Feb. 14, 2025
Kennedy IN at HHS, $22.6B Migrant Spending Scandal, Trump's Ukraine Peace Drive, McMahon's Contentious Confirmation, TikTok Revives
Kennedy IN at HHS, $22.6B Migrant Spending Scandal, Trump's Ukraine Peace Drive, McMahon's Contentious Confirmation, TikTok Revives
The episode highlights major political shifts, featuring RFK Jr.'s confirmation as HHS Secretary, controversial spending on migrant assistance, and Trump's diplomatic efforts in Ukraine. It also covers Linda McMahon's contentious confirmation hearing and TikTok's return to app stores.
• RFK Jr confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary
• $22.6 billion spent on migrant assistance raises eyebrows
• Trump attempts diplomacy to resolve Ukraine conflict
• Linda McMahon faces tough questions in her confirmation hearing
• TikTok returns to app stores after Trump intervenes
source credits:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-jr-sworn-health-human-services-secretary https://nypost.com/2025/02/13/us-news/hhs-splurged-more-than-22b-on-grants-for-migrants-including-cash-for-cars-home-loans-and-startup-businesses/ https://www.foxnews.com/politics/no-betrayal-trump-move-toward-ukraine-war-negotiations-hegseth-says https://nypost.com/2025/02/13/us-news/linda-mcmahon-outlines-plans-to-dismantle-department-of-education-faces-wwe-taunts-at-lively-confirmation-hearing/ https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/13/tiktok-returns-to-googles-app-store.html
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WEBVTT
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Welcome to Ranting Politics Headline Updates.
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I'm JOC and we've got a packed show today with some absolutely wild developments in Washington that you won't want to miss.
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Rfk Jr has officially joined the Trump administration as Health and Human Services Secretary in a razor-thin confirmation vote that has vaccine advocates up in arms.
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We'll break down the dramatic swearing-in ceremony and what this means for American health care.
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Then hold on to your wallets.
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A shocking new report reveals HHS spent over $22 billion on migrant assistance programs, including cash for cars and business loans.
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You're going to want to hear these details.
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We're also diving into Trump's latest diplomatic moves as he works the phones with both Putin and Zelensky to broker peace in Ukraine, plus Linda McMahon's wrestling with tough questions at her education secretary confirmation hearing about plans to dismantle the entire department.
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And finally, tiktok makes a surprising comeback to app stores after Trump steps in with a bold new plan.
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Stick around.
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We've got all these stories and more coming right up In a stunning turn of events that has Washington buzzing.
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Robert F Kennedy Jr was sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary yesterday, marking one of the most controversial Cabinet appointments in recent memory.
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The Senate narrowly confirmed Kennedy in a nail-biting 52-48 vote that fell almost entirely along party lines, party lines.
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The scene in the Oval Office was particularly poignant as Kennedy, accompanied by his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, and their children, took the oath of office, administered by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
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During the ceremony, kennedy shared a touching personal memory of his first visit to that very office in 1962 with his uncle, president John F Kennedy.
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The appointment has sent shockwaves through the medical community, particularly given Kennedy's well-documented skepticism toward vaccines.
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In fact, senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the lone Republican to vote against the nomination, stating he will not condone the relitigation of proven cures.
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Kennedy, who made headlines last year by ending his independent presidential bid to endorse Trump, has already outlined ambitious plans to overhaul the agency.
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He's promising to shift focus toward promoting healthy lifestyles, revamping dietary guidelines and taking on both big pharma and the processed food industry under his Make America Healthy Again campaign.
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This appointment represents a remarkable reconciliation between Kennedy and Trump, who were trading barbs just months ago.
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Trump had previously dismissed Kennedy as a radical left liberal and a Democrat plant, while Kennedy fired back, calling Trump's attacks barely coherent.
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But politics, as they say, makes strange bedfellows.
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And now Kennedy claims Trump has kept every promise he's made to me.
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Fox News reporting shows Kennedy wasted no time laying out his vision, telling attendees at his swearing-in that for two decades he's prayed daily for the opportunity to address what he calls the childhood chronic disease epidemic in America.
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Whether his controversial approaches will help or hinder that mission remains to be seen.
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A bombshell report just dropped from the watchdog group Open the Books revealing that the Department of Health and Human Services has been on quite the spending spree.
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We're talking about an eye-popping $22.6 billion in grants for migrants over the past four years and, folks, you won't believe what some of this money went toward.
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The Office of Refugee Resettlement wasn't just handing out basic assistance.
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They were providing dollar-for-dollar matching programs for car purchases, home loans and even startup business ventures.
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We're talking about business loans up to $15,000 and credit repair loans up to $1,500.
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All this while they somehow managed to lose track of 32,000 migrant children in their care.
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The spending really ramped up under the Biden administration, with more than $10 billion, that's billion with a B going out just in fiscal year 2023.
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Coincidentally or perhaps not so coincidentally this lined up perfectly with record-breaking numbers at our southern border, where we saw 2.4 million apprehensions.
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Now here's where it gets really interesting.
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These funds were being channeled through various non-profits, effectively creating what Open the Book CEO, john Hart, calls a giant magnet for border crossings.
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The most concerning part, about $12.4 billion was earmarked for unaccompanied migrant children, even as federal whistleblowers were raising red flags about kids being placed with unvetted sponsors.
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The top recipients of this taxpayer-funded bonanza include Church World Services and the International Rescue Committee, raking in $355 million and $598 million respectively.
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And here's a fascinating detail Robin Dunn-Marcos, who was overseeing this program, had previously worked for both these organizations for over 30 years combined.
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This report comes right on the heels of that FEMA controversy, where they had to claw back $80 million that was spent on putting migrants up in New York City hotels.
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As reported by the New York Post, this appears to be part of a broader pattern of using taxpayer dollars in ways that many Americans might find questionable at best.
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Major developments today in the ongoing Ukraine conflict as President Trump takes center stage in peace negotiations the president held separate calls with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, marking a significant shift in diplomatic efforts to end this two-year war.
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During what Trump described as a lengthy conversation with Putin, the Russian leader agreed to immediately begin peace negotiations.
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This dramatic development comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the administration's approach during his visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels.
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Hegseth pushed back forcefully against critics who suggested this might constitute a betrayal of Ukraine, stating plainly that there is no betrayal in pursuing peace.
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He went on to praise Trump as the best negotiator on the planet and possibly the one man in the world capable of convening the parties together.
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But here's where things get really interesting.
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Hegseth dropped what might be the biggest bombshell of all during his NATO visit, stating that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.
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This represents a major shift in US policy position and signals the administration's determination to find a pragmatic path to peace.
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The president is reportedly planning to meet with Putin in person, likely in Saudi Arabia, though the exact timing hasn't been confirmed.
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What's particularly noteworthy is that this diplomatic initiative comes directly from Trump, who's making good on his campaign promise to end the conflict that he repeatedly claimed wouldn't have happened under his watch.
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This high-stakes diplomatic gambit represents a dramatic departure from previous approaches to the conflict.
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With both Putin and Zelensky at the table and Trump mediating, we might be seeing the first real possibility of ending this devastating war since it began in February 2022.
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Well, folks, the confirmation hearing for Linda McMahon as Education Secretary was nothing short of political theater today, complete with WWE-style interruptions and heated exchanges.
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The former wrestling executive turned government official stepped into the ring I mean Senate chamber ready to defend her controversial vision for the Department of Education.
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Mcmahon made it clear she's looking to deliver a finishing move to the department itself, though she acknowledged this would require congressional approval.
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She faced tough questions about her plans to shift key programs like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act over to Health and Human Services.
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The hearing had its share of dramatic moments, with protesters channeling WWE catchphrases.
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One demonstrator even borrowed the Rock's famous line, shouting about what Linda McMahon is cooking before being escorted out by Capitol Police.
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Another went full Vince McMahon with a you're fired before getting the boot themselves.
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Despite the theatrics, mcmahon maintained her composure while outlining her vision, she promised to preserve critical programs like Title I funding, pell grants and public service loan forgiveness, even as she plans for the department's eventual dismantling.
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When pressed about the Trump administration's executive orders on transgender athletes in sports and DEI programs, mcmahon committed to enforcing them, though she seemed less certain about their specific implications.
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Democrats tried to pin her down on whether she'd stand up to President Trump when necessary, while Republicans like Josh Hawley got her to agree that colleges failing to address anti-Semitism should face defunding.
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The hearing highlighted the deep divisions over the future of federal education policy, with Chairman Bill Cassidy eventually losing patience with the repeated interruptions, with McMahon being one of the last remaining Trump cabinet picks awaiting confirmation.
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Her testimony today gives us a clear preview of the dramatic changes possibly coming to federal education policy.
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Whether she'll get the votes needed to step into the role remains to be seen, but one thing's certain this confirmation process is proving to be as unpredictable as any WWE storyline.
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In a major development for social media users across America, tiktok has made its triumphant return to both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
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This comes after nearly a month of uncertainty following the app's removal on January 18th, when TikTok temporarily halted its US operations in response to national security concerns.
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President Trump's intervention proved to be the game-changer here, folks.
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He announced plans to delay the federal ban by signing an executive order.
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He announced plans to delay the federal ban by signing an executive order, proposing a rather interesting solution having the United States take a 50% ownership stake in a joint venture.
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Trump made it clear on Truth Social that his goal is to save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up.
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Tiktok's leadership didn't waste any time responding to Trump's lifeline.
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They're already restoring service to their 170 million American users and expressed gratitude to the president for providing clarity to their service providers about avoiding penalties.
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But not everyone's jumping for joy about this development.
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Senator Tom Cotton fired off a warning shot, reminding everyone that companies facilitating what he called communist-controlled TikTok could still face hundreds of billions in liability.
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The path forward seems to involve Trump's newly announced government-run sovereign wealth fund, which could potentially be used to acquire TikTok's US operations.
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There's even talk of bringing in some heavy hitters from the tech world, with Trump floating names like Oracle's Larry Ellison and Tesla's Elon Musk as possible acquirers.
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This is quite the pivot from the situation we saw last month, when the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration's concerns about ByteDance's ownership and potential ties to China.
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But with Trump's proposed solution now on the table, it looks like America's favorite dance and lip-sync app might just have found its way to stick around, albeit with some major changes to its ownership structure.
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And that wraps up today's whirlwind of political headlines.
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Folks, from RFK Jr's dramatic confirmation as HHS secretary to the eye-popping $22 billion in migrant grants.
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We've covered some truly remarkable developments.
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We watched Trump step into the role of global peacemaker with Ukraine, saw Linda McMahon face some WWE-style drama at her confirmation hearing and witnessed TikTok's surprising comeback story.
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What a day in American politics, and you can bet we'll be right here tracking every twist and turn as these stories continue to unfold.
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For the latest updates and in-depth analysis, make sure to follow us on X at Ranting RP, catch our daily videos on YouTube and visit us at RantingPoliticscom.
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This is JOC signing off, and thank you, our loyal listeners, for choosing Ranting Politics Headline Updates.
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We'll be back soon with the updates you need to navigate these interesting times.
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Until then, stay tuned, stay informed and, as always, stay free.
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