Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro joined former President Donald Trump in New York Monday to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel with a trip to the tomb of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Chabad.
Trump and Shapiro visited the Ohel Chabad-Lubavitch in Queens, the final resting place of one of the most influential Jews of the 20th century. Schneerson, affectionately known as the “Rebbe,” led the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, which promotes Judaism around the world.
“October 7 was the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Shapiro said. “It was an honor to join President Trump in NY today to pay our respects and remember the lives lost in the horrific terrorist attack one year ago today.”
“I had the additional honor of being accompanied by Yael, Adi, and Roy Alexander whose son and brother, Edan, an American citizen, is still held captive by Hamas,” Shapiro added. “Today and every day we pray for the swift return of all the hostages and a victory over those who sponsored and perpetrated October 7.”
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October 7 was the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It was an honor to join President Trump in NY today to pay our respects and remember the lives lost in the horrific terrorist attack one year ago today. I had the additional honor of being accompanied by Yael, Adi,… <a href="https://t.co/DdcFwnrWYl">pic.twitter.com/DdcFwnrWYl</a>
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1843369062572622229?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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One year ago, Hamas terrorists launched the largest-ever attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and wounding countless others. Hamas also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/1-year-later-families-demand-action-as-hamas-holds-nearly-100-hostages-from-october-7-attack">kidnapped</a> around 254 people, 64 of whom are still held captive in Gaza alongside the bodies of 33 other hostages.
Trump laid a blessing calling for the safe return of all hostages to the pile of prayers and blessings that surround Schneerson’s grave
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President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> leaving a blessing in hopes that all the Hostages come home <a href="https://t.co/7tID53g9eT">pic.twitter.com/7tID53g9eT</a>
— Margo Martin (@margommartin) <a href="https://twitter.com/margommartin/status/1843364623191552396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Schneerson’s tomb is a pilgrimage site for Jews around the world, and politicians frequently visit the ohel to honor the Rebbe. Argentine President Javier Milei <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/argentinas-president-elect-to-visit-grave-of-world-famous-rabbi-where-he-had-asked-for-electoral-victory">visited</a> the tomb last year, just before his inauguration.

Donald Trump Visits Graves Of Influential Rebbes On October 7 Anniversary

Ben Shapiro Joins Trump On October 7 Visit To World-Famous Rabbi’s Grave

Ben Shapiro

Chabad

Donald Trump

October 7

With just 34 days until the election, Vice President Kamala Harris is pulling out all the stops. She’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamala-plays-border-hawk-in-first-border-visit-as-democratic-nominee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">going to the border</a>. She’s busting out <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamalas-new-campaign-accent-has-people-comparing-her-to-classic-cartoon-character" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously-unheard accents</a>. And she’s telling voters that former President Donald Trump is coming for their booze.
Earlier this month, the Harris campaign <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/harris-alcohol-prices-trump-tariff-plan-1235113532/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> “Trump’s Tequila Tax,” a social media push aimed at convincing voters that Trump’s tariff proposals would cause imported alcohol prices to skyrocket.
“He wants to tax your tequila, and your Coronas, your Modelos, your Hennessy, all of it,” a campaign surrogate says in a TikTok.
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Have you heard of the Trump Tequila Tax?
Trump wants a 20% tax on all imported goods. That includes your tequila, Modelos, and Coronas. <a href="https://t.co/GjsZcRkp7q">pic.twitter.com/GjsZcRkp7q</a>
&mdash; Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHQ/status/1839725556981510590?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2024</a></blockquote>
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If one wanted to engage in a little armchair psychology, one might say that Harris is projecting. Because if she wins the White House in November, there might not be any tequila to tax in the United States.
Under Harris and President Joe Biden, an obscure bureaucratic committee has been drafting new guidance, which, if adopted, would recommend that Americans never drink — at all. While these guidelines would not ban alcohol outright, they could, as <a href="https://reason.com/2024/08/10/the-secret-committee-behind-americas-prohibition-comeback/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reason reports</a>, lead to a wave of bad press and a slew of class action lawsuits against alcohol companies. Together, that could cripple an already-faltering alcohol industry.
This is hardly the first instance of the Biden-Harris administration attempting to meddle in Americans’ lives in the name of “public health.” Biden proposed banning <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-reverses-course-on-banning-menthol-cigarettes-over-fear-of-angering-black-voters-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">menthol cigarettes</a> early in his term, only to reverse course earlier this year when it became clear the ban would make then-candidate Biden unpopular among black voters. And the White House has come under fire for its attempt to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-official-who-supports-gas-stove-crackdown-has-a-gas-stove-in-his-own-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ban gas stoves</a> in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
But unlike the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts to ban gas stoves and menthol cigarettes — both of which received ample media coverage and public scrutiny — the effort to change alcohol guidelines has taken place behind closed doors.
Federal dietary guidelines are updated every five years by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. For the current revision, HHS has <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/06/alcohol-dietary-guidelines-congress-koob/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kicked</a> the alcohol question to something called the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). The committee is, <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2024/08/03/dietary-guidelines-alcohol-consumption/74595108007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a “secretive, six-person panel” that “operates deep within” HHS, far from the public eye.
Currently, the federal government <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/about-alcohol-use/moderate-alcohol-use.html#:~:text=to%20not%20drinking.-,Moderate%20drinking,or%20less%20in%20a%20day." target="_blank" rel="noopener">defines</a> “moderate drinking” as two daily drinks or less for men, and one for women. But <a href="https://tomwark.substack.com/p/no-amount-alcohol-healthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sources</a> close to the ICCPUD say the committee is close to adopting the World Health Organization’s 2023 <a href="https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/04-01-2023-no-level-of-alcohol-consumption-is-safe-for-our-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declaration</a>: “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.”
It may seem strange that an American agency would so wholeheartedly embrace the WHO’s position, particularly since it’s at odds with longstanding federal recommendations.
But it’s less shocking when you consider that three members of the six-person committee are literally Canadian — like, they live in Canada. It’s even less shocking when you realize that those three Canadian panelists were instrumental in imposing similar guidance at home, <a href="https://reason.com/2024/08/10/the-secret-committee-behind-americas-prohibition-comeback/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slashing</a> Canadians’ recommended weekly drink intake in 2013 from 15 for men and 10 for women to two across the board.
That recommendation was so controversial it came under fire in Canada, a country where shady, unelected bureaucrats already govern what kind of drugs <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/patented-medicine-prices-review.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">patients can take</a>, and whether or not someone is eligible for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html#a2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elective euthanasia</a>. Imagine how it’ll play in the United States, a country that almost started a whole <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/whiskey-rebellion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second Revolutionary War</a> two years after the first one ended because the government tried to tax whiskey.
In fact, the ICCPUD maneuverings are already so unpopular that they’ve spurred waves of bipartisan opposition. In April, Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Lisa McClain (R-MI) <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Letter-to-HHS-re-alcohol-review.pdf">wrote</a> to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra expressing concern that the Dietary Guidelines revision may be violating federal law. By September 5, Becerra had not responded to Comer and McClain’s request for information, prompting the lawmakers to send a follow-up <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-issues-subpoenas-to-hhs-and-usda-for-docs-related-to-development-of-alcohol-consumption-guidelines%EF%BF%BC/">letter</a>.
In the intervening months, two separate bipartisan groups of lawmakers wrote to Becerra, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and NIH Director George F. Koob, to express concern about the opacity and legality of the revision process and request further clarification on what the ICCPUD would decide and when.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
So far, they haven’t heard back.
It’s unclear if Harris will allow the committee to impose its new guidelines should she win the White House — but signs indicate that she will. She was presumably on board with her administration’s plans to ban menthols and gas stoves, and has previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kamalas-campaign-says-she-will-not-push-medicare-for-all-she-fully-supported-it-5-years-ago" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed</a> remaking the American healthcare system to look more like Canada’s.
She certainly won’t face any pushback from Tim Walz, who imposed a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3118502/zynsurrection-walz-zyn-tax-minnesota/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">95% tax on Zyn nicotine pouches</a> as Governor of Minnesota. Nothing goes better with no drinks like unaffordable nicotine.
It’s ironic that Harris, who has made so much hay about Trump’s “secret” plan to remake the federal bureaucracy, is currently overseeing a behind-closed-doors push to completely upend American dietary guidelines. Of course, unlike Project 2025, the ICCPUD’s proceedings are not public, nor the subject of any headlines. And, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-again-addresses-project-2025-says-dems-are-engaging-in-pure-disinformation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unlike Trump</a>, Harris has not disavowed, nor even acknowledged, this effort to stop Americans from enjoying the occasional drink.
That’s about as ironic as her saying Trump’s coming for your tequila.

Kamala Prohibition

No, Donald Trump Isn’t Coming For Your Tequila. But Kamala Might Be.

Alcohol

Canada

Cigarettes

Elections

Kamala Harris

Politics

World Health Organization

Hollywood star Zachary Levi endorsed former President Donald Trump on Saturday, saying he would “take back this country” and “make it great again.”
The “Shazam” actor made his endorsement on stage at a Trump rally in Michigan, telling audiences how he came to embrace Trump after first supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“For a long time, I was like, ‘Man, I really want to find a politician that represents all of the things that I want and I want to see in a presidential candidate,’” Levi said, “And this year, I found Bobby Kennedy, and I thought, ‘Man, this guy is it. He’s the real deal.’ And in a perfect world, whatever that would look like, perhaps I would have voted for Bobby.”
Levi, who rose to fame as the titular character in NBC’s “Chuck,” told audiences that Kennedy&#8217;s and former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard&#8217;s support of Trump made him realize that the former president was the best choice to lead the country.
“I stand with Bobby, and I stand with Tulsi, and I stand with everyone else who is standing with President Trump. Because I do believe, of the two choices that we have, and we only have two, Donald Trump, President Trump is the man that can get us there,” Levi said, before introducing Gabbard and Kennedy.
In his remarks, Levi noted that he was raised in a “Christian conservative” household and recalled learning from his parents “to have a healthy level of distrust for the government and a healthy level of distrust for industry that runs amok.”
“We’re here to make sure that we are going to take back this country, we are going to make it great again, we are going to make it healthy again,” Levi said.
A growing number of voters are turning to Trump after the former president took up Kennedy’s pledge to tackle chronic disease and other health issues that plague the country. A number of otherwise apolitical health and wellness influencers followed Kennedy’s lead in endorsing Trump, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/make-america-healthy-again-how-trump-and-rfk-are-making-wellness-a-winning-issue">reported</a> earlier this month.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Premiere

Actor Zachary Levi Endorses Trump: ‘We Are Going To Take Back This Country’

Endorsement

Hollywood

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Tulsi Gabbard

When Rob Schneider calls you from the car, you can’t help but wonder where he’s going.
The set of Happy Gilmore 2? A Los Angeles comedy club? One of the few bars on the West Coast where they still let David Spade drink for free?
I never did learn where Schneider was headed during our conversation — we had bigger things to talk about. Things like the First Amendment, Saturday Night Live, the Khmer Rouge, vaccine mandates, Alexis de Tocqueveille, and Shane Gillis.
If you think that’s a random smattering of topics, you may not be ready for Schneider’s new book. “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Do-Speak-America/dp/1546007865">You Can Do It!: Speak Your Mind, America</a>,” is equal parts memoir, historical survey, and political polemic, all wrapped up in Schneider’s trademark irreverent humor. At times it feels like Schneider is trying to make the case for free speech through sheer force of will: his stream-of-consciousness narrative plows forward at a breakneck pace, flitting from childhood reminiscence to an exploration of Soviet propaganda and back to a funny Chris Farley anecdote all before you can say “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Fk_mDem4o">makin’ copies!</a>”
That the book is funny isn’t surprising. After nearly a decade on Saturday Night Live, Schneider moved to the big screen, starring in hit films like “The Hot Chick” and “The Benchwarmers,” and making countless memorable appearances alongside his close friend and former SNL cast mate, Adam Sandler.
The humor is a given. It’s everything else that’s shocking.
Schneider is hardly the first celebrity to get political, nor the first to get in trouble for doing so. That he moved from left to right is a bit more shocking, but not without precedent. What’s truly strange about Schneider is just how seriously he’s taking his political turn. “You Can Do It!” doesn’t just have arguments — it has information. It has citations and statistics and digressions on Stanley Milgram and Mikhail Bulgakov. At times it feels more like a college lecture hall than a 30 Rock soundstage.
What made Deuce Bigelow get so serious?
“I got into show business to avoid having to do stuff like writing a book,” Schneider told The Daily Wire, adding that doing so was “a pain in the ass.” It was after witnessing the “egregious attack on our civil liberties and the attack on free speech” perpetrated by Democrats and their media allies that Schneider decided to pick up the pen. But even then, he didn’t lose his sense of humor.
“We&#8217;re kind of f***ed as a country,” Schneider said. “And so I do feel a responsibility, even though it cost me money and cost me work, I feel like it is my comedic-patriotic duty to at least bring these things to attention.”
The importance of protecting free speech may be the stated focus of “You Can Do It!” But Schneider’s understanding of this “comedic-patriotic duty” is perhaps the most essential — and certainly the most interesting — thread of the book.
“As de facto intellectuals, comedians are the cultural rearview mirrors,” Schneider writes. “Our jokes reflect the essence of a particular time, place, and attitude, to remind us of the context of where we just came from.”
This is why it felt so wrong when, following Donald Trump’s election in 2016, and then the coronavirus pandemic 2020, comedians by and large abandoned their craft and began echoing liberal talking points.
“I think the low watermark of comedy in the 21st century was late night television, with these hosts who all had interchangeable monologues,” Schneider told The Daily Wire.
“Nothing to me was more egregious than the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xP6c9UqPcU">dancing syringes</a> on Colbert&#8217;s show. That to me, it wasn&#8217;t cringe. It was Soviet bloc. It seems like something out of the Khmer Rouge.”
Schneider says the preservation of free speech in America depends in a large part on the flourishing of comedy — honest, equal-opportunity, no-holds-barred comedy.
“If you can get people to see the absurdity” of a given figure or issue, Schneider told The Daily Wire, “and mock it and laugh at it, it is the best way to move its natural path towards tyranny so that it collapses.
“When the public is comfortable laughing at the government, then they are no longer in fear of the government,” he said.
This is what makes Schneider’s activism so refreshing. Unlike many celebrities who jump in the arena, he doesn’t think his fame entitles him to serve as a moral arbiter for the rest of us. Rather, he sees himself as a member of the comedian class, a role that comes with a certain obligation to challenge authority and speak truth to power.
“I&#8217;m not saying I&#8217;m 100% right in these things,” he says, “but the fact is we need to have discourse, we need to not shout each other down.”
That humility doesn’t mean Schneider is pulling punches. He says that “the Democratic Party needs to lose this election — and maybe two or three more — so that they can regroup and become a political party that isn&#8217;t undemocratic and authoritarian.” Republicans, he tells The Daily Wire, “are going to have to put on their big boy pants and change legislation” should they win in November.
If this doesn’t happen — if Democrats keep power and continue their assault on free speech, or if Republicans win but resort to ad hominem attacks — Schneider worries about what will come next.
“Western civilization is committing suicide,” Schneider tells The Daily Wire, adding that “the United States is the last bastion of freedom in the world.”
“If we go, so goes the world,” he says. “There will be no Marines to rescue the United States from another country, there will be no food drop. There is no Marshall Plan for the United States. We are it.”
Dire as that sounds, Schneider has hope for the future of the country. His spirits are buoyed by, among other things: Mark Zuckerberg’s recent admission that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor content (“I don’t think Zuckerberg’s a bad actor”); Saturday Night Live’s decision to have Shane Gillis host after firing him for politically incorrect jokes (“How great was Lorne Michaels to do that?”); and The Daily Wire’s own Matt Walsh (“The one, rightful heir to Sacha Baron Cohen. I think Matt Walsh is a genius. I really do”).
But more than anything, Schneider is optimistic because he believes in America.
“This imperfect union was founded under God with a belief that we have done something special,” he says. “It is a union deserving of our forgiveness and deserving of our thanks, deserving of our gratitude and deserving of every attempt we can [make] for its preservation.”
To do that, “we must call out injustice. But in that call…we should have a reconciliation.”
“We have to be generous, and if our fault is that we are too generous, that is the price that we must pay, that is what this great nation calls upon us now to do,” Schneider says.
Before we spoke, I was ready for Schneider to go deep on all sorts of subjects — I had read the book, after all — but I wasn’t expecting such a serious meditation on American democracy. Thoroughly impressed and hoping for a good kicker, I asked Schneider if he had any parting thoughts he wanted to share. He didn’t even hesitate.
“The book’s also pretty funny.”

Concerts In Your Car’s David Spade And Rob Schneider Live

When It Comes to Free Speech, Rob Schneider Isn’t Joking

COVID

Free Speech

Matt Walsh

Rob Schneider

Vaccine Mandate

The Daily Wire’s “Am I Racist?” starring Matt Walsh was the third-highest-grossing film on Friday, out-earning a major studio release showing in more than 2,500 theaters.
“Am I Racist?” which premiered Friday, outgrossed Lionsgate’s “The Killer’s Game,” and was the second-biggest new release of the day. “Am I Racist?,” one of only 15 documentaries ever to open in over 1,500 theaters, also had the third-highest opening day gross for a documentary in the last decade.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
Audiences are raving about the film, in which Walsh goes deep undercover to expose the inner workings of the diversity, equity, and inclusion industry. The film has a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/am_i_racist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">99%</a> Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and earned an <a href="https://www.cinemascore.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“A” rating from CinemaScore</a>, which grades movies based on audience response. No other new release received an A.
By the end of its second day in theaters, “Am I Racist?” will already be the biggest documentary of the year.
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Off to a very strong start. Top three in the box office on opening day, coming in third and easily beating “The Killer’s Game.” That’s a mainstream Hollywood film that opened in a thousand more theaters. Thank you to everyone who supported the film. Let’s keep the momentum going.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1834994105736192413?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Ninety-five percent of audience members said “Am I Racist?” met or exceeded their expectations, according to PostTrak exit polling. Nearly 70% of viewers said the film was “excellent,” and 57% said they would tell their friends to see it in a theater.
Just over 40% of opening day viewers were under 35. And nearly 40% of the opening day audience was non-white, a fact that may come as a shock to anti-racist activist Saira Rao, who has privately <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/saira-rao-privately-slams-am-i-racist-as-nazi-white-supremacy-film?topStoryPosition=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slammed</a> “Am I Racist?” as a “Nazi White Supremacy Film.”
Rao is one of several anti-racist activists featured in the film. Another, “White Fragility” author Robin DiAngelo, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/robin-diangelo-breaks-am-i-racist-silence-says-she-got-played-by-borat-style-mockumentary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told followers</a> that she got played by the “Borat-style mockumentary.” In the film, Walsh convinces DiAngelo to pay his black producer $30 out of her purse as reparations for slavery.
DiAngelo says that “Am I Racist?” is “designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists.” Walsh responded to her critique on X, saying, “She couldn’t be more correct in that assessment.”
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Robin DiAngelo has issued a statement denouncing our film. She claims that the movie is “designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists.” She couldn’t be more correct in that assessment. Thank you, Robin!<a href="https://t.co/xOvMUFnuTk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://t.co/xOvMUFnuTk</a>
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1834351644198289717?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">September 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The Daily Wire entered the entertainment space in 2021 with a mission to disrupt Hollywood. The company has since released six films, including the acclaimed “What Is A Woman?” starring Walsh, one of the most-viewed documentaries of all time. “Am I Racist?” is The Daily Wire’s first theatrical release and is already defying industry expectations with its box office performance.
“Am I Racist?” is <a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*1orjxp8*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MjE3NTYxNzAuQ2p3S0NBandxZjIwQmhCd0Vpd0F0N2R0ZFgyTkE1Z3RmazgwZXNuY1QyRVVvMXBOZEhxRzAwdWRGS0ozTFMzWWNsUzVnVkswSmFtdTlCb0M5R1FRQXZEX0J3RQ..*_gcl_au*MTU5NzI4NjQ0Ny4xNzIxMTYzNDAz*_ga*MTY5NTQ0MDk1Ny4xNzIxMTYzNDAz*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTcyNjMzMzM0Ni4xMDEuMS4xNzI2MzM0NDQyLjU5LjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">now playing</a> in over 1,500 theaters.

MixCollage-13-Sep-2024-06-00-PM-700

‘Am I Racist?’ Opens As Third-Highest Grossing Film In The Country

Am I Racist

Movie Theaters

Movies

Robin DiAngelo

Rotten Tomatoes

Drea de Matteo doesn’t understand why people care about celebrity endorsements.
“In the past, I understood the value,” &#8220;The Sopranos&#8221; star told The Daily Wire in a wide-ranging interview Thursday. “There was a rock and roll aspect to it, you know, you had all these musicians, there was a celebration of the country. I know now that there is no celebration of this country, and there&#8217;s no patriotism.”
Consider Robert De Niro, who held a press conference in March outside former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York City. De Matteo called it “one of the worst acting jobs” the “Goodfellas” star “ever did.”
“I really was like, do they have s*** on him? Because I don&#8217;t believe him right now. Even if he&#8217;s genuine and he really does mean what he is saying — why do people care?”
De Niro was one of many Italian-American celebrities who joined last weekend’s virtual  “<a href="https://paisansforkamala.com/">Paisans for Kamala</a>” event, the latest in a string of celebrity-studded, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-dnc-held-an-irish-americans-for-harris-walz-event-it-was-awkward">ethnically-focused</a> Zoom calls hosted by the Harris-Walz campaign.
It was that event that inspired de Matteo to speak on the absurdity of celebrity endorsements.
“Look who became MADE men [and] women in the Corporate Mafia today,” she wrote on Instagram. “Congrats Paisans, Mussolini would be proud.”
De Matteo finds it hard to believe that any American, celebrity or not, would cast their lot with Kamala Harris. But she’s particularly shocked to find such support in Hollywood “Paisans.”
<div id="attachment_796049" style="width: 885px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-796049" class="size-large wp-image-796049" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-899959-875x576.jpg" alt="" width="875" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-899959-875x576.jpg 875w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-899959-300x197.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-899959-768x505.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-899959-1536x1011.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-899959-2048x1348.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 875px) 100vw, 875px" />Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo in &#8220;The Sopranos&#8221; (Photo by HBO)</div>
“What&#8217;s interesting is Italians are generally known as being conservative,” she says. “They fought against the Sopranos, they picketed, they hated us, because they don&#8217;t like being associated with such corruption like that because they have a subculture, which is the mafia.”
But “we are now being dominated by…a sort of mafia government,” who “shake us down and govern like a mafia does in a neighborhood,” she told The Daily Wire.
“I made a snarky joke, but I mean, it is the truth, right?”
Snark and the truth. That’s pretty much what you get from de Matteo, a self-proclaimed  “hardcore liberal” who in recent years has found herself joining an increasingly large number of Americans dissatisfied with, and suspicious of, both American political parties.
It began for her, as it did so many others, during the COVID pandemic, when Americans found themselves with “nothing but time on our hands but to ask questions.”
“I don&#8217;t know what people were doing at home aside from baking bread. But for me…I really wanted to know what the hell was going on.”
“I feel like a lot of these celebrities are either tone deaf, and they don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going on,” de Matteo says. And, like most “well-intentioned liberals,” if celebrities only understood the stakes of our current political moment, de Matteo is sure they would “abandon ship.”
That’s what she did, abandoning the Democratic Party after casting her first ever presidential vote for President Joe Biden in 2020.
“I had Trump Derangement Syndrome,” she admits. “I believed the hype. I listened to the real news! I didn&#8217;t do my own research.”
<div id="attachment_796043" style="width: 730px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-796043" class="size-large wp-image-796043" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-1402464289-1-720x576.jpg" alt="" width="720" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-1402464289-1-720x576.jpg 720w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-1402464289-1-300x240.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-1402464289-1-768x614.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-1402464289-1.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" />Drea de Matteo (Photo by Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)</div>
But once she did, she realized that the Democratic Party she knew had changed. It was not the working class party of her childhood, which earned the support and respect of her family, including her mother, who canvassed for Geraldine Ferraro. It has become, she says, “the party of the wealthy.”
But wealth isn’t why de Matteo thinks so many celebrities support Democrats. To her, it’s really just a matter of groupthink.
“I feel like a lot of these celebrities are either tone deaf, and they don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going on,” she says, adding that, like most “well-intentioned liberals,” these celebrities would “abandon ship” if they understood what was going on.
“It feels sad to see how misinformed [celebrities] are,” she says. “If they&#8217;re not misinformed, then it makes me question their integrity as a human being and why they would want to hurt people on that level,” by endorsing Harris.
“We&#8217;ve been watching them try to dismantle anything from God to country to human sovereignty,” she says. “So I do feel like the celebrity aspect of it this time around is a clown show.”
<div id="attachment_796067" style="width: 807px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-796067" class="size-large wp-image-796067" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-105585438-797x576.jpg" alt="" width="797" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-105585438-797x576.jpg 797w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-105585438-300x217.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-105585438-768x555.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-105585438-1536x1110.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/GettyImages-105585438-2048x1479.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 797px) 100vw, 797px" />(Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage)</div>
For her part, de Matteo is trying to make Americans realize there’s an alternative to this “clown show.” She endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s third-party candidacy, and is now raising awareness for <a href="https://jointheresistance.org/">Rescue The Republic,</a> a movement for political unity that features heterodox political figures like Kennedy, Russell Brand, and former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
In Rescue The Republic — which is holding a massive Washington, D.C., rally on September 29 — de Matteo found the kind of old school patriotism that has animated her throughout her life.
“Since I was a little kid, if you asked me what my favorite colors are and I was like ‘red, white and blue!’ Everything is American flags,” she told The Daily Wire. “I think I might have been Betsy Ross in another life.”
To de Matteo, it seems like both parties have lost sight of what that flag represents: a radical, unprecedented freedom that goes above and beyond the petty partisan squabbles that define contemporary Washington and the party system. Freedom to her is rock and roll — it’s “psychedelic.”
She’s tried to recapture this spirit in <a href="https://ultrafree.co/">Ultrafree</a>, a streetwear line she launched in 2023 to “make freedom cool again.” She’s quick to note that Ultrafree is not another brand geared at conservatives, but rather any American who feels as she does: adrift, frustrated, but still hopeful about what this country can be.
“The pronoun for the whole movement is ‘we, the people,’&#8221; she says. “It&#8217;s not red, it&#8217;s not blue, no more labels … Ultrafree is really about critical thinking and not allowing your mind to be hijacked.”
If anything, de Matteo hopes to bring her fellow “hardcore liberals” into the fight for freedom by making them realize it isn’t a partisan issue.
“This isn&#8217;t just a conservative movement,” she says. “This is a movement by hippies and wild cards and lunatics like us as well. We wanna be free.”

UF 2 (1)

‘Sopranos’ Star Sounds Off On Celebrity Endorsements: ‘Why Do People Care?’

The leaders of America&#8217;s two largest teachers unions, which fought to keep public schools closed during <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID</a> and have pushed to bring radical leftist ideology to the classroom, spoke at the final night of the Democratic National Convention Thursday.
American Federation For Teachers president Randi Weingarten <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6_mEFVYca0">claimed</a> that former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance &#8220;can&#8217;t claim they&#8217;re pro-child while gutting funding for public schools,&#8221; and that &#8220;being pro-family means we support access to good union jobs, affordable housing, health care, and higher education.&#8221;
Weingarten, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-union-boss-randi-weingarten-mocked-for-unhinged-politicized-speech-warning-of-fascism">claimed</a> last month that Trump was an &#8220;existential threat to democracy,&#8221; heads the nation&#8217;s second-largest teachers union. The labor leader has come under fire in recent months for asserting that she fought to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/randi-weingarten-is-gaslighting-us-she-fought-to-keep-schools-closed-not-open">keep schools open</a> during the coronavirus pandemic, when in fact she did the exact opposite. Weingarten in 2020 called the Trump administration&#8217;s push to reopen schools “reckless,” “callous,” and “cruel.”
Though research showed as early as 2020 that children could safely return to the classroom, teachers unions fought to keep schools closed. School closures caused significant learning loss across the country, studies have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-union-exec-suggests-learning-loss-made-us-all-equal">shown</a>.
Joining Weingarten on stage was National Education Association President Becky Pringle, who told the crowd in Chicago that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the best hope for American students.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1723831707612000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0pyrv88A5nsmWM2F2Wr9As">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
&#8220;They will strengthen our schools, support our educators, and help our students live into their brilliance,&#8221; Pringle said, hours before the vice president is slated to officially accept the Democratic presidential nomination. &#8220;Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are not just wrong — they&#8217;re dangerous,&#8221; Pringle said.
Pringle last month was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-union-head-mocked-for-totally-unhinged-speech">slammed</a> for delivering a &#8220;totally unhinged speech&#8221; in which she said &#8220;we have to transform&#8221; the public education system &#8220;into something it was never designed to be — a racially and socially just and equitable system that prepares every student!&#8221; A known partisan, Pringle heads the nation&#8217;s largest teachers union, which in 2022 gave <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-largest-teachers-unions-dump-at-least-2-25-million-on-michigan-gov-whitmer-re-election-campaign">$1 million</a> to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer&#8217;s (D) re-election campaign.
Whitmer was one of several Democratic governors who pushed to keep schools closed during COVID. She was joined in those efforts by Walz, who as Minnesota governor instituted some of the nation&#8217;s strictest COVID lockdowns.
Walz, who in March 2020 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flashback-walz-implemented-covid-hotline-to-snitch-on-neighbors">established</a> a hotline and encouraged Minnesotans to snitch on neighbors who violated lockdowns by attending worship services, kept schools closed and mandated students wear masks well into the COVID pandemic. Critics <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walzs-covid-emergency-powers-were-challenged-as-overreaching">challenged</a> those restrictions in court, though the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled they were constitutional.
Pringle pointed to Walz&#8217;s work as a public school teacher to underscore her claim that the Harris-Walz ticket is the best thing for American students.
The Daily Wire reported this week that Walz has made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tim-walzs-misleading-claims-about-winning-teaching-awards">misleading claims</a> about winning &#8220;teacher of the year awards,&#8221; just days after he caught flak for making similarly misleading claims about his military service and his wife&#8217;s use of in vitro fertilization.
The Harris campaign has emphasized Walz&#8217;s work as a teacher, though his positions on education as governor have come under scrutiny. As governor, Walz signed legislation requiring that Minnesota public schools put <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/did-tim-walz-really-put-tampons-in-the-boys-bathroom">tampon dispensers</a> in boys bathrooms, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-public-teacher-walz-attacked-school-choice-schemes-that-leaves-our-teachers-in-the-short">slammed school choice</a> as a &#8220;scheme&#8221; that &#8220;leaves our teachers in the lurch.&#8221;

Randi Weingarten

Teachers Union Heads Who Fought To Keep Schools Closed During COVID Speak At DNC

American Federation of Teachers

Democratic National Convention

National Education Association

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Members of the far-left “Squad” threw their support behind Tim Walz shortly after Vice President Kamala Harris tapped the Minnesota governor as her running mate.
Walz on Tuesday racked up endorsements from Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN), Jamaal Bowman (NY), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY). The trio share Walz’s progressive positions on a number of issues, including illegal immigration and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The “Squad’s” swift embrace of Walz could cause problems for the Harris campaign. While Democrats are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harris-expected-to-tap-minnesota-governor-tim-walz-as-running-mate">optimistic</a> that Walz’s folksy, midwestern charm could help balance Harris’ coastal progressivism, the governor actually had the most far-left record of any of the lawmakers on Harris’s vice presidential shortlist, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cpac-scores-show-how-far-left-harris-vp-contenders-are">reported</a>.
Endorsements from the “Squad” could serve to remind voters that Walz isn’t as moderate as he appears.
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1723040380950000&amp;usg=AOvVaw18EM75L42oytWxpUjvF29l">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>
“Congratulations to our next Vice President,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) wrote on X, boasting that Walz is “Bringing Minnesota nice to the ticket.” Omar also cheered Walz for “sign[ing] universal school meals, paid family and sick leave, marijuana legalization, and protections for reproductive rights into law.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Congratulations to our next Vice President <a href="https://twitter.com/Tim_Walz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Tim_Walz</a> 🥳
Our North Star state Governor has signed universal school meals, paid family and sick leave, marijuana legalization, and protections for reproductive rights into law.
Bringing Minnesota nice to the ticket 💪🏽 <a href="https://t.co/8fNZS1jsyG">pic.twitter.com/8fNZS1jsyG</a>
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1820820735771791753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“Vice President Harris made an excellent decision in Gov. Walz as her running mate,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Together, they will govern effectively, inclusively, and boldly for the American people.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Vice President Harris made an excellent decision in Gov. Walz as her running mate.
Together, they will govern effectively, inclusively, and boldly for the American people.
They won’t back down under tight odds, either &#8211; from healthcare to school lunch.
Let’s do this 💪🏽 <a href="https://t.co/9vttVTC39Z">https://t.co/9vttVTC39Z</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1820819039955947605?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Most notable was Walz’s ringing endorsement from Bowman, who shared a video of him excitedly shouting about the governor on X, with the caption “It’s Walz baby let’s go!!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s Walz baby let’s go!! <a href="https://t.co/ix54tsvMJ9">pic.twitter.com/ix54tsvMJ9</a>
— Rep. Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamaalBowmanNY/status/1820813482993803408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Bowman lost his June primary to a moderate New York Democrat after supporters and voters alike <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/far-left-democrat-jamaal-bowman-loses-primary-after-becoming-full-scale-anti-semite">deserted</a> the congressman over his radical anti-Israel statements. Bowman, best known for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bowman-charged-over-fire-alarm-incident">pulling a fire alarm</a> in Congress in a bid to disrupt a vote, claimed that videos of Hamas terrorists beheading babies on Oct. 7 were “Israeli propaganda.”
Bowman, whom Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro says has become a “full scale anti-Semite,” refused to condemn the Hamas attacks. He has joined his fellow Squad members in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as Israel defends itself against ongoing terrorist attacks.
Walz <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2024/03/07/gov-walz-says-minnesotas-45000-uncommitted-voters-are-civically-engaged">called</a> for a ceasefire on March 7.

walz:omar

‘Squad’ Members Endorse Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz For VP

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ilhan Omar

Israel

Jamaal Bowman

The Squad

Tim Walz

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson will join Elon Musk at Gigafactory Texas Monday for a wide-ranging interview that will stream live <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/dr-peterson-x-elon-musk">exclusively on DailyWire+</a> and X at 3 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. CT.
Their conversation will be Musk’s first major interview following a newsworthy month for the tech mogul, who “fully” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-pledges-staggering-sum-of-money-to-elect-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed</a> former president Donald Trump shortly after Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Musk followed his endorsement with the announcement that he would donate $45 million a month to the pro-Trump America PAC. He also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-announces-spacex-and-x-hqs-moving-out-of-california-with-gender-identity-reporting-law-being-the-final-straw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that he will move the headquarters of both SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter, from California to Texas, the site of Monday&#8217;s interview with Peterson. Musk came to the decision after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a law barring schools from informing parents when children began identifying as transgender.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
My conversation with <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a>. Live today at 3pm ET. <a href="https://t.co/RyaZFmvC8i">https://t.co/RyaZFmvC8i</a>
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1815427698703090085?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
“This is the final straw,” Musk wrote on X, noting that he had informed Newsom “that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”
Musk also pointed to rising crime in California as a reason for the move, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1813295846710206811" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> on X that he has “had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott cheered the move, saying that SpaceX’s relocation “cements Texas as the leader in space exploration.” The Lone Star State is already home to NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
Last year, Peterson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jordan-peterson-invites-elon-musk-to-join-legal-battle-against-canadian-regulator-threatening-his-license" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invited</a> Musk to join his lawsuit against the College of Psychologists of Ontario, which threatened to rescind Peterson’s clinical psychology license in response to his social media activity. Musk has emerged as a leading advocate of free speech since purchasing X.
Monday marks Musk’s return to DailyWire+. He joined Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro in Krakow for a wide-ranging conversation <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-with-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">streamed</a> on the platform in January.

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Elon Musk To Sit Down For Exclusive Interview With Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

Elon Musk

Jordan B. Peterson

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Tim Rice