“I assure you all options are open on the southern front. They can be adopted anytime.” Summary recap: Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s speech went for [more…]
Category: blaze media
Omar pushes corporate taxes while husband’s company skipped IRS bills: Report
The husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who advocates ensuring corporations “pay their fair share,” previously owned a company that reportedly owed money to the IRS.
Tim Mynett, Omar’s husband, and William R. Hailer, Mynett’s business partner, operated EStreetCo, an advertising, design, and public relations business that dissolved in June 2022, according to a Thursday report from the Washington Free Beacon.
‘The company has no outstanding tax obligations from the COVID era; in fact, we have a balance due to us.’
A document obtained by the news outlet revealed that in 2023, after the company’s dissolution, the IRS filed a lien for nearly $206,000 in unpaid income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes.
Omar announced in February that she introduced an amendment in the House Budget Committee to “make corporations pay their fair share.” The representative has opposed Republicans’ budget resolution, calling it “a blueprint for American decline.”
“Let’s be clear: They want to exploit your labor, take your tax dollars, and gut your earned benefits — all to bankroll tax cuts for their wealthy friends and donors. They want to increase your health care costs — while Elon Musk and his friends hoard even more wealth,” Omar said in February during a speech on the House floor.
RELATED: Here are the top 3 LEAST patriotic members of Congress
Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
The Free Beacon noted that Omar’s personal wealth is as much as $30 million. In a 2021 financial disclosure, she described EStreetCo as a “creative agency,” claiming that her husband’s share in the firm was worth $1,000 or less.
The news outlet reported that the Sonoma County recorder does not have any record that the IRS released its lien against EStreetCo.
RELATED: Trump derangement final boss: Ilhan Omar claims Somalia is better than America
Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference
However, a spokesperson for EStreetCo told Blaze News, “The company has no outstanding tax obligations from the COVID era; in fact, we have a balance due to us.” Documents provided by the spokesperson showed that the IRS owed the company approximately $3,000 as of September 3, 2025.
A representative for Omar did not respond to a request for comment.
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News, Ilhan omar, Tim mynett, William hailer, Will hailer, Estreetco, Irs, Taxes, Irs lien, Politics
Police charge man and woman in connection with Scottish axe girl incident
Police Scotland has charged a man and a woman in connection with the young, axe-wielding Scottish girl who went viral online.
In late August, a 12-year-old Scottish girl was charged with possessing weapons after online rumors swirled that she was fending off a migrant man. She was seen brandishing an axe and a large knife on video.
The following week, both the accused immigrant and an alleged witness spoke out, providing conflicting accounts of the events in St Ann Lane, Dundee, Scotland.
Now, police have laid subsequent charges.
‘They are thankful that everyone now knows the truth.’
In a statement to Blaze News, Police Scotland said, “Following extensive enquiries, a man and a woman have been charged in connection with an incident in St Ann Lane in Dundee, which was reported around 7:40 p.m. on Saturday, 23 August, 2025.”
The statement added, “The circumstances will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal,” otherwise known as Scotland’s public prosecutor.
Police Scotland also said the 12-year-old girl who was previously charged for “being in possession of offensive weapons” will be referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, a government body that decides whether a child needs legal intervention from the state.
“Members of the public are again urged not to share misinformation about this incident or speculate on the circumstances,” the statement concluded.
The new charges seemingly confirm allegations made in a witness testimony, as well as claims made online by a reporter who claims to have been in communication with the 12-year-old’s family.
RELATED: Scottish axe girl was defending beaten 13-year-old, witness claims
Fatos Ali Dumana, the accused 21-year-old Bulgarian immigrant, had previously told the Daily Mail, “If I did hurt the girl, why didn’t the police arrest me? They have done nothing to me.”
He added, “They saw from the CCTV cameras from Farmfoods that she was stopping me go on my way to the shop.”
Dumana also alleged that another bystander witnessed him being attacked and labeled a “f**king migrant.”
“I did not hit them. I am a human, not an animal,” he added.
At the same time, a TikTok user named Mayah, 13, said in a video testimony that she witnessed the incident personally. Mayah said she was with two sisters, Ruby, 13, and Lola, 12, the latter of whom was allegedly subjected to inappropriate remarks from a strange man.
As the altercation escalated, the alleged witness claimed that the man’s sister attacked Ruby, causing head injuries and sending her to the hospital with a concussion.
“She has a severe concussion and swelling inside of her head,” Mayah said.
It was at that point Lola allegedly brandished the weapons in an effort to protect her sister.
Neither Dumana’s nor Mayah’s testimonies have benefited from any further proof from witnesses, CCTV, or evidence from police, but an independent reporter — who says he has spoken with the family — now says he has concrete evidence to go along with the newly laid charges.
RELATED: Scottish police blame axe-wielding girl for altercation, reveal nationality of migrant
A reporter going by the online moniker Aesthetica claims to have been in contact with Lola’s family and even to have helped her mother, Elaine Thomson, start a fundraiser.
Aesthetica told Blaze News exclusively that Police Scotland “confirmed to the family” that “Fatos Ali Dumana and his sister were the two people charged.”
Police Scotland said they had “nothing further to add” when asked by Blaze News for the names, ages, and/or nationalities of the two adults who were charged. They also neither confirmed nor denied if Dumana was the man who was charged.
Blaze News also reached out to Dumana for comment about the alleged charges and the claims made by Aesthetica, but did not receive a reply.
Image provided to Blaze News by ‘Aesthetica’ on X
Reporter Aesthetica provided an alleged hospital document to Blaze News, purported to be from Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland. The document is an attempt to prove that Ruby sought medical aid from injuries stemming from the altercation.
The document is addressed to a person with the alleged last name of Ruby and Lola. It shows treatment was provided for a “diagnosis” of a “head injury — concussion.”
The photo also shows the examination was done to a “female, accompanied by mum,” with a head injury again listed. The document said the patient attended the emergency room at 8:11 p.m. on August 23, 2025. This would be approximately 31 minutes following the incident described by police. The patient was discharged at 9:44 p.m.
“The hospital document was sent to Elaine Thomson, Lola and Ruby’s mother, which was sent to [Mayah’s mother], who sent it to me,” Aesthetica explained to Blaze News.
The family has declined to speak publicly, out of fear of public backlash and for their own safety, according to Aesthetica. However, the reporter told Blaze News that the family is “relieved that their names have finally been cleared.”
He added, “They are thankful that everyone now knows the truth and that they’ve been telling the truth the entire time.”
The fundraiser has garnered approximately $120,000 at the time of this writing.
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News, Scotland, Police, Migrant, Illegal immigrant, Immigration, Bulgaria, Uk, United kingdom, Britain, Politics
Sara Gonzales wonders: Will latest Epstein document dump backfire?
On Tuesday, September 2, the House Oversight Committee released over 33K pages of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents. Once again, it seems that the majority of the information had already been released.
Even the tiny bit of new information proved to be disappointing — most notably the infamous missing minute from Epstein’s prison cell surveillance footage on the night he supposedly committed suicide. The latest document dump provided the missing time, but it revealed nothing of consequence.
“I love this administration, but they seem to be just bungling every single aspect of this particular issue in ways that I just can’t quite comprehend,” says Sara Gonzales, BlazeTV host of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”
“Everything about this stinks.”
“Obviously people are saying, ‘This isn’t enough. We want the rest of the files, and more importantly, we don’t just want a file dump. We want something to be given to us in an organized manner that says who the hell was helping traffic children, who the hell was having sex with children, who knew about it, who was in on it,’” Sara says.
“I want to know who was committing crimes against children, and I want them to suffer greatly from it. And I think that that’s what the majority of Americans want.”
It appears to be what Epstein’s victims want as well. The day following the document dump, a group of nine alleged Epstein survivors held a press conference on Capitol Hill and threatened to compile their own list of names if the government fails to do so.
“We know the names. Many of us were abused by them,” survivor Lisa Phillips said.
“I want to understand this so badly because I believe in President Trump. I believe in the America First agenda,” Sara said.
But she can’t ignore the discrepancy between his campaign promise to declassify the Epstein files — which everyone assumed would include the client list — and the administration’s refusal to release specific names.
“Thus far, this administration, not President Trump himself, but the people who have been in charge” have done nothing but “[gaslight] the American public,” Sara says.
She expresses frustration and confusion about how Attorney General Pam Bondi made a spectacle of passing out Epstein binders to conservative influencers, including Blaze Media’s Liz Wheeler, at the first Cabinet meeting to tease a big Epstein unveiling that never came.
“It’s incomprehensible how badly this has been bungled,” Sara reiterates.
She fears that as long as names are kept secret, President Trump risks fueling false accusations against him.
During the press conference, one alleged victim said, “[Epstein] bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump. It was his biggest brag, actually.”
“That is what has gone viral. That is what you’re going to see on CNN. That is what you’re going to see on MSNBC,” Sara says.
What we will almost certainly not see on mainstream news is the snippet from NBC’s exclusive interview with the victims where they all admitted they never once saw President Trump engaged in inappropriate behavior.
“No one has been able to tie Donald Trump to anything related to any of the disgusting, despicable acts that Jeffrey Epstein did with children. … But the problem is that if the government, if this administration, does not take charge of what is in whatever these files are and show it to the American people, you are going to have people like that woman” shaping a false narrative around President Trump, Sara says.
“We need the truth, and we need it from this administration,” she adds.
To hear more of her commentary, watch the episode above.
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Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, Blazetv, Blaze media, Epstein, Epstein files, Donald trump, Trump administration, Epstein victims
DC mayor and AG at odds as lawsuit challenges Trump’s anti-crime operation
Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., seem divided on President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge aimed at cleaning up the district’s streets.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Trump administration for deploying thousands of National Guard troops to the nation’s capital.
‘This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of DC residents and visitors — to undermine the president’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in DC.’
“The residents and leaders of the District of Columbia have not requested any of this,” the complaint reads. “None of this is lawful.”
Schwalb accused Trump of “run[ning] roughshod over a fundamental tenet of American democracy — that the military should not be involved in domestic law enforcement.”
“No American city should have the U.S. military — particularly out-of-state military who are not accountable to the residents and untrained in local law enforcement — policing its streets,” Schwalb said. “It’s D.C. today but could be any other city tomorrow. We’ve filed this action to put an end to this illegal federal overreach.”
He further claimed that the Trump administration authorized the National Guard deployment without Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) consent. However, Bowser recently thanked the White House for helping the city reduce crime.
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what [the Metropolitan Police Department] has been able to do in this city,” Bowser stated during a Wednesday news conference.
While she admitted the law enforcement surge had lowered crime, she simultaneously claimed that the presence of federal immigration agents and National Guard troops was “not working,” noting that she is “devastated” by residents “living in fear.”
RELATED: Trump floats sending federal agents to yet another crime-ridden blue city besides Chicago
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
The White House called Schwalb’s lawsuit an attempt to undermine Trump.
“President Trump is well within his lawful authority to deploy the National Guard in Washington, D.C. to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement with specific tasks,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Daily Signal. “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors — to undermine the president’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.”
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News, Washington dc, Washington d.c., D.c., Dc, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Muriel bowser, Brian schwalb, Metropolitan police department, Mpd, Dc crime, D.c. crime, Politics
RFK Jr. laughs at Democratic senators’ vaccine concern-mongering: ‘You’re just making stuff up’
Several members of the Senate Finance Committee tried desperately during a hearing on Thursday about President Donald Trump’s 2026 health care agenda to paint Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as both a “charlatan” and as a danger to public health.
Like the mutineers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who revolted over Susan Monarez’s removal last week as their director, Democratic lawmakers — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Maggie Hassan (N.H.) in particular — and a few Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.), quickly discovered that Kennedy wasn’t willing to play their games.
‘You are lying.’
In addition to highlighting recent victories at the Department of Health and Human Services such as recent reductions to bureaucratic waste and the obliteration of the DEI regime, Kennedy informed the committee at the outset, “We are ending gain-of-function research, child mutilation, and reducing animal testing. We are addressing cellphone use in schools, excessive screen time for youths, the lack of nutrition education in our medical schools, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis C, the East Palestine chemical spill, and many, many others.”
Rather than dwell on these or other recent positive developments at the HHS, Hassan, like other Democrats on the committee, instead focused her attack on Kennedy’s approach to vaccines.
Hassan, whom Open Secrets indicated has received over $1 million in campaign donations from the health professional industry and hundreds of thousands of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, claimed that Kennedy “acted behind closed doors to overrule scientists and limit the freedom of parents to choose the COVID vaccine for their children” and “unilaterally changed the parameters for giving vaccines.”
“This is crazy talk,” Kennedy said. “You’re just making stuff up.”
Hassan appears to have been grossly misrepresenting recent actions taken by the Food and Drug Administration.
RELATED: RFK Jr. makes crystal clear to the CDC mutineers: The restoration of public trust ‘won’t stop’
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary noted in a recent op-ed that his agency has “approved COVID-19 vaccines for adults over 65 and for people 6 months and older who have one or more risk factors that put them at high risk of severe COVID,” thereby bringing “the U.S. in line with peer nations.”
Makary underscored that “the FDA can’t regulate the practice of medicine. The FDA grants marketing authorizations, but doctors are able to prescribe drugs off label to people at low risk. In a few states, pharmacists may require a prescription.”
In other words, parents still enjoy the freedom to choose the COVID vaccine for their children even though Makary indicated his agency is not confident that the benefits outweigh the risks.
“Since the FDA isn’t approving a vaccine for the healthy school-age and working population, college and school mandates will be legally impossible,” Makary wrote. “Accordingly, the FDA is revoking the emergency-use authorization for COVID vaccines. The emergency is over. The FDA will now return to an evidence-based standard.”
Kennedy told Hassan on Thursday that the decisions about the COVID vaccines were not made “behind closed doors. The industry makes the studies, and they could not provide a study that said it is effective for healthy kids.”
“You’re just making stuff up, Senator,” Kennedy said.
RELATED: Florida’s fight for medical freedom targets vaccine mandates
SementsovaLesia/Getty Images
Hassan prompted a laugh from the health secretary by responding with, “Sometimes when you make an accusation, it’s kind of a confession, Mr. Kennedy.”
Despite the continued ability of Americans to get the COVID vaccines, Hassan suggested again that “people who want to exercise their freedom of choice are being denied that because you are citing data that you won’t produce to the public and you are rejecting science.”
“You are making things up to scare people, and it’s a lie,” Kennedy said. “You are lying.”
‘I know you’ve taken $855,000 from pharmaceutical companies, Senator.’
Elizabeth Warren picked up where Hassan left off, willfully conflating FDA approval for COVID vaccines with their general availability.
“Last week, you announced that the COVID-19 vaccine is no longer approved for healthy people under the age of 65,” Warren said. “In announcing the change, you said that the vaccine will be available for anyone who wants it. Now obviously, both things cannot be true at the same moment.”
“Anybody can get it,” Kennedy said. “It’s not recommended for healthy people.”
When Warren started down another rabbit hole, insinuating that an insurance company’s refusal to cover a drug on the basis of pulled FDA approval is the same as a governmental denial of vaccines, Kennedy told her flatly, “I’m not going to recommend a product for which there’s no clinical data for that indication. Would you?”
“I know you’ve taken $855,000 from pharmaceutical companies, Senator,” Kennedy added, possibly answering his own question.
According to Open Secrets, Warren received $818,997 from “pharmaceuticals/health products” sources during the 2020 campaign cycle. Between 2019 and 2024, Warren’s Senate campaign committee and leadership PAC have also reportedly received $131,329 from the pharmaceutical industry; $528,320 from the health professional industry; and $109,924 from the hospital/nursing home industry.
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Elizabeth warren, Warren, Robert f. kennedy jr., Kennedy, Rfk, Hassan, Democrats, Vaccines, Vaccination, Fda, Cdc, Centers for disease control and prevention, Food and drug administration, Politics
‘Transhumanist goals’: Sen. Josh Hawley reveals shocking statistic about LLM data scraping
On the third and final day of the National Conservatism conference, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) gave an uncompromising speech on the dangers of AI-fueled transhumanism. From 1950s eugenicists to the tech overlords of Silicon Valley today, Hawley addressed many of the dark undercurrents seething below the surface of the AI revolution.
In a telling moment, Hawley emphasized that AI is continuously being curated to serve the powerful transhumanist leaders in Silicon Valley and the government: “AI is fulfilling transhumanist goals, whatever its boosters may personally believe, and if it proceeds in this way undirected, if it proceeds in this manner unchecked, the tech barons, already the most powerful people on the planet, will be more powerful than ever.”
‘Large language models have already trained on enough copyrighted works to fill the Library of Congress 22 times over.’
Hawley revealed a shocking statistic about large language models and the amount of data that they have accrued: “Large language models have already trained on enough copyrighted works to fill the Library of Congress 22 times over. Let me just put a finer point on that. AI’s LLMs have ingested every published word in every language known to man already.”
RELATED: Reddit bars Internet Archive from its website, sparking access concerns
Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images
For reference, the Library of Congress had roughly 178 million items in its collection as of 2023.
Companies and individuals have begun to raise privacy and copyright concerns around AI companies scraping the internet to train the LLMs. For instance, Reddit cracked down on the Internet Archive last month over this very issue.
Hawley has been dogged in bringing congressional pressure to bear on Big Tech companies. Most recently, last month, he launched a probe into questions surrounding how Meta’s chatbot may allow minors to engage with “romantic” and “sensual” content. In July, he reached across the aisle to co-sponsor a bipartisan bill to block AIs from training on copyrighted works without authors’ permission.
Addressing the audience, Hawley said, “As I look out across the room and see many authors, all of your works have already been taken. Did they consult you? Doubt it. Do they compensate you? Of course not. This is wrong. This is dangerous. I say we should empower human beings to create, to protect the very human data that they create.”
While the pathways toward protecting Americanism, as he called the defense of liberty in his speech, are narrowing, they are not yet closed. “How do we do it? Assign property rights to specific forms of data. Create legal liability for the companies who use that data. And let’s fully repeal Section 230. Open the courtroom doors, allow people to sue for their rights being taken away, including suing companies and actors and individuals who use AI. We must add sensible guardrails to the emergent AI economy and hold concentrated economic power to account.”
Drawing from the lessons of humility and humanity reaching back as far as the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” Hawley warned of the dangers of the transcendence that transhumanism is seeking. “Our limits make us something better and powerful that make us good, and they keep us free, because there’s only one God. We allow no man or class of men to rule over us. We rule ourselves together as equals. That is the American way. It always has been. Let’s keep it so for this age and beyond. God bless you.”
Tech, Josh hawley, Ai revolution, Silicon valley, Library of congress, Llm, Large language models, Ai, Artificial intelligence
Rosie O’Donnell forced to apologize after blaming MAGA for Minneapolis shooting
After the atrocious Minneapolis shooting, one celebrity made a fool of herself when she was quick to place blame where it didn’t belong: Rosie O’Donnell.
This isn’t the first time O’Donnell has made it clear in a public rant that she is vehemently anti-MAGA, after famously fleeing the United States for Dublin, Ireland, to escape President Trump when he took office for the second time.
“I saw about the Minnesota shooting, and it brought me right back to Columbine in 1999, where I just could not get it through my head that students in America were shooting each other in schools. And this was a church inside a Catholic school,” O’Donnell in a rant posted to her social media.
“And what do you know, was a white guy, Republican, a MAGA person. What do you know? A white supremacist,” she added.
However, O’Donnell shortly had to walk back her comments and issue an apology — as she was completely wrong.
“My apologies to maga for saying the school shooter was one of u — that is incorrect — i made a mistake,” the caption of another selfie video read.
“I know a lot of you were very upset about the video I made before I went away for a few days. I didn’t go online and haven’t seen them till today. But you are right. I did not do my due diligence before I made that. I said things about the shooter that were incorrect,” O’Donnell said in the video.
Despite apparently learning her lesson, O’Donnell went on to say that most shooters fit the description she originally believed to match the Minneapolis shooter.
“I assumed like most shooters, they followed a standard MO and standard, you know, feelings of, you know, NRA-loving kind of gun people. Anyway, the truth is I messed up. And when you mess up, you fess up. I’m sorry. This is my apology video, and I hope it’s enough,” she said.
“It’s not,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments, disgusted.
“Not only does she not mention the fact that the guy wasn’t Republican, he was trans and part of her community. As 11 others have been over the last few years. So why don’t you talk about what really is going on in America right now?” he says.
“People with real problems are manifesting them in this way. And that’s whether they’re white straight people or whether they’re transgender people,” he continues, adding, “They’re mentally ill.”
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Video phone, Video, Sharing, Camera phone, Upload, Free, Youtube.com, Pat gray unleashed, Pat gray, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Rosie o’donnell, Minneapolis shooting, Transgender, Mental illness, White supremacy, Leftism, Lgbtq agenda, Robin westman
Exclusive: ICE rounds up violent criminal illegal aliens, including a convicted rapist
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested several violent criminal illegal aliens on Wednesday, according to a press release obtained exclusively by Blaze News.
‘This doesn’t even count illegal aliens with rap sheets in foreign countries, gang members, and suspected terrorists.’
“ICE officers will continue to arrest and remove violent criminals who have no place in our communities,” the press release reads.
Wednesday’s arrests included Gildardo Bucios-Lorenzo, a Mexican national, who was previously convicted of rape and criminal deviate conduct.
Gildardo Bucios-Lorenzo. Image source: Department of Homeland Security
ICE also detained Mary Rodriguez-Fuentes, a Honduran national, who was convicted of endangering the welfare of a child.
RELATED: Trump admin expands ICE detention space into notorious state prison
Mary Rodriguez-Fuentes. Image source: Department of Homeland Security
Jorge Morales-Aguilar, a Mexican national, was convicted of assault causing bodily injury to a family member before federal immigration officials arrested him this week.
Jorge Morales-Aguilar. Image source: Department of Homeland Security
Immigration agents captured Juan Carlos Martinez-Mendoza, an illegal alien from Mexico who was convicted of assaulting a peace officer.
Juan Carlos Martinez-Mendoza. Image source: Department of Homeland Security
ICE also noted the arrest of Luis Johnatan Yupangui-Alomoto, an illegal alien from Ecuador who was convicted of attempted robbery.
Luis Johnatan Yupangui-Alomoto. Image source: Department of Homeland Security
The agency noted that 70% of its arrests are individuals who have been charged or convicted of a crime in the United States, as the Trump administration continues its mission to arrest the most serious offenders.
“Thanks to the courage of our ICE law enforcement, these criminal illegal aliens are no longer free to terrorize our communities and prey on innocent Americans,” a DHS spokesperson stated. “Secretary Noem unleashed ICE to target the worst of the worst. Seventy percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens who have been charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S. This doesn’t even count illegal aliens with rap sheets in foreign countries, gang members, and suspected terrorists.”
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News, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Trump administration, Trump admin, Politics
Exclusive: Tom Emmer torches Tim Walz’s ‘failed’ leadership, says he should ‘have his head examined’
House Majority Whip and Minnesota native Tom Emmer (R) bashed Democratic Gov. Tim Walz for his “failure to lead” in the aftermath of the gruesome Minnesota shooting during an exclusive interview with Blaze News.
Following the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School, Emmer spoke about the heartbreak felt in the community while also criticizing Walz’s repeated inaction to protect Minnesotans.
‘There were warnings all along the way.’
“I’m a Minnesotan and father of seven kids, and we’re a Catholic family,” Emmer told Blaze News. “The Annunciation school is one of the strongest Catholic parishes in the Twin Cities.”
“Words just can’t describe the amount of heartbreak and anger that I think all of us feel about this unspeakable act of evil.”
RELATED: Tone-deaf Democrats lash out over prayers for Christians murdered in devastating Minnesota shooting
Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
The shooter was later identified as Robert Westman, a man who suffered from gender confusion, raising concerns about transgender gun ownership. Emmer said that rather than addressing Westman’s mental health, Democratic policies like those backed by Walz exacerbate the issue.
“Everyone has their own challenges. We respect that. We understand that,” Emmer told Blaze News. “But Tim Walz and all of these radical left-wing Democrats that look at a young man like the one involved in this case and tell them, ‘You’re confused. We’re going to make it worse. We’re going to encourage you to make it worse.'”
Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota became a “trans refuge” that allowed the state to take children with gender dysphoria away from their parents if they weren’t giving them “gender-affirming care.” Additionally, Catholic schools were on guard and asking for increased security following the Tennessee shooting in 2023, but Walz ignored their pleas.
“The trans community, God bless them for the challenges they already have, but the suicide in that community is well above the national average. Why aren’t we talking about that?” Emmer added. “… He was screaming for help.”
“There were warnings all along the way,” Emmer told Blaze News.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Since the shooting, Walz and other Democratic officials have pointed the finger at firearms instead of the underlying motives that may have led Westman to commit the heinous act. Rather than politicizing the atrocity, Emmer said leaders should come together to address the “root of the problem.”
“We should be focused on what the root of the problem is,” Emmer told Blaze News. “It’s mental health. It’s a failure of people to actually speak up and follow the laws that are there and enforce them.”
“It’s all about us and them for Tim Walz, as opposed to how do we all work together and live together in peace and security and respect,” Emmer told Blaze News.
RELATED: Ex-Clinton adviser warns Democrats of dire midterm season: ‘Elections have consequences’
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Unfortunately, the recent violence in Minnesota was not an isolated incident. Like many other blue cities across the country, Minneapolis is plagued by high crime rates. Although Trump has previously extended a hand to blue cities like Minneapolis, Walz continues to dig his heels in.
“I’m hoping partisan, hateful, failed leaders like Tim Walz, JB Pritzker, and others follow the model,” Emmer told Blaze News. “You don’t have to embrace Donald Trump. … But certainly you should care enough about your own people. The people that you work for that elected you to protect them and their families from the violence that we’ve been seeing in Minneapolis as a result of the failure to lead.”
“Seriously, there’s something wrong with Tim Walz,” Emmer told Blaze News. “Somebody should have his head examined and offer him some help, because he’s completely gone off the edge.”
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House republicans, House majority whip, Whip emmer, Tom emmer, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Jb pritzker, Chicago, Donald trump, Tim walz, Democrats, Democratic governors, Democratic lawmakers, Anti-catholic hate crime, Annunciation catholic school, Trump administration, Crime crackdown, Transgender, Gender affirming care, Trans refuge, Catholics, Politics
Bodies of right-leaning AFD politicians are piling up in Germany ahead of elections
The right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany — often abbreviated AFD for its German name, Alternative für Deutschland — has grown increasingly popular since its founding in 2013 by free-market economists keen to strengthen German sovereignty.
Despite a concerted suppression campaign by the liberal German establishment, which has attempted to ban and criminalize the AFD outright, the right-leaning party came in second place in Germany’s national elections earlier this year, doubling the vote share it previously won in 2021.
The AFD is hoping for continued success in the local elections scheduled for Sept. 14 in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
‘The alternative is too frightening to contemplate seriously.’
The trouble is that its candidates keep dying.
On Sunday, Alice Weidel, the federal co-chairwoman of the AFD, confirmed the report from the German public broadcaster WDR that four candidates — Stefan Berendes, 59; Wolfgang Seitz, 59; Ralph Lange, 66; and Wolfgang Klinger, 71 — had “died suddenly and unexpectedly.”
Stefan Homburg, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Hannover, said on X that the cluster of deaths were “statistically almost impossible” — a claim that elicited concern from former Trump adviser Elon Musk, who noted a day earlier that “either Germany votes AFD or it is the end of Germany.”
The early and mail-in ballots cast for the dead candidates have reportedly been invalidated.
RELATED: Rule by the people? Not anymore in the Western world
Photo by Maryam Majd/Getty Images
The AFD regional association in North Rhine-Westphalia revealed that as of Monday, there were at least another two confirmed deaths of its politicians, reported Politico.
“In my view, it’s statistically striking and currently difficult to explain,” said AFD deputy federal chairman Stephan Brandner. “I have never heard in my life that politicians of a party die in such a short period of time before an election.”
German police suggested that while investigations are ongoing, there is no evidence of foul play.
Days after the Politico report, another AFD candidate, Hans-Joachim Kind, reportedly perished, making a total of at least seven dead AFD candidates just days ahead of the local elections.
Blaze News has reached out to the AFD and to Weidel for comment.
Suspicions online regarding the deaths have been fueled in part by the efforts of German establishmentarians — whose agenda and power is threatened by the AFD — and leftist activists to crush the party.
AFD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel. Photo by SOEREN STACHE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.
After designating the AFD as a potential extremist organization in 2021, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency placed the party and its federal members under surveillance, tapping their phones and monitoring their movements.
In May, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a spy agency, officially classified the AFD as a “proven right-wing extremist organization” — a brazen attempt to neutralize the opposition party. That classification has, however, been placed on pause pending the result of a court appeal.
Last year was an especially bad year for institutional attacks on the AFD: An administrative court disarmed party members, barring them from owning firearms; leftist activists succeeded in having the party de-banked; and an AFD politician, Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, was convicted of a hate crime for sharing government statistics about the disproportionate number of gang rapes committed by immigrants, specifically Afghan nationals.
Attacks on the AFD have also taken the form of violence.
Prior to the AFD securing 15.9% of the German vote in last year’s European parliamentary elections, a leftist who was tearing down an AFD candidate’s campaign posters allegedly stabbed AFD’s spokesman for Mannheim, Heinrich Koch, with a carpet knife.
Rod Dreher, a senior fellow at the Danube Institute in Budapest, noted, “What is the likelihood that four candidates and two reserve candidates of the same political party, in the same region, would drop dead suddenly, within 13 days of each other — and just before local elections?”
“It must be hoped that the unfortunate and statistically unlikely deaths of four politicians from a party the German government is considering outlawing were nothing more than a fluke,” continued Dreher. “The alternative is too frightening to contemplate seriously.”
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Can true love ‘Trump’ our political divide? Writer/director Erik Bork is optimistic
Writer/director Erik Bork summoned the late Rodney King with his newest film.
It’s called “The Elephant in the Room,” although the subtitle could easily have been, “Can’t We All Just Get Along?”
‘It made it a bigger challenge. How do you make a romantic comedy when you have that in the middle of it?’
The rom-com stars Alyssa Limperis and Sean Kleier (“Wedding Season”) as a couple staring down a near-impossible divide. She’s a dyed-in-the-wool progressive, and he voted for Donald Trump.
Twice.
Can this romance survive a very 21st-century fissure? Even more important, can a modern-day filmmaker treat conservatives fairly in a politically charged project?
Splitsville
Bork, who co-wrote “Band of Brothers” and “From the Earth to the Moon,” started worrying about the state of the union back in 2016. That, of course, marked the rise of Donald J. Trump as a political force.
The Hollywood hyphenate realized a divided nation could be fodder for a different kind of romantic comedy. Instead of fretting over dresses or ways to lose a guy, a couple could squabble about politics.
“I was starting to be convinced that polarization was a key issue in our society, maybe the key issue,” Bork tells Align. “It made me want to explore it.”
And he had a little help along the way.
RELATED: Chat brats: ABC makes ‘The View’ hosts take back Trump trash talk
Lou Rocco/Getty Images
Likeable lovebirds
A pair of emerging groups — Bridge Entertainment Labs and the Civic Health Project — counseled Bork on how to make the script less polarizing and more believable. “Elephant” marks Bridge Entertainment Labs’ first foray into pop-culture fare.
“In a romantic comedy, you have to like both of the people. … Can they be both likeable and believable to both sides was a key mission,” he says. That took multiple drafts to ensure that audiences didn’t hate either lovebird.
His small cast also shared their perspectives before the cameras began to roll. Bork credits them for adding their insights to the project.
“They had thoughts and questions and concerns. … Some were playing characters very different from them. … The [film’s] ending was the result of that conversation, that negotiation,” he says.
Affection insurrection
“The Elephant in the Room” is set just before the events of Jan. 6, 2021, one of the most heated political moments in recent memory.
“It was the most dramatic thing,” he says. “It made it a bigger challenge. How do you make a romantic comedy when you have that in the middle of it?”
It’s easy to point a finger at the cultural forces pitting American against American these days. Bork singles out news outlets and politicians who “keep us polarized and make us assume the people on the other side are the most extreme, lockstep version of what we imagine them to be.”
Bork told a story with specific themes ripped from today’s headlines, but he tried not to make a rom-com equivalent of a white paper.
“I want people to enjoy the story, a comedic and heartfelt experience, and have the other stuff be secondary, but the other stuff is important to me,” he says. “It’s not a documentary, and I’m not a social change agent. There’s no call to action.”
Wrong-com?
That said, he hopes the film lets viewers empathize with those who voted the “wrong” way last November.
“It’s about humanizing your interactions with people and having some generosity and curiosity about each other,” he said.
And he knows that can be a tall task.
“Yeah, it’d be nice to get along better, but they’re terrible. They’re stupid and evil,” he said, imagining what some might say about his film’s larger themes.
Bork can’t speak for Hollywood in general, an industry dominated by left-leaning views and an unofficial blacklist against some right-leaning artists. He can share some early screening reactions, which gave him hope about the film’s impact.
He knows plenty of Americans would enter the film with their arms ideologically crossed. He’s seen it up close.
“This is the wrong time for this … a movie that humanizes a Trump supporter,” as he puts it. For some viewers, though, the central love story won them over.
“But I’ve had people watch the movie who I know basically have that feeling … then when they watch it, [they say] ‘this was great and we need this, even though it doesn’t change my view of that man,’” meaning the 45th and 47th president, of course.
Making “The Elephant in the Room” gave Bork a fresh perspective, too. The left-leaning director says working with the aforementioned nonprofits let him examine his beliefs and news feeds.
“I’m trying to notice if I’m in an echo chamber,” he said, “and if I’m consuming things that the whole point is to get me angry or depressed.
“I try to go issue by issue [now] … and be curious to understand, which I wasn’t before as much,” he adds.
Movies, Culture, Entertainment, Erik bork, The elephant in the room, Hollywood, Rom-com, Trump, Align interview
Epstein victims speak out! Will PREDATORS finally be revealed?
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has released over 33,000 pages of Epstein-related records that were provided by the U.S. Department of Justice — but Americans have been conditioned to wonder if this is real transparency or just D.C. political theater.
The same uncertainty applies to apparent meetings taking place behind closed doors that may be uncovering more information about the predators involved.
“Speaker Mike Johnson and Oversight Chairman James Comer actually quietly pulled something together that you almost never see. It’s been a rare bipartisan closed-door meeting,” BlazeTV host Jill Savage explains on “Blaze News: The Mandate.”
“They had six women who survived Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, and for at least two of them, it was the first time that they had ever spoken out,” she says, noting that Johnson called the meeting both “heartbreaking” and “infuriating.”
According to Johnson, some of the women had been “groomed” for over 30 years.
“There’s so much that’s happening behind closed doors, and we still just don’t know. Are we going to get the transparency that we want, or is this more of the actual political theater?” Savage asks.
“There’s not much new, but what is new is that, you know, we’re told that these women have provided names of additional persons of interest, so that is interesting. Who are those people? Will that come out? Will we talk about that? I don’t know,” BlazeTV host Matthew Peterson says.
“We also have about a thousand pages … that are new, flight logs from him flying out of the country. But what we don’t have so far is actual names, and that’s what most people want,” he continues.
Blaze media senior politics editor and D.C. correspondent Christopher Bedford isn’t too pleased with how long it’s taken for them to interview these women in the first place.
“It’s the kind of attention that Congress probably should have paid to this from the very beginning, which is bringing in victims, having closed-door meetings, which, you know, are more serious than open-door meetings,” Bedford says.
“Open-door meetings are theater for MSNBC, CNN, and Fox,” he continues. “They’re not real. There aren’t real questions. It’s just, ‘Let me see how many points I can get. Let me see how many points I can put on the board.’ … But closed-door sessions are much more serious.”
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Trump White House trolls every former employee, including Obama, with one simple change
A simple move by the Trump administration means every former White House employee will be seeing the president sooner or later.
With just a few clicks, Trump’s team implemented a genius joke that will last at least until the end of his term and immediately struck a nerve with a member of the previous administration.
‘One of the great trolls of all time.’
On the job posting and career networking site LinkedIn, the administration changed the White House’s profile picture to President Trump’s official 2025 portrait, which was revealed in June.
That means any former employee who lists the White House under his or her job experience section will now have to see Trump’s face, for better or for worse.
Most notably, this affects former President Barack Obama’s page.
First son Donald Trump Jr. pointed out the change in a trolling social media post of his own.
“Just confirmed … it’s real,” Trump Jr. said on a screenshot of Obama’s LinkedIn page. “One of the great trolls of all time … changing the White House, LinkedIn profile picture,” he wrote on Instagram.
A member of President Biden’s administration did not appear amused by the photo, though, and got into a contentious exchange over the joke with a current White House staffer.
RELATED: Disgusting: Even Tim Walz cheers false rumors of Trump’s death
“The White House is now posting on LinkedIn and made their profile picture a picture of Trump’s face,” Jeremy Edwards, former Biden spokesman, wrote on X. “Which means if you worked for the White House in the past, and it’s on your profile, people see Trump’s face.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung replied hours later, confirming the executive branch’s intention to troll former employees.
“That’s the whole point, dummy. Trolololololol,” Cheung wrote.
Edwards did not take the remark kindly and lashed out at Cheung’s appearance.
“Thanks for the explainer, dumba**. I guess I should just be grateful that it’s not your face I have to see whenever I open the app,” his X post read. “Appreciate you looking out for us!”
RELATED: Trump admin expands ICE detention space into notorious state prison
Trump’s photo caused even more news after a reporter from the Daily Caller asked him about presidential portraits going on display in the Rose Garden.
When asked if he would include a picture of President Biden, Trump replied, “Isn’t that an interesting question.”
“And I’ll listen to you, too,” Trump told the reporter. “It’s a decision I have to make. We put up a picture of the autopen.”
After reporter Reagan Reese called the idea “hilarious,” Trump later added:
“I gotta do it. … It’s going up in about two weeks, because — it’s all being prepared.”
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Politics, Trump, Troll, Trump administration, Social media, Biden, Donald trump, Linkedin, White hosue, News
Bizarre bodycam video shows Florida cops arresting Chuck E. Cheese mascot as kids, parents watch in shock
Police bodycam video shows the moment children and parents watched in shock as a Florida man dressed in a Chuck E. Cheese mascot costume was arrested.
The Tallahassee Police Department recently released bodycam video of the eye-opening July 23 arrest.
‘Would y’all put Mickey Mouse in handcuffs?’
Police bodycam footage shows officers marching into a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Tallahassee.
“We’re gonna detain the mouse,” an officer is heard telling a fellow cop on video as they enter the pizza restaurant geared toward kids.
Bodycam footage shows children playing arcade games as officers walk toward an individual dressed from head to toe as the Chuck E. Cheese mouse mascot.
“Chuck E.’s a little bit busy, ma’am,” an officer tells a woman.
The officer orders the person in the mouse costume, “Chuck E., come with me. Chuck E! Chuck E! Stop resisting! You’re being detained, stop resisting! Let it go! Do not cause a scene here, sir.”
The Chuck E. Cheese mascot is handcuffed and then escorted out of the children’s restaurant as parents and kids watch in disbelief.
As one of the officers exits the restaurant, a furious woman scolds the cop for arresting the mouse mascot in front of children at the restaurant.
“I would like y’all to walk him out the door instead of traumatizing all these children seeing someone like Chuck E. Cheese get arrested,” the woman is heard saying.
She then asks, “Would y’all put Mickey Mouse in handcuffs?”
Tallahassee Police Department spokesperson Alicia Hill previously told the Tallahassee Democrat that officers had planned to escort the Chuck E. Cheese mascot from the restaurant and handcuff him outside. But police said they became nervous after the suspect resisted.
Hill explained that when officers approached the individual in the Chuck E. Cheese mascot costume, the suspect “immediately tenses up and resists, and so at this point they make the decision to put him in handcuffs” for the safety of the suspect, customers, and officers.
Hill added that it was “unfortunate” that the suspect “happened to be in a suit and in costume.”
“The parents were not happy with us detaining Chuck E. Cheese,” one officer tells another cop in the clip.
The other cop responds, “Too bad.”
After police remove the costume head from the suspect’s head, exposing his face, officers attempt to search the handcuffed man for weapons. However, the suspect is still wearing the rest of the mouse costume, which makes it difficult to detect if the suspect has any weapons on him.
“I’m working, you know, I’m just doing my job,” the suspect tells cops. “What the f**k is this about?”
Police arrested 41-year-old Jermel Jones for allegedly purchasing items with someone else’s credit card.
Citing the probable cause affidavit, Fox News reported that a woman informed police that her debit card went missing June 28 and that she last recalled seeing her debit card at the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant for her child’s birthday party.
WKMG-TV reported that the woman said her debit card was used at a smoke shop, a grocery store, and a Whataburger fast-food restaurant without her knowledge or consent.
Police said officers found the stolen credit card in the suspect’s left front pocket. Jones reportedly told officers that he “never used” the debit card and denied any wrongdoing,
“Jones was also in possession of a small amount of marijuana,” the affidavit stated, according to Fox News. Jones allegedly told a police officer that he was “on the way” to getting a medical marijuana license.
According to WPEC-TV, Jones was charged with theft of a credit card, criminal use of personal identification information, and fraudulent use of a credit card totaling over $100.
Jones was released the next day on a $1,000 bond.
A Chuck E. Cheese spokesperson told People magazine, “We have taken the appropriate action concerning the subject employee.”
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Restoration of military honors for Ashli Babbitt strikes back against a tide of Jan. 6 lies
Aaron Babbitt has for more than four and a half years kept an empty memorial flag case awaiting the day he receives military honors from the U.S. Air Force for his late wife, Ashli.
“Over these years, that’s been my top priority,” Babbitt told Blaze News in an interview. “I still have that flag case sitting in my apartment right now. I always knew I was going to get it filled one way or another, especially after President Trump got re-elected.”
‘I love that they’re so upset. I find it extremely satisfying.’
On Feb. 9, 2021, now-retired Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, an Air Force personnel bureaucrat, wrote to Babbitt informing him that there would be no funeral honors for the veteran gunned down by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd at 2:44 p.m. on Jan. 6.
Fifty-four months later, U.S. Air Force Under Secretary Matthew L. Lohmeier reversed that decision, telling the late senior airman’s family that she would, indeed, receive military honors.
“I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect,” Lohmeier wrote to Aaron Babbitt and Micki Witthoeft, Ashli’s mother. “Additionally, I would like to invite you and your family to meet me at the Pentagon to personally offer my condolences.”
The letter prompted an emotional reaction from Babbitt, himself a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
RELATED: Feds settle multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the death of Ashli Babbitt
U.S. Air Force Under Secretary Matthew L. Lohmeier (left) on Aug. 15, 2025, reversed a February 2021 order by Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly to deny military funeral honors to Senior Airman Ashli Babbitt.U.S. Air Force photos
“I obviously shed tears,” he said. “My whole thing has always been fighting for Ashli’s character and making sure people know who she really was and talking back against the untruths and slander and smear job that’s been waged on her.”
Babbitt said he was not surprised to see the decision prompt some unhinged reactions.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling took the low road in an op-ed published in Bill Kristol’s neocon journal the Bulwark. Hertling called the decision to grant military honors “obscene” and made the specious claim that Ashli Babbitt died trying to overturn the Constitution.
Political commentator Sarah Elizabeth “S.E.” Cupp went even farther off the ledge, likening Ashli Babbitt to two notorious serial killers. “I don’t frankly care that she served,” Cupp said on CNN. “So did David Berkowitz. So did Jeffrey Dahmer. So did Benedict Arnold.”
Cupp’s emotional meltdown further claimed that Babbitt, 35, was “ramming an American flag at a police officer in an attempt to overthrow the government.”
The problem with the statements from Hertling and Cupp is that they are predicated on lies.
Ashli Babbitt did not ram a flag at anyone. She did not riot. She certainly was not trying to “overthrow the government.” In fact, she was the only person in the crowded hallway outside the House Speaker’s Lobby who tried to stop the rioting, vandalism, and violence.
‘Ashli was begging officers to call for backup before she was shot. Officers ignored Ashli.’
When all else failed and out-of-control rioter Zachary Jordan Alam had smashed out multiple windows with a helmet, Babbitt spun him around and punched him in the nose, knocking off his glasses. That ended Alam’s violent rampage.
RELATED: Capitol Police name permanent chief hours after union slams controversial interim pick
Ashli Babbitt punches rioter Zachary Jordan Alam in the nose after he smashed out several windows in the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Babbitt was fatally shot seconds later. Blaze News graphic from Sam Montoya photograph. Used with permission.
Babbitt then tried to escape the mayhem by climbing into one of the broken-out windows. She was immediately gunned down by Byrd, lying in wait from a hidden position, out of her field of view with his finger already on the trigger of his Glock service weapon.
Byrd, who has a decades-long disciplinary record including negligence with a firearm, took 11 seconds to collect his thoughts. Then he went on Capitol Police radio and lied, claiming “shots are being fired at us” and “we’re prepared to fire back at them,” audio recordings showed.
Aaron Babbitt knows all too well how the keepers of the Jan. 6 narrative have lied about his wife from the very second Byrd emerged from his hidden position and put an end to her life.
Seeing the same people who have lied about Ashli Babbitt now clutching their pearls over her military honors brings a wry smile to Aaron Babbitt’s face.
“I love that they’re so upset,” Babbitt said. “I find it extremely satisfying.”
Letter to defense secretary
The effort to get military honors restored began in July, when Judicial Watch senior counsel Robert Sticht sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Sticht noted the nearly $5 million civil lawsuit settlement the federal government agreed to in June. He also outlined the clemency and pardon declaration issued by President Trump on Jan. 20, 2025.
“It is impossible to reconcile Gen. Kelly’s denial of military funeral honors for Ashli Babbitt’s funeral with President Trump’s grant of clemency to all individuals accused or convicted of offenses related to events at or near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” Sticht wrote. “Gen. Kelly’s refusal to provide military funeral honors was part of the ‘grave national injustice’ that President Trump ended by granting clemency.”
The denial of honors “cannot be reconciled with this landmark legal settlement,” Sticht said. “Many well-documented facts now clearly show that the fatal shooting was not justified.”
Sticht outlined facts that are almost always ignored by the left. As a highly trained military police officer, Ashli Babbitt quickly realized that the crowd gathering in the hallway entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby was going to be trouble. She rebuked three U.S. Capitol Police officers standing guard at the entrance, telling them to “call f**king help!” video showed. She tried to prevent the violence.
“Ashli was begging officers to call for backup before she was shot,” Sticht wrote. “Officers ignored Ashli.”
‘You don’t even know what her actions were. So I knew it was a political hit job.’
When Babbitt decided to escape the hallway by starting to climb through a broken-out window frame, she could not see Byrd, Sticht wrote. “Ashli never saw Lt. Byrd because he was hidden from her view,” Sticht said. “She was ambushed and defenseless. Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, ‘You just murdered her!’”
RELATED: Federal judge explodes in Ashli Babbitt court hearing as wrongful-death case slows
U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd appears to have his finger on the trigger of his service weapon while walking on the U.S. House floor as rioters break windows at the House entrance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images; graphic overlay by Blaze News
Sticht suggested that if the fatal shooting was justified, there would not have been an immediate cover-up.
“The official coverup for the unlawful shooting began immediately,” Sticht wrote. “Within a minute after shooting Ashli, Lt. Byrd used his radio to communicate far and wide that he was being shot at and preparing to shoot back, which was a blatant lie he told to cover up his unjustified use of deadly force against Ashli.”
Byrd’s name was hidden from the public for nearly nine months after the shooting. He was housed in secret at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at taxpayer expense. Byrd’s “history of dangerous and incompetent behavior involving use of deadly force, mishandling his service weapon and other misconduct” were also covered up, Sticht said.
Witthoeft did her part to secure reinstatement of her daughter’s military honors by going straight to President Trump. One day she watched the president holding a press gaggle outside the White House on live television. She waited until he was safely aboard Marine One and then called his cell phone.
Aaron Babbitt retold the story: “I called him and he answered. I was just planning on leaving a message, but he answered the phone and said, ‘Micki, I was just thinking about you. I was going to give you a call.’”
Witthoeft told the president about the letter to Hegseth and about her son-in-law’s empty flag case. “I’m going to look into that,” Trump told her, according to Aaron Babbitt. “Then I was told that it was made an actionable item by the president,” Babbitt said.
‘I still want Michael Byrd in jail for the rest of his life.’
Babbitt said he believes the original denial of military honors was a political one and not based on what Ashli actually did at the Capitol.
“It was a vicious blow while we were already down,” he said. “It was purposeful. It was calculated, because there’s no reason to do that.
“Ashli was never charged for a crime that day,” Babbitt said. “You can’t charge her posthumously. So you can’t tell me that you’re denying it based on her actions at the Capitol when, a month later, you don’t even know what her actions were. So I knew it was a political hit job.”
Military security
Ashli Babbitt enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating in 2003 from El Capitan High School in Lakeside, Calif. She graduated from basic training in August 2004 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Her first duty station was Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska.
She deployed at least four times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. She worked in security forces doing convoy security operations, base entry control, force protection, personal security, and embassy security operations. She provided security for detainees at Camp Bucca Joint Operations Base in Umm Qasr, Iraq.
Camp Bucca was a brutal duty assignment. She had to guard jihadis who would gladly have cut her throat if they escaped their confines.
“It was just all detainees that they would bring in. There was CIA coming in all the time,” Aaron Babbitt said. “Black Hawks coming in, dropping people off, taking people out.
RELATED: Ashli Babbitt stood up to him — now J6er ‘Helmet Boy’ faces new charges
Senior Airman Ashli Babbitt was commended in December 2005 for boosting troop morale by Army Gen. John Abizaid (fourth from left), chairman of U.S. Central Command.Photo courtesy of Micki Witthoeft
“Lines of SUVs coming in, taking people out, bringing people in, riots,” he said. “They kill each other. They threatened to kill our forces.”
On one occasion, Ashli and another female military policewoman came upon three detainees who escaped their cells by tunneling under the fence. “They got into a hand-to-hand fistfight with three of them before the guys in the tower could run down and help them,” Aaron Babbitt said. “So it’s two females fighting three grown men.”
In Iraq in December 2005, Babbitt caught the attention of U.S. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command. His convoy was passing through, and Gen. Abizaid noticed Babbitt holding up a cardboard Merry Christmas sign on the airfield for arriving and departing pilots and crew.
The general “was so impressed with her way of boosting troop morale that he stopped his convoy to meet and commend Ashli for her performance,” Witthoeft said. “General Abizaid commended Ashli for her hard work and excellence.”
Lawsuit settlement
The U.S. Department of Justice agreed to settle Babbitt’s $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the federal government for slightly less than $5 million in June 2025. President Trump was made aware that the DOJ was still defending the Capitol Police lieutenant who killed Babbitt during an interview conducted by Greg Kelly of Newsmax.
“The president said, ‘I was not aware of that. I’ll look into that,’” Aaron Babbitt said. “And I felt like at that moment, when the president says he’s going to look into something, that means all the staffers in the background just got an action item. So the whole mood kind of changed that point.”
Aaron Babbitt said he is satisfied with the settlement negotiated between the government and attorneys for Judicial Watch Inc., which represented him and his late wife’s estate in the lawsuit.
“It’s never been about money,” he said. “I have no clue about the process or what is good and what’s not, but I am satisfied. I’ve been told that that’s a pretty high number for a federal tort claim.”
Even though she did no rioting on Jan. 6, corporate media continue to paint Ashli Babbitt as a violent person who led a mob.Blaze News graphic
Babbitt said he’s looking to see the DOJ conduct a new use-of-force investigation of Byrd, whom the government declined to prosecute for what the lawsuit called an “ambush murder.”
“I still want Michael Byrd in jail for the rest of his life,” Babbitt said.
Byrd was never subjected to questioning by internal affairs detectives. His only public comments on the shooting were made on national television to Lester Holt of NBC News. Byrd said firing his Glock at Babbitt was a “last resort,” although he admitted he could not tell if the person emerging through the broken window was male or female or in possession of any kind of weapon. Babbitt was not armed.
As for the vitriol spewed by the likes of S.E. Cupp and much of the corporate media, Aaron Babbitt said he lost the ability to be shocked long ago. He said he became desensitized amid the death threats, harassing phone calls, and the many people who emailed him photos of his dying wife on the floor outside the Speaker’s Lobby.
“I know she’s dead. I know she’s not hurting any more,” Babbitt said. “And that means more to me than anything. She’s not in any pain.
“So people, they’re awful sometimes,” he said. “It is what it is. You’ve just got to be a better person.”
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Politics
No peace without steel: Why our factories must roar again
Our country is standing at a crossroads. Neither the world nor America’s place in it is what it was a generation ago. The unipolar moment is over. And yet, many in the Republican Party seek to claim the mantle of America First while continuing the same failed adventurism of the past.
National conservatism as a movement agrees that these people and ideas must be stopped. But we have failed to check their influence in the party largely because we have not offered an alternative that both meets the real threats to American security and balances national interest, the deterrent effect, industrial capability, and political will.
We cannot deter our adversaries if we cannot outbuild them.
I outlined a framework for what a genuine America First foreign policy would entail in an essay for the National Interest. I called for developing a doctrine that I dubbed “prioritized deterrence.” That essay was the first step toward forging a set of foreign policy principles that can unite national conservatives and set the agenda for the Republican Party for the next generation.
A key component of prioritized deterrence is industrial capacity. Deterrence depends not only on our military’s technical capability, but also on our industrial capacity — certainly in defense, but particularly in non-defense. Without factories humming, shipyards bustling, and energy production roaring, our ability to deter wanes. We cannot project strength abroad if we cannot produce strength at home.
Prioritized deterrence is not retreat. It is a recalibration. It rejects the fantasy that America can — or should — police every corner of the globe. Instead, it demands that we concretely identify our vital national interests. No more vague talk of values or entering endless nation-building campaigns. This will require open and honest debate.
The days of tarring dissenting voices as unpatriotic should be left in the rearview mirror. In fact, I recently sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to award Pat Buchanan the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Buchanan was right about nearly everything 20 years before anyone else realized it, including his recognition that Iraq was not aligned with our strategic national interests. We need serious voices like his in the conversation during these all-important debates.
Prioritized deterrence belongs firmly within the realist school of thought. It rests on restraint and on the quantifiable limits of a nation’s resources and people. Those limits force policymakers to rank threats to the American way of life by urgency and severity.
Deterrence depends on credibility: An aggressor must believe it will pay an unacceptable price for attacking the United States. But not every hostile nation deserves brinkmanship. National constraints and the risk of escalation demand that we focus only on the gravest threats.
Kinetic action must remain credible but reserved as a last resort. The U.S. military exists not only to fight and win wars but, more importantly, to deter them before they begin and ensure American security.
Prioritized deterrence in practice
What does a strategy that contends with these essential questions look like in practice?
Consider the 2020 strike on Qassem Soleimani. A single, precise action eliminated a key architect of Iran’s malign influence, sending a message to Tehran: Kill Americans, and you will pay. No endless wars, no nation-building, just a clear signal backed by lethal force.
Now consider Operation Midnight Hammer. President Trump authorized a precision strike that was executed flawlessly. He rejected calls to further escalate into regime change. As a result, we eliminated a key threat while managing the retaliation from Iran and successfully stepped off the escalation ladder before the region became destabilized. That’s prioritized deterrence in action.
What do these strikes have in common, other than the antagonist? In both cases, the president laid out clear, precise explanations of America’s vital national interest. He aligned the use of force with American goals, and he did so precisely with explicit acknowledgment of our constraints and limitations.
Additionally, both strikes relied on American technological supremacy: drones, stealth bombers, precision munitions, and intelligence — all products of a sophisticated industrial base. However, we cannot just rely on our qualitative military advantage as a silver bullet for deterrence. At a certain point, quantitative advantages become qualitative, which is one of the reasons China’s industrial might has made it so formidable on the world stage.
What is making us less formidable on the world stage is Ukraine. We should not be funding the war in Ukraine, and we should never have been involved in that conflict from the beginning. The proponents of prolonging this conflict seem unable or unwilling to grasp the reality that we do not have the industrial capacity to provide Ukraine with what they need — to say nothing of providing for our own needs here at home.
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Photo by Kirk Wester via Getty Images
In fact, Ukraine’s defense minister has said his country needs 4 million 155-millimeter artillery shells per year and would use as many as 7 million per year if they were available.
In 2024, then-Senator JD Vance correctly noted that even after drastically ramping up production, the U.S. could still only produce 360,000 shells per year — less than one-tenth of what Ukraine supposedly needs. Vance was also doubtful of expert claims that we could produce 1.2 million rounds per year by the end of 2025. In the end, he was right, and the experts were wrong.
The Army now confirms that the U.S. is only on pace to produce 480,000 artillery shells per year. These aren’t highly sophisticated guided missiles either. Quantity, not quality, ended up winning the day.
Very simply, we must choose to put America first, as we do not currently have the capacity to both arm Ukraine and defend ourselves should the need arise.
Lagging behind
A candid assessment of our industrial capacity is that it’s lagging. The same voices that called for foreign adventurism also hollowed out our heartland and sent our manufacturing jobs overseas. We now face a new choice: Rebuild or be left to the ashes of history.
We cannot deter our adversaries if we cannot outbuild them. Our defense industrial base — shipyards, munitions factories, aerospace plants — lag significantly behind our peers, especially China. This is a far cry from the industrial base that won World War II.
The Virginia-class submarine program, for example, is crucial in countering China. Yet limited shipyard capacity, supply chain bottlenecks, and a shortage of skilled workers have created years-long delays. Chinese shipyards account for more than 50% of global commercial shipbuilding, while the U.S. makes up just 0.1%.
In 2024, a single Chinese shipbuilder constructed more commercial vessels by tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has since World War II. We cannot deter China in this state of industrial atrophy.
Reviving the entire industrial base
Just as critical — perhaps even more so — is the need to rebuild the U.S. industrial base as a whole, not just the defense sector. “If you want peace, prepare for war” means more than building ships. It means strengthening industry, shoring up families, and restoring the backbone of society. That creates jobs, secures supply chains, and projects strength without overextending our forces or wasting resources.
During World War II, the United States retooled civilian manufacturing almost overnight. Ford and General Motors turned out aircraft. Singer Sewing Machine Company built precision cockpit instruments. IBM produced fire-control systems for bombers. Civilian industry became the arsenal of democracy.
That capacity has withered. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how hollowed out our domestic base has become. America now relies on China for more than 80% of the active ingredients in pharmaceuticals. That dependence gives Beijing leverage.
Our weakness feeds China’s confidence. If defending Taiwan means empty pharmacy shelves across America, would Washington still respond? Beijing is counting on the answer. That calculation could determine whether China invades.
We need a manufacturing renaissance — steel mills, factories, foundries — because a nation that outsources its industry outsources its power.
Taiwan is indicative of another vital manufacturing sector where our capacity is lagging: the semiconductor industry. These chips power everything from smartphones to missile systems, yet the U.S. produces less than 12% of the world’s supply. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s TSMC dominates. If China invades Taiwan, our military and domestic economy will grind to a halt.
This is not theoretical; it’s a ticking time bomb, one that is tied directly to our ability to credibly deter China.
This equation must change. If America produces pharmaceuticals and semiconductors at home, adversaries lose their leverage. Deterrence grows stronger without firing a shot or putting boots on foreign soil.
I think of my home state of West Virginia, where Weirton Steel once stood as one of the largest steel producers in the world. At its peak, it employed 23,000 people.
That steel not only secured American dominance in industry, it sustained families, churches, schools, and communities. A single paycheck could buy a home and support a family. Mothers could raise children and stay active in their schools and churches because one income was enough.
The same bipartisan leaders in Washington who chased short-term gains instead of building a strong industrial base and healthy families signed Weirton Steel’s death warrant. They let China flood the U.S. market with cheap tin plate steel, and Weirton paid the price.
We begged President Joe Biden for tariff relief, but he followed the pattern of his predecessors and did nothing. The result: Weirton’s tin plate mill was idled, thousands of workers lost their jobs, and the community was gutted.
Today, only one blast furnace capable of producing tin plate steel remains in the entire United States. One.
China’s gotten the picture
Economic capacity and industrial output are critical in the defense of the nation and create a better quality of life. A strong manufacturing sector is, in itself, a strong deterrent. China understands this.
Its “Made in China 2025” plan, cited in then-Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2019 address at the National Defense University, declared:
Manufacturing is the main pillar of the national economy, the foundation of the country, the tool of transformation, and the basis of prosperity. Since the beginning of industrial civilization in the middle of the 18th century, it has been proven repeatedly by the rise and fall of world powers that without strong manufacturing, there is no national prosperity.
This is obviously true.
China now produces more than half the world’s steel, powering both its infrastructure and its military. Meanwhile, we’ve allowed our own steel industry to wither, importing from abroad while American mills rust. That failure is not only economic. It’s strategic.
We won World War II in part because we built planes, tanks, and ships faster than the Axis powers could destroy them. A robust industrial base — defense and non-defense — is a deterrent in itself. It signals to adversaries: We can outfight you, outbuild you, and outlast you.
We need a manufacturing renaissance — steel mills, factories, foundries — because a nation that outsources its industry outsources its power. Deindustrialization was a choice, a choice with disastrous consequences. We must now make the choice to rebuild and reindustrialize.
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Photo by IURII KRASILNIKOV via Getty Images
Unleashing American energy
To have manufacturing dominance, we must unleash energy dominance. Factories don’t run on hope; they run on power — reliable, affordable, and abundant power. Wind and solar power are obviously not able to power anything. Thankfully, America’s superpower is the massive quantities of natural resources we have at our fingertips.
We have some of the largest proven reserves of both oil and natural gas of any nation in the world. This is a textbook example of our quantitative advantage becoming a qualitative advantage.
We have the largest proven reserve of coal in the world, nearly double the supply of the next closest country. Our energy potential is unlimited, and we must drastically ramp up our output if we want to meet the energy demands of the future economy.
Fossil fuels have long been the backbone of industrial power, and West Virginia’s coal and natural gas is its beating heart. Yet coal in particular has been under siege, not just from regulations but from corporate environmental, social, and governance policies pushed by firms like BlackRock that waged war on fossil fuels.
As state treasurer of West Virginia, I took a stand. I made West Virginia the first state in the nation to divest our tax dollars from BlackRock. I refused to let Wall Street’s agenda use our own state’s money to kill our coal industry. Today, more than a dozen states have followed our lead, rejecting ESG policies that undermine American energy dominance.
China, meanwhile, builds coal plants at a breakneck pace, powering its industrial juggernaut. They use coal to fuel their steel production while we let our own mines and mills idle. We cannot let this continue.
Thanks to President Trump, we’ve begun to change course. For the first time in my lifetime, a president took a stand for coal, signing executive orders promoting domestic coal production. But we need to go further. We must become a global juggernaut with an “all of the below” approach to energy — coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear must power our path to energy dominance.
Prioritizing America, deterring aggressors
America cannot do everything, everywhere, all at once. We are not a nation of infinite industrial capacity, infinite goods, or infinite will. Scarcity — of materials, of capacity, of resolve — forces us to choose. Prioritized deterrence is a framework for grappling with those choices.
It is a commitment to focusing our energies, rebuilding our industrial might, and unleashing the energy to power a 21st-century industrial base. It’s a rejection of overreach in favor of strength, of focus instead of distraction.
Leaders on both sides of the aisle over the last 40 years squandered the inheritance of peace, security, and industrial might in favor of globalization and foreign adventurism. We cannot afford to continue down that path. Correcting course will require open, honest, and sometimes intense debate.
It will require serious investments from business leaders in American manufacturing and public policies that assist in this reorientation. It demands that we do more to appropriately train and equip a skilled workforce.
But we must start now. America will build again, power again, and deter again. Not everywhere, not always — but where it matters most, with a strength that none can match.
Editor’s note: This article has been adapted from a speech delivered on Tuesday, Sept. 2, to the fifth National Conservatism Conference (NatCon 5) in Washington, D.C.
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Van Jones admits the woke era has gone too far
Van Jones is finally saying what conservatives have argued for years: The woke era has gone too far.
“This is not gonna make me popular, but I’m not mad, because it got ridiculous. I’m an employer, and at a certain point, your Slack channel just turns into Vietnam every other day because something happened that had nothing to do with the workplace,” Jones said on CNN.
“You got to bring in all kinds of counselors and, like, this is not camp, guys. We’re trying to make money. So I enjoyed the moment for a while where we were having our reckonings about everything. We done wrecked, okay? Reckoning direct. We can move on,” he added, laughing.
“I think he’s sort of admitting this because Van Jones is pretty perceptive, and so I think he’s recognizing that … they’ve overplayed their hands, the woke folks, right? Like it’s just people are sick of it, as evidenced by Donald Trump waltzing into the White House for a second time,” Dan Andros of the “Quick Start Podcast” tells BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere on “Stu Does America.”
“This guy they rebranded as Hitler for four years. And they’re like, ‘Well, how did Hitler get in there?’ It’s like, I don’t know. Maybe because like Van said, you turned your job that you have to show up to every day, for millions of people, into this place where now they’ve got to tiptoe around every microaggression imaginable and it’s a living nightmare, and they voted against it overwhelmingly,” Andros explains.
“And they seem to continue to be doing it,” Stu agrees.
“If you say, ‘Donald Trump is Hitler,’ right, and then Hitler gets elected, you have a path to go. Your two choices are, number one, I was wrong. He’s not Hitler, and I was overexaggerating what my belief was in this guy. He’s actually not that bad. I just have a disagreement with him,” he explains.
“Or two, he is Hitler, and I live in Nazi Germany because the people around me all want Hitler.”
“I think maybe to some extent, Van Jones is choosing this way to say, ‘Look, maybe this was overexaggerated,’ where I think a lot of the people on the left, certainly on the CNN panel every single night, are saying, ‘Look, we’re just in Nazi Germany,’” he continues.
“And that is going to send them down all sorts of really bad roads for their political futures,” he adds.
Want more from Stu?
To enjoy more of Stu’s lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
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Tim Kaine shockingly compares the Declaration of Independence to Iran’s theocratic regime: ‘Extremely troubling’
Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia failed to understand one of America’s basic founding principles and instead likened it to the Iranian regime.
In a Wednesday committee hearing, Kaine insisted that our natural rights are derived from the government, not from God. Kaine went on to say that the notion that our natural rights come from the Creator is “extremely troubling” and compared it to Iran’s theocracy.
Unfortunately for Kaine, the founding fathers disagree with him.
“The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator. That’s what the Iranian government believes,” Kaine said. “It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shia law [sic] … and they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator.”
“The statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”
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Unfortunately for Kaine, the founding fathers disagree with him.
The Declaration of Independence makes very clear that our natural rights come from God and not from the government, as Kaine suggested. In the second paragraph, the Declaration states that “all men are created equal” and that “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Prominent conservatives and politicians were quick to correct Kaine’s misunderstanding of our nation’s core values, even suggesting that he is “not fit to serve.”
“This is a remarkable moment from Tim Kaine,” the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said in a post on X. “He just announced that the core foundational principle of our country, affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, is ‘extremely troubling’ and ‘theocratic.’ He should be immediately removed from office. Anyone who rejects our nation’s foundational principles is obviously not fit to serve.”
RELATED: RFK Jr. makes crystal clear to the CDC mutineers: The restoration of public trust ‘won’t stop’
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“Our rights don’t come from government or the DNC. They come from God,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in a post on X. “[Tim Kaine], I suggest the Dems go back and read the words of our Founding Fathers.”
Kaine’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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Chicago thug accused of randomly punching mother of 11 in face, knocking her out on downtown street — and White House reacts
Kathleen Miles — a mother to 11 and grandmother to seven — lives in the northern Chicago suburb of Lake Villa but has been working in the downtown Chicago neighborhood known as the Loop for the last two decades, WGN-TV reported.
On Aug. 19, Miles told the station she was walking to a train with a co-worker along West Washington Avenue when a stranger punched her in the face. WLS-TV reported that it was a random attack.
‘It’s 2025, and he’s out. And if he had been held accountable for his actions, then I wouldn’t be sitting here with injuries.’
Miles recalled to WLS that the culprit “hit me with such force” — so much so that it knocked her out.
Given President Donald Trump’s concerns about violent crime in Chicago — and resistance to him intervening from the likes of Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — the White House didn’t hesitate to share with Blaze News its perspective following the latest physical attack there.
“Just like President Trump has been saying, violent crime in Chicago is a serious problem. Instead of denying the problem, Democrat leaders like Pritzker should look at the tremendous success the president has had stopping violent crime in D.C. and beg the president to do the same for their cities,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Blaze News. “Stopping violent crime shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but Democrats are making it one.”
The next thing Miles remembered was waking up in a hospital, WLS said, as her co-worker was “standing above me” and saying, “You’ve been assaulted.”
She then passed out again, WLS said, adding that she then came to and recalled her daughter saying, “Hi mama, I’m here. You’re OK.”
The colleague who was with Miles later told her that a male came between the two of them, shoved them apart, and hit her in the face, WLS reported — a punch that left Miles with several broken facial bones and a concussion.
Police told WLS that Miles was attacked by 32-year-old William Livingston. Police told Blaze News that Livingston was charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery/public place, a felony count of aggravated battery/great bodily harm, and a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct/bodily harm.
WGN said Livingston was arrested the same day of the attack. Cook County Jail records indicate Livingston was booked Aug. 21. Police told Blaze News his detention hearing also took place on Aug. 21. Jail records also indicate he’s behind bars with no bond, and his next hearing is Sept. 15.
WLS said a records search produced 13 mugshots of Livingston going back to 2012 — and that a large number of those arrests were for aggravated assault and battery of both women and police officers.
“Like, what is enough?” Miles asked WLS. “You know, what does someone have to do? Where someone, where he’s going to be, where they’re going to be held accountable.”
Here’s a brief rundown of Livingston’s violence over the last eight years, according to WLS:
In 2017, he was accused of randomly attacking two women months apart. Both cases were dropped.
In 2022, Livingston was sentenced to five years in prison after prosecutors said he punched and attempted to rob four women within 20 minutes in the Loop.
In 2023, while on parole, Livingston was arrested for hitting a woman in the face on North Michigan Avenue.
And in 2024, Livingston was sentenced to 100 days in prison after he punched a 15-year-old girl, also on North Michigan Avenue.
In regard to the 2022 attack, WGN’s video broadcast shared a mugshot of Livingston that matches a mugshot Blaze News located on the Chicago Police Department’s website for that same attack.
William Livingston. Image source: Chicago Police
Police said Livingston was arrested at 12:26 p.m. on Feb. 8, 2022, after being identified as the individual who struck and attempted to take personal property from multiple female victims within minutes of each other. Police said Livingston was charged with four felony counts of aggravated battery/public place, two felony counts of attempted robbery, and one misdemeanor count of batter/make physical contact.
Cami Blechschmidt, a DePaul University student, described to WGN the random attacks against her and three other women that day.
“I felt a hand in my pocket, turned my head like that, and there was a man directly in front of me, and he punched me directly in the face,” Blechschmidt recounted to WGN in 2022. “We made eye contact, and like, he just had pure hate in his eyes. Just anger, pure anger.”
For Miles, enough is enough.
“It’s 2025, and he’s out,” Miles told WLS. “And if he had been held accountable for his actions, then I wouldn’t be sitting here with injuries.”
Despite the trauma she’s suffered, Miles noted to WLS that she’ll be present at Livingston’s Sept. 15 hearing at the Skokie Courthouse.
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RFK Jr. makes crystal clear to the CDC mutineers: The restoration of public trust ‘won’t stop’
Establishmentarians’ worst fears are being realized at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is putting Americans’ health first, challenging the failed status quo, and threatening Big Pharma’s apparent influence over the agency.
While there now appears to be a sizeable mutiny under way at the CDC, Kennedy has made one thing crystal clear: He’s not backing down.
Frustration with Kennedy has been mounting among medical establishmentarians for months.
‘Once RFK provides the other side of the story, there is no turning back for a significant portion of the country.’
There has, for instance, been a great deal of pearl-clutching over his termination of the Biden appointees on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices whose coziness with pharmaceutical companies prompted questions about their vaccine recommendations; his removal of the COVID vaccine from the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule for healthy pregnant women and children; and his cancellation of mRNA vaccine development contracts.
This shake-up at the CDC continued last week with the White House’s ouster of Susan Monarez as director — a removal her attorneys claimed was the result of her supposed refusal “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”
Amid Monarez’s futile fight to keep her job — she has since been replaced by Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill — other CDC officials threw in the towel, including Debra Houry, the chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease; and Demetre Daskalakis, the sex-obsessed homosexual “activist physician” who showed up in public wearing bondage gear and served as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
RELATED: How Big Pharma left its mark on woke CDC vax advisory panel — and what RFK Jr. did about it
Following this changing of the guard, over 1,000 current and former HHS staff members released a letter on Wednesday demanding Kennedy’s resignation from his position as health secretary.
The Save HHS campaign’s letter, whose signatories are not publicly named but have been supposedly revealed to members of Congress, claims that Kennedy “continues to endanger the nation’s health” by:
“facilitating” the removal of Monarez; “causing the resignations” of Daskalakis and his ilk; appointing Dr. Robert Malone and other experts to ACIP who have in the past raised concerns about experimental vaccines;rescinding the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for COVID vaccines; anddaring to say that “trusting experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy.”
The Save HHS campaign did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
The Save HHS campaign indicates on its website that its partner organizations include Doctors for America, National Nurses United, and the American Public Health Organization.
The scientific advisory board of the Accountability Journalism Institute is apparently also a partner.
In its petition to remove Kennedy, the AJI’s scientific advisory board claimed that President Donald Trump’s health secretary “poses an immediate and long-term threat to the health of the American public.”
The AJI scientific advisory board’s claim appears to be a stone’s thrown from a glass house. After all, a member of the board and signatory of the petition is Peter Daszak — the disgraced British zoologist who was formally debarred along with his scandal-plagued organization EcoHealth Alliance in January by the HHS.
RELATED: RFK Jr. pulls plug on mRNA jabs because they ‘pose more risks than benefits’
Former CDC Director Susan Monarez and ex-CDC official Demetre Daskalakis. Photo (left): Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images; Photo (right): Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Blaze News senior editor Daniel Horowitz, author of “Rise of the Fourth Reich: Confronting COVID Fascism with a New Nuremberg Trial So This Never Happens Again,” noted to Blaze News, “The reason you are seeing so much mutiny against RFK Jr. is because unlike many of the Trump legal and policy changes, which can easily be changed under the next administration, CDC guidance is much more of a cultural influence straight down to individual parents and doctors.”
“For years, the industry relied on an air-tight unanimity of opinion in health care and government that every vaccine was as pure as the wind-driven snow and absolutely indispensable for every baby born in this country,” wrote Horowitz.
“Once RFK provides the other side of the story, there is no turning back for a significant portion of the country because ultimately it relies on the public confidence in vaccines,” continued Horowitz. “It’s not like immigration policies with TPS, parole, and expedited removal that the next president can just reinstate the prior policies from day one.”
Kennedy noted in an op-ed on Tuesday that while the CDC “was once the world’s most trusted guardian of public health” with a mission both clear and noble, “over the decades, bureaucratic inertia, politicized science, and mission creep have corroded that purpose and squandered public trust.”
‘The CDC must restore public trust — and that restoration has begun.’
The health secretary turned the endangerment accusation on its head, pointing out that the CDC under previous management “produced irrational policy during COVID: cloth masks on toddlers, arbitrary 6-foot distancing, boosters for healthy children, prolonged school closings, economy-crushing lockdowns, and the suppression of low-cost therapeutics in favor of experimental and ineffective drugs.”
“The toll was devastating. America is home to 4.2% of the world’s population but suffered 19% of COVID deaths,” added Kennedy.
The health secretary noted further that the “truth must no longer be ignored” about the downsides of vaccines, antibiotics, and therapeutics and that “infectious and chronic illness are linked.”
Kennedy indicated that his ACIP housecleaning and the replacement of CDC leaders who “resisted reform” were meaningful steps toward restoring trust, eliminating conflicts of interest, and curbing “bureaucratic complacency” at the agency but that there was still much work to be done.
“The CDC must restore public trust — and that restoration has begun,” wrote Kennedy. “It won’t stop until America’s public health institutions again serve the people with transparency, honesty, and integrity.”
To this end, Kennedy indicated that the agency will modernize systems, enhance scientific rigor, build infrastructure, and empower states and communities.
HHS communications director Andrew Nixon said in a statement to Blaze News, “Secretary Kennedy has been clear: The CDC has been broken for a long time. Restoring it as the world’s most trusted guardian of public health will take sustained reform and more personnel changes.”
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