Wisconsin Congressman Tom Tiffany has described the harrowing seconds before the four-seat plane he was traveling in crashed into a lake, saying the pilot abruptly warned him they were going down and gave him only moments to brace for impact.

The Republican lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate said the aircraft was preparing to land in Wausau, Wisconsin, on Saturday night when the pilot turned to him and instructed him to tighten his seat belt.

‘As we were making that final turn before we were going to approach for landing, the pilot turned to me and said, “Tom, we are going down, pull your seat belt as tight as possible,”‘ Tiffany told Fox News on Monday night.

‘And it was like staring into the abyss. And you don’t know how far down it is.’

Tiffany said he pulled his seat belt as tight as possible shortly before the plane went down in Lake Wausau.

‘Get This Door Open’ 

‘I pulled that seat belt as tight as I could and it was just a couple seconds later, we hit the water and we hit it hard,’ he said.

Despite the force of the impact, the aircraft remarkably remained intact and stayed afloat.

‘The plane stayed upright, thankfully as a result of the skilled work of the pilot, and we looked at each other and said, “Are you okay?”‘ Tiffany recalled.

But with the damaged plane sitting in the lake and starting to sink, Tiffany said they had little time to get out in the darkness.

‘When we were both okay I just said to him, “Get this door open,” because, you know, the door was right there on my side in the copilot’s seat,’ he explained.

The pair managed to force their way out before swimming away from the stricken aircraft and toward the shoreline.

‘We got the door open, got out and the rest from there, we were able to be saved by the local law enforcement as well as the first responders,’ Tiffany said.

‘I can’t thank them enough for what they did, but it’s by the grace of God that we are here today.’

12 Stitches and Power Loss 

Tiffany said the entire sequence unfolded so rapidly that he has struggled to recall the individual moments.

‘It happened really quickly,’ he said. ‘And we were out of that plane I think really quickly. And, you know, you just try to piece it back together but it just happened so quickly.’

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The congressman escaped with a gash above his eye that required 12 stitches, while the pilot needed four stitches.

‘Each of us had very minor injuries. Once again thanks to the grace of God,’ Tiffany said. ‘This is the only injury I have.’

The dramatic account came two days after Tiffany first revealed he had survived the crash while returning home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner.

He said the four-seat Bonanza lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport, forcing the pilot to attempt an emergency landing on the lake.

‘We Swam to Shallow Water’ 

‘While returning home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner tonight, the plane I was traveling in lost power as we approached the Wausau Downtown Airport,’ Tiffany wrote on Facebook after the ordeal.

‘The pilot made an emergency water landing in Lake Wausau. After landing, we called 911,’ Tiffany wrote. ‘As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat.’ 

The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources responded to the scene.

Tiffany and the pilot were taken from the water and transported to Aspirus Wausau Hospital for treatment.

The congressman later thanked those involved in the dramatic rescue, saying first responders ‘got us safely off the water and transported us to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where we received excellent care.’

Polls Tied at 44% 

Exactly what caused the aircraft to lose power remains under investigation.

Tiffany, a Republican, has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District since 2020, winning the seat previously held by Sean Duffy, who resigned from Congress in 2019 and now serves as President Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary.

Tiffany is now the Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor and is set to face Democrat David Crowley in November.

A Marquette Law School poll published at the end of August showed the two tied at 44 percent of support each among respondents who were registered voters. 12 percent of registered voter respondents to the poll were undecided.

Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district has been represented by Republicans for the last 15 years.

A Hawaii man survived an eight-hour ordeal in raging floodwaters after being swept away during Hurricane Lowell.

Trent Parke, 47, had taken steps to protect his home in Wainiha, a small Kauai community, in the days before Hurricane Lowell reached the area on September 7, SF Gate reported.

Parke told the outlet that he moved whatever he could to higher ground at his property, which sits alongside the seven-mile-long Wainiha River.

The local tattoo artist said he also took precautions after emergency officials issued an alert advising residents of oceanfront properties to voluntarily evacuate.

Though his home was not near the ocean, Parke moved his truck to higher ground, hurried to turn off his off-grid power system, changed into a wetsuit top and sealed valuables, including his phone and keys, inside a plastic bag.

When he returned to his truck at about 7.30pm, however, the river was already rapidly rising, Parke said.

‘I was walking on the far side of my property to get out, and it was just like about a 3-foot difference of water,’ Parke stated.

‘At that point, I had to swim back to my house because it was the only way to go.’

After making his way there, Parke climbed over the railing and onto his deck, which is around eight feet above the ground. 

He hoped that the water would start to pull back, but it continued to rise. 

Parke went on to climb onto the roof of his deck, which is around 16ft above the ground. 

Large trees then started to float upstream, and pieces of his beloved home started to break away one by one. 

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‘I know at this point, I’m going to be diving in for a swim soon. I am not looking down at my art studio. Water just keeps rising faster and faster,’ Parke shared. 

As mayhem quickly surrounded him, Parke found a hau bush plant and latched on. The thick tree grows horizontally and can reach up to 33ft tall. 

But the trees were no match for Mother Nature after two of them slammed into the home and started to break, leaving Parke to jump back into the intense water.

‘When I hit the water, I knew I had to swim as hard as I could in any chance to hit that section of hau bush. In a blur, I was there and I got a hold of one of the thicker branches,’ he stated, adding that at that point, he was in his neighbor’s yard.

While trying to save himself, Parke said he watched as the house he built floated right past him. 

Suddenly, the bush broke off, forcing him back into the raging river. 

That caused him to hit his head and back on a log, and threw him underwater.  

After resurfacing, he grabbed onto another branch and told himself he had to stay where he was in order to survive. 

Parke remained there until 4am, fighting off hypothermia before running into four others who had escaped the water. 

Eventually, he found his truck and his home, which was thrown some 30 to 50 yards downstream onto another property, Parke said. 

Now, Parke is staying with neighbors and trying to figure out what is next after losing everything he had, according to a GoFundMe page. 

Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who was defeated this year in a contentious primary by a Trump-backed challenger, has now set his sights on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

During remarks on the House floor Tuesday afternoon, Massie accused Hegseth of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors” by continuing US military operations in Iran without Congress formally declaring a conflict in the region.

Massie introduced a privileged resolution, a procedural tool that bypasses the usual committee process and compels the House to hold a vote on the issue.

The Kentucky lawmaker employed the same tactic last year to force a vote on releasing the Epstein Files, resisting calls from Republican leadership to abandon his push for greater transparency.

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson defended Hegseth in a statement to the Daily Mail, saying: “Secretary Hegseth has been a transformative leader for the Department of War. Standards and merit are back, our arsenal is stronger than ever before, and morale and recruitment across every service are at all-time highs.”

“Secretary Hegseth has slashed bureaucracy, unleashed innovation, and delivered for our warfighters every step of the way. By every measurable metric, the Department of War is better under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s leadership than before. The entire Department is unified behind the Secretary’s vision and will continue working to put our warfighters and America first,” Wilson added.

The clash follows Hegseth’s intervention in Kentucky’s primary campaign, an extraordinary move for a senior military official.

In May, Hegseth made a last-minute visit to Massie’s district to endorse Ed Gallrein, whose campaign largely avoided media scrutiny.

‘President Trump needs reinforcements, and that’s what war fighters do. They stand behind leaders and have their back,’ Hegseth said about Massie in May while stumping for Gallrein.

‘Too often, Thomas Massie has acted like his job is to stand apart from the movement that President Trump leads, instead of strengthening it. When President Trump needs backup, Massie wants to debate process.’

‘At some point, being against everything becomes an excuse for accomplishing nothing. At some point, constant obstruction is not leadership. It’s just commentary. It’s obstruction. President Trump does not need more people in Washington who are trying to make a point,’ Hegseth said.

‘When conservatives are fighting the most radical left in American history, too often Massie’s instinct is to throw elbows at fellow Republicans instead of the people who are destroying our country or want to destroy our country.’

The secretary said at the time that he was speaking ‘as a private citizen’ — and not as a member of Trump’s Cabinet. There was no known precedent for a sitting defense secretary actively campaigning for a congressional candidate.

The former Fox News host is a top target of House Democrats who have stirred an uproar about his handling of the Iran war, his central involvement in the SignalGate scandal and his countless strikes in the Caribbean.

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‘Hegseth got us into an illegal and costly war in Iran which we are losing. He has fired generals capriciously and ordered the killing of fishermen in the Caribbean,’ Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California told the Daily Mail. ‘He should be impeached.’

All impeachments start in the House, which Democrats are forecast to win this November.

That would hand them the power to subpoena Trump administration officials and drag them before Congress under oath.

Similar to Trump’s first term, when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi maneuvered to foil Trump’s final two years and even brought two impeachments against him, Democrats are planning another wave of resistance.

However, not all on the left are determined that impeachment is the proper path forward, should it become an option. But most are salivating at holding Trump and his posse’s feet to the flames.

‘Pete Hegseth has got to go,’ Congressman Jason Crow, who serves on the House panels overseeing the CIA and Pentagon, told the Daily Mail.

‘Democrats won’t hesitate to use very tool available to hold the Defense Secretary accountable,’ he added, without expounding on whether he has the appetite for impeachment.

He and others have accused Army veteran Hegseth of being ‘incompetent’ and ‘unfit’ to serve as secretary.

Lawmakers on the left have accused him of politicizing the Pentagon, firing experienced generals, and jeopardizing service members by ‘recklessly’ sharing classified information.

‘Pete Hegseth is an unqualified, narcissistic, wannabe Chief of War,’ Democrat Jill Tokuda of Hawaii, another member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Mail.

‘Similar to what this administration did to others, his picture should be stripped from the wall of the Pentagon, he should face charges domestically and globally for crimes against humanity.’

It is not just liberal lawmakers who disapprove of Hegseth, the latest Quinnipiac Poll found that he has a 57 percent disapproval rating compared to 32 percent approval.

The secretary’s net -25 rating has plummeted since the beginning of the Iran conflict, when the same pollster found Hegseth then had a -9 point approval.

Days after actress Sydney Sweeney appeared nude while juggling sports balls in advertisements for betting company Novig, criticism has emerged from female athletes, who argue the campaign diminishes the work and achievements of women in sport.

British sprinter Amy Hunt, who won a record four gold medals at last month’s European Championships in Birmingham, was among the first to respond. During a televised post-race interview at another event this week, she said: ‘It was incredible to be part of such an incredible race. Sydney Sweeney, this is what women’s sport looks like.

‘Obviously we’ve seen in the last 24 hours everything about the Sydney Sweeney ad, you know, and when you’re a woman in sport, it’s not pretty. It’s not glamorous. It’s not sexy all the time, definitely.’

The response raised questions about whether Hunt felt overshadowed by the actress’s campaign, particularly after finishing fourth in the 200m at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest on Sunday. Sweeney’s Novig advert had gone viral, attracting 37million Instagram views in only four days.

Yet Sweeney does not present herself as an athlete at any stage of the minute-long commercial. Her nearest nod to sporting ability comes as she playfully uses a tennis racquet to cover herself and shields her breasts with two rugby balls.

She is naked and plays with a football, basketball, tennis ball and even a snooker ball, but the advert’s apparent joke is directed at men spending money through betting apps rather than at women’s sport.

Nevertheless, the backlash continued, with Australian Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus among those expressing anger over the Novig campaign. She said: ‘I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this.

‘Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity.’

How very pious.

It’s as if these female athletes occupy some high moral ground that actresses like Sydney shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near. There is a horrible stench of snobbery around their reactions. And dare I say a hint of pure jealousy, even misogyny?

They may have honed their athletic skills for years, but they need to work on their sense of humour and respect for other successful women.

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Sydney has worked her guts out for her career, starting acting at the age of 11. This girl from a very working-class background deserves other women’s admiration rather than their scorn, for she’s at the top of her game aged 29, and one of the most sought-after and highest-paid actresses in the world, having appeared in hit TV shows Euphoria and The White Lotus and several films.

She’s also a sassy, skilled businesswoman who’s so sure in herself she’s happy to court controversy. Remember that American Eagle jeans campaign last year when she appeared provocatively dressed in denim as a male voice intoned: ‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’?

The sisterhood went into meltdown, reached for the smelling salts and, somewhat risibly, accused the actress of promoting eugenics. Yet American Eagle’s sales soared.

Now she’s at it again, proving her commercial worth, weathering the backlash and watching the money roll in. It so happens Sydney is an equity partner in Novig.

We should all salute her – and for what it’s worth, as I wrote in my Mail column last Saturday after the ad appeared, I think she looks sensational.

Isn’t all this outrage an insult not just to Sydney but all working women? Isn’t the feminist mantra ‘a woman’s right to choose’?

Of course, Sydney hasn’t taken any of this lying down – well, actually, she is lying down in a couple of the shots – and has hit back by posting pictures online of famous sportswomen including Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe and Caroline Wozniacki posing semi-naked for promo pictures.

A short Google search and you’ll find many more. Crikey, several Olympic athletes have their own OnlyFans accounts such is their modesty! Four German Olympic female stars all posed together in the nuddy for the cover of their country’s edition of Playboy.

And I haven’t even mentioned the overtly sexy ‘sportswear‘ of the Olympic beach volleyball teams.

The good news for Sydney, as she bats off this attack on her character with such panache, is that the controversy has turned Novig, hitherto an unknown brand, into a household name.

Forget all the gold medals – she’s the real winner in this storm in a 32DD cup. And I hope she’s laughing all the way to the bank.