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In typical fashion, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals completely misread the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and the congressional speeches of its principal framers in a July 27 decision, State of Washington, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al.

This ideologically motivated opinion was written by a three-judge panel composed of two Clinton appointees and a Trump appointee who registered a “partial concurrence and a partial dissent.” Overall, however, it was an embarrassment to the canons of legal reasoning and historical truth. It surely will be overruled by the Supreme Court — hopefully on an expedited basis.

The principal drafters, architects, and supporters of the 14th Amendment understood the meaning of ‘jurisdiction’ in terms of ‘allegiance.’

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump acted expeditiously to fulfill a campaign promise by issuing an executive order redefining who is “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.”

I believe Trump is to be applauded for bringing the question of birthright citizenship to the attention of the public and provoking debate on this crucial issue. I have questions, however, as to whether an executive order in isolation is the most constitutional way of raising the question.

Constitutional end, questionable means

Congress clearly has power under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment “to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” One provision is that “no State shall make or enforce any law which abridges the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” This has been controversial because the language of the amendment is couched in negative terms.

The question of how a negative is to be enforced by positive legislation has always been an enigma. Congress passed a sweeping Civil Rights Act in 1875, which, in part, foundered on this issue along with the issue of “state action.”

In the 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases, Congress’ power to enact regulatory legislation under the Privileges and Immunities and Equal Protection Clauses was thoroughly hobbled. No serious attempt to revise civil rights protection was made again until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The judges in the Ninth Circuit decision, citing contemporary dictionary definitions of “jurisdiction” from the time of the 14th Amendment’s passage, find that the “ordinary meaning of jurisdiction” is simply “‘the authority of government; the sway of a sovereign power.’” They easily conclude that this is “consistent with Plaintiffs’ interpretation of ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ as subject to the laws and authority of the United States.” To drive this point home, the opinion alleges:

Defendants point to no contrary dictionary definitions that define jurisdiction in terms of allegiance and protection. Indeed, they make no arguments about the ordinary meaning of the Citizenship Clause at all. Defendants’ only argument based on the text of the Citizenship Clause is that “subject to the jurisdiction” cannot simply refer to “regulatory jurisdiction,” because that definition would render the Citizenship Clause’s requirement of jurisdiction surplusage. They claim that the United States has “exclusive and absolute” regulatory jurisdiction within its territory, so that all children born in the United States are subject to its jurisdiction.

It is entirely true that defendants do not prove their point about “jurisdiction in terms of allegiance” by recourse to contemporary dictionaries. Rather, they have recourse to the statements and arguments made during floor debates in the 39th Congress. The principal drafters, architects, and supporters of the 14th Amendment understood the meaning of “jurisdiction” in terms of “allegiance.”

The authors’ intent

Senator Jacob Howard (R-Mich.), a member of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, was the floor leader for the debate on the Citizenship Clause. It was a late addition to the amendment, proposed by Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio (R-Ohio), which initially stated that citizens are “persons born in the United States or naturalized by the laws thereof.” Wade added that he believed the matter of citizenship had been settled by the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Wade’s proposal was referred to the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, and Senator Howard presented the committee’s draft, which became the first sentence of the 14th Amendment. The significant addition to Wade’s proposal was the clause that specifies its subject as those “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. Evidently, Senator Howard and the Joint Committee placed some importance on the addition of this jurisdiction clause.

This meant, at a minimum, that not all persons born in the U.S. were automatically citizens; they also had to be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. When he introduced the bill, Senator Howard said he regarded the Citizenship Clause as declaratory of the law as it already existed. He was clearly referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed over the veto of President Andrew Johnson by a two-thirds majority in both houses less than two months prior to the May 30, 1866, debate in the Senate.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 established the citizenship of newly freed slaves and the protection of their rights and liberties on the exact same basis as those of white citizens. This included the right to own, rent, inherit, and convey property; make contracts; the right to keep and bear arms; and all other rights and liberties pursuant to full citizenship. In short, this was a color-blind law.

Some believed the Civil Rights Act was unnecessary, arguing that the 13th Amendment had already accomplished the intended purpose. Others believed that the amendment guaranteed only manumission, so that security of citizenship and rights should be recognized in legislation as a social compact. Still others, however, feared that such legislation could be repealed by future majorities. This concern became the impetus for the 14th Amendment to “constitutionalize” the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Senator Lyman Trumbull (R-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and principal architect of the 13th Amendment as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1866, joined Senator Howard, agreeing that the “law of the land” in the U.S. meant that “subject to the jurisdiction” connoted “complete jurisdiction,” not “owing allegiance to anyone else” — the very definition of citizenship in the Civil Rights Act.

Redefining citizenship

The Ninth Circuit Court refers to the leading case on the issue of citizenship, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, decided in 1898. Based on this ruling, the Ninth Circuit argues, “Supreme Court precedent makes clear that reading ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ to mean ‘subject to United States authority and laws’ is not redundant.”

As proof, the Ninth Circuit Court, like the Wong Kim Ark court, cites an opinion by Chief Justice Marshall, Murray v. The Charming Betsy (1804). Justice Horace Gray, in his opinion for the court in Wong Kim Ark, alleges that Marshall’s opinion “assumed … that all persons born in the United States were citizens of the States.”

Justice Gray reports that the chief justice held that position, but it is nowhere stated in the opinion. The Charming Betsy was a complicated case, touching on various questions regarding whether a person can divest himself of American citizenship by swearing allegiance to one or more countries. In deciding the case, Chief Justice Marshall said:

Whether a person born within the United States, or becoming a citizen according to the established laws of the country can divest himself absolutely of the character otherwise than in such manner as may be prescribed by is a question which it is not necessary at present to decide. In other words, it was not necessary to decide the question of citizenship to determine the outcome of the case.

The Ninth Circuit also discusses the Supreme Court’s decision in Elk v. Wilkins (1884). In this case, the Supreme Court gives a social compact account of the status of native persons in the U.S. that could have been written by James Madison himself. The Ninth Circuit Court seems unaware that the opinion was written by Justice Gray (he does not admit he is the author in the opinion).

However, the opinion in Elk cannot be squared with the Wong Kim Ark opinion, and it remains a mystery why Justice Gray changed his mind on this important issue of the common-law basis of American citizenship.

RELATED: How the Supreme Court can shut off the left’s migrant-to-school pipeline

Photo by Win McNamee / Staff via Getty Images

The Ninth Circuit closes its opinion by arguing that “post-ratification public understanding of the 14th Amendment supports the Plaintiffs’ interpretation of the Citizenship Clause.” That understanding was that jurisdiction was equated with being subject to the laws of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln didn’t live to see the ratification of the 14th Amendment, but it is difficult not to see his spirit embedded in its first section. Lincoln said presciently in his First Inaugural Address that the “intention of the law-giver is the law.” This is a perfectly Aristotelian statement and undoubtedly understood by Lincoln as such.

Nothing can be more obvious, even to the most unpracticed eye, than that the intentions of the framers, architects, supporters, and friends of the 14th Amendment were that “jurisdiction meant, owing complete allegiance to the U.S. and to no other foreign jurisdiction.”

Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published by the American Mind.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, 14th amendment, 14th amendment section 3, 14th amendment trump, Birthright citizenship, Constitution 

Washington, D.C., is home to some of the most important political activity in the world, but it is also allegedly home to a budding society of wannabe mermaids.

The mermaid community in D.C., Maryland, and the surrounding area has become a popular place for liberals to “escape” reality and get in touch with their “inner child.”

Unfortunately for the population at large, this means that at least some of the mermaid hopefuls actually work for the federal government.

‘To escape into something magical, anything as far from this reality as you can, feels really nice.’

A recent report from the Washington Post shined light on this community, with many of its members indicating they are looking to escape the “pressure-cooker environment” of D.C.

“Living here is fast; everything is fast. There’s traffic. There’s so many people, and it feels so suffocating sometimes,” Maryland resident Montara Hewgill told the Washington Post. “But, to escape into something magical, anything as far from this reality as you can, feels really nice, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.”

The Metro MerFolk group, a Facebook community with nearly 1,000 followers, consists of “dancers, swimmers, government workers, military spouses, and parents” seeking an escape from their actual lives.

“It was just creating space for people to have fun,” said Colleen McCartney, the group’s founder. McCartney calls herself the Celtic Siren and says the costume group includes women, men, and nonbinary people.

“There’s also a lot of people who needed a place to feel accepted, whether they were neurodivergent or they were the alphabet mafia, the LGBTQIA — finding a place that you can let your guard down and actually get in touch with your inner child and play. That’s not a space that exists very often,” McCartney said.

Groups like this gathering are just the tip of the spear, as D.C. also hosts its own annual convention where hundreds of mermaids, mermen, and others who wish to dress in sexually provocative underwater costumes gather to swim in a large pool.

RELATED: Trump is ‘serious’: NFL star refers to his team as the ‘Redskins’ as pressure mounts to change name

Admittedly, the mermaid group members are in higher income brackets, according to the Post, describing them as “residents with enough disposable income to spend on tails that can cost several thousand dollars.”

These expensive pieces are shown off at annual events like D.C.’s MerMagic Con, which boasts group swimming sessions and speaker panels with a cast of extremely colorful characters. For 2025, this includes MerBeast Irie, Opal Whiptail, and Mermaid Chè Monique, founder of the Society of Fat Mermaids.

MerMagic Con also boasts strict anti-harassment policies, which organizers warn that if breached, can result in arrest.

The policy notes that “gender identity” and “gender presentation” must be respected, while any attendee can report harassment if they feel uncomfortable at any time.

“Keep your hands and opinions to yourself,” the website reads.

The event also explains in its terms of participation that any attendee can force others to show their event pass, because “we are all equals.”

“At MerMagic Con we are all mermaids. Please check your ego at the door.”

RELATED: DC police commander under investigation for allegedly manipulating crime stats

A woman poses in a mermaid costume following the 43rd Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade, June 2025, in New York City. Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images

Rebeka Zeljko, Capitol Hill reporter for Blaze News, says that while she is vaguely aware of these communities, she has not witnessed them for herself. At the same time, she finds them disturbing.

“A lot people have an obsession with making normal adult activities as interesting or as ‘fun’ as possible. It reminds me of adults who reject traditional family values and, as a consequence, are devoid of purpose and meaning in their life,” Zeljko stated.

She added, “A legitimate portion of adults, especially with liberal or untraditional values, refuse to bear common responsibilities that come with adulthood.”

When asked if she would consider joining one of the cosplay groups to escape the stress of the D.C. environment, Zeljko replied, “I just exercise like a normal person.”

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​Entertainment, Align, Mermaid, Mental health, Health, D.c., Capitol hill, Liberals, Self care, Democrats, Lifestyle 

A female police officer in Texas is under investigation for posting on TikTok a video — which went viral — containing a suggestive joke.

The Precinct 5 constable deputy joked in the video that she was handing out traffic tickets because she hadn’t engaged in sexual activity the previous night.

‘It’s very unprofessional. You shouldn’t be doing things like that.’

Although the officer blurred out some of her uniform, she didn’t blur out her name, allowing people to find out that she worked for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

A recording of the deleted video was included in a report from KRIV-TV and showed the officer writing up tickets with the caption reading, “Din’t get cracked last night so everyone is getting a ticket.”

The phrase “cracked” is a slang term among young people for having sex. The “cracked” meme is popular on TikTok.

“Got cracked this morning so everyone getting extra fries with there [sic] order,” reads one example from a Reddit discussion about the meme.

The video shows that the officer had garnered more than 3,500 followers on TikTok and 194K likes.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office released a brief statement only confirming the investigation.

“Our administration is aware and internal affairs has opened an investigation,” the statement reads. “We have no other comment at this time.”

RELATED: Transgender worker fired from Starbucks after viral altercation with customer over misgendering accusation

Residents of the area told KRIV they were disappointed in the behavior of the officer and called it unprofessional.

“It’s very unprofessional,” one resident said. “You shouldn’t be doing things like that. When you’re a professional, you carry yourself a certain way. What you do outside of work is cool, but I don’t think she should’ve done that.”

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​Cop viral video, Got cracked meme tiktok, Fired over tiktok video, Fired over viral video, Politics 

Steve Hines is the author of “Salt, Light & Kids: Parenting Well in Today’s Culture” and a longtime friend of Rick Burgess, BlazeTV host of “Strange Encounters” — a podcast centered around spiritual warfare.

On the latest episode, Steve joined Rick to share stories from the period of his life when God gave him a daunting assignment: casting out demons.

Steve grew up in “a church that was more law-driven than spirit-driven,” but in his mid-30s, he started seeking the Holy Spirit, asking questions such as, “How does the Holy Spirit affect my life? What are the gifts of the Spirit? What are the fruit of the spirit? And how does this all manifest itself?”

He embarked on this journey alongside a few of his good friends who were asking the same questions and experiencing the same desire for depth in their faith.

“So we started getting together roughly once a week, and we would just praise and pray and worship and talk and no agendas, but it was just a transformational period in my life and the life of these friends of mine as well,” he tells Rick, noting that these gatherings took place for about four years.

One night during this period of meeting with his friends, Steve experienced “an overwhelming prompting from the Spirit to pray for God to reveal His will in a dream.” That night he “went right to sleep and all of a sudden was in the middle of a dream that was surreal in that it was so real it didn’t feel like it was a dream.”

“In the dream, I was casting out demons out of people,” he says.

A few weeks later, the dream became reality. Steve’s group had begun inviting other people interested in seeking depth with God to join their meetings. One night, a newcomer became “physically agitated” during worship.

“All of a sudden, he started making sounds that were not of himself and his eyes were not of himself,” says Steve, who knew immediately that this was what the dream was preparing him for.

The group understood that they were in the presence of a demon but “didn’t know what to do.”

“We started laying hands on him and praying over him and anointing him with oil, and as this went over half an hour, it got more and more physical, more and more violent,” says Steve. “We ended up actually having to restrain him physically because it was getting so violent.”

“We kept praying and invoking the name of Jesus over him … and after a while, as it got more and more intense, all of a sudden, he just went limp,” he says.

“We knew what had happened: A demon had been present, and we cast it out through the power of the Lord.”

But the group’s experience casting out demons was just beginning. As they continued to invite more people to join their group, the same experience occurred again and again with different newcomers.

“It was always so consistent,” says Steve. In each case, the afflicted person “would have been fighting us if we hadn’t been restraining them, and the language would change and it would be kind of guttural … and the eyes were always really crazy because you could just tell that it was not them looking at us.”

When under demonic influence, their physical strength would become remarkable. “It would require three or four of us to bear-hug them or sometimes hold them down on the ground,” says Steve, adding that the language they used was “the foulest language you could ever imagine.”

He compares the experience to the Christian horror film “Nefarious,” which was co-written by BlazeTV host Steve Deace, based on his 2020 book, “A Nefarious Plot.”

“The actor who portrayed the guy that was possessed by a demon was exactly like what we experienced,” he tells Rick.

After it became clear to the group that casting out demons was an “assignment” they’d been given from God, they began inviting people who they suspected might be experiencing demonic oppression or possession.

From a freakishly strong man with an OxyContin addiction who left “blood on the floor” to a sex addict who had “laughter coming out from inside [his] body,” Steve has experienced things most of us couldn’t imagine.

To hear his story, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Strange encounters, Rick burgess, Demonic oppression, Demonic posession, Demons, Angels, Spiritual warfare, Steve hines, Blazetv, Blaze media, Exorcism 

The electric vehicle bubble has burst. Consumers have emphatically rejected EVs as nothing more than a niche car with limited range, minimal utility, terrible resale value, and time-consuming charging hassles.

This consumer rejection began long before President Donald Trump returned to the White House and started repealing Biden-era regulations that essentially instituted a de facto EV mandate. In addition to these critical repeals, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act just eliminated the $7,500 per unit federal tax credit on each new EV sold in the U.S. effective September 30, 2025.

It’s long overdue for the General Motors’ board to put the EV distraction behind them. If Mary Barra won’t do it, then they need to find a CEO who will.

Other than Tesla, auto manufacturers have been hemorrhaging red ink on their EV ventures — and that was when they could pad the sale of each unit with $7,500 in federal incentives. Legacy automakers have been taking a financial bath on their EV programs. Many are starting to back away from their electric ambitions and pivot back to gasoline-powered vehicles that consumers actually want to buy, including hybrids.

For some manufacturers, however, it may be too late.

GM’s electric obsession

Blaze Media contributor Lauren Fix recently warned on her “Car Coach Reports” podcast that auto manufacturers might not survive the failed “EV transition.”

Yet amidst the carnage of the EV collapse, the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, remains unyielding in her commitment to an all-electric future. Sadly, unless GM’s board steps in soon, she may be dragging the entire company over a cliff.

It’s fair to ask at this point, “Who is Barra working for?” She clearly isn’t serving GM’s customers, dealers, or shareholders. Drivers aren’t buying EVs. Dealers can’t sell them. And the EV distraction is dragging down the stock price.

During the Biden administration, Barra pledged to completely purge the GM lineup of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. That’s a direct slap in the face to the company’s loyal customer base — especially truck buyers — who overwhelmingly prefer gas engines.

Now that Donald Trump is back in the White House, the Biden-era regulatory hammer that pushed automakers like GM toward EVs is gone. What, then, is motivating Barra to remain steadfast in her EV commitment?

As recently as late May — four months into Trump’s second term — Barra told the Wall Street Journal, “We still believe in an all-EV future. I think EVs are fundamentally better.” She added, “So I see a path to all EV. It will depend on how much we get the infrastructure ready. But I do believe we’ll get there because I think the vehicles are better.”

Unfortunately, outside of their niche as a daily commuter car for those with a charger at home, EVs have barely any utility at all. They are not “better” in any respect than a multi-purpose, gasoline-powered vehicle that can drive anywhere, at any time, for any distance — without charging hassles.

Most consumers know that. GM’s dealers definitely know that.

So, how does GM still have a CEO who doesn’t?

On “Car Coach Reports,” Lauren Fix speculated that Barra’s public EV commitment may not reflect GM’s actual intentions. Maybe she’s just covering for a busted product pipeline — trying to save face while GM begins its years-long pivot toward hybrids behind the scenes. If that’s true, the best-case scenario is that the CEO is lying to shareholders and dealers — it’s a very bad look.

Whether or not Barra is being honest about her intentions for an all-EV future, GM’s website still has a “sustainability” tab which reads, “We aim to achieve an all-electric, zero emissions world while advancing an equitable and inclusive transition to our carbon-neutral future.”

It might as well read: “We’d rather drive off a cliff in the name of a net-zero future than keep building the profitable cars and trucks Americans actually want.”

Investors call Barra’s bluff

Wall Street is finally taking notice — as well it should. When EV hype peaked in June 2021, GM stock was trading around $63 per share at its height. Today, it’s down 15%.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up 50% since June 2021. Put another way: $1,000 in GM stock back then is now worth $850. That same $1,000 in the S&P 500 would be worth $1,500. That’s a 75% gap — and GM investors are the losers.

During a recent earnings call to discuss Q2 2025 results, a Morgan Stanley analyst finally confronted Barra about the elephant in the room: “How does GM expect to be profitable with EVs when players like Tesla apparently cannot?”

RELATED: Car dealers stuck with unsellable EVs have nobody to blame but themselves

Photo by UCG / Contributor via Getty Images

Tesla is facing stiff headwinds with a 13% drop in sales and a 16% drop in profits for Q2. Even with the tax credits still in place, Tesla’s per-unit profit is only around $3,000. But those tax credits are about to vanish with the impending elimination of the $7,500 per unit federal tax credit. Moreover, Tesla is also about to lose another revenue stream: regulatory credits, worth about $1,500 per vehicle, paid to Tesla by non-EV manufacturers to meet emissions rules.

In summary, Tesla will be losing up to $9,000 per unit in revenue sources against a profit of $3,000 per unit — an unsustainable path for a sustainable car company. If Tesla can’t make it work, what chance does GM have?

The imminent EV reckoning

Barra had no real answer. Just vague talk about “manufacturing optimization.” She won’t admit to the writing on the wall — that General Motors has no path to profitability selling electric vehicles.

It’s long overdue for the General Motors’ board to put the EV distraction behind them. If Mary Barra won’t do it, then they need to find a CEO who will.

​Opinion & analysis, Opinion, Ev, Evs, Electric vehicles, Ev tax credits, One big beautiful bill 

Vice President JD Vance mocked Democrats over the debacle related to the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad and explained how it revealed the party’s weaknesses.

Some on the left have accused American Eagle of putting out “Nazi propaganda” in the form of the provocative jeans ad. Defenders of Sweeney’s jeans have responded with ridicule against the more hysterical accusations from the left.

‘They’re trying to sell jeans to kids in America, and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing, and it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?’

On Friday, the vice president laughed at the buffoonery from the left at a time when the party is trying desperately to persuade males to jump on their campaign.

“My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” Vance said on the “Ruthless” podcast.

“That appears to be their actual strategy. It actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems, though, which is that you have a normal, all-American beautiful girl doing a normal jeans ad,” he added. “They’re trying to sell jeans to kids in America, and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing, and it’s like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?”

American Eagle finally weighed in on the controversy Friday and released a very brief and defiant statement defending the ad.

RELATED: Sydney Sweeney’s provocative ad for jeans leads to complete liberal meltdown: ‘That’s Nazi propaganda!’

“Like, I actually thought one of the lessons [Democrats] might take is they’re gonna be less crazy,” the vice president continued.

“The lesson apparently taken is, ‘We’re gonna attack people as Nazis for thinking that Sydney Sweeney is beautiful.’ Great strategy, guys, that’s how you’re gonna win the midterms,” he joked. “Especially young, American men.”

The devastating election loss for Democrats can be blamed in part on a shift in support from male voters who rejected the Democratic Party, leading many on the left to seek new strategies to bring males back onto their side of the political aisle.

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​Sweeney jeans ad, Racist jeans ad, White supremacist jeans ad, Vice president jd vance, Politics 

Cincinnati officials on Friday said six people are now charged in connection with the mob attack that took place in the city’s downtown area last weekend — and the mayor said a man seen on video issuing a “slap” prior to the beatdown is being “actively investigated.”

Earlier this week, police said five people had been charged in connection with the mob attack, and three of them have been arrested to date. With the new development that six people have been charged, that leaves three people who have yet to be taken into custody.

‘The level of attack on this man? Completely unjustified.’

According to video of Friday’s news conference, after a reporter asked if a charge is coming to the man who issued the “slap” prior to the mob attack, Mayor Aftab Pureval said that man is being “actively investigated.”

“We take all violence very seriously,” Pureval said, adding that “we expect more charges and more arrests.”

The mayor also said during the news conference that he “profoundly disagrees” with city council member Victoria Parks, who infamously declared in a Facebook comment that the victims of the mob attack “begged for that beat down!“

In addition, Police Chief Teresa Theetge said at the news conference that next week she may be releasing “additional footage … that tells a little bit more of the story” surrounding the mob attack.

RELATED: US senator shares grisly photos of woman’s bruised, battered face after Cincinnati mob attack

You can view cellphone videos of the mob attack here, here, here, here, and here.

The final two videos appear to show a man dressed in a white shirt and black pants — who would soon be beaten up by the mob — making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts, who soon would take part in the mob attack.

However, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock on Monday stated on “Jason Whitlock Harmony” that he’s heard the argument that the man dressed in the white shirt and black pants — a white man — “started it” by making physical contact with the male in the red shirt and black shorts — a black man — and that was justification for the mob attack.

But Whitlock wasn’t having it.

“That’s ridiculous to me,” Whitlock said. “The level of attack on this man? Completely unjustified.”

RELATED: ‘Despicable human being!!’ Cincinnati official triggers venomous reactions to her comment about mob attack victims

BlazeTV contributor Shemeka Michelle agreed, telling Whitlock the attack was “definitely unjustified. When they tried to show the video of the guy in the red being pushed and acting as if that was justification. … But for all of these people to jump in — and it wasn’t just men jumping in; there were women jumping in as if they were men.”

Whitlock on Sunday posted a message on X calling out the mob attack, saying that “this behavior and lack of national outrage are unsustainable. It’s unsustainable. The anti-white bigotry at the root of this behavior must be addressed. Sickening.”

The FBI on Monday opened an investigation into the mob attack, WXIX-TV reported. The incident is under investigation as a potential hate crime, according to Fox News.

Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio late Wednesday shared grisly images of a woman’s face in an X post after she was beaten up and apparently knocked out cold during the mob attack.

The mother of one of the arrested mob attack suspects defended her ‘honor roll’ son earlier this week — a 34-year-old who’s been charged with felonious assault and aggravated riot — saying, “My child is in school, he has five kids, he’s on the B honor roll in school.”

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​Charges, Arrests, Cincinnati, Mayor aftab pureval, Cincinnati police chief teresa theetge, News conference, Slap, Mob attack, Mob violence, Crime 

Either Dunkin’ Donuts is using the same ad agency as American Eagle, or shoving leftist ideology into every commercial has finally come to a long-awaited end.

The coffee giant has come under fire and sparked another debate — right after the internet was up in arms over Sydney Sweeney’s “genes” ad — over promoting certain “genetics” with its ad featuring “The Summer I Turned Pretty” star Gavin Casalegno.

In the ad, Casalegno sits by the pool while explaining his tan — ensuring viewers know that it’s natural.

“Look, I didn’t ask to be the king of summer. It just happened,” he says. “This tan? Genetics. I just got my color analysis back. Guess what? Golden summer, literally.”

“I can’t help it. Every time I drink a Dunkin’ Golden Hour Refresher, it’s like the sun just finds me,” he says. “So if sipping these refreshers makes me the king of summer? Guilty as charged.”

Of course, the left is furious, accusing Dunkin’ Donuts of white supremacist messaging.

“So, now because they said the word ‘genetics’ in that ad, is that also Nazi propaganda?” BlazeTV host Pat Gray asks, annoyed.

“Look, I love the culture shift back to just normal American fun,” executive producer Keith Malinak agrees. “No more of this woke crap, please.”

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​Sharing, Video, Upload, Camera phone, Video phone, Free, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals 

The national debate over the provocative blue jeans ad featuring Sydney Sweeney has gotten American Eagle a lot of attention, but they are refusing to bow down to the woke mob.

The company released a statement Friday dismissing the bizarre criticism from many on the left that putting a blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress in blue jeans was an act of white supremacy.

‘We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.’

“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” reads the brief statement from the company.

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone,” the statement concludes.

The bizarre controversy over the seductive jeans ad immediately erupted in accusations of racism and ableism, especially from young women on TikTok, and then came the inevitable backlash and ridicule from many on the right.

On the latter end of the outrage cycle, some on the left are now saying that the entire controversy was manufactured by exaggerations from anti-woke antagonists.

Some praised American Eagle for not backing down.

“Good for them for not backing down to the woke mob!!!” Donald Trump Jr. replied on social media.

RELATED: Sydney Sweeney’s provocative ad for jeans leads to complete liberal meltdown: ‘That’s Nazi propaganda!’

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The controversy arose in part because of the play on words in the ad, in which Sweeney talks about her “jeans,” but in a manner that sounds like she’s talking about genes. The use of an actress who is blue-eyed and blonde-haired was also seen as a callback to genocide.

“I will be the friend that’s too woke because those Sydney Sweeney/American Eagle ads are weird. Like, fascist weird, like, Nazi propaganda weird,” one user said on TikTok, as documented previously by Blaze News.

“Should we be surprised that a company whose name is literally American Eagle is making fascist propaganda like this? Probably not,” she added. “But it’s still really shocking. Like, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white woman is talking about her good genes. Like, that is Nazi propaganda!”

Sweeney had previously made headlines when she marketed soap made from her bathwater.

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A former Missouri teacher dodged a jail sentence regarding accusations of being involved in a teacher sex scandal with a student, according to reports.

As Blaze News reported in October 2023, a 25-year-old teacher was accused of sharing explicit photos and videos with a 16-year-old student. The teacher also reportedly invited the teen to have sex with her at her home while her husband was away.

‘The victim said Laughlin also tried to solicit sex from the victim.’

On Oct. 19, 2023, the Maries County Sheriff’s Office purportedly opened an investigation into Rikki Lynn Laughlin — a then-special education teacher at St. James High School, located about 95 miles southwest of St. Louis. The Maries County Sheriff’s Office allegedly received a tip that a St. James High School teacher was having sexual contact with a student.

According to a probable cause statement, the alleged victim claimed that Laughlin first contacted him on the Snapchat social media app.

The boy informed investigators that he had kissed the teacher in a classroom, according to court docs.

KSDK-TV previously reported, “The victim said the conversations escalated quickly and Laughlin sent him nude photos and videos of herself. He said she also requested he send nude photos of himself, which he did on two occasions. The victim said Laughlin also tried to solicit sex from the victim.”

Court documents said the alleged victim informed authorities that Laughlin invited him to her home when her husband was away on Oct. 14. However, the teen formulated excuses to not appear at Laughlin’s home because he did not feel comfortable, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Court documents stated that Laughlin urged the teen to delete all photos and videos she sent him because she was afraid of going to jail.

RELATED: Ex-Christian school teacher accused of sexually assaulting female student, rearrested after allegedly contacting another teen

RELATED: Ex-teacher accused of grooming, sexually abusing teen boy; mother rips suspect as ‘sick, twisted, calculating sex offender’

Laughlin was arrested and initially charged with possession of child pornography, tampering with a victim, second-degree statutory rape, sexual exploitation of a minor, tampering with physical evidence, furnishing pornographic material to a minor, and second-degree child sex trafficking.

Laughlin reportedly got a sweetheart deal to avoid a jail sentence.

KRCG-TV reported this week that Laughlin pleaded guilty on July 24 to endangering the welfare of a child creating substantial risk in the first degree, noting that it was her first offense and there was no sexual contact.

Laughlin was sentenced to five years of probation.

RELATED: Married ex-teacher hit with 52 additional child sex charges related to multiple alleged trysts with 15-year-old male student

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​Rikki lynn laughlin, Teacher sex scandal, Child sex crimes, Teacher student relationship, Bad teacher, Teacher arrested, Child sex abuse, Crime 

The ex-girlfriend of a Delta Air Lines pilot — who was recently arrested on child sex abuse charges after touching down in California on a commercial airliner — has also been charged in the disturbing case that allegedly involves her young daughter, according to officials.

As Blaze News reported on Tuesday, federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations reportedly stormed the cockpit of a Delta Air Lines plane and dragged the co-pilot off the commercial airliner that landed at San Francisco International Airport on July 26.

Court documents said the child sex abuse began when the alleged victim was just 6 years old and continued until she was 11.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, “Detectives from the Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff Investigation Division have been conducting an investigation since April 2025 after receiving a report of sex crimes against a child.”

The pilot — 34-year-old Rustom Bhagwagar of Florida — was arrested and booked into the Martinez Detention Facility. Bhagwagar was initially charged with five counts of oral copulation with a child under 10 years of age.

However, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office levied a total of 24 felony counts against Bhagwagar on Wednesday. The charges include engaging in a sexual act with a child 10 years old or younger, oral copulation with a child, forceable lewd acts upon a child, and aggravated sexual assault of a child.

A judge raised Bhagwagar’s bail from $5 million to $15 million.

‘By pursuing these cases vigorously, we not only seek justice for victims but also work to safeguard our entire community from those who would prey on children.’

Law enforcement recently revealed that Bhagwagar’s ex-girlfriend is also accused of being involved with the sickening allegations of child sex abuse.

The Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that 45-year-old Jennifer Powell was arrested on Wednesday.

Detectives from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office arrested Powell in “connection with an ongoing investigation into sex crimes against a child.”

Police said Powell is the mother of the alleged child sex abuse victim.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said Powell was “charged in a related felony complaint and has been booked into the Martinez Detention Facility.”

The DA noted that both Powell and Bhagwagar face sentences of 15 years to life in state prison.

RELATED: Ex-Christian school teacher accused of sexually assaulting female student, rearrested after allegedly contacting another teen

RELATED: Father allegedly catches therapist in autistic son’s bedroom closet with boy’s pants down: DA

KTVU-TV obtained a probable cause statement, which allegedly stated that Powell was aware that her young daughter was being sexually abused by her then-boyfriend, and that she observed and even participated in the alleged sexual crimes of her child.

Court documents said the child sex abuse began when the alleged victim was just 6 years old and continued until she was 11. Prosecutors noted that the suspected child sex abuse ended when Powell and Bhagwagar broke up.

Prosecutors reportedly said the daughter did not live with her mother.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office said the sexual abuse of a minor occurred between 2018 and 2023.

Bhagwagar and Powell did not enter pleas when they appeared in court on Wednesday, according to KTVU. Both suspects are reportedly scheduled to return to Contra Costa County Superior Court in August.

Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton stated, “Our office stands firmly committed to protecting children and holding those who cause harm accountable. Every child deserves to feel safe, protected, and heard when an injustice like this occurs. By pursuing these cases vigorously, we not only seek justice for victims but also work to safeguard our entire community from those who would prey on children.”

The Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office said the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact the Investigation Division at 925-313-2600, email tips@so.cccounty.us, or call 866-846-3592 to leave an anonymous voice message.

Once the appalling accusations surfaced, Delta Air Lines immediately suspended Bhagwagar pending the investigation.

A Delta spokesperson told KTVU, “Delta has zero tolerance for unlawful conduct and will fully cooperate with law enforcement. We are appalled by reports of the charges related to the arrest.”

RELATED: NYPD officer sent obscene material to undercover cop posing as 14-year-old girl: DA’s office

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​Child sexual assault, Child sex crimes, Delta pilot, Child sex abuse, Child abuse, Crime 

The previously classified, 29-page appendix to the Durham report has never been released — until now.

“So the appendix claimed that Russian hackers obtained emails from Leonard Benardo, who was regional director for Eurasia at the Open Society Foundation, which was of course founded by the one and only George Soros,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales explains on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“And later, a Clinton campaign adviser … was linked to this Russia collusion hoax in an email from Benardo. It was sent on July 25, 2023,” Gonzales says.

The email read: “The media analysis on the DNC hacking appears solid. … Julie [Clinton campaign adviser] says it will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump. Now it is good for a post-convention bounce. … Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire.”

The appendix goes on to explain what the FBI did to put “more oil into the fire.”

“During the first stage of the campaign, due to lack of direct evidence, it was decided to disseminate the necessary information through the FBI-affliated … technical structures … in particular, the CrowdStrike and ThreatConnect companies, from where the information would then be disseminated through leading U.S. publications,” the appendix reads.

“And then, we also have this gem from Hillary Clinton’s people herself. I don’t know why you put this in writing,” Gonzales says.

“HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] approved Julie’s idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. … This should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level,” one email read.

“The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue. Say something like a critical infrastructure threat for the election to feel manic since both POTUS and VPOTUS have acknowledged the fact IC would speed up searching for evidence that is regrettably still unavailable,” another email read.

“And of course, you have, a couple days later, ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ that was created on July 31, 2016,” Gonzales says.

“So the rot goes so deep,” she adds, “and I find myself more and more enraged.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Upload, Free, Video, Video phone, Sharing, Camera phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, The blaze, Sara gonzales, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Hillary clinton, Hillary’s emails, Kash patel, Donald trump, The trump administration, 2016 election, Russian hoax, Putin 

A school board official in central Florida is in hot water over a “cruel and flippant” comment she made mocking the death of Hulk Hogan.

Alachua County School Board Chair Sarah Rockwell made the comment on Facebook and referenced MAGA, a term referring to supporters of President Donald Trump, and the late wrestler’s actions against unions.

‘How can any Republican parent feel like their children will be safe in the school system with her in charge? She needs to go.’

“Oh did Hulk die? I didn’t even know. Good. One less MAGA in the world,” Rockwell wrote in the comment.

“He worked with the McMahons to union bust professional wrestling. [H]e’s never been a good guy. I feel absolutely nothing about his death,” she added in a second comment.

The posts have since been deleted, but screenshots documented the offensive comments.

Rockwell posted a statement apologizing for the “cruel and flippant” comment and tried to reassure parents of students in the district that she would be unbiased and fair in her position.

“I want to assure all of you that the best interests of our children and our public schools are at the center of everything I do as a board member,” she wrote. “I hope I have shown that by my record of advocacy for children, families, and staff members throughout Alachua [C]ounty.”

She added that she had never wished “harm on anyone regardless of whether we share political views.”

Many are still calling for her resignation, including school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis of the Cato Institute.

“Sarah Rockwell needs to resign. Her fake apology isn’t enough. She let the mask slip when she celebrated the death of Hulk Hogan as ‘one less MAGA.’ How can any Republican parents feel like their children will be safe in the school system with her in charge? She needs to go,” DeAngelis said in a statement to Blaze Media.

RELATED: Police union calls on Cudahy vice mayor to resign over video taunting violent street gangs to defend LA from ICE agents

– YouTube

“It’s baffling to me that she has the audacity to remain in her position this long. Any decent person would see the writing on the wall and do the right thing by stepping down,” he added.

The Alachua County Republican Party also called for her resignation in a post on Facebook.

“Celebrating someone’s death is reprehensible, regardless of political party,” reads the statement from the party. “While her apology may have been sincere, the scar will remain.”

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​School board vs maga, Alachua county school board, Sarah rockwell vs maga, Hulk hogan’s death, Politics 

The commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is heading to the unemployment line after President Donald Trump accused her of bias and ordered her termination.

The newest jobs report released Friday showed a weaker than expected gain in jobs, although many pointed out that it also documented a massive gain in new jobs for native-born Americans. The president pointed to past revisions to justify firing Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the bureau.

‘I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.’

The BLS reported an increase of about 383,000 jobs for native-born Americans, while jobs for foreign-born workers dropped by about 467,000. The report also included a revision for jobs reported for May and June that reflected a decrease of 258,000 jobs.

That revision was cited in a post from the president on Truth Social arguing that the Labor Statistics commissioner should be fired.

“I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory,” wrote Trump.

He went on to cite other revisions in March 2024 of 818,000 jobs and one before the election of 112,000 jobs that he believed were biased.

“These were Records — No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump added. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”

He went on to complain about the new jobs report and the revision for May and June.

“The Economy is BOOMING under ‘TRUMP’ despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting ‘Kamala’ elected – How did that work out?” he added.

He concluded by repeating that Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, should be “put out to pasture.”

Blaze News reached out to BLS for comment, and they confirmed McEntarfer’s termination.

“BLS can confirm Commissioner Erika McEntarfer was terminated today. Deputy Commissioner William Wiatrowski will serve as Acting Commissioner for BLS,” the bureau said.

RELATED: Biden’s commerce secretary ridiculed for saying she’s not ‘familiar’ with damaging jobs report, blames Trump instead

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wasted no time in criticizing the president from the Senate floor.

“It is disturbing to say, but the chickens are coming home to roost on Donald Trump’s destructive trade war, and the American people are paying price,” Schumer said. “The American people are paying the price. You sow chaos, Donald Trump, you reap chaos. That is what the president is finding out this morning.”

The stock market tumbled in the first hour of trading on Friday but recovered much of that loss by midday.

Editor’s note: This article has been edited after publication to include a statement from BLS.

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​Trump fires bls chief, Bureau of labor statistics, Bad jobs report, Jobs under trump, Politics 

President Donald Trump told reporters in Great Britain on Monday that he was “very disappointed” in Russian President Vladimir Putin over his failure to play ball on peace talks, noting that he would shorten a 50-day negotiating window and “make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days.”

The president later added, “And then we’re going to put on tariffs.”

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the Russian Federation’s security council and former Russian president, said in response, “Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!”

‘Russia is right about everything and will continue to go its own way.’

The engagement between the two men online quickly devolved into talk of nuclear war and, on Friday afternoon, the dispatch of two nuclear submarines.

Grigorii Golosov, a political science professor at the European University in St. Petersburg, Russia, told the New York Times that Trump has targeted Medvedev rather than Putin online because he “wants to criticize someone in Russia” but is still hoping to make a deal with the current Russian president.

On Thursday, Trump suggested that Russia and the United States should continue to do “almost no business together” — total trade between the two nuclear powers amounted to $3.5 billion in 2024 — and said that Medvedev should “watch his words,” adding, “He’s entering very dangerous territory!”

RELATED: Trump slaps India with 25% tariff — in an attempt to influence Russia

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Getty Images

Medvedev issued a rejoinder hours later on Telegram, writing in Russian, “If certain words uttered by the former Russian president provoke such a nervous reaction from the formidable US president, then Russia is right about everything and will continue to go its own way.”

Putin’s right-hand man added, “Let him remember his favorite movies about ‘The Walking Dead,’ as well as how dangerous the non-existent in nature ‘Dead Hand’ can be.”

“Dead Hand” is a reference to a nuclear weapon launch system that could apparently trigger nuclear attacks across the U.S. in the event that a nuclear strike on Moscow is detected or if communications with top Russian leaders drop off.

Russian Strategic Rocket Forces Col. Gen. Sergey Karakayev told the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in a 2011 interview that the system was indeed “on combat duty.”

President Trump was not at all amused by the allusion to an American nuclear holocaust.

On Friday afternoon, Trump noted that based on Medvedev’s “highly provocative statements,” he has “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”

“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences,” continued the president. “I hope this will not be one of those instances. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared Trump’s statement online. Neither the president nor Hegseth indicated where the submarines were being deployed.

— (@)

In an earlier message on Friday, the president bemoaned the loss of life in Ukraine, noting:

Almost 20,000 Russian soldiers died this month in the ridiculous War with Ukraine. Russia has lost 112,500 soldiers since the beginning of the year. That is a lot of unnecessary DEATH! Ukraine, however, has also suffered greatly. They have lost approximately 8,000 soldiers since January 1, 2025, and that number does not include their missing.

This is a developing story.

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​War, Warfare, Russia, Medvedev, Donald trump, Nuclear, Nuclear submarine, Navy, Moscow, Politics 

Senate Republicans were back at it this morning, grinding away at the massive backlog of White House nominations awaiting their approval — and facing the most obstinate Democrat resistance in modern nomination history. If it continues much longer, the majority will face a choice — and the Senate, a change in the rules.

Senators worked until 10 p.m. Thursday night, were back at it at 11 a.m. Friday, had multiple votes ready to proceed, but still had over 150 to go. Friday was also supposed to be the start of a planned recess. But as the bombastic Mike Davis, the Article III Project founder and former chief counsel for nominations to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), told me Thursday afternoon: “Recess is for children.”

The longer Republicans wait, the longer overwhelmingly Democratic career appointees run the government.

Chamber rules and traditions grant each member a great deal of deference, and individual senators wield impressive amounts of power when they want to, as we saw earlier this week when Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) derailed his own party’s non-controversial, bipartisan package delivering relief to American police. Without unanimous consent, debate can stretch out for as long as 30 hours per nominee, and bills can be debated for weeks.

Unanimous consent was the historic norm for all but the more controversial nominees: Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton received unanimous consent for 98% of their civilian nominations, according to statistics released by the majority leader’s office.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama suffered lower numbers, as the two major parties continued to sort more into ideological camps than regional ones (conservatives and liberals, instead of Northerners and Southerners) and as the 24-hour news cycle turned up the heat and the rewards. But both presidents still enjoyed unanimous consent for 90% of their nominees.

Those numbers plummeted to 65% during President Donald Trump’s first term and continued to decline under President Joe Biden, hitting 57%. Today, in Trump’s second term, that number stands at zero.

This is the reality Republicans are facing. South Dakota Republican Sen. Majority Leader John Thune’s office is quick to point out they have hit a number of records, but dissatisfaction and frustration are growing rapidly. Thus far, for example, the Senate has not confirmed a single U.S. attorney, including for Washington, D.C., or the Southern District of Florida — the two districts where Russiagate-related prosecutions would play out.

Judge Jason Reding Quinones is up for the Florida job. He’s a former assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district, former adviser for the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and a former Air Force JAG officer. He was reported out of committee ready for a full-Senate vote on May 15 — 78 days ago.

Another embarrassing case is the president’s nominee to the Holy See. Brian Burch has languished for months in political turmoil, leading to the painful spectacle of the first American pope in history having no American ambassador.

The longer Republicans wait, the longer overwhelmingly Democratic career appointees run the government. And Democrats know this.

Meanwhile, Republicans are eager to get out of D.C. and start selling the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Frankly, it’s not easy caging up a bunch of powerful and independent-minded 70- and 80-year-olds who are used to getting into town late on Monday and hitting the road Thursday afternoon.

If the Democrats continue this course, Republicans can grind away slowly. Neither side wants to spend August in D.C., and when Democrats mounted similar opposition in 2017, members broke and consented just before the August recess they would have begun Friday.

If they refuse to consent, Thune has other options.

One is to adjourn the Senate for a full recess of at least 10 days. That hasn’t happened in decades. But if it did, President Trump could bypass Senate obstruction and make recess appointments lasting through the end of the current Senate term in January 2027.

That option remains remote — for now. It would require the House to return to Washington and vote to adjourn and a Senate majority to agree. Most senators aren’t eager to give up their power to advise and consent. They still want a say in who gets confirmed.

A more plausible route: Change the rules.

The Senate has a long history of rewriting its procedures when obstruction becomes the objective and arcane rules become, as one senior staffer put it, “unbelievable barriers.”

Ideas already under discussion include shortening debate time, bundling nominees into batches (as is done with military promotions), or scrapping Senate approval entirely for certain lower-level posts.

“If Democrats don’t give them anything, make ’em death-march into the weekend,” the staffer told the Beltway Brief. “Make them work 10 and 11 p.m. nights.”

Republicans, he added, “need to make a decision — and it can’t be to let Democrats use ‘norms’ as a weapon to sabotage an elected president’s administration.”

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​Opinion & analysis, Politics 

The National Institutes of Health told Blaze News on Friday that it updated its website to remove claims from the previous administration that dismissed the COVID-19 lab-leak theory.

‘The NIH has removed these factually incorrect positions from the last administration.’

As of Thursday, an NIH webpage stated:

Unfortunately, because the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 have not yet been identified, misleading and false allegations have been made about NIAID-supported research on naturally occurring bat coronaviruses. Specifically, these allegations have targeted research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, funded through a subaward from NIAID grantee EcoHealth Alliance. The naturally occurring bat coronaviruses studied through this subaward were significantly, genetically different from SARS-CoV-2 and, therefore, could not have caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

Blaze News contacted the NIH, inquiring whether it was aware of the webpage — which was last reviewed in March 2022 — and if it had plans to update its website to remove statements that the lab-leak theory was a hoax.

The NIH responded on Friday, stating that it had recently updated the website.

Department of Health and Human Services communications director Andrew Nixon stated, “The Biden era NIH position on origin of the COVID pandemic — that the lab-leak theory is a ‘conspiracy theory’ — is out of line with the considerable scientific and forensic evidence to the contrary. The NIH has removed these factually incorrect positions from the last administration.”

RELATED: COVID lab-leak denial lingers on NIH’s website: ‘Misleading and false’

Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

Blaze News confirmed that as of Friday afternoon, the NIH had taken down the webpage. It now reads, “You are not authorized to access this page.”

Nixon added that the “true origin” of the virus could be found on the White House’s website, which states that COVID-19 “possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature” and that the data supports that cases stemmed from “a single introduction into humans.” The website further notes the Wuhan lab’s “history of conducting gain-of-function research … at inadequate biosafety levels.”

RELATED: BlazeTV’s ‘The Coverup’ exposes how the censorship industrial complex silenced Americans during COVID

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya was one of the prominent voices during the COVID era insisting that there was a cover-up regarding the origins of the virus.

Bhattacharya told Politico in May that he is “convinced” the research experiments in Wuhan, China, “led to this pandemic through a lab leak.”

RELATED: Damning new episode of BlazeTV’s ‘The Coverup’ blows lid off Biden’s 10-year pardon for Fauci

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​News, National institutes of health, Nih, Jay bhattacharya, Trump admin, Trump administration, Trump, Donald trump, Biden, Joe biden, Biden administration, Biden admin, Wuhan, Covid, Covid-19, Department of health and human services, Hhs, Lab leak, Lab leak theory, Politics 

QUITO, Ecuador — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Blaze Media on the last day of her South American tour that Ecuador’s president said he would consider accepting Venezuelans who are in the United States illegally.

Noem visited and signed deals with her counterparts this week in Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador to continue ensuring cooperation in the region to prevent illegal immigrants and hardened criminals from reaching North America. The idea of sending Venezuelans to a third country was presented to President Daniel Noboa by Noem during her hours-long meeting with him and other ministers at the Carondelet Palace.

“We are very close to signing a safe third country agreement with [Noboa]. … He has a program here where he is letting law-abiding Venezuelans come in, and he’s training them, giving them jobs, giving them visas for two years. And so I said, ‘Would you take some of ours because we have up to a million Venezuelans in the United States that are there illegally,’ and so he said he would consider it,” Noem explained.

“Those are discussions that happen when you are here that make it possible to speed up our efforts” for mass deportations, she added.

‘We were thinking out of the box in ways that we can help them … fight these cartels so that [cocaine] never reaches the United States.’

Should a third-country agreement be solidified with Noboa, it would be a big win for the Trump administration domestically as well as regionally since it would then put pressure on other Latin American countries, like Brazil and Colombia, to play ball.

“The more we’re building these relationships with other countries surrounding them and on their borders, the more pressure it puts on them. So those conversations are still ongoing,” Noem said, noting that Colombian President Gustavo Petro “has not been helpful” on cracking down on drug trafficking in his country.

RELATED: Tren de Aragua in crosshairs as Noem signs deal with Chile to help prevent foreign gangs from entering US

Tren de Aragua in crosshairs as Noem signs deal with Chile to help prevent foreign gangs from entering US Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

Since much of the cocaine made in Colombia is then trafficked through Ecuador in order to reach the United States, Noem said the United States will help Ecuador fortify its border: “We were thinking out of the box in ways that we can help them harden their northern border and help fight these cartels so that it never reaches the United States.”

During the South American tour, the Department of Homeland Security launched its renewed recruitment drive for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement now that it has been given a large budget to support more personnel and higher pay.

— (@)

Noem revealed DHS has made job offers to 1,000 applicants to join ICE, with some of those offers being sent to former officers who left ICE during the Biden-Harris administration out of frustration.

While in Ecuador, Noem signed an agreement to station an Ecuadorian police liaison at the Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center to streamline data-sharing between the two countries.

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​Politics 

A new investigation into the prison surveillance video from the night of Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial death found inconsistencies in the government’s report regarding the convicted pedophile, according to CBS News. One of the more intriguing revelations from the report is that there was an “orange shape” spotted moving up the stairs leading to the tier housing Epstein.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. Epstein was found dead inside his prison cell of Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10, 2019. Six days later, the New York City medical examiner ruled Epstein’s cause of death a suicide via hanging — which ignited a firestorm of conspiracy theories.

CBS News reported that a third unidentified individual was seen in the unit on video that the feds never mentioned.

In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice released nearly 11 hours of surveillance video.

Citing “experts,” tech blog Wired recently reported that the “raw” file shows “clear signs of having been processed using an Adobe product, most likely Premiere, based on metadata that specifically references file extensions used by the video editing software.” The report claimed that using Adobe software often “leaves traces in exported files, often embedding metadata that logs which assets were used and what actions were taken during editing.”

“In this case, the metadata indicates the file was saved at least four times over a period of several hours on May 23, 2025, by a Windows user account called ‘MJCOLE~1,'” Wired stated. “The metadata does not show whether the footage was modified before each time it was saved.”

According to Wired‘s analysis, “one of the source clips was approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds longer than the segment included in the final video, indicating that footage appears to have been trimmed before release.”

RELATED: Elon Musk sets Twitter ablaze by asking a curious question about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, the media, and the DOJ

This week, CBS News published an analysis of the surveillance footage from the night of Epstein’s death.

The analysis noted that there was an “orange shape” moving up the stairs to Epstein’s tier around 10:40 p.m. on the night of the convicted pedophile’s death.

The 2023 report on Epstein’s death released by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General identified the “orange shape” as a corrections officer carrying linen or inmate clothing.

The video forensic experts expressed to CBS News that they were “skeptical about that interpretation and suggested that the shape could be a person dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit climbing the stairs.”

The Department of Justice said five days after Epstein’s death, the FBI seized the prison’s digital video recorder system, which contained the “raw footage” of the prison near his cell.

However, the experts told CBS News that the “presence of a cursor and onscreen menu raise questions” that the video is “raw footage.”

The video forensic experts said the prison footage was most likely a “screen recording rather than an export directly from a DVR system.”

“They said it was unlikely to have been an export of the raw footage and that instead, it appears to be two separate video segments that were stitched together,” CBS News reported.

RELATED: Bill Clinton went to Jeffrey Epstein’s island with ‘young girls,’ witness says in unsealed court docs

CBS News also noted that the video feed “jumps forward a minute just before midnight and the aspect ratio changes, again calling into question the assertion the video released was the raw footage.”

The inspector general’s report stated that only two staff members entered the Special Housing Unit of the Metropolitan Correctional Center after midnight. The report identified the staff as the “morning watch operations lieutenant” and a correctional officer identified as “CO3.”

However, CBS News reported that a third unidentified individual was seen in the unit on the video that the feds never mentioned.

Citing video forensic experts, CBS News reported that the detailed video review raises suspicions regarding the federal government’s assertion that Epstein committed suicide in his prison cell.

“The CBS News review found the video does little to provide evidence to support claims that were later made by federal officials,” the news outlet stated. “Additionally, CBS News has identified multiple inconsistencies between that report and the video that raise serious questions about the accuracy of witness statements and the thoroughness of the government’s investigation.”

CBS News conceded that the video review “doesn’t refute the conclusion that Epstein died by suicide,” but actually “raises questions about the strength and credibility of the government’s investigation, which appears to have drawn conclusions from the video that are not readily observable.”

RELATED: Jeffrey Epstein threatened to expose Bill Gates’ affair with Russian bridge player: Report

High-ranking federal government officials have declared that Epstein committed suicide, despite suspicions by many.

In November 2019, then-Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press, “I can understand people who immediately, whose minds went to sort of the worst-case scenario because it was a perfect storm of screw-ups.”

As Blaze News reported in May 2025, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino claimed that Epstein died by suicide.

Patel said of people doubting that Epstein killed himself, “They have a right to their opinion, but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor who’s been in that prison system, who’s been in the metropolitan detention center, who’s been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.”

“He killed himself,” Bongino declared. “Again, I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

Bongino proclaimed, “There’s video clear as day — he’s the only person in there and the only person coming out.”

The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General refuted the theories presented by CBS News.

“Our comprehensive assessment of the circumstances over the weeks, days, and hours before Epstein’s death included the effects of the longstanding, chronic staffing crisis in the [Bureau of Prisons] and the BOP’s failure to provide and maintain quality camera coverage within its facilities,” the inspector general’s office told CBS News. “As CBS notes, nothing in its analysis changed or modified the OIG’s conclusions or recommendations.”

The FBI and the DOJ declined to offer a comment on the report by CBS News.

RELATED: ‘Say hi to Snow White’: Jeffrey Epstein offered ‘Disney princesses’ to top JPMorgan exec, trafficking victims paid over $1 million from accounts at megabank, unsealed docs say

RELATED: Ex-cop, who shared cell with Jeffrey Epstein when he attempted suicide, convicted of ‘gangland-style’ murders of 4 people

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The fallout from federal defunding hit the Corporation for Public Broadcasting so hard that it is shutting down, according to a statement from the CPB.

After years of Republican grousing about federal funding for public broadcasting, President Donald Trump took action and ended funding for the CPB and National Public Radio.

‘Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations.’

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations following the passage of a federal rescissions package and the release of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) appropriations bill, which excludes funding for CPB for the first time in more than five decades,” the statement read.

The nonprofit private corporation was established by Congress in 1967 to funnel money to public radio and television stations across the country. The CPB said in its statement that its purpose was to support “educational content, locally relevant journalism, emergency communications, cultural programming, and essential services” through public broadcasting.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” said Patricia Harrison, the president and CEO of the CPB. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”

RELATED: After decades of promises, GOP finally defunds PBS and NPR

Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Critics of public broadcasting funding have pointed to numerous examples of left-wing bias in reporting to justify pulling back support taken from the taxpayer.

Many on the left have reacted with unhinged outrage and proclamations that Trump is plunging America into fascism.

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