House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) slammed the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene during an interview with The Daily Wire’s news podcast “Morning Wire.” Johnson said Republicans’ criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) is “fair,” adding that the “utter lack of leadership” from President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has “failed the American people.” More than 200 people were killed in the destruction of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in northern Florida before moving across parts of Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina in late September. “We still have people in need of rescue and supplies and water, food, and medicine. And it’s inexcusable that the executive branch of the federal government has just failed in this effort,” Johnson told Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley in an interview that will air on Tuesday morning. The Republican House speaker also discussed FEMA’s funding, saying the agency had around $22 billion for “immediate disaster response,” adding that Congress would act quickly to allocate more money for disaster relief after states assess the damage caused by Helene. Johnson slammed FEMA for “taking its eye off the ball” and focusing on other issues. Since the fall of 2022, FEMA-administered programs have spent $1.4 billion to address the illegal immigration crisis that has swelled under the Biden-Harris administration, The New York Post reported. The Biden-Harris administration says that the funding it has used for illegal immigrants comes from a different FEMA pile than the funding used for hurricane response. Whistleblowers have also accused FEMA of misappropriating funds and keeping “hundreds, if not thousands, of service members” waiting on the ground without orders following Helene. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! “Under Mayorkas’ leadership at DHS, they’ve been engaging in things that are not their job. Listen to the acronym, it says what FEMA is about. It’s supposed to be the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They should be focused on helping Americans recover from disasters and not straining resources that go to other programs, like catering to illegal aliens,” Johnson said. “This is one of the reasons that we impeached Mayorkas. He’s the first sitting cabinet secretary in the history of the United States to be impeached by the House,” he added. “Chuck Schumer in the Senate let it die, but [Mayorkas] deserved it. I mean, this is inexcusable. The American people are outraged by it, and so are House Republicans and Senate Republicans.” Johnson told “Morning Wire” that he spoke to Mayorkas after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said some of his engineers were being prevented from delivering Starlink to affected areas for internet connection. “I talked with Elon and then I called the Secretary of Homeland Security myself, and I said, ‘Get it straight.’ And they did within a couple of hours,” he said. “So Starlink’s being delivered.”

Jussie Smollett said he’s spent $3 million appealing his conviction following a purported hate crime attack he was ruled to have staged himself. “I want to have all of these things in my life, and I don’t want to have a felony on my record for something that I didn’t do,” Smollett said during an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “That’s what we’re fighting for. I know that on the surface it probably seems like why doesn’t he just serve the time, why doesn’t he just let this go. It would be easier if I had in fact done this to say that I did it. I wouldn’t have spent almost $3 million of my own money. I would not have had a trial.” The actor told police on January 29, 2019, that he was attacked by two men in Chicago at 2 a.m. who he claimed made racist and homophobic slurs, wrapped a rope around his neck, poured an “unknown substance” on him, and yelled that this is “MAGA country.” It was later found that Smollett had hired two Nigerian brothers to help him stage the attack.  The “Empire” star was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021 and spent just six days in jail after appealing his 150 day sentence. Smollett was charged with 16 counts of lying to police, but those charges were dropped.  Smollett has insisted upon his innocence all along.  “As an entertainer, as a businessman, I probably should [stop fighting the charges],” Smollett told ET. “But as a human being and as a man, as a black man and as an openly gay black man, I have a problem with letting them win on something they shouldn’t be able to,” the actor continued. “I’m a grown man and something happened. I can’t tell exactly what did happen, but I can tell you what did not happen. That’s what I have to sit on. No matter how much people are yelling in my face, saying ‘You’re a liar, you’re a liar.’ No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I don’t want them to believe that, but if that is what they believe, that’s on you.” Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! He argued that while “fighting the very things that are untrue,” he got tripped up by some truths which he claims were used “to prove things that were not true.” “So there were those moments where I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, my life is kind of — oh, well, I didn’t do that.’ And they’re like, ‘But you did this.’ And I’m like ‘Ah, I did do that. I did buy that.’ And there are things like that that I’ve had to talk to my family about, that I’ve had to talk to friends about,” he said. “I’m OK with accepting responsibility for things that I’ve actually done. I’m just not OK with accepting responsibility for things that I did not do.” Smollett also insists he’s being honest because he claims his story never changed, but he says other stories relating to the incident did.  “I’ve stood by, not my truth but the truth for the entire time, almost six years,” he said. “I haven’t switched my story up. I haven’t changed anything that I ever said. I stand by every single thing that I’ve ever said. Everyone else in the situation, every single person, has changed their story numerous times,” Smollett told the outlet.

On the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 terror attack on Israel, one survivor is recalling his harrowing experience. Daniel Vaknine, 30, was at the Nova Music Festival with his girlfriend and friends when terrorists began firing missiles from Gaza. He recalls a tense moment after the first missile made landfall.  “After a few seconds it was just a barrage that didn’t stop for 15 minutes,” Vaknine told The Daily Wire. On the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, one survivor is recalling his harrowing experience. Meet Daniel Vaknine who fled the Nova festival and was protected by a Holocaust survivor. My latest: pic.twitter.com/YfVcY4y5Nn — Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) October 7, 2024 He and his friends took cover and eventually made it back to their car. But when they drove away from the festival grounds, they began to realize the extent of Hamas’ attack. “After 10 or 15 minutes of driving we headed to one of the routes that leads to Kfar Aza,” where two people “Stopped us, waving their hands, like, you cannot go further, there’s a terror attack in front of us.” “That’s the moment that we started to realize that something’s going on. We were just getting shot at, we just came from the same situation.” “We cannot go anywhere, because both sides are getting shot at.” Eventually, a stranger led Vaknine and others fleeing the attacks to a religious Kibbutz nearby. About 60 people took shelter at the compound for hours, where Vaknine met an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor named Sarah Jackson, who took them into her home and provided them protection in her bomb shelter for over 10 hours. Vaknine recalls a friend sheltering further back in the Kibbutz calling him to say she had heard that terrorists breached the gate and were entering the compound. “I think all of us kind of had a complete feeling that maybe we’re done,” Vaknine said. “For almost half an hour, but for us it was eternity, we thought, we’re gonna be next, we’re done.” Fortunately, Vaknine and his friends survived the attack. At first, he said he found it hard to listen to trance music, the style featured at the Nova Music Festival, because it reminded him of October 7. “I can’t believe this music that was my home, that was my safe house, became something so hurtful,” he said. “And I was so afraid that I would never be able to listen to this music again” because “it would symbolize a terror attack, it would symbolize death.” But, after a year of reflection and conversations with friends, Vaknine is optimistic. “We will sing again, we will dance again, we will laugh again, we will love again, we will live again. We will do exactly what we did before, but even stronger now.”

The Voice Season 26 has already shared some incredible talent, and now one more name can be added to that impressive roster. Motown Singer Austyns Stancil earned a four-chair turn with his incredible audition. Watch the judges’ reaction to his jaw-dropping performance during his blind audition. Austyns Stancil’s Audition The performance starts with a dark stage. The faint flickering of purple lights slowly begins to illuminate Austyns Stancil as he hits the first high notes of the song. This singer chose to take on the difficult song Ooo Baby Baby by Smokey Robinson. Quickly, he drops down to a lower octave, showcasing his impressive vocal range. Gwen Stefani notices the shift right away and says, “Ooohhhh” in admiration of Austyns’s skills. Michael and Reba can be seen singing along from their seats, yet they remain hesitant to turn. An incredible high note had the crowd standing on their feet, cheering, and the judges waited in anticipation. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, another impressive high note got Gwen Stefani to turn her chair. Now Austyns Stancil had at least secured his spot on this season of The Voice. “The Voice” Judges React To Austyns Shortly after Gwen, Reba followed suit and hit her button. Within seconds, Snoop Dogg joined the party and also turned his chair. Now, Austyns, and the crowd, just waited for Michael to make it a four-chair turn. With his last note, he got Michael to turn his chair around. Snoop begins the comments by asking “What you know about Smokey Robinson?” To which Austyns Stancil admitted that he prefers old-school music. Then Snoop Dogg admired the way that the singer could easily transition into his falsetto voice. Michael Bublé continues the praise of Austyns vocals by admiring how easily he switched from falsetto to a lower octave. The star stated that he was excited to see what a voice like Austyns’s could do across a broad range of genres. Reba started off her pitch strong by saying, “Before you choose me…I did win last season…I’m just saying.” The judges continued to try to sway Austyns Stancil to choose them. However, at the end of all the praise, Austyns chose Team Gwen for his journey on The Voice. Best of luck to this incredible singer this season. The source of the featured image is here. The post “The Voice” Motown Singer Earns 4-Chair Turns And An Eruption Of Cheers With His Powerful Range appeared first on InspireMore.

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