As we lay to rest <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pope-francis">Pope Francis</a>, a man entrusted with the astonishing task of leading <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/262883/worldwide-catholic-population-hits-14-billion#:~:text=Concretely%2C%20there%20has%20been%20a,to%20281%20million%20in%202023." target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.4 billion</a> Catholics worldwide, we must acknowledge that he was a pope who inspired devotion and yet also disillusionment.
The first non-European pope in over a millennium, the first Jesuit to hold the Chair of Peter, and the first to take the name Francis — after the saint of humility and radical poverty — he came to the papacy with the power of symbolism already at his side. But symbols alone do not make a legacy. His pontificate has been marked by deep paradoxes, extraordinary global events, and the unrelenting scrutiny of a digital age that magnifies every gesture, every silence, and every word into global significance.
Pope Francis led the Catholic Church at a time when questions of identity, history, and moral authority were being fiercely renegotiated across every sphere of public life. From the rise of “woke” ideology and the deconstruction of long-standing societal structures, to the counter currents of cultural revivalism and nationalist pushback, the world around the Church was changing — faster and more fundamentally than ever.
To that world, he showed incredible, compelling pastoral sensibility by embracing the very sick, the downtrodden, before the eyes of the world, making him a beloved figure among so many.
No moment captured the spiritual loneliness and universal leadership of Francis more than the evening of March 27, 2020. As the world reeled from the shock of a global pandemic, Francis <a href="https://catholicvote.org/when-pope-francis-became-a-solitary-beacon-of-hope-during-the-worst-days-of-the-covid-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stood utterly alone</a> in the rain-drenched emptiness of St. Peter’s Square. His solitary figure, small under the weight of a sodden white cassock, illuminated by the flickering torches before the Eucharist, became an icon of global grief — and hope. He did not thunder. He prayed. He did not offer a solution. He stood there in the silence of that unforgettable moment.
<div id="attachment_911243" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-911243" class="size-large wp-image-911243" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-1024x576.jpg" alt="Pope Francis gives an extraordianry urbi et orbi blessing in St. Peter's Square, March 27, 2020. | Credit: Vatican Media" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-23-Apr-2025-11-10-AM-5561-2048x1153.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Vatican Media</div>
Yet while he insisted Church doctrine could not and would not be changed, many weary Catholics saw how he loosened the uniquely stalwart position of the Catholic church on issues related to marriage and family. 
On one hand, he condemned abortion, equating it to <a href="https://catholicvote.org/throughout-his-pontificate-a-look-at-pope-francis-statements-on-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;hiring a hitman&#8221;</a> and <a href="https://catholicvote.org/pope-francis-strongly-warned-against-ideological-colonization-gender/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denounced gender ideology</a>; but more than once he gave a <a href="https://catholicvote.org/pope-francis-writes-preface-fr-james-martins-book-about-lazarus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disturbing nod</a> to ministries aimed at changing Church doctrine over gay &#8220;marriage&#8221; and transgenderism, including his brief <a href="https://outreach.faith/2022/05/pope-francis-speaks-to-lgbtq-catholics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exchange</a> with Father James Martin, the founder of the LGBT Catholic ministry, Outreach.
Pope Francis’ handling of clerical sex abuse was also marked by troubling contradictions. On one hand, he <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/pope-issues-updated-vos-estis-text-handling-abuse-cases" target="_blank" rel="noopener">established clearer procedures</a> for investigating abuse and holding bishops accountable and publicly condemned the culture of cover-ups that protected abusers. On the other hand, his actions in high-profile cases like those of <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/cna/father-marko-rupnik-accused-of-abuse-and-returned-to-ministry-a-timeline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fr. Marko Rupnik</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/argentine-catholic-bishop-gustavo-zanchetta-sentenced-sexual-abuse-pope-francis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta</a> raise serious questions about consistency and impartiality.
Perhaps more than any other pontiff before him, Pope Francis lived his entire papacy inside the glass house of modern social media. Every homily, every off-the-cuff remark, and even every carefully crafted document was instantly dissected by millions across ideological, religious, and national divides, though it was often his informality in communication that blurred clarity, allowing ideologues across the spectrum to weaponize his words.
In the echo chambers of the internet, he was often cast simultaneously as a reformer and a betrayer, a prophet and a populist, a revolutionary and a regressive. The speed with which opinions formed around his leadership was unprecedented — and sometimes uncharitable.
In his many interviews and press conferences that often required follow-ups or clarifications, it is clear that he perceived himself as a pope who stood at the crossroads of history amidst the noise of clashing narratives.
In many ways, his legacy will be as divided as his papacy. To his supporters, he will be the “Pope of the Peripheries,” to his critics, the Pope of Ambiguity, leaving behind a trail of confusion and even division that his successor in the papacy will have to deal with.
Francis reminded us that the Pope is both a man and a sign — fragile, flawed, and beloved. We now pray not only for his soul but for the Church he leaves behind: wounded in places and always in need of shepherds who speak with both his tenderness but also with the clarity of truth.
* * *
Kelsey Reinhardt is Director of Media and Evangelization for CatholicVote.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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The Pope Of The Peripheries And Of Paradox

Argentina

Catholic Church

Catholicism

Catholics

COVID

LGBT

Opinion

Pope Francis

The Vatican

Federal agencies appear to be obstructing the release of documents that could provide vital insights into the Biden administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and its broader global health agenda.
The <a href="https://gateway.zscalertwo.net/_sm_ctn?_sm_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phralliance.org%2F&amp;_sm_rid=0kNJfQq1Jt3Vss1PNfNQFtvvn7McsctQP4Jq0TN&amp;_sm_cat=Miscellaneous%2Bor%2BUnknown">Public Health Reform Alliance</a>, an organization that advocates for increased transparency in the public health bureaucracy, submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in October 2024, asking for the communications of Biden’s United States Global Health Security Coordinator, Stephanie Psaki. Psaki is the sister of Jen Psaki, who was Biden&#8217;s White House press secretary.
The government has thus far prevented the release of information, with the OSTP and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) each denying that they have the documents, and redirecting the requester to the other agency.
There has been a massive political and social backlash to the secrecy, and apparent lies, regarding the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Americans&#8217; lives were upended in the wake of the virus and the ensuing response from the government. Years after businesses were shuttered, vaccines were mandated, and students were held out of schools, Americans are still largely in the dark about what science it was all grounded in and how we&#8217;re working to make sure it never happens again.
The Public Health Reform Alliance has run into a series of roadblocks as its attempted to obtain documents that it says would shed light on the prior administration&#8217;s approach to an issue that intimately impacted the lives of everyday Americans. Its director, Martin Hoyt, told The Daily Wire that Psaki’s communications could be vital for understanding the government’s approach to global health issues, and for forecasting how the government might respond to future crises.
“After enduring the most serious public health emergency in a century, these communications may be an integral part of the U.S. government&#8217;s next response to a pandemic or health security threat. This is an issue of transparency,” Hoyt explained. “We need to understand the extent to which our public health establishment was aligned with, followed or bucked the guidance of unaccountable, politicized and possibly compromised bodies like the WHO.”
The younger Psaki served as a Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Gender Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services&#8217; Office of Global Affairs before taking her post at OSTP.
The Biden administration explained the <a href="https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Global-Health-Security-Strategy-2024-1.pdf">role</a> of the OSTP, writing in one report that it is tasked with leading “interagency science and technology policy coordination efforts” while also serving “as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans, and programs of the Federal Government.”
OSTP rerouted the request from the Public Health Reform Alliance, informing the organization that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) would handle the request for the documents.
“OSTP was unable to locate any responsive records because they have been transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration,” the office said in a February 19 email viewed by The Daily Wire.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-906571 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/OSTP-FOIA-300x300.png" alt="" width="625" height="625" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/OSTP-FOIA-300x300.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/OSTP-FOIA-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px" /></div>
NARA then told the Public Health Reform Alliance on March 3 that it had received the request, before going on to inform the organization that it did not have custody of the documents in a follow up email on March 19. NARA then directed the Public Health Reform Alliance back to the OSTP, despite the White House office previously stating that the documents had already been transferred.
“I have confirmed this morning that the National Archives does not yet have legal custody of the records from the Office of Science and Technology Policy from the Biden administration,” the March 19 email read. “I apologize for routing you back to them, as I know they sent you to us, but until such time as legal custody is transferred, the Office of Science and Technology Policy must be the agency to respond to you.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-906581 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/NARA-FOIA-300x148.png" alt="" width="857" height="423" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/NARA-FOIA-300x148.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/NARA-FOIA-1024x505.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/NARA-FOIA-768x379.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/NARA-FOIA.png 1278w" sizes="(max-width: 857px) 100vw, 857px" /></div>
Then, after being directed to NARA by OSTP and back to OSTP by NARA, OSTP told the Public Health Reform Alliance again that it would have to receive the documents from NARA in a March 20 email.
“We submitted a search to the e-discovery component prior to the final letter. That search returned zero hits because the files have been transferred to NARA as indicated in our final correspondence,” that email from OSTP to the Public Health Reform Alliance read.
“The American public lived and, tragically, died by the government&#8217;s edicts and recommendations,” Hoyt told The Daily Wire. “The American public deserves to know how they were formulated as well as the true intent and direction that this government planned to lead the nation for the next five years.”
Neither the OSTP nor NARA responded to a request for comment.

Biden getting vaccine

They Went Looking For Biden’s Global Health Strategy Plan. It’s Nowhere To Be Found.

Biden Administration

Coronavirus

COVID-19

Health

The Biden administration reportedly hid a 2022 report from the Defense Department that stated seven military members might have contracted COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, as early as October 2019.
The <a href="https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2019-World-Military-Games-Report-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">December 2022 report</a> from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness examined “the number of United States athletes and staff who attended the 2019 World Military Games and became ill with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-like symptoms during or shortly after their return to the United States.”
It added, “The Department of Defense (DoD) has concluded through correspondence with the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and United States of America Medical Director in charge of the safety and health of the participants in the 2019 World Military Games, that 7 Service members who attended the games exhibited COVID-19- like signs and/or symptoms during the timeframe of October 18, 2019 through January 21, 2020. The COVID-19-like symptoms could have been caused by other respiratory infections. All 7 Service members&#8217; symptoms resolved within 6 days.”
“The December 2022 report, which the Biden administration was required by law to release to the public over two years ago but didn’t, reveals for the first time that seven U.S. military service members contracted COVID-19-like symptoms during or after their participation in the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019—contradicting the Biden administration’s public claims in 2021 that there was no evidence that any American participants contracted the virus at those games,” <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-administration-concealed-congressionally-mandated-report-on-earliest-suspected-american-covid-cases/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Free Beacon</a>, which broke the story, noted, adding, “The revelation adds to a mounting body of evidence that the virus was circulating in Wuhan for months before China disclosed it to the world in December 2019 and further bolsters the growing consensus that it could have leaked into the human population from a Chinese lab.”
The report was not made public until last month when the Trump administration uploaded it to the Department of Defense website.
“The U.S. team used chartered flights to and from the games via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Washington was one of the earliest states to show a spike in COVID-19,” The American Prospect<a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/did-the-military-world-games-spread-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reported</a> in June 2020.
In May 2020, The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8327047/More-competitors-reveal-ill-World-Military-Games.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that athletes from different countries suspected they might have contracted COVID-19 at the 2019 World Military Games. French pentathlete Elodie Clouvel said she and her partner Valentin Belaud contracted COVID-19 at the Games. Italian fencer Matteo Tagliariol claimed everyone in his Wuhan apartment got “symptoms that looked like those of Covid-19.” Jacqueline Bock of the German volleyball team said, “After a few days, some athletes from my team got ill. I got sick in the last two days. I have never felt so sick. Either it was a very bad cold or Covid-19. I think it was Covid-19.”
“Taxpayers deserve to know the truth about COVID-19 origins, but the Biden administration concealed this information from the American people for years,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) told the Free Beacon. “This report should have been made public immediately and not restricted to Washington insiders. If Americans visiting Wuhan were potentially infected with the COVID-19 virus in October 2019, those claiming the pandemic began in a wet market just two months later would be completely off base.”

7th CISM Military World Games

Biden Admin Reportedly Hid Report That Service Members May Have Gotten COVID In Wuhan — In Oct 2019

Athlete

China

Joni Ernst

World

Wuhan

Wuhan Institute of Virology

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) top vaccine official, who played a key role in Operation Warp Speed, has reportedly been pushed out of the agency.
Dr. Peter Marks, who served as the Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the FDA, submitted his resignation letter on Friday, after he was informed he would be fired if he didn&#8217;t resign, sources <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/top-vaccine-official-out-at-fda-f39a5a16" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Wall Street Journal.
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“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks said in his resignation letter, referring to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“My hope is that during the coming years, the unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation comes to an end,” Marks added.
An unnamed HHS official suggested Marks was pushed out because he refused to get on-board with Kennedy&#8217;s agenda. “If Peter Marks does not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy,” the official told the Journal.
Marks was with the FDA since the Obama administration, starting in 2012. During his tenure, he oversaw vaccines, biotech drugs, and blood products, and helped ensure that vaccines were effective and safe. His resignation takes effect on April 5.
The ouster follows numerous vaccine-related moves from RFK. As previously reported by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mahas-latest-wins-on-fluoride-food-and-vaccines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a>, under Kennedy&#8217;s leadership, the National Institutes of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/10/vaccines-nih-rfk-research-canceled/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health</a> will stop spending money to find out why Americans are hesitant to take vaccines. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is studying whether there is any link between vaccinations and the rise in autism.
Kennedy announced this week that he’s restructuring HHS and terminating tens of thousands of employees. “What I found when I came to HHS, is really a sprawling bureaucracy. We have over 100 communications departments — we should have one. We have 40 IT departments, 40 procurement departments, dozens of HR departments,” Kennedy <a href="https://x.com/michaeljknowles/status/1905403551024554014" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Daily Wire host Michael Knowles</a>. “And that is where we’re doing the cuts. We’re going down from 82,000 personnel to 62,000.”
“We’re keeping the scientists, we’re keeping the front-line providers,” he added. “We trying to do our best, not only to serve as stewards of the taxpayer money, but also to make the agency more efficient.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doge-meets-hhs-rfk-jr-to-terminate-20000-bureaucrats-restructure-department" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘DOGE Meets HHS’: RFK Jr. To Terminate 20,000 Bureaucrats, Restructure Department</a>
</div>

Dr. Peter Marks

Top FDA Official, Who Played Key Role In COVID Vax, Reportedly Forced Out

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump Administration

U.S.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set today to discuss peace and “dividing up assets” with Ukraine. Trump pushes ahead with deporting violent gang members, despite legal efforts to bring them back to the United States. And new reports show both British and German intelligence believed COVID-19 was created in a lab, but chose to suppress those findings.
It’s Tuesday, March 18, and this is news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-putin-phone-call-covid-lab-leak-coverup-3-18-25/id1576594336?i=1000699614850" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2> Putin/Trump Face-off</h2>
<div id="attachment_893213" style="width: 927px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-893213" class="wp-image-893213 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-917x576.jpg" alt="" width="917" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-917x576.jpg 917w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-300x188.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-768x483.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-1536x965.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Putin-vs-Trump-2048x1287.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 917px) 100vw, 917px" />(Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: President Donald Trump is set to hold a potentially pivotal phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin today as the two sides move closer to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Last week, the Trump administration proposed a 30-day pause in the fighting to allow for formal peace negotiations to kick off. The Ukrainians accepted that deal, prompting the United States to renew weapons shipments to Kyiv, but the Russians were more hesitant to agree on a ceasefire. At the moment, it seems that Putin will only agree to the deal if he has assurances that the United States would pause new weapons shipments to Ukraine and that Ukraine would not be allowed to mobilize new forces during the 30 days.
Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that &#8220;the Russians say &#8216;We support a ceasefire, but …&#8217; And then after the &#8216;but,&#8217; they start coming with various details to delay the process.” He says Putin is well aware that Western support for Ukraine is starting to dwindle and wants to drag out the ceasefire process to allow his forces to gain as much territory as possible ahead of negotiations, so he’ll have more leverage.
To that point, Moscow has recently launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region — a territory in Russia that had fallen into Ukrainian hands last summer after a surprise incursion. Putin claims thousands of Ukrainian troops there are currently surrounded — he called on them to “lay down their arms and surrender” in exchange for their lives. The longer a ceasefire is delayed, the more time Putin will have to close in on those troops. For that reason, among others, Zelensky is calling on Trump to exert pressure on Moscow to accept the ceasefire. Over the weekend, he issued a plea for &#8220;maximum additional sanctions&#8221; on Russia if they continue to stall — for his part, Trump said “we can” do that, but “I hope it’s not necessary.”
The Terms: Putin has shown a clear willingness to continually throw Russians into the frontlines and is unlikely to end the war if it means coming back empty-handed. Specifically, he wants to formally retain control of Crimea and the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. Zelensky has insisted that he’ll never cede land to Putin, but at this stage, it’s all but guaranteed he’ll have to agree to some land being lost in order to end the war.
The potential deployment of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine will likely be another point of contention in negotiations. Putin has made clear from day one that he will never agree to a deal that includes NATO membership for Ukraine — Europe and the United States seem to have conceded that point. As an alternative, Ukraine has pushed for European peacekeepers within its borders after the war. European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, have already agreed to provide boots on the ground, although it remains unclear if Putin will accept a European-backed security guarantee.
<h2>Trump Deports Illegal Gang Members</h2>
<div id="attachment_892595" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-892595" class="size-large wp-image-892595" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-864x576.jpg" alt="SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR - MARCH 16: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT - 'EL SALVADOR PRESIDENCY / HANDOUT' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) More than 250 suspected gang members arrive in El Salvador by plane, including 238 members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang and 23 members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the US in San Salvador, El Salvador on March 16, 2025. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele confirmed they will be sent to the country's infamous mega-prison at CECOP facility prison. San Salvador forces took heavy security measures. (Photo by El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/GettyImages-2204881261.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images</div>
Topline: A showdown over a planeload of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members has pitted immigrant activists against Trump. The administration is moving forward with the deportation of more than 250 individuals despite legal moves from the ACLU.
On Friday night, President Trump signed an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allowed suspected gang members in the country illegally to be deported without a judicial hearing. The signing wasn’t promoted, but the media caught wind of it on Saturday morning. The ACLU quickly filed a lawsuit trying to stop the deportations &#8212; a court order issued by federal Judge James Boasberg temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting illegals under the 18th-century statute. By Saturday afternoon, however, the planes were already in the air, having departed from Texas to El Salvador, where the deported were to be housed in a prison for gang members. The Trump administration claims that by the time Judge James Boasberg’s order was issued, the flight was already outside United States airspace.
Border czar Tom Homan dismissed Judge Boasberg’s order, saying he and Trump will not stop until America is safe. “Every day, the men and women of ICE are going to be out there arresting criminal illegal aliens,” Homan said. “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the Left thinks. We’re coming.”
The Trump DOJ filed a response to Boasberg’s order contesting the authority of a single judge to halt national policy efforts. “Plaintiffs cannot use these proceedings to interfere with the President’s national-security and foreign-affairs authority.” One senior official told Axios that there were discussions in the administration about whether the planes needed to turn back, but after meeting with legal counsel, they decided they could proceed with the deportations.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that “if the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that&#8217;s a fight we are more than happy to take.” Trump and his team are testing the limits of executive power and likely expect this to be settled by the Supreme Court.
Judge Boasberg told the DOJ to provide details on the flights in a sworn declaration by noon ET today.
The Numbers: In the first 50 days of the Trump administration, ICE made more than 32,000 enforcement arrests, just a hair shy of the total number of arrests made in all of fiscal year 2024. Nearly half of those arrested were convicted criminals and about a third had pending criminal charges, meaning 75% of those arrested were accused or convicted criminals. Illegal border crossings also fell by 94% in February compared to the previous year, and illegal encounters at the Del Rio Sector declined by 99% since 2023.
<h2>Covid Lab Leak Proof</h2>
<div id="attachment_893205" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-893205" class="wp-image-893205 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-1024x540.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="540" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-300x158.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-768x405.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-1536x810.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/Lab-Leak-Image-2048x1080.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />(Photo by Kobus Louw via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: We learned this week that the former head of the U.K.&#8217;s foreign intelligence agency told the British prime minister in early 2020 that COVID-19 escaped from the infamous Wuhan lab. The revelation follows reports out of Germany showing that its government allegedly had similar information, as did the United States and China.
This week, a memo sent by the former head of MI6 to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed that as early as 2020, British intelligence believed that COVID was leaked from a Chinese lab and that the Chinese government was conducting an international disinformation campaign to avoid taking responsibility for an outbreak that would go on to kill millions of people.
The memo says, beyond a reasonable doubt, “the Wuhan Institute of Virology retro-engineered a bat virus in January 2020. We surmise that this was done to align with COVID-19 to sustain the natural causation narrative.”
The German Connection: A few days before the British announcement, two major newspapers in Germany revealed that the German foreign intelligence service, their version of the CIA, had also believed that there was an 80 to 90 percent chance that the coronavirus had leaked from a Chinese lab.
“The implications of this conspiracy &#8212; I think it&#8217;s the correct word in this case &#8212; are pretty significant,” independent journalist Michael Shellenberger told Morning Wire. “It would suggest that the U.S., U.K., Chinese, and German governments all knew that the virus escaped from the lab, arguably as early as January, and we had reported that the U.S. intelligence community had known, in fact, the names of the first three people to be infected by the Covid virus, and that didn&#8217;t come out.”
Congressional investigations <a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/meeting/house/114270/documents/HHRG-117-GO24-20211201-SD004.pdf">found</a> that the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where COVID-19 is thought to have originated, received funding for gain-of-function research on coronaviruses from the American National Institute of Health.
Shellenberger told Morning Wire that the memo “obviously implicates a number of senior American officials, including Anthony Fauci, but it may have meant that our response to the virus may have been different had we known that it had come from a lab.” Fauci was issued a preemptive pardon by former President Joe Biden shortly before President Trump took office. Trump has argued that Fauci’s blanket pardon is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-declares-pardons-biden-gave-during-his-final-days-in-office-void">“void”</a> because it was signed with an autopen.

JAPAN-G20-SUMMIT

Morning Brief: Trump And Putin Talk Terms, Deportations Continue, And The Lab Leak Gets More Proof

Communist China

Deportations

Illegal Immigration

Politics

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel allegedly covered up a report from her country&#8217;s foreign intelligence service that concluded that the likelihood that the coronavirus pandemic originated from a Chinese lab was overwhelming.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), German&#8217;s version of the CIA, conducted an intelligence gathering operation dubbed “Saaremaa” that concluded that there was an 80%-95% likelihood that the pandemic originated during a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The findings were contained in a report from a joint investigation by two German newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, that alleged Merkel decided to keep the bombshell that she learned about in 2020 “under lock and key.”
Merkel likely made the decision to keep the explosive report secret at least in-part because she did not want to help President Donald Trump&#8217;s re-election prospects in 2020 when much of the world resisted his well-founded claims that China was responsible for what happened.
The report and its coverup by Merkel are likely to sink her approval numbers even lower as she grapples with facing intense backlash over her disastrous policies that have wreaked havoc on her country and Europe.
The backlash against Merkel hit new levels after she wrote a new memoir hoping to “secure her crumbling legacy,” The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/angela-merkel-german-people-to-blame-for-the-problems-millions-of-refugees-are-causing">reported</a>, which noted that “the effort is backfiring.”
The more than 700-page book was “riling up even some of her most ardent supporters” because she does not believe that any of her failed policies were bad for the country — including allowing millions of Muslim refugees from the Middle East to be resettled in Germany.
Powerful German state broadcaster ARD titled the headline of their report on her book: “Much pride, little self-reflection.”
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party blame her directly for the problems that the country is facing and they say that her memoir is making things even worse.
“The publication of this unrepentant, self-righteous book at a time of economic and political turmoil like this is hurting [her political party],” said former senior Merkel official Nico Lange.
The report said that her approval rating has plummeted from her time as a popular elected official to someone that the German public has turned against. Her allies overseas have abandoned support for her, the report said.
The most shocking part of the report focused specifically on her retelling of why she allowed millions of Muslim refugees into Germany.
Merkel said that it was “fully irrelevant whether they had a right to stay in Germany or not” when she let them enter the country.
She then blamed the German people for the problems that the refugees have caused:
<blockquote>The consequences—failed integration, ballooning welfare spending, rising crime, political polarization—can be partly blamed, she writes, on Germans’ lack of “will to change.”
In the decade since she instituted her open-door policy, immigration has changed the face of Germany and its political dynamics. An average of around 400,000 immigrants—the population of a large German city—have entered each year, and Germany now spends as much on refugees as it does on defense.</blockquote>
The report noted that the phrase that Merkel repeatedly used to justify her failed policies — that she had “no alternative” but to do what she did — served as the inspiration for the Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

GERMANY-POLITICS-VOTE-MERKEL

Angela Merkel Covered Up Explosive German Intel Report Blaming Chinese Lab For Pandemic

Angela Merkel

Germany

The following is an excerpt taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039">Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, And Traitors Who Killed The California Dream And Now Threaten Us All</a>” By Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. (Center Street/Hachette, March 2025)
* * *
The Failed Progressive Vision
Under Newsom’s watch, violent crime in California has skyrocketed. Homicides jumped by 33.9 percent and aggravated assaults by 25.3 percent in 2022, with gun‑related homicides and aggravated assaults soaring by 37.7 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively. The actual rates are likely much higher. Crime data only captures incidents reported to police, and many crimes go unreported.
The rapidly rising crime rates didn’t just occur in a vacuum. They directly correspond with Newsom’s decade‑plus‑long progressive experiment with criminal justice reform, which has resulted in far lighter sentences and the premature release of violent criminals from jail. After Newsom released tens of thousands of prisoners during COVID, ostensibly to prevent the virus from spreading among California’s incarcerated criminals, the state prison population dropped from 160,000 in 2011 to around 91,556 by mid‑2024. As we discuss in Chapter 4, Newsom has been accused of releasing these prisoners under a false premise. COVID death rates in the state­ corrections system have been markedly lower than in the outside population. Even as crime surges, Newsom’s administration estimates the prison population will drop to roughly 86,000 by 2028.
Newsom is not only emptying prisons; he is also shutting them down. His administration has closed or is closing four state prisons, and has plans to “reimagine and transform” San Quentin, the state’s oldest and most notorious prison (and previous home to the largest “death row” in the United States), into a rehabilitation center. “We are literally tearing down walls to reimagine our prison system, incentivize true rehabilitation, and end cycles of violence and crime,” Newsom said in a 2024 press release. “Brick by brick, we’re building a new future that will make all of us safer.” But Newsom cited no evidence that the state is growing safer because there is none. As we will explain in Chapter 5 the state’s corrections agency won’t disclose rehabilitation results for the years Newsom has served in review copy office. Again, Newsom and the progressives’ failed COVID policies exacerbated the problem. During the pandemic, when millions were out of work and the state had the highest unemployment in the nation, flash mobs of masked robbers stormed through the doors of Nordstrom and other high‑end retailers in San Francisco and Greater Los Angeles, stealing thousands of dollars of purses, clothes, and jewelry. This type of organized retail theft has become such a massive problem that many retailers are closing their doors for good. By mid‑ 2024, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, Office Depot, 7‑Eleven, and Denny’s all announced plans to close stores in downtown San Francisco or nearby Oakland. Starbucks and Target have also closed locations.
<div id="attachment_890669" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-890669" class="size-large wp-image-890669" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg" alt="Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/91tKIgq7KIL._SL1500_.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Cover copyright: 2025 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.</div>
Newsom attributes business closures in downtown San Francisco to “macroeconomic” shifts, not rampant theft, drug use, and violent crime. In August 2023, downtown San Francisco was such a hotbed of crime, homelessness, and drugs that the US Department of Health and Human Services advised employees at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in the Tenderloin District to work remotely “for the foreseeable future.” Showing up for work at the building had become just too dangerous.
In January 2024, California’s homegrown, beloved burger joint, In‑N‑­Out Burger, announced that it would close a store for the first time in its ­seventy‑five‑year history, citing crime. The franchise no longer considered the store near Oakland International Airport safe for operation. “We feel the frequency and severity of the crimes being encountered by our customers and associates leave us no alternative,” the company said. “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our customers and associates are regularly victimized by car break‑ ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.”
Southern California isn’t faring much better. More and more businesses in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, even on once tony and vibrant Wilshire Avenue, have boarded up due to vandalism, crime, and homelessness scaring customers away.
“Mayor, we need your help. We need your help in this area,” Sean James, an independent contractor who runs a business in Santa Monica pleaded in an interview with a local Fox News affiliate.
The surge in violent murders, rapes, organized retail thefts, and other crimes that shock the conscience are directly the result of Newsom’s failed progressive vision and can be laid squarely at his feet. Back in 2014, when Newsom was lieutenant governor, he was the highest‑ranking official pushing the specific progressive ballot measure responsible for the chaos: Proposition 47. This was the George Soros–backed policy that decriminalized drug, property crimes, and even certain sex crimes. Prop. 47 turned theft of items valued under $950, and some drug offenses, from felonies to misdemeanors. Newsom vocally supported the progressive activists and organizations pushing Prop. 47, while his boss, then‑Governor Jerry Brown, remained quiet. The measure passed by a wide margin.
Despite the bedlam that has ensued, Newsom now seems in denial over the disastrous effects of Prop. 47. In early 2024, he revealed that he witnessed a shoplifter steal from Target without workers intervening to stop. When he confronted an employee about it, the woman blamed the California governor for passing laws that emboldened criminals — before realizing he was in fact the governor. “Why didn’t you stop him?” Newsom recalls asking the Target employee. “The governor lowered the threshold &#8230; there’s no accountability,” the employee said. Newsom’s description of the encounter was widely ridiculed for his failure to recognize the obvious truth in the Target employee’s accusation. 
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Gold-Radicals-Traitors-California/dp/1546008039" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fool’s Gold</a>” by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. Published by permission of Center Street/Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2025 by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter.
Susan Crabtree is senior White House and national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
Jedd McFatter is the director of research at Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

California Governor Newsom Announces New Funding For Los Angeles Communities Affected By Wildfires

Newsom Let Thousands Of Prisoners Walk During COVID. Then Crime Skyrocketed.

Books

California

Crime

Criminal Justice

Democrats

Gavin Newsom

Leftists

Prisons

Progressivism

San Francisco

Violent Crime

President Trump recently signed an executive order to reinstate service members kicked out of the military for refusing to receive the COVID vaccine. The EO states they will be given their former rank, full back pay, and benefits. While this EO is a crucial first step, it doesn’t go far enough.
In addition to the provisions of the EO, an adjudication board, court martials, and support for those vaccine injured are needed to repair the considerable damage. To understand why the EO is insufficient to repair the military and restore trust, one must first understand the extent of the damage the mandate caused.
The mandate destroyed careers and upended lives. Over 8,000 troops were involuntarily kicked out for refusing to take the vaccine while tens of thousands more chose to leave after facing career hardships and the real possibility of being kicked out.
Service members’ religious rights were trampled as individual accommodation requests were dismissed wholesale in a manner so blatantly unconstitutional, injunctions were issued by federal judges to put a stop to these illegal practices. Meanwhile, troops with pending religious accommodation requests were de facto punished for even submitting an exemption as they couldn’t deploy, travel TDY (temporary duty), or PCS (permanent change of station) to future duty assignments.
The unvaccinated were harassed and suffered disparate treatment. They often had to wear masks while the vaccinated did not, were subjected to weekly COVID tests, were denied use of facilities such as the gym during certain hours designated only for the vaccinated, and were quarantined for extended periods of time. At some training environments, the unvaccinated were ordered to wear red wrist bands and red tape on their gear to indicate their “unclean” status.
Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his flag officers did everything in their power to coerce service members to get the vaccine and punish those who refused.
Even worse, some who received the COVID shot were medically injured, including with life altering ailments. The extent of this damage is unknown as information provided by the Department of Defense from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) has been incomplete.
To add insult to injury, the mandate was likely illegal as many troops claim no FDA approved product was available as required by 10 U.S. Code § 1107a.
All of this has no doubt contributed to the worst recruiting crisis in modern history.
Given this extensive damage, three things must be done to make this right.
First, there must be an adjudication board to repair the careers of affected troops. Those who refused the vaccine lost out on deployments, career enhancing schools, and promotions; received adverse paperwork for refusing to comply with a “lawful order”; and likely received bad evaluations for not being a “team player.” An adjudication board will assess these lost career opportunities and help affected service members get their careers back on track, not simply return them to their same rank. Failure to repair their careers would mean punishment even if they returned to service.
Second, to ensure this never happens again, flag officers who enforced this unlawful order and persecuted their subordinates must be held accountable through court martial. Trump’s service secretaries have the authority to conduct these court martials and can even recall retired flag officers to active duty so that they can be tried. Firing a few Generals so they can receive a fat retirement check and find jobs in the Military Industrial Complex won’t cut it. Their actions caused irreparable harm to service members and to restore trust, there must be real accountability.
Third, there must be an investigation into the health effects of the COVID shots on service members and medical compensation for those who have been vaccine injured. Troops, often against their will, were ordered to take an experimental shot with known negative side effects. Many of them now report adverse reactions and some of them experienced life altering ailments. These service members must receive TRICARE for life and the Department of Veterans Affairs must add reactions from the COVID shot to be covered as a Toxic Exposure Risk Activity (TERA) under the PACT Act.
President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are committed to making the military lethal and taking care of service members. This initial EO reinstating those kicked out with backpay is greatly appreciated. However, more needs to be done to repair the extensive damage, restore trust, and prevent similar overreach in the future.
With a better understanding of the harmful effects of the COVID vaccine mandate, I believe President Trump and Secretary Hegseth will seek broader repair and accountability. This must include an adjudication board, court martials, and care for the vaccine injured.
* * *
<a href="https://johnfrankman.com/">John Frankman</a> was a Captain in the U.S. Army who served as a Green Beret assigned to 7th Special Forces Group. On July 1st, 2023, he was forced out of the Army due to difficulties with the COVID 19 vaccine mandate.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Army Hosts Air Assault Operations Training Exercises At Fort Carson In Colorado

Why Trump’s Order To Restore Unvaccinated Troops Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Why Trump’s Order To Restore Unvaccinated Troops Doesn't Go Far Enough

Pete Hegseth

President Trump

U.S. Army

U.S. Military

Vaccine Mandate

A North Carolina citizen group is asking the Trump administration to intervene after local leaders prioritized Hurricane Helene small business relief grants on the basis of race and sex. 
Western North Carolina Citizens for Equality filed a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/OCRUSTreasury.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complaint</a> with the Treasury Department last month after Buncombe County announced that it would “focus” on supporting small businesses damaged by Helene that were “BIPOC” and “women” owned. Buncombe County, home to liberal Asheville, funded the program by using repurposed federal COVID relief funds. 
“In this situation, there is no doubt that Buncombe County intended to discriminate against white business owners in its Helene Relief Project. The County directed that the funds be used in manner that prioritizes one group of business owners over another based solely on skin color,” WNC for Equality President Carl Mumpower wrote in a civil rights complaint filed with the Treasury Department. 
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, all Democrats, <a href="https://www.buncombecounty.org/common/Commissioners/20241119/PH%203_PRESO_Helene%20Relief%20Small%20Business%20-%2011_19_24%201.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rolled out</a> its small business relief grant program in November, announcing it would prioritize helping businesses not owned by white men. The program would make business owners eligible for tens of thousands of dollars in repurposed American Rescue Plan funds.
The county said that the “focus” area of the small business support program would be “BIPOC-owned businesses,” “women-owned businesses,” and “sole proprietorships.” 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-876733" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM.png" alt="" width="2719" height="1388" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM.png 2719w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-300x153.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-1024x523.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-768x392.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-1536x784.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.17.51-PM-2048x1045.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2719px) 100vw, 2719px" />
From November 13-17, the county partnered with non-profit Mountain Bizworks to administer $1.5 million in funds appropriated for the program. The non-profit, which <a href="https://www.mountainbizworks.org/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that it focuses on working with  “people of color, women, and immigrant entrepreneurs” and <a href="https://www.mountainbizworks.org/about-us/equity-statement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">works</a> to promote “racial equity,” was also targeted in the complaint from WNC for Equality. 
“Further, Mountain Bizworks used the repurposed federal ARPA funds and furthered the County’s objective: culling applicants and awarding grant money based, in part, on the skin color of applicants. These actions are clearly illegal,” the complaint says. 
To evaluate businesses for relief, Mountain Bizworks <a href="https://archive.ph/uEpdn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> “scoring” criteria that included “underserved entrepreneurs,” which were defined as “women-owned businesses,” “businesses owned by people of color,” “veteran-owned businesses,” and lower-income individuals. 
The non-profit added that it would “prioritize independent small business owners who lack access to traditional funding resources” and that the application would be “equity focused.” A screenshot included in the complaint showed that both race and sex were required fields for the application through Mountain Bizworks. 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-876739" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM.png" alt="" width="1712" height="963" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM.png 1712w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-1024x576.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-768x432.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-13-at-12.20.33-PM-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1712px) 100vw, 1712px" /></div>
Statistics shared by the county showed that grants were disproportionately awarded to women and minorities. Of the 137 awards given out, 28.5% were given to “minority owned businesses,” and 60.6 were given to “women-owned businesses.” The county is nearly 90% white, <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/buncombecountynorthcarolina/RHI125223" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Census Data. 
The county did not respond to questions about how many applications were sent in and the demographics of the applicants 
Mumpower believes that the process not only violates federal law, but also Buncombe County’s own <a href="https://www.buncombecounty.org/i-want-to/contact/file-discrimination-complaint.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anti-discrimination law</a>. That ordinance describes discrimination as treating people differently for a number of different factors, including race and sex. 
He told The Daily Wire that he was &#8220;optimistic&#8221; that the complaint, filed on January 22, will get a fair hearing under the Trump administration.
“We want our local government to follow the law and not use color as a consideration for application for public dollars. And that’s all we want,” Mumpower told The Daily Wire. 
Because Buncombe County and Asheville are completely controlled by Democrats, Mumpower said they were “ruthless in their willingness to ignore the law” and believed they could get away with anything. He also said that his group has mainly seen a negative response from the broader Asheville community, an area that backed Kamala Harris by over 60%. 
“It’s very disappointing that a society has worked so hard to get color off the table as to how we measure one another that we would have so many misguided local leaders who are willing to ignore the progress we’ve made and even try to set us back,” he said. “It’s very ironic.”
President Donald Trump has been critical of the federal and local response to Hurricane Helene, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-rips-into-fema-says-it-is-getting-in-the-way-of-everything" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> that North Carolinians “were treated very badly by Democrats.” Most of his criticism has been aimed at FEMA, which he has floated getting rid of completely in favor of more state responsibility over natural disasters.

US-HURRICANE-HELENE

North Carolina Residents Ask Trump To Intervene After Officials Prioritize Hurricane Relief By Race

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Hurricane Helene

North Carolina

Treasury Department

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/house-republicans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans</a> announced on Tuesday the creation of a task force geared toward the investigation and declassification of covert government materials ranging from the assassinations of prominent figures in American history to the origins of COVID to UFOs.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) declared that Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) will lead the &#8220;Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets&#8221; just weeks after President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an order to declassify the assassination files of former President John F. Kennedy, former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
&#8220;For too long, the federal government has kept information of public interest classified and the American people are demanding greater transparency. This secrecy has sowed distrust in our institutions,&#8221; Comer said in a statement. &#8220;The Task Force will build on the Trump Administration’s efforts to declassify records of national importance and ensure Americans get the answers they deserve. Representative Luna is committed to shining a light on the truth and ending the era of secrecy. It’s time to let the sunlight in and finally provide answers the American public has long demanded.&#8221;
A press release said the task force has been authorized for six months pursuant to committee rules, and members would be announced at a later date. The Oversight Committee also revealed a battery of <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Task-Force-Letters.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letters</a> that Comer and Luna sent to leaders, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, seeking briefings in light of Trump&#8217;s order and noting they would then request to see relevant documents and make recommendations on the declassification process.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Signed</a> on January 23, Trump&#8217;s directive said the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General would have 15 days to &#8220;present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy&#8221; and 45 days to &#8220;review records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of these records.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The Daily Wire, Trump said: &#8220;A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.&#8221;
The House Oversight task force announcement <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-discovers-thousands-of-secret-jfk-assassination-records-after-trump-order-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">followed</a> a report by Axios on Monday that said the FBI found thousands of records that were never submitted to a review board overseeing the release of documents related to the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
Luna, who was first elected to the House in 2022, has been a key player in the bipartisan inquiry into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), formerly described as unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
&#8220;The federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades. We have spent years seeking information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, Reverend King, and other government secrets without success,&#8221; Luna said. &#8220;It is time to give Americans the answers they deserve, which is why I am honored to lead this bipartisan task force that seeks truth and transparency. We will also investigate UAPs/USOs, the Epstein client list, COVID-19 origins, and the 9/11 files. We will work alongside President Trump and his cabinet members to deliver truth to the American people. From this moment forward, we will restore trust through transparency.&#8221;
During a press conference with Comer at the U.S. Capitol, Luna suggested the task force&#8217;s first area of focus will be on the John F. Kennedy assassination and then made a stunning assertion that cast doubt on Lee Harvey Oswald <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lee-harvey-oswald-tied-to-cia-before-jfk-assassination-investigator-claims" target="_blank" rel="noopener">being the lone gunman</a>.
&#8220;I can tell you, based on what I’ve been seeing so far, the initial hearing that was actually held here in Congress was actually faulty, and the single bullet theory — I believe there were two shooters and we should be finding more information as we are able to gain access into the SCIF before the files are actually released to the public,&#8221; Luna said.
Watch the full press conference below:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Anna Paulina Luna Answers Questions About New Committee On Exposing Gov Secrets On 7 Major Events" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gPYl8yGHJj8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Reps. James Comer and Anna Paulina Luna

Luna To Lead New House Disclosure Task Force: JFK Files, Epstein List, UFOs On The Table

Congress

Donald Trump

James Comer

Jeffrey Epstein

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Martin Luther King Jr.

Transparency

U.S. House of Representatives

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CIA</a> said on Saturday that it now assesses that a lab leak from communist China was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that upended the world several years ago.
The announcement came after CIA Director John Ratcliffe was overwhelmingly confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week.
&#8220;CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a neutral origin based on the available body of reporting,&#8221; the agency said in a statement. &#8220;CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.&#8221;
&#8220;We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA&#8217;s assessment,&#8221; the statement added.
The New York Times reported that the decision to reassess the origins of the pandemic came after the Biden administration &#8220;ordered a new classified review of the pandemic’s origin&#8221; during the administration&#8217;s final weeks in office.
Ratcliffe simply declassified and released the results of the assessment, thus dispelling insinuations that he politicized intelligence.
The report said that the new analysis comes after the agency took a closer look at the conditions inside high security labs in Wuhan before the outbreak.
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The Wall Street Journal reported late last year that the Biden administration suppressed information from U.S. intelligence agencies that indicated a lab leak in communist China was the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FBI was the only government agency that assessed that a lab leak was the likely source of the pandemic, and had “moderate confidence” in their evaluation. Four other government departments said they believed the pandemic had a zoonotic origin — meaning that it came from animals — but they said they had “low confidence” in their assessment, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When National Intelligence Director Avril Haines briefed Biden in August 2021, three months after Biden ordered a 90-day review to determine where the pandemic came from, the FBI was not asked to attend the meeting.
Jason Bannan, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, joined the FBI after the 9/11 attacks to bolster its expertise in matters related to biological weapons, chemical weapons, and more.
“Being the only agency that assessed that a laboratory origin was more likely, and the agency that expressed the highest level of confidence in its analysis of the source of the pandemic, we anticipated the FBI would be asked to attend the briefing,” Bannan told The Wall Street Journal. “I find it surprising that the White House didn’t ask.”
The Wall Street Journal investigation found that officials in the Biden administration sought to keep certain information from becoming public about the lab leak theory, and that the FBI was not the only agency that thought the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-suppressed-info-from-intel-agencies-that-blamed-lab-leak-for-covid-19-pandemic?fbclid=IwY2xjawICJ79leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfYqpb8faFYISrCbu8EPdkibKpSIvH9IJKNtMSzQ7kh1Z9dtv9ZIErsn7w_aem_wqZibq2ln1O3VS02dDEVqA">Biden Admin Suppressed Info From Intel Agencies That Blamed ‘Lab Leak’ For COVID-19 Pandemic</a>

John Ratcliffe

CIA Assesses Chinese Lab Leak Responsible For Coronavirus Pandemic

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Wednesday that it was rescinding the policy requiring legal immigrants to receive the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/covid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID-19</a> vaccine in order to further the process.
On the agency&#8217;s official <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/i-485" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government website</a>, an alert was issued detailing the policy change, dated January 22, 2025, and effective immediately.
&#8220;Effective January 22, 2025, USCIS waives any and all requirements that applicants for adjustment of status to that of a lawful permanent resident present documentation on their Form I-693, Report of Immigration Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, that they received the COVID-19 vaccination,&#8221; the announcement read.
&#8220;USCIS will not issue any Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) related to proving a COVID-19 vaccination. USCIS will not deny any adjustment of status application based on the applicant’s failure to present documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccination,&#8221; it continued.
The policy change applies to immigrants who are in the United States legally and are attempting to change their immigration status.
Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines responded to the news, saying, &#8220;HUGE NEWS. Following the below tweet, USCIS has rescinded their Covid vax mandate for legal immigrants. I can&#8217;t even tell you the thousands of people in the same situation who have reached out over the past few years. Promises made, promises kept. Thank you, @realDonaldTrump.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
HUGE NEWS. Following the below tweet, USCIS has rescinded their Covid vax mandate for legal immigrants.
I can&#39;t even tell you the thousands of people in the same situation who have reached out over the past few years.
Promises made, promises kept. Thank you, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>. <a href="https://t.co/WBn47PgTQS">https://t.co/WBn47PgTQS</a> <a href="https://t.co/k5cBNnKrOt">pic.twitter.com/k5cBNnKrOt</a>
&mdash; Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1882153729178402852?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Gaines included her previous post, dated just one day prior, in which she&#8217;d shared a letter her husband — a legal immigrant from the United Kingdom — had received from USCIS denying him just such a status change because he&#8217;d not had the COVID vaccine.
&#8220;Just got another letter from USCIS saying they won&#8217;t give my husband his green card until he gets the Covid jab. This is ridiculous. We&#8217;ve been married coming up on 3 years. We&#8217;ve spent thousands for the submitted forms to expire on their time. We&#8217;re hoping for change soon,&#8221; she said at the time.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Just got another letter from USCIS saying they won&#39;t give my husband his green card until he gets the Covid jab.
This is ridiculous. We&#39;ve been married coming up on 3 years. We&#39;ve spent thousands for the submitted forms to expire on their time.
We&#39;re hoping for change soon🤞🏼 <a href="https://t.co/OMUDJzATGQ">pic.twitter.com/OMUDJzATGQ</a>
&mdash; Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1881776147094286785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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