Josh Hafner

USA TODAY

One's getting ousted, and the other is ousting himself.

Fox News gave Bill O'Reilly the boot on Wednesday, dumping the conservative megastar after sexual harassment allegations prompted 50 advertisers to flee his show. O'Reilly, who's hosted The O'Reilly Factor for 21 years, was having a blessed time with Pope Francis before the news broke. Look for him to no-spin to another platform eventually — and to take his audience with him.

And Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, an influential Republican heading the House oversight committee, won't seek re-election in 2018. Chaffetz helped lead the probe into Hillary Clinton's email servers, but was blasted this year for refusing to look into President Trump's potential conflicts of interest. He skated to re-election last November with 73% of the vote, and his departure might dent the GOP's hopes of keeping a House majority.

Also on Wednesday: Mike Pence threatened to stab North Korea, and Rob Gronkowski crashed a White House press conference.

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Democrat makes big showing in solidly Republican district, and Trump calls it a win

Democrat Jon Ossoff needed to nab half the vote to pull off an upset in Georgia's solidly Republican sixth congressional district Tuesday night, a race watched widely for signs of mounting resistance to Trump. He got 48.1%, coming just shy of preventing a June runoff. That should raise a red flag for Republicans, but on Wednesday Donald Trump hailed it as a victory and credited, not surprisingly, himself.

"Despite major outside money, FAKE media support and eleven Republican candidates, BIG 'R' win with runoff in Georgia," Trump tweeted. "Glad to be of help!"

Despite leaning steadily Republican for nearly 40 years, Trump only beat Clinton in the suburban Atlanta district by a single point. Clinton won 23 districts currently represented by Republicans.

Mike Pence to North Korea: So help us, we will (metaphorically) stab you

Yeah, Mike Pence might fear women and alcohol, but here's one thing he's not afraid of: North Korea. No siree. The VP talked tough Wednesday from the deck of a ship named after Ronald Reagan, calling North Korea the Asia-Pacific's biggest threat to peace and safety.



“The United States of America will always seek peace. But under President Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stands ready," Pence said.

Pence, who wore a cool jacket for the announcement, said America's response to any use of weapons by North Korea will be "overwhelming and effective," which sounds very tough.

In other tough-guy news: Trump said last week that he sent an "armada" toward the Korean Peninsula as a warning to Kim Jong-Un, which turned out to be false. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made an erroneous explanation of the event thanks to a "glitch-ridden sequence of events," the New York Times reported. A photograph showed one of the mentioned ships near the Indonesian islands.

Tom Brady skips White House trip, and also Gronk!

The New England Patriots, hailed by some nationalists as "America's whitest team," visited America's Whitest House on Wednesday without its star quarterback. Tom Brady, a self-described "good friend" of Trump, told ESPN he had "some personal matters" to attend to. (Brady skipped the Patriots' 2015 White House trip over a "prior family commitment.")

During Wednesday's visit, Trump praised just about everyone on the team except Brady. And Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski crashed Sean Spicer's press conference, where great fun was had by all:

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