Spirit Airlines might soon opt for liquidation if they are not bought out or bailed out — and the Biden administration’s opposition to its proposed merger with JetBlue may be largely to blame, one economist explained to The Daily Wire.
A federal judge ultimately dealt the death blow to the plan to have the two airlines combine, but the ruling ultimately stemmed from a 2023 lawsuit filed by the Biden-era DOJ and a handful of states. The lawsuit arguably played a key role in the airline&#8217;s demise, as Spirit now struggles to get out of bankruptcy and risks becoming a ghost of aviation&#8217;s past.
“Today’s decision by JetBlue is yet another victory for the Justice Department’s work on behalf of American consumers,” then-Attorney General <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-statements-jetblue-terminating-acquisition-spirit-airlines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Merrick Garland</a> stated at the time.
“The Justice Department proved in court that a merger between JetBlue and Spirit would have caused tens of millions of travelers to face higher fares and fewer choices. We will continue to vigorously enforce the nation’s antitrust laws,” he added.
Peter St. Onge, an economist at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Wire that the blocked merger — along with high taxation and rising jet-fuel prices due to the ongoing conflict in Iran — have led to the airline’s woes.
“The main thing that drove them over the edge was blocking the JetBlue merger. On the day that it was denied, their stock fell 47%. And the big picture here is that the low-cost carriers can&#8217;t pass anything on, right? They have razor-thin margins, like 2 or 3%. So they need scale in order to survive,” he said.
“The Department of Justice argued that Spirit was useful because it was keeping fares low, but of course, the reason it was keeping fares low was because of that razor-thin margin. And the only way to sustain that was to get scale. So effectively the Department of Justice killed the golden goose because it was golden,” he added.
St. Onge noted that an increase in regulations under Biden added increased difficulty.
“The legacy carriers were able to pass that on. The low-cost carriers, they couldn&#8217;t pass it on,” he said.
President Donald Trump told CNBC’s &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/21/cnbc-transcript-president-donald-trump-speaks-with-cnbcs-squawk-box-today-.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Squawk Box</a>&#8221; on Tuesday that he wants to see that airline get purchased, saying “Spirit’s in trouble” and suggesting that “maybe the federal government should help that one out.”
“I don’t mind mergers. I think I’d love somebody to buy Spirit, it’s 14,000 jobs,” he said.
However, he cautioned against a floated merger between American Airlines and United Airlines, as American Airlines denied a Reuters report over the possibility, according to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/04/21/american-airlines-has-denied-rumors-of-a-merger-wi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Motley Fool</a>.
“But with American, it&#8217;s doing fine, and United is doing very well […] I don&#8217;t like having them merge,” Trump added.
St. Onge noted that “United and American traditionally would be an absolute no-go for antitrust” due to their much larger size, noting that Trump may view Spirit as a “special case” because of their strong emphasis on “low-cost fares” for Americans who otherwise could not afford to fly.
Last week, the Department of Transportation told The Daily Wire on background that &#8220;when Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg blocked a proposed Spirit/JetBlue merger in 2024, their DOJ bragged it was &#8216;a victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices.'&#8221;
&#8220;If American consumers were faced with one fewer ultra low cost carriers, they would obviously disagree,&#8221; the department added, noting that DOT is &#8220;monitoring the situation.&#8221;
Spirit Airlines did not respond to a request for comment. The airline told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/spirit-airlines-could-liquidate-as-early-as-this-week-sources-say.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNBC</a> last week that it does not “comment on market rumors and speculation.”

signal-2026-04-21-160336

Did Joe Biden Kill Spirit Airlines?

Aviation

Biden Administration

JetBlue Airlines

Merrick Garland

Spirit Airlines

Travel

Freedom to worship is never more than one election away from coming under fire. While an 800-page <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1436006/dl">report</a> released this week by the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed what most of us in the pro-life community suspected — that the FBI under President Joe Biden actively targeted pro-life activists — it also revealed the utter disdain that some federal employees have for people of faith.
The vast majority of pro-life Americans are so because of their sincerely held religious beliefs. The Bible explicitly asserts that life is valuable from the moment of conception. From Psalm 139, “you knit me together in my mother’s womb,” to Jeremiah 1:5, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” God makes clear that the unborn are cherished. Combined with the commandment to not commit murder, destroying life in the womb is an abominable affront to God’s design. It is no surprise, then, when the pro-abortion movement so vigorously persecutes and attacks Christians. It is revealing, however, when they are so brazen about it.
The recently released report shows the extent to which the Biden administration and pro-abortion groups colluded to persecute peaceful pro-life activists and their families by using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Though originally sold as legislation that would protect church-going Americans equally with those visiting abortion facilities, the FACE Act has long been used to persecute those who advocate for the unborn. In the 30 years since it was signed into law, <a href="https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roy-celebrates-advancement-face-act-repeal-act#:~:text=Data%20my%20office%20obtained%20from,pro%2Dlifers%20ever%20again.%E2%80%9D">97% of federal prosecutions</a> under the FACE Act have been against pro-life Americans. This, despite hundreds of attacks against pregnancy resource centers and churches during that time. Instead of arresting those responsible for threatening, defacing, or burning these ministries, instead of using the FACE Act to prosecute those who made Sunday mornings feel unsafe for millions of Christians, the Biden administration rounded up those who peacefully advocated for protecting the unborn.
It is not conjecture to say that this was based partly on a contempt for Bible-believing Americans. The report revealed that in United States v. Zastrow (Zastrow being a Catholic family heavily engaged in pro-life activism), the Biden DOJ prosecutors tried to screen out jurors based on religion by seeking “an indirect way to get some more info about religion without directly asking for it.” This led to several Christian jurors being flagged for “preemptory and for-cause strikes from the jury pool because of their faith.” The prosecutors did not inquire about jurors’ possible liberal counterviews.
In emails, DOJ employees referred to Christian pro-life views as “culty,” and in the courtroom, openly lambasted the religious beliefs of the defendants. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frances Lee Carlson complained that, in the Zastrow case, they “ended up with a very Catholic magistrate on duty this week, and he was very particular about the bond conditions and not infringing on [the defendants’] First Amendment rights.” As if protecting First Amendment rights were a negative.
Then there was the case of Mark Houck, a father of seven who was arrested for allegedly violating the FACE Act. While speaking outside of a Planned Parenthood facility, an escort mocked and ridiculed Houck’s 12-year-old son. Houck stepped in and pushed the escort away from his young son. The DOJ report reveals that Houck and his attorneys offered to accept a summons and come in voluntarily if the Biden DOJ pursued a criminal case. But the Biden FBI declined the offer from the “devout pro-life Catholic” and instead sent 16 armed FBI agents and seven vehicles to Houck’s home and put him in handcuffs in front of his family.
It is hard to imagine the DOJ admitting that a defendant is a devout member of any other religion and using that as grounds to bring the full might of the FBI to their doorstep in a clear intimidation stunt. And yet that is what happened to Houck and many other Christian pro-life advocates during the Biden administration.
The freedom to worship as we see fit is one of the most cherished of all American rights. It is that freedom that the Pilgrims pursued when they crossed the Atlantic, fleeing religious persecution in the European homeland. They were followed by the Baptists, the Quakers, the Roman Catholics, among others, all seeking the chance to practice their faith free from a tyrannical government. Yet under the Biden administration, many faithful Christians were unjustly prosecuted by a government that viewed their beliefs as less equal than those who push for a right to abortion.
As we at Concerned Women for America celebrate April as <a href="https://concernedwomen.org/faith-month/">Faith Month</a>, this is a prescient reminder that freedom of religion cannot ever be taken for granted. America was founded on the solid foundations of Christianity, on the belief that all life is created equal, even life in the womb. May we continue to hold our government accountable whenever it forgets that.
***
Maggie McKneely is Director of Government Relations for <a href="https://concernedwomen.org/">Concerned Women for America</a>, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization. On X: @CWforA

Demonstrators Participate In National March For Life

The Biden Administration Used The FACE Act To Persecute Christian Americans

DW Opinion

FACE Act

Pro-Life Movement

Religious Freedom

Mark Houck was still in his pajamas when the FBI surrounded his home. Armed agents. Seven children watching from inside. His crime? Praying outside an abortion clinic. He wasn&#8217;t alone.
The Biden DOJ was actively partnering with radical abortion activists to surveil and imprison pro-lifers. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-biden-partnered-with-abortion-activists-to-track-and-imprison-pro-lifers?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=BREAKING%3A+How+Biden+Partnered+With+Abortion+Activists+To+Track+And+Imprison+Pro-Lifers">Emails obtained by the Daily Wire</a> reveal a top Justice Department official, Sanjay Patel, cozying up to groups like the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and Planned Parenthood. Patel called an NAF security director his &#8220;MVP&#8221; for flagging pro-life protests in real time. Abortion groups fed the DOJ dossiers packed with personal details including home addresses, family photos, driver&#8217;s license numbers, social media activity, and planned travel routes of peaceful Christian activists who hadn&#8217;t been charged with a crime.
This wasn&#8217;t sloppy governance. It was purposeful. Vengeful. For four years, the Biden Department of Justice resurrected and weaponized the FACE Act, originally designed to protect both abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers, almost exclusively against pro-lifers. Dozens faced federal charges for the &#8220;crimes&#8221; of praying, singing hymns, or sitting in front of abortion facility doors. Sentencing requests averaged 26.8 months for pro-life defendants versus just 12.3 months for pro-abortion ones. The FBI raided homes like that of Mark Houck with swarms of armed agents. Families like the Zastrows, evangelical Christians, were monitored for years before charges materialized. An 89-year-old woman and a Catholic priest were among those facing prison time.
Crickets from the media.
Can you imagine the wall-to-wall hysteria if the tables were turned? &#8220;Trump imprisons pro-abortion advocates!&#8221; It would be front-page news from coast to coast. You&#8217;d be suffocated by screaming libs. But when Christians and pro-lifers are the targets? When a grandmother faces federal prosecution for singing a hymn? The press corps is too busy carrying water for the abortion industry to notice.
Take Clare Ath, a pro-life advocate and senior policy analyst at Human Coalition, just one voice in a vast network of everyday heroes working to make abortion not only illegal, but unthinkable and unnecessary. <a href="https://www.humancoalition.org/impact/blog/how-does-childcare-affect-a-womans-abortion-decision/">Human Coalition</a> has helped rescue tens of thousands of babies through compassionate, holistic care — connecting abortion-minded moms to resources like ultrasounds, counseling, childcare vouchers, GED programs, job assistance, and long-term mentoring. They don’t just protest; they walk with women for years after that first decision to choose life.
That isn&#8217;t extremism. That&#8217;s love with a plan.
Pregnancy resource centers now outnumber abortion facilities nationally, providing hundreds of millions in free support last year: diapers, formula, parenting classes, and adoption referrals. Human Coalition&#8217;s own data supports the theory that when women receive real, substantive support, 76% say they would parent given better circumstances. They choose life. The pro-life movement at its best isn&#8217;t just defensive. It&#8217;s transformative.
The urgency is real. Over 63% of abortions in recent years have been chemical — mifepristone pills mailed via telehealth, often without proper medical oversight. These are increasingly deployed in dangerous, coercive situations: women pressured by partners, traffickers, or circumstance, with little to no follow-up care. Pro-life<a href="https://adflegal.org/article/new-study-1-in-10-abortion-drug-users-suffer-serious-complications/"> researchers have documented complication rates</a> — hemorrhaging, infections, incomplete abortions requiring surgery — far higher than the abortion industry admits. The left cheers this as &#8220;empowerment.&#8221; The women left bleeding and alone would likely describe it differently.
This week, Christians were rightly upset with President Donald Trump for both mocking the pope and depicting himself as Jesus in an AI-generated Truth Social post. As a Catholic, I was irritated and exhausted, I felt similar to <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/ben-affleck-smoking-through-the-pain-of-existence.html">Ben Affleck</a> as he smoked through the “pain of existence.” The Left, predictably, tried to leverage the moment to fracture Christian support for Trump.
However, when you remove yourself from the vacuum, you remember that there is another political party. As exasperated as Trump&#8217;s social media antics can make me, the Left reliably enrages me more. The Biden administration imprisoned Christians for peaceful prayer. It ignored <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-ad-slams-biden-inaction-continued-assault-pro-life-centers-churches">hundreds of violent attacks on churches</a> and pregnancy centers in the aftermath of Dobbs — firebombings, vandalism, explicit Jane&#8217;s Revenge threats — while the FBI was planting informants to monitor &#8220;radical traditionalist Catholics&#8221; inside their own parishes. And Democrats have spent years pushing abortion extremism that directly conflicts with core Christian teaching: taxpayer-funded late-term procedures, mandated gender ideology that violates religious conscience at every level of public life.
Meanwhile, despite his personal flaws and crude rhetoric, Trump has been a staunch defender of the Christian faith. He appointed the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/27/politics/conservative-catholics-gop-supreme-court">three Supreme Court justices</a> who overturned Roe v. Wade, ending a half-century of judicial tyranny, and reinstated pro-life policies like the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/01/27/2026-01519/protecting-life-in-foreign-assistance">Mexico City Policy,</a> protecting billions in foreign aid from funding abortion overseas. He issued executive orders safeguarding religious liberty, spoke at the March for Life, and in his second term moved swiftly to pardon persecuted pro-lifers and create a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/eradicating-anti-christian-bias/">task force against anti-Christian bias</a> in government. Across the globe, his administration has prioritized persecuted Christians and <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/white-house-press-release-president-trumps-top-100-victories-for-people-faith">defended biblical values</a> on the world stage.
Democrats make it easy to forgive our own side’s imperfections. Because over there, across the aisle, the grass isn’t greener. It’s scorched.
It would behoove us all to remember how bad we once had it under Biden and how quickly we could slide back into those dire, dangerous, and despicable times. The radical Left is always waiting, ready to shut you up, shut you down, and steal your freedoms. Christians cannot afford selective amnesia. We vote not for perfection, but for the side that doesn’t treat our faith as the enemy. The stakes — over a <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2026/guttmacher-releases-full-year-2025-abortion-incidence-and-travel-data">million</a> innocent lives every year — demand nothing less.

US-POLITICS-ABORTION-MARCH

Joe Biden Waged All Out War On The Pro-Life Movement

Christians

We now know that the Biden administration was literally partnering with abortion activists to track and imprison pro-lifers.
When I see President Trump and Pope Leo going at it, I think to myself, if we&#8217;re going to talk about presidents who are legitimately attacking Catholics, we should really be talking about Barack Obama, who went after the Little Sisters of the Poor and decided that he was going to mainstream every sin he could find.
We should talk about Joe Biden, who apparently was using the DOJ to go after pro-lifers, which is insane.
According to Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-biden-partnered-with-abortion-activists-to-track-and-imprison-pro-lifers">reporting</a>, President Biden&#8217;s administration relied on information gathered from radical pro-abortion groups to track, prosecute, and snoop on peaceful pro-life protesters who were later arrested by the FBI.
A DOJ report titled “The Biden Administration&#8217;s Weaponization of the FACE Act” examined more than 700,000 records.
The FACE Act is a bill that was designed to prevent people from obstructing entry to abortion clinics. The FACE Act also said that you weren&#8217;t allowed to invade churches during services. That came up in the context of Don Lemon and his friends invading and disturbing a church service in order to protest ICE.
The dossiers that the DOJ examined contained information about pro-life activists who had not yet been charged with any federal crimes, but were deemed threats by abortion groups because of their activism.
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We&#8217;ve seen this kind of pattern emerge in all of the reporting from the Biden administration, over and over and over. They were using left-wing cutout groups to do their dirty work, whether it was the Biden administration State Department contracting out to other services to promote boycotts of right-wing news outlets, or whether it was the Biden administration outsourcing its investigative pursuits to anti-life, pro-choice organizations to target pro-lifers.
The Biden administration liked to do such things.
According to the Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-biden-partnered-with-abortion-activists-to-track-and-imprison-pro-lifers">reporting</a>, the weaponization can be traced to former Attorney General Merrick Garland&#8217;s resurrection of the National Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers the month after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
That task force was operating out of the department&#8217;s civil rights division under the direction of Sanjay Patel, who was <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-fires-4-prosecutors-face-act-biden-administration/">reportedly fired</a> on Monday. Patel was on texting terms with the National Abortion Federation security team and was regularly communicating with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Feminist Majority Foundation, according to the DOJ. Members of the Biden DOJ were coordinating openly with various abortion groups and leaders in the abortion movement.
This was all part of these non-governmental organizations working hand-in-glove with the federal government under Joe Biden. Daily Wire reporting looked into the sentences that were sought by the Biden DOJ against pro-life activists, and what they found is that the Biden DOJ asked for a longer, average sentence for pro-life defendants compared to pro-abortion defendants. Actual sentences shook out to an average of 14 months for pro-life defendants, versus three months for pro-choice defendants.
This is astonishing. It demonstrates the full-scale animus that the Biden administration had for the pro-life movement.
This is nothing new. If you go back to the Clinton administration, the attempt to target political adversaries using the DOJ is perfectly obvious.
I&#8217;ve said over and over that the Left likes to say that Donald Trump broke all the rules, that he&#8217;s the one who killed the American political system.
The reality is that the American political system was already dead, and Trump stumbled upon it. Barack Obama used the IRS to go after pro-life groups, conservative groups, and Tea Party groups. Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ targeted pro-lifers.
There&#8217;s nothing new here. Democrats have been doing this for a very, very long time.
Imagine the scandal if, for example, the Trump administration were coordinating with pro-life groups to go after abortion advocates. Can you imagine the scandal? Can you imagine the front page coverage?
One of the questions here is how people who were involved in this were allowed to stay at the DOJ for so long. Sanjay Patel was still working for the DOJ all the way until Monday, which is crazy and demonstrates the truth of President Trump&#8217;s statement that there is, in fact, a deep state.
There are lifelong appointees of various administrations who are still working inside the current administration — working against the president’s priorities. That&#8217;s very real. It just goes to show you that the attempt to cleanse the administration of holdovers is an ongoing pursuit.
The Democratic Party is perfectly willing to use the auspices of government to go after religious people. They&#8217;ve been doing it over and over and over again. It’s one of the reasons I said to my family that we ought to leave California. My great fear is that states like California will effectively quasi-criminalize religious practice by essentially saying that any 501C3 that receives tax-exempt status from the state government must buy into the left-wing social agenda.
If the Democrats were able to take over the Supreme Court, they would get away with that. They would be able to use anti-discrimination law as a guise for cracking down on First Amendment religiously protected activity. That is the direction that Democrats would love to move. And if left to their own devices, they absolutely would be able to do it.
If the Democrats had won in 2024, Kamala Harris would have attempted to stack the Supreme Court and state governments everywhere would be pursuing anti-religious activity just like this.
The Biden administration was, in my opinion, the worst administration in modern American history, worse even than Obama — because Obama didn&#8217;t say the quiet part out loud.
Biden said the quiet part out loud.

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

How The Biden Administration Targeted Pro-Lifers

Abortion

Ben Shapiro

Joe Biden

Opinion

Prison

The Biden Justice Department helped secure private funding for a major pro-abortion group that helped the Biden administration track and imprison peaceful pro-life protesters, a shocking new report reveals.
The Trump Department of Justice on Tuesday <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1436006/dl?inline">released</a> an 800-page exposé on how the Biden administration weaponized the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act to target pro-life Americans. Originally designed to protect access to abortion clinics and crisis pregnancy centers, the Biden administration used the law largely to target peaceful pro-life protesters.
One of the most striking findings in Tuesday&#8217;s report is that a senior Biden DOJ official, identified as a key prosecutor on FACE Act cases, agreed to serve as a reference for the National Abortion Federation in a private grant application. According to the DOJ press <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-reveals-biden-administrations-weaponization-federal-law-against-pro-life">release</a>, investigators “found no record of ethics approval for the attorney to take an interest in the financial outcome of a party having business before the Biden DOJ.”
Emails show direct communication between DOJ attorney Sanjay Patel and National Abortion Federation officials regarding the request. In a December 2020 email, Patel told National Abortion Federation senior security director Tara Gannon to “Feel free to use me as a reference,” even as internal DOJ discussions acknowledged potential ethical concerns.
At one point, a supervisor suggested Patel consult with an ethics officer before proceeding. However, the report states that DOJ records contain no evidence that such approval was ever sought or granted. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
On Monday, Patel, among at least three other prosecutors, was fired for “weaponizing the FACE act,” according to CBS News.
The issue resurfaced in 2023, when the National Abortion Federation again approached Biden officials for help with a funding proposal. This time, the group requested a written “impact statement” on Justice Department letterhead to support its application, explicitly asking the official to describe their working relationship and the value of National Abortion Federation security operations.
While the DOJ attorney acknowledged he would need permission before complying, internal records show no indication the request was formally approved or denied.
Beyond the grant issue, the report paints a broader picture of what it describes as a “two-way” relationship between the Biden Justice Department and pro-abortion organizations.
According to investigators, communication between Biden officials and outside groups was frequent and often initiated by the department. Advocacy organizations provided tips, intelligence, and referrals related to potential FACE Act violations, sometimes at DOJ’s request, while prosecutors, in turn, shared information and maintained ongoing coordination.
“The Biden DOJ remained in continual contact with pro-abortion groups regarding the FACE Act,” the report states. “Information flowed two ways.”
That relationship effectively extended to operational support as well. When abortion groups raised concerns or sought assistance, Biden officials reportedly helped connect them with federal law enforcement resources, including the FBI. In some cases, the Task Force Director personally facilitated introductions and follow-ups. The level of coordination raises serious questions about impartiality, particularly given the DOJ’s aggressive use of the FACE Act during the same period, often targeting pro-life activists.
The communications revealed in Tuesday&#8217;s report also appear to conflict with testimony from a senior National Abortion Federation official.
During a congressional exchange with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), National Abortion Federation chief legal and strategy officer Talcott Camp was asked whether she had communicated with the Biden Justice Department regarding FACE Act enforcement.
“I have not,” Camp initially said, before qualifying that she “may have had contact” but did not believe it involved enforcement discussions.
However, emails suggest NAF had a far more extensive relationship, including coordination on cases and ongoing communication with Biden DOJ personnel tied directly to FACE Act enforcement efforts.
The report further alleges that while pro-abortion groups enjoyed regular access and responsiveness from Biden officials, pro-life organizations were not afforded the same level of engagement. Investigators found that DOJ prosecutors shared certain information with abortion advocacy groups that was not similarly disclosed to pro-life entities, raising concerns about unequal treatment under the law.
Additionally, the department’s commitment to pursuing FACE Act cases was, according to the report, at times aligned with the priorities and interests of those same outside groups.
“The Biden DOJ committed to pursuing FACE Act cases to support these groups’ interests,” the report states.
The National Abortion Federation has yet to respond to the findings in the report and did not respond to a request for comment.

Screen Shot 2022-06-21 at 1.44.31 PM

How Top Biden Prosecutors Helped Enrich Pro-Abortion Activists

WASHINGTON—In an explosive report released on Tuesday, the Trump administration revealed the lengths to which the Justice Department went under President Joe Biden&#8217;s watch to target religious Americans who opposed abortion.
The Trump Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group reviewed over 700,000 internal records, The Daily Wire has learned, which they distilled into an 800-page report. The document, which details the Biden administration&#8217;s weaponization of federal law to target peaceful pro-life activists, also outlines how the Trump administration plans to correct the previous administration&#8217;s wrongs.
“This Department will not tolerate a two-tiered system of justice,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on Tuesday morning. “No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs. The weaponization that happened under the Biden administration will not happen again, as we restore integrity to our prosecutorial system.”
At the center of the Biden administration&#8217;s efforts is the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a law meant to protect access to pro-abortion and pro-life facilities alike. The Biden administration infamously used the FACE Act to prosecute and imprison peaceful pro-life protesters. And Tuesday&#8217;s report found that &#8220;Biden DOJ senior leadership&#8221; and members of the Reproductive Health Care Providers Task Force &#8220;provided extensive support to abortion clinics&#8221; and &#8220;ignored and downplayed vandalism and attacks against pregnancy resource centers or houses of worship.&#8221;
The DOJ report describes how the Biden-era &#8220;Reproductive Health Care Providers Task Force&#8221; was in constant contact with pro-abortion groups and the clinics they represented while disregarding pro-life groups. As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Leif Le Mahieu <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-biden-partnered-with-abortion-activists-to-track-and-imprison-pro-lifers?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=Original&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=How+Biden+Partnered+With+Abortion+Activists+To+Track+And+Imprison+Pro-Lifers">reported</a>, one Justice Department official often texted an abortion activist and worked to track the travel plans of Christian pro-life activists who had not been charged with any crimes. The emails also show how pro-abortion groups provided dossiers to the Biden DOJ with pictures and information — which was later used by the FBI to make arrests.
Meanwhile, the Task Force attorneys didn&#8217;t communicate with any pro-life pregnancy centers until September 2022 — months after the <a href="https://catholicvote.org/pregnancy-center-attack-tracker/">massive spike in violence against pregnancy centers</a> related to the leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating Roe v. Wade would soon be overturned. Vandals would firebomb, attack, vandalize, or spray-paint the buildings with messages like &#8220;If abortions aren&#8217;t safe, then neither are you.&#8221;
When the Biden Justice Department did address the attacks on pregnancy centers, they merely identified possible contacts &#8220;via a quick Google search and directed Task Force leadership to schedule meetings.&#8221;
&#8220;The Task Force then had several meetings with the pro-life groups identified through that initial outreach and periodically sent them press releases,&#8221; the report states. &#8220;However, internally, CRT attorneys questioned whether to provide pregnancy resource centers with the same resources as abortion clinics, questioning whether these facilities fall under the FACE Act’s scope.&#8221;
Biden DOJ prosecutors were also engaging in inappropriate conduct, the report found. The prosecutors &#8220;knowingly withheld evidence that defense counsel requested to prepare an affirmative defense&#8221; and lied about not having that information available.
For example, in United States v. Gallagher, the defense counsel asked for historical data on FACE Act prosecutions, but the DOJ Task Force Director declined that data, saying he didn&#8217;t keep those records and that the DOJ wouldn&#8217;t provide them.
&#8220;Notably,&#8221; the report says, &#8220;he had this information readily available and decided not to share it with the defendants, despite sharing substantially identical information with NAF.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Video of the FBI&#8217;s arrest of Paul Vaughn of Centerville, Tennessee. DOJ charged him with “conspiracy against rights secured by the FACE Act, and committing FACE Act violations&#8221; for blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic. Paul tells me the footage was taken by his wife. <a href="https://t.co/KSDvLRSrlF">pic.twitter.com/KSDvLRSrlF</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1578464777147326464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
The Biden prosecutors also tried to screen jurors based on their religious beliefs, according to the report: in United States v. Zastrow in the Eastern District of Michigan, assistant United States attorneys allegedly tried to screen jurors based on whether they were conservative or religious &#8220;while not inquiring about liberal counterviews.&#8221;
&#8220;They referred to Christian pro-life views as &#8216;culty&#8217; and lambasted the defendants’ beliefs in the courtroom,&#8221; the report said.
Notably, those assistant United States attorneys complained that they “ended up with a very Catholic magistrate on duty this week and he was very particular about the bond conditions and not infringing on [defendants’] First Amendment rights.”
The report specifically points to the case of Mark Houck, a Catholic father of a large family whose son was attacked by an abortion clinic worker. The Biden DOJ tried to use the FACE Act to prosecute Houck, but lost the case.
In Houck&#8217;s case, &#8220;prosecutors considered and declined a request for the defendant to self-surrender.&#8221; Apparently determined to make an example of Houck, the DOJ sent &#8220;16 FBI agents&#8221; to arrest him in front of his crying children.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Photos from the morning the FBI arrested Mark Houck in front of his children. <a href="https://t.co/NbLq5bnDQa">pic.twitter.com/NbLq5bnDQa</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1577324450902675457?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2022</a></blockquote>
&#8220;When faced with public backlash about the aggressive arrest, the Task Force Director attempted to blame the FBI, rather than address the Biden DOJ’s lack of initial guidance to law enforcement,&#8221; the report states. &#8220;The jury ultimately found Houck not guilty, and DOJ settled a civil claim to compensate for the Biden DOJ’s misconduct.&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s Justice Department argues that the Biden DOJ pursued more severe charges, as well as &#8220;significantly harsher sentences,&#8221; for the peaceful pro-life defendants than the violent pro-abortion defendants, requesting an average sentence of 26.8 months for pro-life defendants compared to the 12.3 months for pro-abortion ones.
&#8220;The Biden DOJ pursued significantly higher sentences (near the top range of sentencing guidelines) for pro-life defendants, while pursuing more lenient sentences against the handful of pro-abortion defendants that it charged,&#8221; the report reads. &#8220;Pro-life defendants were ultimately sentenced to an average of 14 months, while pro-abortion defendants were sentenced to an average of 3 months.&#8221;
Meanwhile, as the National Abortion Federation cozied up to the Biden Justice Department, that same department &#8220;sought to provide funding to pro-abortion groups,&#8221; according to the report.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who was director of the Reproductive Health Care Provider Task Force, served as a reference for the National Abortion Federation&#8217;s application for a &#8220;large, private grant.&#8221;
&#8220;We found no record of ethics approval for a DOJ attorney to take an interest in the financial outcome of a party having business before the Biden DOJ,&#8221; the report says. &#8220;Indeed, it is doubtful that the Biden DOJ could validly give any such ethical clearance for this conflict of interest.&#8221;
The Trump administration says it is determined to rectify the actions of the Biden Justice Department. Tuesday&#8217;s report highlights Trump&#8217;s &#8220;full and unconditional pardons&#8221; of the many pro-life Christians who were targeted in these Biden-era prosecutions.
The Trump Justice Department also dismissed, with prejudice, three Biden-era civil lawsuits against &#8220;non-violent pro-life demonstrators and issued a directive that, moving forward, DOJ prosecutors may only bring FACE Act civil actions and prosecutions in extraordinary circumstances or in cases presenting significant aggravating factors.&#8221;

Democrats laughing

Explosive Report Reveals The Biden Administration’s Disdain For Religious Pro-Life Activists

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It is easy to forget the dystopian excesses of the Covid era: business closures, shuttered schools, and mask and vaccine mandates. A new development in Missouri v. Biden, a Covid-era lawsuit, serves as an important reminder of how precarious our basic freedoms become in the face of a perceived disaster. For the past four years, a coalition of state attorneys general, courageous scientists, and First Amendment advocates waged a counterattack against the federal government’s efforts to strong-arm social media companies into silencing those espousing views contrary to the government-approved narrative. 
Last week, the plaintiffs and the federal defendants submitted a consent decree to the court for approval. The <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520.477.1.pdf">proposed consent decree</a> is both a real win for free speech and a blueprint for further protections necessary to safeguard our First Amendment rights.
That need is underscored by another recent free speech victory by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-dept-reaches-censorship-settlement-with-daily-wire?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Daily+Wire+Wins+Landmark+Free+Speech+Victory+In+Censorship+Lawsuit+Against+State+Department">The Daily Wire</a>, in which the State Department agreed to stop supporting efforts that targeted protected speech by American media outlets. That settlement also imposed ongoing compliance oversight, helping ensure the government cannot quietly return to the same tactics.
The core allegation in Missouri v. Biden was that senior officials across multiple federal agencies had engaged in an unprecedented campaign to coerce and pressure major social media platforms into censoring lawful speech. The plaintiffs argued that the Biden administration had effectively outsourced government censorship to private companies, leaning on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to suppress content related to Covid origins and treatments, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and election integrity.
<div id="attachment_869089" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-869089" class="size-large wp-image-869089" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1915020320-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 10: Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, departs a House Oversight Committee meeting at Capitol Hill on January 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" />Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images</div>
For example, Rob Flaherty, the director of digital media in the Biden Administration, tried to coerce Meta into suppressing posts critical of the Covid vaccine on Facebook, accusing Meta of driving “vaccine hesitancy.” Flaherty even demanded that Meta explain what it would do to suppress anti-vaccine content on WhatsApp, a private messaging application. Flaherty made clear he was not speaking just for himself, but rather for, “the highest — and I mean the highest — levels of the White House.&#8221;
The case bounced between trial and appellate courts, including a stop at the Supreme Court, as judges evaluated the nuances of the thorny, at times novel, claims at issue in the case. With the change in presidential administrations, however, the federal government no longer was the adversary, though it was still the nominal defendant. 
On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” which condemned the types of censorship the plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden had filed suit regarding. With a sympathetic administration in office, the plaintiffs were able to negotiate a consent decree rather than spend many more years embroiled in litigation.
The consent decree is focused on preventing the type of coercion, known as jawboning, that the federal government had used to do indirectly during Covid what it could not do directly: prevent Americans from speaking out in public about the major issues of the day. The parties agreed that the government would no longer take actions designed to bully social media companies into removing or suppressing content containing free speech. The consent decree further prohibits the government from directing or vetoing social media companies’ content moderation policies.
A critical limit in the consent decree, however, exposes the clear need for the government to take protective measures outside the confines of the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit. For technical legal reasons related to standing and jurisdiction, the consent decree is focused on the parties to the case. Rather than enjoin the federal government as a whole, the consent decree binds the Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which engaged in some of the most blatant jawboning efforts during the Covid period. The consent decree further protects only the plaintiffs in the case, that is, the states and individuals who sued the government. (In a bit of poetic justice, two of the plaintiffs, Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, withdrew from the case after accepting senior posts in the Trump administration.)
The Missouri v. Biden plaintiffs are not the only litigants who have prevailed in challenges to Biden-era free speech violations. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-dept-reaches-censorship-settlement-with-daily-wire">reported</a>, this week, a federal judge issued a consent decree in a challenge to the Biden-era State Department’s practice of partnering with outside organizations to label various outlets — including this one and the Federalist — as disinformation. The State Department agreed that it would no longer engage in efforts to suppress, censor, demonetize, or downgrade the constitutionally protected speech of Americans and domestic news outlets. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-dept-reaches-censorship-settlement-with-daily-wire?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Daily+Wire+Wins+Landmark+Free+Speech+Victory+In+Censorship+Lawsuit+Against+State+Department"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1070109 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/dw_vs._state_dept_16x9_720.png" alt="" width="720" height="405" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/dw_vs._state_dept_16x9_720.png 720w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/dw_vs._state_dept_16x9_720-300x169.png 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" /></a>
While these consent decrees are real victories for the plaintiffs who had the courage to take on the federal government in court, they will not stop a future administration from engaging in similar tactics that we saw during Covid, in the wake of the 2020 election, and throughout the Biden Administration. Americans as a whole deserve the robust protections the Missouri v. Biden plaintiffs earned in that litigation. 
Congressional action of any sort is admittedly a difficult feat. But there are few bedrock principles more important than those embodied in the First Amendment. If Congress wants to protect Americans’ free speech rights, the proposed consent decree in Missouri v. Biden is a useful roadmap. All federal agencies and officials, not just the select handful named in the proposed consent decree, should be prohibited from trying to control speech by telling social media companies what content is and is not allowed. And all Americans should be able to speak on social media with the assurance that the government cannot tell social media platforms to silence them.
The plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden and their attorneys should be praised for bringing a landmark lawsuit in the face of tremendous government overreach and achieving a real victory in the process. Congress should follow suit by extending those protections to everyone else.
* * *
Jesse Franklin-Murdock is the Miles Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Liberty, and he is a partner at Sweigart Murdock, LLP in San Francisco, where he specializes in First Amendment and defamation law, political law, and civil rights.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-BIDEN-ARRIVAL

After Daily Wire Legal Win, Americans Shouldn’t Wonder Who’s Silencing Them Online

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WASHINGTON—A civil rights group this week reached a sweeping settlement with the federal government, which will stop agencies from pressuring social media companies to remove or suppress lawful speech.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance announced Tuesday that it had reached a consent decree on behalf of its clients in the case Missouri v. Biden, a long-running case in which the plaintiffs alleged the Biden administration worked with big tech platforms to censor users with opinions it viewed as disagreeable — largely conservatives who deviated from the accepted orthodoxy on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the consent decree, federal entities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Office of the Surgeon General, are prohibited from threatening or coercing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube over content moderation decisions. The agreement also bars officials from directing or vetoing those decisions. 
The settlement is awaiting final approval from U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty. 
The case centers on claims that federal officials coordinated with social media companies to suppress viewpoints that conflicted with government messaging on COVID-19 and other politically sensitive topics. Plaintiffs, including Dr. Aaron Kheriaty and activist Jill Hines, argued that such actions amounted to unconstitutional government censorship carried out through private intermediaries.
NCLA attorneys said discovery in the case revealed what they described as a broad effort spanning multiple agencies and senior officials.
 “This case began with a suspicion that blossomed into fact,” said John Vecchione, a senior litigation counsel with the group. “Freedom of speech has been powerfully preserved by our clients.”
The legal fight has taken multiple turns over the past several years. <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/justices-side-with-biden-over-governments-influence-on-social-media-content-moderation/">In 2024</a>, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court injunction that had restricted government contacts with social media companies, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing at that stage of the case. Despite that setback, the lawsuit continued in district court, ultimately leading to the current agreement.
The settlement also reflects a broader policy shift under the Trump administration, which had previously condemned federal involvement in content moderation. In an early executive order, President Donald Trump criticized what he described as government infringement on Americans’ speech rights. As part of the agreement, the administration acknowledges that labeling speech as “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or “malinformation” does not remove First Amendment protections.
NCLA President Mark Chenoweth said the outcome reinforces a core constitutional principle.
“Federal officials may police the line between lawful and unlawful speech,” Chenoweth said, “but they have no role in deciding if speech is true or false.” The plaintiffs are granted authority to enforce the consent decree if violations occur, giving the agreement ongoing legal weight beyond the initial ruling.
The settlement marks one of the most significant legal developments to date in the ongoing debate over the government’s role in moderating online speech, an issue that has drawn increasing scrutiny from courts, lawmakers, and the public as social media platforms have become central to political discourse.
NCLA said related lawsuits targeting federal agencies and officials over similar allegations remain ongoing.

President Biden Holds NATO Summit News Conference As Questions Surround His Candidacy

Biden’s Social Media Censorship Campaign Is Finally Dead

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Surgeon General

Less than a month before the 2024 presidential election, President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration brought together transgender activists, government officials, and major progressive philanthropists in what organizers dubbed a &#8220;speed dating&#8221; event.
The event, called “Our Family Values: Building the Evidence Base for Child Well-Being,” took place just three weeks before Americans would vote to send Donald Trump back to the White House following a campaign that revolved largely around radical gender ideology. But even as the election seemed to break against them, the Biden White House was working to match leaders of “family acceptance” child welfare programs with major funders of the LGBTQ movement, records show.
Biden officials viewed “family acceptance” of so-called gender identity as an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221204062339/https://mchb.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/mchb/programs-impact/edc-parental-acceptance.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">important</a> step in “preventing” LGBTQI+ children from entering foster care and wanted to further the impact of radical child welfare programs. The goal of the speed dating event was to expand child welfare programs that re-educate non-affirming parents to accept their child&#8217;s “LGBTQI+” identity, <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">records</a> <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-7.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a>.
“We know that family support around LGBTQI+ identity, as early as possible, is a key protective factor against … entry into the child welfare and juvenile justice systems for LGBTQI+ youth,” Julie Kruse, a contracted senior advisor for the LGBTQI+ Initiatives, wrote in an <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">email</a> describing the event. “These programs are critical to preventing LGBTQI+ youth homelessness and entry into foster care.”
Angela Weeks, director of the <a href="https://sogiecenter.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity &amp; Expression Center,</a> was instrumental in setting up the event. On October 13, she sent an email to participants explaining how the &#8220;Partnership Speed Matching” would work.
“You will rotate between tables of philanthropic organizations and ACF leadership. They will be instructed to ask you and question they have of you during the 8-min discussion. When each rotation only has two minutes left, Marlene will give the 2-minute warning, which is the cue for you all to start discussing next steps/collaboration,” Weeks wrote in the <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/speed-date5.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">email</a>. “Try not to leave the table without a next step and a contact person. It will be the purveyor’s responsibility to follow-up.”
At least 14 donors were invited to participate in the speed dating event, along with government officials who came from the Administration for Children and Families, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, records show.
After the event, Kruse sent several follow-up <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/speed-date-6.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emails</a> <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/speed-date-7.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicating</a> the meeting was successful and that donors were interested in funding the family acceptance programs.
“Our great hope is that you made connections and identified resources at this event that will help you take actions to increase the availability of LGBTQI+ family support services, so that children can stay safely in their homes with families of origin and kin, preventing LGBTQI+ youth homelessness and entry into foster care,” wrote Kruse.
Some transgender activists believe refusing to affirm a child’s gender confusion is a form of child abuse. During a webinar hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services in the fall of 2023, one activist called “transphobia” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-harris-hhs-consulted-activist-who-said-parents-should-be-prosecuted-for-transphobia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">child abuse</a> and suggested families should be prosecuted as abusers for refusing to call their gender confused child the opposite sex.
“Biden promised to enforce LGBTQ ideology throughout government systems in his 2020 campaign platform, and no administration has done more damage to child welfare systems,” Laura Hanford, senior policy analyst at the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing, told The Daily Wire. “He funneled millions of dollars to toxic ideological training programs promoting the lie that raising a gender-confused child as his or her sex is abusive, and forcing parents to ‘transition’ their gender-confused children or lose them to the state.”
The organizers of the invitation-only October 16 event hoped to elevate “family acceptance programs” to the scientific standards of the <a href="https://preventionservices.acf.hhs.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prevention Services Clearinghouse</a>, a federal database of social services programming used by child welfare agencies across the country.
“October 16 will focus on building the evidence base (e.g., research, analysis, evaluation) for family support programs that would make them eligible for the Family First Prevention Services, a significant source of federal funds for prevention programs that meet a certain evidence threshold,” Kruse wrote.
The <a href="https://acf.gov/cb/title-iv-e-prevention-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Family First Prevention Services Act,</a> which became law in February 2018, diverted federal funds from supporting children in foster care to programs aimed at <a href="https://www.myflfamilies.com/kids/news/family-first-prevention-services-act-ffpsa#:~:text=The%20Family%20First%20Prevention%20Services%20Act%20(FFPSA),are%20imminent%20risk%20of%20entering%20foster%20care" target="_blank" rel="noopener">preventing children</a> from entering state systems. The <a href="https://acf.gov/opre/project/title-iv-e-prevention-services-clearinghouse-2018-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prevention Services Clearinghouse</a> was established in accordance with the law to provide a systematic process to <a href="https://acf.gov/opre/project/title-iv-e-prevention-services-clearinghouse-2018-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rate and review</a> the quality of evidence supporting prevention programs. The database lists available programming with a rating of  “well-supported, supported, promising, or does not currently meet criteria,” according to its <a href="https://preventionservices.acf.hhs.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. States can receive <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10590" target="_blank" rel="noopener">federal reimbursement </a>for using programs approved by the Prevention Services Clearinghouse.
“The idea was that [the Clearinghouse] was going to give states a list of evidence-based programs that they could choose from and that they would be eligible to receive federal reimbursement if they used those programs,” Naomi Schaefer Riley, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Wire. “If they passed, if they got the Clearinghouse stamp of approval, then states could kind of pick these programs off of a kind of shelf and say, ‘We&#8217;re going to use this one and we&#8217;ll get federal reimbursement for it.’&#8221;
The &#8220;speed dating&#8221; event was co-sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, the Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Child Welfare League of America, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity &amp; Expression Center, the Trevor Project, and Think of Us, records show.
Kruse personally invited Funders for LGBTQ Issues, a philanthropic organization that envisions a “world where all queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people are liberated, loved, valued, respected, and thriving,” to attend the meeting. The group gives approximately $200 million annually to LGBTQ issues, according to its <a href="https://lgbtfunders.org/about/about-mission/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>.
A representative from the organization wrote it was unable to attend the October 2024 meeting but hoped they could “remain in touch to identify future ways we can partner together to advance our shared goals,” emails show. In response, Kruse set up a personal meeting between the Funders for LGBTQ Issues, the Administration for Children and Families, and Weeks.
The Funders for LGBTQ Issues did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment.
The National SOGIE Center is home to a group of activists working to transform social services nationwide through gender affirming programs, many of which are available on its <a href="https://sogiecenter.org/programs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. Members of the group <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/10/14/activists-behind-biden-harris-foster-care-regulation-want-to-strip-custody-from-non-affirming-parents/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worked hand in hand</a> with the Biden administration to inform its September 2023 <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/09/28/2023-21274/safe-and-appropriate-foster-care-placement-requirements-for-titles-iv-e-and-iv-b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">regulation</a> requiring foster care families to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/states-press-hhs-over-illegal-rule-that-could-force-foster-care-providers-to-facilitate-trans-procedures" target="_blank" rel="noopener">affirm</a> a child’s gender confusion.
Weeks had a working relationship with Kruse that was critical in organizing the “Our Family Values” event, records reveal.
In July 2024, Kruse <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/speed-date-8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emailed</a> Weeks and officials from the Administration for Children and Families, HHS, and NIH, to lay the groundwork for the event. The pair stayed in regular communication through November 2024, records show.
The “Our Family Values” event was focused on three programs: Chosen Affirming Finding Family, Youth Acceptance Project, and AFFIRM Caregiver programs, which are all affiliated with the National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity &amp; Expression Center.
The Chosen Affirming Finding Family <a href="https://www.kinnect.org/what-we-do/safe-affirmed-youth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">program</a> helps “LGBTQ+ young people” identify “chosen family” who can provide them support and “works with those people to help them understand the young person’s LGBTQ+ identity and the best ways to affirm and support them with their identity and transition into adulthood,” according to a SOGIE Center <a href="https://sogiecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAFF-1-pager-PDF.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a>.
The <a href="https://familybuilders.org/programs-services/youth-acceptance-project/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Youth Acceptance Project</a> is a program that re-educates parents of children who are “at risk” of entering the child welfare system due to “family stress” surrounding the child’s gender identity.
“The YAP social workers/clinicians provide a trauma-informed, psycho-educational model while partnering with parents/caregivers; supporting them to process misinformation, resistance, fear, and grief that families often struggle with when they learn that their child is LGBTQ+,” a National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity &amp; Expression Center <a href="https://sogiecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/YAP-1-pager-PDF.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a> reads. “The Youth Acceptance Project is designed to work both with families of children already in, or at risk of entering, the child welfare system due to family stress resulting from their child’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.”
Finally, the Affirm Caregiver <a href="https://www.affirmativeresearch.net/register/p/affirm-caregiver-june-2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">program</a> is an educational intervention that enhances “affirmative parenting practices that promote the safety and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth,” according to a National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity &amp; Expression Center <a href="https://sogiecenter.org/programs/affirm-caregiver/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a>.
Parents across the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/murdered-by-gender-ideology-mother-whose-daughter-committed-suicide-blasts-child-protective-services" target="_blank" rel="noopener">country</a> have had their children taken away by child <a href="https://becketfund.org/case/m-c-and-j-c-v-indiana-department-of-child-services/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">welfare</a> <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/10/17/exclusive-gender-confused-kids-taken-non-affirming-parents-one-family-fight-son-back/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">services</a> for affirming their child’s sex.
President Trump called for federal action to protect the rights of parents to affirm the true sex of a gender confused child in his recent State of the Union address.
“Surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Who would believe that we’re even talking about it? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.&#8221;
The Trump administration is taking action to stop the spread of child welfare family acceptance programs.
The Clearinghouse <a href="https://preventionservices.acf.hhs.gov/programs-planned-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> notes that the <a href="https://sogiecenter.org/programs/affirm-youth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AFFIRM Youth</a>, a sister program of <a href="https://sogiecenter.org/programs/affirm-caregiver/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AFFIRM Caregiver</a>, was “removed from the working list of programs and services planned for systematic review,” in accordance with Executive Order 14151.
The Administration for Children and Families at HHS has also alerted all 50 states that affirming “biological reality” does not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal laws. It has also encouraged states to clearly define the terms “abuse” and “neglect,” saying these definitions should clarify that affirming a child’s sex and “refusing to condone sex-rejecting interventions” does not constitute abuse.
The Trump administration has since &#8220;rescinded a Biden-era rule that required prospective foster families to affirm support for a child’s gender transition or sexual orientation in order to receive federal funding,&#8221; Health and Human Services Press Secretary Emily G. Hilliard told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;This requirement discouraged many faith-based families from participating in foster care at a time when the nation is experiencing a record year-over-year decline in foster families. By removing this barrier, ACF is expanding the pool of qualified caregivers and reinforcing its commitment to biological reality, parental rights, and equal access to the foster care system.&#8221;
“The child welfare actions of the Trump and Biden administrations are diametrically opposed,&#8221; Hanford told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Biden&#8217;s programs embedded toxic gender ideology in child welfare systems, leading to gender-confused children being ripped from parents who simply affirmed the reality of their sex. Trump, in contrast, is taking major steps to protect such families from being ripped apart.&#8221;
The Daily Wire reached out to the organizations named in public records as possible attendees of the October 16, 2024, event.
A spokeswoman for Arnold Ventures confirmed it does not fund the family acceptance programs seeking funding at the October 16, 2024, event.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation told The Daily Wire, “Due to our longstanding expertise in child welfare, over the years the Foundation has frequently been invited by the administrations of both parties to events on topics related to foster care and family well-being. As part of that ongoing engagement, a Foundation representative attended the signing of President Trump’s ‘Fostering the Future’ executive order in November 2025.”
A representative from Blue Meridian Partners told The Daily Wire the invited representative did not attend the event and that it has not considered for funding or funded the organizations or programs discussed at the &#8220;Our Family Values&#8221; event.
The Daily Wire requested a comment from the Pritzker Foster Care Initiative, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Child Welfare League of America, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the National Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity &amp; Expression Center, the Trevor Project, Think of Us, Angela Weeks, Julie Kruse, Family Builders (YAP program), Kinnect (CAFF program) and Affirmative Research for comment but did not receive a response.

President Biden Hosts Pride Month Celebration Event

Biden Admin Hosted ‘Speed Dating’ Event For Trans Activists With One Rule

Department of Health and Human Services

LGBTQ

Transgender

Defense officials were pushing for unrestricted lawful use of Anthropic’s AI models. Anthropic agreed—with two caveats. The leading AI company did not want its technology deployed for autonomous weapons systems or for mass domestic surveillance. The Biden administration previously agreed to these terms under a contract in 2024, but Trump administration Undersecretary of War Emil Michael is pushing back.
“I looked at the contracts and was like, holy cow. You can’t use them to plan a kinetic strike. You can’t use their AI model to move a satellite,” Michael said, arguing that the terms are incompatible with the Pentagon’s mission.
“I need to have terms of service be rational relative to our mission set,” he added.
Negotiations reached a climax when the Department of War designated Anthropic as a &#8220;supply-chain risk.&#8221; Historically, that label has only been used for foreign companies. 
During talks, Anthropic agreed to make exceptions to their rules for certain scenarios, such as planning for a drone swarm or responding to a Chinese hypersonic missile—but those carve-outs were not enough for the Pentagon.
“The exceptions [don&#8217;t] work,” said the undersecretary of War. “I cannot predict for the next twenty years all the things we might use AI for, so all lawful use seems like a good thing. If Congress wants to act, great. We have our own internal policies; we’ll follow them. It’s our province to decide how we fight and win wars.”
Michael also raised concerns about operational risk.
&#8220;If they&#8217;re willing to impose red lines that limit lawful military use, what&#8217;s to stop them from enforcing a shutdown if they disagree with how we&#8217;re applying it?” He added, “If in the middle of an operation they decide it violates something and shut it down, that&#8217;s not just unreliable—it&#8217;s dangerous to the troops depending on it.&#8221;
Senior employees at Anthropic have <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=cd133ae2d49e3551&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS1183US1185&amp;sxsrf=ANbL-n6QiThSAILMq57dIAMIniqyHLAwXw:1772902370049&amp;udm=7&amp;fbs=ADc_l-aN0CWEZBOHjofHoaMMDiKpaEWjvZ2Py1XXV8d8KvlI3ppPEReeCOS7s1VbbZz2TLt2sOibMbYx2XAHg-v8xM5VswWDsYo9WtqkvCRRg9-K9YK9-rwJY6otdILLcL1llHf6wa6fD9SWKWQ3hafveoFnDlzP7RXdVXDjm5FT8bTXZrAumtXaqFa-mzfvg6g4QfqAeDxEdIS5054TbMKRJVNt4dwQNA&amp;q=tarun+chhabra&amp;sa=X&amp;sqi=2&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjh0_P_n46TAxXiMlkFHZPEDdEQtKgLegQIFRAB&amp;biw=706&amp;bih=775&amp;dpr=2#fpstate=ive&amp;vld=cid:ee0a1859,vid:09BzmFm6lDU,st:0">publicly acknowledged</a> the company restricts model access when it believes usage violates its policies.
“We know what Russia and China and North Korea and others are trying to do with these models right now. We catch them. We turn it off,” said Tarun Chhabra, a senior member of Anthropic’s national security team, a team involved in negotiations with the Pentagon. Chhabra previously served as a member of Biden’s National Security Council.
Trump administration AI Czar David Sacks has stated that Biden-era policies would cause America to lose the global artificial intelligence race and <a href="https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2028160240974188590">highlighted</a> that many Biden AI staffers have joined Anthropic. &#8220;Guess where those Biden AI staffers went to work as soon as the admin was over? Anthropic.&#8221;
Biden alum Elizabeth Kelly currently leads Anthropic&#8217;s Beneficial Deployments team and Biden&#8217;s special assistant Benjamin Merkel serves as a legislative analyst.
Anthropic told The Daily Wire that while the company has employed staff from the Biden administration, they recently appointed Trump alum Chris Liddell to the company&#8217;s board of directors.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei added that despite the Trump administration&#8217;s unprecedented decision to deem his company a supply-chain risk, the company will allow the Pentagon to continue using its technology. 
“We have offered continuity. We&#8217;re actually deeply concerned about this. We&#8217;re deeply concerned about the kind of interruption of service, which is exactly what&#8217;s happening when we&#8217;re designated a supply chain risk,” Amodei <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-full-transcript/">said</a>.
Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth <a href="https://x.com/SecWar/status/2027507717469049070">confirmed</a> the continued usage, saying, “Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service.”
​​Michael explained the unprecedented designation is needed because he didn’t want the risk of Anthropic’s policy bias to enter into any part of the defense enterprise. “If their model has this policy bias based on their constitution, their culture, their people, I don’t want Lockheed Martin using their model to design weapons for me.”
Dean Ball, a former Trump administration official who left his AI advisory position six months ago, said he sympathizes with Anthropic’s stance.
“I’m very sympathetic to—if I built something that was powerful and dangerous and uncertain, and the government was excitedly buying it for uses that could be very profound in how they affect people’s lives—wanting to be very careful that I didn’t sell them something that went horribly [expletive] wrong. And then I am blamed for it by the public and by the government,&#8221; said Ball.
Anthropic’s position differs from other AI companies. Elon Musk’s Grok and Google’s Gemini agreed the Pentagon could use their software for all lawful use cases.
Anthropic CEO Amodei <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-full-transcript/">told</a> CBS his hesitation to give the Pentagon full lawful use of Anthropic’s technology is because the &#8220;technology is not ready.&#8221; He added, “We don&#8217;t want to sell something that we don&#8217;t think is reliable, and we don&#8217;t want to sell something that could get our own people killed or that could get innocent people killed.”
Secretary of War Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/SecWar/status/2027507717469049070">argues</a> that unelected tech executives such as Amodei should not make that call and should leave operational risk decisions to the United States military, and ultimately, President Trump.
“The Commander-in-Chief and the American people alone will determine the destiny of our armed forces, not unelected tech executives,&#8221; he stated.

Anthropic AI – Photo Illustration

Are Biden-Era AI Ties Behind Pentagon Showdown In Trump’s War Department?

Artificial Intelligence

Defense

Department of War

Executive

Pentagon

Pete Hegseth

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a 28-year-old illegal alien woman convicted of sex crimes against a teenage boy on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire.
ICE agents nabbed Michelle Rodriguez-Berrio, an illegal alien from Colombia, convicted in Utah for sexual contact with a 16- or 17-year-old boy. Rodriguez-Berrio was let into the country under former President Joe Biden in 2022, a DHS spokesman told The Daily Wire.
“In February 2022, this sexual predator alien illegally entered the U.S. and was encountered by Border Patrol. She was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration,” the spokesman said. “On January 26, 2026, Rodriguez was convicted by the Salt Lake City County District Court for the offense of Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old. Thanks to ICE, she is now off American streets and will remain in custody pending removal.”
Rodriguez-Berrio was one of the “worst of the worst” illegal alien offenders detained by ICE agents on Thursday. Others highlighted by DHS to The Daily Wire included:
<blockquote>-Rene Lopez-Balbuena, an illegal alien from Mexico convicted of endangering the welfare of a child and sexual assault of a child in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
-Luis Elias-Santos, an illegal alien from Mexico convicted of second-degree statutory rape in Boone County, Missouri.
-Jeovanny Porras-Rodriguez, an illegal alien from Mexico convicted of trafficking in meth in Buncombe County, North Carolina.
-Leonardo Garcia-Meza, an illegal alien from Mexico, convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Collin County, Texas.</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_1047515" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1047515" class="size-full wp-image-1047515" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-41-PM-4224.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1440" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-41-PM-4224.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-41-PM-4224-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-41-PM-4224-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-41-PM-4224-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-41-PM-4224-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-41-PM-4224-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Elias-Santos/Porras-Rodriguez: DHS.</div>
“Even while facing doxing, threats, harassment and a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them, ICE continues to go after criminal illegal aliens, including pedophiles, violent sex criminals and drug traffickers,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire. “Nearly 70% of all ICE arrests are of illegal aliens convicted or charged of a crime in the U.S. If you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”
Millions of illegal aliens were released into the United States during the Biden administration, many of whom went on to commit crimes, including Jose Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan national who murdered 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.

MixCollage-20-Feb-2026-02-36-PM-7544

Illegal Alien Convicted Of Sex Crime Against Teen Entered U.S. Under Biden

Department of Homeland Security

Illegal Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

U.S.

Utah

Illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra was found guilty in 2024 of the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley — but Friday could mark the beginning of a new trial for the convicted killer.
On Friday, a judge will hear oral arguments from Ibarra’s attorneys claiming that their client suffers from a “congenital deficiency” that could make him “incapable of preparing a defense and standing trial.” They also contend he lacked the mental capacity to knowingly waive his right to a trial by jury.
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who rendered the verdict after Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial, will hear the post-conviction arguments. The oral arguments begin about one year after the Laken Riley Act was passed.
President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law in 2025. The legislation requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain illegal immigrants for crimes including burglary, theft, larceny, and shoplifting. The legislation applies to illegal immigrants who have been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or even just admitted to the crimes. If the act had been passed before Laken’s death, under the act, the federal government would have been required to detain Ibarra for a <a href="https://www.majorityleader.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4359">shoplifting citation</a> earlier that year.
If Haggard grants Ibarra a new trial, competency would become the central issue. If Ibarra is found incompetent, he could be committed to a mental health facility for treatment aimed at restoring competency. Discharge from a psychiatric ward could occur if the ward determines he is not considered a danger to himself or others. Haggard is expected to issue a decision within ninety days of hearing the arguments.
If Haggard grants Ibarra a retrial, it would mean revisiting graphic evidence and testimony, forcing Riley’s family and the university community to relive the case in open court.
Jessica Moore was a senior at the University of Georgia when Ibarra took Riley’s life. She told The Daily Wire, “The feeling that loomed over our campus that day was one that students and the victim’s family should never have to feel again, and a new trial would bring it right back.”
CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/laken-riley-murder-final-texts-mother-trial/">reported</a> that during crime scene testimony, members of Riley’s family and others left as body-cam footage played from the officer who found Riley’s body in a wooded area.
Ibarra’s prosecutor, Sheila Ross, stated: “[Ibarra] put on a black hat, a hoodie-style jacket, and some black kitchen-style disposable gloves, and he went hunting for females on the University of Georgia’s campus.”
She added, “When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly.”
Laken’s death caught national attention when authorities confirmed Jose Ibarra entered the country illegally. At a campaign rally, then-presidential candidate Trump said that Riley “would be alive today if Joe Biden had not willfully and maliciously eviscerated the borders of the United States.”
During Ibarra’s trial, Laken’s mother Allyson Phillips said, “There’s no end to the pain, suffering or loss. On that horrific day, my precious daughter was attacked, beaten, and shown no mercy. … This sick, twisted, evil coward showed no respect of Laken’s life.”

Laken Riley

Laken Riley Case Returns To Court As Killer Seeks New Trial

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