CBZ Management, a company that owns a number of apartment complexes in Colorado, broke its silence on Friday, confirming that the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has taken over several properties.

The company started an account on X to share its side of the story after many local officials and the media reported that the claims of TDA’s takeover were overblown.

‘Yes, gangs did take control of our apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, and the government did nothing. That is the real story.’

Rumors of the transnational gang’s expanded presence in the area became seemingly undeniable in late August when Cindy Romero, a former tenant at the Edge at Lowry, a property owned by CBZ, released a video showing a group of armed men storming through the complex, Blaze News previously reported. Another video the then-tenant captured showed a man using a hammer to destroy the deadbolt lock on the same apartment unit.

Cindy Romero and her husband, Edward, were desperate to leave the complex, saying it had become “a nightmare” since the gang had moved in. Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky ultimately helped find the Romeros another place to live.

At the time, Jurinksy told Fox News Digital that it was “like pulling teeth to get anyone, the media, other elected officials … to acknowledge the presence of this trend and to acknowledge that there is even a problem.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) called the TDA invasion “largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky’s imagination.”

CBZ explained that it had begun managing the Colorado properties in 2019, and, at that time, the apartments “were in poor condition.” The company aimed to renovate the complexes and increase their value, noting that the project was “ambitious” and would “take years” to complete.

“Everything was progressing smoothly: property values were rising, and vacancy rates were dropping. It was a win-win for both the owners and the city of Aurora,” CBZ wrote in a lengthy thread on X. “Then, the gangs arrived.”

In 2023, one of CBZ’s representatives was viciously attacked when he attempted to perform an inspection at one of the properties, the company stated. When he arrived, he found “a group of men” inside a three-bedroom apartment that should have been vacated.

“When he refused their $500 bribe to overlook the situation, they brutally attacked him,” CBZ wrote.

The company released a short surveillance video of the attack and a photograph taken shortly afterward showing the victim’s injuries. In the picture, the representative’s face and shirt were covered in blood, and he appeared to have bruising around his eye.

Unfortunately, it did not end there for the CBZ representative, the company said.

“After the attack on our CBZ representative, he began getting threatening text messages,” the company continued. “These criminals revealed his home address and his spouse’s name.”

According to CBZ, law enforcement officials confirmed that those sending the messages and occupying the complexes were TDA members.

“They also mentioned that our situation was just ‘a blip on the radar,’ as this gang is causing significant problems nationwide,” CBZ said.

After effectively taking over three complexes, gang members allegedly presented CBZ with an ultimatum to split the rental income in half or “lose the buildings permanently.”

CBZ said it made the decision to withdraw its management team from the properties due to safety concerns.

“Despite the obvious crisis, several city officials refused to acknowledge the reality. Instead, they blamed us, citing ‘code violations’ as the reason for shutting down our property—violations we couldn’t resolve for tenants who weren’t even ours,” CBZ wrote.

The company claimed that the only violations it did not resolve were those made after the gang took over.

Even after local reports surfaced of authorities arresting 10 confirmed TDA gang members with ties to the apartment takeovers, the media and local officials continued to call others’ concerns overblown.

On Sunday, Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), humiliated ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz for trying to downplay the severity of the situation in Aurora. According to Raddatz, former President Donald Trump’s claims that TDA has taken over parts of the city have been debunked.

“Do you support Donald Trump making those claims that the Republican mayor says were grossly exaggerated and have hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety?” Raddatz asked Vance.

“Martha, you just said the mayor said they were exaggerated. That means there’s got to be some element of truth here,” Vance responded.

Raddatz interrupted Vance’s reply and stated that the TDA takeovers “were limited to a handful of apartment complexes.”

“Martha, do you hear yourself?!” Vance fired back. “Only a handful of apartment complexes in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open border?!”

In a post on X, CBZ wrote, “Despite clear evidence, many still deny the reality of the situation, sometimes using us as scapegoats. That’s why we are no longer staying silent. We will continue to counter falsehoods with simple facts and evidence.”

“Yes, gangs did take control of our apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, and the government did nothing. That is the real story,” it added.

Cindy Romero told Fox News on Monday that the media’s attempts to minimize the situation feel like “a slap in the face.”

“How many gangs is OK to have in Aurora? How many properties is OK to take over? How many people, who are citizens paying their bills, is it OK to displace?” Romero asked.

An Aurora representative told the New York Post that CBZ’s claims were “exaggerations.”

“These delinquent property owners, managers and/or ‘investors’ conveniently fail to acknowledge that their own bank lenders took them to court in the last few weeks where a judge ordered some of their problematic properties into receivership,” the spokesperson stated. “That means a judge has given the legal authority to a third-party receiver to actually manage the properties, and who the property owners will be forced to compensate.”

The FBI declined to comment, the Post reported.

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Sunny Hostin of “The View” blamed members of the media for not doing their part to help the presidential campaign of Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.

Hostin went on a rant accusing the media of favoring Trump while her co-hosts blankly stared back at her. She began by complaining about the coverage of Harris’ lack of sit-down interviews.

‘She just says out loud that it’s the media’s job to get a Democrat elected and no one even blinks.’

“First it was, ‘Kamala is not doing enough press.’ Then she goes on this huge press tour. She was here! With us. I thought she was fantastic, she was energetic, the crowd went wild, it was electric,” Hostin claimed.

“CNN? ‘Democrats go anxious.’ Axios? ‘Blue wall blues.’ Fox? ‘Dems are scared to death!’ No! Dems are not scared to death. Dems are pumped!” she continued.

“What I would like the press to talk a little more about is, Trump is in hiding. He didn’t do the ’60 Minutes’ interview. He does not want to do another debate. He’s in mental decline. Obama’s speech was captivating in Pittsburgh, yet, instead of talking about that, we’re talking about what he said before the speech to black men,” Hostin added.

“I think that the media has to do a much better job than what they’re doing!” she concluded.

Video of Hostin’s comments was posted to social media where she was widely ridiculed for scolding the media.

“The View is silly, but I do find it hilarious that she just says out loud that it’s the media’s job to get a Democrat elected and no one even blinks,” responded professor Chad Ragsdale.

“Crazy to see them openly advocating for the media to campaign for Harris lol How bad is Hostin’s judgement to think Harris has had a flawless campaign,” read one popular response.

“They don’t know how to handle it when they don’t get 100% support with their narrative. 98% is not enough,” read another response.

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A top adviser in the Harris-Walz presidential campaign admitted that the lead reported in the media for Vice President Kamala Harris was fake.

‘This is the race we have; it’s the race we expected. I don’t think it’s going to open up for either candidate. I think it’s going to be close all the way in.’

David Plouffe made the revealing comments on the “Pod Save America” podcast over the weekend.

“So I know for all of us that want to see Kamala Harris win, we wish there was an easy pathway — that pathway does not exist. This is basically going to come down to, you know, history would suggest it’s not going to come down to several thousand votes in seven states, but it’s going to come down to a very narrow margin,” Plouffe said.

He went on to say the lead reported in polling for Harris had melted away in more recent surveys because it was never really substantive.

“I think the freakout is because there were a bunch of polls, I’d say in the last month, that showed a lead for Kamala Harris that was not real. It’s not what we were seeing — we’ve seen this thing basically be tied let’s say since mid-September,” Plouffe continued.

“This is the race we have; it’s the race we expected. I don’t think it’s going to open up for either candidate. I think it’s going to be close all the way in. I would just remind everybody, whether it’s internal data or public data, a poll that shows Donald Trump up 48, 47 that then shows us up 48, 47 is essentially the same thing. This thing’s going to be decided on the margins in these few number of states.”

Plouffe claimed that Harris had a “higher ceiling” for support but admitted that Trump is stronger now than he was in 2020, when he narrowly lost that election.

Video of the interaction can be viewed at the Daily Caller.

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A former Missouri math teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with a student could potentially serve a very short prison sentence thanks to a sweetheart plea deal.

As Blaze News reported in January, 26-year-old Hailey Clifton-Carmack was arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student.

‘They are going to do it behind my back, so I may as well let it happen.’

Clifton-Carmack — a former teacher at Laquey High School — allegedly had sex with a minor on multiple occasions and in different locations, including at the school.

WITI-TV reported that a witness told detectives with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office that the teacher and victim had “used students as lookouts while they had sex during school.”

The victim allegedly sent photos of scratches on his back to a classmate. The student said the scratches were from Clifton-Carmack after they had sex in the classmate’s driveway, according to the police report.

Blaze News reported last month that the victim’s father — Mark Creighton — allegedly knew of the suspect’s purported relationship with his son.

An anonymous witness reportedly told the father that she was going to report the child sex abuse, and the father allegedly responded: “They are going to do it behind my back, so I may as well let it happen.”

The father allegedly admitted to Pulaski County Detective Sgt. Bryan Gibbs that Clifton-Carmack had been to his house.

Prosecutors said Creighton “knew of the relationship of his minor child and the 26-year-old teacher, and instead of reporting the information, he continued to cover for them and allowed the relationship to continue” and “even allowed Hailey to come over to his residence and see the victim while he was present.”

The teen’s father was charged with child endangerment in January.

Clifton-Carmack allegedly denied the child sex crime accusations when questioned by detectives in December 2023. Clifton-Carmack fled to Texas, where she was arrested in January and was extradited back to Missouri.

Clifton-Carmack initially was charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, second-degree statutory rape, having sexual contact with a student, fourth-degree child molestation, and seven counts of misdemeanor furnishing pornographic material to a minor.

However, the disgraced teacher made a deal and pleaded guilty to sexual contact with a student, which allows her to avoid more serious charges.

On Friday, Circuit Judge John Beger sentenced Clifton-Carmack to four years in prison. The divorced mother of two also was ordered to complete a sex offender treatment program.

The judge also said he would “receive a report on her progress and behavior in about 90 days, and if she does well, her sentence could be suspended, and she would be placed on probation,” KJLU-TV reported.

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Ray Ortlund, emeritus council member of the Gospel Coalition, is using his platform to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“Never Trump. This time Harris. Always Jesus,” Ortlund wrote in a social media post on Threads.

But this isn’t the first time he’s engaged in leftist talking points. In 2020, Ortlund posted alongside a photo of George Floyd, “Dear racists, why do you keep treating me well? Don’t you understand yet that I identify with the man on the pavement, not the man in power? So if you’re going to keep behaving in your racist ways, then come after me too. I demand it. I too am the man you hate — but God loves.”

Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” believes Ortlund is giving “a really great example actually of toxic empathy.”

“He says I am the man, I identify with the man on the pavement. Well, when it comes to justice, when it comes to these big statements that can inform policy, that has an effect on people’s lives. It really doesn’t matter whom we identify with. What matters is what is true,” Stuckey says.

“We don’t show partiality to someone because they’re rich, because they’re poor, because they’re influential, because they have no influence, white or black, because we perceive that they are on the side of the oppressed or we perceive that they’re on the side of the oppressor. That is not the truthful proportionate and impartial justice that God doles out,” she continues.

The problem with toxic empathy, Stuckey explains, is that “when we feel how someone feels so strongly, we become blinded to both reality and moral reality and we no longer are able to make right judgments.”

In 2021, Ortlund received blowback for another post made on social media, where he said that he rejoices “at the decline of Bible Belt Religion.”

“It made bad people worse — in the name of Jesus,” Ortlund wrote.

While Ortlund had made some points in his post that Stuckey agrees with, the overall message was one she did not.

“If we are champions of God’s authority and his ways and his rightness then it should be seen as a good thing when the culture becomes more Christian,” she says.

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The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office published details of how three men from Honduras were apparently able to illegally enter the United States and eventually allegedly sexually assault a minor.

According to the PBSO, Selvin Lopez Lopez, Erick Lopez Lopez, and Jesersson Lopez Lopez were “arrested for numerous counts of lewd lascivious behavior (capital sexual battery) on a minor under 12 years of age.” The sheriff’s office believes the abuse took place between August of this year and the time they were arrested.

The PBSO said in the course of its investigation, deputies found Selvin and Erick had illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021 and handed themselves over to U.S. Border Patrol. Upon their release from custody, they were told to call for a court date, but they apparently never did.

Jesersson reportedly illegally crossed the border in 2023 and was given a court date for 2028 when he was released.

‘They should have never been here to start with.’

The PBSO reported that all three men are currently in the county jail with no bond.

— (@)

“Three absolute MONSTERS charged with sexual battery on a 12 year old child. All three of them were let into our country by Kamala Harris,” the Trump campaign said in response to the PBSO’s post.

Back in March, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said he was frustrated seeing illegal immigrants commit horrific crimes against women and children. He made his comments after three such cases occurred within a few months’ time.

“They should have never been here to start with. So now you have people that have been victimized that shouldn’t have been victimized at all,” he said, according to WPEC. “We have our border out here, which is the ocean, and we patrol that heavily. My hands are tied about the ones that get in here. I have to deal with them as they come to us.”

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​Politics