The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is hiring illegal border crossers with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and equipping them with guns to police American citizens in California.
President Barack Obama’s 2012 DACA order indefinitely delays the deportation of illegal border crossers who enter the United States claiming to be minors. Recipients do not start becoming U.S. citizens unless they apply for a green card. That is why many seek endless DACA renewals that allow them to continue working and living in the States while still foreign citizens and admitted border lawbreakers.
Until recently, California only allowed U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in the process
of obtaining citizenship to serve as law enforcement. In 2022, the Democrat legislature passed a law authorizing any of the hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossers, including DACA recipients, who obtain work authorization to join police forces across the state. While some cities like Sacramento refused to hire illegal border crossers due to concerns about gun law violations, LAPD handed jobs and firearms to nearly a dozen DACA aliens. Capt. Robin Petillo told CalMatters these illegal border crossers will “possess department-issued firearms on and off duty.” The department also plans to give jobs to illegally present foreigners who are currently in police training.
“We’ve tried to carve just what is necessary for DACA, and these individuals be treated on the same basis of which non-DACA recipients are, as to the possession of a department firearm and its use,” Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told ABC 7.
The Second Amendment states it is “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” “The people,” according to American court precedent, refers to U.S. citizens only. The 1968 Gun Control Act, passed by a Democrat trifecta, also prohibits illegally present foreign citizens from possessing firearms and ammunition. The Fifth Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled in 2017 that DACA does not exempt illegal border crossers from that gun law. An exception in the 1968 law, however, allows for illegal border crossers to possess guns “for the use of, the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof.” That means this federal provision technically provides any local or state government office, even if they don’t have a law like California’s, to arm illegal border crossers.
So, in the case of the LAPD, a criminal foreign citizen who doesn’t have the constitutionally secured right to bear arms but was hired by a U.S. police department could arrest and even disarm a U.S. citizen who does have Second Amendment rights.
Under President Joe Biden and Democrats, illegal border crossers aren’t just getting jobs in local police departments, they are being rewarded for breaking U.S. laws with free transportation, shelter, and prepaid debit cards.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
Thirty years ago, the incendiary columnist Sam Francis coined the term “anarcho-tyranny” to describe a state of affairs in which the government cannot or will not enforce laws against serious criminals and instead exerts excessive and often arbitrary force on ordinary citizens.
Francis’s coinage, conceived against the backdrop of the crack epidemic and attendant crime wave of the late ’80s and early ’90s, was provoked by a series of feckless gun laws ostensibly designed to curb armed crime. But in practice, they were used to harass ordinary gun owners. The original column appeared in December 1992, a few months after an off-the-grid Vietnam vet was entrapped by an undercover ATF agent for the illegal sale of a shotgun, leading to a raid on his cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and the murder of his dog, son, and wife by federal agents.
Anarcho-tyranny is not an intentional conspiracy to subvert the rule of law. There are no smoke-filled rooms where the anarcho-tyranny white paper is passed around among policymakers. It is simply the natural devolution of a government undergoing a crisis of authority: As power slackens in one direction, it must tighten in another.
After a two-decade respite, the days of anarcho-tyranny have returned, perhaps more explicitly than ever. Since at least 2016, leftist DAs around the country have made it their explicit aim to decriminalize every offense short of murder (and sometimes that, too) and empty the prisons of even the most dangerous felons. Violent crime is once again a mainstay of big-city life. Drug addicts and psychopaths haunt the subways. Flagrant theft is forcing businesses to shutter and lock away their goods behind walls of plexiglass. In San Francisco alone, roughly 2,000 car break-ins are committed per month — with a less than 1 percent arrest rate. The George Floyd riots of 2020 amassed upward of $2 billion in damage, while its perpetrators were rewarded with tens of millions in exculpatory payouts.
The state, which is currently controlled by a party whose political clients are the agents of this disorder, has responded by cracking down on anyone who tries to intervene (murder charges brought against Kyle Rittenhouse, Jacob Gardner, and Daniel Penny demonstrate the point) and has mercilessly prosecuted red Americans who have responded in kind (compare the millions in payouts for Black Lives Matter rioters to the excessive sentencing of Jan. 6 defendants for example). Even more insidiously, the state, in the absence of neutral enforcement of the laws as they exist, is employing an expansive reading of civil rights law to punish their political enemies and flex their tyrannical authority.
Currently, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating conservative activist Christ Rufo for refusing to play the pronoun game with his colleagues at the New College in Florida. Elon Musk, whose purchase of Twitter and subsequent release of a trove of internal documents exposed the hand-in-glove relationship between the federal government and (former) Twitter executives to suppress conservative speech, now faces a civil rights lawsuit for the crime of not hiring refugees to work at SpaceX.
These targeted prosecutions are scandals in their own right, but they pale in comparison to the treatment of Douglass Mackey, whose recent conviction is the canary in the coal mine for what’s coming down the pike.
Douglass Mackey’s Memes
Mackey, the man behind the now-defunct Twitter persona Ricky Vaughn, was convicted on March 31 of this year of “conspiracy against rights” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241, a Reconstruction Era law designed to counteract the violent voter suppression tactics of the Ku Klux Klan. In October, Mackey was sentenced to seven months in federal prison.
Mackey’s alleged conspiracy? Posting a joke meme on Twitter.
The offending tweet features an image of a mock political flier, which, according to federal prosecutors, was aimed at deceiving Hillary Clinton voters with the text, “Avoid the line. Vote from home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.” Another tweet, also named in the suit, instructs readers to cast their vote by posting the word “Hillary” to Facebook and Twitter alongside the hashtag #PresidentialElection.
It’s a mildly provocative troll, a wry jab at the absurdity of get-out-the-vote efforts, which target the most civically illiterate members of the public. But never mind whether the joke is good or bad, it is obviously a joke, obvious enough that posters far less clever than Mackey have made it before. Kristina Wong, a semi-prominent Twitter Democrat, posted a nearly identical tweet during the same election cycle encouraging her fellow “Chinese Americans for Trump and people of color for Trump” to vote on “Super Wednesday,” adding, “TEXT in your vote! Text votes are legit.”
Fair play, in other words. Jokes, trolls, accusations, deceptions, outright lies of the most salacious, malicious, and truly deplorable nature are all part of the daily maelstrom of political informational warfare. You may find this kind of partisan mud-slinging degrading, even regrettable, but the grand spectacle of American democracy has always been this way. We take the good with the bad, the funny with the cringe. If you want something different, a system of laws and norms that promises a little more dignity, well… that’s another conversation for another time. For now, this is the game we’re all playing, and the rules, enshrined by the First Amendment, are the rules.
Or so we thought. If you are a Trump supporter like Mackey, rather than an obedient party apparatchik like Wong, the rules no longer apply. When, as Mackey’s case demonstrates, the state can expand the purview of a law meant to thwart acts of Klan violence to include online “disinformation,” it can render almost any action illegal. Every utterance, to the extent it has a political valence, is a potential crime. Everything is against the law, but the law only applies to the state’s political enemies.
If this is an exaggeration, it is so only barely.
Here are some more facts that provide a fuller picture of the circumstances of Mackey’s alleged crime and their implications. Mackey’s meme first appeared on Twitter on Nov. 1, 2016. It wasn’t until January 2021, two days after the inauguration of Joe Biden, that charges were filed. Despite Mackey living in Florida, the DOJ used a dubious legal reading to have the case tried in the hostile Eastern District of New York, under the auspices of newly appointed U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, in front of a Democrat activist judge who in 2017 issued an emergency stay to block Trump’s executive order on refugee resettlements, and in front of a Brooklyn jury pool that voted 4 to 1 in favor of Joe Biden.
The most astonishing fact is that the case was brought in the absence of any victim. According to the Justice Department, 4,900 people texted the fake number in the tweet. Out of these, the Justice Department found not a single person who claimed to have been deceived by the meme or who thought that texting “Hillary” to 59925 constituted a valid vote.
Mackey’s real crime, his real sin, was being an effective right-wing provocateur. According to an analysis from MIT Media Labs, Mackey’s Twitter account, @TheRickyVaughn, with a little over 50,000 followers at the time of the election, was one of the most influential social media accounts in the country, ranking higher than NBC News and prominent Democrat mouthpieces like Stephen Colbert.
Mackey’s prolific output and acerbic wit, his unique ability to proselytize the ideological foundations of Trumpism with native digital fluency, is what made him a target. It is also true that Mackey could be blatantly offensive, but the need to protect offensive speech only underscores the principles of free expression at stake. Ultimately, he represented the breakup of the informational monopoly held by the state’s preferred opinion makers, and that is why he was prosecuted. The candidacy of Donald Trump, a sui generis figure in a hundred different ways, and whose own subsequent legal entanglements operate from the same logic of excessive prosecutorial zeal, was animated, at least in part, by the unconstrained energy of online troublemakers like Mackey.
And like Trump, Mackey had to be held to account for exposing these vulnerabilities in the system. Again, where power slackens in one direction (losing control of the electorate), it must tighten in another (stringing up meme makers). The likeness here isn’t merely symbolic. Remember 18 U.S.C. § 241? This same law, which according to legal scholar Eugene Volokh has never been used to prosecute a speech act, is precisely the law federal prosecutor Jack Smith is relying on to indict Trump. Douglass Mackey’s case isn’t a standalone act of prosecutorial aggression; it is the foundation for a new legal regime that intends to cast a net over the entire ocean of online speech.
Broadening the Law’s Scope
The precedent set in the Mackey case eschews any limiting principle on how the law can be applied. Any “disinformation” — that is, any untrue statement, even crude jokes, like jesting that Michelle Obama is a man, or that [insert politician] is really an alien lizard in a human skinsuit — so long as it might deter someone from voting, is a potential crime. Even the mild suggestion that voting is irrational, a belief long held by many mainstream political scientists, could count as a criminal act under this reading of Section 241. This broadening of scope is precisely the point.
In his 1964 book The Morality of Law, legal theorist Lon L. Fuller tells the parable of King Rex, an ambitious though naive ruler who attempts to reform his kingdom’s legal system from the ground up. First, his legal code is too narrow, then too broad, too abstruse, then too plain. His subjects’ dissatisfaction mounts, until the king realizes that by making his laws impossible to obey, he can bring his enemies to heel whenever he chooses.
“It was made a crime, punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment, to cough, sneeze, hiccough, faint or fall down in the presence of the king,” Fuller writes. In other words, there was no law, only the king’s discretion concerning who deserved punishment or mercy.
The 17th-century polemicist Leveler “Free Born” John Lilburne called such a state of affairs a “lawless unlimited power.” It eventually led to a revolution. We’re not there yet, but when one of our fellow citizens faces federal prison time for a joke, we are forgiven for being reminded of dear King Rex.
In the coming year, we will be treated to a warmed-over buffet of sermons by our intellectual betters on the sanctity of Our Democracy™. We will be relentlessly hounded to check under our beds and in our closets for purveyors of “disinformation.” While the streets are overrun with another round of election year “mostly peaceful protests,” the border is swamped by a deluge of illegal immigrants, and our major metros are ravaged by wanton criminality, we will do well to consider what we stand for, and where we will draw the line.
While outlets like The Washington Post have tried to convince Americans that “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” it actually dies in Illinois courthouses where judges whose expertise revolves around parking tickets kick former presidents off ballots.
In the left’s latest attempt at election interference, Cook County Judge Tracie Porter kicked former President Donald Trump off the primary ballot on Wednesday — but put her own order on hold because she knows it won’t stand. Porter ruled Trump must be removed from the state’s March 19 primary ballot but stayed her own order until Friday pending a likely appeal.
Porter said the quiet part out loud, ruling that the board of elections, whichunanimously votedagainst removing Trump from the ballot, “shall remove Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the General Primary Election on March 19, 2024, or cause any votes for him to be suppressed.”
The suit was brought by the left-wing group Free Speech For People, which argued Trump is ineligible based on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. Trump has not been charged with nor convicted of inciting or partaking in insurrection. Still, that hasn’t stopped left-wing activists from attempting to — as Porter would phrase it — suppress voters’ choice for president. The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments challenging the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove Trump from the ballot. A similar case is underway in Maine.
Free Speech for People received donor support from the Tides Foundation, which funnels dark money to left-wing organizations intent on changing the way elections are run to boost Democrat chances. The Tides Foundation received more than $22 million from George Soros.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung lambasted Porter’s decision, saying the campaign will appeal.
“The Soros-funded Democrat front-groups continue to attempt to interfere in the election and deny President Trump his rightful place on the ballot. Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions,” Cheung said. “This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal.”
Prior to kicking a former president and 2024 front-runner off the ballot, Porter focused on traffic tickets. The state’s Supreme Court appointed Porter in 2021 to be the “At-Large Cook County Circuit Court Judge.” According to the Cook County Democratic Party, Porter has spent time presiding “over minor traffic violations and Class A misdemeanor matters” in the downtown Chicago area.
Judging by Chicago’s ongoing crime crisis, Porter would better serve Illinois residents by continuing to focus on traffic violations — plus gang violence, illegal immigration, and theft — before telling them for whom they’re allowed to vote.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing JBS USA, the world’s largest producer of beef, over the company’s emissions and for “greenwashing” by allegedly misleading the public about its environmental impact.
In an announcement, James noted that beef production has the largest greenhouse gas footprint of any major food commodity, and that animal agriculture accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. According to James, JBS USA’s various net-zero pledges for 2030 and 2040 are therefore misleading and “not feasible” given the scope of its worldwide beef production operations.
“As families continue to face the daily impacts of the climate crisis, they are willing to spend more of their hard-earned money on products from brands that are better for the environment,” James said in a statement. “When companies falsely advertise their commitment to sustainability, they are misleading consumers and endangering our planet.”
“JBS USA’s greenwashing exploits the pocketbooks of everyday Americans and the promise of a healthy planet for future generations,” she added. “My office will always ensure that companies do not abuse the environment and the trust of hardworking consumers for profit.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference in New York on Sept. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)
The lawsuit was applauded by state Democrats and national climate advocacy organizations like Earthjustice, Mighty Earth, Friends of the Earth US, Citizens Campaign for the Environment and Stand.earth.
“JBS repeatedly claims that it will reach net zero by 2040. This claim was found to be misleading and yet JBS continues to assert it,” said Peter Lehner, an attorney at Earthjustice. “While it is critical for every company to reduce its climate change impact, JBS would need to implement enormous operational changes to achieve this goal. However, JBS is doing very little and is not taking anywhere close to the steps that would be required.”
In her announcement and lawsuit, James pointed to several instances in which JBS USA and its executives made pledges to reduce the company’s impact on the environment. She also stated the company — which has a market cap of more than $10 billion and whose North American beef business earns tens of billions of dollars annually — has acknowledged consumers are more interested in sustainable products.
A JBS pork plant is pictured in Worthington, Minnesota. (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
For example, in March 2021, JBS announced a pledge to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 across global operations and including indirect downstream emissions. The company then began a publicity campaign touting the pledge, running a full-page advertisement one month later in The New York Times stating “it’s possible” for meat production to be “part of the climate solution.”
Since then, JBS and its subsidiaries have continued to tout the 2040 pledge and other sustainability goals. The company even presented at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai late last year, announcing additional sustainability initiatives and investments.
“JBS takes its commitment to a more sustainable future for agriculture very seriously,” JBS USA spokesperson Nikki Richardson said in an email to Fox News Digital. “We disagree with the action taken today by the New York Attorney General’s office.”
“JBS will continue to partner with farmers, ranchers and our food system partners around the world to help feed a growing population while using fewer resources and reducing agriculture’s environmental impact,” she continued. “Our belief that American agriculture can help sustainably feed the world is undeterred.”
Cows and calves are herded to pasture on a ranch near Boulder, Colorado. (Reuters/Rick Wilking)
James’ lawsuit comes as environmental groups and lawmakers worldwide increasingly set their sights on the agriculture industry. The global food system — which includes land-use change, actual agricultural production, packaging and waste management — generates about 18 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of 34% of total worldwide emissions, according to a 2021 study published in the Nature Food journal.
President Biden’s international climate envoy John Kerry warned last year that decarbonization would be impossible without a concerted effort from the agriculture industry to achieve green goals.
“We can’t get to net-zero, we don’t get this job done unless agriculture is front and center as part of the solution. So all of us understand here the depths of this mission,” Kerry said.
Thomas Catenacci is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
The Border Patrol union issued a fiery warning on Thursday to President Biden, telling him to “keep our name out of your mouth,” hours before the president is due to meet with officials at the border and urge passage of a Senate border bill. Biden and former President Donald Trump are both heading to the border, with Biden visiting Brownsville, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. He will meet with Border Patrol, law enforcement and local leaders.
“During his trip, the President will receive a briefing on border security operations and an operational briefing from CBP, ICE, and USCIS. Afterwards, the President will deliver remarks to emphasize the need for Congressional Republicans to stop putting politics ahead of our border security and pass the bipartisan border security agreement,” a White House official said.
President Biden speaks with a member of the Border Patrol as they walk along the U.S.-Mexico border fence in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 8, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
That bipartisan bill, which includes additional staffing for Border Patrol and other agencies, as well as funding for cities and states receiving migrants and limits on asylum, won the backing of the union. Conservative lawmakers, however, rejected the bill and said it would normalize unacceptably high levels of illegal immigration and the bill has not progressed.
While it backed the bipartisan bill that Biden also supports, the National Border Patrol Council has otherwise been intensely critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis and put that in no uncertain terms in a post on X.
“Attention President Biden: Keep our name out of your mouth today,” it said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the post. The union had issued a statement this week, calling the visit “too little, too late.”
“But even if he were to put the proper policies in place at this late hour, he’d be doing it only to try to save his Presidency. And self-serving actions when time is winding down should always give Americans pause. Common sense dictates that as a lame duck, he’d revert to his open border policies if re-elected,” the union said.
“Biden is going to the border now solely to try to save himself. Border security should never be about politics, it should always be about the safety and security of this great nation and the American people,” it said.
The trip comes as illegal immigration has become a top election issue, with polls showing a majority of voters see it as a critical threat to the country.
President Biden will seek to put the ball in the Republicans’ camp, repeating the administration’s argument that it is working within a “broken” system that needs funding and reforms from Congress. The White House has also pointed to a record of over 550,000 removals since May last year, more than any year since FY 23.
But Republicans say that the three-year crisis, which saw a record 2.4 million encounters in FY 24 alone, is the result of Biden-era policies including more releases into the interior and reduced interior enforcement.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security. He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.
Earlier this month the Senate rejected a “compromise” on the border and sent a bill to the House that funds Israel’s many needs following the 10/7 massacre, Taiwan’s defenses, weapons for Ukraine and a significant spend on America’s defense industrial base. Now Speaker Mike Johnson has to decide what to do with it because he needs more support from his Caucus than the bill as currently written garners from the House GOP caucus. The best strategy for the Speaker? Make everyone an offer they can’t refuse: Build the wall.
The key to getting the Supplemental passed lies in a Washington Post article from February 27, the headline of which tells the story: “The Border Wall Has Never Been More Popular.”
The critical two paragraphs:
“Multiple recent polls have shown support for building a wall along the southern border creating a majority.
“Late last year, it was Quinnipiac University and Fox News polling that showed between 52 and 57 percent supported its construction. On Monday it was a Monmouth University poll that pegged support at 53 percent.”
Those are eye-popping numbers because the wall is former President Trump’s signature issue, but the collapse of security at the border and President Biden’s shrugging of shoulders at the flood of migrants who have crossed the border since he became president has changed public opinion dramatically in Trump’s and the wall’s favor.
Trump had the border under control by the end of his first term and has promised to do so again in a second term.
Biden, in the sharpest contrast of the campaign ahead, abandoned the policies that led to control of the border and eight million people entered the country without permission in Biden’s first three years. That number has likely now passed 9 million total “encounters” at the border —and that number does not include “got-aways”: The illegal immigrants who do not enter through a port of entry and are never “encountered” by law enforcement anywhere. The “get-aways” include the cartels’ worst customers carrying the most fentanyl and the Chinese nationals who don’t want to be fingerprinted and then released.
It’s a mess. It’s a huge burden on all the states and cities flooded with migrants. It’s a threat to every kid who tries one pill because they think they have bought a Xanax online but it’s a knock-off laced with enough fentanyl to kill. And it’s a national security nightmare.
Only 450 Chinese nationals were “encountered” at the border in Fiscal Year 2021. In FY 2022 “encounters” with Chinese nationals soared to 2,176. “In 2023, it ballooned to 24,314,” according to NBC News and in the first quarter of FY 2024, estimates are that another 19,000 have already entered and the surge in this demographic is increasing. That’s a national security issue of the first order. When the Soviet Union existed, do you think Ronald Reagan would have allowed 40,000 Soviets to enter the country and vanish into its interior? Of course not, but Joe Biden has done the equivalent of that by doing nothing.
Migrants are encountered by Border Patrol in the San Diego sector on Feb. 17. (Fox News)
When discussing this Chinese subset of the migrant flood with three former national security officials from the Trump era this past weekend, they guaranteed me that tens of thousands of Chinese nationals don’t slip easily out of the Chinese Communist Party’s control. They are very alarmed that the vast majority of these migrants are military-aged men.
Whatever one thinks about sanctuary cities, or California extending Medicaid to illegal immigrants (at a cost of more than $2 billion annually to a state with a $68 billion dollar deficit) the reality is that Americans of all political perspectives save the hard Left have awakened to the fact that this can’t go on.
The border with Mexico is 1,954 miles long. 900 miles are considered “passable.” When he left office, Trump was adding miles of Wall daily to try and get as much of the 900 miles of Wall needed built. But as soon as Biden was sworn in, construction stopped, and the film of migrants walking around the unfinished Wall or through openings created by the coyotes began playing. Americans noticed. They want The Wall and they want it now.
With funding for most of the Supplemental already enjoying majority support in the House, how to pass the necessary bill? Tack on funding for the wall as well as language that makes it clear that construction is to restart and conclude in a matter of months. That will also require language in the new law that approves that construction “notwithstanding any other law or treaty with any nation or sovereign Tribe.” That language blows past the obstacles to the Wall’s construction posed by the federal Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act while also mandating construction on tribal lands. This is America. We built the Interstate Highway system. We can build the Wall in a matter of months if the will, the money and the clear direction exist in the Congress.
Want the Supplemental? Build the Wall. It is that simple.
Hugh Hewitt is one of the country’s leading journalists of the center-right. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990, and it is today syndicated to hundreds of stations and outlets across the country every Monday through Friday morning. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and this column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his forty years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio show today.
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to avert a partial government shutdown, sending the measure to the Democrat-majority Senate less than two days before funding for some federal agencies runs out.
Two-hundred and seven Democrats joined 113 Republicans in a 320-99 vote to approve the short-term stopgap measure, which would extend by one week federal funding that expires at midnight on Friday (0500 GMT on Saturday) and set a March 22 funding deadline for other government agencies.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he hoped his chamber would pass the bill, known as a continuing resolution on Thursday evening and forward it to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
While both chambers’ leaders agreed on the measure, there are potential stumbling blocks in the Senate, where some hardline Republicans are expected to demand amendment votes in exchange for their consent to fast-track the bill.
The stopgap, the fourth needed to keep federal agencies open in the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, is intended to give the House and Senate time to pass 12 appropriations bills to fund the government.
About two months have passed since Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Schumer agreed on a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the fiscal year. House and Senate leaders on Wednesday reached agreement on a slate of full-year appropriations bills to fill in the details.
Johnson, who has wielded the speaker’s gavel only since late October, once again relied on a procedural move that required substantial Democrat support to pass the CR, a tactic that could anger hardline conservatives.
In a sign of potential problems for Johnson, the measure was opposed by 97 Republicans.
Johnson had been pressured by hardline Republicans to use a shutdown as a bargaining chip to force Democrats to accept conservative policy riders, including partisan provisions to restrict the flow of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’re not going to do anything to actually change the border. We’re not going to do anything that’s going to actually hold the line,” said Representative Chip Roy, a prominent hardliner. “It’s just the Swamp doing what the Swamp does!” he added, using a pejorative term for Washington politics.
But Republican Representative Patrick McHenry predicted that Johnson would face no threat as a result of votes on spending legislation, unlike his predecessor Kevin McCarthy, who a small group of hardliners voted out of leadership for passing a bipartisan bill to avert a shutdown in September.
“This is the House Republicans coming to terms with reality,” said McHenry. “It’s been clear for months that this is the outcome. To get on with it is the best thing.”
Major ratings agencies say the repeated brinkmanship is taking a toll on the creditworthiness of a nation whose debt has surpassed $34 trillion.
Johnson is likely to face heightened hardline pressure after the first appropriations bills are unveiled this weekend. Hardliners say they expect the bills to show few conservative victories on spending or policy.
A U.S. federal judge granted a preliminary injunction preventing Texas from enforcing the SB4 immigration law, which made it a crime to cross the Texas-Mexico border illegally.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra on Thursday halted the lawl’s enforcement, which was set to begin March 5, while the case continues to be litigated in court. Texas is being sued by the federal government and several immigration advocacy organizations. Ezra said in his statement that the federal government “will suffer grave irreparable harm” if the law took effect because it could inspire other states to pass their own immigration laws.
“SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” Ezra wrote.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in December signed SB4 into law in the state’s most recent effort to stem the unprecedented flow of illegal border crossings coming through the Rio Grande from Mexico. After Abbott’s action, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and the Texas Civil Rights Project sued Texas on behalf of El Paso County. In January, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its own lawsuit with the two having since been combined.
Earlier in the month, Ezra gave indications that he would likely file an injunction when he scolded Texas lead attorney Ryan Walters saying, “A little more care, in fact maybe a lot more care, could have gone into the drafting of this statute.”
Adding that the law could result in every state writing immigration laws for themselves which could “turn us from the United States of America to a confederation of states.”
MSNBC host Joy Reid— seen here in a May 19, 2021, screenshot speaking to a virtual version of the 33rd “Gloria Awards: A Salute to Women of Vision” in New York City—is what she accuses others of being; namely, a spreader of wild conspiracy theories. (Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
In case you just can’t get enough of Joy Reid with an hour each weeknight on MSNBC, you can catch her sharing her wild and loose opinions on TikTok. Recently, she pounced on remarks by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., supporting the Alabama court decision that frozen embryos are children, because “we need more kids.”
Our fertility rate in America is now at a record low, but Reid just wants to use Alabama’s football coach-turned-senator as a punching bag. “Why does the state of Alabama need more kids? More kids for what?”
Reid wants to make this about immigration. “Your party, Sen. Tuberville, is the one screaming that 10 million immigrants … have streamed into the country since Joe Biden has been president. And you’re claiming that’s too many people.”
Most critics of the border crisis aren’t arguing that America is overpopulated. They’re arguing the massive influx of humanity is too much for our government systems to handle, which is the same critique emanating from Democratic big city mayors, who have been swamped with migrants who expect free food, housing and maybe a monthly gift card.
But Reid was primed to uncork a racial conspiracy theory, which MSNBC always encourages against Republicans. Antebellum references seem mandatory.
“There was a time when the state of Alabama absolutely needed more kids, because Alabama was a slave state,” Reid proclaimed, “and the mandate of the planter class in Alabama was for black women to produce more kids because those kids were property, and they could work more kids and make more money on their plantation.”
But what does 1854 have to do with 2024? Reid suggested there was a master plan: “Are you saying the state of Alabama needs more kids because you think that those populations will include people who may be destitute and desperate enough that when you kick out the immigrants … you can make them do the work that the migrants are doing now? ‘Cause that kind of sounds slavery-ish.”
Wait. If the immigrants flooding into America are doing “slavery-ish” work, shouldn’t Reid oppose more immigration? Reid needs to imply the immigrants pouring in are “people of color,” even if that’s not true. For the Left, appeals to limit illegal immigration must always be painted as motivated by racism.
To its credit, The New York Times has published a series of investigative reports on migrant child labor in America. One was headlined “Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.”
No one imagines that led to a scathing TikTok tirade by Reid. She closed out by asking Tuberville in absentia if, since he’s a “white guy,” he’s suggesting “we need more kids” means “whites need more kids,” a “Great Replacement thing,” because if he thinks white women need to make more babies, “that’s a little creepy. A little ‘Handmaid’s Tale,’ don’t you think?”
Back in 2021, Reid took to TikTok to mock Kyle Rittenhouse for tearing up when he testified about shooting rioters dead in self-defense. Reid compared him to Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings, mocking their “male white tears,” and proclaiming these guys “Karen-out, and as soon as they get caught, they bring waterworks.”
Reid wouldn’t use this white-Karens-waterworks mockery for Hillary Clinton’s public tears when she ran for president. These videos aren’t for everyone. They’re for the hard-core MSNBC watchers who want to “own the cons,” but especially those stale, pale males. Conservatives just want to check what chemicals she might have put in her vape pen to explain that overactive imagination.
Laken Riley is another of many victims Biden’s and the Democrats’ open border policies have claimed. Over 100,000 Fentanyl deaths, human trafficking, and crime have saturated Biden and the Democrats’ hands with the blood of these victims, all the while blaming Congress when Biden ended all the Trump border executive orders that were effective against drastically curbing the invasion at the border.
Biden Cracks a Joke About His Age After Refusing to Mention Georgia College Student Killed By One of His Illegal Aliens (VIDEO)
By Cristina Laila – Feb 28, 2024
Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered remarks on his so-called ‘actions to fight crime and make communities safer.’ This is while he’s allowing millions of military-age males from some of the most dangerous parts of the world to invade the US. Venezuela emptied its prisons and some of its most dangerous gang members and murderers have illegally crossed into the US on Joe Biden’s open border invitation.
Biden’s open borders policies are getting Americans killed.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Top Stories • Republicans Block Bogus Democrat IVF Bill That Would Allow Destroying Human Embryos • Mitch McConnell Will Step Down as Senate Republican Leader In November • Donald Trump Easily Wins Michigan Primary, 20% of Democrats Abandon Joe Biden • 100 Members of Congress Tell Supreme Court to Uphold Idaho Abortion Ban Protecting Babies
More Pro-Life News • The Alabama Court Was Right, Unborn Babies are Human Beings Starting at Conception • Missouri House Approves Measure to Defund Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz • Alabama’s Supreme Court Ruled in Favor of Infertile Couples Who Used IVF, The Media Lied • Democrats’ IVF Legislation Would Open Door to Child Abusers Creating Kids • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
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Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker said the FBI wants him to self-surrender to the agency Friday morning in Dallas over his January 6 reporting.
🚨BREAKING🧵- This time, it’s really happening.
Unlike the two previous threats my attorneys received from @FBI / @thejusticedept (Nov. 21 and Dec. 23), my self-surrender for alleged J6 crimes is set for this Friday morning in Dallas, TX. There is now a signed arrest warrant.⬇️
Baker told Blaze News he’s been instructed to turn himself in at the agency’s field office at 7 a.m. wearing “shorts and sandals” — which he said signals that the plan likely is to go for “humiliation” and place him in an orange jumpsuit, handcuff him, and do the “prisoner transport routine.”
He added that after he’s taken to the Dallas courthouse, he’ll appear at a 10 a.m. hearing before a federal magistrate.
“They didn’t have to go this route,” Baker told Blaze News on Tuesday evening. “We have been told that my charges are only misdemeanors. And my attorneys have been assured that this will be an ‘in and out’ affair with ‘no intention’ to detain me. But rather than issuing a simple order to appear, they went the ‘arrest warrant’ route.”
What’s more, Baker said he still does not know what the charges against him are, noting to Blaze News that the powers that be won’t tell his attorney about the charges because they believe Baker will post them on social media. Baker’s Dallas attorney, James Lee Bright, added to Blaze News that withholding the nature of the charges against his client is a “really unusual” move. Bright also said he’s hoping to get a copy of the complaint against Baker as early as possible Friday morning. Baker also said his legal team was told there was no request to the court for detention, no need for bail, and the expectation is that he’ll be released after the proceedings. Bright told Blaze News that he anticipates Friday’s hearing to be simple.
“We do not know if there will be pretrial travel restrictions, although that has been the norm for J6 defendants — even for misdemeanor defendants,” Baker also said. “It has also been universal that no J6ers are allowed to travel to Washington, D.C., which for obvious reasons will have a deleterious impact on my work. We also do not know if there will be any other accompanying restrictions or orders: gag order from talking about my case, no social media, limited social media, order to surrender devices and/or firearms. All unknowns.”
‘Absolute chilling effect’
Bright told Blaze News that he’s “disturbed” about what’s transpiring with his client, especially given that Baker has been “in full compliance” all this time. Bright also said the federal government “three-plus years later going after people who were legitimate functioning journalists that day” appears designed to have an “absolute chilling effect.”
“I’m not a depressive person, but I’m not happy about this,” Baker added to Blaze News. “I have prayed, ‘Lord, let this cup pass from me,’ but apparently it’s not going to.” However, he also said it will be a “relief” to get this first step over with.
Baker added that when he asked his other attorney, William Shipley, why the federal government is treating him like this, Shipley replied, “You know why. You’ve been poking them in the eye for three years”
Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson couldn’t agree more, saying in a Tuesday evening statement that “the federal government’s treatment of Steve Baker is outrageous.”
“He’s had unknown charges hanging over his head for years, but after we started working with him the government sprang back into action. There is no need to put him in a jumpsuit or handcuffs except as a humiliation ritual or a show, which seems to be exactly what they are planning on doing on Friday,” Peterson added.
“We will be showing the world footage from January 6 that shows Steve was clearly present that day as an independent journalist. Government retaliation such as this against journalists contradicts the very idea of a free press, the purpose of our form of government, and what once was the American way of life,” Peterson also noted, adding that “this should not be happening in America.”
What’s the background?
Baker announced in December that the FBI said the U.S. Department of Justice would be charging him for his Jan. 6 reporting — but two days later, he noted that the FBI said his self-surrender was postponed until after Christmas.
It’s been a waiting game ever since.
Here’s an interview BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales conducted with Baker in December:
Last month, attorneys representing Baker told Blaze News that the U.S. Department of Justice may be orchestrating a “retaliation” against Baker over his Jan. 6 reporting.
“Steve’s actions on January 6 have been known to the Department of Justice for 3 years,” Baker’s attorneys said in a January news release. “But it is only now — after Steve has broken two major stories greatly embarrassing to the DOJ — that he is possibly being targeted for arrest and possibly felony prosecution. Any action taken to put him in handcuffs, hold him in custody, and have him transported to court by federal law enforcement will be nothing other than retaliation for his recent reporting.”
Baker discussed his legal saga in a pair of October commentary pieces for Blaze News (here and here), detailing the ins and outs of the federal investigation he’s been under following his independent journalistic work on Jan. 6, which began before he joined Blaze News.
What has been uncovered as a result of Baker’s investigations?
Baker’s first Jan. 6 analysis for Blaze News came last October, following countless hours in a House subcommittee office looking at frame after frame of Jan. 6 closed-circuit video — and it had him wondering: did Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus perjure himself in the Oath Keepers trial?
In December, Baker alleged he uncovered major irregularities involving Dunn, Capitol Police, the press, and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland).
In January, Baker asserted that just-released U.S. Capitol closed-circuit TV video clips from Jan. 6 show Lazarus gave false testimony in the Oath Keepers trial.
Also in January, Baker and others were asking what the U.S. government has to hide in regard to the pipe bomb found on Jan. 6 at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Baker followed up on that in February with another analysis titled “Capitol Police diverted all CCTV cameras away from DNC pipe bomb investigation — except one.”
Why did President Joe Biden reverse former President Donald Trump’s order excluding noncitizens from being counted in the census, while simultaneously issuing a slew of executive orders decimating the integrity of our southern border? While illegal immigrants cannot vote in elections (despite Democrats’ best efforts), the left is using their illegal presence to rig elections by shifting the political landscape through apportionment.
Both congressional and electoral college apportionment is derived from the number of residents in a particular area. Trump signed a memo in July of 2020 that barred illegal immigrants from being counted in the census, which is used to apportion representation in Washington. Biden, however, reversed the policy and ordered the census to include illegal immigrants and other noncitizens.
This means that American citizens aren’t receiving balanced representation in their government.
States can pick up — or lose — a congressional seat depending on the size of their population, despite the fact that some of that population may not even be allowed to vote. Millions of illegal immigrants, many of whom are in large, left-leaning cities, dilute the voting power of American citizens who may live in a mildly populated area composed of legal residents.
Democrat New York Rep. Yvette Clark said during a 2021 hearing that her district “can absorb a significant number of these migrants” because “I need more people in my district, just for redistricting purposes.”
NY Congresswoman Clarke (D) saying the quiet part out loud about the border:
Clark’s resurfaced clip prompted Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and others to introduce the “Equal Representation Act” which would mandate only legal citizens are counted for congressional districts and the Electoral College map.
Sanctuary Cities
So-called “sanctuary cities,” which promise not to enforce immigration laws and often guarantee lodging to illegal residents, have long blurred the lines of law, bucking federal immigration policy and then begging taxpayers to foot the bill. But despite the drain on government resources — and sometimes violence — these policies invite, these cities and left-leaning states have reason to incentivize illegal immigrants because it helps them adjust for apportionment.
As residents flee blue states like California and New York for more family-friendly and taxpayer-friendly states like Florida and Texas, Democrats need to recoup their population losses. Illegal immigrants inflate the census data, which in turn could help Democrats retain their power.
Constitutionally Suspect
The framers likely would not support Biden’s position that illegal immigrants deserve to be counted in apportionment to determine representation.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
Following the Civil War, the 14th Amendment stipulated that “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State.”
But “whole number of persons” was likely not intended to encompass those illegally residing in the states.
Prior to the ratification of the Constitution, most northern states advocated for no slaves to be counted in the apportionment proceedings so that slaveholding states, some of which had slave populations as high as 43 percent of their total residents, would not have an unfair amount of representation compared to their actual voting weight.
The three-fifths compromise also lessened the incentive for slaveholding states to import more slaves in order to expand their population and increase their representation.
No ‘Colorable Constitutional Claim’
Lower courts had blocked Trump’s memorandum from taking effect after 23 states challenged the memo, saying it violated the Constitution and federal census statutes. The Supreme Court has never weighed in on the question nor answered whether the word “persons” encompasses illegal immigrants for the purpose of apportionment. But the high court has previously ruled in Mathews v. Diaz, a case regarding the Social Security Act, that while illegal immigrants are entitled to due process protections under the Fifth and 14th Amendments, they are not entitled to the benefits of citizenship. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the unanimous court:
Neither the overnight visitor, the unfriendly agent of a hostile foreign power, the resident diplomat, nor the illegal entrant, can advance even a colorable constitutional claim to a share in the bounty that a conscientious sovereign makes available to its own citizens and some of its guests.
If voting, which is a benefit exclusively for citizens, is off-limits to illegal immigrants, it would be hard to imagine that illegal immigrants should be empowered to dilute the weight of a vote by artificially expanding the population and increasing the representational advantage of one area while taking it away from another area that is populated by legal residents. And yet, thanks to Democrats, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.
Former law firm partner and divorce attorney Terrance Bradley on Tuesday testified under oath regarding what he knew about Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosector Nathan Wade’s personal relationship. Bradley took the stand after Judge Scott McAfee determined Bradley couldn’t claim attorney-client privilege.
Bradley, when pressed under oath, said he couldn’t recall several details and timelines about conversations he had with former client Wade about Wade’s romantic relationship with Willis. Defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant at one point referenced text messages between her and Bradley in which she had asked Bradley if he thought the relationship started before Willis hired Wade in 2021. Bradley responded “absolutely” in the text exchange.
When confronted with a record of those texts in court Tuesday, Bradley appeared to mutter “dang.” But then he said he was “speculating” in those comments.
Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, is accused of having an “improper” romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. (Getty Images)
Attorney Richard Rice later asked Bradley if he makes a habit of passing on “lies about your friends.”
“Do you tell lies about your friends? About a case of national importance?” Rice asked.
“I could have had, I don’t know,” Bradley responded.
Bradely said he couldn’t recall key details or specific information more than two dozen times in the roughly two-hour testimony in Fulton County Superior Court on Tuesday. He also said he had only ever discussed Wade’s relationship with Willis once with Wade.
Bradley this month avoided answering certain questions, citing attorney-client privilege. McAfee said he would hold an “in-camera” meeting with Bradley to determine if his privilege assertions are accurate. He said it appeared that Bradley may have been misusing his attorney-client privilege.
Bradley is the former law firm partner of Wade, who is accused of having an affair that financially benefited Willis after she hired him to help prosecute the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Bradley said he hadn’t spoken to Wade in two years after having been friends for more than 10 years.
Terrence Bradley, divorce lawyer and former law partner of Nathan Wade, testifies during a hearing into misconduct allegations against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Tuesday. (Brynn Anderson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Bradley had refused to answer some of the questions asked by defense counsel about what he knew about Wade and Willis’ relationship and when he knew, citing attorney-client privilege. Bradley, for a brief time, was Wade’s lawyer during Wade’s divorce.
McAfee determined after the in-camera meeting that Bradley’s testimony was not covered by privilege, leading to Tuesday’s testimony, which is likely the last installment of evidentiary hearings before both sides present final arguments Friday.
Lawyers for Trump and his co-defendants who are accusing Willis of having had an “improper” affair with Wade will try to connect evidence that Willis and Wade lied about when their relationship began and should therefore be disqualified from the case.
Earlier this month, Willis’ father, John C. Floyd III, took the stand and confirmed what Willis testified to — that her father taught her to keep large amounts of cash on hand at all times. She said it was from these funds that she reimbursed Wade for luxury trips, which is why she had no record of the payments.
Floyd also said he did not meet Wade until 2023 and that he was unaware his daughter had a romantic relationship with Wade until about seven weeks ago, when allegations of Willis’ impropriety were first made in court filings.
During their romantic relationship, which ended last summer, Wade and Willis vacationed in wine country in California, the Caribbean and other destinations.
Michael Roman, a GOP political operative and co-defendant in the Trump case, first alleged that Willis had a conflict of interest in the case because she benefited financially from hiring her lover. Four co-defendants have made similar accusations.
The crux of the defense’s case is whether it can prove with a money trail that Willis has a conflict of interest in the case against Trump and should thus be disqualified.
Willis testified that she reimbursed Wade for her share of vacation expenses in cash, but she and Wade testified there were no receipts for those transactions.
The defense, led by Merchant, is also trying to prove Willis and Wade were romantically involved prior to Wade’s employment in the DA’s office.
Both Willis and Wade insisted that their relationship started in 2022, after Wade was hired. But they contradicted testimony from Robin Yeartie, a former “good friend” of Willis and past employee at the DA’s office.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta on Feb. 15 (Alyssa Pointer)
Yeartie said she had “no doubt” Willis and Wade’s relationship started in 2019, after the two met at a conference.
She testified to observing Willis and Wade “hugging” and “kissing” and showing “affection” prior to November 2021 and that she had no doubt that the two were in a “romantic” relationship starting in 2019 and lasting until she and Willis last spoke in 2022.
Willis dismissed Yeartie’s testimony and said she no longer considers Yeartie a friend.
The highlight of the two-day proceeding was Willis’ own — and unexpected — testimony, which was described by one expert as “belligerent.”
She verbally sparred with lawyers for hours, at one point prompting the judge to threaten to strike her testimony. She also raised eyebrows by appearing to wear her dress backward. She did not return to the witness stand the following day.
McAfee said at the start of the proceedings this month that it’s “clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one.”
Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
Brianna Herlihy is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
FIRST ON FOX: Georgia nursing student Laken Riley tried calling 911 last week when a Venezuelan national allegedly attacked her on the University of Georgia campus, according to Athens-Clarke County police, who declined to release the call in response to public records requests. The revelation explains one of the charges against murder suspect Jose Antonio Ibarra filed Friday related to violently interfering with a 911 call. Police had previously said they received a non-emergency call from a friend of Riley’s reporting her missing when she failed to return from her morning run Thursday.
Authorities did release other documents in the case, however, revealing the suspected killer’s brother Diego Ibarra, another illegal immigrant from Venezuela, showed he had little regard for the law between his arrival in the U.S. and when he allegedly handed police a fraudulent green card that had two mismatched birth dates printed on it, according to police documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
Jose Ibarra, who was originally taken into custody on Friday by the UGA Police Department in connection with Riley’s death, is now not believed to have had a connection to the victim. (Clarke County Sheriff’s Office)
In his first encounter with Athens-Clarke County police, he allegedly sped past an officer on Atlanta Highway near Epps Bridge Road going 80 mph in a 40 mph zone, with no license or insurance, and sipping from an ice-cold can of Bud Light.
“I opened the driver’s door and ordered him to step out of the vehicle, but he turned and began reaching inside of the vehicle, so I forcibly pulled him out,” the investigating officer wrote of the Sept. 24, 2023 stop, according to police documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
“The driver struggled and was brought to the ground, where there was a short struggle to handcuff him.”
In Spanish, he allegedly admitted to drinking seven beers before the stop, and he did not have a driver’s license.
Federal prosecutors announced charges against Diego last week after he allegedly handed over a fake green card to police officers who were on the hunt for his brother in connection with Riley’s brutal murder.
Two Athens-Clarke police officers stopped Diego because he matched his brother’s physical description and appeared to be wearing the same hat they saw on their suspect in surveillance video, the documents reveal.
Diego Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly handed over a fake green card to police on the hunt for his brother Jose, who they accuse of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. (Clarke County Sheriff’s Office)
He told them he didn’t speak English and allegedly handed over a green card that had two separate dates of birth listed alongside his photo and fingerprint. The officers contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Diego is currently facing federal fraud charges for the incident.
Diego entered the country illegally in April 2023. Days after the DUI charges, police responded to his apartment for a domestic disturbance, but did not arrest him, the documents reveal.
Both brothers were cited on Oct. 27, 2023, for allegedly stealing more than $200 from an Athens Walmart.
But the records show Diego returned on Dec. 8 and allegedly stole more items, this time getting banned from Walmart stores for a two-year period and booked into county jail.
Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. (Laken Riley/Facebook)
His brother Jose Ibarra, Riley’s suspected killer, entered the country illegally in 2022 but was freed on border parole, which allowed him to travel to New York City and then Athens, according to authorities.
Police report: Diego Ibarra’s fraudulent green card case
Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz on Wednesday faced protests at a news briefing on public safety in the city, which is about 70 miles east of Atlanta. Hecklers called for his resignation when he denied Athens is a sanctuary city and shouted him down when he blamed a 2019 resolution supporting undocumented foreigners on then-President Trump.
“While 2019 was not that long ago, you might remember the dynamic we were living in, in the late teens in this country where you had the president of the United States speaking in the most vile terms about people who were foreign born,” he said. “And you had that notion metastasizing in places like Charlottesville.”
“This is an invasion,” a man shouted.
Michael Ruiz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to michael.ruiz@fox.com and on Twitter: @mikerreports
There are three walls in the area around McAllen, Texas. Colloquially, they are referred to as “the George W. Bush wall,” “the Donald Trump wall” and the “Greg Abbott wall.” Like so much of what happens at our southern border, the walls make little sense. For one thing, both sides of the wall, in all three cases, are United States land. In other words, if you’re a migrant, and you’ve reached the wall, you’re already on American soil. For another, the walls are all incomplete, with gaps that make them easy to breach. You can simply follow the wall, see where it ends and walk around it.
President Biden and migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. (Getty Images)
I didn’t know any of this when I landed in McAllen, Texas, a few days ago. A safe, bustling city, McAllen sits in the Rio Grande Valley on the American border with Mexico. Hundreds of thousands of migrants come through the city each year.
I was invited on this trip to the border by Americans for Prosperity, “a libertarian conservative political advocacy group.” I have no affiliation with this group other than joining them on this trip. “Is this… a pro-open borders trip?” conservative friends half-joked.
Despite being founded during the “Tea Party” era, AFP has a reputation for having a softer stance on immigration than most groups in the conservative world. As my own opinions on immigration policies are fairly stringent, I was actually interested to hear the argument for open borders, one that even the left has stopped making.
But that didn’t happen. If AFP had been somewhat lenient on illegal immigration in the past, it didn’t come through during this trip at all. The speakers all stressed the severe problems that are caused by allowing masses of unvetted people to enter the country unchecked.
We learned that during the Obama administration his Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, had proclaimed it a real problem when 1,000 people crossed every day and that 3,000 would be a crisis. Yuma Sector’s Retired Chief Border Patrol Agent Chris T. Clem told the group, “Now those numbers would be a vacation for us.”
They brought in Chalmers Carr, a farmer and owner of Titan Farms in South Carolina. “Oh, here we go,” I thought to myself. I imagined Mr. Carr would be making an argument that he needed these illegal immigrants to work his farm. I was wrong. In fact, Carr does not employ any seasonal workers who don’t have a specific work visa.
Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Carr said the migrants entering illegally largely don’t want to work in agriculture anymore. He told us about the Biden administration assault on the H-2 visa process that allows Carr to legally hire seasonal workers from other countries. In a nod to labor groups, the Biden administration has made the process of hiring workers extremely difficult and expensive. They’ve raised the fees on these visas to offset the funding of asylum cases.
I spoke with Chief Clem after the trip and asked him what Americans need to most understand about the border. He stressed, “We’re letting in everybody who crosses into the country and many of them don’t meet basic tenets for asylum.”
He told me that the old system would weed out people who very obviously didn’t have a reasonable case but DHS policy now is to give every single person an asylum hearing before a judge. That can sometimes take years and since we don’t have the capacity to hold people, we’re letting people out into the country and hoping they come back for their court date. It’s unsustainable.
Clem told me if the people crossing the border “saw a judge within 7-14 days after detainment, that would go a long way toward fixing the problems and would be consistent with the way the system is designed.” Most would be found ineligible for asylum and it would act as a “deterrent to people making the dangerous journey with cartels.”
A few days before I arrived at the border, Axios reported, “Biden has considered an executive order that would dramatically stanch the record flow of migrants into the Southwest. This could even happen in the two weeks before the address, allowing Biden to say he took action while Republicans just talk.”
The fact that an executive order was possible the whole time to fix this issue, but Biden has been waiting for the most politically opportune moment while the country buckles under this problem, is unacceptable. It is not pro-immigrant to allow people into our country unchecked. We have strained every resource and Biden could end it all with a pen stroke.
My border trip ended with a visit to Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center. An old bar had been repurposed as a mini pharmacy for toiletries and other goods. Signs in English, Spanish and Russian instructed that no medicine could be prescribed here.
On mats on the floor, adults lounged, scrolling on their phones while a dance troop entertained the kids in another room. The migrants stay here 24-48 hours before their families arrange passage for them. If they don’t have family in the United States, they are assisted by other non-governmental agencies.
Perhaps this was the part of the trip meant to pull at the heartstrings but it served as a reminder that if you break the law to come into the United States, there will be a network there to assist you in your journey. For a refugee like me, whose family came to this country legally and with great difficulty, it’s galling to see people so blatantly disregard our laws and be rewarded with easy passage.
On my flight home, there were a few obvious migrant families and several Haitian single men. The men were very well-dressed, in designer clothing and sneakers. Where were they going and what will they be doing? How have we allowed a system that does not specifically answer this question?
In December and January, U.S. Customs and Border Protections had 478,188 encounters at our southern border. Much of the media sells us an image of food delivery men and agriculture workers coming here to do the jobs Americans won’t. Nearly half a million people in two months couldn’t all have become Uber Eats delivery drivers. It turns out they are not working in agriculture. How is this mass of people being absorbed into American life?
A story last week about the northern border, and how it’s growing as a crossing point for migrants who have discovered it’s even easier to get in from Canada than Mexico, contained this tidbit from a resident of a small Vermont town being impacted:
“The Border Patrol actually told us, ‘You guys might want to put a pistol in your backpack’ because nine out of 10 of them are just here for a better life, but there’s that one guy that’s got a rap sheet.”
The CPB puts the total of nationwide encounters for 2023 at 3,201,144. Someone ask the Biden administration to do the math.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign faces an arduous task uniting his party after Michigan Democrats waged a massive protest vote over his support of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. With 95% of the votes counted, Biden won Tuesday’s primary with 81%, but 13%, or more than 100,000 people, cast “uncommitted” ballots in a state where a large Arab American community and other progressive Democrats vented their anger at Biden’s support of an Israeli offensive in which tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.
Neither Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned Gaza or Israel in their statements on Michigan’s results, an omission that drew criticism from organizers of the uncommitted vote effort.
The results showed Biden’s “core group of supporters are still behind him,” a Biden campaign official said on Wednesday.
“This doesn’t mean we will ignore the Arab American and Muslim American population. We will not. We are not taking anyone for granted,” the official said.
The official said the president was working to build lasting peace in the Middle East. “He’s not approaching this issue as a politician but as commander-in-chief.”
Democrats, overall, support Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict by 61%, February polling by Harvard-Harris shows. Just over 101,000 voters cast uncommitted ballots, far more than the 10,000 organizers said they sought and prompting some to speak of plans for a nationwide movement. When Democratic President Barack Obama ran for re-election in 2012, he faced about 21,000 uncommitted voters in Michigan’s primary that year. The votes are enough to send two ‘uncommitted’ delegates to the Democrats’ national convention in August.
“Our delegation plans to hold the Democratic nominee accountable to our community’s anti-war agenda at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago” in August, said Listen to Michigan, one of the groups behind the uncommitted vote.
MICHIGAN THE EPICENTER OF BACKLASH
Biden’s early and strident support of Israel and his refusal to condition military aid on not killing innocent people or destroying infrastructure sparked outrage and a well-organized backlash with Michigan as the epicenter. That anger has grown as deaths climbed in Gaza, famine looms and much of the 2.3 million population became homeless.
Michigan organizers want Biden to push for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and halt aid to Israel. They have signaled they might stay home rather than vote for Biden in November’s general election.
The Biden administration has become more critical of Israel over time. The White House in mid-February proposed a temporary ceasefire resolution at the U.N. Security Council and Biden publicly mentioned the idea, but the administration vetoed another measure calling for a permanent ceasefire.
Late on Monday, Biden said Israel had agreed to halt military activities in Gaza for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan expected to begin on the evening of March 10, as Hamas studied a draft for a truce that includes a prisoner-hostage exchange. Nonetheless, Hamas and Israel appear far apart on a deal.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden remained committed to a hostage deal accompanied by a temporary ceasefire. “The president understands how painful this moment is to many people,” Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and captured 253 on Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies, triggering Israel’s air and ground assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza. Health authorities in the enclave say nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since.
Michigan Democratic officials vowed to do more to win over voters after Tuesday’s results. Biden won Michigan by less than a 3% margin in 2020, and some opinion polls show the likely Republican candidate Donald Trump ahead in a head-to-head matchup in the state this time. Michigan has some 200,000 Arab American voters, more than Biden’s slim 155,000 margin of victory in 2020.
“Tomorrow is the first day of this general election,” Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II told volunteers for Biden as results rolled in on Tuesday night.
“We are not afraid of people participating in democracy. We are not afraid of voters. We are not afraid of people who are ready to speak out in good faith, in good conscience because they have good intentions,” he said.
Biden Michigan campaign manager Mike Frosolone told party organizers their efforts would pivot to the general election effort in the state, with door knocking, phone banking and the opening of several offices statewide.
“We know when voters see President Biden and Donald Trump’s record side by side, they’re going to choose President Biden,” he said. He said Biden would lay out this case in his State of the Union address on March 7.
Biden, 81, faces low general approval ratings and concern about his age, as does Trump, 77. If Trump is reelected, he is expected to be a strong supporter of Israel and its right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found “extremism” is the top worry for American voters going into the 2024 election, besting the economy or immigration, and that most judge Biden better equipped to deal with the issue.
Yemen’s Houthi spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday that the group’s operations in the Red Sea, where its missiles and drones have been threatening international shipping, will only stop when Israeli “aggression” on Gaza ends and the siege is lifted.
Asked if the attacks on ships would seize if a ceasefire deal was reached for Gaza, Mohammed Abdulsalam said the situation would be reassessed if the siege ended and humanitarian aid was free to enter.
A transgender rights supporter protests outside the Indiana Statehouse on Feb. 20, 2023, in Indianapolis. (Photo: Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/Light Rocket/Getty Images)
A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed Indiana’s child sex change ban to take effect.
The order, issued by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, lifts a June 2023 injunction by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana against the law. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, signed the legislation banning child sex changes in the state last April.
“Our commonsense state law, banning dangerous and irreversible gender-transition procedures for minors, is now enforceable following the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal’s newest order. We are proud to win this fight against the radicals who continue pushing this horrific practice on our children for ideological and financial reasons,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said Tuesday in a statement.
The injunction was previously issued under the presumption that the law may violate the First Amendment and 14th Amendment.
Some 23 states in the U.S. have passed bans on child sex changes or other transgender procedures, including Montana, Idaho, Utah, and North Dakota. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, issued an executive order implementing a child sex-change ban in January after vetoing a similar bill, a move that was subsequently overridden by the state legislature.
“This ruling is beyond disappointing and a heartbreaking development for thousands of transgender youth, their doctors, and their families. As we and our clients consider our next steps, we want all the transgender youth of Indiana to know this fight is far from over, and we will continue to challenge this law until it is permanently defeated and Indiana is made a safer place to raise every family,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana wrote Tuesday in a news release.
“Hoosiers who are too young to drive shouldn’t be subjected to these permanent and drastic procedures. Proud of our state for leading the way!” U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., said when the law was passed.
Google’s AI Gemini is proving to be woke with its recent inaccuracies in a few of its depictions of white historical figures. If AI (Artificial Intelligence) is programmed by leftist woke techies it stands to reason it will have anti-conservative biased output labeled as facts. If we dare extrapolate that into the future of probable technological advances, it gives off a very dark and grim hypothesis.
Google launches leftist AI image generator – world laughs, then realizes grim truth
By Kelly McCarthy
Gemini, Google’s most recent venture into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, has adopted weirdly woke positions on an array of subjects, prompting ridicule from the world of social media, and posing bigger questions about the world’s biggest search engine. READ MORE
Victor Reacts: Woke AI Makes Everyone Black (VIDEO)
By Victor Nieves Feb 23, 2024
Thank goodness for woke AI, without it we would never have known that George Washington was actually black. Google’s AI chatbot “Gemini” is getting destroyed online after reports show it generates historically inaccurate diverse images. The Gateway Pundit previously reported, … READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Top Stories • Pro-Life Group Will Protest University of Houston’s Satanic Abortion Statue • Half of Americans Support 16-Week Abortion Ban to Protect Babies • Catholic Bishop Prays Outside Planned Parenthood to Save Babies From Abortion • Donald Trump Promises to Protect Christians From Persecution
More Pro-Life News • Gavin Newsom Refuses to Support Any Limits on Abortion • Justice Samuel Alito Warns About Discriminating Against Religious Beliefs • Pro-Life Students Force Liberal High School to Stop Censoring Their Views • Four States May Show This Amazing Pro-Life Video to Teach Students Fetal Development • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
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A New Gallup poll finds a record-high number of Americans believe illegal immigration is a “critical threat” to the nation’s vital interests. Voters are clearly blaming President Joe Biden and his band of leftists for the invasion the nation has endured over the past three years.
The latest survey of more than 1,000 adults nationwide, conducted Feb. 1-20, shows 55 percent of U.S. respondents believe that “large numbers of immigrants entering the United States illegally” is a “critical threat” to the nation — up 8 percentage points from last year’s poll. The significant majority of Americans deeply concerned about illegal immigration surpasses the previous high of 50 percent recorded in 2004, according to Gallup.
“Significantly more Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. (28%) than did a month ago (20%),” the famed national pollster notes. “Immigration has now passed the government as the most often cited problem, after the two issues tied for the top position the past two months.”
Concern over the illegal immigration crisis is at the highest level in the 40-plus years Gallup has been tracking the issue.
The poll finds congressional job approval, long in the basement, dipped to just 12 percent. It’s the lowest approval rating for the legislative body since November 2015, when it hit 11 percent, and just a few points above its rock bottom of 9 percent in November 2013.
Gallup conducted the poll as a ludicrous border “reform” bill, which was really just a Trojan horse for more Ukraine funding and would have codified the continuing illegal immigration threat, faltered in the U.S. Senate. The deal, puppeteered in large part by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would have faced a near-certain death in the Republican-controlled House.
Biden’s job performance on immigration has sunk to 28 percent, a personal low for the Democrat, according to the new Gallup poll. That’s down from a CBS poll last month that found just 32 percent of respondents approved of Biden’s handling of border security, an all-time low at that time. The latest monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, released on Monday, records a 35 percent approval rating for Biden on immigration, his lowest rating on any issue in that survey.
“While many Americans regard the economy, generally, or inflation, specifically, as the most important problem facing the U.S., far more name immigration,” Gallup notes in an overview of the poll. “Immigration now sits alone at the top of the most important problem list, something it has done only occasionally in Gallup’s trend and not since 2019.”
Biden’s Border Debacle Hitting Home
Not even the coddling accomplice media can cover for the addled president and the disasters his immigration policies have wrought. The let-‘em-all-in left certainly can’t hide from the stark numbers.
In fiscal year 2020, the last full year of President Donald Trump’s tenure, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded about 400,000 encounters of illegal aliens attempting to enter the southwest United States. Three years later, on Biden’s watch, agents encountered 2.4 million illegal immigrants at the border with Mexico, 3.2 million nationwide.
Facing abysmal poll numbers and a real threat to his reelection chances, Biden audaciously told 30 of the nation’s governors last week that his hands are tied on cleaning up the mess he’s made. In a bald-faced lie for the ages, the president barked at a White House meeting that he’s not to blame for the border debacle and that the governors need to “show a little spine” and urge their members of Congress to pass the “bipartisan security bill” that recently went down in flames.
Half of the nation’s governors are standing with Texas in its right to defend itself against the invasion of illegal immigrants attempting to flood the Lone Star State. The Biden administration has fought against Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to “fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” according to the governor’s office.
“Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies,” stated an Abbott press release issued after the governor welcomed 13 of his fellow Republican governors to Eagle Pass, a border town overtaken by illegal aliens.
Biden’s helpless act isn’t playing well with Americans. Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said the president has had the authority to tighten security at the southwest border since he took office at noon, Jan. 20, 2021 — if nothing else, by leaving things alone.
“The law is not only clear that he not only can enforce immigration laws, he is required to enforce them and he simply has been ignoring them,” the immigration reform activist told me last week on the “Simon Conway Show” on WHO in Des Moines.
In fact, Biden has signed an array of executive orders — early and often — reversing Trump’s work on securing the border. One of his first acts as president was killing construction of his predecessor’s border wall. Biden brought back catch-and-release and ended the remain-in-Mexico policy, among other executive actions that have effectively erased the United States’ southwest border.
“I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden said at the time.
The results have been devastating, well beyond the border. Americans from the largest cities dealing with the massive influx of illegal aliens to small towns confronting rising crime and a fatal fentanyl epidemic are on the frontlines of Biden’s war on the border.
Last week, 22-year-old University of Georgia nursing student Laken Hope Riley was assaulted, kidnapped, and murdered. An illegal immigrant from Venezuela has been arrested in connection with the crime, according to law enforcement, and is reportedly “expected to be charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another.” As my Federalist colleague Jordan Boyd writes, corporate media are trying to cover up that inconvenient truth, but Americans know the deadly consequences of Biden’s open border policies. The latest poll numbers confirm it.
Organizations like the Job Creators Network want to make sure Americans don’t forget who is responsible for the border invasion. JCN recently put up a billboard in New York City’s Times Square featuring a video of NYPD officers being beaten by a group of illegal immigrants. The billboard’s message to the president — and the country: “Hey Joe! If cops aren’t safe because of your open borders, nobody is.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
The other day, Politico writer Heidi Przybyla appeared on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” to talk about the hysteria de jour, “Christian nationalism.” Donald Trump, she explained, has surrounded himself with an “extremist element of conservative Christians,” who were misrepresenting “so-called natural law” in their attempt to roll back abortion “rights” and other leftist policy preferences. What makes “Christian nationalists” different, she went on, was that they believe “our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority.”
As numerous critics have already pointed out, “Christian nationalism” sounds identical to the case for American liberty offered in the Declaration of Independence. Then again, the idea that man has inalienable, universal rights goes back to ancient Greece, at least. The entire American project is contingent on accepting the notion that the state can’t give or take our God-given freedoms. It is the best kind of “extremism.”
None of this is to say there aren’t Christians out there who engage in an unhealthy conflation of politics and faith or harbor theocratic ideas. It is to say that the definition of “Christian nationalism” offered by the people at Politico and MSNBC comports flawlessly with the mindset that makes the United States possible.
Conservatives often chalk up this kind of ignorance about civics to a declining education system. It’s not an accident. It’s true that Przybyla, a longtime leftist propagandist — and I don’t mean a biased reporter; I mean a propagandist whose reporting is often transparently ludicrous — followed up her MSNBC appearance with an embarrassing clarification. But even if Przybyla were fluent in the philosophy of natural rights, one strongly suspects she, like most progressives (and other statists), would be uninterested. It’s a political imperative to be uninterested.
If natural rights are truly inalienable, how can the government create a slew of new (positive) “rights” — the right to housing or abortion or health care or free birth control? And how can we limit those who “abuse” free expression, self-defense, and due process if they are up to no good? You know, as Joe Biden likes to say — when speaking about the Second Amendment, never abortion — no right “is absolute.”
The most telling part of Przybyla’s explanation, for example, was to concede that “natural law” had on occasion actually been used for good. When natural law is used to further “social justice” it is legitimate, but when applied to ideas the left finds objectionable (such as protecting unborn life) it becomes “Christian nationalism.” It’s almost as if she doesn’t comprehend the idea of a neutral principle. It’s the kind of thinking that impels the media to put skeptical quotation marks around terms like “religious liberty,” but never around “LGBT rights” or “social justice” and so on.
It’s also true that the “Christian nationalism” scare is a ginned-up partisan effort to spook non-Christian voters. And, clearly, to some secular Americans, the idea that a non-“earthly authority” can bestow rights on humans sounds nuts. As a nonbeliever myself, I’ve been asked by Christians many times how I can square my skepticism of the Almighty with a belief in natural rights.
My answer is simple: I choose to.
“This is the bind post-Christian America finds itself in,” tweeted historian Tom Holland. “It can no longer appeal to a Creator as the author of its citizens’ rights, so [he] has to pretend that these rights somehow have an inherent existence: a notion requiring no less of a leap of faith than does belief in God.”
No less but no more. Just as an atheist or agnostic or irreligious secular American accepts that it’s wrong to steal and murder and cheat, they can accept that man has an inherent right to speak freely and the right to defend himself, his family, and his property. History, experience, and an innate sense of the world tell me that such rights benefit individuals as well as mankind. It is rational.
The liberties borne out of thousands of years of tradition are more vital than the vagaries of democracy or the diktats of the state. That’s clear to me. We still debate the extent of rights, obviously. I don’t need a Ph.D. in philosophy, however, to understand that preserving life or expression are self-evident universal rights in a way that compelling taxpayers to pay for your “reproductive justice” is not.
John Locke, as far as I understand it, argued as much, though he believed that the decree of God made all of it binding. Which is why, even though I don’t believe my rights were handed down by a superbeing, I act like they are. It’s really the only way for the Constitution to work.
The question is: How can a contemporary leftist who treats the state as the source of all decency– a tool of compulsion that can make the world “fair” — accept that mankind has been bequeathed a set of individual liberties by God, regardless of race or class or political disposition? I’m not sure they can anymore.
By Jewish News Syndicate Staff | Tuesday, 27 February 2024 07:43 AM EST
Senior Israeli officials said on Tuesday that they were unaware of any basis for U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks on Monday that a hostage-for-cease-fire agreement in Gaza is imminent. During an unannounced visit to Van Leeuwen Ice Cream in Manhattan, near Rockefeller Plaza, Biden was asked about when a cease-fire in Gaza might start.
“I hope by the end of the weekend,” Biden said, per the pool report.
“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet,” Biden said. “My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire.”
Ynet quoted the senior Israeli officials as saying on Tuesday morning that they do not understand “what the American president’s optimism is based on.”
The Hamas terrorist group also weighed in on Biden’s comments, with a source telling Reuters that the statement was premature and did not align with the situation on the ground. “There are still big gaps that need to be bridged before there is a cease-fire,” he said.
A spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that there has been no breakthrough in the negotiations that can be announced, while expressing that Doha is “optimistic” that a deal can be reached, even though Hamas and Israel don’t agree on any of the main issues. He added that Qatar has no intention of responding to Biden’s comments.
Reuters reported on Tuesday morning on the details of the proposal discussed at the Paris summit last weekend and submitted to Hamas for review. Citing a senior official privy to the details of the talks, the news agency reported that the proposal focuses on the first phase of the agreement, would last for 40 days and include the release of 10 Palestinian security prisoners for every Israeli hostage, which is seven more Palestinian terrorists freed per Israeli captive compared to the previous deal last November — 40 Israeli hostages in total for 400 Palestinian security prisoners in the first stage. Further, the Israeli captives include women, abductees aged 19 and under, adults aged 50 and over and sick captives.
Both sides will cease fire for 40 days and the IDF patrol flights over Gaza will stop for 8 hours a day. After the first phase, the IDF will gradually begin to withdraw its forces from dense areas of the Strip. Additionally, displaced Palestinians will gradually be allowed to return to the northern Gaza Strip, except for men of enlistment age for Hamas.
With regard to humanitarian aid, the proposal reportedly includes a commitment to bring in 500 aid trucks every day and to supply 200,000 tents and 60,000 trailers. Also, Gazans will be allowed to rehabilitate bakeries and hospitals.
According to The New York Times, the 40 captives to be released in the first phase in exchange for 15 Palestinian prisoners convicted of terror offenses would include five IDF soldiers and 35 civilians, including seven women who Israel believes should have been freed in the November deal. To release the seven women, Israel offered to release 21 Palestinian prisoners under the previous deal.Republished with permission from Jewish News Syndicate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson was “very optimistic” after Tuesday’s meeting with President Joe Biden and the other three top Congressional leaders that a government shutdown will be averted before Friday’s deadline.
“We have been working in good faith around the clock every single day for months and weeks and over the last several days, quite literally around the clock to get that job done. We’re very optimistic,” Republican Johnson told reporters after the meeting with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“We believe that we can get to agreement on these issues and prevent a government shutdown, and that’s our first responsibility,” Johnson added.
In the meeting, Biden warned the leaders of the consequences of failing to move quickly to pass funding to avoid a looming partial government shutdown and send weapons to Ukraine, or face dire consequences.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Biden said in the Oval Office, with Vice President Kamala Harris at his side and the four leaders sitting on couches nearby.
The meeting left the president optimistic of avoiding a shutdown, Jeffries said, according to Politico.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at the Capitol that the meeting focused mainly on keeping the government open, “which I think we all can agree on.”
The White House meeting came almost two months after Johnson and Schumer agreed on a $1.59 trillion discretionary spending level for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Despite that deal, Congress has failed to pass spending bills to fund the government, largely due to in-fighting by Republicans who control the House of Representatives by a thin majority.
Biden said he believed a solution could be reached on funding the government by a Friday deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown, which he said would be damaging to the U.S. economy.Ukraine funding becomes more urgent every day, Biden said.
“I think the consequences of inaction are dire,” he said of Ukraine.
The spending bill is being held up by demands from ultra-conservative Republicans in the House who want to see spending cuts and policy positions injected into how dollars are spent. A group of hard-right Republicans has brought the government to the brink of a shutdown or a partial shutdown three times in the past six months.
Schumer and Johnson traded accusations in recent days over who was to blame for the stalemate. On Monday, Schumer told reporters that “Democrats are doing everything we can to avoid a shutdown.”
The first batch of government funding, which includes money for agencies that oversee agriculture and transportation, will run out on Friday at midnight, while funding for some agencies including the Pentagon and the State Department will expire on March 8. The government spending package is separate from the national security aid bill that includes Ukraine and Israel funding.
The House is under pressure to pass the $95 billion national security package that bolsters aid for Ukraine, Israel as well as the Indo-Pacific. That legislation cleared the Senate on a 70-29 vote earlier this month, but Johnson has resisted putting up the aid bill for a vote in the House.
The White House has ramped up public pressure on Johnson in recent weeks as Ukraine marked the second anniversary of the Russian invasion.
“What the president wants to see is we want to make sure that the national security interests of the American people gets put first and is not used as a political football,” Jean-Pierre said. “We want to make sure that gets done.”
Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) lost more than $70 billion in market capitalization in a single trading day on fears that its artificial intelligence tool is programmed to be woke, the New York Post reports. The stock sank 4.4% to $138.75 Monday after Google paused its Gemini AI image creation tool because it was churning out historically and factually inaccurate images. These included a Black George Washington, female NHL players, Black Vikings, and an Asian Nazi. The chatbot furthermore refused to condemn pedophilia and said there was “no right or wrong answer” when asked whether Adolph Hitler or Elon Musk is worse.
The calamity could fuel public concerns that Google is “an unreliable source for AI,” wrote Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes in a note to investors.
“We have been arguing that Search behavior is about to change — with new AI-infused features,” Reitzes wrote. “This ‘once in a generation’ change by itself creates opportunities for competitors — but even more if a meaningful portion of users grow concerned about Google’s hallucinations and bias.”
On the same day the stock took its massive plunge, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, one of the company’s top AI bosses, said Gemini would be offline for a few weeks while the issue is fixed. The AI image tool was not “working the way we intended,” Hassabis said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Among young women aged 12 to 17, the rate of antidepressant prescriptions jumped 129.6% per month after March 2020 and for women aged 18 to 25, it rose to 56.5% per month, according to research published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Photo Illustration: seb_ra/Getty Images)
Antidepressant prescriptions for young girls skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research published by the American Academy of Pediatrics Monday. Among young women aged 12 to 17, the rate of prescriptions jumped 129.6% per month after March 2020 and for women aged 18 to 25, it rose to 56.5% per month, the research shows.
In March 2020, then-President Donald Trumpdeclared a state of emergency, resulting in many governors initiating lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19, including businesses, restaurants, gyms, stores, and many schools, and many Americans suffered a serious mental health crisis as a result.
“Our study provides important information on changes in mental health utilization patterns among young adults after the COVID-19 outbreak,” the researchers wrote. “As with adolescents, changes varied markedly by sex, with little change in antidepressant dispensing to males and an increase among females. Although this increase was smaller compared with the increase among female adolescents, findings suggest mental health may have similarly worsened among female young adults after the outbreak.”
The study pulled the numbers from the “IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database, an all-payer national database” and focused on Americans between the ages of 12 and 25.
Antidepressant prescriptions for Americans aged 12 to 25 increased overall by 66.3% between January 2016 and December 2022, according to the research, and the dispensation rate increased by 63.5% following the pandemic.
Adolescent males did not see a rise in antidepressant prescriptions and instead actually dropped off in March 2020, while prescription levels for young men between the ages of 18 to 25 remained relatively the same, according to the research. The dispensing rate was -7.1% lower than predicted in December 2022, while female adolescents’ dispensing rate was 12.7% higher than predicted.
The researchers claimed that the disparity between the sexes was likely due to young men having access to less care and not that they had improved mental health during the pandemic compared to young women. For females, the increase was most notable in the Southern U.S., while adolescent males saw more antidepressant prescriptions in the Midwest.
Many Americans have been unable to make appointments with mental health professionals since the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 56% of psychologists unable to take on new patients due to the demand and the rise in the mental health crisis.
Several studies published in January found that religious communities’ mental health fared better in the U.S. and the United Kingdom during the pandemic due to the practice of their faith during lockdowns.
A.F. Branco cartoon – Biden says that the GOP is forcing him to take executive action. In other words, reinstate the Trump executive orders that stopped the border invasion. The very “Exc Orders” that Biden ended when he took office.
Karine Jean-Pierre Blames Republicans When Asked Why Biden Waited Three Years to Consider Executive Action to Secure the Border (VIDEO)
By David Greyson
Karine Jean-Pierre blamed Republicans this week again when asked why Biden waited so long to consider taking action at the border. “Now we are hearing about executive action that can be taken. Why wait this long?” a reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre. “I’ve been very clear. We have made decisions on that, I’m not gonna get into policy discussions or hypotheticals.” Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“The focus here should be what happened in the Senate in a bipartisan way, that Republicans have rejected,” KJP continued. READ MORE
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Top Stories • Joy Reid Says Pro-Life People Want More Kids So They Can “Have More Slaves” • University of Houston Erects Satanic Idol to Celebrate Abortion • Pro-Life South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem Meets With Donald Trump About Potential VP Nod • Gavin Newsom Defends Abortions Up to Birth
More Pro-Life News • 40 Pro-Life Groups Demand EPA Track Chemicals From Abortion Pills That Wind Up in America’s Water • Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel Announces She Will Step Down • They Killed My Sister Terri Schiavo, We Can’t Let That Happen to Other People • More States Need to Protect Human Beings Created in IVF Like Alabama Did • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
Looking for an inspiring and motivating speaker for your pro-life event? Don’t have much to spend on a high-priced speaker costing several thousand dollars? Contact news@lifenews.com about having LifeNews Editor Steven Ertelt speak at your event.
Comments or questions? Email us at news@lifenews.com. Copyright 2003-2024 LifeNews.com. All rights reserved. For information on advertising or reprinting news from LifeNews.com, email us.
Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla claimed on Thursday that Christians who believe rights are derived from God are “Christian nationalists.” Speaking on MSNBC, Przybyla claimed that former President Donald Trump is surrounding himself with an “extremist element” of Christians, whom she identified as “Christian nationalists.”
That’s when things got weird. According to Przybyla, there is one belief that all so-called Christian nationalists share.
“[T]he thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different — is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress. They don’t come to the Supreme Court. They come from God.”
The “problem” with believing that rights come from God, Przybyla claimed, is that “men” misapply “so-called natural law” to oppose progressive issues, like abortion, sex education in schools, IVF, and gay marriage.
MSNBC guest: “The thing that unites them as Christian Nationalists, not Christians by the way, because Christian Nationalist is very different, is that they believe that our rights as Americans don’t come from any earthly authority. They come from God.” pic.twitter.com/oonM2CCPNh
There is an obvious problem with Przybyla’s argument: the Declaration of Independence. Philosophical debates about “rights” aside, the founding document is clear that rights are not derived from man like Przybyla claimed. The Declaration of Independence declares:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Founding Fathers, then, were aware of the dangers of a government being empowered to control rights: if the government giveth, then government can taketh. But if fundamental rights are ultimately derived from God, no government can take them.
Przybyla comments went viral on Friday afternoon and triggered an avalanche of mockery:
“Our rights as human beings don’t come from the Constitution, the government, Congress, the president, or the Supreme Court. They are inherent. … This belief that rights precede government—regardless of whether you believe in God—is fundamental to what it means to be an American,” former Rep. Justin Amash said.
“Is someone’s ignorance and religious bigotry showing?” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked in response.
“What the state gives the state can take away. What God gives the state takes at its moral peril. Sincerely, The prophets of old,” Jordan Peterson responded.
“Human rights come from God. That’s why all human beings have innate value and no human entity has the authority to strip them of those rights. That belief doesn’t make millions of Christians around the world Christian nationalists,” AND Campaign president Justin Giboney responded.
“We are all Christian Nationalists now,” pastor Tom Ascol responded.
“I guess those truths just aren’t as self-evident as they used to be,” National Review writer Dan McLaughlin mocked.
“This is what secularists want you to believe. If your rights originate from government, then the government is ultimate and statism becomes the dominant belief. But God is ultimate and human rights come from God,” pastor Grant Castleberry pointed out.
“Imagine believing your rights come ‘from Congress,'” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) mocked.
“This is a civics failure, a talent failure, an intelligence failure, a historical failure, an ethics failure…shall I keep going?” professor Andrew Walker pointed out.
“I can only suppose that this is what comes of liberal elites living in a bubble. They speak with supreme confidence only to reveal spectacular ignorance–of history, philosophy, the beliefs of the people they regard as their intellectual and moral inferiors and hold in contempt,” professor Robert George responded.
Przybyla responded to the controversy by gaslighting, claiming she did not say what everyone heard her say. And yet, she somehow also managed to double down.
“While there are different wings of Christian Nationalism, they are bound by their belief that our rights come from God,” she said on social media. “If you are Hindu, Jewish etc, this might help you understand the next part of my point, which is they are using this for a man-made policy agenda.”
President Joe Biden has a youth problem. Weeks after the Democrat incumbent was found too senile to face federal charges for mishandling classified documents, a new survey shows Biden losing ground with younger voters.
An Axios-Generation Lab survey out Monday found Biden barely winning voters aged 18 to 24, by 52 percent to 48 percent. According to Pew Research Center, Biden carried 18- to 29-year-olds by 24 points in 2020.
“We don’t know enough yet,” Neil O’Brian, a political scientist at the University of Oregon, told Axios. “But this idea that young people are gonna keep populating into the Democratic Party? There are some question marks around that.”
A survey from The New York Times in December found Trump winning among 18- to 29-year-olds, by 49 percent to 43 percent for Biden. The declining support among young voters comes as Biden tries to cultivate youth turnout with billions in student debt bailouts despite inflation and high interest rates pushing homeownership out of reach. Earlier this month, a CNBC survey of more than 1,000 Americans aged 18 to 34 conducted with Generation Lab found 41 percent think the economy is “poor” and 67 percent are living with family or roommates instead of their own home.
At 81, Biden is already the oldest president to ever hold office. Biden would be 82 by the time of a second inauguration. Trump, on the other hand, will be 78. The November contest will give Americans the unique opportunity to choose between two presidents who’ve already served four years in the White House.
Biden is also losing support among Latino voters. In December, a CNBC poll found Trump winning by five points this historically reliable voting bloc for Democrats. Biden won the majority of Hispanic voters in 2020, according to Pew. First Lady Jill Biden didn’t help her husband’s case for their support two years ago when she compared Hispanics to “breakfast tacos.”
Jill Biden just said Hispanics are as “unique” as tacos.
This isn’t Veep. Which White House speechwriter just won a bet for getting the First Lady to say something like this?pic.twitter.com/DXfJgYz0g5
The statement provoked a condemnation from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
“We are not tacos,” the group said in a statement. “NAHJ encourages [First Lady Jill Biden] & her communications team to take time to better understand the complexities of our people & communities.”
Biden is even losing support among black voters. A Gallup poll released this month found the president’s 47-point lead “is the smallest Gallup has recorded in its polling, dating back to 1999.” Trump is on track to win nearly 1 in 5 black voters, according to Gallup.
The same Gallup poll based on interviews in 2023 found Democrats’ support among 18- to 29-year-olds at its lowest since 2005.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
Former President Trump blasted Democrat border security and law enforcement policies for the murder of Georgia student Laken Riley at the hands of an illegal immigrant, vowing that “when” elected, he will “immediately seal the border” and begin the “largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American history.”
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Augusta University, was found dead on the University of Georgia campus Thursday after her roommate reported to authorities that she had not returned home from her morning run.
The University of Georgia Police Department arrested Jose Antonio Ibarra and charged him with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another, UGA Police Chief Jeffrey L. Clark said during a news briefing Friday evening.
Former President Trump (Spencer Platt)
The suspect is not a U.S. citizen. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday confirmed that the Venezuelan national entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and had previously been arrested in New York City.
“Crooked Joe Biden’s Border INVASION is destroying our country and killing our citizens!” Trump, the 2024 GOP frontrunner, said Monday in a post on his TRUTH Social. “The horrible murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should have NEVER happened!”
Murder suspect Jose Ibarra lived within a five-minute walk of the approximate scene where he allegedly murdered 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on Feb. 22. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital/Laken Riley/Jose Ibarra)
Trump said that “the monster who took her life illegally entered our Country in 2022… and then was released AGAIN by Radical Democrats in New York after injuring a CHILD!!”
“When I am your President, we will immediately Seal the Border, Stop the Invasion, and on Day One, we will begin the largest deportation operation of illegal CRIMINALS in American History!” Trump said.
He added: “May God Bless Laken Riley and her family!!! Our prayers are with you!”
Fox News had previously reported that Ibarra had crossed into the U.S. illegally near El Paso in September 2022 and was paroled into the U.S.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, ICE confirmed he had been encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Sept. 8, 2022, after entering near El Paso and was “paroled and released for further processing.”
A memorial for Laken Riley is seen along Lake Herrick on the University of Georgia campus in Athens on Feb. 24, 2024. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
ICE also confirmed that Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year later, on Sept. 14, 2023, and “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”
When ICE learns that what it believes to be a removable illegal immigrant has been arrested on criminal charges, the agency will normally lodge a detainer – a request asking local law enforcement to keep the suspect in custody until they can be transferred to ICE and put into deportation proceedings.
In this case, however, ICE’s statement says Ibarra was released before a detainer could be issued. NYC is also a “sanctuary city,” which generally restricts law enforcement from complying with ICE detainers.
Ibarra appeared in court on Saturday morning, when Clarke County Magistrate Judge Donarell Green denied his bond “for today.” Two translators were present. Ibarra nodded when spoken to.
Ibarra’s brother, Diego, was charged Friday with possessing a fraudulent green card and is being held in state custody. The federal arrest affidavit for Diego Ibarra says that in September 2023, Athens-Clarke County Police charged him with drunken driving and driving without a license. He was later arrested for shoplifting and later skipped court.
In its statement, ICE said its Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Atlanta “encountered Ibarra pursuant to his arrest by the University of Georgia Police Department and being charged with murder and other crimes. ERO Atlanta lodged a detainer.”
Clark said “the evidence is robust” against Ibarra.
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, Bill Melugin and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
By now we have all seen the frankly hilarious images of Black George Washington, South Asian popes, along with Gemini’s stubborn and bizarre inability to depict a White scientist or lawyer. Much like Open AI’s ChatGPT before it, Gemini will gladly generate content heralding the virtues of Black, Hispanic or Asian people, and will decline to do so in regard to White people so as not to perpetuate stereotypes.
There are two main reasons why this is occurring. The first, flaws in the AI software itself, has been much discussed. The second, and more intractable problem, that of flaws in the original source material, has not.
Engineers at AI companies have trained their software to “correct,” or “compensate,” for what they assume is the systemic racism that our society is rife with. (Betul Abali/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Gemini’s AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that’s generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it’s missing the mark here,” Jack Krawczyk, senior director for Gemini Experiences has admitted.
You see, the engineers at AI companies such as Google and Open AI have trained their software to “correct,” or “compensate,” for what they assume is the systemic racism and bigotry that our society is rife with. But the mainly 21st-century internet source material AI uses is already correcting for such bias. It is in large part this doubling down that produces the absurd and ludicrous images and answers that Gemini and ChatGPT are being mocked for.
For well over a decade, online content creators such as advertisers and news outlets have sought to diversify the subjects of their content in order to redress supposed negative historical stereotypes.
It is this very content that AI generators scrub once again for alleged racism, and as a result, all too often, the only option left to AI to make the content “less racist” is to erase White people from results altogether. In its own strange way, generative AI may be proving that American society is actually far less racist than those in positions of power assume.
This problem of source material also extends far beyond thorny issues of race, as Christina Pushaw, an aide to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, exposed in two prompts regarding COVID.
Google’s Gemini AI informs me that opening schools did spread COVID, but BLM protests did not. pic.twitter.com/QvJA79pGDR
She first asked Gemini if opening schools spread COVID, and then if BLM rallies spread COVID. Nobody should be surprised to learn that the AI provided evidence of school openings spreading the virus and no evidence that BLM rallies did.
But here’s the thing. If you went back and aggregated the contemporaneous online news reporting from 2020 and 2021, these are exactly the answers that you would wind up with. News outlets bent over backwards to deny that tens of thousands marching against alleged racism, and using public transportation to get there, could spread COVID, while chomping at the bit to prove in-class learning was deadly.
In fact, there was so much abject online censorship of anything questioning the orthodoxies of the COVID lockdowns that the historical record upon which AI is built is all but irretrievably corrupted. This is an existential problem for the widespread use of artificial intelligence, especially in areas such as journalism, history, regulation and even legislation, because obviously there is no way to train AI to only use sources that “tell the truth.”
There is no doubt that in areas such as science and engineering AI opens up a world of new opportunities, but as far as intellectual pursuits go, we must be very circumspect about the vast flaws that AI introduces to our discourse.
For now, at least, generative AI absolutely should not be used to create learning materials for our schools. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
For now, at least, generative AI absolutely should not be used to create learning materials for our schools, breaking stories in our newspapers, or be anywhere within a 10,000-mile radius of our government. It turns out the business of interpreting the billions of bits of information online to arrive at rational conclusions is still very much a human endeavor. It is still very much a subjective matter, and there is a real possibility that no matter how advanced AI becomes, it always will be.
This may be a hard pill to swallow for companies that have invested fortunes in generative AI development, but it is good news for human beings, who can laugh at the fumbling failures of the technology and know that we are still the best arbiters of truth. More, it seems very likely that we always will be.
A U.S. military service member who had set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington over the weekend, in an apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza, has died, local police said on Monday.
Officer Lee Lepe, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department, confirmed the U.S. airman’s death.
The Pentagon said the death was a “tragic event” and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was following the situation.
Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters that he was not aware of any other acts of protest by service members against the war.
The U.S. airman had been hospitalized in critical condition on Sunday after U.S. Secret Service officers put out the flames, DC Fire and EMS had said earlier.
The man, wearing military fatigues, broadcast the incident live over the internet.
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” the man said before dousing himself in a clear liquid and setting himself on fire, screaming “Free Palestine,” according to a video seen by Reuters.
The latest incident comes amid ongoing pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests in the United States following the Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis and seized 253 hostages in a cross-border attack. Israeli forces then waged a military campaign against the Palestinian Islamist group that rules Gaza, destroying much of the coastal enclave, with nearly 30,000 people confirmed killed, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel’s embassies have drawn continued protest against the war. In December, a woman protesting the war set herself on fire outside the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta.
Former President Donald Trump lashed out at the Biden administration’s border policies, writing on Truth Social on Monday that they are responsible for the recent murder of a University of Georgia student by an illegal migrant.
“Crooked Joe Biden’s Border invasion is destroying our country and killing our citizens,” Trump wrote. “The horrible murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia should have never happened. The monster who took her life illegally entered our country in 2022 … and then was released again by Radical Democrats in New York after injuring a child.”
Trump vowed that “when I am your president, we will immediately seal the border, stop the invasion, and on Day One, we will begin the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals in American history.”
The former president also said in another post that the Biden administration is considered a joke by many nations around the world.
Trump explained that “vicious gangs and gang members are pouring into our country from South America, and from all over the world. They are being forced out of their countries, in particular Venezuela and Mexico, and deposited” into the U.S. and then these other countries “refuse to take these criminals back.”
The former president emphasized that “this is a country destroying event,” the fact that foreign countries are sending “us their worst – gang members, murderers, drug dealers, human traffickers, terrorists, their mentally ill, and … sick people, who need large scale medical help.”
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
A female prisoner says she was forced to share a cell and a bunk-bed with a man who identifies as a transgender woman. Pictured: Prisoners Katie McGraw (left) and Mark Campbell (right). (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.)
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: Katelyn McGraw is currently incarcerated in Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, serving a sentence for possession of narcotic drugs and bail jumping. She’s been at Taycheedah since the end of summer 2023, records show, and her fiancee says that she’ll soon be sent to a minimum security prison.
Recently she began sending distressed messages to her fiancee, Raymond Slater II, describing a transgender prisoner named “Mark Campbell” with whom she shares both a cell and a bunkbed. McGraw expressed extreme anxiety as she described her cellmate’s constant masturbating, sexual comments, and aggressive behavior, and she asked her fiancee to find out what exactly got Campbell locked up.
“I’m just sooooo extra stressed out with this weirdo under me,” she wrote in one message to Slater, shared with The Daily Signal, which Slater believes was sent in mid February. He communicates with her through CorrLinks, a platform for people to message their incarcerated loved ones, but said that prison guards will often hold up the messages from being sent or received in a timely manner.
“What did he/she do?!?” she questioned her fiancee. “Mark Campbell?! Goodnight babyyyyy, ILY [I love you].”
Her concerned fiancee quickly turned to the internet to discover who this prisoner was. To his horror, he stumbled upon The Daily Signal’s reporting from September 2023, a report that revealed Campbell to be a man who now identifies as a woman, who raped his own daughter, and is a registered sex offender convicted of first-degree sexual assault of a child.
Since Campbell identifies as transgender, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has housed him in a women’s prison, Taycheedah Correctional Institution, since August 2022.
‘Anything Is Better Than a Cell With Him’
McGraw also spoke to The Daily Signal through a CorrLinks message, sharing that she was moved to the correctional facility’s psychiatric services unit, called “Monarch,” sometime earlier this month. DOC has not responded to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment for this story, including a request for an interview with Campbell, and questions about whether Campbell is now housed with other female inmates.
“They moved me to Monarch because they believe Campbell over me,” she said in the message, delivered to The Daily Signal on Feb. 19. “He told them I’m delusional cuz I said he was masturbating all the [time] which he was…and they told me if I refuse Monarch I’ll go to [segregation].”
“Anything is better than a cell with him,” she added. “He [asked] me when he first moved in if I have any friends cuz they’re gonna be curious if I [have] seen his vagina cuz it looks great and the surgeon did an amazing job and how its fresher than ours.”
McGraw expressed herself disgusted and “traumatized” with Campbell’s alleged proposition.
“I don’t wanna see nobody’s privates,” she wrote. “Yuckkkkk. Also he told me he don’t have a clit or can’t cum, I said I don’t care, I don’t wanna knowwwwww.”
The female prisoner is 31 years old, standing at only five feet and two inches tall, and weighing 150 pounds, prison records show. According to her fiancee, she was a victim of childhood sexual abuse by her father, who taught her to use drugs when she was a little girl “so that he could start abusing her.” She has lived a very hard, very rough life, Slater said, and has been in and out of prison since 2017. But this is the first time that she has complained about the treatment she received from both the guards and the other inmates, he insisted.
When he spoke with The Daily Signal, before his fiancee was moved, he said he was terrified that Campbell will sexually assault her and beat her, and that the guards won’t do anything about it.
“It’s all very heartbreaking to me,” he said in emotional text messages to The Daily Signal.
Katie McGraw, prisoner at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.)
Mark Campbell, Child Rapist
Campbell is 52 years old, five foot nine inches, and 225 pounds. His prison photos depict him with long hair and wearing makeup, including eyeliner, eyeshadow and blush.
Court documents allege that Campbell would sexually assault his daughter while her little brother was home and that “her little brother would sometimes come into the room while the sexual assault was occurring.”
“I can’t believe that the people in charge there decided to put her in the same cell as a man that raped his 10-year-old daughter knowing Katie’s background,” Slater said.
Campbell first requested transgender surgery to attempt to become a woman in 2013, according to a Wisconsin outlet, but the DOC denied his request at the time. In 2016 he filed a lawsuit accusing Department of Corrections officials of being indifferent to his medical needs by not allowing him to get so-called sex change surgery, the publication reported.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2019 that the DOC officials couldn’t have anticipated that denying such a surgery to Campbell would violate his rights.
However, in December 2020, a federal judge ruled that Wisconsin must offer Campbell taxpayer-funded transition surgery and must move him to a women’s prison while awaiting that surgery.
Mark Campbell, prisoner at Taycheedah Correctional Institution. (Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.)
The DOC housed Campbell in men’s prisons until August 2022, according to the inmate locator. In August 2022, authorities moved him to Taycheedah Correctional Institution, which “provides female inmates with a safe and secure environment that is gender-responsive,” according to the prison’s website.
Bunking With a Man
In messages shared with The Daily Signal, McGraw described a stressful and unhappy existence in prison, where other prisoners appeared to avoid her because she smelled and her guards didn’t believe her when she complained about Campbell. According to McGraw’s messages to Slater, Campbell shared a bunk bed with McGraw, and she frequently was forced to listen to him masturbating below her.
McGraw said that when she asked Campbell to stop, saying that his actions were disgusting, Campbell “went crazy” and “snapped.”
“[Campbell] punched the top of my bunk a bunch of times then said, ‘[You] wanna spaz out let’s spaz out,’ threw [his] cast off, put [his] fist up as I’m laying in my bed,” McGraw shared. “Like, wtf, what a sick psychopathic weirdo.”
“Really can’t believe they got me in this cell with a man!!!” she concluded the message.
In another message, McGraw again addresses Campbell’s incessant masturbation: “Barffffff! Some sickos will never change!!! It makes my skin crawl! I wanna puke, gag, can’t think about eating sleeping relaxing. This ain’t right…it’s not normal….it’s so wrong on every level! It’d be different if there was a level of respect! There’s not!”
Some of the female prisoner’s graphic descriptions of Campbell’s masturbation habits indicate that Campbell may have undergone a vaginoplasty, wherein surgeons remove the penis, testicles, and scrotum, rearranging tissue to create a faux vaginal canal and external genitalia.
“To create the vaginal canal, the surgeon uses a combination of the skin surrounding the existing penis along with the scrotal skin,” explains Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Dr. Fan Liang. “Depending on how much skin is available in the genital area, the surgeon may need to use a skin graft from the abdomen or thigh to construct a full vaginal canal.”
The procedure costs around $25,000 to $30,000, and takes six to eight weeks to recover from, according to Johns Hopkins. Liang claims that this faux vagina is sexually functional, but says that patients must avoid any form of sexual activity until 12 weeks after surgery.
McGraw vented to her fiancee that Campbell’s new, faux genitalia “stinks like rotten chicken.” She also said that Campbell, like other men who believe they are women and try to maintain a fake vaginal canal, dilates himself everyday so that the surgeon-crafted wound does not close.
Johns Hopkins Medicine describes this dilation as “part of the healing process after vaginoplasty” that involves “inserting a medical grade dilator into the vagina to keep your vaginal canal open as it heals.”
“A doctor or therapist from your care team will show you how to dilate,” writes Liang. “This can be difficult at first, but professionals will work with you and your comfort level to help you get accustomed to this aspect of your healing process. You will begin dilating with the smallest dilator in the dilator pack. You continue to use this dilator until cleared to advance to the next size by your care team.”
“Some patients may need to dilate their whole lives,” Liang adds.
McGraw described the process as “sickening,” writing to her fiancee that Campbell “literally shoves bananas inside of him or hot dogs, he told me when he moved in, and uses shampoo and f—- himself.”
Guidance from the DOC dated April 2018 states that “inmates may self-identify as transgender or intersex at intake or at any other time during an incarceration” and that “all sites are approved for transgender and intersex inmates” except for six facilities: Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution, Gordon Correctional Center, McNaughton Correctional Center, Chippewa Valley Correctional Treatment Facility, Flambeau Correctional Center, and St. Croix Correctional Center.
“Facility and housing assignments shall be made on a case-by-case basis, considering the inmate’s health and safety as well as potential programming, management and security concerns,” the guidance notes. “An inmate’s own views regarding safety shall be given careful consideration.”
If an inmate has undergone an attempted transgender transition surgery, that inmate will likely be placed in a facility consistent with the “reassignment treatment,” the guidance states. In other words, if a man undergoes attempted sex-change surgery to look like a woman, he will be housed with women — as Campbell’s case demonstrates.
“For the purposes of facility placement, self-inflicted genital mutilation does not constitute sexual reassignment surgery and does not qualify an inmate for placement in a different facility,” the guidance adds.
Transgender Inmates And Sexual Abuse
The Daily Signal previously reported that a little more than half of the men housed in Wisconsin Department of Corrections facilities who identify as transgender women have been convicted of at least one count of sexual assault or sexual abuse.
The revelation comes from records obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project through an April 2022 public records request. The Oversight Project sought information on biologically male inmates seeking transfers to female prisons by saying they identified as transgender females. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
Of the 161 biological men who are housed in Wisconsin Department of Corrections facilities who self-reported as transgender, 81 (50.3%) have been convicted of at least one count of sexual assault or sexual abuse as of late July. The prisoners may have been convicted of additional offenses for their current incarceration periods that are not sex offenses, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections noted.
Inmates convicted of sex offenses may have committed crimes including sexual exploitation of a child, sexual exploitation by a therapist, forced viewing of a sexual act, rape, sexual intercourse without consent, incest, sexual intercourse with a child, indecent behavior with a child, enticing a child, and more.
This is far from the first story of its kind. The Daily Caller News Foundation reported in April 2021 that a two-time baby killer had requested to be transferred to a women’s prison where the mother of his child was housed.
Forty-six-year-old Jessica M. Hann, formerly known as Jason Michael Hann, underwent a state-funded gender transition before transferring to the Central California Women’s Facility under the name “Jessica.” He is currently housed there on death row, inmate records show.
This article has been corrected to reflect the location of Taycheedah Correctional Institution.
Folks are leaving Minneapolis and its crime-ridden streets out of fear for their safety. Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies have turned a once good neighborhood into a third-world country making it unbearable for many good people to continue living there.
Couple flees Minneapolis as crime turns neighborhood they once loved into ‘third-world country’
By Liz Collin Feb 21, 2024
“Ever since the riots and the pandemic, it’s just gone downhill like there’s no tomorrow,” said Jeff Mammenga, who has slashed $100,000 off the asking price of his home in the more than six months it’s been on the market. READ MORE
A.F. Branco Cartoon – If Larry Elder isn’t in the running for Trump’s Vice President he definitely should be. Not only would he make a great President if, God forbid, anything were to happen to Donald, but he is also very intelligent, articulate, and fast on his feet, being perfect for advocating for Trump and MAGA in the upcoming 2024 election ready to respond to any shenanigans the left is likely to throw at them.
Larry Elder Suspends Presidential Campaign and Endorses Trump
By Cassandra Macdonald
In a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Elder wrote that he had met with Trump before deciding to withdraw.“He has my full support to Make America Great Again, end the epidemic of fatherless homes, reign in spending, and restore law & order,” Elder wrote.
“As I look at the path forward, and after careful consideration and consultation with my campaign team, I have made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign,” Elder wrote. “Now that I am exiting the race, I am proud to announce my endorsement of Donald Trump for President of the United States.” READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Top Stories • Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker: “All Human Beings Bear God’s Image From the Moment of Conception” • Donald Trump: “How Can Any Christian Vote for a Democrat? It’s Crazy” • Kamala Harris: It’s “Immoral” to Protect Babies From Abortions • Joe Biden Wants to Defund Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers and Send Even More Money to Planned Parenthood
More Pro-Life News • Alabama Correctly Ruled That Human Embryos are People, Not Property • Donald Trump Says He Supports IVF So Families Can Have Children • Alabama Attorney General Won’t Prosecute Families Using IVF • Alabama Supreme Court Got It Right: Human Embryos Deserve Legal Protection • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
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Meg Brock (left), Dr. Eithan Haim (middle), Terry Schilling (right) speak during a panel session at CPAC 2024 on Feb. 22, 2024 in National Harbor, Maryland. | Samantha Kamman/The Christian Post
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland. — A whistleblower who exposed a children’s hospital for lying about prescribing puberty blockers to children likened sex-change surgeries and hormone treatments to lobotomies, a procedure he noted society eventually came to view as “barbaric.”
General surgeon Dr. Eithan Haim spoke at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference during a panel titled “Genesis 1:27,” named after the Bible verse that states God created men and women in “his own image.” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, also appeared on the panel, while Daily Caller reporter Meg Brock served as the moderator.
During the panel, Haim discussed how he blew the whistle on the Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital, where he completed his surgical residency. The doctor provided journalist Christopher Rufo with internal documents showing that the hospital was continuing to conduct so-called “gender-affirming services” on minors despite telling the public it had paused such procedures.
Haim said that after he exposed the hospital, federal agents showed up at his door to tell him that he was now under criminal investigation for his actions. Brock asked the surgeon why he decided to blow the whistle on the hospital, and Haim replied that he took an oath as a doctor to “do no harm.” He said he felt a responsibility to do something.
In response to a question about how trans activists argue sex-change surgeries and puberty blockers are medically necessary for people suffering from gender dysphoria, Haim declared, “In no way is this medicine.” The surgeon stated that it is not possible to treat a psychological issue with a “solution of the body,” likening so-called “gender-affirming care” to lobotomies.
Introduced in the 1930s, lobotomies became a popular brain procedure that some believed could be a cure for mental illness. According to a 2013 paper by Mercer University School of Medicine Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery (ret.) Miguel A. Faria, Jr., an estimated 60,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States and Europe between 1936 and 1956. As Haim noted, society finally recognized the procedure as “barbaric.”
The whistleblower called on “good people” to speak up, claiming that trans ideology is “evil” and doctors are attempting to “play God.”
“The actual goal of medicine is to preserve and strengthen what has already been created,” he said.
Haim believes doctors are hesitant to speak up because they fear for their livelihoods. He warned that the silence from doctors fearful of losing their jobs is a “miscalculation” on their part.
Haim contends that if more doctors don’t speak up, then the world they will deliver to their children will be “much more dangerous.” The surgeon stated that the “longer this goes on, the worse it gets.”
(L to R) Meg Brock, Dr. Eithan Haim, Terry Schilling speak on a panel at CPAC 2024 on Feb. 22, 2024. | Samantha Kamman/The Christian Post
At one point during the panel, Schilling made a similar statement when he called on Republicans to stand against trans ideology, adding that they must care about values and not just winning elections.
The conservative activist also highlighted a 2022 report the group released titled “The Transgender Leviathan.” The report cited an analysis by Global Market Insights, which estimated that the “global market valuation” for sex-change surgeries will exceed $1.5 billion by 2026.
“This is about control, and ultimately, this is about the destruction of biological sex,” Schilling said in response to a question from Brock about how trans activists have branded themselves as a civil rights movement.
Former President Donald Trump charged the incumbent administration of targeting Christians Thursday night with a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention.
“Remember, every communist regime throughout history has tried to stamp out churches, just like every fascist regime has tried to co-opt them and control them. And in America, the radical left is trying to do both,” Trump said in Nashville. “They want to tear down crosses where they can, and cover them up with social justice flags.”
President Joe Biden, himself, is the second Catholic to hold the Oval Office. The far-left administration, however, has pioneered avenues of religious persecution against political opponents, primarily through the Department of Justice (DOJ).
1. Investigating Catholics as Terrorists
The FBI, under the Biden administration, infiltrated traditional Catholic parishes to investigate “white supremacy.”
In January last year, a leaked memo from the Bureau’s offices in Richmond, Virginia revealed the federal intelligence agency targeted “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” as “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists” (RMVE). The FBI rescinded the memo once public discovery made headlines. But a new memo in August obtained by House Republicans shows the FBI’s surveillance of Catholics involved multiple field offices across the country.
“The document assesses with ‘high confidence’ the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church,” reported former special agent-turned-whistleblower Kyle Seraphin.
The FBI rescinded the memo once public discovery made headlines. But a new memo in August obtained by House Republicans shows the FBI’s surveillance of Catholics included multiple field offices across the country.
2. Pro-Lifers Prosecuted for Prayer
The Department of Justice indicted 22 pro-life activists in 2022 while neglecting to go after pro-abortion extremists who firebombed pregnancy centers, according to a Federalist review. Among them include Paul Vaughn, one of a handful who was convicted for the crime of praying at an abortion facility in Tennessee. If his appeal fails, Vaughn, a father of 11, faces 11 years in prison and fines of up to $260,000.
The DOJ claims the pro-life activists “aided and abetted by one another, used force and physical obstruction to injure, intimidate and interfere with employees of the clinic and a patient who was seeking reproductive health services” when they spent most of their time praying.
An internal memo published in May last year revealed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used federal funds to launch a smear campaign against dissident groups, including Christian organizations.
Dan Schneider, the vice president of the Media Research Center’s Free Speech America, reported on the DHS operations in Fox News. According to the memo, the DHS funneled “$40 million taxpayer dollars away from bona fide anti-terrorism programs and into a weaponized operation deceptively known as the Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP).”
Groups investigated under the federal program include the Christian Broadcasting Network, founded by Pat Robertson in 1960.
4. Repeal of ‘Conscience’ Rule
In 2019, Trump issued the “conscience” rule to protect health care workers from administering treatments violating practitioners’ moral convictions on procedures such as abortion. Politico reported in the spring of 2022 that Biden was preparing to dismantle the Republican-era regulation. The final rule came last month rescinding protections.
“Some doctors, nurses, and hospitals, for example, object for religious or moral reasons to providing or referring for abortions or assisted suicide, among other procedures. Respecting such objections honors liberty and human dignity,” said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). But, the agency added, “patients also have rights and health needs, sometimes urgent ones. The Department will continue to respect the balance Congress struck, work to ensure individuals understand their conscience rights, and enforce the law.”
5. Biden Admin Targets Largest Christian University
Last year, the Department of Education levied a nearly $38 million fine against Grand Canyon University, claiming the school engaged in deceptive advertising campaigns. The department said the school “lied to more than 7,500 former and current students about the cost of its doctoral programs over several years.”
The university appealed the record fine in November.
“I have spoken to thousands of students, parents, employees, alumni and community stakeholders in Arizona and they all tell me the same thing: We need to fight this tyranny from federal government agencies not only to stand up for ourselves but to ensure this type of ideological government overreach and weaponization of federal agencies does not happen to others,” Grand Canyon University President Brian Mueller said in a statement. “American people are losing confidence in the federal government to be fair and objective in their operations and there are clearly no checks and balances to prevent this type of behavior from the Department of Education, which is out of control and continues to broaden its authority and selective enforcement powers.”
Mueller told The Federalist one month prior that the federal government’s efforts to target the university were “obviously political.”
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
Since the moment he took office, Joe Biden and his administration have engaged in a full-fledged campaign to weaponize the federal government against their political opponents and people of faith. Recently, 11 anti-abortion protesters were convicted for peacefully protesting and praying at a Tennessee abortion clinic in 2021. Their crime? Arriving at an abortion clinic before it opened and sitting in prayer while handing out flyers that shared the value of human life.
These pro-life activists were convicted under the “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances” (FACE) Act, a 1994 statute that makes it a federal crime to interfere in any way with a person’s attempt to get medical services.
President Biden listens as Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during an event at the White House, June 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Initially, the FACE Act was passed to protect both the supposed right to access abortions and the right to protest peacefully, as well as the safety of churches and pregnancy centers. Sadly, churches and pregnancy resource centers have been subject to a spree of violent attacks in the wake of the Dobbs decision, to which the Biden administration has turned a blind eye.
However, under the Biden administration’s weaponized Justice Department, the FACE Act is primarily being used to go after people of faith who stand up for what they believe and protest to protect innocent life. Each of these 11 peaceful protesters now faces up to 10 and a half years in prison and fines of up to $260,000 for participating in that day of prayerful protest.
Luckily, Congressman Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, have moved to repeal the FACE Act and replace it with a bill of their own, titled the “Restoring the First Amendment and Right to Peaceful Civil Disobedience” Act, which would prevent the Biden administration from weaponizing the federal government against Christian conservatives.
But the weaponization of government against conservatives and people of faith doesn’t end there. After a man took down a Satanist statute that was placed in the Iowa state Capitol building last December, he was charged with a felony hate crime.
Iowa law defines this as a violation of individual rights, even though the Satanic temple explicitly admits it is not a religious organization with a belief in a higher power. Not only is Iowa making a mockery of the free exercise of religious rights by treating the Satanists as a religious organization, but Iowa is also making a mockery of the justice system by labeling this destruction of property as a hate crime.
Perhaps even more disturbingly, in 2021, the Biden administration released a memo instructing the Department of Justice to go after concerned parents at school board meetings after receiving a letter that compared these parents to “domestic terrorists.” Last year, it was also revealed that the FBI mounted a spying program on traditional Catholics (particularly those interested in the Latin Mass) and identified them as individuals who might be part of the “far-right nationalist movement.”
In the eyes of the Biden Department of Justice, these Christian patriots are the actual threat to the American way of life – not the criminals who are carjacking, terrorizing and even killing everyday Americans in our cities.
Many of these conservative Christians are facing harsher penalties than those who committed acts of arson and vandalism in the BLM riots of 2020 and even the six illegal immigrants who recently assaulted multiple police officers in New York City, five of whom were released on bail.
The administration has clearly made use of the justice system against their political enemies. It’s clear they consider everyone who opposes their views as their enemies as well.
These unprecedented acts of weaponization of the Justice Department prove that the Biden administration is eager to deploy the full force of the federal government against its perceived political enemies while letting real crimes, such as the D.C. riots and the destruction of federal property, go unpunished.
As Americans continue to fall victim to rising crime and violence in their neighborhoods, the Biden administration should focus on keeping our communities safe and putting real criminals behind bars. The Department of Justice should never be used as a weaponized arm of the executive branch to harass, intimidate, and stifle political opposition.
The American people should demand better from the Biden administration. If President Biden continues to go after Christians and other people of faith while letting the real criminals run free, “justice” remains nowhere to be found in the DOJ except for its name.
The leftist documentary “God & Country” and the media echo chamber trumpeting it represent “a coordinated effort” to stoke fear before the 2024 elections, says Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice. Their purpose is not just “to rally the Left but, probably even more so … to intimidate and silence Christians who embrace a biblical worldview.” (Photo: Selimaksan/E+/Getty Images)
Hollywood director Rob Reiner’s new documentary, “God & Country,” released in theaters last weekend, warns Americans of an impending “Christian nationalist” takeover of the country.
The Associated Press declared Saturday, “Many believe the Founders wanted a Christian America. Some want the government to declare one now.” On Tuesday, Alexander Ward and Heidi Przybyla warned in Politico, “Trump allies prepare to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in second administration.”
Such manufactures represent “a coordinated effort” to stoke fear before the 2024 elections, declared Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice, guest host of “Washington Watch” on Wednesday. Their purpose is not just “to rally the Left but, probably even more so … to intimidate and silence Christians who embrace a biblical worldview,” he said.
The purpose of Reiner’s yellow journalism is more concerning than its aim. The Left’s “definition of Christian nationalism … tends to be a coat that is cut to fit whatever it needs to fit at any given time,” Regent University professor A.J. Nolte said on “Washington Watch.” As with donkeys and tails, it gets harder to pin the scare on the elephant after you’ve been blindfolded and spun in circles. Some leftist definitions of “Christian nationalism” have little in common with Christianity. Take Reiner’s perspective, “The idea is that America was born as a white Christian nation, and these people are virulent about returning to that, and they’ll do it at any means necessary, including … violence. And we saw this happen on January 6th.”
Most Christians would have difficulty recognizing themselves in this description. For starters, Christianity knows no ethnic barriers (Revelation 7:9); Christians are commanded to submit to the government (Romans 13:1); and violence disqualifies a man from Christian leadership (1 Timothy 3:3).
Reiner’s definition wasn’t particularly concerned with scriptural accuracy, as the entire documentary really served as a “Trojan horse for progressive ideology,” wrote Southern Seminary professor Andrew Walker. His documentary painted institutions as disparate as The Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA and Hillsdale College with the same broad brush, even though the first two aren’t sectarian, and the third isn’t political.
Reiner “gives the game away when he talks about ‘white’ Christian nationalism,” Nolte noted, a mistaken “conflation of white ethnic nationalism with Christian nationalism.”
Some leftist definitions simply equate “Christian nationalism” with social conservatism. Nolte described a book titled, “‘Taking America Back for God,’ by two scholars named Perry and Whitehead.” In the book, “They took six questions, which are generally good questions if you’re trying to measure social conservatism” and used them as “measures for Christian nationalism.” These measures included support for prayer in schools, opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, and an acknowledgment of Christian principles in America’s founding.
“So, what you often find is that Christian nationalism is basically just … social conservatism, sort of relabeled,” Nolte concluded.
This definition becomes increasingly unrealistic as left-wing extremism puts more and more Americans on the “Right” side of social and cultural policy disputes, particularly where transgender ideology is at play. The coalition opposed to pornographic books in school libraries, for instance, includes not just Christians, but also Jews such as Ben Shapiro, Muslims like the parents in Dearborn, Mich., or Montgomery County, Md., and agnostics like Jordan Peterson.
The term “Christian nationalism” approaches meaninglessness when used to describe people who are not Christians and might not even be nationalists.
Some leftist definitions of “Christian nationalism” combine biblical positions with non-biblical ones. Thus, Przybyla (co-author of the Politico piece mentioned above) stated Tuesday, “We’re talking about here not just isolationism, immigration. We’re talking about ending same-sex marriage, abortion, reducing access to contraceptives, but also surrogacy, no-fault divorce, sex education in public schools.”
But not so fast! Those are “two separate issue sets,” Nolte pointed out. Opposition to immigration and an isolationist foreign policy are the preferred policies of a populist segment of the contemporary American Right, but they shouldn’t be lumped together with what Nolte called “family-oriented, social conservative policies.”
Even if both sets of positions are found on the political Right, they are espoused by “two separate groups of social conservatives,” Nolte explained. Again, quoting Perry and Whitehead, Nolte said that, “Among regular church attenders, they actually found less hostility toward those of different racial groups, toward immigrants … but there was more opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion,” while “among those who were socially conservative, but did not attend church, what they found was the exact opposite.”
At the risk of committing an overgeneralization, one might say there was an inverse relationship between the depth of a person’s Christian walk and their espousal of “nationalist policies.” Does that sound like “Christian nationalism?”
Some leftist definitions of “Christian nationalism” simply mean that it’s bad for Christians to be involved in politics. For instance, “They’re all after Speaker Mike Johnson for his Christian faith,” said Hice. “He’s a Christian statesman who is certainly influenced and guided by his faith,” but “that’s no different from the liberal Left being guided by their secular, or whatever, worldview that they embrace.”
“This really galls the Left, [that] Mike Johnson has the unmitigated temerity to be a fairly conventional Southern Baptist,” Nolte agreed, with a touch of sarcasm. “Yes, he’s quite conservative on family issues. … But, as a conventional Baptist, he also stands [with] an over 200-year tradition of Baptists supporting religious liberty.” (Make that nearly 400 years in America since Baptist minister Roger Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island as a haven for freedom of conscience.)
The point is, “If somebody is truly committed to religious liberty, you never have to worry about them imposing Christianity,” Nolte argued. “They want to protect your freedom to believe or not believe as you choose.”
Yet no leftist definitions of “Christian nationalism” acknowledge its presence on the political Left. Follow along, if you will, with this thought experiment Nolte set forth:
Imagine a situation in which a Republican president goes to a church—a church that has been prominently associated with Republican politics in the past—on a federal holiday and gives a speech where he talks about how New Testament principles ought to be the basis of our politics here in America. Would the media label that as Christian nationalism, do you think?
Over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend in 2023, President Joe Biden spoke from that man’s onetime pulpit in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, declaring that certain passages of the New Testament described “the essence of the American promise” and inspired his vision to “redeem the soul of America.” Yet, according to the propagandists now loudly decrying Christian nationalism, “that, somehow, was not considered Christian nationalism,” Nolte observed. So, when defining the term, “it kind of depends on who is using the New Testament and whether the media outlets in question like the use to which the New Testament is being put,” he said.
Nolte suggested the entire project was political. His dissertation had examined how secularists in Turkey, France and other countries have used “extreme fear language” about “religious reactionaries” to “mobilize constituencies that supported … secularism.” He warned that this strategy backfired in Turkey, where it “generally pushed most of the Islamic believers in Turkey more toward radicalism.”
Nolte argued leftists in America have made a “deliberate attempt” to craft a similar narrative. In particular, he pointed to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a tailor-made scarytale “that’s going to appeal particularly to secular educated women who do not attend church and are not familiar with Christian belief.” Nolte criticized the way it twisted Scripture to depict a “misogynistic, theocratic society” that has nothing in common with the policy goals of socially conservative Christians in America.
Ultimately, fearmongering about the slur “Christian nationalism” says far more about those who wield it than those they aim to describe. In the “Red Scares” of the 1920s to 1950s, allegations that there was a communist under every rock, tree, bush, government desk, and movie script did little to inform the American public about which people really were communists. But they did inform Americans that the accusers were anti-communists. Similarly, accusations of “Christian nationalism” don’t inform Americans about which politicians, if any, wish to establish a theocracy; but they do help Americans understand that the people making the accusations are anti-Christian and anti-nationalist.
One final accusation lobbed against Christianity came from University of California at Riverside professor Reza Aslan, a Christian apostate. “The biggest sin, if you will, of Christian nationalism, is that it sees pluralism as a weakness, and not what it is: the foundation of what it means to be American,” Aslan insisted.
The irony in this inverted statement is so thick you could ice it and slice it. Not only did Aslan overlook the Christian origins of American pluralism, but he also missed the fact that American Christians are still pleading for a pluralistic society, “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:2).
It is totalitarian leftists who seek to de-pluralize American public life by banishing Christians from the public square—and scaremongering about “Christian nationalism” is simply their latest attempt to do so.
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Fani Willis says she conveniently has a lot of untraceable cash lying around that she refunded her lover Nathan Wade for the expensive vacation trips they took together once she appointed him as a prosecutor against former President Donald Trump.
Fani Willis Testimony Goes Off the Rails as She Talks Piles of Cash, Taste for Grey Goose Vodka, Daddy’s Advice on Men (VIDEO)
By Chris tina Laila – Feb 15, 2024
An evidentiary hearing about alleged misconduct by Soros-backed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was underway on Thursday as the judge weighs whether Willis should be disqualified from the Trump RICO case. Fani Willis took the witness stand on Thursday, and she was hostile, arrogant, and defiant! According to a motion filed by Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman, Fani Willis “financially benefited” from a romantic relationship with top Trump prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Trump’s RICO co-defendant, Michael Roman, filed an explosive supplemental reply to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and accused her of lying to the court about her affair with the top Trump prosecutor she appointed. READ MORE…
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Voters in a few months are supposed to cast a ballot for their preferred presidential candidate. Meanwhile, we just watched one of our major political parties attempt to literally bankrupt the likely nominee of the other and seize his property. Whatever you want to say of America anymore, it can’t possibly be called free, and our elections aren’t anything close to fair.
A Democrat judge linked up with a Democrat district attorney in New York last week, ruling that Donald Trump, who earned more votes in 2020 than any sitting president in history, pay the city about half a billion dollars in penalties and fines, plus forego his right to conduct business or borrow money in the entire state. The pretext for the obscenity is that Trump in his years as a real estate developer routinely defrauded lenders by inflating the value of his assets, a hideous crime that resulted in his victims’ insolvency and buried by insurmountable debt.
Wait, that’s not right. Let me check my notes. Sorry, what actually happened is that the banks who took the risk of financing Trump’s ventures raked in fistfulls of profits and continued chasing him to continue their lucrative partnerships. In other words, the parties “wronged” by Trump got richer.
With each passing day, nearly $100,000 in interest is tacked onto the sentence and the D.A., Letitia “peek-a-boo” James (as Trump calls her for hilarious yet unknown reasons), has gone so far as to threaten state seizure of the former president’s marquee real estate properties should he fail to pay the sum. Trump’s legal team has promised to appeal. But to do that, they would have to secure a bond that’s even higher than amount he’s been ordered to pay.
This is a former president. This is a former president who exponentially increased his support for reelection in 2020, earning 7 million more votes than any sitting president before. This is a former president running for a non-consecutive second term and who has all but in name locked up the Republican nomination. This is a former president whose polling numbers currently show him likely to defeat the sitting one in virtually every swing state that will decide the election.
They’re taking his money — potentially all of the cash he has on hand — revoking his right to participate in an entire state’s economy and threatening to snatch his private property. That’s just in New York. Elsewhere, Democrats are trying to keep his name off the ballot or, if that doesn’t work, put him in prison.
Trump did business in New York for decades. This isn’t a coincidence or a matter of karma catching up. James campaigned for her job promising to pursue the former president, explicitly because he became president.
If becoming president means potentially seeing your whole life’s work confiscated by the political opposition, then elections aren’t fair. This country isn’t free.
Arizona removed nearly 200 residents from its voter rolls after discovering they were foreign nationals, and therefore ineligible to vote, a new report revealed.
Published on Tuesday, the analysis by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) found that 186 noncitizens residing in Pima County have been “involuntarily purged” from the Grand Canyon State’s voter registration lists since 2021. According to the report, seven of these 186 foreigners appear to have cast ballots “across two federal and local elections.”
Records reviewed by PILF included more detailed information, such as the party affiliation of the aforementioned noncitizens. The analysis indicated 108 did not have a party affiliation, while 46 were registered as Democrats and 28 as Republicans. Three were registered independents and one was a Libertarian.
“Roughly 65 percent of records came from ‘political parties and group drives,’” the report reads. “Although conclusions in other studies established that organizers of voter registration drives can be left leaning, the party affiliations of the registrants within the Pima disclosure are more varied.”
A separate report released by PILF last year found that Arizona had also removed 222 Maricopa County residents who were identified as foreign nationals since 2015. Of those 222 noncitizens, nine purportedly cast “12 ballots across 4 federal elections.”
PILF’s analysis comes amid concerns over whether Arizona’s voter registration processes could lead to registering foreign nationals to vote. While Arizona requires residents to show proof of citizenship to vote in state elections, a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision forbade the state from implementing such a requirement for federal elections. As PILF noted, individuals who cannot provide Arizona with documents to prove citizenship “may participate only in federal elections” using a federal-only ballot.
“State officials also query government databases to backfill these credentials for existing registrants where they can,” the report says. “If officials become aware of a registrant’s documented foreign nationality from reliable government data, however, they are ‘involuntarily purged’ from the roll if they cannot prove subsequent naturalization has occurred.”
These registration procedures highlight the problems with policies such as automatic voter registration and permitting illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses, which, PILF noted, “exacerbate the problem” of foreign nationals being registered to vote in U.S. elections.
In a statement, PILF President J. Christian Adams blasted federal law for “hamper[ing] states’ abilities to validate citizenship during the voter registration process” and called on lawmakers to change it so states can verify registrants’ citizenship.
“Arizona is limited to building imperfect systems to address the problem of foreign nationals voting,” Adams said.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
A psychologist at the Department of Veterans Affairs was placed on administrative leave following the publication of an article she co-authored that warned of the danger posed by gender ideology. Pictured: the VA building in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alastair Pike/AFP/Getty Images)
A psychologist employed by a federal agency is being penalized for speaking out against gender ideology.
Three psychologists working in the Department of Veterans Affairspenned an op-ed late last month warning of the danger posed by allowing biological men to access women’s bathrooms and medical exam rooms. One of the authors, primary care psychologist Dr. Nina Silander, was placed on administrative leave following the article’s publication, according to documents obtained by The Washington Stand.
According to a letter Silander sent to her senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., she was “put on administrative leave due to patient care/safety concerns, which are entirely unsubstantiated given the reality that I have provided quality veteran services and received no complaints to date.”
“My co-authors … anticipate facing similar repercussions for their authorship of this article,” Silander wrote. “We maintain that we are within our rights as federal employees to comment, in our own time and with appropriate disclaimer, on matters of public concern and information already available to the public.”
In the article Silander co-authored with fellow VA clinical psychologists Catherine Novotny and Edward Waldrep, the trio wrote, “VA leadership, perhaps inspired by President [Joe] Biden’s executive order on ‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation,’ recently began … injecting concepts of gender ideology into our clinical work.”
They continued, “From here on, the distinction that will matter in patients is their self-identified gender, not their biological sex. We believe this effectively extinguishes the entire class of women, undermining many physical and legal protections for female veterans.”
“Single-sex spaces within the VA—those ensuring bodily privacy, such as bathrooms, exam rooms and medical exam areas—can now be accessed by males who self-identify as women,” the psychologists noted. “We view this VA policy as a betrayal of our female patients. Women face a disproportionate statistical risk of assault, harassment and voyeurism by men. And male violence patterns are unchanged by subjective feelings about gender.”
All three authors, with a combined 44 years of experience in clinical psychology, have a particular professional focus on sexual trauma recovery, a factor on which they laid particular emphasis in their article.
“Imagine a rape victim being forced to share a bedroom in a residential program with a man,” they wrote. “Even worse, according to VA policy, if the female veteran objects, she is required to relocate, despite being the complainant. What has happened to women’s security? What of bodily privacy?”
“The VA’s current policy is based on premises we believe are contradictory, anti-female and unconstitutional. It appears to be motivated by politics and fickle media narratives rather than by sound clinical practice,” the psychologists wrote. “The VA must restore single-sex spaces in which biology is the only relevant factor.”
According to a complaint filed by Silander with the VA’s Equal Opportunity Office and obtained by The Washington Stand, Silander’s VA manager, Dr. Christine Fultyn, inquired whether Silander “had in fact co-authored this article,” two days after the article’s publication.
One week later, Silander reported, Fultyn came to her office and “asked if I was aware of some of the backlash in response to the op-ed. She presented the detail memorandum for me to read, explaining that higher ups had determined to launch an investigation based on ‘patient safety concerns.’” Silander was then removed from her clinical role “effective immediately.”
That same day, Fultyn, along with “LGBQT+ Coordinators and members of our DEI Committee,” scheduled an event for Feb. 6 “to offer support and resources for anyone with concerns related to the recent op-ed.” The event was canceled on Feb. 5 to ensure that staff had adequate time to devote to “patient care/training/administrative tasks.”
Silander recounted that minutes later Fultyn “informed me that the investigation had ended without need for disciplinary action” and that Silander could return to clinical care the very next day. “I inquired about the investigation,” Silander stated, “but Dr. Fultyn was unable to provide additional information and referred me to submit a [Freedom of Information Act] request.”
According to a report by National Review, Silander’s co-author Waldrep has also been retaliated against for publishing the article. He reported he was subjected to “a barrage of backlash in a VA group chat he belonged to that’s dedicated to LGBT matters” and was eventually “kicked out of the chat.”
Waldrep had previously been targeted for questioning the VA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which included segregating therapy groups by race. He was, according to National Review, “stripped … of his ability to supervise students, prohibiting him from doing didactics trainings with rotations and from attending meetings where students were present.”
In the wake of Silander’s and Waldrep’s article and the retaliation against the two, Reps. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., and Eli Crane, R-Ariz., sent a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough outlining their concerns over the agency’s LGBTQ and DEI initiatives.
“The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has started to enforce VHA Directive 1341(3) in a way that puts women veterans in danger,” the congressmen wrote. “Specifically, the VHA is allowing biological men into women-only single-sex spaces, including bathrooms, exam rooms, and medical exam areas irrespective of where the veteran is in their ‘transition’. We are concerned that this would put women veterans in danger … ”
The congressmen added, “The VA must ensure that women veterans are not being put at risk to appease radical transgender activists. … The VA must focus on delivering world-class healthcare and benefits to our nation’s heroes. The VA’s DEI efforts distract from your important mission and must end immediately.”
Nikki Haley has no chance of winning the primary thus far and is expected to lose her home state of South Carolina to Donald Trump. So why is she staying in? Many smart people speculate that it’s all about the big bucks she’s getting from Democrat elites, RINOs, Never-Trumpers, Deep-Staters, and Globalists urging her to continue to put a wrench in Trump’s White House hopes to up Biden’s chances in the General election.
Nikki Haley’s Tearless Defiance – Warmonger Favorite Stubbornly Refuses to Drop Out While Attacking President Trump Who is “So Obsessed with His Demons in the Past”
By Jim Hoft Feb 20, 2024
Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina and now a presidential hopeful, refused to bow out of the race despite trailing significantly behind President Donald Trump. Haley, in a dramatic display of defiance and distress, shed tears as she vehemently attacked Trump, accusing him of being “so obsessed with his demons in the past.” As the South Carolina Primary Election looms on February 24, Haley’s home advantage seems to dissipate into the ether, with a mere 20% of likely GOP Primary voters swayed by her local ties.
Trump, on the other hand, continues to ride high with an 82% approval rating among the state’s Republicans, overshadowing Haley’s gubernatorial approval by more than 20 points. READ MORE
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
A left-wing dark money group masquerading as a Midwestern newspaper selectively clipped the announcement speech for a Wisconsin Senate candidate to frame the businessman as a heartless, clueless elite.
Eric Hovde launched his campaign to unseat Democrat incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin Tuesday. Heartland Signal, a political newspaper based in Chicago, published a 44-second segment from Hovde’s speech when he addressed the crisis on the U.S. southern border.
“It’s not just a humanitarian crisis for our country,” Hovde said. “But do you know how many lives are lost on that journey to get here? How many people’s life savings have been wiped out by the human trafficking cartels? And they’ve lost 100,000 children that they can’t account for.”
“Let me assure you,” Hovde added, “more than a few of them have ended up being sexually trafficked. I know this all too well. My brother and I have homes all over the world, and we have three in Central America that deal with issues like this.”
Heartland Signal, a leftist digital website backed by Democrat donors, posted the clip on X with the caption, “Hovde says he understands the tragedy of children being trafficked through Central America because he owns three homes there.”
Announcing his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Wisconsin, Republican Eric Hovde says he understands the tragedy of children being trafficked through Central America because he owns three homes there. pic.twitter.com/LsQhPWvpAc
The post received more than 383,000 views before a community note was attached to offer accurate context.
“‘Hovde Homes’ are shelters the Hovde Foundation has built around the world to support children – including those who have been trafficked,” the note reads. “They are not residential homes as this post suggests.”
The Midwestern news group published a follow-up post offering the right context. That post, however, received a fraction of the views of its misleading post.
Misleading tweet: 383,000 views Devastating correction: 4,800 views They do it on purpose. pic.twitter.com/1noKDDLksr
Heartland Signal was recently purchased by Future Now Action, a left-wing activist group. Hovde faces four GOP opponents in the Wisconsin Republican Senate primary that concludes Aug. 13 to challenge the two-term Democrat incumbent elected in 2012. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, the state’s other U.S. senator, narrowly captured a third term two years ago by roughly 27,000 votes in the hotly contested swing state that dramatically expanded mail-in voting in 2020.
Immigration is a top issue going into the 2024 election, with Democrats on defense after spending four years turning control of the U.S. border over to international criminal cartels. Last week, House Republicans formally impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for dereliction of his constitutional duties.
On Tuesday, more than a dozen conservatives in the upper chamber penned a letter to demand that GOP Senate chief Mitch McConnell prepare for the Mayorkas impeachment trial.
“It is imperative that the Senate Republican conference prepare to fully engage our Constitutional duty and hold a trial,” they wrote.
The Republican Senate leader faced humiliation this month following the defeat of a border amnesty and mass migration bill.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
NEWSMAX
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
NEWSMAX
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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