On April 27, 2025, Bill Belichick, the former New England Patriots head coach and current University of North Carolina football coach, appeared on “CBS Mornings” to promote his book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.”

Belichick attended the interview with his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, in tow. Hudson, a former cheerleader and Miss Maine USA contestant, is listed as the chief operating officer of Belichick Productions.

At one point, CBS correspondent Tony Dokoupil noted Hudson’s attendance and described her as a “constant presence.”

He asked Belichick, “You have Jordon right over there. Everybody in the world seems to be following this relationship. … How did you guys meet?” But before Belichick could respond, Hudson interrupted from off-camera with a stern, “We’re not talking about this.”

Dokoupil pressed, but Hudson remained firm in her stance.

Liz Wheeler plays the “painful, cringey clip” of the moment.

Liz says it’s pretty clear who’s running the show, and it’s not Bill Belichick.

What makes Hudson’s response even weirder is that the story of how they met is already out.

“In February 2021, Belichick was traveling from the Boston area to Florida seated next to Hudson, then a college student and cheerleader. Sources say during that trip, Belichick leaned in to ask about Hudson’s schoolwork, specifically her deductive logic textbook,” Liz reads from an International Business Times article.

“Their conversation quickly became engaging with the pair diving into discussions about logic and reasoning. Belichick was reportedly so impressed that he signed the inside cover of her textbook, inscribing, ‘Thanks for giving me a course on logic,’ along with his signature. This gesture captured in a photo later obtained by TMZ marked the beginning of a connection that would quietly grow over the following years,” Liz continues.

“First of all, a photo is not just later obtained,” she corrects. “If it’s in her textbook, it was given to TMZ by Jordon Hudson … because she somehow and for some reason wanted their relationship to be public.”

Regardless, there’s almost certainly more to their relationship than just a serendipitous plane encounter.

Liz mentions a now-deleted social media post on X alleging Hudson, under a different last name but with the same first name and picture, was a high-end escort.

While unverified, if true, it would perhaps “explain not only the reticence to talk about how they met but also this weird, toxic, really disordered dynamic,” says Liz.

Another factor fueling speculation about the true origins of their relationship is Belichick’s friendship with Robert Kraft — the owner of the New England Patriots, who in 2019 was charged with two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.

“I’m not saying [Hudson] is a prostitute … but all of the elements that would exist if that allegation were true seem to be true in this case,” says Liz.

To see the clip of the Belichick’s interview and hear more of Liz’s commentary, watch the episode above.

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The Senate moved quickly to confirm President Donald Trump’s Cabinet and several key sub-Cabinet positions, including the FBI director and the director of national intelligence. But now, it appears ready to coast through the spring while critical posts remain unfilled. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) could solve the problem in a week — but only if he’s willing to put in long days and late nights.

This isn’t ceremonial work. These vacancies include essential positions, such as ambassador to the United Kingdom — just as the U.S. enters high-stakes trade negotiations with a key ally. The list also includes the undersecretary of defense and the head of the National Counterterrorism Center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

It shouldn’t be fantasy to expect a Republican-controlled Senate to work a full week — just once — to help the president build his team.

It doesn’t stop there. The comptroller of the currency at the Department of the Treasury — a post responsible for monitoring the health of U.S. and global banks — remains vacant. So does the director of the Office of Personnel Management, who oversees hiring across the executive branch, including the White House.

Roughly 30 nominees have cleared their Senate committees and now sit idle on the executive calendar, waiting for a vote. One of the most recent is Brian Burch, tapped to serve as ambassador to the Holy See. While the Vatican may not be the most strategic post on the geopolitical chessboard, the United States would be wise to have a representative in place when 1.4 billion Catholics prepare to select their next pope.

The president can’t carry out the most ambitious conservative agenda in a generation without a fully staffed administration. Waiting until August —
as the Senate reportedly plans — is unacceptable.

Here’s the reality.

The Senate’s constitutional role of advice and consent operates on two separate calendars: a legislative calendar and an executive calendar. Right now, the Senate is on the legislative calendar while it handles the budget and other bills. It can’t switch back and forth between calendars at will — unless it has unanimous consent, which it doesn’t. These days, switching to the executive calendar reliably burns 30 hours.

That’s why Thune must act with precision. On a Thursday, before senators flee town for the weekend, he should bring up every nomination on the executive calendar. He should then file cloture on each one individually. That would tee them up for debate starting Monday.

It’s not complicated. It just takes leadership and a willingness to work.

Thune needs to level with his members: We’re staying until the job’s done. This will take time. Senators typically stroll into Washington late Monday and skip town by mid-Thursday — meaning the average Senate “workweek” barely stretches past two days. That needs to end now. Weekend plans can wait.

Most of these pending nominations aren’t Cabinet-level or sub-Cabinet-level posts, so the minority’s power to stall is limited. Democrats can only hold up each vote for two hours. The Senate could start early, stay late, work overnight — whatever it takes. Even if Democrats drag their feet on every single nominee, the whole batch could be confirmed in roughly 70 hours.

Will they dig in for the full two hours on all 30 nominees? Maybe. But more likely, they’ll cave after a few long days. Democrats have lives, families, and fundraisers too.

If Republicans want to shorten the slog, they need to make the Democrats talk. That means showing up and holding the floor. Last year, Thune faced this same problem when he tried to advance the nomination of the Joint Chiefs chairman. Nine members of the majority leader’s own party skipped the 1 a.m. Friday vote! Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), for example, a rock-solid conservative but also no great friend of military brass, had tickets to the Masters Tournament.

I get it: That’s a cool thing for sure, but the weekend tournament is over, so no more excuses.

The dirty secret? Senators hate being on the floor. Despite the job description, they get fidgety, hungry, and thirsty — for more than just water.

So make it fun.

When I need a newsroom full of reporters to put in a 16-hour day — or just stay late — I use a trick that works every time: pizza and beer. It works across generations. Stock a conference room with food. Load the Republican Cloakroom with booze. Come on, folks — this is work, and
it can be fun.

They might even enjoy it. Until they don’t.

Eventually, some senior (or just tired) Democrats will tell their colleagues to knock off the stalling tactics so everyone can go home. This doesn’t need to drag into Saturday. But Thune needs to make it clear: If that’s what it takes, he’ll go that far — and his conference will back him up.

Remember, we live in a post-nuclear Senate. Thanks to the late former Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), confirmations now require only 51 votes. No filibuster, no excuses.

Of course, Democrats could make this easier. If they agree to stop delaying the inevitable, Republicans can hang out in their offices all they want and still finish the job.

None of this is easy. But it shouldn’t be fantasy to expect a Republican-controlled Senate to work a full week —
just once — to help the president build his team.

It’ll take cajoling. It’ll take Grubhub. It’ll take more than a few cases of beer and wine. But it’s doable — and well worth it.

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A new study from the University of California at Berkeley, of all places, reveals that physicians specializing in obstetrics and gynecology are not fleeing states that have restricted induced abortions in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

To better understand the implications of the study, Blaze News spoke with Dr. Christine Francis, a board-certified OB/GYN with decades of experience, a current obstetrics hospitalist who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and deliveries, and the CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

‘Opposite to the expected finding if OBGYNs were leaving states where abortion is threatened.’

The study, published by JAMA on April 21, which obviously presumes abortion to be a critical component of “quality” OB/GYN care, surveyed more than 60,000 OB/GYNs to determine whether the Dobbs decision might impact where they decided to practice medicine. To the surprise of authors Becky Staiger and Valentin Bolotnyy, abortion policies in the individual states “did not significantly” affect the number of OB/GYNs working there.

The authors attempted to minimize the results, stating only that “there were no significant differences in trends in OBGYNs’ practice locations across states with different abortion-related policy environments after the Dobbs decision.”

But that assertion ignores a key finding from the study: States with the most permissive abortion laws post-Dobbs saw the smallest increase in the number of OB/GYNs. While all states apparently had an increase, according to the study, permissive states saw just a 7.7% increase, while states with abortion bans saw an increase of 8.3% and those that have “threatened” abortion saw a startling 10.5% increase.

These results left Staiger and Bolotnyy scratching their heads. Staiger has a Ph.D. in health policy and management and has attempted to identify “racial health disparities” in public health insurance programs in New York. Bolotnyy’s Ph.D. is in economics, and he is tied to the Deliberative Democracy Lab at the Center on Democracy at Stanford University.

“The only statistically significant difference suggested that the share of physicians who are OBGYNs decreased less in threatened states than in protected ones, opposite to the expected finding if OBGYNs were leaving states where abortion is threatened,” the authors ultimately determined (emphasis added).

The conclusion of the study was so out of step with liberal orthodoxy that Dr. Francis made a point of expressing her appreciation to Staiger, Bolotnyy, and JAMA for publishing it even though “it theoretically goes against the … prevailing political narrative.”

“We need to give credit where credit is due,” Francis said.

‘Induced abortion can’t be part of comprehensive reproductive health care if reproductive health care specialists … are not doing it.’

Unlike the authors and the journal, though, Dr. Francis is not at all surprised by the findings of the study. She told Blaze News that they merely reaffirmed what she and her group, AAPLOG, have known all along: that restrictions on abortion would not have any meaningful impact on the vast majority of practicing OB/GYNs.

The main reason they were so confident that Dobbs would have little effect on OB/GYNs is that so few OB/GYNs perform induced abortions. According to statistics Francis cited, anywhere from 76% to 93% of all practicing OB/GYNs do not offer abortions.

“Induced abortion can’t be part of comprehensive reproductive health care if reproductive health care specialists, the vast majority of them, are not doing it,” Francis explained.

Francis noted that such statistics cast doubt on talking points and narratives promulgated by what she called “the abortion industry.” Such narratives have attempted to dupe people into thinking that any abortion restrictions will lead to compromised medical care for women.

False though it may be, the presumption that quality health care for women depends on the ready availability of elective abortion appears to be far-reaching. A quick internet search turned up articles and research that all insisted the Dobbs decision posed a real threat to women and doctors:

• “In states with strict abortion policies, simply seeing an OB/GYN for regular care can be difficult,” claimed a headline from NBC News.
• “States With Abortion Bans See Continued Decrease in U.S. MD Senior Residency Applicants,” warned a study from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
• “Over time, the inability of abortion-restrictive states to recruit new and existing clinicians will exacerbate widening health workforce disparities, with negative consequences for health care access, quality, and outcomes,” wailed a Health Affairs Scholar study.

Even a January 2024 article from JAMA suggested that abortion bans had created an “occupational health crisis for OB-GYNs,” who reported experiencing anxiety and “moral distress,” fears about possibly violating the law, and even symptoms of depression.

Not only does the new study challenge some of those reports, since the number of OB/GYNs seems to be growing across the board despite Dobbs, but, according to Francis, the increase in numbers of OB/GYNs in pro-life states likewise suggests better medical care for the women living there.

“Women that live in states that decided to protect life, it seems, have actually better access to the care of an OB/GYN,” she explained.

Francis described that trend as “encouraging” and “heartening” and expressed hope that it will continue.

Francis cautioned that while the study indicates that states that ban or restrict abortion have enjoyed a higher increase in OB/GYN counts since Dobbs, the study did not attempt to determine the reasons that some physicians moved to a new state.

In fact, Francis said she personally knows multiple physicians who left Indiana and its near-total abortion ban specifically because they wanted to continue performing elective abortions. Still, she claimed that pro-lifers should be encouraged that abortion restrictions have not prompted OB/GYNs to leave states in droves, as had been expected.

“At the very least,” she said, “these pro-life laws are not discouraging OB/GYNs from either coming to that state to practice or remaining in that state if they were already in that state.”

Moreover, Francis continued, by staying put regardless of abortion restrictions, OB/GYNs are signaling the irrelevance of abortion to the overall care they provide. To demonstrate her point, Francis imagined how she might react to restrictions on an obstetrics procedure she considers essential.

“If I was trying to practice in a state that said you can’t do a C-section for any reason,” Francis explained, “then I would probably leave that state because I wouldn’t be able to provide good care to my patients.”

Though promising, the new study is by no means a game-changer and will likely have no impact on any abortion laws at the local, state, or national level. However, it does at least call into question prevailing pro-abortion assumptions as well as demonstrate a willingness from apparently doctrinaire leftists to follow the truth wherever it leads.

As Francis neatly summarized, “This study just goes into that group of studies that help support the notion that we see in real-life, everyday practice that induced abortion is not a part of good health care.

“It’s not a part of essential reproductive health care.”

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