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Liberal blogger found guilty of harassment over sexually explicit Shrek meme — but gets surprising sentence

A blogger known as “Rooster” was found guilty of harassment after he admitted to sending a sexually explicit image of the Shrek cartoon character to an Ohio politician.

Eight jurors in Lake County, Ohio, took only 30 minutes to find Donald “D.J.” Byrnes guilty of telecommunications harassment for texting the image to state Sen. Jerry Cirino, a Republican.

‘This wasn’t a free speech issue; this was a harassment statute that I believed he was in violation of.’

The blogger faced up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for the offense, but a judge decided to sentence Byrnes to pay only $200 on top of court costs.

The offensive messages included a meme of the Shrek cartoon character holding his genitals and two messages taunting the powerful lawmaker after he dropped out of the race for Ohio Senate president.

“This wasn’t a free speech issue; this was a harassment statute that I believed he was in violation of,” Cirino said after the verdict.

Prosecutors had asked for a no-contact order against Byrnes as well, but the judge refused to grant the request.

Byrnes’ defense in court rested on his free speech rights and the accusation that Cirino was using his political influence to retaliate against his enemy.

Cirino denied the allegations despite his donation of at least $2,500 to the judge who signed the arrest warrant for the blogger. A different judge presided over the actual case.

“I would never do that. I respect my position in the Senate way too much to ever let that happen,” he said to WEWS-TV.

Cirino had also contacted one of the witnesses in the trial in what appeared to be an annoyed message, but he denied to WEWS that he was doing anything except expressing his surprise.

RELATED: Appeals court shuts down ban on drag shows at Texas A&M

Byrnes let out a laugh of surprise when he heard the jury’s decision, WEWS reported.

The Rooster plans to file an appeal, according to WEWS.

“The First Amendment protects the right to criticize government officials, even in crude or vulgar terms,” said Aaron Terr, the director of public policy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, on social media. “If a single electronic communication that annoys or alarms the recipient can amount to criminal harassment, that’s bad news for a lot of social media users!”

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​Foundation for individual rights and expression, Harassment, Ohio, Politics 

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Trump announces new White House press secretary after Karoline Leavitt’s departure

President Donald Trump announced on Friday the appointment of a media analyst and attorney to be the next White House press secretary.

The New York Times had first reported that Katie Zacharia had been tapped for the role, and sources confirmed the offer to Politico.

‘She has an unblemished record of support, and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning. She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of MAGA!’

Zacharia, 42, is a graduate of Pepperdine who worked briefly at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and is currently the senior communications adviser for the Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the Truth Social online platform.

“She was previously involved in my Campaigns, assisting in key Swing States, where we won 7 out of 7,” said the president on Truth Social. “She has an unblemished record of support, and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning. She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of MAGA!”

She has been a frequent commentator on political issues at Fox News, Newsmax, CNN, and OANN.

The press secretary role has been open at the White House since Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August after giving birth to her second child.

Leavitt was the youngest press secretary in White House history. She turned 29 years old at the end of August. On Monday, Fox News announced that Leavitt was joining the network as a political commentator.

Zacharia has also worked as general counsel for a conservative advocacy nonprofit named Fix California, founded by Trump special envoy Richard Grenell.

RELATED: 3 moments that will make you miss Karoline Leavitt

She has been married to film producer Tyler Zacharia for 15 years and is a mother to four children.

Zacharia will also be the seventh woman in a row to be White House press secretary. The last male to hold the position was Sean Spicer in the first Trump administration.

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​Donald trump, Karoline leavitt, White house press secretary, Katie zacharia, Politics 

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Nick Freitas debunks the ‘you can’t be pro-life and pro-death-penalty’ argument

The failed execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike has reignited a long-standing debate over capital punishment, but BlazeTV host Nick Freitas believes the Christian case for the death penalty is often misunderstood.

“From a Christian perspective — we look at things, and I’ve even said before, whenever somebody says the death penalty is inhumane,” Freitas says, “I’m like, OK, well, I’ll let the author of Leviticus know, right?”

Freitas notes that “Leviticus is a book in the Bible which actually lays out the various crimes for which the death penalty is acceptable, or, in even some cases, you could argue, mandated.”

“So I’ve always found it a little bit disingenuous for someone to say that the death penalty is, in and of itself, inhumane,” he says.

In this particular case, Freitas says, “She lured her 19-year-old classmate to a park, tortured her, carved a pentagram into her chest, and then kept a piece of her skull as a souvenir.”

“We’re talking about somebody who, again, committed an act of premeditated murder, and not just murder but torture,” he explains.

“She also tried to strangle another inmate to death. So this idea that simply because someone is in prison, they no longer have the capacity to commit other crimes is, again, something that we need to take into question,” he adds.

And the idea that one cannot be pro-life and pro-death-penalty, Freitas says, is “an absolutely 100% absurd argument.”

“To be pro-life is to say that a baby in the womb is innocent. It is innocent human life. And the way we know it’s human life is because at the moment of conception, it actually has all the necessary characteristics to be distinguished from a living entity and a non-living entity,” he explains.

“And more specifically from a living human entity versus some other kind of living entity,” he says.

“Now, we make distinctions between human life guilty of a crime and human life which is not guilty of a crime,” he continues. “We don’t put everybody in prison, for obvious reasons. So how do we make that distinction between guilt and innocent?”

“Well, there’s the objective reality, which is to say that if someone has committed a crime, they are guilty … but in the case of a baby in the womb, they simply do not have the capacity to be guilty of a crime,” he adds.

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK for $20 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Christa pike, Execution, Lethal injection, Leviticus, Nick freitas, Blazetv show 

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ABC News is getting ripped after apparently deleting story about Trump’s sons without explanation

ABC News has yet to explain why it seemingly deleted a report accusing the president’s sons of enriching themselves through investments in companies with government contracts.

The story, published Wednesday, claimed that Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump had sizable investments in companies that received about $6 billion in active or promised contracts under the Trump administration.

‘No note, no explanation , no comment.’

After the story was vehemently criticized for what appeared to be accounting misunderstandings and other errors, ABC News seemingly pulled the story. There was no correction, no explanation, no editor’s note.

The link now says the page is unavailable.

Media analysts are now taking note.

“This is absolutely wild,” Andrew Kaczynski of CNN responded.

“ABC News completely retracted this story like two days ago just totally nuked it. No note, no explanation, no comment,” he continued.

“ABC News will have to comment on this. They’d be smarter to do it sooner, rather than later,” journalist Dylan Byers replied.

Among those who reposted the story was Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California.

“The American people were fleeced. Accountability is coming,” he posted on Wednesday.

Trump Jr. responded and mocked the governor.

“ABC deleted this article in less than 24 hours because it’s false. Sounds about as long as your presidential campaign would last,” he replied.

Blaze News’ requests for comment from Disney, the parent company of ABC News, were not returned.

RELATED: Trump BANS ‘FAKE NEWS’ outlets from White House — and warns more bans are coming

ABC News was among the news outlets that joined a boycott on pool reporting at the White House after the president banned three other outlets a few weeks ago for what he said was biased reporting.

“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government,” reads a joint statement from the group. “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

A Trump judge later restored the outlets’ credentials temporarily, though no final ruling in the case has been made.

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​Abc news, Fake news, Donald trump jr, Eric trump, Politics 

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Roseanne promises her comeback sitcom will offend everyone: ‘The extras are going to be released on OnlyFans’

Eight years after the tweet that got her fired from ABC, Roseanne Barr is apparently ready for another round.

At 73, Barr might have seemed destined to remain outside mainstream television. Instead, she quietly raised private money and shot an entire eight-episode sitcom in Austin, Texas — with a cast that includes Randy Quaid, Drea de Matteo, Omar Gooding, and Tony Hinchcliffe.

‘My daughters are super woke.’

‘Meemaw’ maxxing

Barr has hardly disappeared in the meantime. She’s made appearances on popular shows like “Kill Tony” and Bill Maher’s “Club Random,” while her own eponymous podcast has racked up more than 150 episodes.

Now Meemaw is getting back into the sitcom business.

Getting there wasn’t easy. Barr initially developed a sitcom about an Alabama farmer dabbling in marijuana and magic mushrooms but couldn’t find a buyer in Hollywood.

Rather than abandon the idea, she scrapped the premise, brought in longtime Adam Sandler collaborator Allen Covert to help rewrite it, and raised enough money from private investors to shoot an eight-episode series with a fully union crew. She started filming in Austin last November and has since wrapped production.

There’s still one catch: No network or streaming service has signed on to distribute it.

Like “Roseanne,” which drew heavily from Barr’s own life during its original nine-season run and 2018 revival, her new show is semi-autobiographical.

Page Six reports that “Meemaw” follows a woman from a “very liberal East Coast Jewish family” who is disinherited and moves to Texas. There Barr plays the matriarch of a mixed-race family of preppers while attempting to “throw her granddaughter the most fantastic bat mitzvah Texas has ever seen.”

“It’s every bit as revolutionary as ‘The Roseanne Show,’ if not more, and my work has improved with time,” Barr told the outlet.

“I want everybody who disagrees in a family to sit in the same room and just laugh and go, ‘Yeah, maybe I was an a**hole that time. Well, you were an a**hole this time. Oh, we’re all a**holes. Let’s get a beer.'”

Barr says nobody gets spared.

“My daughters are super woke and of course I love them, so I put in jokes for them too, like I did on ‘Roseanne,'” she said.

“I make fun of everybody because everybody deserves to be made fun of who’s in power. So I’ve got some great jokes about Republicans that the lefties are going to love. I’m an equal opportunity destroyer.”

RELATED: Liberals conveniently forget how many people they’ve canceled in the last decade

1989. Photo by Steve Schapiro/Corbis/Getty Images

Family friction

Barr’s on-screen husband is played by controversial yet hilarious Randy Quaid (“Christmas Vacation,” “Independence Day”), who Barr jokes she will have “romantic” and “passionate” love scenes with.

“The extras are going to be released on OnlyFans,” Barr said, “I’m kidding.”

Drea de Matteo plays Barr’s daughter, while Omar Gooding — brother of Cuba Gooding Jr. — plays her son-in-law.

Then there’s Tony Hinchcliffe, who reportedly appears as Satan.

Barr seems to know exactly what people want to hear — and what some of them emphatically don’t.

“I thought now would be a great time for people to actually hear from a Jew,” she said.

RELATED: Yakov Smirnoff makes surprise comeback appearance: ‘What a country!’

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Netflix

Hello, Elon?

Barr revealed that Gooding was getting pressured over his decision to work on the show as her son-in-law but chose to take the approach “comedy is king.”

“It takes somebody who really has faith in their talent to go against the Hollywood gatekeepers, you know,” Barr said.

The Salt Lake City, Utah, grandmother also noted that she had reached out to Elon Musk to see if he would like to help fund the show, but Barr said, “He wouldn’t call me back.”

“Can I get some assistance over here, man? I got fired for a text that was up for two hours that nobody saw.”

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​Roseanne barr, Tony hinchcliffe, Elon musk, Comedy, Entertainment 

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Texas mother accused of stabbing her 2 young children, husband was going through postpartum depression, husband says: Affidavit

The husband of a Texas mother accused of stabbing her young children — ages 3 years and 10 months — and him early Tuesday morning told police she was going through postpartum depression at the time, WFAA-TV reported, citing a newly released arrest affidavit.

The husband also was concerned about her behavior before the stabbing, the station said, citing the affidavit.

The husband ‘was trying to get to the children, but the children were in another room, and she was actively trying to stab him.’

Northlake Police officers were dispatched to a home in the 1200 block of Daylily Drive around 4:20 a.m. regarding a stabbing in progress, KXAS-TV said.

Police said a man called 911 and reported that his wife had a knife and was stabbing him, KXAS said.

Holly Leeann Flores, 37, was taken into custody and booked into the Denton County Jail on preliminary charges of attempted capital murder (two counts) and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, police told WFAA, adding that bond for each of the attempted capital murder charges has been set at $1,000,000; bond has not been set for the aggravated assault charge.

WFAA, citing an arrest affidavit the station said it obtained, sait arriving officers saw Flores’ husband — Justin Hommel — standing in the home’s driveway holding a knife; there was blood on his head. Hommel immediately dropped the knife, WFAA said, and officers entered the home, found Flores, and detained her.

Officers also heard children screaming in the house, and they found the couple’s two small children, who also had been stabbed, police told WFAA.

Both children were conscious when officers arrived, and they were rushed to a hospital with multiple stab wounds, WFAA reported, citing the affidavit.

Police told WFAA the injured were:

A 34-year-old man, who suffered head injuriesA 3-year-old girl, who suffered a stab wound to the chestA 10-month-old boy, who suffered a stab wound to the chest

Hommel and the children were taken to a Fort Worth hospital, the station said, adding that Flores was taken to a Denton hospital for observation and possible injuries — and once she was treated and released, she was sent to jail.

Police on Thursday said the children have been released from the hospital and are in the care of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, WFAA said, adding that Hommel also has has been released from the hospital.

RELATED: Mother accused of stabbing her young children — 1 of them just 10 months old — and her husband

Northlake Police Chief Robert Crawford told WFAA he listened to the 911 call saying that the husband “was trying to get to the children, but the children were in another room, and she was actively trying to stab him.”

The station said audio of the emergency radio traffic was posted on the scanner-monitoring site Broadcastify, and it captured a dispatcher relaying the initial report: “Caller stated wife is stabbing husband, stabbed in the head. … Female is turning on gas stove in the house. There are children in the house.” Police have not said if the report about the stove was confirmed, WFAA noted.

In a 911 call, Hommel is heard asking his wife amid the attack if this is a “postpartum thing,” the station added.

Police said they responded to five other calls at the home since March, WFAA said, adding that the arrest affidavit indicates police confirmed they previously had responded to the home multiple times for welfare concerns and overdoses.

A dispatcher said on the radio, “They have a history of welfare concerns involving CPS with the mother,” the station said, adding that Child Protective Services confirmed it had been involved with the family but did not release details about the case.

More from WFAA:

In an interview with police, Hommel told police that his wife was recently struggling with postpartum depression and that her behavior has recently changed. Due to his concerns, he planned to sleep on a couch to be closer to his children.

On the night of the incident, Hommel said he saw Flores take a candle into the children’s bedroom, which he thought was strange, the affidavit states. He then awoke around 1 a.m. to the sound of Flores attempting to use a lighter in the bedroom. When he entered to check on Flores, he saw her lighting a candle and saw a kitchen knife on the bedroom dresser, police said.

The knife “freaked him out” and he attempted to enter the room; however, Holly was able to close the door on him, and he went back to sleep, the affidavit states.

The station said that Hommel told police that he awoke later that evening to sounds of his children crying in their bedroom and knocked on the door.

WFAA, citing the affidavit, said that when Flores opened the door, she was holding the knife and began attacking him, after which Hommel was able to wrestle the knife away from her. The station said officers observed bite marks on his arm, indicating a struggle.

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​Crime 

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‘Dead people don’t collect disability benefits’: Is pause on euthanizing the mentally ill in Canada just smoke and mirrors?

After announcing on Wednesday that it was pumping the brakes on making the mentally ill eligible for euthanasia in Canada, Carney’s Liberal government killed Conservative legislation that would have made the pause permanent.

“If the government truly believed in preventing MAID for cases of mental illness, then they would have supported our bill,” Conservative MP Tamara Jansen, the author of the defeated bill, said in a statement shared with Blaze News. “But when Canadians needed action, the Liberals chose politics.”

‘The cost savings associated with [euthanizing] the mentally ill could reach up to CAD $63.076 billion.’

Since Canada legalized euthanasia nationwide under ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016, the resultant Medical Assistance in Dying program has been grossly liberalized, becoming a leading cause of death in Canada and claiming the lives of ineligible victims.

The Liberal government, now headed by globalist Prime Minister Mark Carney, expanded the program in February 2024 to enable euthanizing people suffering solely from mental illness.

While the original plan was for the mentally ill to be eligible for extermination the following month, their eligibility date was pushed back to March 2027.

Sean Fraser, Canada’s attorney general, announced on Wednesday that the government would once again hold off on offering MAID to the mentally ill.

“Serious concerns remain regarding the safe and consistent evaluation of marketing authorization applications for mental illness,” stated Fraser. “Canada will therefore not proceed with the planned expansion when mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition.”

RELATED: Canada kills 83-year-old Christian grandmother without consent, family claims — outrage ensues

Canadian Attorney General Sean Fraser. Arlyn McAdorey/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

Conservative MP Tamara Jansen had a bill ready to codify the government’s rejection of MAID for the mentally ill and to affirm that “a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition” that alone would satisfy the eligibility criteria for MAID.

The preamble of “The Right to Recover Act” stresses that “vulnerable Canadians should receive suicide prevention counseling rather than access to medical assistance in dying” and that “Canada’s medical assistance in dying regime risks normalizing assisted dying as a solution for those suffering from a mental disorder.”

The bill was, however, defeated in a 187-141 vote in parliament on Wednesday. All but two Liberal members of parliament voted in opposition.

‘They can still be killed by euthanasia in Canada if they have another medical condition.’

Fraser cited the bill’s use of the term “mental disorder” as opposed to “mental illness” as the primary reason for why the Liberals voted in opposition.

“Mental disorder,” he suggested, could be interpreted to include some of the neurologically degenerative diseases that presently can be provided as cause for MAID.

“Disagreement over terminology was not a reason to kill this necessary bill,” said Jansen. “Conservatives were prepared to work through those concerns at committee. But with less than six months remaining before the current exclusion expires, Parliament does not have time to let technical disagreements stand in the way of action.”

Nicole Scheidl, the executive director of Canadian Physicians for Life, also isn’t buying the government’s explanation for killing the bill.

Scheidl indicated to Blaze News that it was a way for the Liberals to “shoehorn” advanced consent for MAID into the alternative, yet-to-be produced bill that Fraser suggested will be introduced later in the parliamentary session “so that there’s very limited time to debate.”

“They want to shut down debate, and so they’re going to hold that [mentally ill] population hostage to allow them to push through euthanasia for dementia,” said Scheidl.

Fraser, whose office did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment, admitted this week that the government ultimately wants to “allow adults diagnosed with a disease such as Alzheimer’s at an early stage to make an advance request for MAID.”

In the meantime, Canada can still kill the mentally ill, Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told Blaze News.

“Right now under the law, someone who has a mental illness — even if that mental illness is driving them to suicidal ideation — they can still be killed by euthanasia in Canada if they have another medical condition,” said Schadenberg. “So if someone, let’s say, had a difficult condition of diabetes, it would be the diabetes they’d be approved for.”

Schadenberg cited the case of 26-year-old Kiano Vafaeian, who was euthanized on Dec. 30, 2025. His family told Global News that while diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and partial vision loss, Vafaeian’s primary struggle was with mental health issues.

“He said everything the doctors needed to hear in order to approve him,” said his mother, Margaret Marsilla. “Was he actually feeling that way? I strongly believe not.”

“A large number of Canadians have something that would qualify them for euthanasia,” Scheidl told Blaze News. “So then if they’re depressed on top of that, and they can’t really think straight, and they’re more inclined to choose that option, then there’s nothing to protect them. There’s nothing to stop it. The [MAID] assessments are not really effective at seeing if people are suicidal or depressed.”

The same government that has made it easy for vulnerable people like Vafaeian to check out has boasted of the savings associated with the program.

Canada’s Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer noted in an October 2020 report that 6,465 deaths under what was then a more restrictive MAID program would result in a total gross reduction in health care costs of $109.2 million in 2021.

“Their estimates were very, very low and their numbers were way off because they underestimated the number of deaths we would have,” said Schadenberg.

In a study published in February 2025, researchers at Western University explored the “potential economic savings from expanding medical assistance in dying in Canada, where it is currently a leading cause of death, to include vulnerable groups that cost the government more than they contribute in taxes,” including Indians, the homeless, the retired elderly, drug addicts, and the mentally ill.

“The cost savings associated with the mentally ill could reach up to CAD $63.076 billion,” said the researchers, “while for the retired elderly population, the savings could be CAD $54.2 billion in the voluntary scenario or as high as CAD $1.2 trillion in a nonvoluntary scenario.”

“Dead people don’t cost money,” Schadenberg told Blaze News. “Dead people don’t collect pensions. Dead people don’t collect disability benefits. And you’ve got a government, well, provincially and federally, that are running massive deficits. So a lot of incentive.”

While the Canadian government has not officially rolled out a nonvoluntary MAID program, Scheidl noted that there is already plenty of “coercion that is happening under the umbrella of this regime.”

“There are a lot of individuals who feel they have no choice,” said Scheidl. “They are dealing with either caregivers who are completely burnt out and can’t care for them [or] they have no other health care options. Hospice is denied to them. Palliative care is not available. Pain care is completely inadequate.”

“We’re wholly inadequate in our care for those who are suffering or at the end of life. But we’re very, very good and very, very fast at delivering euthanasia.”

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​Canada, Mental illness, Mark carney, Justin trudeau, Medical assistance in dying, Euthanasia, Eugenics, Politics 

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‘It poisons the soul’: Jason Whitlock blames 6-year-old shooting teacher on rap culture

A 6-year-old boy shot his teacher, and newly released bodycam footage captures him cursing at authorities — as if he were proud of what he’d done.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock doesn’t just blame the parents but also the pedestal that rappers are placed on in American culture.

“The bodycam footage is disturbing, of the police coming to the scene where a 6-year-old boy has shot his teacher. Just saying that is incredible and chilling,” Whitlock says.

“But when you hear the bodycam footage and the way the young boy, while sitting in his teacher or this teacher’s aide lap, the way that he’s talking, and it’s like holy cow. What is going on here,” he adds.

“I don’t care if you call back up, I don’t care if I go to jail, b***h,” the boy is captured saying.

“I stole that from my mom,” he said of the gun. “If you want a piece of me, come get it,” he added.

The boy continued yelling slurs at everyone around him.

“This is a 6-year-old child that just shot his teacher. He sounds like a rapper. He sounds like a criminal, a thug. He sounds like what we have allowed to be created. He sounds like Snoop Dogg,” Whitlock says.

He explains that figures like Snoop Dogg have become the “mascot for America.”

“That’s what Snoop Dogg is,” he says. “You turn on your television and nine times out of 10 you’re going to see Snoop Dogg in some type of commercial, some type of TV show. We’ve turned Snoop Dogg into Santa Claus. We’ve turned Snoop Dogg into one of the most recognizable and allegedly lovable characters in American culture.”

“And you wonder why a 6-year-old boy in Virginia, or anywhere in America, would take a gun to school, shoot a teacher, and then curse and talk to authority in such a disrespectful manner,” he continues.

“The music that we’ve bathed ourselves in, it warps the soul. It poisons the soul. It reframes the mind. It makes a reprobate mind,” he adds.

But it’s not just rap music’s fault.

Whitlock explains that we’re all responsible as “the parents of American culture.”

“We have allowed this culture to become demonic and nihilistic,” he says. “And our heroes, the people that we are comfortable celebrating, they’re nihilistic and demonic, and they don’t hide it. They put out rap albums promoting their demonic and nihilistic worldview, their disrespect, their distrust, their rebellion against any and all authority.”

“And you wonder why a 6-year-old child would bring a gun to an elementary school?” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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

​American culture, Bodycam footage, Rappers, Shooting, Snoop dogg, Jason whitlock, Blazetv show 

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JD Vance headlines AmericaFest 2026 alongside BlazeTV’s Nick Freitas and John Doyle

AmericaFest is Turning Point USA’s flagship annual convention, and this December it returns for its sixth edition. Charlie Kirk launched it in 2021 as a place for patriots to gather and be encouraged and equipped through political speeches, activism training, music, and networking under one roof. Held at the Phoenix Convention Center, AmFest has grown into one of the largest and most influential gatherings on the political right.

Last December was the first AmFest held without its beloved founder, a weekend set aside to honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy and carry on the mission he started. His widow and TPUSA’s new CEO, Erika Kirk, has kept the event pointed at what her late husband cherished most: faith, freedom, and love of country. This year’s theme, “Restore the Culture,” carries that same charge.

Last year’s convention drew a massive crowd of 30,000 people, and this year promises to be another knockout. Vice President JD Vance closed that first AmFest without Charlie by asking the crowd: “If you miss Charlie Kirk, do you promise to fight [for] what he died for?” He returns this December as a headliner, alongside Erika Kirk, Donald Trump Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and many of the biggest names in the conservative world.

BlazeTV hosts Nick Freitas and John Doyle will be on the stage as well, bringing the same straight talk their audiences already know them for.

Nick Freitas is a Green Beret combat veteran and former Virginia delegate who built his platform on clear, unapologetic arguments for faith, family, and liberty. On BlazeTV’s “Making the Argument,” he takes on today’s biggest fights surrounding culture, policy, and the ideas underneath them and walks his audience through why they matter and how to combat them.

John Doyle hosts “The John Doyle Show,” a BlazeTV program designed to cut through the noise and speak the truth about where the country actually stands. Younger and blunter than a lot of the names on the AmFest program, he has made his name pushing back on sanitized history, soft official narratives, and leaders who talk about restoring America without meaning it.

AmericaFest 2026 runs December 17-20. The weekend is built to carry forward what Charlie started, keep the mission he set in motion, and mark the country he spent his life defending. Tune in to join the fight and catch Nick Freitas and John Doyle live from the AmericaFest stage.

​Politics, Blaze news