? Well, you know, I thought that DeSantis had the best night he's had since he launched his campaign. I thought his standout moment was brilliant. It was sincere. It was from the heart. It wasn't a practiced or a rehearsed line. He stood up and he said, what are you even talking about, giving parents the right to mutilate their children and abuse their children? This is not legal. It should not be legal. You're drawing the line at a ridiculous place. That's not a line in the sand. You're drawing a line, you know, halfway through the end zone. I thought that was brilliant. And I thought that it restored the faith of a lot of people who thought they saw something strong in DeSantis and it reminded them what they liked about him when he first launched his campaign. And now on the flip side, who had the worst night? Gee, that'd be a tie between Vivek and Chris Christie. Vivek won everybody's loyalty at the beginning of his campaign by speaking truth. He comes out and he says things that are true that other people are not willing to say. And he looks at basic principles, first principles, and emphasizes them. But then he gets nasty in a petty, childish kind of way. And it reminds everybody that he's probably too young to be entrusted with quite this much power. And Chris Christie, you know, I've met him in person several times. He's a lovely man. And he has tremendous charisma in person. And you sit in a big dinner with him and he has the whole crowd eating out of his hand. And you think, wow, this guy is really going places. He's presidential. But I've seen nothing of that in the debates or in speeches or in any kind of public campaign work. I'm not sure why he's still on the stage. I think this is probably his last debate. Speaking of Christie, he brought up the fact that Trump wasn't present. He was like, it's been 17 minutes and we've all had these three on stage acting as if the race is between the four of us. Was everyone last night just running for second place? Sure. And that's typical of an insurgency, whether it's a revolutionary insurgency overseas somewhere in an unstable country or whether it's a political party. First, you have to go after all of the people that are kind of close to your position before you can take on the real opposition. And what they're all running for is to be the one alternative to Donald Trump. They all know Donald Trump is the odds-on favorite to be the nominee. And they all know that if they can knock out the other three, they hope that the other three people's supporters will come to them and not say, you know what, I'll go ahead and vote for Donald Trump after all. I think they're all wrong, but that's what they're hoping. And they have to do that in their position. They have to hope that. On that note, who were the candidates appealing to last night? Which voters were they trying to get? Well, Haley has clearly marked out the lane of the Republican establishment, the military-industrial complex, the moneyed interests, the Chamber of Commerce kinds of people, the Kevin McCarthy people, the John Boehner people. She's saying, look, I am conservative, but I'm not crazy like all these guys are. DeSantis is saying, I'm just common sense. I want what Trump wants, but I'm not crazy like Trump is. Vivek is saying, I want what Trump wants, but I'm not old like he is, and I'm not a phony like these two are. And I don't know to whom Chris Christie appeals. I don't think he has a strong constituent base. Now, is there a world where Trump isn't the GOP nominee, given his massive poll numbers? Right now, his legal woes are actually helping his polls, but would that actually become a threat to his candidacy? No. No, the legal issues are not a threat. We are, at our foundation, still a democratic republic, and there is no law that can deprive the American voters of their choice for their representatives. They simply can't do that. He has not really broken any law. Everybody knows it. The only thing that could stop Donald Trump is if he were to have a sudden health problem or be incapacitated, heaven forbid, by an assassination or an assassination attempt or something like that. As long as he is fit and healthy, and I'll tell you what, man, he's pretty fit and healthy by all accounts and by all measures. As long as he remains that way, he is the nominee. Bart Marquois, thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Tiffany. It's always a pleasure to see you. Welcome back, and now for your sports news, we're joined by NTD's Dave Martin. Dave, some major news out of baseball, though it doesn't involve Shohei Otani. Now, why would San Diego trade a young all-star player like Juan Soto to New York without getting a star player in return? Well, it was more of a salary dump and an acknowledgment that they weren't going to be able to re-sign him beyond next season. The Padres, they got a number of inexpensive minor league prospects in return. Now, Soto, he's probably going to make more than $30 million next year, and afterwards, he's set to be a free agent, and he's going to cash in. I say that because his agent, Scott Boras, he's probably the only agent known by baseball fans and maybe not always in a good way, because he's notorious for bringing his players to free agency where they go to the highest bidder. It seemed unlikely San Diego was going to be that team. It's too bad, too, because they were really the one small market team that's been aggressive in adding expensive talent. Hopefully, though, this trade allows them to rebuild around their core. Now, looking at the other side of this, the Yankees have quite a lineup with Soto and Aaron Judge in there. Now, for Judge, they were able to retain him in free agency last season as a big market team. Would they be the favorites to re-sign Soto? I mean, they certainly have a good shot. They definitely have significant resources, like you said, but they also have some big contracts on the book, and they need some pitching, I would think. But what would set Judge's free agency apart from Soto's if he does go there is his age. Now, Soto just turned 25. He was a starter six years ago as a 19-year-old rookie. Judge wasn't a rookie until he was 25, so he had free agency at 30. That's a huge difference in baseball terms. Now, it's pretty rare that someone as good and as young as Soto is hits free agency. I'm sure his agent is well aware of that. If Judge can get $360 million at age 30, Soto, I'm sure, can get way more at age 26. Switching gears to the NBA tonight, we have the semifinals of the league's in-season tournament. Now, you've been a fan of this. How do you think it's going so far? Well, undoubtedly, one of its objectives had to be to remain relevant during football season. I mean, we're talking about it. I think it's achieved that objective. That's a win there. I think there's also some curiosity at how this is going to work, and is there going to be some intense playoff-like moments? I think it's kind of raised the bar in that regard. Now, right now, the Pacers and Bucks are playing, followed by the Lakers versus the Pelicans tonight. Both games are in Las Vegas. So, with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Giannis Anacompo, and Damian Lillard, I'm sure the league is very happy with the star power that they have on display right now. Now, switching over to golf, a surprising move today as Masters champion John Rahm has defected to Live Golf. Now, most thought Live would be an afterthought when the PGA's merger with them. What does this say about their future? Well, it doesn't appear to be going away. I mean, ESPN is reporting that Rahm got $300 million to leave the PGA. I mean, why would they give up that much money if they're not going to stick around? It seems like they wouldn't. They wanted to merge. Now, it really seemed like the PGA knew it couldn't compete with Live's Deep Pockets, which is funded by Saudi Arabia's public investment fund. This really helps Live's negotiating position. Ironically, they had a negotiating agreement with Live that prevented either side from poaching the other's players during these merger talks. But unfortunately, the DOJ's antitrust department got involved, didn't like it, saying it would restrict competition, so it was removed, and look what happened. Now, John Rahm is a pretty big fish, too. You know, he's ranked third in the world, and he's only 29 years old. This was a significant win for Live, in my opinion. Quite fascinating indeed. Dave, as always, thanks for joining us. Thank you very much, Tiff. And that's all for today's news. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Good night.