But at a time when scandals have pushed the highest court’s legitimacy into question, former CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin believes there is a legal argument that SCOTUS could use to put Trump back on the ballot “without embarrassing themselves.”

In a conversation with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Toobin analyzed the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that disqualified Trump from being on the ballot for violating Section 3 of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That section, originally created after the Civil War to prevent the leaders of the Confederacy from running for federal office, disqualifies those who “have engaged in insurrection” against the United States.

In a 4-3 ruling, the state court declared that Trump’s involvement in inciting his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was grounds for declaring a violation of Section 3. But Toobin believes that an “intellectually respectable” way for SCOTUS to overturn that ruling is on the argument that Trump was not given “adequate due process” to defend himself.

“He was not given adequate opportunity to prove that he did not engage in [the insurrection]. The trial was too brief, he was not allowed to subpoena witnesses, he was not allowed to take depositions. That is a way 0f getting rid of the case without too embarrassing themselves,” he said.

Hayes acknowledged that such a ruling would be a more sound argument than the one made by five conservative SCOTUS justices in the landmark Bush v. Gore case in 2000 that denied Al Gore the right to a recount of votes in Florida, handing George W. Bush the presidential election. The host even called the Colorado case “Bush v. Gore 2.0.”

NYU law professor Melissa Murray also noted that the dissenting opinion in the Colorado case “laid the seeds” for the potential ruling Toobin suggested, saying that those judges “were reluctant to disqualify someone in the absence of a criminal conviction for insurrection.”

The Supreme Court will have to hand down a ruling quickly, as the deadline for ballot entry in Colorado is Jan. 5. But even if SCOTUS puts Trump back on the ballot in Colorado, Toobin notes that the Republican frontrunner isn’t out of the woods yet as he is still facing criminal indictments in several states.

“If he’s convicted for a first time, then you will see other states come back to this issue, and there will be an even better case [for disqualifying Trump] because he will have had due process. What is better due process than a criminal trial?” he said.

Watch the clip from “All In With Chris Hayes” above.

The post Jeffrey Toobin Explains How SCOTUS Could Put Trump Back on Ballot ‘Without Embarrassing Themselves’ appeared first on TheWrap.

The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court also alleges that BuzzFeed breached a mutual nondisclosure agreement it entered into with Ozy in 2019 as part of its efforts to buy the company.

Ozy, which shut down in March following the indictment of founder and CEO Carlos Watson for securities fraud, claims in the suit that Smith, the former media columnist for The New York Times, willfully misappropriated Ozy’s trade secrets “to create, launch, operate, lure investors and advertisers to, and ultimately generate significant revenue for his own media company, Semafor.”

Semafor, the brainchild of Ben Smith and co-founder Justin Smith, the former CEO of Bloomberg News, launched in October 2022, eight months after Ben Smith left the Times. Its stated target audience was college-educated readers seeking unbiased news.

Ozy claims that while the Smiths “laid out a vision that seemed new and never-
before-seen,” in reality, “Semafor was a spitting image of the media company that
Carlos Watson had formed a decade earlier: Ozy.”

“And it turns out that Ben Smith, while editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, had gotten a months-long look at exactly how OZY operated when BuzzFeed tried to buy it,” the suit claims.

The suit recounts Buzzfeed’s financial difficulties in 2019, quoting news stories about the outlet’s news division shedding $100 million and Ben Smith’s fruitless efforts to find a deep-pocketed investor. “Plan B,” the suit claims, was to target new media startups for acquisition, an effort that also failed.

“In contrast to BuzzFeed’s freefall, 2019 was shaping up quite differently for
Carlos Watson and his media venture, Ozy,” the suit claims, critizing BuzzFeed’s “clickbait, memes, and pseudo-news ‘scoops,’” and claiming that Watson’s website “figured out how to create original, premium content” across multiple platforms, it’s awards program and events business. “Ozy’s audience was more diverse, educated, and engaged than BuzzFeed’s,” the lawsuit claims.

Ben Smith himself targeted and approached Ozy for acquisition, the suit states, revealing an email from BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti to Watson that claimed, “Ozy is the missing piece and you are the missing leader” to “build the future of media.”

The two companies signed a mutual nondisclosure agreement on Sept. 13, 2019, the suit said, giving BuzzFeed execs, including Ben Smith, access to its financial records, lists of advertisers and investors, audience and traffic measures and more. “In short, BuzzFeed got exactly what it wanted: the entire playbook and operating manual for Ozy.”

From October 2019 through January 2020, the suit claims BuzzFeed made a “series of escalating offers” to buy Ozy, ultimately reaching $250 million plus $30 million in incentives for Watson, including a job as president and seat on the board of the combined company. Watson nevertheless turned down the offer.

The lawsuit claims that by summer 2021, Ozy was drawing an average audience of 70 million across its platforms and had closed more than $250 million in advertising deals, won an Emmy “and was barreling toward a $2 billion valuation in its upcoming Series E financing round.”

Meanwhile, Ben Smith jumped ship and moved to The Times, where in late September, he wrote a series of pieces that the lawsuit describes as “falsely accused Ozy of being the ‘Theranos’ of media companies, with a fake product, no real audience and minimal actual value.”

The eye-popping story accused Ozy COO Samir Rao of impersonating a Google executive on a fund-raising call with Goldman Sachs, of vastly inflating its web and video traffic and raising millions of dollars over a faked “Potemkin village” of media content. It said Ozy reached short of 2.5 million people in 2018, but by July 2021 saw its audience shrink to 479,000 and detailed other inflated claims related to video views.

Watson at the time called the report “a bullshit ad hominem attack.”

Yet follow up reports by a number of different outlets found that Ozy claimed some high-profile investors it did not have, including rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon; falsely claimed to corporate partners about A&E airing a Watson-hosted TV show, then later saying it would air on Amazon Prime and later that it had been “sold” to YouTube, and a series of other questionable actions. A cascade of board resignations accompanied the reports.

The reports “devastated Ozy,” the suit states, forcing it to suspend operations within days.

The suit points out that Smith retained an equity stake in BuzzFeed, which was in a position to benefit from the negative stories about a rival, and claims he lied about his role in the takeover talks. After BuzzFeed’s 2021 IPO, the suit claims, Smith “cashed in,” and used those profits the following month to announce the launch of Semafor.

“Within a year of its launch, Semafor had raised over $30 million in capital
(including from affiliates of former Ozy investors) and was ‘outpacing’ its revenue projections,” the suit states. “Meanwhile Watson, his family, and the others who invested everything they had into Ozy have been left with nothing.”

The suit aims to “recoup the catastrophic damages” caused by Smith and “recover the profits” that the defendants reaped “as a direct result of their misconduct.”

Smith and Semafor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The post Defunct Ozy Media Sues Ben Smith, Semafor, Claims Theft of Trade Secrets appeared first on TheWrap.

Though it’s titled “The Santos Claus,” it’s not actually a parody of Tim Allen’s “The Santa Clause.” Instead, the short begins with footage of Sam the Snowman from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” teeing up the story that’s about to come

“If I live to be 100, I’ll never forget that time disgraced congressman George Santos impersonated Santa Claus to make a quick buck!” the snowman says.

From there, real audio from Santos’ Cameo announcement was blended with footage from the “Rudolph” special, showing a claymation Santos Claus (complete with a snowy white beard) entering the North Pole and informing the residents that he’s the new Santa Claus.

“What the hell happened to Santa?” one reindeer asks bewilderedly.

As Santos dismisses the question and makes thing all about himself, Yukon Cornelius yells out “Bumble! Do your thing!” Bumble is, of course, the Abominable Snowmonster, and he does indeed do his thing; he promptly eats Santos Claus whole, and the townspeople celebrate.

You can watch “The Santos Claus” in the video above.

The post Stephen Colbert Turns George Santos’ Christmas Cameo Stunt Into Classic Claymation Short | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Haley’s latest call for term limits comes in a recent campaign ad attacking Biden, in which she also calls for mental competency tests. Meyers agreed, at least partly, saying “we need young, sharp politicians, like New York mayor Eric Adams.”

From there, Meyers played a clip from a recent interview Adams gave, in which he was asked to sum up 2023 in one word. That word was actually two: New York.

“This is a place where every day you wake up, you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center, to a person who’s celebrating a new business that’s open,” Adams said.

He added, “This is a very, very complicated city, and that’s why it’s the greatest city on the globe!”

As the clip ended, Meyers jokingly called off-screen to an imaginary spouse, joking he doesn’t want to go to New York anymore.

“Nikki Haley is right, term limits might be a good idea,” Meyers said. “How about half a term, is that too soon?”

You can watch Seth Meyers’ full monologue in the video above.

The post Seth Meyers Agrees Nikki Haley Is ‘Right’ That Term Limits Are Necessary: ‘How About Half a Term, Is That Too Soon?’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The politician recently met with a major QAnon figure, drawing mockery from NBC host Seth Meyers on Tuesday night.

“Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene over the weekend met Jacob Chansley, the so-called QAnon Shaman, in what is being called Hallmark’s worst Christmas movie ever,” Meyers joked during his monologue.

At that, a mock-up of a movie poster popped up, showing Greene and Chansley (naturally in full shaman uniform) outside the Capitol, with festive adornments and some fake snow, titled “Crazy in Love.”

And yes, Greene was even wearing a red sweater, as is the typical attire for one half of a Hallmark couple on a movie poster.

In a post to X, which is still generally referred to by users as Twitter, Greene noted that she was “honored” to meet Chansley, and defended his actions on January 6, writing that he was “wrongfully prosecuted,” despite the fact that breaking into the Capitol is illegal.

She then went on a long tirade defending all who participated on January 6, ending her post with “Never give up!”

You can watch Seth Meyers’ full monologue in the video above.

The post Seth Meyers Roasts MTG Meeting QAnon Shaman: ‘Hallmark’s Worst Christmas Movie Ever’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Krulewitz will take over the leadership of ESPN’s Communications department starting Dec. 31.

The 32-year ESPN veteran will be taking over the role from Chris LaPlaca, who is retiring at the end of the year after serving as the head of Communications since 2008. LaPlaca has been with ESPN for over 43 years.

In his new position, Krulewitz will report directly to ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Kristina Schake, Chief Communications Officer at parent company Disney.

“Josh is a dynamic, collaborative, and strategic communications leader,” Pitaro said in a statement. “I’ve worked closely with Josh for many years and have benefitted from his excellent advice during many challenging situations. I have seen him cultivate countless relationships with media and ESPN colleagues over the years, all of which will benefit him and all of us as we continue to navigate through a complex sports media environment.”

“This one-of-a-kind role leading the world-class ESPN Communications team comes with extraordinary responsibility,” Krulewitz added. “It’s quite an honor to be trusted to represent the elite ESPN brand, collaborate with Disney, and to work alongside the most talented and dedicated colleagues around.”

Krulewitz first joined ESPN as an intern in 1990 while at the University of Connecticut. He took on various publicist roles after graduating and moved up the ranks with several promotions before becoming Vice President in 2006.

The post ESPN Promotes Josh Krulewitz to Senior VP of Communications appeared first on TheWrap.

This marks the first time a state has officially disqualified a candidate under that provision. The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision will be stayed until January 4th to allow Trump’s campaign to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

“As our detailed recitation of the evidence shows, President Trump did not merely incite the insurrection,” the majority wrote in its opinion. “Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes. These actions constituted overt, voluntary, and direct participation in the insurrection.”

“We conclude that the foregoing evidence, the great bulk of which was undisputed at trial, established that President Trump engaged in insurrection,” the opinion added. “President Trump’s direct and express efforts, over several months, exhorting his supporters to march to the Capitol to prevent what he falsely characterized as an alleged fraud on the people of this country were indisputably overt and voluntary.”

“Moreover, the evidence amply showed that President Trump undertook all these actions to aid and further a common unlawful purpose that he himself conceived and set in motion: prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election and stop the peaceful transfer of power,” the opinion said.

Defying accusations of base partisanship, the 4-3 decision comes from a Colorado Supreme Court where all the justices were appointed by Democratic governors. It is the first time ever a court has used Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to say a presidential candidate cannot run, according to AP news.

Shortly after the verdict was anounced, Trump’s campaign spokesman released a statement filled with conspiracy theories and antisemitic tropes, calling the plaintiffs in the case “a Soros-funded, left-wing group.” It also affirmed that Trump is appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The post Trump Pulled From Colorado Ballot Citing 14th Amendment Ban on Insurrectionists appeared first on TheWrap.

During his monologue on Monday night, Fallon covered quite a bit of political news, going after both former President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. But he was particularly amused by Biden’s struggles.

“Right now, young voters seem to be the biggest problem for Biden’s campaign, which is tough, because compared to him, everyone is a young voter,” Fallon joked.

That said, the NBC host reassured viewers that Biden has been “doing his best” to earn support from younger voters.

“Today he renamed his pacemaker TikTok,” he joked.

The “Tonight Show” host was particularly proud of that joke, pantomiming shadow boxing and hitting a home run, and outright saying “that was a great joke,” before moving on to his next Biden punchline, this time involving Barack Obama.

You can watch Jimmy Fallon’s full monologue in the video above.

The post Jimmy Fallon Jokes Biden ‘Renamed His Pacemaker TikTok’ in Effort to Connect With Young Voters | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

That’s because, following Trump’s latest hateful comment, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade defended the disgraced ex-president, saying that all Trump really said was that the U.S. has an immigration problem. Kilmeade then complained that critics “tried to say this language was the problem.”

“Yes, that’s what we’re saying!” Meyers shot back bluntly. “The language is the problem. I’m sorry we’re focused on his language, but the dude does two things: plays golf and talks. And I don’t want to watch him golf.”

The NBC host was more upset though by the fact that Trump and his supporters are getting more blatant in their words and actions, and mocked them for trying to tell people to ignore said words and actions.

“They’re not even trying to do that thing anymore, where they say ‘What Trump really meant was…’ and then translate his fascism into more polite words,” Meyers said. “They’re basically saying ‘Hey, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it could be anything.'”

He continued, “Now they’re just telling us not to listen to his words at all. Next they’re going to tell us that watching Trump’s rallies is actually anti-Trump. Fox News is just gonna put up a chyron during Trump rallies that says ‘Quick! Change the channel!'”

You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.

The post Seth Meyers Predicts Fox News Will Start Saying ‘Watching Trump’s Rallies Is Actually Anti-Trump’ Soon | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

During Monday’s episode, the MSNBC show played footage of Trump at a recent rally, during which he said that immigrants from all over are “poisoning the blood” of the United States. The comment drew huge criticisms, even from President Biden’s campaign, which likened Trump to Hitler for his words.

As soon as the clip ended, host Mika Brzezinski put a pause on reactions, and explained exactly why they showed it.

“Why do we show this? We always get that question, ‘Why do you give him attention?’ Actually, this cannot be normalized,” Brzezinski explained. “And he is the Republican frontrunner. He is, so far, the Republicans’ choice.”

Joe Scarborough agreed, and dug in even further on why, especially now, Trump’s rhetoric needs to be seen.

“It’s getting more explicit. It’s getting worse,” Scarborough said. “I’m still shocked by the clowns who claim to be media critics out there. Just absolute clowns that attack the media for reporting this.”

Scarborough then ran down a laundry list of Trump’s past words, in which he’s praised and quoted multiple dictators, and spread misinformation and lies. For Scarborough, it’s all very “straightforward,” and something to be taken seriously.

“We are in a fight for American democracy, and he’s becoming more and more explicit on how he wants to take American democracy down,” Scarborough said.

You can watch the full segment from “Morning Joe” in the video above.

The post ‘Morning Joe’ Justifies Airing Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric: ‘This Cannot Be Normalized … It’s Getting More Explicit’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.