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Dramatic new police bodycam video from the Pennsylvania rooftop where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired his AR-15-style rifle at former President Donald J. Trump showed his handcuffed body face-down and a river of blood that ran down the roof and over the edge from a counter-sniper’s kill shot to the head.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released 25 minutes of new bodycam video to add to the three minutes he released earlier in the week. The video was obtained by Senate investigators from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit SWAT team.

The video confirmed the presence of eight shell casings and showed that a remote-control device for triggering bombs found in Crooks’ possession had an extendable antenna.

The bodycam video began as the SWAT officer jogged behind the stage where Trump was shot 16 minutes earlier. He ran toward the American Glass Research building north of the fairground that hosted the rally. A medic, another SWAT officer, and the recording SWAT operator had to crawl through a hole in the chain link fence in order to access the AGR property.

‘If that phone starts ringing or something, call me, in case he’s got someone working with him.’

The SWAT officer climbed to the roof of Building 6 via a ladder leaned against the east front of the building. As the officer stepped onto the roof at 6:31 p.m., the camera showed an open, black Swiss Gear backpack near the north edge of the roof. A small, tan canvas pack was seen about halfway up the roof to where Crooks’ body lay.

The medic knelt down and checked Crooks’ carotid artery for a pulse. His body was face-down and had been handcuffed by the first officers on scene. The wound to Crooks’ head was fatal, as evidenced by the massive amount of blood that flowed down the roof.

Crooks’ rifle was about six feet to his left, likely moved to that spot by responding officers who then handcuffed him.

Former FBI special agent and SWAT team member Steve Friend said handcuffing a criminal subject and securing any weapons are by-the-book actions for the first officers on scene. “That is a standard protocol to ensure officer safety,” Friend told Blaze News.

“Watch out for shell casings,” a voice off camera told the SWAT officer on the bodycam video.

A sergeant from the Allegheny County Bomb Squad searched through Crooks’ pockets. Lying next to Crooks were a cell phone, a rangefinder, and the grey transceiver. One of the officers snapped photos with a cell phone to send to other bomb squad officials.

“If that phone starts ringing or something, call me, in case he’s got someone working with him,” the Allegheny sergeant said. “I’d like to secure it, but he’s got 10 percent battery left.” He said the phone would be placed in a Faraday bag that would prevent signals from triggering explosives if Crooks’ had rigged any devices nearby.

In testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on July 24, FBI Director Christopher Wray said analysts don’t believe the remote controller could have triggered the two explosive devices found in Crooks’ vehicle.

‘It’s hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered.’

A Secret Service agent who came onto the roof about 7 p.m. asked about shell casings, some of which were visible on the roof. “At least 8,” the Beaver SWAT officer said.

Police Drones Were Offered

In other developments in the attempted assassination, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, according to a whistleblower, the U.S. Secret Service “repeatedly” refused offers from a local law enforcement agency to have drone technology available to secure the site for the Trump rally.

“This means that the technology was both available to the USSS and able to be deployed to secure the sight,” Hawley wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Secret Service said no.”

Hawley said it was only after the shooting that the Secret Service changed its mind “and asked the local partner to deploy the drone technology to surveil the site in the aftermath of the attack.”

“It’s hard to understand why USSS would decline to use drones when they were offered, particularly given the fact USSS permitted the shooter to overfly the rally with his own drone mere hours before [the] event,”
Hawley wrote.

Wray testified that Crooks flew his own small drone in the area of the rally, about 200 yards from the stage, for about 11 minutes beginning at 3:50 p.m. Trump was shot just after 6:11 p.m.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators sent letters to three federal agencies and five state and local law enforcement agencies to obtain records related to the rally and the attempted assassination.

“The senators are seeking information on security preparations, intelligence gathering on potential violence prior to the attack, and detailed explanations of the agencies’ security response,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a statement.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier announced its own bipartisan investigation, joining investigations in the House and probes by the DHS Office of Inspector General and the FBI.

During nearly five hours of testimony in the House on July 24, Wray seemed to question whether Trump was actually struck with a bullet or whether it was a piece of shrapnel. Wray did not explain what led him to make the assertion.

Wray’s remarks drew fire from Trump’s former presidential physician, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who has examined Trump since the shooting.

“Having served as an emergency medicine physician for over 20 years in the United States Navy, including as a combat physician on the battlefield in Iraq, I have treated many gunshot wounds in my career,” Jackson wrote in a July 26 letter to “Concerned Citizens of the United States.”

“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” Jackson wrote. “Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”

On Friday afternoon, the FBI issued a statement confirming that Trump was struck by a bullet. “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said.

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​Crime 

Kamala Harris may be playing up her Gen Z voter base appeal with sparkly TikTok videos and a recent endorsement as a “brat” from Charli XCX, but Sara Gonzales doesn’t believe her strategy is enough to win the election.

“Number one, she condemned pro-Palestinian rioters, burning the flags and defacing these statues, rioting in Union Park and on Capitol Hill,” Gonzales says. “She probably has a lot of Hamas lovers in her base — is this going to alienate them?”

In a statement from the vice president, Harris called the rioters “unpatriotic,” said their actions were “despicable,” and that their rhetoric was “dangerous” and “hate-fueled.”

“I don’t think that’s going to fly with them,” Gonzales says, noting that the Democrats also already know Harris is a “failed border czar.”

“I know the press is trying to wipe away the fact that Joe ever crowned her as border czar,” Gonzales comments, adding, “Today, six Democrats joined every Republican House member to condemn Kamala Harris’ handling of the border crisis.”

“Her own people are turning against her because they cannot deny that the Border has been just decimated under her and Biden’s watch,” she says.

While Harris’ step-daughter is a Gen Z transgender advocate who refuses to shave her armpits, Gonzales doesn’t believe her presence will do much. Rather, she says she could be the next “Hunter Biden.”

“I mean, Kamala is just such a terrible candidate,” Gonzales continues. “I love that all of these things that are happening right now that she is being forced to attend to. She’s being forced to come out and condemn her people, all of these pro-Hamas terrorists — what I’m calling them.”

“I just love it. It just couldn’t be happening to a more deserving person. So, yes, we know that she’s going to fall on her face, but it’s just nice to see all of these things come to fruition now,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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An Alabama pastor delivered a powerful sermon detailing how he wrestled a gun away from his grandson. The struggle over the gun happened just moments after the tragic murders of a woman and four children.

Brandon Allan Kendrick II was arrested last week and charged with four counts of capital murder of a child under the age of 14 and one count of capital murder in the slayings of two or more people in one act, according to AL.com.

‘Don’t you think that if you don’t have Jesus, you’re going to walk out of here, and everything’s going to be cool because you ain’t no match for the devil.’

Kendrick, 32, is accused of shooting to death Kelse Kendrick — his 24-year-old wife of six years. Kendrick also is accused of murdering the couple’s two children: 6-year-old Kaleb Kendrick and 2-year-old Kynli Kendrick. Also murdered in the bloodbath were the couple’s niece and nephew: Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, who would have turned 9 on Tuesday.

Kendrick’s grandfather, Rev. Allan Kendrick, described the events leading up to and after the horrific quintuple homicide during his sermon Sunday at the Oasis of Praise church in McCalla.

Kendrick said that 10 minutes before the unimaginable shootings, his grandson was “laughing, talking” in a bedroom with him and his wife Gay.

“We talked about the first time we ever took him to a restaurant for his 13th birthday. He’d never been in a restaurant,” Pastor Kendrick recalled.

“All he’d ever known for 12 years was abuse — physical, sexual, mental, drug,” Kendrick said of his grandson. “When I got him at 12 years old, he weighed 58 pounds. He was on nine different psychotic medicines.”

The pastor said that the system had failed Brandon once he turned 18 years old because his disability and Medicaid were canceled. The family couldn’t afford his medication.

“Gay and I watched him all these years try so hard,” Kendrick said. “We talked to every agency, we talked to everybody, we tried everything. We had him institutionalized in hospitals only to have him discharged with no medication, no follow up, no doctor.”

Kendrick said Brandon called 911 around 1 a.m. on the day of the murders, but he was “turned down.”

Kendrick said Kelse Kendrick came home and also was in the bedroom with the family and was in good spirits that day.

“[Brandon] got up, 10 minutes later, ‘Pow,’’’ Pastor Kendrick told his congregation just days after five members of his family were slain in his home.

Kendrick continued, “I told Gay, ‘That’s a gunshot.’ She said it was.”

Moments later, Brandon walked into the bedroom with a gun in his hand and Gay was in close proximity to him.

“She grabbed the gun. It went off. I don’t know how it kept from hitting her,” Kendrick said before crediting the prayers from an hour earlier.

“Yeah, yeah, I do know. Because our prayer time that night, about an hour before this incident, our prayer team stood here and joined hands and prayed for [my] and Gay’s safety,” he said. “I had reached out to several of the church members; they were helping me, trying to get some kind of help. So, they prayed for us.”

Kendrick said he wrestled his armed grandson to the floor.

“I was able to subdue him. And once that happened, he didn’t know where he was at,” he noted.

The pastor said, “He didn’t know where he was at. He started asking me and Gay, saying, ‘No, where am I at? Where’s Kelse? Poppy, why, why are you angry? What did I do wrong?'”

Kendrick remembered, “Ten minutes before that he’s laughing, talking and having a pretty good time. Don’t you think that if you don’t have Jesus, you’re going to walk out of here and everything’s going to be cool because you ain’t no match for the devil.”

He told his congregation, “Do you think you’re strong enough to resist the devil if he were to possess you? You better get your heart right with God, because you may be the next one on national news.”

Kendrick also addressed concerns that he shouldn’t deliver a sermon just days after his family’s ghastly tragedy.

“I’ve had a few people call [and say], ‘Pastor, you can’t preach Sunday. You can’t get up and preach Sunday with what you’ve been through and what’s going on with you. It’s going to be too hard,'” he recounted to his congregation.

He added, “What I’m doing right now, I’ll get criticized for. I’m supposed to be mourning. I’m supposed to be grieving. I’m supposed to be incapable of doing anything. I should be at home with my blinds pulled.”

But Kendrick declared, “No, when heard this, ‘I will look into the hills from which cometh my help.’ My help cometh from the Lord.”

A GoFundMe has been launched to help pay for the estimated $50,000 in funeral costs for the five slain family members. At the time of publication, the crowdsourcing campaign had raised over $31,000.

You can watch Kendrick tell his tragic story to his congregation here.

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​Faith, Murder, Alabama pastor, Rev allan kendrick, Jesus, Alabama, Crime 

New, never-before-seen video of the World Trade Center towers collapsing on September 11, 2001, has surfaced.

On Tuesday, Kei Sugimoto uploaded previously unseen footage of the 9/11 terror attacks. At the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Sugimoto was a 24-year-old living in New York City.

‘This was no ordinary accident.’

Sugimoto said the video was taken from the roof of a building on 64 St. Marks Place in Staten Island, which is about seven miles from where the World Trade Center was located at the time.

To capture the tragic footage, Sugimoto used a Sony VX2000 with a teleconverter.

Sugimoto uploaded three versions of the historic footage to YouTube this week.

The six-minute condensed video shows the smoldering Twin Towers before they collapsed after the two jetliners crashed into them (which you can watch here).

There is a six-minute clip that has been upscaled in video quality (which you can watch here).

Sugimoto also shared a video that is nearly an hour long that shows the catastrophic events of 9/11 (which you can watch here).

The newly released 9/11 videos have gone viral and racked up nearly half of a million views on YouTube and millions more views on other social media platforms, such as X and Rumble.

Sugimoto decided to start recording the events of September 11 after realizing that the plane colliding into the World Trade Center was “no ordinary accident.”

He added: “If I remember correctly. I think I ran to get my video camera after seeing the second plane crash sensing that this was no ordinary accident.”

In the YouTube comments of the video, Sugimoto was asked why he uploaded the 9/11 footage more than two decades after the catastrophe that changed the world forever.

Sugimoto responded, “I was cleaning my closet and found boxes full of Hi-8, Digital-8, and DV tapes.”

“When trying to play them back I noticed that maybe about a 3rd of them had demagnetized over time and were either blank, or suffering from major data corruption,” he continued. “After researching online I learned that video tapes are not immune from age even when stored in ideal conditions, so I frantically started to digitize them.”

Sugimoto concluded, “Thus I’m just uploading the video now.”

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​911, 911 attacks, New 911 video, New september 11th video, September 11, September 11th, 911 video, Politics 

The mainstream media continues to gaslight Americans about the truth regarding Vice President Kamala Harris and her track record of supporting far-left causes.

As Blaze News previously reported, many outlets have tried to say that Harris was never the designated border czar of the Biden administration, even though she tweeted in April 2021 that Biden had asked her “to lead our diplomatic work with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras” and “to address the situation at the southern border.”

The supposedly nonpartisan government accountability group GovTrack also scrubbed a page from its website listing Harris as the “most liberal” member of the U.S. Senate in 2019, when Harris was still a senator from California.

Harris and the Minnesota Freedom Fund

Now, some outlets are attempting to obscure Harris’ record once again, this time about her support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit that posted bail for violent rioters in the wake of George Floyd’s death in 2020.

“If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” Harris posted on June 1, 2020, to her personal account on the platform then known as Twitter.

The tweet has never been taken down, and a similar post to Harris’ personal Facebook account likewise remains active.

CBS News claimed former President Donald Trump recently made ‘misleading’ statements regarding Harris and the fund. The Minnesota Recorder said Trump was ‘distorting’ the truth ‘to attack Kamala Harris.’

Two weeks after issuing those posts, she hinted on an appearance with late-night host Stephen Colbert that she knew many protesters had engaged in violence but that she still supported their actions. “Everyone beware because they’re not gonna stop,” she told Colbert. “… Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not.”

“This is a movement.”

But four years later, now that Joe Biden has dropped his bid for a second term in the Oval Office and Harris has all but locked up the Democratic nomination for the 2024 presidential election, the media is once again running interference on behalf of Harris, trying hard to nuance her support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund.

CBS News claimed former President Donald Trump recently made “misleading” statements regarding Harris and the fund. The Minnesota Recorder said Trump was “distorting” the truth to “attack Kamala Harris.”

Minnesota Freedom Fund and the murder of Luis Martinez Ortiz

But of course, the Minnesota Freedom Fund did ultimately collect some $41 million, a small percentage of which was used to bail out protesters, violent or otherwise. According to Fox News, the vast majority of the group’s funds were actually spent bailing out other violent suspects, including a man with a criminal record who went on to murder a man just a few weeks after the fund sprang him from jail.

On August 5, 2021, George Howard, a then-48-year-old man with a criminal record, was arrested in connection with an alleged domestic assault. Thanks to bond money from the Minnesota Freedom Fund, however, Howard was back out on the streets less than a week later.

By August 29, he was back behind bars, this time for gunning down 38-year-old Luis Damian Martinez Ortiz following a road-rage incident that took place along I-94 in Minneapolis. Howard later pled guilty and is currently serving a 15-year sentence.

In September 2021, Minnesota Freedom Fund acknowledged on social media its role in releasing Howard from jail on the domestic violence charge. “We are aware of reports of the tragic and fatal shooting in Minneapolis earlier this week allegedly involving George Howard, an individual the Minnesota Freedom Fund had previously provided with bail support,” the group wrote.

“MFF believes that every individual who has been arrested by the law enforcement is innocent until proven guilty, and if a judge deems them eligible for bail, they should not have to wait in jail simply because they don’t have the same income or access to resources as others.”

That tweet thread has since been deleted.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund also denies that Harris has ever been heavily involved with it. “We have no connection to Harris or her campaign beyond this four-year-old tweet that is occasioning all of this additional interest in our organization,” spokesperson Noble Frank told MPR News.

The Harris campaign declined CBS News’ request for comment.

A direct connection with ActBlue

As of Friday afternoon, the link in Harris’ posts about the Minnesota Freedom Fund is still live and directs users to an ActBlue site with the title “Kamala Harris for the People” emblazoned across the top. Any donations made to the page “will help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” the website says.

ActBlue is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that describes itself as “a powerful online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, progressive organizations, and nonprofits.”

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​Crime, Bail, Riots, 2020 riots, George floyd protests, Blm, Violent protests, Kamala harris, Minnesota freedom fund, Politics 

We’re all asking the same questions: Is the almost-assassination of Donald Trump the result of gross incompetence on the part of the DEI-infected Secret Service? Was it an inside job? Was Iran somehow involved?

But there’s one question hardly anyone is asking: Was there another shooter?

Dr. Chris Martenson, CEO of Peak Prosperity, joins Pat Gray and the “Unleashed” team to explain his theory suggesting that multiple shooters were involved in the attempt on President Trump’s life.

Martenson’s Audio Evidence: Multiple Shooters in Trump Attempt

www.youtube.com

“I have five audio sources,” says Martenson, listing out “Trump’s mic,” “a person halfway in between Trump and the buildings where the shots came from,” a video taken from “way out past Trump,” and two videos taken “right next to the side of the building.”

Audio sources “four and five though … [are] where all the action is,” he says, adding that audio source number one — Trump’s mic — “missed a couple of the shots because it has a feature in the microphone … so that when it hears too loud of a sound, it shuts the mic down for just a tiny bit.”

According to Martenson, that audio feature in Trump’s mic caused it to “[miss] two of the booms,” so “a lot of people started misanalyzing.”

“The official story is that all 8 [shots] came from Crooks because they found 8 spent brass casings around him.”

But apparently, there’s no hard proof of this. There’s also no recording of the first guy to mount the roof after the shots were fired. Further, “there was a 12-minute lag, according to Senator Johnson … between the last shot and when the first person allegedly went on the roof.”

Martenson has a strong suspicion that we’re not being told the full story.

To learn more, watch the clip above.

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The U.S. Department of Justice appears to have opened a grand jury investigation into former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin in retaliation for his role as a whistleblower over the past two years and his promotion of other whistleblowers who sought to expose malfeasance at the nation’s top law enforcement agency.

Seraphin told Blaze News that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed his social media postings on X/Twitter and those of suspended FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle. Both men have had a prominent role since 2022 exposing what they allege are abuses within the bureau that threaten the civil rights of agents and the general public.

In May 2022, Seraphin exposed various abuses at the FBI in a video interview with investigative journalist James O’Keefe III at Project Veritas. In the Veritas broadcast, Seraphin’s face was hidden and his voice was masked to protect his identity. On the program, Seraphin disclosed that the FBI had opened “sensitive investigative matter” investigations into news media organizations.

“The FBI is trying to jam me up for an obstruction of justice charge, probably that 1512(c)(2), on the actual [Veritas] video that was released,” Seraphin told Blaze News.

‘O’Boyle should have his clearance immediately reinstated, be returned to duty, and be provided back pay and benefits for his time on unpaid leave.’

That charge, under 18 U.S. Code §1512(c)(2), was used against more than 350 defendants who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Its novel, unprecedented use was challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled on June 28 that the 20-year felony could be used only if the person charged had impaired the use of documents or some other evidence in an “official proceeding.”

O’Boyle was notified through his attorney that he was not the target of the grand jury probe, Seraphin said. Seraphin did not receive such a notice, which he said likely indicates that he is an investigative target.

“If that’s what they’re trying to do, then it should be public and they [the FBI] should know that I know,” Seraphin said.

O’Boyle wrongly targeted

Seraphin also disclosed that the FBI suspended O’Boyle’s security clearance in July 2024 after denying him a paycheck for the past 18 months — even though the bureau knew that it was Seraphin and not O’Boyle who was interviewed by Project Veritas.

O’Boyle had taken on a new role at the FBI in September 2022 and was in the process of moving his family to Virginia from Kansas. On the day he was to report for work, his service weapon and FBI credentials were seized and his employment suspended, all based on the false assertion that he had leaked information to Project Veritas.

The FBI’s sudden suspension left the O’Boyle family without a place to live since all of his belongings were en route to their new home. They were forced to head to Wisconsin and took shelter in a camper parked in a relative’s driveway.

“If the FBI is going to do this to their own employees, what do you think they’re capable of doing to normal people in our society?” O’Boyle said in an interview with Blaze News. “The depth of the wrongdoing here on what they’ve done to me and my family is so deep that it’s close to impossible to even untangle.”

FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle with daughters Iris and Gwen during his days as a police officer in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Garret O’Boyle, used with permission

Blaze News asked the FBI to comment on Seraphin’s contentions but did not receive a reply by publication time.

The whistleblower cases of both men — and the recent expulsion of a 27-year FBI veteran just 90 days shy of retirement — shed light on an agency that has pursued vengeance against insiders for making lawful, statutorily protected disclosures about alleged abuses inside the FBI, Seraphin said.

Revelations from current and former FBI employees have not led to reforms inside the bureau but rather have resulted in vindictive campaigns to silence and punish those who dared to speak up about COVID “vaccine” mandates, Jan. 6 SWAT raids, investigations of the Catholic Church, and various other civil rights violations, he said.

In spring 2022, Seraphin was suspended under the guise of an investigation into him for doing target practice with his service weapon at a shooting range on federal land in New Mexico. The sound of the shots had prompted calls to local police from a nearby school.

The police officer who made contact with Seraphin at the range concluded that Seraphin did nothing wrong. The officer left the scene without taking any action, Seraphin said. The land was often used by the public for target practice.

The internal investigation started by the FBI was actually because Seraphin had refused to take the COVID-19 shot that was being pushed as a vaccine on bureau employees, he said. Seraphin filed for an exemption from the FBI’s vaccine policy based on his Catholic faith, because the COVID shots were developed using cell lines from aborted babies.

Seraphin was the organizer of an FBI chat group on the encrypted app Signal that focused on the vaccine mandates.

“They went after Garret simply because we were connected together, we were good friends,” Seraphin told Blaze News. “My belief is they lined it up because they knew we both had gotten into that COVID group that I started on Signal, which had 300 FBI employees.”

House Judiciary testimony

O’Boyle offered emotional testimony before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary in May 2023 about the damage done to him, his wife, and four children by the false accusation and resulting suspension without pay.

O’Boyle appeared with former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend, suspended FBI analyst Marcus Allen, and Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, an agency that supports and represents government whistleblowers.

Leavitt sent a letter on July 22 to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility demanding that O’Boyle’s security clearance be reinstated.

Suspended FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle tells the House Judiciary Committee on May 18, 2023: “The FBI will crush you. This government will crush you and your family.”
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“Despite knowing that SA O’Boyle had accepted a transfer, sold his family’s home, and had a newborn baby, the FBI — in violation of its own policy — waited until after SA O’Boyle reported to his new duty station to suspend his clearance, leaving him and his family homeless,” Leavitt wrote.

“Because the FBI’s actions against SA O’Boyle were clearly retaliatory, SA O’Boyle should have his clearance immediately reinstated, be returned to duty, and be provided back pay and benefits for his time on unpaid leave.”

O’Boyle said the FBI has not reimbursed him for the $30,000 cost to move his family from Wichita to Virginia. An FBI official told O’Boyle in a November 2022 email that reimbursement was not possible until the investigation into him was finished.

Seraphin has brought numerous examples of FBI overreach to public view, including an internal memo directing agents to look for threats against local school boards or administrators in order to open domestic terrorism cases. Many parents said in response that they felt like the weight of the federal government could be used against them for asking for redress of grievances about drag queen story hours or school libraries that stock pornographic homosexual books aimed at children.

Seraphin also disclosed that the FBI was seeking to infiltrate and investigate so-called radical traditional Catholics, many of whom prefer the Traditional Latin Mass, as some kind of domestic extremists.

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​Politics 

It’s been a long, treacherous month — especially if you love your country.

To kick it off, President Joe Biden shocked half of the nation at the presidential debate by confirming what the other half — conservatives — have been saying all along. That of course is that his apparent mental decline.

“It was a frightening moment for many Americans. Not because ‘Oh my gosh he’s going to lose to Donald Trump’ but because that guy is the guy who’s running the country,” Glenn Beck says.

Shortly after, former President Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“So we don’t know who’s in charge, and then a week later the guy running against him is gunned down on live television, and we really don’t know what happened,” Glenn continues, noting that we then were faced with the realization that the Secret Service director was a DEI hire.

“The head of security of the Security Service, we all figured out and found out, was hired by the first lady. Not the president. The first lady was the one who pushed for her DEI hire at the Secret Service. And she was protecting PepsiCo and now the most important leaders of the world,” Glenn says in disbelief.

When the now-former Secret Service director — who just resigned — gave her testimony on what happened on July 13, her lack of ability to answer questions had Americans everywhere asking a new question.

“Wait a minute, was this a setup?” Glenn asks, recalling the testimony. “What are they covering up? If they’re not covering something up, why wouldn’t they just be honest and open and transparent?”

And of course, there’s Biden’s resignation from the 2024 presidential race.

“I think he should have resigned, not just from the candidacy but from the presidency of the United States,” Glenn says. “He’s not okay to run a campaign, but he’s okay to run the country?”

Then Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in to replace him as the Democratic candidate for 2024.

“The party elites picked her, and then they had a coup and picked her again,” Glenn says.

“I just want you to recognize why you might be on edge. Why you might be so tired right now. A lot has happened to your country that you love.”

“Your country has taken a beating over just the last three weeks,” he adds.

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A Detroit pastor who spoke at the Republican National Convention explained this week why black voters are increasingly supporting Republicans.

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who leads 180 Church, not only spoke at the RNC, but he hosted former President Donald Trump at his church last month. Sewell told WXYZ-TV that he is not endorsing a candidate in the 2024 election, but he made it clear why the Republican Party is growing in its appeal to voters who historically support Democrats.

‘That’s what our nation needs. They need to relationship with Jesus Christ.’

“When we look at our community, we see clearly that our community’s hurting, right? It’s been up under Democratic leadership,” Sewell told WXYZ. “We’re hurting.”

Regarding black men specifically, Sewell said Trump is winning their support because he represents change — a signal that help is coming.

“Well, you can see it, right? You can see black men supporting President Donald Trump,” Sewell said. “I believe that a lot of them understand that something needs to change. I can see that. And I believe that black women will also begin to support [Trump].”

But what about Vice President Kamala Harris?

Sewell said he doesn’t buy the argument that Harris should win the black vote simply because she is black.

“Look, you don’t have anything more powerful than America than a black woman. So, I understand that there are allegiances there,” Sewell said. “But sometimes that can be misguided. I’ve had people call me this afternoon and say, ‘Vote for Kamala Harris because she’s black.’

“That doesn’t resonate with me. Even though it would be amazing, she reminds me of an act. I look up to her. But that doesn’t mean that she’s supposed to be the president of the United States of America,” he continued. “I do believe that the Democratic Party picked her like we used to do in middle school when we picked the last person we didn’t want to pick.”

During the interview, Sewell revealed how welcoming Trump is — and what the former president requested last month.

Before the RNC, Sewell recounted that he asked Trump’s team if he could pray at the RNC. But the response he received included an offer to do more than that: Trump’s team asked him to pray and speak. That opportunity, Sewell said, gave him “the privilege of lifting up Jesus.”

“And that’s all that matters. That’s what our nation needs. They need to relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said.

Moreover, Sewell said that when Trump visited his church last month, the former president didn’t request an endorsement. Instead, he asked for prayer.

“He didn’t ask for my endorsement. He asked for prayer,” Sewell told WXYZ. “And any politician that would have the local church pray for them, then we’re doing our job, and then they can do their job well.”

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​Faith, Lorenzo sewell, Detroit, Republican party, Republicans, Democratic party, Democrats, Donald trump, Christianity, Christians, Politics 

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently issued an executive order demanding local governments “urgently address homeless encampments,” according to a Thursday press release.

Newsom has claimed for decades that solving California’s homelessness crisis is one of his top concerns; however, under the politician’s leadership, the problem has continued to escalate. The state currently has roughly 181,000 homeless individuals and only 71,000 emergency shelter beds, according to Cal Matters.

It is unclear where Newsom would like local municipalities to relocate the homeless population, but he is pushing leaders to do so swiftly.

Newsom claimed that his abrupt announcement to clean up the encampments was sparked by a United States Supreme Court decision handed down a month ago.

In a Thursday press release, the governor’s office wrote, “With the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v Johnson, local governments now have the tools and authority to address dangerous encampments and help provide those residing in encampments with the resources they need.”

The high court’s ruling found that laws restricting homeless individuals from sleeping in public areas do not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” and, therefore, such restrictions are not unconstitutional.

“I don’t think there’s anything more urgent and more frustrating than addressing the issue of encampments in the state of California,” Newsom said in a video posted to social media. “We’ve invested now over $1 billion in encampment resolution grants.”

“In the past, the courts have denied the ability of the local government — including the state — to clean up many of these encampments,” Newsom claimed.

“We’re done,” he continued. “It’s time to move with urgency at the local level to clean up these sites.”

Newsom called on local governments to “do their job.”

In a post on X, he declared, “No more excuses. We’ve provided the time. We’ve provided the funds.”

Republicans speculated that Newsom’s sense of urgency may have more to do with the recent announcement that Vice President Kamala Harris plans to run as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in the upcoming 2024 election. Harris has been viewed as largely responsible for California’s prison-to-homelessness pipeline for supporting soft-on-crime policies. GOP lawmakers called the move to clean up the state’s streets a “PR stunt” by Newsom, who is being floated as a potential pick for running mate.

The governor previously cleaned up San Francisco’s streets ahead of the U.S.-China summit in late 2023. Newsom admitted that the decision was motivated by the event.

“I know folks are saying, ‘Oh they’re just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming to town.’ That’s true, because it’s true — but it’s also true for months and months and months before APEC [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit], we’ve been having conversations,” he said.

In response to Newsom’s new executive order to clear encampments, state Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) remarked, “It’s about damn time!”

“Letting people live and die on the streets or in our parks is unsafe and unsanitary,” Jones stated, according to Fox News Digital. “I introduced a proposal earlier this year that would have provided even greater and more immediate solutions. While I am cautiously optimistic that the governor has finally taken note of the urgency of this problem, albeit many years later than needed, Californians deserve government for the people, not the PR hits.”

Earlier this year, all state Senate Republicans, including Jones, introduced Senate Bill 1011, a bipartisan effort to prohibit people from sleeping in public areas when shelter space is available. Some Senate Democrats rejected the measure.

Senator Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks) called Newsom’s order “a good step” but noted that it would “require significant follow-through to ensure its effectiveness.”

“Homelessness is one of the biggest challenges we face today, and it is imperative we take swift, decisive and effective action to address it,” Niello stated.

Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher wrote on X in response to the executive action, “Big promises. No action. [B]lame locals. No press. Rinse and repeat.”

Just last week, Newsom vetoed an assembly bill that, if enacted, would have required his administration to submit to annual evaluations of funds provided to its Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program.

“Gavin likes to spend. Oversight? Not so much.,” Gallagher said.

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​News, California, Gavin newsom, Newsom, Homelessness, Homeless crisis, Kamala harris, Harris, Brian jones, Roger niello, James gallagher, Politics 

Get excited! George Clooney is on Team Kamala.

The heartthrob threw his support behind Vice President Harris just days after throwing President Joe Biden under the presidential motorcade. So much throwing. Great for the shoulders, but he better bend at the knees. You’re not a kid any more, George.

Clooney knew Biden’s obvious dementia could complicate the leader’s campaign, but he only spoke out following Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

What. A. Patriot.

Now he wants us to know that the candidate who flamed out in epic fashion four years ago is the best candidate possible. Maybe ever. Clooney is a master at make-believe, but those skills stretch only so far …

Kamala chameleons

We’ve had three-plus years of comedians avoiding the word salad spinner in chief.

Vice presidents don’t always offer comic gold to satirists, but there are exceptions. Comics mocked Mike Pence’s uber-square persona. Dan Quayle got hammered for his infamous “potatoe” spelling gaffe. Dick Cheney’s hunting accident wasn’t the only time late-night wags pounced and seized on the crusty VP.

Harris? Zero, zilch, nada. Looks like the usual past-their-prime-timers have chosen to focus on what their job can be (savior of democracy), unburdened by what it has been (overpaid court jester).

And expect that wall of silence to extend to November. Except when comedians are promoting her campaign, like “Jimmy Kimmel Live” fill-in Lamorne Morris did this week.

The “New Girl” alum praised potential first man Douglas Emhoff as a “stud” while admitting that Harris will need all the help she can get to top Trump come November.

“She gonna need the help of every single god she can get, okay. I’m talking Yahweh, you got Allah, you need Jesus, Oprah, all the big gods,” he quipped.

To paraphrase Robert Plant, “Does anybody remember laughter?”

Worse than waterboarding

Jack Bauer is back. But will we even recognize him?

A new “24” film is in development, although it’s unclear whether Kiefer Sutherland will reprise his role as the relentless hero. In fact, we know very little about the project other than it is yet more proof that beloved IPs never die in Hollywood. They just get rebooted until audience eyerolls hit warp speed.

Will Jack resemble the hero we knew and loved for eight consecutive seasons? He can’t torture terrorists to glean valuable clues any more. Too problematic. The terrorists will have to be Patriot Front members, not Islamic Jihadists. And can our hero save America without having a difficult conversation about systemic racism?

Let’s hope “24” gets stuck in development hell ….

Stone crazy

Sharon Stone’s giving America one last chance.

The “Casino” star is threatening to leave the country should Donald Trump retake the White House this November.

“This is one of the first times in my life that I’ve actually seen anyone running for office on a platform of hate and oppression.”

Guess that means she thought Trump’s 2016 run was marked by sunshine and rainbows. That’s hopeful, right?

There’s a reason celebrities make this vow every four years (and never go through with it). Two, actually. One, it guarantees fawning media attention — not with Align, but everywhere else. Two, it’s a “hire me” placard in plain sight. “See? I think just like you do! Now can I get a bit part in the next season of ‘Bridgerton’? Please?”

Talk about giving in to your basic instinct!

Gass bag

Jack Black took plenty of heat after his bandmate publicly proclaimed his grim birthday wish: that the next would-be shooter would take Trump out for good.

Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass expressed that hope at a Sydney concert less than a day after a 20-year-old man shot and nearly killed Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.

Black didn’t raise a ruckus on stage, but he swiftly shared an Instagram apology with meat on its bones. The “School of Rock” star canceled the rest of the band’s current tour and said he’d be taking a creative break.

Gass shared his own mea culpa on Instagram … only to later delete it.

What a total “D.”

​Christian toto, Kamala harris, George clooney, Hollywood, Movies, Culture, Gossip, Toto recall 

A California man has been arrested in connection with the huge Park Fire that has ravaged the northern area of the Golden State. The suspect is accused of pushing a fiery car into a gully that sparked the massive wildfire that has already burned over 164,000 acres.

Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, was arrested around 2 a.m. Thursday at a mobile home park in Chico, authorities said.

The Park Fire tripled in size on its second day.

Stout is being held without bail until his arraignment Monday.

Butte County District Attorney Michael L. Ramsey said in a statement that Stout likely will face an arson charge, although it’s unclear how many counts or whether any enhancements will be added.

Stout has two previous strike felony convictions, according to prosecutors.

KOVR-TV reported that Stout was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 in Butte County in 2001. The following year, he was convicted in Kern County for robbery with great bodily injury and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In California, individuals with two prior strikes — convictions of violent or serious felonies — receive a “significantly” longer prison sentence if convicted of a third felony.

Stout pushed a car that was on fire into a gully near the Alligator Hole in upper Bidwell Park shortly before 3 p.m. Wednesday, Ramsey stated.

The DA said the fiery car sparked the wildfire now known as the Park Fire.

“The car went down an embankment approximately 60 feet and burned completely, spreading flames that caused the Park Fire,” Ramsey said.

“The male was then seen calmly leaving the area by blending in with the other citizens who were in the area and fleeing the rapidly evolving fire,” Ramsey said.

The origin point of the Park Fire is about 90 miles north of Sacramento. The wildfire has devastated the counties of Butte and Tehama where evacuations were ordered. Roughly 4,000 residents in unincorporated areas of Butte County and 400 residents of Chico were ordered to evacuate, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said at a news conference Thursday.

— (@)

The Park Fire tripled in size on its second day and has scorched more than 164,000 acres — about 256 square miles.

In the most recent Cal Fire report, 134 structures have been destroyed by the fire. Just 3% of the fire has been contained as of Friday morning, Cal Fire said.

Over 1,600 firefighters, 142 fire engines, and six helicopters have been deployed to battle the Park Fire.

“Today the Park Fire burned very actively with hot, dry weather over the region,” Cal Fire said.

Butte County Fire Chief Garrett Sjolund said, “The fire quickly began to outpace our resources because of the dry fuels, the hot weather, the low humidities, and the wind.”

The fast-growing blaze is now California’s largest wildfire this year, and the largest since 2021’s Caldor Fire, KCRA-TV reported.

Also in California, the Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County — which started July 5 — has burned over 38,000 acres and is 90% contained, according to Cal Fire.

The Associated Press reported that a fire near the state line with Nevada displaced approximately 1,000 people after evacuations were ordered Monday.

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​Fires, California, California crime, California fires, California wildfires, Park fire, Wildfires, Arrest, Crime 

Alex Jones has been villainized by the left-owned media for years. A quick Google search of his name will reveal pages upon pages of articles containing phrases such as “conspiracy theorist extraordinaire,” “conspiracy empire,” “Mis-Infowars,” etc.

But the reality is that Alex Jones’ predictions have been eerily correct time and time again.

Perhaps that’s why he’s “the most canceled man on the internet,” says Liz Wheeler, who invited Jones onto her show to discuss his uphill battle against the censorship cabal and his latest predictions for America.

“You predicted COVID, exactly how the Deep State – the globalist Deep state – was going to use a virus that they engineered to unleash tyranny on us. … You predicted the 9/11 attacks – almost exactly how they happened,” says Wheeler.

Among Jones’ other accurate predictions are Tucker Carlson being fired, Biden dropping out of the race , and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

“What’s coming next?” Wheeler asks Jones.

Alex Jones Reveals the Deep State’s Next Plot

www.youtube.com

“Cyber attack is what I said a week ago. … I think [the CrowdStrike outage] was a test of the mega cyber attack,” says Jones, adding that he also thinks we will see “an expanded war with Russia, power outages,” potentially “more assassination attempts on Donald Trump,” and “a massive false flag against a black college or church or synagogue blamed on Trump.”

“We are in cloud cuckoo now, with a desperate, out-of-control elite that are losing their war with Russia, they’re losing their war with the people, the borders are wide open, the whole world’s turning against them, and they desperately want to try to maintain control and change the subject, so I would say right now, the sky is the limit,” he explained.

To hear more of the conversation, including Jones’ full analysis on the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and why he believes “[the Deep State] is even more desperate to kill him” now, watch the clip above.

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After releasing its top 100 athletes since 2000, ESPN decided to compile separate top 10 lists of mixed martial arts fighters for both men and women in the same time period.

As with any completely subjective list, fans immediately took issue.

For the women’s list, ESPN’s methodology was vague and also littered with pandering statements.

The outlet claimed that the women on the list were “shattering stereotypes” and elevated the sport “to unprecedented heights.”

Without giving names of who composed the list, ESPN supplied its list of “top 10 fighters in the history of women’s MMA.”

1. Amanda Nunes
2. Cris Cyborg
3. Ronda Rousey
4. Valentina Shevchenko
5. Joanna Jędrzejczyk
6. Rose Namajunas
7. Zhang Weili
8. Miesha Tate
9. Megumi Fujii
10. Holly Holm

The vagueness of ESPN’s list requirements left fans to wonder if the fighters were listed by legacy and popularity or by sheer talent. Certainly by popularity and in terms of bringing eyes to the sport, Rousey was a huge pioneer. However, she was easily beaten by the list’s 10th-ranked fighter, Holm.

Similarly, Fujii is a legend in the sport, but with few notable wins in her career, she would struggle to be competitive with any woman on this list and many more who aren’t on it.

UFC legend Conor McGregor was quick to criticize the ranking, pointing out that No. 2 Cris “Cyborg” Justino has tested positive for banned substances multiple times.

“Cyborg is a convicted steroid cheat let’s not forget,” McGregor said in a since-deleted X post, BJPenn.com reported.

UFC President Dana White once called Cyborg a “nightmare” and a “dirty” fighter after bringing her into the UFC after her steroid usage.

Other fans took issue with Rousey’s placement, with one saying that she is “criminally high on this list.”

— (@)

ESPN was also vague in its description of the male category, describing it as a “top 10 of the greatest fighters in men’s MMA.”

This wording varied slightly from the women’s list, adding the word “greatest” to the preamble.

The list was ranked as follows:

1. Jon Jones
2. Georges St-Pierre
3. Anderson Silva
4. Demetrious Johnson
5. Khabib Nurmagomedov
6. Fedor Emelianenko
7. Randy Couture
8. Chuck Liddell
9. B.J. Penn
10. Kamaru Usman

Fans were far more critical about the men’s list, and while many agreed that it wasn’t too shabby in terms of fighter greatness and relevance to the sport, it still left confusion about how it was determined.

Along with the quintessential “where’s Conor” posts, notable names left off that received frequent mention were UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and two-division champion Daniel Cormier.

A fan on MMA Mania made a compelling argument as to why McGregor should be added to the list, arguing that his accolades are worthy of recognition even if he didn’t defend his belts.

“Not surprising. McGregor can rightly claim to be the most ‘successful’ MMA fighter, but not the greatest fighter. Even with his horrible recorded [sic] going back 6 years, he could have been considered in the top 10 if he had defended his belts,” the fan wrote.

“The bottomline [sic] is that Conor made the most of his opportunities and become [sic] incredibly successful, but he has not been a serious contender in some time. His best days are behind him and he may be remembered more for his antics outside the cage than for his victories in it.”

While other fans noted that the list is not a “popularity contest,” it is indeed hard to tell.

ESPN’s previous top 100 list — which contained many MMA fighters — was unsurprisingly criticized, as well.

The network’s own host Pat McAfee called it a “s*** show” and criticized ESPN for trying to make a list of this kind in any form.

“There is a top 100 list that is coming out from ESPN’s people and I’ll tell ya what, it is the epitome of everything that everybody hates about ESPN,” McAfee stated. “What they chose to do about ranking the top 100 athletes of the 21st century … what a s*** show.”

Even in the obvious attempts to pander to female athletes with the rankings, unknown athletes were placed ahead of actual female sports legends like Venus Williams and WNBA pioneers Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie.

All things considered, ESPN fared decently on its male MMA list but still seem to suffer from wanting to appear just woke enough with female audiences. This severely hinders ESPN’s ability to make lists of overall athletes or even female-specific ones.

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​Fearless, Conor mcgregor, Mma, Women’s martial arts, Ufc, Sports 

An ongoing FBI investigation into Democratic Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has recently expanded to the local police department, according to multiple local reports. Meanwhile, Thao is simultaneously facing an upcoming recall election later this year.

While no charges have been filed at this time, federal agents raided Thao’s home last month, seizing her phone and computer. The FBI also took electronic devices belonging to Andre Jones, Thao’s partner, who has worked in politics for decades, according to Oaklandside.

‘This is significant.’

During a press conference, Thao previously claimed that the ongoing federal investigation was “not about” her.

As part of the probe, the FBI also raided three other properties linked to the politically influential Duong family, known for owning California Waste Solutions, a recycling company.

It is unclear what potential crimes the FBI is investigating; however, reports have speculated that the probe may be regarding a campaign contribution laundering scheme.

Federal investigators have since demanded phone directory records from the Oakland Police Department, Oaklandside reported. The city must also produce documents showing all federal funding sources since 2021.

The FBI’s subpoena requested “all Oakland Police Department reports made by or involving any member of the Duong family” since April 2024.

Professor Greg Woods, with the Department of Justice Studies at San Jose State University, told KABC-TV, “This is significant because we appear to be entertaining a massive corruption investigation that is currently under way by the grand jury, at the instruction of the Department of Justice.”

He noted that the FBI’s requests for records from the police department do not necessarily indicate that it is being investigated for wrongdoing but rather that federal agents may be trying to uncover instances in which victims have filed complaints and to piece together a timeline.

“They would call the Oakland Police Department to report such an encounter, such as potential victimization,” Woods added. “To, in fact, charge somebody with a crime and place them into custody. And then to continue this judicial process to hold individuals accountable.”

Thao has maintained that she has done nothing wrong.

Neither the FBI nor the Oakland Police Department responded to KABC’s request for comment.

Oakland residents, fed up with the area’s crime and homelessness crisis due to progressive policies imposed by local leaders, have successfully secured enough signatures to force a recall election for Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price (D), Blaze News previously reported.

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​News, Sheng thao, Oakland, California, Fbi, Federal bureau of investigation, Crime, Politics 

Now that the country is being forced to take Kamala Harris seriously, as she could soon become the Democratic presidential nominee, people are dredging up her past.

Dave Rubin plays an old clip from 2019 that’s resurfaced since the Harris hysteria began. According to him, it’s a perfect example of how Kamala “ is a communist [and] a socialist” and “does not believe that America is a fundamentally good place.”

Resurfaced ‘The View’ Clip That Kamala Harris May Regret

youtu.be

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the new darling of the party,” said Meghan McCain. “She’s promoting policies like saying that every single carbon emission in the country – every car – should be eliminated within the next 11 years, everything from a 70% to 80% tax rate. Do you agree that she could possibly, in this ideology of the socialist left, could splinter your party?”

“No! You know, I think that she is challenging the status quo. I think that’s fantastic,” Harris began.

“You know, I used to teach … and the thing that I always loved about teaching was when you teach, it requires you to defend the premise, and it requires you to re-examine the premise and question is it still relevant? Does it have impact? Does it have meaning? And I think that [AOC] is introducing bold ideas that should be discussed,” she concluded.

Dave thinks that the only reason Harris defended AOC is because she is a fellow radical socialist.

“You are one of them,” he condemns.

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​Political, Free speech, Direct message, Meghan mccain, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Political news, Political science, The view, Kamala harris, Critical thinking, Rubin, Intellectual dark web, Aoc, Dave rubin, Politics, Rubin report, Current events, The rubin report, David rubin, Idw, Video, Political party, Youtube.com, Blazetv, Blaze media, Blaze 

Is the media coordinating with Democrats to claim that Vice President Kamala Harris was never the border czar?

On Thursday, Fox News senior correspondent Peter Doocy confronted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over a card with talking points that is being distributed to Democrats on Capitol Hill.

‘Do you think that the border would be less of a talking point now if there was less migration to the border, say, if somebody had to address root causes of migration?’

That card claims Harris was never “border czar,” insists a “border czar” position never existed, and claims Republicans “invented” the title. She was tasked only with combating the “root causes” of migration from a small group of Central American nations, the talking points claim.

And of course: The card insists that Harris succeeded at her job, whatever it actually was.

— (@)

“Democrats on Capitol Hill are being handed this card with talking points about the vice president and the border. Do you know who’s handing this out?” Doocy asked.

“I have no idea. You probably should ask her campaign,” Jean-Pierre responded with a smirk.

When Doocy pressed the issue, Jean-Pierre predictably blamed Republicans and Donald Trump for the border crisis. Her response, however, only provided Doocy with ammunition for a follow-up question.

“Do you think that the border would be less of a talking point now if there was less migration to the border, say, if somebody had to address root causes of migration?” he asked.

The question, of course, hits at the heart of the issue. Even if Harris was only in charge of the “root causes” of the migration crisis, it’s clear she failed at her job because the border crisis has been a significant problem for the entirety of the Biden presidency.

Unfortunately, Jean-Pierre did not answer Doocy’s follow-up question. Rather, she again blamed Republicans for the problems that occurred under the watch of President Joe Biden and Harris.

Meanwhile, the media’s narrative about Harris — that she was never “border czar” — matches the talking points on the card.

And while it’s true that Harris never received the official title “border czar,” no one disputed that Harris was tasked with the job of a border czar for the last three years.

Only when Biden ended his re-election campaign and Harris became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee did the media begin to claim it wasn’t true.

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​Kjp, Peter doocy, Biden administration, Fox news, Karine jean-pierre, Border czar, Kamala harris, Politics 

Two of the most powerful drug lords in the infamous Mexican drug-trafficking cartel Sinaloa have been arrested in New Mexico.

On Thursday, alleged Sinaloa co-founder Ismael Zambada Garcia, aka “El Mayo,” and Joaquin Guzman Lopez — the son of the other Sinaloa co-founder, Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka “El Chapo” — were arrested at the Doña Ana County International Jetport in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, about 20 miles northwest of El Paso, Texas.

Journalist Luis Chaparro … indicated in a recent Substack article that both alleged drug lords had basically turned themselves in.

Back in February, Zambada — who founded Sinaloa with El Chapo in the 1980s — was indicted for allegedly conspiring to make and distribute fentanyl. Despite his deep association with one of the most ruthless drug cartels in the world, Zambada “has never spent a day in jail,” the State Department said.

That all changed this week when Zambada, 76, boarded a plane with Joaquin Guzman, 38, believing that the two were headed to inspect property somewhere in Mexico. However, Guzman had reportedly turned on Zambada recently, believing that Zambada was somehow involved in the capture of Guzman’s father, El Chapo, who is currently serving life plus 30 years in a supermax prison in Colorado.

According to the New York Times, Guzman “lured” Zambada onto the aircraft “under false pretenses.” The plane then headed for the U.S., where federal agents were waiting.

Both Zambada and Guzman surrendered to authorities at the New Mexico airport without incident and were taken away separately. “It seemed like a pretty calm, arranged thing,” one unnamed airport employee told CNN. That observation matches reporting from journalist Luis Chaparro, who indicated in a recent Substack article that both alleged drug lords had basically turned themselves in.

Authorities transported Guzman to Chicago but kept Zambada in the area. He appeared at the El Paso Magistrate Courtroom on Friday.

Both face multiple charges in connection with the manufacture of fentanyl, drug trafficking, and “leading the Cartel’s criminal operations,” a DOJ press release said.

“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram said the arrests of El Mayo and the son of El Chapo strike “at the heart of the cartel that is responsible for the majority of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, killing Americans from coast to coast.”

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​Drug cartel, El chapo, El mayo, Ismael zambada garcia, Joaquin guzman lopez, Joaquin guzman loera, Sinaloa cartel, Crime 

U.S. women’s soccer player Tierna Davidson argued that it would be more difficult for the squad to represent gay people after her teammate shared a religious video on social media.

Davidson spoke about Korbin Albert, her 20-year-old teammate who faced criticism online for sharing a video from a Christian service that showed a person with an intellectual disability giving a speech about stopping his gender transition.

Albert also deleted a post from 2023 in which her family reportedly took turns stating their “pronouns are U.S.A.,” which was also criticized.

‘I want to be able to represent the queer community really well on this team.’

Davidson spoke to ESPN reporter Sarah Spain before the U.S. team played Zambia in the Olympics.

“It’s been difficult,” she said of the controversy around Albert. Davidson, who is gay, according to Fox News, added that she didn’t want anything to hinder her ability to support gay people while playing soccer.

“It was difficult for me when it first happened, and it’s been hard to hear how fans have been taking it because I feel like I want to be able to represent the queer community really well on this team, and so I want to have fans feel really welcome and feel like they can see themselves on this field in this team, so I don’t want there to be any sort of feeling that they are not welcome here.”

“I think it’s a difficult situation that has obviously affected me personally given what she was speaking on. I think that it is something you have to learn as a young player, especially with the platform that you’re given,” she added.

Despite Davidson’s supposition, she is only 25, just five years older than Albert. She then claimed that Albert’s choice to share the video can “hurt other people.”

“Your beliefs, or how you choose to express certain things, is very public, and people do look and listen. Whether or not it’s something that you grew up with, or it was instilled upon you from a young age, and you might not know better, it is something that can hurt other people.”

When Albert faced the backlash during late March 2024, she was also criticized by former soccer player and activist Megan Rapinoe.

Albert was accused of liking a meme on Instagram with the caption, “God taking time off performing miracles to make sure Megan Rapinoe sprains her ankle in her final ever game.”

Rapinoe accused Albert of hiding behind her religion and asked if she was “making any type of space safer, more inclusive” or “more whole.”

The young player would later “sincerely apologize” for her actions. Albert said that “liking and sharing posts that are offensive, insensitive and hurtful was immature and disrespectful.”

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​Olympics, Women’s soccer, Women’s sports, Politics, Fearless 

“Hell on earth.”

For John Strand, those three words best describe the year in prison he served for one felony and four misdemeanor crimes at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Strand was freed July 24 from a federal prison in Louisiana thanks to a June 28 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that knocked out the top charge against him for allegedly obstructing Congress on Jan. 6.

He said his time in the federal Bureau of Prisons lockups in Miami, Florida, and Oakdale, Louisiana, was something “you would not wish on your worst enemy.”

FULL INTERVIEW: J6 Prisoner John Strand “This is TRUE Fascism”

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Strand — a self-described maverick, Hollywood actor, fashion model, musician, and author — said he felt incredible relief when he walked out the front door of the Federal Correctional Institution – Oakdale.

“I learned a lot, and God did a lot of great things,” Strand said hours later during an interview with Blaze News. “But it was terrible, so I was glad to get out of there, that’s for sure.”

Strand’s release from custody was just the latest point in a long journey that began during the COVID-19 lockdowns and led to the huge protest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and to three and a half years of investigation, a trial, and a brutal prison experience.

His release was facilitated by the Supreme Court ruling in Fischer v. United States, in which the high court severely restricted the use of a white-collar corporate fraud statute against protesters who were at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

‘I was viciously abused in an isolation environment for about four straight months, which was essentially like being waterboarded.’

The court majority said U.S. Code 18 §1512(c)(2), which carries up to 20 years in prison, applies only if defendants “impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects or … other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so.”

The wording of the ruling was good news for Strand, whose Washington, D.C., trial judge had already said there was no evidence that Strand committed that type of act on Jan. 6.

On Strand’s second petition for release from prison in 2024, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered that he be released on July 24, after serving a year in prison for his four misdemeanor convictions. Strand had already appealed his entire case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That appeal is still pending.

Ever since the Supreme Court agreed in December 2023 to hear the challenge to how the U.S. Department of Justice had used the law against political protesters, Strand, 41, of Naples, Florida, said he’d been “watching like a hawk” for updates.

“Dr. [Simone] Gold gave me the good news,” Strand wrote to Blaze News in a July 19 message from prison. “I was tremendously grateful to God, to her, and to my other attorneys, to my indescribably amazing parents and siblings. I was filled with peace — a calm, strength, and confidence we receive from God, not without conflict and struggle, but in spite of it.”

Jan. 6 prisoner John Strand emerges from the Federal Correctional Institution – Oakdale in Louisiana on the morning of July 24, freed by a federal court order. At left is his friend Dr. Simone Gold, founder of America’s Frontline Doctors.Photo courtesy of John Strand, used with permission

“I knew that decision was coming imminently in a few days, and I would watch on the morning news. Then on June 28 they announced it, and I basically did what President Trump did. I did some pretty strong fist pumps and exultation and gratitude.”

The welcome ruling in the Fischer case, however, won’t erase the nightmarish existence Strand said he lived while in prison. Those memories are most likely permanent, including the dehumanizing four months he spent in solitary confinement. Only faith kept him going.

“I prayed a lot. I’m a man of faith, and my relationship with God is the only reason I even started on this journey, and it’s certainly what’s kept me strong through it,” Strand told “Blaze News Tonight” anchor Jill Savage.

“I didn’t feel strong in isolation. I felt like hell. I was in hell,” Strand said. “That was definitely hell on earth. It’s the closest I ever want to get to hell.”

Strand was thrown into solitary confinement twice in 2023. The second instance came after U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) publicly spoke about his case and how she said he had been “tortured and abused” behind bars in Miami.

‘It’s not anything you would wish on your worst enemy.’

“They put me in this interrogation room and grilled me about this like I had something to do with it,” Strand said, “like a scene out of a movie, and then threw me back in, and I wasn’t seen again for three and a half months.”

During that time, Strand said he was not just prohibited most human contact but also forbidden to speak to his case attorney or to have any mail or calls from family.

Strand told Sara Gonzales, host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” on BlazeTV, that the isolation was “physically miserable.”

“I was abused and — in a manner of speaking — tortured for a period of four months,” Strand said. “Blocked from access to my attorneys. Blocked from access to any information about what was going on and why it was happening to me.”

Strand said it would take several pages of his forthcoming book, “Patriot Plea,” to adequately describe the experience.

“It’s not anything you would wish on your worst enemy,” he said.

The isolation, considered a form of torture and condemned by international law, causes incredible mental strain, Strand said.

“The mind turning in on itself, it happens faster than you think,” he said. “Particularly when you don’t know the end date.

“So they throw you in there, and they don’t tell you really anything. A lot of times they don’t even tell you what they throw you in there for, but they definitely don’t tell you when you can expect to get out.”

“My time in prison was actually split between two facilities,” he said. “The first half in Miami, where I was viciously abused in an isolation environment for about four straight months, which was essentially like being waterboarded.”

Strand was transferred out of Miami to the prison in Oakdale, Louisiana, in early 2024. That facility was “definitely less oppressive,” he said, but it was still like “I was trying to breathe the oxygen of freedom through a straw from underneath a swamp.”

Former Jan. 6 prisoner John Strand said his experience at the federal prison in Miami was “essentially like being waterboarded.” Strand told “Blaze News Tonight” host Jill Savage, “I was viciously abused in an isolation environment for about four straight months.”Photo by BlazeTV

Gold, the founder of America’s Frontline Doctors who was with Strand at the Capitol on Jan. 6, said she could not believe how deeply isolated he was in the Miami prison.

“I’m an attorney. I’m a licensed member of the bar,” Gold said. “We tried many times to get in because I have a personal relationship with John. I didn’t just do it on my own behalf. We had his appellate attorney, lead appellate attorney, also requesting to get in.

“They didn’t let any attorney make a phone call or an email or letter,” she said. “It was unbelievable that you can just disappear somebody in our American system.”

‘They couldn’t wait to see another MAGA Republican lynched.’

Strand was serving as the bodyguard for Gold on Jan. 6. She was in Washington, D.C., to give a speech on medical freedom and COVID-19. That event had a Capitol Police-issued permit and was scheduled to be held on Capitol grounds. Due to the swarm of people who walked to the Capitol after then-President Donald J. Trump’s speech, the speaking event never took place.

Strand had become involved in the movement to get accurate information out into the public about COVID and emerging medical protocols that showed success against the viral disease.

“I helped to co-lead the Beverly Hills freedom rally, which started to draw thousands and thousands of people into downtown Beverly Hills in support of health and human rights,” Strand said. “We had a lot of really notable people come and speak, along with Dr. Gold being one of them. That’s how we first met.”

Strand had worked other events providing personal security for Gold, while also working his way up into a job as creative director for America’s Frontline Doctors.

“John was working for me; that’s why he was there,” said Gold, who had four speaking engagements that week. “So neither of us actually went specifically to protest the election results. We were there because there’s a large crowd to talk to.”

Dr. Simone Gold (left) and former Jan. 6 prisoner John Strand discuss Strand’s release from federal prison with Jill Savage and Steve Baker on the July 24 episode of “Blaze News Tonight.”Photo by BlazeTV

Security video from inside the Capitol shows Gold attempting to give a speech by bullhorn inside Statuary Hall. After police pushed the crowd out just before 3 p.m., Gold and Strand moved to the Great Rotunda. She stood on the platform of a statue of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and gave her speech through a bullhorn.

Gold faced the same five charges as Strand: the 20-year felony for obstruction of Congress and four trespass-related misdemeanors. She opted to take a plea agreement on one misdemeanor count and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

“A felony is a pretty scary moment,” Gold said. “But I decided to take a plea. I thought it was the most rational decision. We know that all the J6 defendants will get convicted. So I don’t regret the decision to take a single misdemeanor plea.”

Strand said he suspected from the beginning that Jan. 6 would end with his incarceration.

“I knew in January of 2021 that the endgame here was prison at least,” Strand said. “Yeah, and who knows what else. I knew that that was coming. I knew that was part of the script. And I knew that God had called me to do the right thing no matter what their scripts.

“So they tried it with me, and I just said, ‘Bring it on.'”

Strand and Gold had the same experience that many Jan. 6 defendants faced, starting with a terrifying FBI SWAT raid. It was so over the top, he said, it reflected the “legalization of American fascism.”

“We were assaulted,” Strand recalled. “We were in the living room on a conference call with several other colleagues, working on a Monday morning at around maybe 11, shortly before noon. And suddenly we heard just the most bloodcurdling screams you can imagine.

Former Jan. 6 prisoner John Strand sits down for a shave in the makeup room at BlazeTV after going for a year without a shave or haircut while in prison. Photo by Steve Baker/Blaze News

“They were screaming, ‘FBI! FBI! Open the door!'” Strand said. “We froze, thinking it’s a prank. And then within about 30 to 40 seconds, they broke the door to pieces. And then a dozen agents with assault rifles and red laser-sight dots bouncing on your chest. It basically was the scene straight out of a Jason Bourne movie.”

Gold said the SWAT raid was so surreal she had trouble believing it was really happening.

“I really thought it was a Colombian cartel coming to murder me,” she said. “That’s really what I thought. No way did I think this was real. It was so over the top. I’m a public person. You could pick up the phone, you could call me. No how, no way did we think this was real.”

Strand said he tried to enter his September 2022 trial with a sense of realism. Facing a jury pool with 95% who voted Democrat in the 2020 presidential race, it was not a promising outlook.

“They were hanging on every word,” Strand said. “They were hanging on every word. They couldn’t wait to see another MAGA Republican lynched. That was a lynching.”

Strand did not shave or get a haircut during his year behind bars. After being interviewed by three Blaze Media personalities on July 24, he was ready to dispatch the thick, wavy facial hair. He sat in the makeup room at BlazeTV and was treated to a shave by El Barber Shop in Irving, Texas.

Through more than 43 months, Strand has endured it all. His Christian faith serves as a sword and buckler as he puts on the full armor of God — as described by St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians.

While he is bruised from the battle, Strand is not bowed or broken. He hopes telling his story in interviews and his forthcoming book will help others and inspire change. He said he would not wish away the experience — even knowing how difficult it has been.

“I have not regretted it for a single second since it started,” he said.

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