Category: blaze media

A Texas man — who is already facing murder charges in a separate case — was hit with new felony charges after his three dogs allegedly mauled a 65-year-old woman to death.

Marshall Garrett, 38, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with three counts of criminal negligent failure to secure his dogs.

Neighbors allegedly told investigators that Garrett’s dogs often escaped from their enclosure and were aggressive.

On March 23, Harriette Phillips was walking on her property and was “scanning her backyard looking for something,” according to home security video reviewed by police. She was hitting her fence with a hammer, according to court documents.

Suddenly, it “appeared that the defendant’s dogs had broken through her fence,” according to court records obtained by ABC News.

Three Staffordshire Bull Terriers reportedly attacked Phillips, and she began to scream. She attempted to defend herself by swinging the hammer at the animals.

Det. Ramon Garcia with the Houston Police Department noted that the dogs began “mauling her head, neck area, arms, elbows, and other parts of her body until the complainant was unable to move anymore or scream for help.”

The dogs mauled Phillips to death.

Garrett did not witness the attacks but “realized what occurred afterward and called 911,” according to court records.

Citing the criminal complaint, People magazine reported that investigators allegedly found the woman’s hair and pieces of her clothing inside the stomachs of the dogs.

The three dogs were euthanized under a Texas law that calls for any animal that bites a person to be quarantined for 10 days or euthanized.

On the same day as the fatal dog attack, another neighbor reportedly texted Garrett that he saw the dogs in Phillips’ yard. Court docs stated that Garrett replied: “Oh lord, I’m about to get it resolved.”

Neighbors allegedly told investigators that Garrett’s dogs often escaped from their enclosure and were aggressive. One neighbor told officers with the Houston Police Department that she had recently been bitten by one of the dogs on her finger while attempting to repair a hole in her fence, court documents stated.

Court documents revealed that Garrett is also facing a murder charge from a previous incident.

On Oct. 29, 2024, Garrett allegedly beat a 69-year-old man to death.

Alton Martin and his fiancée met Latrecia Washington in a parking lot and sold her jewelry, KHOU-TV reported.

Washington allegedly attempted to pawn the jewelry but was informed that the jewelry was fake.

Washington tracked down Martin and his fiancée at a store, court documents said. Washington allegedly used her car to block the couple’s car in the parking lot.

Martin’s fiancée reportedly told authorities that Washington walked Martin out of the store at knifepoint.

Court documents revealed that Washington and Garrett beat Martin with either the handle of a knife or a metal pipe.

Martin died 12 days after the attack. The medical examiner said Martin’s cause of death was blunt-force trauma to his head.

Washington reportedly remains at large.

Garrett was arrested for the alleged fatal beating and then released on bond, according to court records. Garrett is now back in jail.

Garrett allegedly has previously been convicted of several criminal offenses, including burglary, criminal trespass, evading arrest, possession of marijuana, and unlawful use of a criminal instrument.

You can watch a local newscast from KRPC-TV regarding the fatal dog mauling here.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Dogs, Animals, When animals attack, Pit bulls, Dog attack, Mauling, Mauled to death, Crime 

Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg said it is wrong for Democrats to campaign so hard on preserving democracy because the current political system gave American youth problems such as school shootings and climate change.

Hogg’s comments about one of the main Democratic talking points during elections are sure to cause further frustration with him because he is no longer just an activist. He is now part of the leadership within the DNC.

“We go out there as Democrats all the time and say, ‘Democracy is the most important thing. We have to defend democracy.’ We fail to acknowledge that [for] this generation, democracy is what put us through school-shooter drills and school shootings. It’s what’s put us through the climate crisis and so much more,” Hogg told CBS News.

‘We absolutely cannot wait for these people to retire at their own leisure.’

“What we have to do is prove that democracy matters by standing up to the special interests that are killing the American dream and making our young people lose faith, not only in our party, but the future of this country,” Hogg added.

Hogg is facing internal party backlash as the organization he founded in 2023, Leaders We Deserve, announced plans to spend $20 million on congressional Democrats who LWD believes are not doing enough to meet the concerns of younger voters because they have been in office for too long. While Hogg has maintained he is not going to go after Democrats in swing districts, the move is still causing intense animosity on Capitol Hill and beyond since it comes from a DNC vice chair.

In response to a Politico story framing LWD giving the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $100,000 as “playing nice,” Hogg said he’s not trying to play nice but to reaffirm his commitment to making Democrats the majority in the House of Representatives.

“But we need a better democratic party and need to get rid of the democrats in safe seats who do not understand what is at stake right now, who are asleep at the wheel, not meeting the moment, and are a liability now and to the future of our party. The path forward requires us to do both things,” Hogg explained. “We absolutely cannot wait for these people to retire at their own leisure or to let them sit there and do nothing while the country is burning.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, David hogg, Dnc david hogg, Dnc vice chair, David hogg school shootings 

The father of slain high school athlete Austin Metcalf was the victim of a swatting attempt just minutes after he was kicked out of the family news conference for Karmelo Anthony, the accused killer.

Frisco police said that they responded to a report of a gunshot at the home of the Metcalf family on Thursday. They found no evidence of a shot being fired at the home and determined that the call was an attempt at “swatting,” which is a false call intended to cause harm through a police response.

‘The lies and false accusations that have been said about us, especially over the past week, has been overwhelming.’

Metcalf was at a track meet on April 2 at the Kuykendall Stadium when he was fatally stabbed, allegedly by Anthony, after a brief interaction, police said. The case has become the focus of a national debate on crime.

Jeff Metcalf, the father of the victim, tried to attend the press conference for the Anthony family, but he was spotted by one of the Anthony advocates, who had him escorted out by police. His presence delayed the start of the press conference.

A spokesperson for the Anthony family lambasted “conservative operatives” for spreading what he said was “misinformation” about the family and accused the critics of being motivated by “bigotry” and “racism.”

The suspect’s mother, Kayla Hayes, said the family was under intense scrutiny and was suffering from having to deal with criticism stemming from the incident.

“Whatever you think what happened between Karmelo and the Metcalf boys, my three younger children, my husband, and I didn’t do anything to deserve to be threatened, harassed, and lied about,” she said at the press conference.

“The lies and false accusations that have been said about us, especially over the past week, has been overwhelming. The lies and their amplification put my family in danger,” she added.

“To the family who experienced the loss, my heart truly goes out to you,” Hayes said.

Anthony’s father has said that his son was not the aggressor in the incident.

Jeff Metcalf previously excoriated the suspect’s family for his accused actions.

“I’m not trying to judge, but what kind of parents did this child have? What was he taught?” he asked. “He brought a knife to a track meet, and he murdered my son by stabbing him in the heart. The guy was in the wrong place, and they asked him to move, and he bowed up. This is murder.”

Anthony was released from jail after his bail was lowered from $1 million to $250,000. He is on house arrest awaiting trial.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Austin metcalf father swatting, Swatting of jeff metcalf, Karmelo anthony family, Fatal track meet stabbing, Politics 

The Trump administration on Wednesday placed most of AmeriCorps’ full-time employees on administrative leave as it moves to reorganize the Bill Clinton-era volunteer agency.

The independent federal agency was established by Congress in 1993 to connect young Americans with community service opportunities, providing roughly a $4,000 stipend, housing accommodations, food, and a higher education grant, the New York Times reported.

‘It is time to admit that this is a failed program that needs a complete overhaul or elimination.’

Despite receiving about $1 billion annually, AmeriCorps failed eight consecutive audits.

Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) in December accused the agency of having “a long history of abusing taxpayer dollars.”

“In 2023, the AmeriCorps inspector general issued a ‘Management Challenges’ report detailing significant challenges AmeriCorps faces. This includes being unable to detect fraud. We have no real idea when AmeriCorps will be able to have a clean audit again. In fact, this year’s audit includes 78 recommendations still open, even after AmeriCorps said it addressed 20 last year,” Owens said.

He called for AmeriCorps to be on the Department of Government Efficiency’s “chopping block,” arguing that it should not receive more taxpayer money while “it continuously fails to meet basic accountability standards.”

“We can tell AmeriCorps to modernize and reform until we are blue in the face, but nothing will change unless we recognize the system is built on a flawed idea. It is time to admit that this is a failed program that needs a complete overhaul or elimination,” Owens remarked.

Like many other federal agencies in recent years, AmeriCorps has become infiltrated with woke ideology, including climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Fox News Digital reported that the agency’s 2024 annual management report listed “advancing racial and economic equity” as one of its key priorities.

“AmeriCorps has a decades-long commitment to advancing racial and economic equity through national service and volunteering,” the report read. “These efforts are designed to expand pathways to opportunity for all Americans. Racial and economic equity will be central to AmeriCorps’ planning and implementation of all priorities, ensuring AmeriCorps members and volunteers reflect the diversity of the American people and the communities in which they serve.”

While Owens supports the elimination of AmeriCorps, a Trump administration official told the news outlet that the agency will receive an operational reset but will remain in existence.

On Wednesday, the White House placed 75% of the AmeriCorps full-time employees — 535 out of 700 staffers — on administrative leave while determining how it will reconfigure the agency. Additionally, agency contracts worth approximately $250 million have been terminated.

Anything else?

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) stated on Thursday that the state would file a lawsuit against the Trump administration to stop its reorganization efforts.

He wrote in a post on X, “DOGE’s actions to dismantle AmeriCorps threaten vulnerable Californians, disaster response and recovery, and economic opportunities.”

“California will be suing to stop this,” Newsom concluded.

In a separate statement, he called Trump’s actions a “middle finger to volunteers serving their fellow Americans.”

Earlier this week, Newsom filed a lawsuit against Trump to block the administration from imposing increased tariffs. The governor has set aside $50 million to challenge the current administration.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Bill clinton, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Americorps, Department of government efficiency, Doge, Burgess owens, Government waste, Gavin newsom, California, Politics 

Rachel Morin was a mother of five, but left behind her children when she was raped and killed by an undocumented migrant from El Salvador.

She was found near the MA & PA Trail in Harford County on August 6, 2023. Victor Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty of her murder on April 14 and had fled to the United States illegally after an arrest warrant was issued in El Salvador.

Patty Morin, the victim’s mother, took the stage as a special guest at a White House press briefing where Karoline Leavitt began by highlighting crimes committed by another illegal immigrant, Kilmar Garcia.

Not just an illegal immigrant but an MS-13 gang associate accused of violent crimes against his own wife, Garcia was deported by the Trump administration — while the Democrats have been fighting for his return.

But Morin is well aware of the danger these illegal immigrants pose to American citizens, and she bravely recounted the story of her own daughter’s death to drive her point home.

“He attacked her. He dragged her 150 feet, blood gushing from her head. It left a 150-foot trail of her blood,” Morin said at the press conference. “He picked her up, he threw her against the wall of the tunnel, and he raped her. But before he did that, he stopped on that trail, and rocks still stained with her blood, he used them to hammer her head against those rocks.”

“She was so stoic,” Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.” “It was incredibly brave, and she answered on the way out the door the question that I was intending to ask.”

“She felt betrayed by those people, those politicians, who just don’t seem to give a damn in Maryland and in Washington and all around the country,” Bedford says. “When she left, the press room was silent. There wasn’t the usual hubbub, there wasn’t the yelling of questions.”

“There was just silence, and that alone was witness to the testimony that she gave,” he adds.

Want more from ‘Blaze News Tonight’?

To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Free, Video, Camera phone, Upload, Sharing, Youtube.com, Blaze news tonight, Blaze media, Blazetv, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Ms-13, Illegal immigration, Jill savage, Matthew peterson, Christopher bedford, Immigration crisis, Violent illegal immigrants, Criminals enter u.s., Criminals at the border 

As Jason Whitlock watches the fallout of Karmelo Anthony’s fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf, he’s reminded of O.J. Simpson’s 1995 trial. It was one of the most racially charged trials in U.S. history, exposing and deepening racial divides between black and white Americans.

“Karmelo Anthony is about to be the new O.J. Simpson,” says Whitlock.

“Black people celebrated when O.J. got off, and I’m not 100% that O.J. was the actual killer, but I certainly wasn’t celebrating when O.J. got off, because O.J. had something to do with that crime, and everybody knows it,” he continues. “We celebrated it — ‘we paid the white man back; O.J. got off’ — [we celebrated] that two white people were murdered,” and now “we’re doing it again with Karmelo Anthony.”

This entire ordeal is “a psyop,” says Jason, and the people who are behind it “want to frustrate white people” and “promote a racial conflict.”

The recent stories about Karmelo Anthony’s family purchasing a $900K home in a gated community and an Escalade using the funds from the “Help Karmelo Official Fund” are likely false or stretched truths designed to “raise the temperature” and “trigger people,” he says.

“They’re putting out this false information because a psyop is going on, and I’m not seeing community notes to shut down the psyop, to shut down the bad information. They want everyone riled up; they want everybody saying, ‘Man, you see black folks gave a half million dollars to Karmelo Anthony?’”

The truth, he says, is that a facet of the black community is rallying behind Karmelo, but “most black people don’t know or don’t really care.”

“But online we’ve certainly created the perception that we are all on board with Karmelo Anthony,” Jason sighs, theorizing that the supportive comments on Karmelo’s GiveSendGo fund are most likely AI generated.

White Americans, he says, need to recognize that this psyop is designed to run on white fury.

“I understand why white people are frustrated, but why would you adopt the same tactics — racial idolatry — as the people you allegedly oppose?” he asks. “They want people to go, ‘Yeah, we’re going to peacefully protest in Frisco, Texas,’ and then they’re going to have their agitators there.”

Just because Donald Trump won the election does not mean the race war between black and white Americans is over.

“The war is not over by any stretch. They’re doubling down, and they have Karmelo Anthony; he’s the new O.J. Simpson; he’s the new George Floyd, and we’re falling for the trap; we’re falling for all the triggers,” Jason warns.

“What is crystal clear to anybody with a brain is that Karmelo Anthony did something murderous, immoral, and stupid, and the people that want to promote a racial conflict have clearly reached out to the family and said, ‘We got 30 pieces of silver, and we’ll help you out as long as you allow us to use you in the manner that we need you to be used to spark this racial conflict,”’ he explains.

He wants everyone to understand that Karmelo Anthony and his family are “pawns on a chessboard being moved around by the globalists and the people that want this country to devolve into racial conflict.”

To hear more of Jason’s commentary, watch the clip above.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Fearless, Fearless with jason whitlock, Jason whitlock, Karmelo anthony, Austin metcalf, Blazetv, Blaze media, Psyop, Racial tension 

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen (D) revealed this week that he and other Democrats intend to continue prioritizing illegal aliens in the U.S. over American citizens.

The Trump White House made clear that it will continue to champion and prioritize the American people — especially those suffering from the fallout of Democrats’ extra-national sympathies.

This distinction was nowhere better illustrated than a pair of photos shared to social media on Thursday: one showing Van Hollen comforting an alleged gangbanger from El Salvador who stole into the United States, and the other showing President Donald Trump comforting an Angel Mom whose daughter was murdered by an illegal alien from El Salvador.

Numerous Democrats have decried the deportation of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 associate found by more than one immigration court to be a “danger to the community.” Van Hollen went the distance with his protest, departing for El Salvador on Wednesday in hopes of bringing the alleged domestic abuser and potential human trafficking gangster back to the United States or at the very least snapping a selfie memorializing his attempt.

‘Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” & “torture”, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen.’

The junior Democratic senator was initially met with disappointment, learning that he would be unable to visit Abrego Garcia in the Terrorism Confinement Center or return him to the U.S., which Abrego Garcia unlawfully entered without inspection in 2011.

Van Hollen was, however, ultimately afforded an opportunity to speak with the Abrego Garcia Thursday afternoon.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele quipped on X, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!”

— (@)

Evidently unfazed by recent reports indicating the MS-13 associate allegedly beat his wife on multiple occasions and may have been involved in human trafficking, Van Hollen shared a picture to social media Thursday evening showing him sharing an intimate moment with Abrego Garcia.

In the image, Van Hollen can be seen leaning into his conversation with the alleged gangbanger, who appeared altogether unharmed by his stay in the Salvadoran terrorist prison.

The caption that accompanied the photo on social media was, “I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance.”

Hours later, the White House shared a picture of President Donald Trump comforting Patty Morin, the Angel Mom whose daughter, a mother of five, was brutally raped and murdered by one of Abrego Garcia’s countrymen.

‘Perfect visual of why Donald Trump won.’

The White House also shared Van Hollen’s photo. The caption accompanying the post juxtaposing the two images reads: “We are not the same.”

— (@)

Victor Martinez-Hernandez, a 24-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador, was convicted Monday in the brutal murder of Rachel Morin.

Martinez-Hernandez ambushed Rachel Morin while she was exercising on a hiking trail northeast of Baltimore. He smashed her head against nearby rocks and dragged her 150 feet from the trail into a wooded area. After beating her further and raping her, the Salvadoran thug murdered the American mother and ditched her body in a drainage culvert.

Following the conviction, the White House afforded Patty Morin an opportunity to speak to the nation about her daughter. Patty Morin couldn’t help but address Van Hollen’s apparent interest in keeping illegal aliens in the country, as opposed to holding them accountable.

The Angel Mom expressed frustration about how Van Hollen, “who didn’t even acknowledge or barely acknowledged [her] daughter and the brutal death that she endured,” would waste “taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen.”

When Patty Morin met with Trump in the Oval Office, the president said, “She’s been through hell.”

“Your daughter’s looking down, proud of you,” Trump told Morin. “Just keep it going.”

The White House noted, “While Sen. Chris Van Hollen tried to coddle an MS-13 alien in El Salvador, Angel Mom Patty Morin stood in the Oval Office with President Trump — fighting for her daughter, raped and murdered by an MS-13 alien from El Salvador.”

— (@)

Responding to the contrasting photos shared by Van Hollen and the White House, All-American swim star Riley Gaines noted, “Perfect visual of why Donald Trump won on November 5th and why Democrats will continue to lose.”

The Department of Homeland Security stated that Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “are fighting for the victims of illegal crime and putting the safety of Americans FIRST.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Chris van hollen, Christopher van hollen, Democrats, Illegal aliens, Illegal immigration, El salvador, Salvadoran, Kilmar abrego garcia, Ms-13, Rapist, Criminal, Donald trump, Trump, Politics 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) reportedly wants to release some violent criminals as the state battles a severe prison staffing crisis.

Last month, Department of Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III announced that the state had fired 2,000 corrections officers for participating in an “illegal” 22-day strike. Prior to the walkout, the state’s prison system was already understaffed by roughly 2,000, according to Hochul.

‘I think the governor’s motive is more aligned with using this as a tool to address the uneven staffing ratios that exist in a lot of these prisons.’

Spectrum News reported in January that the governor was pushing to expand New York’s merit time program to more inmates. Merit time currently allows “certain non-violent” offenders to obtain degrees or learn vocational skills to earn a reduced prison sentence.

While Hochul did not mention the expanded eligibility proposal in her January State of the State speech, it was briefly mentioned in the accompanying report.

Under a section titled “Reduce Reoffending Through Innovative Justice Initiatives,” it read, “Repeat offenses contribute significantly to overall crime rates in New York, with reoffending rates as high as 80 percent for individuals released from prison.”

“Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, programs like Jails to Jobs have reduced recidivism by connecting previously incarcerated individuals to education and job opportunities,” it continued. “Building on this progress, Governor Hochul will expand training in green energy and sustainable industries and enhance positive incentive programs like merit time to improve reentry success.”

On Friday, the New York Post reported that two sources familiar with Hochul’s budget proposal plans stated that the governor wants to include expanding merit time eligibility to some violent offenders. The governor’s office reportedly revealed that 4,000 prisoners have met the program’s requirements and would be eligible for release.

Even Hochul’s fellow Democrats have criticized her proposal, warning that expanded early release eligibility could risk public safety.

State Sen. Jim Skoufis (D) told the Post, “I personally don’t believe we should be expanding these kinds of opportunities to folks who are incarcerated for serious violent offenses.”

“I think the governor’s motive is more aligned with using this as a tool to address the uneven staffing ratios that exist in a lot of these prisons,” Skoufis added.

Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon (D) also stated that she does not support expanding eligibility to criminals who have committed violent felonies.

While it is unclear which violent crimes would be eligible under Hochul’s plan, those guilty of murder or sex offenses would not qualify for the expanded merit time program.

A spokesperson for Hochul told the Post, “Governor Hochul will not allow anyone who demonstrates a public safety threat to be released early from prison.”

“A proposal was discussed that would have granted near term merit time release to approximately 3% of the prison population — only if they have excellent disciplinary records and a plan to live a crime-free life outside DOCCS facilities. Under no circumstances will this Administration grant any special privileges to individuals convicted of murder, rape or other sex offenses,” the spokesperson stated.

In a separate move to address the understaffing crisis, Martuscello sent a memo to prison leaders earlier this month instructing them to identify inmates for early release. Eligible inmates must “meet the statutory requirements,” including having an “identified approved residence” and only up to 110 days left on their sentences.

Martuscello anticipated that a “large number” of inmates would be eligible, but he noted that those guilty of violent felony offenses or sex crimes would not qualify.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Kathy hochul, New york, Daniel martuscello, Crime, Violent crime, Public safety, Politics 

CNN contributor Scott Jennings and guest Batya Ungar-Sargon dismantled the liberal panelists’ reasons for wanting to have Kilmar Abrego Garcia be brought back to the United States as the El Salvadoran citizen is still in El Salvador.

Thursday’s episode of “News Night with Abby Phillip” took place after Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) was able to meet with Abrego Garcia in the Central American country. Both President Nayib Bukele and Van Hollen posted pictures of the meeting. Bukele said afterward that Abrego Garcia will remain in his home country.

Only after his initial arrest in 2019 did he first file a claim for asylum.

“I see the pictures tonight, and I think, ‘Boy, the party of women is really covering themselves in glory.’ I don’t understand why the American left falls in love with the worst people. You’ve got a gangbanging, human-trafficking, wife-beating illegal alien and a United States senator with a ludicrous display in El Salvador having mai tais. I do not get it,” Jennings said.

Jennings pointed out that Democrats have been so concerned about getting Abrego Garcia back to the United States that they have not thought through the next steps if he were to return. The federal government has already stated that he would put back into custody.

Ungar-Sargon noted that Abrego Garcia was not denied due process because he went through the U.S. immigration court system multiple times and judges repeatedly determined that he cannot stay in the United States.

“Everything we know about him is documented, because he did go through the court systems. He was stopped for trafficking. His wife did file domestic violence charges against him. He was arrested with MS-13 members, with a roll of cash that had the eyes and the ears and the mouths of the presidents erased, which is an MS-13 marking. This is all non-disputed,” Ungar-Sargon said.

The Supreme Court ruled that if El Salvador’s government were to release Abrego Garcia from custody, then the U.S. would have to facilitate his return. Only after his initial arrest in 2019 did he first file a claim for asylum.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics 

A Trump judge sided Wednesday with Catholic organizations in North Dakota, shielding them from the enforcement of a Biden Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rule and guidance that required their complicity in employees’ efforts to kill their unborn children as well as gender ideology.

The outcome was unsurprising given U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor’s suggestions in September when granting a preliminary injunction to the Bismarck Diocese and the Catholic Benefits Association that “this case is not hard” and that the Biden EEOC’s rule served as a “reminder of the danger of government action that is clearly anti-religion.”

Background

The Biden EEOC went out of its way to issue regulations and enforcement guidelines that ran roughshod over Christian employers’ constitutional freedoms.

One rule in particular, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, proved especially troubling for the Bismarck Diocese and the CBA, the latter of which serves over 9,000 employers nationwide, as it would have both required them to provide paid leave and other accommodations to employees seeking abortion and restricted their ability to criticize employees’ decision to kill their children.

The EEOC also issued enforcement guidance under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which the plaintiffs’ original complaint noted would effectively require Catholic employers to “use false pronouns, to avoid speaking the truth regarding human sexuality around certain employees, and to permit opposite-sex employees to intrude into private spaces reserved to those of the other sex.”

The Bismarck Diocese and the CBA sued the EEOC and former EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows in July 2024, seeking an injunction against the rule and guidance.

‘The goal may be to find new ways to infringe on religious believers’ fundamental rights.’

The plaintiffs — well positioned at the outset legally to take on the Biden administration, as a federal court in Mississippi had already enjoined the EEOC rule at issue in another case — argued that the EEOC had run afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; violated their First Amendment freedoms of speech and association along with the Free Exercise Clause; and infringed upon church autonomy.

Judge Traynor evidently agreed.

Biden admin notches another loss

Traynor permanently blocked the EEOC this week from interpreting or enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and implementing regulations against the Diocese of Bismarck and the Catholic Benefits Association “in a manner that would require them to accommodate abortion or infertility treatments that are contrary to the Catholic faith, speak in favor of the same or refrain from speaking the same.”

The Trump judge also blocked the EEOC and its agents from interpreting or enforcing Title VII in a manner that would require the Bismarck Diocese, the CBA, and future Catholic members to speak favorably about abortion or sex changes, require them to remain silent about their opposition to either, or require them to indulge transvestites’ desire to use the pronouns or private spaces belonging to the opposite sex.

Traynor previously acknowledged that the suit fell “into a long line of cases that should be unnecessary in a country that was built on the concept of freedom of religion.”

“One would think after all this litigation, the government would respect the boundaries of religious freedom,” wrote Traynor. “Instead, it seems the goal may be to find new ways to infringe on religious believers’ fundamental rights to the exercise of their religions.”

The judge, a member of the Federalist Society, suggested that the “repeated illegal and unconstitutional administrative actions against one of the founding principles of our country, the free exercise of religion,” possibly signal that it is indeed now “a post-Christian age.”

‘The Court has upheld our religious freedom rights.’

Attorney Martin Nussbaum told the Associated Press that his clients are “very thankful to the federal judiciary for vindicating religious freedom rights” in this case.

“One of the things that we’ve seen is an emerging practice on behalf of some of the federal administrations — we also see this in certain states — a desire not only to mandate immoral benefits but to impose speech codes that would be contrary to Catholic values,” said Nussbaum. “But the speech codes go beyond pronouns to even speaking about what Catholic teaching is, and we’re just grateful to this court for protecting the freedom of speech of Catholic organizations as well.”

Bishop David Kagan of the Bismarck Diocese stated, “The Court has upheld our religious freedom rights, and that is all we ever wanted.”

A Better Balance, a liberal activist group that previously opposed President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, condemned the ruling. Inimai Chettiar, the group’s leftist president, suggested the case was “extremist” in nature and claimed the ruling was “part of a broad trend of attacks on women’s rights and reproductive freedom.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​North dakota, Abortion, Gender, Gender ideology, Lgbt, Leftism, Eeoc, Catholic, Christian, Wining, Daniel traynor, Equal employement opportunity commission, Bismarck, Politics 

NBA legend Charles Barkley said he would never vote for NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith, and Democrats are in danger of losing his vote forever if they run him.

“Calm down, Stephen A. — and Stephen A. is one of my friends,” Barkley said on a recent episode of the Sports Illustrated podcast “SI Media with Jimmy Traina.”

Smith has been openly flirting with the idea of politics since the 2024 election cycle, talking seriously about the candidates and speaking on divisive topics.

In November, he told the hosts of “The View” that he would consider running for president if he felt he had a “legitimate shot” to win.

“I’m half joking, but I kind of mean it,” Smith said, per Sportsnaut. “I mean, I have no desire to be a congressional figure or a senator, but if you came to me and you told me I had a legitimate shot to win the presidency of the United States of America, I would definitely consider it.”

It was that half joke that Barkley may have been referring to when he told the ESPN host he needed to “knock it off.”

‘I would not even consider voting for anybody else.’

“Come on, man. Stop it. Come on,” Barkley continued. “It had to start out as a joke, and he started taking it serious. Come on, man. All I would say is, ‘Knock it off.’ And that’s the best way to phrase it.”

Host Jimmy Traina noted that the idea of running for president as a joke was long theorized about President Trump when he first decided to run in the 2016 federal election.

“The funny thing is that’s what everyone says happened with Trump; he first started it as a joke because ‘The Apprentice’ was getting canceled. Now, you’re saying Stephen A., like, you would think it’s starting as like, ‘Oh, let me get some attention for ‘First Take,’ I just got my big contract.’ But now it’s like he’s on ABC Sunday morning saying, ‘You know I got to run.'”

Barkley, forever game to talk about any issue, revealed that he would not consider voting for the Democratic Party unless it runs either Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania (D) or Governor Wes Moore of Maryland (D).

“I would not even consider voting for anybody else other than one of those two,” Barkley said.

Interestingly, Barkley added that even though Trump cannot run again, the Hall of Fame player said he would not vote for Trump because he’s “just not my cup of tea.”

When Traina plainly asked if Barkley would vote for Smith, Barkley replied, “No. Hard No.”

Smith recently signed a five-year, $100 million contract extension with ESPN — a contract that would certainly cut into any 2028 presidential bid.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Fearless, Stephen a. smith, Charles barkley, Nba, Democrats, The view, President, Sports 

The never-ending pit bull debate has been reignited online after an Ohio infant was tragically killed by one of her family’s three pit bulls — who spent its life as a beloved family pet.

“I will never understand why!!!” mother Mackenzie Copley wrote in a Facebook post, where she posted photos of her 7-month-old daughter cuddling with the family dogs. “I am so lost and broken. This was the same dog who was side by side with my baby every single day,” she added.

While heartbroken for the family, Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” believes this situation could have been avoided.

“I don’t think that they should be legal,” she says. “I am tired of talking about these stories, where another baby or another toddler dies because a family allowed what they mistakenly call their nanny dog to lay down next to their child, to play with their child, and that child is mauled to death.”

“I am tired of us being a Romans 1 people, that we serve the creature rather than the creator, and so we have disordered affections and disordered priorities where we feel more of an inclination to defend a certain breed of dog than we do to defend human life,” she continues.

Stuckey believes it’s a “spiritual issue,” and those who defend the pit bulls never express sympathy for the child hurt or killed, because they’re suffering from “spiritual blindness.”

“No sympathy for that, just immediate, almost like a pit bull, rapidly defending this very, on average, aggressive breed,” she says. “Every time that you push the propaganda that these dogs are safe, that they’re OK around children, that they’re nanny dogs, someone is listening to that, and they are internalizing that lie.”

Pit bulls were originally bred for bull baiting in England, primarily between the 16th and 19th centuries. A popular blood sport at the time, bull baiting consisted of these dogs being set loose on a tethered bull, where the goal was to immobilize it by biting and holding its nose or face and not letting go — until the bull was dead.

“And you think your toddler can stand a chance against that? It can’t,” Stuckey says.

And it’s not just the history of the animal that’s concerning. It’s the undeniable stat of which breed is reported to be the most likely to attack.

According to Dogsbite.com, from 2010 to October 2023, of the 478 fatal dog bites in the United States, 196 came from pit bulls — which is 60%.

“Despite making up a very small part of the dog population, I think it’s like 6% of the dog population they account for,” Stuckey says. Dogsbite.com also reports that pit bulls are 2.5 times more likely to bite in multiple anatomical locations than other breeds.

Pit bull terriers are 48% more likely to attack without provocation than other breeds, and their attacks have higher morbidity rates, higher hospital charges, and a higher risk of death than attacks by other breeds.

“Honestly, I could have a section in my book ‘Toxic Empathy’ about pit bull apologists. It’s like the same thing. It is showing more empathy for a dog than it is for the victims of their attacks. And toxic empathy, it blinds you to reality and morality,” Stuckey says, adding, “That is certainly the case when it comes to pit bulls.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Upload, Sharing, Free, Video phone, Video, Youtube.com, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Pitbulls, Pitbull apologists, Pitbull attacks, Toxic empathy 

Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James was vague and defiant in her first interview since allegations surfaced that she has repeatedly engaged in mortgage fraud.

On Thursday, James appeared on “Inside City Hall” with Spectrum NY1 to discuss the allegations, though she apparently did little more than to call them “baseless.”

“Let me just say to all New Yorkers and to all Americans: The allegations are baseless,” she said.

When pressed to give more information, James dodged. “As you know, as any good attorney, I will not litigate this case in a camera,” she replied.

“It is important that we respond to these allegations at the appropriate time and in an appropriate way.”

James also went on the attack, characterizing herself as one of many victims “targeted” by President Donald Trump and his “revenge tour.”

“I will not be silenced. I will not be bullied. I will not bend. I will not break. And I will not bow to anyone. No one is above the law, including the president of these United States,” she insisted.

“I will not go back and forth with respect to these baseless allegations. I am more focused again on standing up for freedom, liberties, and the rule of law in the state of New York.”

James seemed less confident and bombastic on Wednesday, just one day before the Spectrum NY interview, when she ducked the media outside her Brooklyn residence by pretending to be on the phone, the New York Post reported. The outlet described the phone ploy as “inartful.”

Law professor Jonathan Turley indicated that the evidence against James is not only ‘pretty straightforward’ but ‘quite damning.’

James may claim that the allegations swirling about are “baseless,” but other legal scholars aren’t so sure. On Fox News Tuesday night, law professor Jonathan Turley indicated that the evidence against James is not only “pretty straightforward” but “quite damning.”

In August 2023, James, 66, and a relative purchased a home in Norfolk, Virginia. In documents tied to the purchase, James pledged to use the home as her “principal residence,” an apparent violation of a New York statute that requires all statewide officeholders to reside in New York, as Blaze News previously reported.

James has also allegedly violated the terms of her investment property in Brooklyn, claiming it has only four units when previous documentation indicates it has five.

According to William Pulte, the director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, the purpose of fudging the number of units would be to secure a conforming loan from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To qualify for a conforming loan, a property may have no more than four units.

Pulte further alleged that James even went so far as to list her father as her husband to secure a mortgage loan in 1983. In forms dated May 2000, “Ms. James was listed again as ‘husband and wife,'” according to Pulte, though whether her father was also mentioned in those documents is unclear.

Pulte sent a letter this week, recommending that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche look into whether James committed wire, mail, and bank fraud and made false statements to a financial institution, among other crimes.

Despite this alleged history of falsifying real estate documents for better lending terms, James ruthlessly targeted Trump in a lawfare campaign that began shortly after he left office at the end of his first term. Turley joked that she “prosecuted Trump for everything short of ripping a label off a mattress.”

She even brazenly sued Trump and the Trump Organization for allegedly overvaluing properties to secure better terms with banks and insurance companies. The irony that James now faces similar accusations is “perfectly crushing,” Turley said.

Turley also cautioned that in her relentless pursuit of Trump, James set a standard that she may not be able to meet herself.

“She insisted that these technicalities matter and that the powerful should not be given a free pass,” Turley explained. “Well, that bill has come due.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Letitia james, New york, Attorney general, Donald trump, Mortgage fraud, Fraud, Allegations, Jonathan turley, Politics 

Over 250 conservative leaders across Texas are backing Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), Blaze News first learned.

Texan leaders, lawmakers, and grassroots activists alike rallied behind Paxton as he prepares to primary Cornyn, who he says is relying too much on the establishment. Cornyn has held the Senate seat since 2002 and will be up for re-election in 2026.

‘He has an excellent record fighting for Texans and their rights, which is needed now more than ever.’

“I’m incredibly grateful to have the support of over 250 conservative leaders from across our great state,” Paxton told Blaze News. “While John Cornyn is relying on the Washington establishment to save him, I’m proud that my campaign is powered by the grassroots and the people of Texas.”

Paxton characterized Cornyn as a career politician who has previously come into conflict with President Donald Trump’s priorities.

“Our momentum grows every single day because there are millions of patriots who know what I know: It’s time for a change,” Paxton told Blaze News. “John Cornyn has been in Washington for over two decades, and in that time all he’s done is work with Joe Biden to pass radical gun control, attack President Trump, and call the border wall ‘naive.'”

“He’s failed our state,” Paxton continued, “and I’m running to ensure that Cornyn is replaced by a strong conservative warrior who will always stand with President Trump.”

Political allies echoed Paxton, saying he is a necessary change agent for Washington, D.C.

“Paxton is the perfect person to replace the RINO that is John Cornyn,” BlazeTV contributor and Paxton endorser Matthew Mardsen told Blaze News. “He has an excellent record fighting for Texans and their rights, which is needed now more than ever. The contrast can’t be starker.”

“For far too long, John Cornyn has sold Texans out and voted against the will of his constituents,” Sara Gonzales, host of BlazeTV’s “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” told Blaze News. “He seems far more interested in funding forever wars than helping his own citizens. Frankly, he is an embarrassment to the state of Texas.”

“Attorney General Paxton has a long track record of fighting for Texans, even when the battle is tough, and even when the establishment is after him,” Gonzales added. “At times, he’s been the only statewide elected official willing to do what’s right. I look forward to Paxton giving Texans real representation in the United States Senate.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Ken paxton, John cornyn, Senate republicans, Primary, Republican primary, Sara gonzales, Matthew marsden, Texas, Texans, Donald trump, Washington dc, The swamp, Establishment, Change agent, Politics 

Autism rates have skyrocketed in the past couple of decades — and to the dismay of those who profit from it, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made it clear that he’s intent on figuring out why.

In an announcement this week, RFK Jr. brought a study to light that found that the cost of treating autism in the United States by 2035 will be $1 trillion.

“This is added to already astronomical health care costs. And then there is individual injury,” RFK said. “This is a preventable disease. We know it’s an environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics. They can provide a vulnerability.”

RFK also noted that “the amount of money and resources put into studying genetic causes, which is a dead end, has been historically 10 to 20 times the amount spent by the NIH and other agencies to study environmental factors.”

“That’s where we’re going to find the answer,” he concluded.

Liz Wheeler of “The Liz Wheeler Show” is thrilled to hear it.

“Even the scientific community is so captured by autism being a profitable business that they are in a sense willing to waste money on studying your genetic predisposition to this and ignoring the environmental factors, because they don’t want to know the answer,” she says.

“They don’t want to know if it’s the food. They don’t want to know if it’s the shots. They don’t want to know if it’s the chemicals that we put on our food. They don’t want to know if it’s fertilizers and weed killers and GMO and whatever else, stuff in our water, fluoride in our water. They don’t want to know any of that,” she continues.

“The money to study the root cause was never an honest, authentic, investigation, because they don’t want to know the answer,” she adds.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Camera phone, Upload, Sharing, Free, Video phone, Video, Youtube.com, The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Rfk jr, Autism rates, Autism, Cause of autism, Environmental factors, Vaccine side effects, Vaccines, Childhood vaccine schedule 

Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s failed trip to El Salvador to free Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia — an illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang affiliate — from a maximum-security prison reveals a stupid irony. Democrats might have succeeded in transferring him to a neighboring country if they had taken a smarter, subtler approach. Instead, they chose politics. Because this was never actually about Abrego Garcia. It was about attacking President Donald Trump.

You wouldn’t know it from the media coverage, but Abrego Garcia was deported legally — under a long-standing court order. Virtually no corporate outlet will admit this, because it undermines the media narrative. On his third appeal, Abrego Garcia convinced a judge that El Salvador wasn’t safe for him. So the court issued a withholding of removal — not asylum, but a directive that he be deported to a country other than El Salvador. Someone in the federal government screwed up and missed this order, and he ended up imprisoned in his home country.

Thanks to Van Hollen’s choice to make a spectacle instead of a phone call, the outcome is assured.

There was a simple, time-tested way to resolve this. As a U.S. senator, Van Hollen is one of the most powerful people on the planet — when he wants to be. He didn’t need a protest or a viral TikTok video. He needed to pick up the phone.

He could have called his former Senate colleague, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He could have explained that Abrego Garcia — a man married to a U.S. citizen, found by both an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals to be affiliated with MS-13 but not personally tied to any violent acts — was wrongly sent to a Salvadoran prison, despite a court order forbidding it.

Van Hollen could have made the case for sending him to a third country — Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica, anywhere else. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked. Maybe the Trump administration wanted to send a clear message to illegal alien gangbangers: Self-deport or end up in your home country’s prisons, not ours.

But now, thanks to Van Hollen’s choice to make a spectacle instead of a phone call, the outcome is assured.

Making a real difference was never the goal. The goal was to embarrass the Trump administration while scoring points with the Democratic base. That’s why Van Hollen was dialing the State Department from El Salvador instead of calling from his office in Washington — and why no one picked up. It was political theater aimed at Democrat die-hards, especially the party’s most loyal demographic: white, college-educated women.

You can tell by the subtitles in his videos. They weren’t in Spanish. They were in English.

But the stunt blew up in his face. While Van Hollen was playing activist abroad, the Trump White House was hosting one of his actual constituents: Maryland resident Patty Morin. Her daughter — a mother of five — was raped, beaten, and strangled to death by an illegal immigrant on a nearby woodland trail.

Meanwhile, ICE continued arresting criminal aliens in Maryland. Back home, serious work was still getting done.

Now the fight is out in the open. What could have been a quiet exercise in inter-partisan diplomacy has been dragged into a partisan war over presidential power — thanks in part to Maryland Judge Paula Xinis’ judicial jihad against the Trump White House, which the Supreme Court had to rein in.

What was once a manageable diplomatic issue has become a high-stakes battle over Article II authority and the executive branch’s right to enforce immigration law and conduct foreign policy. And while the legal turf war rages on, Abrego Garcia remains behind bars in El Salvador.

As one CNN panelist snapped when reminded that their new folk hero’s own wife accused him in 2021 of being a serial abuser: “We can’t make it about Kilmar!”

Blaze News: The illegal aliens picked up by ICE in Maryland while Van Hollen was in El Salvador

Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter

Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford’s newsletter.

​Opinion & analysis, Politics 

Someone just sent me a Passover greeting that traced the arc of tyranny from the ancient pharaohs to our current “dictator” in the White House. The message left little to the imagination: Donald Trump, apparently, is the modern-day pharaoh.

The sender works, unsurprisingly, in our state bureaucracy in Harrisburg. She was happy as a lark during Joe Biden’s “compassionate” presidency, but now seethes at his swamp-draining successor.

This isn’t a debate over rights. It’s a collision between incompatible worldviews.

In the past, I might have written her back. I might have reminded her who actually weaponized the federal government against political opponents. I might have pointed to the sweeping executive orders, the censorship collusion, and the criminalization of dissent that flourished under the true despotism of President Joe.

Unlike Biden and his handlers, Trump has made his intentions clear — and he’s doing what he promised. Transparency used to matter in politics. Apparently not any more.

I might also have noted the waste, incompetence, and embedded corruption in the federal bureaucracy, including the office that cuts her checks. The Department of Government Efficiency was not a stunt. It was a necessary start. And its housecleaning is long overdue.

Different ideological universes

I’ve come to realize that trying to debate this acquaintance would be pointless. We’d only talk past each other. Words don’t mean the same thing to both of us. It’s not that I believe in “freedom” or “constitutional government” and she doesn’t. It’s that the definitions we assign to those words are so radically different that even if we used the same language, we wouldn’t truly agree.

This insight came into focus while reading A. James Gregor’s “The Ideology of Fascism,” a book that sheds valuable light on political semantics. Gregor notes that fascists and communists genuinely believed in their own concepts of “democracy” and “freedom.” They weren’t just twisting the language — they inhabited entirely different ideological universes. And so, certain political divisions can’t be bridged. The terms are familiar, but the meanings diverge.

To the woke left, for instance, it seems entirely reasonable to remove children from parents who “misgender” them or who insist on using biologically accurate pronouns. In their framework, punishing such offenses against identity isn’t oppressive — it’s the fulfillment of authentic freedom. The law, they argue, is merely shielding the vulnerable from unnecessary psychological harm.

This isn’t a debate over rights. It’s a collision between incompatible worldviews.

A new left lexicon

It’s apparently ignorant — or worse — to define “fascism” narrowly, as something confined to the interwar European dictatorships. According to today’s progressive orthodoxy, fascism now flourishes wherever LGBTQ guidelines aren’t strictly followed or wherever anyone dares to advocate for a less “compassionate” form of government — say, one that distinguishes between citizens and undocumented migrants.

The logic, such as it is, goes something like this: Germany once drew sharp legal lines, and look where that led — tyranny and genocide. Ergo, any policy that establishes firm national boundaries or citizenship norms must be a step toward fascism.

Meanwhile, “oligarch” no longer refers to the mega-wealthy class in general. As I’ve gathered from watching MSNBC, an oligarch is now anyone who donates to MAGA Republicans or refuses to get rid of a Tesla after learning that Elon Musk is a “fascist.”

Likewise, the label “white nationalist” has been repurposed to apply to any MAGA-aligned Republican who fails to support the Democrats’ latest campaign against “white nationalism.” Trump’s support for voter ID laws or efforts to deport criminal illegal aliens? Those too, we’re told, reek of white nationalism — never mind that many of the ICE agents enforcing those policies have dark skin. That detail is irrelevant because it doesn’t fit the narrative.

What many on my side view as a sprawling, wasteful, and unconstitutional bureaucracy, our political opponents treat as the very embodiment of constitutional government. The Constitution they revere is not the one written in Philadelphia. It is a “living document” — one that demands a constantly expanding class of civil servants to fulfill the goals of “democracy,” which now include identity politics, lifestyle diversity, and environmental dogma.

Trump, in their view, is a modern pharaoh not because he consolidates power but because he makes life harder for the benevolent bureaucracy. He obstructs the compassionate machinery of the state. Worse, he sows “chaos” — unlike the Democrats, who have dutifully welcomed millions of illegal migrants to enrich America with fresh waves of sanctioned diversity.

Liberty’s language hijacked

None of this is to say that millions don’t cynically exploit these twisted definitions of political virtue. Nor am I suggesting a moral relativism. I know where I stand. But it’s clear that large numbers of voters have swallowed these ideological rebrandings whole. And when basic political terms no longer mean the same thing to both sides, meaningful debate becomes nearly impossible.

Western Europe now offers a sobering example. Countries across the continent have begun curtailing freedom of expression — not in spite of democracy but in its name. To those driving this trend in what we still, somewhat naively, call the “free world,” there is no contradiction between repression and the preservation of liberty.

Even European governments that our own vice president has scolded for their illiberal tendencies insist they are safeguarding democracy and freedom. Against what? Against such “reactionary” threats as national sovereignty, religious conviction, and traditional gender norms.

Even worse, a growing number of voters in both Europe and the United States agree. The language of liberty has been hijacked to justify its opposite. And for now, the hijackers have no shortage of passengers willing to go along for the ride.

​Fascism, Donald trump, Democracy, Elon musk, Administrative state, Dictator, Bureaucracy, Liberty, Language manipulation, Narrative, Civic institutions, Illegal aliens, Oligarchy, Opinion & analysis 

Last spring’s “Civil War” treated audiences to the spectacle of America finally quelling a MAGA-coded revolt that had split it in two.

The movie’s Trump-like villain played on fears that the defeated president’s comeback bid — at the time building momentum — might actually work. His cowardly, ignominious death at the end offered reassurance that we would soon witness Donald J. Trump’s permanent exit from the political scene.

‘She’s the Mamala of all Mamalas,’ gushes Daily Beast film critic Nick Schager.

Who knew that a scant few months later, reality would hew so literally to fantasy? Unlike his fictional counterpart, of course, Trump survived — and he did so with a stirring display of courage that arguably clinched his victory that November.

Too soon?

By now, the country has more or less accepted Trump 2.0. Yes, there is still a “resistance,” but it lacks energy and focus; all but the most recalcitrant Democrats have started to turn their gaze inward.

Under the circumstances, a movie featuring a Kamala Harris-like president kicking butt and saving the world might be considered in poor taste. In fact, Harris’ campaign was such a disaster that one would expect Amazon Prime to shelve the movie entirely, just as any cinematic depictions of skyscrapers toppling were pulled following 9/11.

Nevertheless, “G20” persists in trying to entertain a weary nation.

Alternate timeline

“G20” began production in January 2024, six months before Harris became the official Democratic candidate. Still, one can’t help but sense a certain confident political prognostication in the setup. If so, the filmmakers were widely off the mark, and now the film must be enjoyed as a bittersweet, Quentin Tarantino-esque exercise in alternate history: What if Orange Hitler had been taken out?

The critics seem to have taken the bait. “She’s the Mamala of all Mamalas,” gushes Daily Beast film critic Nick Schager.

“[Viola Davis is] Kamala Harris via John McClane, John Wick, Rambo, and Harrison Ford’s ‘Air Force One’ leader. … Part ‘Die Hard,’ part wish-fulfillment saga for a post-2024 present that didn’t come to pass, it’s a fantasy of feminist and U.S. might that’s chockablock with implausibilities.”

‘Die Hard’ at a policy summit

“G20” follows President Danielle Sutton attempting to solve world hunger in third-world countries through an ambitious digital currency project. Due to her perceived weakness in diplomatic skills and a rowdy partying daughter running around embarrassing her, Sutton is struggling to get her plans taken seriously.

Attempting to sell the plan at the annual G20 Summit, she finds the event attacked by terrorists looking to enrich themselves through a global cryptocurrency pump-and-dump scheme. Having escaped the attack, Sutton is now locked in the building as the last hope to save the global economy by using her latent skills as a former soldier to fight back and sneak through the massive compound.

In other words, what we have here is indeed another version of Bruce Willis’ John McClane. Not a problem in itself; many perfectly decent movies have emerged from the basic premise: “Under Siege,” “Speed,” “The Rock,” “Run Hide Fight,” as well as the rah-rah pro-Obama actioner “White House Down” — to which this film feels eerily similar.

But like all movies in the genre, what it does with the setup is what sets “G20” apart, especially given that it wears its politics on its sleeve.

Wonk this way

Star Viola Davis (“Woman King,” “Suicide Squad”) has downplayed any overt comparison to Harris in her interviews, stressing that we never find out which party her character belongs to. She’s been content to note with some melancholy that, “I do not think it’s a suspension of disbelief to imagine someone who looks like me as the president,” while stating that she just wants the film “to reach people.”

And yet her president Sutton parallels Kamala Harris to such an extent — from her fashion and haircut to the criticisms she endures — that it’s impossible not to make the comparison. And while it’s a modestly entertaining actioner, the end product feels distracting and flawed.

For an action flick, it spends too much of its precious screen time dialoguing about the global monetary system and the perceived weakness of the dollar. As RogerEbert.com’s Daniel Roberts puts it, “the script is so issues-based that it strangles the film’s mood.”

Wonkiness aside, at its core “G20” is the story of a strong woman of color triumphing over misogyny and racism to earn her place as the most powerful leader in the world. She’s doubted by everybody from the U.K. prime minister to the press, but slowly earns their respect until even her rebellious daughter is calling her a “badass.”

Pure heroine

By the end of the movie, President Sutton can do no wrong. While we’re never told her approval rating, we can only imagine she’s putting up first-term Obama numbers. And so “G20” offers an escapist fantasy for anyone traumatized by Trump’s relentless efforts to make good on his promises.

Remember the old protest sign — “If Hillary won we’d be at brunch right now”? It still holds true. Imagine if the media-generated cult of Kamala had had actual popular support. Instead of immigration and tariffs, our table talk would mostly concern the failure of Republicans to take the first black woman president seriously.

Another round of mimosas! Come to think of it, “G20” may be the scariest horror movie you’ve seen in years.

​Culture, G20, Tyler hummel, Kamala harris, Die hard, Movies, Entertainment, Movie review 

On Monday, April 14, the WNBA held its 2025 draft in New York City. TCU guard Hailey Van Lith was selected by the Chicago Sky with the No. 11 overall pick in the first round, which means she’ll be reuniting with her old LSU teammate Angel Reese.

In a post-draft interview, Van Lith was told that she was walking into “some good energy” in Chicago. In response, she seemed to force a grin and replied, “Oh, I love that energy.”

Jason Whitlock says there’s no chance she actually loves the kind of energy Angel Reese brings to a team.

Shortly after the draft, Reese posted a message on X that seemed to confirm the suspected tension between her and Van Lith:

— (@)

“Fearless” guest Jay Skapinac says, “I think if I’m reading in between the lines, these two did not enjoy playing with each other the first time.”

Jason agrees: “I think she’s already experienced what it’s like to play with Angel Reese, who is a narcissist and selfish, and my understanding is a nightmare for all teammates to deal with.”

On top of making enemies on the court, Reese is also no stranger to making enemies off it with her “whining about equal pay” and complaining that “she’s underpaid.”

“She’s only making $70,000 to jack up brick layups and airball layups somehow in games that no one wants to watch. ‘Oh poor me, I’m only making $70,000,’ not mentioning the additional couple million she’s making in sponsorship and additional revenues allotted to her from playing in these games,” Skap mocks.

Clearly, Reese isn’t hurting that bad financially because she recently posted about buying a house. Her announcement was delivered in typical Angel Reese fashion.

— (@)

“She’s been to two universities — Maryland and LSU. You would think she would have learned something and know how to communicate proper English, but she’s leaning into her Jasmine Crockett,” sighs Jason.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Fearless, Fearless with jason whitlock, Jason whitlock, Angel reese, Hailey van lith, Wnba, Blazetv, Blaze media 

Passover has just ended — a central story for Jews and Christians alike but also a defining narrative for America.

America’s founders drew heavily from the Exodus and the Hebrew prophets. They studied Hebrew. Some even proposed it as the official language of the United States. Benjamin Franklin, for his part, suggested that the national seal feature Moses crossing the parted Red Sea. The reverence for this story runs deep in our national DNA. It’s no accident that Hollywood — the most American of art forms — has returned again and again to retell it.

We rightly see Pharaoh as the villain of Exodus — but how many of us stop to honor the quiet heroism of Pharaoh’s daughter?

And yet, as a nation, we’ve let some of our oldest traditions fade. But that’s nothing new. God always finds a way to remind us.

Today, many Americans have begun to realize we needed the pain of 2020 and the years that followed. Without that nightmare, President Trump wouldn’t have returned with the mandate to truly save America. Without those four bitter years, the country might never have awakened to remember who we are.

This moment echoes the Exodus. Just as we needed four years of national affliction to witness Trump’s political deliverance, the Israelites needed to see God’s hand to remember His power. That’s why scripture says God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Not only to punish Egypt — but to remind His people of His unmatched might. To declare, for all to see, “that there is none like unto the Lord our God.”

And yet, even after 10 plagues and a miraculous escape, the Israelites faltered. Jewish tradition teaches that only one in five left Egypt; the rest chose the false comfort of slavery. Many who did leave lost faith before stepping into the Red Sea. Others bowed before the golden calf while Moses ascended Sinai.

Even in the face of miracles, it was easier for some to forget God than to trust Him.

Americans had forgotten even before 2020 — and God gave us a hard reminder.

So ask yourself: If we forgot who we are, what else have we forgotten?

Look again to the story of Passover. The book of Exodus begins with a chilling line: “There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.”

It wasn’t just that Pharaoh forgot Joseph. He chose not to know him. Acknowledging Joseph would have meant acknowledging the Israelites and all they had done for Egypt. Joseph saved the Egyptians from famine. His descendants helped build up the nation. So Pharaoh erased them. He enslaved them. He ordered their sons drowned in the Nile.

But not everyone forgot. Pharaoh’s own daughter remembered. She rescued Moses — the one who would lead the Israelites out of Egypt, receive the Ten Commandments at Sinai, and pass down a faith that would eventually give birth to Christianity.

That’s something worth remembering. We rightly see Pharaoh as the villain of Exodus — but how many of us stop to honor the quiet heroism of Pharaoh’s daughter?

She saved Moses when it was unpopular, even dangerous, to do so. She defied her father’s command, choosing righteousness over convenience. Her courage made everything that followed possible.

Christians have long understood the wisdom of Romans: “If the root is holy, so are the branches.” Like that olive tree, we must guard the roots to grow strong branches. We must remember.

So let us remember who we are. Americans are a people who remember God. Like Pharaoh’s daughter, we remember Joseph — even when the world forgets. Like the Israelites, we walk away from slavery and into the unknown, trusting the God who delivers.

We are that people.

I just pray we don’t forget.

​Opinion & analysis, Passover, Miracles, Moses, Benjamin franklin, American founding, Hebrew, Religion, Faith, Memory, Exodus, Pharoah, Ten commandments, Slavery, Freedom, Covid-19 tyranny, In god we trust