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JD Vance’s hedging on a presidential run could imperil his Supreme Court campaign finance case. Paramount attempts to crash the Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery bid. And, the Miami mayoral race becomes the next political litmus test before the midterms.
Here’s what to know today.
Vance’s ambiguous answers could imperil his Supreme Court case
Vice President JD Vance’s hesitation to reveal whether he will run for president in 2028 could potentially affect a high-stakes challenge to campaign finance restrictions being heard by the Supreme Court today.
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One of the lawyers will likely make this point in his oral argument to the justices, which concerns the limits on the amounts party committees can spend in coordination with candidates.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has long been skeptical of campaign finance restrictions on free speech grounds and Republicans have often brought challenges against them.
Vance, who was among those challenging the spending limits in the case before the court, has been ambiguous about his longer term plans in various public remarks, most recently in an interview with NBC News last week.
Roman Martinez, the lawyer who was appointed by the court to defend the restrictions, outlined in court papers that Vance, who originally challenged the regulations when he was a Senate candidate, no longer has a stake in the case because he is not currently a candidate nor has he announced any intention to be one in the future.
“Vance’s claim is now moot because he has repeatedly stated that he has no concrete plan in place to run for any particular office in 2028,” Martinez said in an email.
Vance is walking a delicate line as a presumptive heir to President Donald Trump, who faces a constitutional bar to seeking a third term, while also serving as his vice president.
When asked in the recent NBC News interview under what scenario he would not run for president in 2028, Vance refused to take a firm position.
More politics news:
- Trump said that he has informed Chinese President Xi Jinping that the U.S. will allow Nvidia to sell some AI chips in China.
- Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, launched her run for Senate, shaking up the Democratic primary just before the state’s filing deadline.
- Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, said she will no longer serve as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey in the wake of an appeals court ruling that found her appointment was unlawful.
- A committee of Indiana state lawmakers advanced a Republican-drawn congressional map, sending it to the floor of the state Senate.
- The creator behind ICEBlock, an app that tracked immigration enforcement officials’ activities, is suing the Trump administration after it was removed from the Apple App Store following criticism from officials.
Boys say they were abused in a Christian scouting program
For generations, the Royal Rangers have been a rite of passage for millions of boys nationwide in the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination. The program draws participants as young as kindergartners with a promise to mold them into Christlike men through Bible study and backpacking.
But the Royal Rangers have also shattered childhoods, a danger the organization’s national leaders have known about for decades, an NBC News investigation found. Reporters have spent a year examining sexual abuse allegations within the Assemblies of God, which has 13,000 churches across the United States. Despite dozens of lawsuits and pleas from survivors, the denomination has resisted making child safety policies mandatory — including for the Royal Rangers.
At least 29 Royal Rangers leaders have been accused of sexually abusing boys in their care over the past half century, according to a review of lawsuits, police reports and news clips. The volunteers were often well-regarded: men with master’s degrees, sons of pastors or aspiring preachers themselves. One was a judge in Pennsylvania who pleaded guilty in 2021 to the corruption of minors. They lured their alleged victims under the guise of woodworking projects, rides home from school and games of Dungeons & Dragons.
Paramount makes hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount launched a hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after it lost to Netflix in a high-stakes bidding war, the company announced, setting the stage for a corporate drama made for Hollywood.
Paramount said it would offer $30 per share for the media conglomerate, which owns the Warner Bros. film studio, the cable channel HBO, the streaming service HBO Max and a portfolio of cable brands.
In a federal securities filing, Paramount said the hostile bid will be backed in part by funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Affinity Partners, an investment firm founded by Jared Kushner.
The offer lays the groundwork for what could become a public and contentious battle for Warner Bros., a process that had already included appeals to Trump, who said he intends to play a role in any merger.
Miami’s historically red mayor’s office is up for grabs today
Miami hasn’t had a Democratic mayor since the late 1990s, and dramatic shifts among Hispanic voters, particularly in South Florida, have melted away Democrats’ edge in recent elections.
But unlike in other recent special elections for Republican-controlled seats, Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly carried the city of Miami last year while losing Miami-Dade County. That means a Democratic flip is well within reach for former County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who is running against Republican Emilio T. González, a businessman and former city manager endorsed by Trump.
Today’s runoff comes with Democrats still enjoying their gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia last month, as well as other important election wins in states like Pennsylvania and Georgia. Results in the two governor’s races show the Democratic nominees made especially big gains compared with 2024 in heavily Latino municipalities, raising questions about whether Trump’s success in making inroads with those voters is durable for other Republicans.
Read All About It
- Faced with this stark economic disparity, Walmart is making changes to appeal to higher-income consumers. It’s part of the company’s effort to shed its original identity as a no-frills discount retailer.
- Jimmy Kimmel has signed a one-year extension at ABC to continue hosting the channel’s flagship late-night talk show.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not cede land to Russia, a day after Trump appeared to criticize him amid pressure for Kyiv to accept painful concessions to end the war.
- A person connected to last month’s shooting of New York Jets cornerback Kris Boyd was taken into custody in Buffalo, law enforcement sources said.
- New research suggests GLP-1 drugs “probably have little or no effect” on a person’s risk of developing obesity-related cancers.
- Honduras’ attorney general ordered authorities and asked Interpol to execute a 2023 arrest order for ex-President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was recently pardoned by Trump.
Staff Pick: Dining in the dark
This year, emergency power cuts have been imposed across Ukraine since early October, in what the Ministry of Energy said were necessary steps to stabilize the grid. As repair work continues, scheduled outages are leaving many residents and businesses without light or heat for eight to 16 hours a day.
Large businesses have tackled the problem by investing heavily in generators and alternative energy sources, but for Ukraine’s small businesses, the price tag is often too steep.
From “black menus” to a surge in escape rooms, reporters Elmira Aliieva and Daryna Mayer looked at Ukraine’s small businesses that are getting creative to keep their doors open amid power outages. — Christian Orozco, newsletter and platforms editor
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
The NBC Select team gathered smart holiday hacks to help make the season feel manageable. Plus, the best walking shoes from Amazon for racing through airports and shopping marathons. And, festive accessories that add personality to every night of Hanukkah.
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