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Hunter Biden’s ex-biz partner reveals Trump DOJ blueprint he would like to see after last-minute pardon

A former longtime friend and business partner of Hunter Biden reveals the blueprint he would like the Trump Department of Justice to implement after President Biden announced on Sunday that he was giving his son a full pardon.

Devon Archer, who served on Ukrainian energy company Burisma’s board alongside Hunter, says he is looking ahead to the future and is optimistic about the Trump DOJ. When Fox News Digital asked Archer about the elder Biden’s pardon, he sidestepped addressing the pardon and instead called for the Trump DOJ to be ‘an impartial institution again.’

‘I look forward to the Trump Administration restoring the Justice Department to an institution that reflects the founding principles of justice and adheres to federal laws akin to its inception on July 1, 1870,’ Archer told Fox News Digital. 

‘The DOJ needs to be an impartial institution again rather than being driven by personal or political agendas as witnessed in recent years,’ he continued.

Archer has faced his own legal troubles related to his criminal conviction for his alleged role in defrauding a Native American tribe. A federal judge sentenced Archer to prison in 2018 for allegedly defrauding the tribe by fraudulently issuing $60 million in tribal bonds after he was convicted by a jury. 

However, his conviction was thrown out in late 2018 by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan because she was ‘left with an unwavering concern that Archer is innocent of the crimes charged,’ according to Reuters.

Archer’s conviction would then be reinstated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals a month before the 2020 election and he received a one-year and one-day prison sentence in February 2022.

Despite the sentence, Archer’s lawyer, Matthew Schwartz, has maintained his innocence and said they intended to file a series of appeals, which has delayed Archer serving his sentence.

‘Mr. Archer is obviously disappointed with today’s sentence, and intends to appeal. It is unfortunate that the judge, who has previously expressed concern that Mr. Archer is innocent of the crimes charged and reiterated that belief today, felt that she was constrained not to act on her independent assessment of the evidence,’ Schwartz said in February 2022.

President Biden announced on Sunday that he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after the first son was convicted in two separate federal cases earlier this year.

The announcement was made by the White House on Sunday night. The pardon applies to offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden ‘has committed or may have committed’ from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024. This decade-long window covers Hunter’s Burisma tenure, among several other shady foreign business dealings.

‘Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter,’ Biden wrote in a statement. ‘From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.’

Hunter Biden’s pardon has incensed Republicans who have alleged for years that Hunter Biden’s business dealings while his father was vice president were not legitimate. 

Archer spoke before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee last year and detailed the business connections between Joe and Hunter Biden. 

Archer said Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand,’ according to a transcript of the hearing. These phone calls included a dinner in Paris with a French energy company and in China with Jonathan Li of BHR Partners, a state-backed private equity firm.

Archer also testified that there was value in adding Hunter Biden to Burisma’s board as ‘the brand,’ a source previously told Fox News Digital. The argument was that then-Vice President Joe Biden brought the most value. Archer also stated that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, would have gone under if not for ‘the brand.’

The president, his 2020 campaign staff and top White House aides previously claimed at least 20 times that Biden ‘never discussed’ his son Hunter’s business dealings with him, which Archer’s testimony directly contradicted. 

Democrats have maintained that Hunter Biden did nothing wrong with his businesses and the president defended his son in his Sunday statement.

‘Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,’ Biden said. ‘Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.’

Biden also referenced his son’s battle with addiction and blamed ‘raw politics’ for the unraveling of Hunter’s plea deal.

‘There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,’ the 82-year-old father wrote. ‘In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.’

‘I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,’ Biden’s statement concluded.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report

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Hunter Biden’s pardon sets troubling precedent, risks politicizing Justice Department, critics say

President Biden faced mounting criticism Monday for the ‘sweeping’ pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, with critics citing fears that it could be used by Trump to further his views of a ‘politicized’ Justice Department and erode the role of the judiciary as an important check on executive power.

In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden took aim at what he described as a politically motivated investigation.

‘No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,’ the president wrote.

That Biden used his final weeks as a lame duck president to protect his only living son from prosecution was met with less shock among legal analysts than was the sheer breadth of the pardon itself, which spans a nearly 11-year period beginning in January 2014, the year Hunter was appointed to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and ending on Sunday, the day that the White House announced the pardon. 

While that time frame includes both the federal firearm and tax evasion convictions that Hunter was convicted of this year, experts say the scope of the pardon could go much further by extending to any actions committed for more than a decade, virtually ensuring the president’s son cannot be held accountable for any activity conducted during that period. 

In terms of both length and scope, the Hunter Biden pardon ‘could really could not be more sweeping, to be honest with you,’ Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor and member of Congress, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

The time frame included in the pardon covers ‘almost all federal statutes of limitations,’ Gowdy said. ‘For the vast majority of federal crimes, this covers this time period and means that charges cannot be brought.’

Critics note that Biden broke his own repeated declarations that he would not pardon Hunter earlier this year. First, after he was found guilty in June on three felony firearm charges, and then in September after he pleaded guilty to separate federal charges of tax evasion.

‘I am not going to do anything,’ Biden said this summer. ‘I will abide by the jury’s decision.’

This week, Biden did the opposite.

White House officials insist that Biden still backs his contention this summer that ‘no one is above the law.’

‘As he said in his statement, he has deep respect for our justice system,’ a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘And as a wide range of legal experts have pointed out, this pardon is indisputably within his authority and warranted by the facts of the case.’

‘The pardon power was written in absolute terms, and a president can even, in my view, pardon himself,’ George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in an op-ed for Fox News Digital.

‘However, what is constitutional is not necessarily ethical or right,’ Turley said, adding that in his view, Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter is ‘one of the most disgraceful pardons even in the checkered history of presidential pardons.’

‘His portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of immunity and power conveyed by Hunter in his dealings,’ Turley said.

Some lawmakers and legal analysts separately cited fears that the pardon could further erode public trust in the Justice Department, giving more credence to Trump’s frequent complaints that the Department of Justice is a political apparatus capable of being ‘weaponized’ rather than a department that strives to act independently and largely without political influence.

In granting the pardon, Biden is ‘essentially endorsing Trump’s long-held opinion that the Department of Justice is politicized and isn’t acting impartially,’ longtime GOP strategist and communicator Ryan Williams told Fox News in an interview. 

Gowdy said Biden’s pardon reflects his longtime view that the Justice Department has been too politicized in recent years and needs to be reformed, citing a swirl of investigations during recent administrations, including probes that were led by House committees, and which looked into the actions of both Biden and Trump family members.

‘When I was a prosecutor, politics had nothing to do with the job,’ Gowdy said. ‘I didn’t know the politics of a single one of my co-workers.’ The focus, he said, should be shifted back not to ‘targeting people, but targeting fact patterns.’

‘Prosecuting your political enemies, involving family members, all of this stuff is new, and all of it’s really dangerous.’

Special Counsel David Weiss, who brought both cases against Hunter Biden, has defended his actions against claims that the prosecutions were politically motivated, noting in a court filing Monday that Hunter Biden’s team had filed ‘eight motions to dismiss the indictment, making every conceivable argument for why it should be dismissed, all of which were determined to be meritless.’

Weiss added, ‘There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case.’

Still, some have objected to the intense investigation surrounding Hunter Biden, noting that if not for his father’s presidency, he likely would not have faced charges in the gun case.

Gowdy, a former Republican House member, said he ultimately agreed with that contention.

‘I prosecuted gun cases for six years,’ Gowdy told Fox News Digital. ‘I would not have taken this case.’

‘There’s a lot of really serious federal violent crime out there, and I would not have wasted the resources on the gun part of this,’ Gowdy explained.

But the former South Carolina lawmaker also said that doesn’t mean he would have let Biden’s son off the hook.

‘I definitely would have gone forward on the taxes and allegations of corruption,’ Gowdy said of the other allegations against Biden.

Ultimately, the Justice Department and FBI need to be ‘significantly reformed,’ Gowdy said.

‘They need to get out of the business of politics.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

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Biden, Trump both rip DOJ after president pardons Hunter

There is no other way to put it: Joe Biden lied. Over and over.

After repeatedly promising, pledging, vowing not to pardon his son Hunter, the President of the United States did exactly that.

The move amounted to a devastating vote of no confidence in his own Justice Department, matching Donald Trump’s own denunciations of that very department.

Trump, who also pardoned several political allies during his first term, was quick to react on Truth Social:

‘Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!’

And prominent Republicans are calling Biden a liar, with ample justification.

I think most people assumed that a father wouldn’t let his son go to jail. And if the president had explained it in those terms, he might have garnered some public sympathy. But he did not.

You know how the president often talks about ‘my word as a Biden’? I mistakenly assumed that he wouldn’t promise again and again not to pardon his son or commute his sentence if he had thought there was any possibility he would get Hunter off the legal hook. 

But what is anyone going to do? He leaves office next month, his political career is over and the story will quickly fade.

Biden sounded very much like Trump as he accused the DOJ, which he had long defended, of treating his son unfairly – swinging the political door wide open for the president-elect to retaliate against Justice, in part by naming longtime confidant Kash Patel to run the FBI.

Biden said his son had been ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and he blamed  political pressure on the special counsel named in the case.

‘No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been 5-1/2 years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.’

But that bolsters the Trump argument that he too was singled out for selective prosecution by the DOJ – and will be in a position to do something about it.

Hunter put out his own statement after the Sunday pardon: ‘I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.’

The feeble attempts by some in the media and in Democratic politics to defend Biden are just sad, because they only tell half the story.

Let’s say Hunter Biden was in fact singled out for prosecution, that the case would have been routinely disposed of if his last name was Jones. (Hunter had already been convicted in one case and pleaded guilty in another to tax and gun-related charges.)

But as Hunter admitted in one email, it was his last name, when his father was vice president, that enabled him to land all those buckraking contracts from around the world. It’s why the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma hired him, why he was able to get money from China. 

Hunter had no expertise in any of these areas. What he had was a connection to a powerful father.

The pardon is so sweeping that it covers everything Hunter may have done from Jan. 1, 2004 through Sunday – which could be a way of his father protecting himself as well.

Karine Jean-Pierre also told reporters on several occasions that Biden would not pardon Hunter.

Hunter Biden on Sunday night released a statement noting his recovery from addiction and his sobriety:

‘I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.’

Mark Halperin argues that Biden put his son in jeopardy by running for president, knowing the full range of Hunter’s addiction problems – and lied about Hunter not getting money from China and not helping his business clients (even if he just made small talk at a couple of group meetings).

Meanwhile, Trump’s choice of Kash Patel for the FBI (who would replace his own appointee, Chris Wray, who replaced the fired Jim Comey) has sparked a media backlash.

One thing no one can argue is that Patel lacks experience. He has been chief of staff at the Pentagon and a deputy assistant to the president. In fact, he was a national security prosecutor in the Obama Justice Department, before Trump got into politics.

But on Steve Bannon’s podcast last year, Patel said: ‘Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly.’ 

Patel has also said that on day one he’d shut down the FBI headquarters in Washington – ironically named for J. Edgar Hoover – and turn it into a museum on the ‘deep state.’ Its 7,000 employees would be dispersed around the country.

One thing Biden never did was put any family members on the government payroll, as Trump did in naming Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, to top White House positions in the first term.

Now Trump is continuing that tradition by naming Charles Kushner, Jared’s father, as ambassador to France.

The elder Kushner had already served a couple of years in prison for a scheme that involved hiring a prostitute and sending the tape to his sister. But at least he had paid his dues when Trump later pardoned him, sparking Jared’s interest in prison reform.

Trump also picked Massad Boulos – the father of Tiffany Trump’s husband – as White House adviser on Arab and Middle East affairs. All in the family.

One thing the press does is refer to Trump nominees as ‘loyalists,’ as if that’s a dirty word. Sunday’s Washington Post had a headline describing ‘loyalist Kash Patel.’

But while Biden named an inner circle of aides who had been with him as long as four decades, they were not dismissed as loyalists. That’s because the media agree that these were the good guys. And who can forget former AG Eric Holder describing himself as Barack Obama’s ‘wingman.’

The Hunter pardon has set in motion a potential cycle of both presidents using the DOJ and FBI for purely partisan ends, and Joe Biden bears full responsibility for that.

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Baker Mayfield on flag planting: ‘Just let the boys play’

Ohio State football was the center of a trend on Saturday, as Michigan players attempted to plant a Wolverines flag at midfield at Ohio Stadium after defeating the Buckeyes.

Multiple other instances of flag planting ensued on Saturday, as Florida attempted to do so at Florida State, and Arizona State even planted a pitchfork at Arizona’s stadium.

The situation prompted Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield, who famously started the trend after planting an Oklahoma flag at Ohio Stadium in 2017, to share his thoughts on the situation Sunday.

‘OU-Texas does it every time they play,’ Mayfield said. ‘It’s not anything special. You take your (loss) and you move on. I’ll leave it at that.’

Mayfield later added:

‘College football is meant to have rivalries. That’s like the Big 12 banning the ‘Horns Down’ signal. Just let the boys play.’

Ohio State and Michigan were both fined $100,000 each by the Big Ten after their roles in the flag planting fiasco, which led to a scuffle between numerous players on each team after the Buckeyes’ 13-10 upset loss.

Mayfield planted a Sooners flag after Oklahoma’s 31-16 win over Ohio State in 2017, the year he won the Heisman Trophy. The Buccaneers quarterback was also the No. 1 overall pick to the nearby Cleveland Browns in the ensuing NFL draft.

Mayfield, based on his comments, certainly feels the brawls that resulted after the flag plant were too much.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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Why Amazon sellers and retailers are flocking to TikTok Shop despite looming U.S. ban

Sporting a sparkly dress and a Santa hat atop her distinctly pink hair, Sarah Potempa stood in front of her smartphone at her hair-care company’s warehouse in Waukegan, Illinois. It was time to go to work. 

Potempa is a celebrity hairstylist who goes live on TikTok multiple times a week. During “the packing show,” as she calls it, Potempa livestreams herself as she packs up orders of her viral Beachwaver curling iron for six to eight hours at a time. 

The stream on Nov. 20 had a party atmosphere, with Potempa taking breaks to dance to “In Da Club” by 50 Cent in between shipping out orders. To the more than 1,000 TikTok users who typically tune in for Potempa’s shows, this is entertainment and shopping all at once. 

Beachwaver is part of a growing influx of retailers that are flocking to TikTok Shop, the video app’s shopping service. TikTok Shop launched in September 2023 as a way for users to purchase products without leaving the app, and since then, the China-owned app has emerged as a viable alternative for retailers looking to diversify their e-commerce business from Amazon. 

Via a dedicated Shop tab, retailers big and small promote products of all kinds, ranging from eyeshadow palettes, phone chargers, detox teas, treadmills and more. On TikTok, retailers typically offer generous coupons and free delivery within a few days. Shoppable posts, which look like normal videos but are ads for products sold in TikTok Shop, frequently appear in TikTok’s main video feed, known as the “For You” page. Those posts allow users to purchase products without exiting their For You feed.

On Potempa’s show, shoppers race to place an order to get a 50% discount on Beachwaver products and free add-ons to their order like face washes or lipsticks, along with the chance to have their username read aloud by Potempa while she packs their order on screen.

“When TikTok Shop was new and people hadn’t used it yet, they would ask, ‘Is this on Amazon yet?’” Potempa said in an interview. “I would get those questions like, ‘Can I buy it somewhere else?’ Now that it’s been around for a year or so, we’ve done 1.2 million orders.”

ByteDance-owned TikTok has already cemented itself as an advertising powerhouse, and with TikTok Shop, the company has been trying to carve out another revenue stream through e-commerce. The company has attracted the likes of Nike, PacSun and Crocs, among others. Those retailers want to tap into the more than 170 million Americans on TikTok who shop on impulse as they scroll through videos. 

They aren’t the only ones. 

Amazon sellers are also being persuaded to try out the service with promises of low fees and steep discounts on products footed by TikTok. Besides sellers, the company has also hired talent away from Amazon, filling key roles for TikTok Shop in areas like marketing, creator relationships, brand safety, category managers and operations.

In the 15 months since its launch, TikTok Shop has emerged as a “massive e-commerce machine,” according to ecommerceDB, a market research firm. EcommerceDB predicts TikTok Shop will more than double its gross merchandise volume, or the dollar value of items sold on its marketplace, to $50 billion this year. That’s a fraction of Amazon’s 2024 expected GMV of $757 billion, but nonetheless, TikTok Shop is making strides.

“Every time you scroll, every other scroll is a Shop post, so they’re making a lot of investment to encourage that in-app conversion,” said Caila Schwartz, Salesforce’s director of consumer insights and strategy for retail and consumer goods.

Amazon spokesperson Mira Dix told CNBC in a statement that sellers are engaging with its store “more than ever before” and seeing greater success. Dix said the company’s services for sellers are optional, such as fulfillment, which costs “an average of 70% less” than comparable two-day shipping alternatives.

“Our selling partners are incredibly important to Amazon, and we work hard to innovate on their behalf and support the growth and success of these businesses across all of their sales channels,” Dix said.

Beachwaver CEO Sarah Potempa hosts livestreams on TikTok Shop multiple times a week.

TikTok’s e-commerce push comes at a precarious moment for the company. 

In April, President Joe Biden signed a law that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok by Jan. 19. If TikTok fails to cut ties with its parent company, app stores and internet hosting services would be prohibited from offering the app, amounting to a nationwide ban in the U.S. TikTok has sued to block the measure.

President-elect Donald Trump could rescue TikTok from a potential U.S. ban. After trying to implement a TikTok ban during his first administration, Trump reversed his stance, acknowledging in a March interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the app. Trump changed his position around the time that he met with billionaire Jeff Yass, who is a major investor in ByteDance.

As the January deadline grows nearer, TikTok has largely been operating its business as usual. 

Executives from TikTok Shop pitched its marketplace as a holiday shopping destination during an October event in Manhattan with business owners and social media influencers. Users have shopped hundreds of millions of units on its e-commerce platform since launching September 2023, said Nico Le Bourgeois, TikTok Shop’s head of U.S. operations. Le Bourgeois, who joined TikTok in August 2023, previously spent nearly nine years at Amazon in a variety of divisions including its third-party marketplace.

TikTok Shop isn’t trying to sell “everything to everybody,” Le Bourgeois told CNBC in October. TikTok Shop is a marketplace for product discovery that surfaces “new, cool, interesting” items from big and small brands, he added.

“You see it, you like it, you buy it. It’s not a search,” he said. “It’s a very different way of shopping.”

Le Bourgeois declined to comment on the looming TikTok ban, but a company spokesperson at the event said TikTok Shop isn’t slowing down.

“The sellers here, creators, they’re building their livelihoods on TikTok,” the spokesperson said. “We’re going to continue to show up for that. There’s a huge opportunity for us.”

More Americans are expected to turn to TikTok and other China-linked apps for gift buying this holiday shopping season. 

Roughly 63% of Western consumers plan to purchase from Chinese shopping apps during the season, according to Salesforce. That includes TikTok, Alibaba’s AliExpress, Shein, Temu and fast-fashion company Cider.

On Saturday, TikTok said its U.S. Black Friday sales topped more than $100 million, with home goods, fashion and beauty products among the most popular categories. Canvas Beauty, a top seller of hair-care and beauty products on TikTok Shop, hit $1 million in sales within two hours of going live on the app, the company said.

Retailers and sellers, some of which count TikTok for the lion’s share of their online sales, told CNBC that they’re sticking with the platform despite the possibility that it could disappear.

Although it’s impossible to ignore the conversation around a potential TikTok ban in the U.S. as a brand that heavily relies on the platform, Yay’s Snacks co-founder and COO Rachel Cheng said she’s not convinced that TikTok will go away under the Trump administration because it doesn’t seem to be the president-elect’s main focus.

Yay’s Snacks, which makes crispy Cambodian beef jerky, was one of the earliest companies to join TikTok Shop when it launched. Yay’s founder and CEO Marlin Chan, a former YouTuber, frequently posts humorous TikTok videos promoting his snacks, which are based on his grandmother’s original recipe. Among the videos is a series that parodies the show “Undercover Boss.” Those videos helped Yay’s amass tens of thousands of TikTok followers, who keep buying the jerky, Cheng said.

At one point, TikTok sales comprised nearly 90% of Yay’s total revenue, with monthly sales from the app peaking at $75,000 last November, Cheng said. Yay’s is prepared to divert to Amazon and its own website if TikTok is banned, but as long as TikTok is “still here, we’re going to do what we can to stay on top,” Cheng said.

“If we were sitting here worrying about what’s next, we would’ve never gotten on TikTok Shop,” Cheng said. “We’re enjoying it while it’s hot.”

Scrub Daddy, known for its smiley face-shaped sponges, went viral on TikTok during the Covid pandemic and counts more than 4 million followers. Its top video, a demonstration of its Damp Duster sponge, has 30 million views while its bestselling product on TikTok Shop has been purchased nearly 76,000 times, according to the app. That figure doesn’t account for items that have been returned after purchase.

After kicking off in 2012 with an appearance on “Shark Tank,” Scrub Daddy CEO Aaron Krause said he lost faith in traditional marketing efforts. 

“We did a TV ad, we did some outdoor ads on billboards, we did a little bit of radio,” Krause said. “All I found was that I was throwing money into the air.”

The company pivoted toward social media marketing, primarily on Instagram, which turned out to be a “pot of gold,” Krause said. Scrub Daddy set up an account on TikTok in 2020 and worked with influencers to promote its products, including Vanesa Amaro, a popular account for housecleaning content with more than 5.7 million followers. After Amaro recommended the sponges to her viewers, Scrub Daddy sold 30,000 units in one weekend, Krause said.

TikTok’s “algorithm just allows you to hit millions and millions of views with one hysterically crazy video,” he said.

In recent months, TikTok has encouraged retailers and sellers to host hourslong livestreams multiple times per week as a way to connect with shoppers. Many brands have invested in building out their own studios to record the shows or have hired talent to host them. 

Scrub Daddy snatched up longtime QVC host Dan Hughes after he was laid off from the home shopping company in 2023. Others, like Beachwaver, have turned their CEOs into on-screen talent.

TikTok Shop was a big topic of conversation at a conference for Amazon sellers in New York in October. A session on “how to scale your brand” with TikTok Shop drew a packed room of sellers who listened to e-commerce strategist Rafay MH talk up the potential for brands to haul in $8 million to $10 million in sales from TikTok in less than a year. 

“Amazon comes with a ton of competition,” MH said. “TikTok is the opportunity for free eyeballs and sales.” 

Many Amazon sellers have embraced TikTok after they were initially slow to join the platform, said Michelle Barnum Smith, who provides consulting services to online businesses.

“I was the bedraggled gold miner standing on the street corners of New York, saying ‘There’s gold in those hills,’ and people were like, ‘Yeah, sure,’” Barnum Smith said “But as soon as they started seeing their competition on there, or their buddy on there, they were like, ‘I’ve got to get on there.’”

There’s now “extreme FOMO,” or fear of missing out, among Amazon sellers to join TikTok even if it no longer exists in the U.S. next year, Barnum Smith said.  

“Whatever the future looks like for TikTok Shop, they’re happy to take that money now and get while the getting’s good,” Barnum Smith said.

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank.

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Lane Kiffin has case as he pushes Ole Miss for College Football Playoff

Lane Kiffin works the spin room, furiously trying to position Ole Miss for a playoff bid. It’s a tough road, but he’s got a case.
South Carolina possesses the hot hand, but it lost to Alabama and got smashed by Ole Miss.
Miami owns the weakest case of the CFP bubble teams. At that point, just dial up BYU.

The propaganda campaigns started even before rivalry weekend began. Then, after Miami lost its grip on a College Football Playoff spot, so many coaches, players and pundits crammed into the spin room that surely some fire code is being broken.

We wouldn’t be having this debate if enough teams built their case on the field, but we knew playoff expansion risked watering down the bracket, so we’re left with a handful of teams with flawed résumés arguing for the final spot in a 12-team playoff.

No coach works the spin room more vociferously than Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin. He turned his social media feed into a running pitch for his 9-3 Rebels, and he fired a direct shot at South Carolina, another 9-3 team under consideration.

“It wasn’t even close,” Kiffin said Sunday, in reference to his team’s 27-3 win on Oct. 5 at South Carolina.

‘We could still be playing the game, (and) they still might not have scored a touchdown.”

Direct hit from the spin room!

OK, but what of Alabama, another 9-3 SEC team?

The committee ranked Alabama ahead of Ole Miss last week. Both teams won rivalry games against bad opponents by two touchdowns last weekend. That suggests Alabama, at least, blocks Ole Miss’ path, but should it?

Let’s unpack this.

BOWL PROJECTIONS: Alabama back into the playoff as Texas, SMU move up

RE-RANK: Texas moves up, Ohio State tumbles in NCAA 1-134 ranking

Bubble watch: Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Miami

Four teams populate the debate for the final playoff spot: Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Miami.

A fifth team, SMU, would join the mix if Clemson beats the Mustangs in the ACC championship. For the sake of this exercise, assume SMU wins the ACC and eliminates the Tigers.

CFP bracket debate depends on what committee values most

How you rank this quartet of bubble teams depends on how you value playoff credentials:

∎ Fewest losses earns the bid?

If you favor the loss-counting contest, then Miami qualifies over three-loss SEC teams, but here’s where I struggle with the Hurricanes: Miami’s résumé ranks worse than that of Brigham Young, another two-loss that placed third in the Big 12.

The committee consistently undervalued BYU, to the point that the Cougars aren’t in the playoff conversation. This despite BYU beating the ACC’s best team, SMU, on the road and owning a better strength of schedule than Miami.

In the fewest-loss metric, BYU should earn the bid, but the committee shows no interest in that.

∎ Team with best wins earns the bid?

Alabama owns the best collection of victories, counting pelts against three ranked teams – Georgia, South Carolina and Missouri – plus a trouncing of LSU in Tiger Stadium.

Ole Miss also beat Georgia and blew out South Carolina. It lacks a third signature triumph.

South Carolina headlines its résumé with wins against Clemson, Missouri and Texas A&M.

Miami lags behind in this category, with best wins against Duke, Louisville and Florida.

In the best collection of wins metric, Alabama should earn the bid.

∎ Reward the hot hand?

This becomes South Carolina’s best argument. The Gamecocks won their last six games behind a stiff defense and an improving freshman quarterback, LaNorris Sellers.

Miami lost two of its last three. (Can we just eliminate Miami already? Consider it done.) Ole Miss lost on Nov. 23 at Florida, the same day Alabama got blown out at Oklahoma.

Nobody in this mix outplayed South Carolina in the second half of the season. In this metric, South Carolina should earn the bid.

∎ Value head-to-head results?

Here’s where Kiffin shouts, “Scoreboard!” and where I struggle with the Gamecocks. Alabama beat South Carolina 27-25 on Oct. 12 in Tuscaloosa. The Tide used a fourth-quarter rally to win a game that wasn’t decided until the final play.

That close result shouldn’t cripple the Gamecocks, but consider what occurred a week earlier, when Ole Miss stormed into South Carolina’s stadium and flat whipped the Gamecocks.

Selecting South Carolina over a team from the same conference with an equal record that disemboweled the Gamecocks would diminish the idea that head-to-head results matter. And the committee says they do matter.

Head-to-head results are one of the few measures stated explicitly among the CFP’s selection criteria. In a strict evaluation of head-to-head results, Ole Miss should earn the bid.

∎ Who has the ‘best’ losses?

South Carolina’s three losses came against opponents who are either 8-4 or 9-3. Not bad, right? Well, two of those losses occurred at home.

Alabama’s three losses all occurred on the road, but that includes a brutal 24-3 faceplant just two weeks ago to Oklahoma, a team that beat only one other SEC opponent. Alabama also lost to Vanderbilt.

Ole Miss lost three games by a total of 13 points. However, its home loss in September to Kentucky (now 4-8) aged like milk left on a pool deck.

I struggle to declare a “winner” in this category. Ole Miss lost to the worst team. Alabama lost to two 6-6 teams. South Carolina lost twice at home.

∎ How about the eye test?

The committee says its duty is to select the best teams, with the caveat that five bids must go to conference champions. If some straightforward method could determine the best teams, we wouldn’t need a committee.

Different sets of eyeballs value different teams. My eyes tell me that when each of these bubble teams fires its best fastball, Ole Miss slings the most heat, with a reliable defense and a (usually) competent offense.

The Rebels dominated Georgia and smashed South Carolina. No other bubble team looked that good against such a caliber of opponent. By this metric, Ole Miss should earn the bid.

Final verdict

Unless the committee gets drunk on hurricanes, Miami has no case. If the committee values a two-loss team for the final spot, then pick BYU. That’s not happening, though.

In the debate between Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina, each touts an argument, but holes mangle every résumé.

Each team failed to earn its way on the field and that leaves them trying to talk their way in through the spin room’s back door.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. The ‘Topp Rope’ is his football column published throughout the USA TODAY Network. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

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Teen hockey player dies after losing consciousness on ice in New York

A 17-year-old Long Island, New York high school hockey player died after he ‘lost consciousness’ during the intermission of a game he was playing in, police said.

Nassau County police medics and officers responded to the Town of Oyster Bay Skating Center in Bethpage at 9 p.m. on Saturday, the department wrote in a news release. When authorities arrived, they found the unconscious teenager, police said.

Civilians at the scene administered CPR, which continued after officials arrived, according to the department. The teenager was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said, adding that ‘no criminality is suspected’ but an investigation is ongoing.

The teenager was identified by his travel hockey team, Sharks Elite Youth Hockey, as Connor Kasin, according to a Facebook post shared by the team on Sunday.

‘It is with a heavy heart the Sharks share the sudden passing of 18U defenseman, Connor Kasin,’ the post reads. ‘Please keep the Kasin family in your thoughts and prayers.’

‘Our bench will feel empty without Connor’

Connor, a senior, attended Massapequa High School in East Massapequa, New York before his death.

The Massapequa School District emailed a letter to USA TODAY on Monday that it had sent out to the high school’s faculty, staff and parents.

‘It is with profound sorrow that I inform you of the tragic loss of one of our beloved Massapequa High School students, Connor Kasin. Connor was a cherished member of our school community, known for his kindness, positivity, enthusiasm, and big smile. He had a way of bringing light and joy to those around him, and his absence will be felt deeply by all of us,’ the letter reads.

‘Our hearts are heavy as we grieve alongside Connor’s family and friends during this incredibly difficult time… Together, we will honor Connor’s memory and provide care for those who are grieving.’

In a statement obtained by USA TODAY, Connor’s high school coaches wrote they and their players ‘are completely heartbroken after the tragic events of (Saturday’s) game.’

‘Connor was and always will remain one of the most hardworking, dedicated, and spirited players we’ve had the privilege of coaching and knowing on and off the ice,’ the teenager’s coaches said. ‘I want to express my condolences to the Kasin family and ask that you respect their privacy during this unimaginably difficult time.’

‘There are no words to express how devastating this loss is to our Massapequa hockey family. Our bench will feel empty without Connor.’

Teen was playing in a charity game at time of incident: Report

On Saturday, Connor was participating in a charity game honoring Syosset High School graduate Sabrina Navaretta, a 19-year-old who died in a car accident last year, CBS News reported. A foundation was created in her name to raise scholarship money and offer support to grieving parents whose children have died.

Sabrina’s parents, John and Mara Navaretta, released a statement about Connor’s death to CBS News saying, ‘Our family extends our condolences to Connor’s family, teammates, friends, and the community. We know the heartbreak that you are all going through and we will be here for you.’

‘There are no words to convey our heartbreak that we feel as last night was supposed to be a fun night. The community came together to celebrate Sabrina’s life and our family’s commitment to helping with scholarships, dog rescue and assisting grieving parents.’

Obituary: ‘Connor left us too soon, doing what he loved most’

According to Connor’s obituary at the Massapequa Funeral Home, he was a ‘beloved son, brother, grandson, great-grandson, nephew, cousin, teammate and friend.’

‘Connor left us too soon, doing what he loved most, on the ice playing hockey surrounded by his teammates,’ the obituary reads.

Connor, a native of Massapequa, began playing hockey ‘the moment he was old enough to hold a stick,’ according to the obituary.

‘Connor started skating almost from the time he was able to walk, progressing from Town of Oyster Bay youth hockey to play travel league hockey,’ the obituary reads. ‘But the jersey he prized wearing the most was that of his high school team, the Massapequa Chiefs.’

On the ice, Connor was known for his ‘determination, boundless energy and fierce defending, but even more so as a beacon of sportsmanship and leadership,’ according to the obituary. Off the ice, Connor was ‘a kind and caring young man, who spoke softly and carried with him a smile that warmed every room he entered,’ the obituary continued.

‘He cherished spending time with his family, from their many journeys and countless miles logged together as a full time hockey family, to their annual retreat to Mexico, where they enjoyed a peaceful break and quiet time together. He was at the center of so many hearts.’

The New York Islanders: ‘Our thoughts are with them during this difficult time’

Connor was a lifelong New York Islanders fan, according to his obituary. After his death, the Islanders shared an Instagram post about the teenager offering their ‘deepest condolences’

The team called Connor a ‘beloved member of the Massapequa and Long Island hockey community.’

Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@gannett.com.

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NFL overreactions: Ravens staring at playoff run on the road

Lamar Jackson’s chase for a third NFL MVP, and the Baltimore Ravens’ hopes to win the Super Bowl are dwindling.

There’s no other way to put it after Baltimore’s 24-19 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, which was the Ravens’ second loss in three games, and third in the past six games.

Along with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Ravens were the AFC’s elite for much of the season. But their recent skid paints a different picture.

Our NFL overreactions begin this week on the Ravens, whose season will end in Buffalo or Kansas City and not a trip to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.

Ravens are not Super Bowl material

A season that should see Baltimore host not just one, but two playoff games, will likely see the Ravens on the road during this postseason. They’ve been passed up in the AFC North by the Pittsburgh Steelers, while the Buffalo Bills have already locked up a top four playoff seed through Week 13.

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Jackson and the Ravens could not rely on Justin Tucker, who missed two field goals and an extra point against the Eagles.

Tucker has missed eight field goals this season – each coinciding with a Ravens loss. It’s been a rough year for arguably the greatest kicker in NFL history.

The losses don’t bode well for Jackson’s case for a third NFL MVP, although he’s been a frontrunner for the award after Baltimore’s wins.

More important, the Ravens’ road to the Super Bowl no longer goes through Baltimore. Instead, the Ravens will likely have to fend for the playoff lives in Kansas City or Buffalo.

And that’s a major disappointment after the Ravens appeared as bona fide contenders with Jackson’s standout play, and Derrick Henry’s emergence in his first season.

The Ravens will look back on their losses – to the Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders to begin the season, to the Cleveland Browns in Week 8, Steelers in Week 11 and Eagles in Week 13 – and wonder which one (if not all of them) are the reasons why they fell short this season.

Christian McCaffrey’s knee injury is final nail in 49ers season

San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey’s season may have come to an end following a knee injury on Sunday Night Football against the Bills. And so has the 49ers’ season.

Coach Kyle Shanahan revealed McCaffrey suffered an injury to the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, which could keep him out for the final five games of the season.

McCaffrey’s injury – remember, he missed the first eight games of the season to treat bilateral Achilles tendinitis – feels like the final nail in the 49ers’ season.

The 49ers are in last place in the NFC West, looking up at the Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams, in a season where they hoped to return to the Super Bowl.

Instead, injuries across the board have kept the 49ers in this perpetual Super Bowl hangover from last season’s loss to the Chiefs.

The 49ers aren’t completely out of the divisional race or playoff picture, but it sure looks like it after losing their third consecutive game and for the seventh time this season.

Lions better keep foot on gas pedal

The two best teams in the NFC: Detroit Lions and Eagles.

The next two? Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers.

And that’s plenty of reason for the Lions to not take their foot off the gas pedal in the final five weeks of the regular season.

Other teams in Detroit’s rearview mirror are closer than they appear, like the Packers coming to town Thursday.

The Lions (11-1) might own the No. 1 seed in the playoff race, but they can’t afford any slipups during the final stretch.

The Eagles are one game back in the playoff standings. The Vikings are one game back in the NFC North race, while the Packers are two games back in the division.

The NFC playoff race is in for an exciting finish. The Lions, Packers and Vikings will all face each other again in the final month, while the Eagles have the Steelers and their NFC East counterparts in the final weeks.

Anything can happen – just ask the Ravens.

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49ers RB Jordan Mason placed on IR with ankle sprain

The San Francisco 49ers lost running back Christian McCaffrey to what appears to be a season-ending knee injury during their 35-10 ‘Sunday Night Football’ loss to the Buffalo Bills. He was placed on IR with a PCL sprain and is expected to miss at least six weeks of action.

However, McCaffrey wasn’t the only member of San Francisco’s backfield to be hurt in the contest. McCaffrey’s backup, Jordan Mason, suffered an ankle injury that is expected to land him on IR along with the All-Pro.

Mason, 25, was a breakout star for the 49ers early in the season. He replaced McCaffrey as the team’s bell-cow back and ran for 147 yards and a touchdown in the team’s season-opening win against the New York Jets.

Here’s what to know about Mason’s injury and how it will impact the 49ers’ running back depth chart over the final five weeks of the 2024 NFL season.

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Jordan Mason injury update

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan announced during a Monday news conference that Mason suffered a high-ankle sprain during San Francisco’s Week 13 loss to Buffalo. It isn’t clear exactly when the third-year running back was injured, but he is being placed on IR because of the sprain.

As a result, Mason will be sidelined for at least four games. Just five games remain in the 2024 NFL season, so the earliest that Mason could return would be Week 18.

If the 49ers fail to make the postseason, the team might decide not to bring Mason back at all and let him get healthy for the 2025 NFL season. At present, San Francisco is 5-7 and sitting in last place in the NFC West, two games behind the pole-sitting Seattle Seahawks.

49ers RB depth chart

McCaffrey and Mason aren’t the only 49ers running backs on IR. The team also lost Elijah Mitchell, who was expected to be McCaffrey’s backup entering training camp, to a season-ending hamstring injury before the campaign began.

As a result, the 49ers have only one healthy running back on their 53-man roster: rookie fourth-round pick Isaac Guerendo. They will likely elevate Patrick Taylor Jr. from the practice squad to help replace McCaffrey and Mason, but those are the only two healthy running backs presently in the team’s organization.

With that in mind, the 49ers will likely bring in another running back to provide depth behind the duo.

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49ers release statement on passing of Trent Williams’ son

The San Francisco 49ers released a statement on the passing of Trent Williams’ son.

“The 49ers mourn the passing of Trent Williams’ son and send him and his family all our love,” the 49ers posted on social medial. “Always in it all together.”

The social media post came with a quote from head coach Kyle Shanahan, who was asked about the tragic death during a conference call with reporters on Monday.

“When you’ve got to deal with tragedies like this, it’s hard as a coach, it’s hard as a friend, it’s hard as a family member, it’s hard for everybody,” Shanahan said. “But we spend a lot of time with each other and that’s what’s cool about a football team. Whatever you go through, the good or the bad, we go through it together.”

Williams’ wife, Sondra, announced on Instagram on Sunday, Dec. 1 that their son Trenton O’Brien Williams Jr. was stillborn on Sunday, Nov. 24.

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‘My firstborn and only son, I’ve always wanted you, but God wanted and needed you more,” she wrote. “Knowing you are in Heaven with your Great-Aunt Vivian and that you will Always be our Guardian Angel brings me great comfort in the midst of all this sorrow.

‘My heart is heavy. Being home without you in my arms has been quite an adjustment. Knowing I will never be able to watch you grow older alongside your sisters has my eyes filled with tears.”

Williams is widely regarded as one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL. The 36-year-old is an 11-time Pro Bowler and three-time first-team All-Pro.

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