Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist candidate for mayor of New York, said on Thursday that he understood economics better than billionaire Bill Ackman, arguing that Ackman’s opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies was bad for business.
In the wake of Mamdani’s victory Tuesday night in the Democratic primary over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Ackman had stated of Mamdani on X:
<blockquote>
 &#8230; his policies would be disastrous for NYC. Socialism has no place in the economic capital of our country. The ability for NYC to offer services for the poor and needy, let alone the average New Yorker, is entirely dependent on NYC being a business-friendly environment and a place where wealthy residents are willing to spend 183 days and assume the associated tax burden. Unfortunately, both have already started making arrangements for the exits.
</blockquote>
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I awoke this morning gravely concerned about New York City. I thought “What has NYC become that an avowed socialist who has supported defunding the police, whose solution to lowering food prices is city-owned supermarkets, who doesn’t understand that freezing rents will only…
&mdash; Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1938094628034506984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Asked by Erin Burnett of CNN about his insistence that New York City raise the top corporate tax rate, Mamdani preached, “I&#8217;d also tell Bill Ackman that I firmly disagree with his attempt to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion across the country because it&#8217;s not only against the morals of so many, it&#8217;s also against the actual bottom line for so many businesses. And as a businessman, he should understand that.”
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Socialist Zohran Mamdani lectures billionaire <a href="https://twitter.com/BillAckman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BillAckman</a> on the business case for DEI.
Oh, this is rich.
“I’d also tell Bill Ackman that I firmly disagree with his attempt to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion across the country. Because it’s not only against the morals… <a href="https://t.co/az5x2XOjaH">pic.twitter.com/az5x2XOjaH</a>
&mdash; The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) <a href="https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1938421381789577432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Mamdani, 33, a state assemblyman who grew up the privileged son of “acclaimed Marxist scholar Mahmood Mamdani and Oscar-nominated film director Mira Nair,” as The Indypendent <a href="https://indypendent.org/2020/06/home-foreclosure-specialist-aims-to-take-the-fight-for-housing-racial-justice-from-astoria-to-albany/">reported</a>, attended Bowdoin College, where he <a href="https://nyassembly.gov/mem/Zohran-K-Mamdani">co-founded</a> the school&#8217;s chapter of the radical activist group, Students for Justice in Palestine. His entire job history outside of politics has consisted of working as a foreclosure prevention counselor and a rapper.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/freedom/">JULY 4 SALE: Get Six Months Of DW+ Free</a>
Ackman, by contrast, has invested in businesses so successfully that he is now <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/william-ackman/">worth</a> an estimated $9 billion. He is a signatory of The Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least 50% of his wealth by the end of his life to charitable causes. The resident of New York City was a lifelong Democrat who crossed the aisle to support President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
New York Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent this mayoral election cycle, slammed Mamdani, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/26/us-news/eric-adams-officially-kicks-off-nyc-mayoral-campaign-with-swipes-at-zohran-mamdani-blue-collar-or-silver-spoon/">saying</a>, “This election is a choice between a candidate with a blue collar and one with a soup silver spoon. A choice between dirty fingernails and manicured nails. &#8230; This is not a city where you use idealism to stake your giving everything to everyone for free. There&#8217;s no dignity in someone giving you everything for free. There&#8217;s dignity in giving you a job so you can provide for your family and the opportunities that you deserve. So, this is not a city of handouts. This is a city of hands up.”
Mamdani also issued a statement blasting President Trump, stating, “Zohran Mamdani will fight Trump&#8217;s attempts to gouge the working class, and deliver a city where everyone can afford a dignified life. Here&#8217;s how: Make NYC the Strongest Sanctuary City in the Country.”
After asserting his desire to “Get ICE out of all City facilities and end any cooperation,” the statement continued, “The Mamdani administration will:  Invest $165M in funding for immigration legal defense services . &#8230; Protect all personal data from other jurisdictions: The Mamdani administration will take seriously the threat Trump poses and will think expansively about ways to protect undocumented New Yorkers from deportation or other federal attacks.”
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BREAKING: This is the memo that could be Zohran Mamdani’s downfall.
He wants to triple down on making NYC a Sanctuary City and crack down on ICE.
These two policies are extremely unpopular with New Yorkers, especially the middle class. <a href="https://t.co/EuvdjFUyhH">pic.twitter.com/EuvdjFUyhH</a>
&mdash; Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) <a href="https://twitter.com/DougMackeyCase/status/1938235458607018356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Other actions by Mamdani have also elicited harsh criticism:
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Remember back in 2013 when two Islamist terrorists used a meat cleaver to try to behead British soldier Lee Rigby in the streets of London?
Zohran shared a 2013 article by Glenn Greenwald questioning whether the killing was terrorism because Rigby was a soldier <a href="https://t.co/F5eMdFQo9i">pic.twitter.com/F5eMdFQo9i</a>
&mdash; Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewPavlou/status/1938506747939066063?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Mamdani/Ackman

Socialist NYC Mayoral Candidate Lectures Billionaire, Claims DEI Critics Don’t Understand Business

Bill Ackman

Democratic Socialism

Elections

Eric Adams

New York

New York City

Politics

Socialism

Socialists

Zohran Mamdani

The nation&#8217;s largest teachers union imposes racial quotas for its board and leadership, designating a portion of its roles for those who qualify as an “ethnic minority,” a report from Defending Education, exclusively obtained by The Daily Wire, reveals.
The National Education Association (NEA), which <a href="https://www.nea.org/">calls itself</a> “the nation&#8217;s largest professional employee organization,” stipulates in its constitution that various boards and committees are required to have a specific proportion of “ethnic minority” members, and that elections can be held for certain positions with the specific intent “to elect a member of an ethnic-minority group.” The NEA’s <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/teachers-unions-bylaws-bipoc-delegates-and-reps/">bylaws</a> spell out those who qualify as ethnic minorities, listing all racial categories other than whites.
“Ethnic minorities shall comprise at least twenty (20) percent of the Board,” the NEA constitution reads, adding that the “Representative Assembly shall elect additional directors as appropriate to assure such ethnic-minority representation.”
“There shall be a minimum of twenty percent ethnic minority representation on each committee,” the NEA constitution goes on to say. The organization’s constitution also stipulates that, if the NEA has had white presidents for eleven consecutive years, then “the Association shall take such steps as may be legally permissible to elect a member of an ethnic-minority group.”
While the NEA focuses on imposing its racial agenda, it has presided over a decline in educational outcomes, Defending Education Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;The NEA has become a race-obsessed organization, and these racial quotas written into their constitutions and bylaws provide further evidence of how far they&#8217;ve fallen,” Sanzi charged. “It has become an ideological project for them, and it&#8217;s no surprise that educational outcomes continue to decline as the largest teachers union in the country become more and more extreme.”
This focus on DEI isn’t relegated to NEA itself, however. The organization’s affiliate groups across the country similarly maintain specific positions that can only be held by members of certain racial and ethnic groups.
The California Teachers Association, an affiliate of the NEA, limits certain elected representative positions within the organization to those who identify as “BIPOC,” an acronym that stands for “black, indigenous, people of color.” Those running for the organization’s at-large position “must be BIPOC,” the group’s <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/teachers-unions-bylaws-bipoc-delegates-and-reps/">election manual</a> states.
“NEA policy requires that each state include BIPOC delegates in numbers commensurate with the population of the state,” the manual adds.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association, another NEA affiliate, similarly disqualifies white people from holding certain elected positions on account of their race. The organization’s board of directors <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/teachers-unions-bylaws-bipoc-delegates-and-reps/">reserves a spot</a> for an “At-Large Director for Ethnic Minority Membership,” noting that the term is used to refer to those who are “American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, and Cape Verdean.”
There’s also the Michigan Education Association, which <a href="https://mea.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/M-3-MEA-PAC-Policies-May-2024-pending-RA-and-Board-approval.pdf">stipulates</a> that the governing board of its political action council must include “two (2) members who identify as Black, Indigenous or a Person of Color (BIPOC).”
Defending Education points out that these race-based policies have become commonplace in other organizations across the country, noting that at least 36 teachers union organizations, from Wyoming to Mississippi, reserve positions on boards or committees for those who qualify as &#8220;BIPOC.&#8221;
The NEA and its state affiliates did not return requests for comment.

NEA Speaker

EXCLUSIVE: Teachers Unions Across America Have Racial Quotas For Leadership Roles

DEIA

Education

National Education Association

school

Teachers Unions

A leftwing group dedicated to dismantling “structural racism” in finance has raked in millions of dollars in federal grants. But now its federal funding and non-profit status could be in jeopardy, as the group discriminates against white internship applicants in violation of President Donald Trump’s executive order.
The North Carolina-based Croatan Institute touts its allegiance to the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda on its website, promising to tackle “structural racism in finance” even as it imposed race-based selection criteria on its paid internship program. The program appears to violate President Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">executive order</a> barring DEI policies and discrimination among federal grant recipients.
Now, a legal expert tells The Daily Wire that the program jeopardizes the federal funds currently en route to the organization, as well as any future funds that the Croatan Institute might hope to garner.
The Croatan Institute <a href="https://croataninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/BLAISE-1-Pager.pdf">boasts</a> the BLAISE internship program, which stands for &#8220;BIPOC Leaders Advancing an Inclusive and Sustainable Economy.&#8221; The program seeks to increase the representation of specific demographic groups in the financial industry.
The internship program’s eligibility requirements detail the race-based selection process. “Priority given to students of color or first-generation students from underserved communities,” the site reads. The group attempts to justify its racial preferences by writing that “in the world of finance, there is a dearth of people of color.”
The program could land the Croatan Institute in hot water, Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow GianCarlo Canaparo told The Daily Wire.
“Any entity that receives federal funds is prohibited by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act from discriminating on the basis of race and other protected categories,” Canaparo explained. “Giving priority to certain races, as the BIPOC internship does, is textbook discrimination.” He added that the discrimination could be remedied by way of a federal lawsuit.
The Croatan Institute has <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/93c07c39-40a4-c537-677c-326962e00582-R/latest">garnered</a> more than $4 million in federal grants since fiscal year 2022. Included in that sum is a <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_25CA11083150101_12C2">$1.9 million grant</a> from the Department of Agriculture for fiscal year 2025, of which just under $470,000 has already been paid out. The organization was also slated to receive <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_5850903013_12H2">$40,000</a> from the Department of Agriculture to host a “financial health workshop series for BIPOC farmers and landowners.”
“If Croatan continues to receive federal funds, those funds are absolutely in jeopardy,” Canaparo explained. “And if Croatan hopes to receive more federal funds in the future, it will have to terminate this discriminatory internship program or it&#8217;s likely to <a href="https://fedsoc.org/commentary/fedsoc-blog/understanding-the-liability-risks-posed-by-trump-s-dei-order-1">face False Claims Act liability</a> in addition to all the other sorts of liability,” he added, highlighting yet another legal risk that the organization appears to have exposed itself to.
The organization appears to have held the internship program for several years as it was raking in the federal money. The Croatan Institute announced the internship’s <a href="https://croataninstitute.org/blaise-pilot-launches-for-bipoc-students-2/">pilot program</a> in 2022 and stated even more blatantly that applicants “must identify as black, indigenous, Latinx, or person of color.”
The program could threaten more than just the organization’s federal funding, however. Canaparo pointed out that the discriminatory program “jeopardizes its nonprofit status,” adding that “the IRS can revoke the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit that engages in race discrimination.”
The organization&#8217;s internship program is part of a <a href="https://croataninstitute.org/reefs/">broader initiative</a>, called &#8220;Racial Equity, Economics, Finance and Sustainability,&#8221; which seeks to &#8220;advance opportunities for greater representation of underserved communities.&#8221; The <a href="https://croataninstitute.org/BIPOC-Financial-Health/">initiative</a> includes one project, called the Financial Health Investment Project, which seeks to promote &#8220;the financial resilience and long-term success of Black and other minority farmers and landowners&#8221; by offering online financial coaching. The program was <a href="https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fy-2023-2501-funded-projects.pdf">funded</a> by Department of Agriculture to the tune of $731,000.
The Croatan Institute isn’t the only federal grant recipient that’s discriminated against whites as it&#8217;s pursued the DEI agenda. A music ensemble <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/music-ensemble-hosts-bipoc-internship-barring-white-applicants-citing-systemic-allyship">investigated</a> by The Daily Wire received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and held a “BIPOC internship” that explicitly barred whites from participation on account of their race.
The group even posted the demographic breakdown of their intern classes, further proving that it had excluded white applicants. The organization <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/non-profit-freezes-internship-that-discriminated-against-whites-after-daily-wire-investigation">froze its internship program</a> in the wake of The Daily Wire investigation.
The Croatan Institute did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump Executive Order

Go Woke, Go Broke: Nonprofit Could Lose Millions In Federal Funds Thanks To DEI Program

anti-white

Discrimination

Diversity

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Racial Discrimination

Trump

Corporations that receive billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal contracts have a duty to be ideologically neutral, transparent, and accountable to the American people.
This shouldn’t need to be said. But 1792 Exchange’s <a href="https://1792exchange.com/contractors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new database</a> of top government contractors shows that it does.
One of the report’s most striking revelations is the fact that some government contractors most aggressively aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are not even American. These include the United Kingdom-based BAE Systems, BP, Deloitte, and Rolls-Royce, and Ireland-based Accenture.
Many American contractors blatantly promote radical agendas — at this point, LGBT might as well stand for “Lockheed, General Dynamics, Boeing, Textron” — but allowing foreign firms to act as ideological agents within the American system is beyond the pale.
These firms exert extensive influence on federal agencies and provide essential services such as defense technology, energy logistics, financial auditing, and consulting, while actively promoting a worldview that the American electorate and our current administration reject.
As President Donald Trump made clear in executive orders rescinding federal DEI mandates, the “government should be focused on mission readiness, not ideological indoctrination.” This principle must encompass foreign contractors and consultants.
To grasp the scale of ideological encroachment, consider <a href="https://1792exchange.com/spotlight-reports/corporate-bias-ratings/?c_id=1073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BAE Systems</a>, the British defense and aerospace giant, which received $7.7 billion in government contracts in 2023.
Despite serving as a primary contractor for the Department of Defense, BAE has <a href="https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/article/bae-systems-inc-releases-third-annual-dei-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adopted comprehensive DEI goals</a>, including race- and gender-based recruitment benchmarks and board composition — a commitment they called “<a href="https://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReportArchive/b/LSE_BA_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Change the Race Ratio</a>” in their 2023 annual report — and ethnicity-based mentorship programs, such as RISE, implemented by KPMG.
In the United Kingdom, where BAE is allowed to take “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/positive-action-in-the-workplace-guidance-for-employers/positive-action-in-the-workplace#:~:text=communicate%20with%20staff.-,2.,is%20relevant%20to%20a%20case." target="_blank" rel="noopener">positive action</a>,” it must adhere to national expectations of not engaging in “positive discrimination.” Yet on American soil, with American funds, they behave as if potential violations of civil rights law are both normative and commendable.
Similarly, <a href="https://1792exchange.com/company/bp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BP</a> — the British energy conglomerate that obtained over a billion dollars in federal contracts from the United States government — publicly supports a vast range of DEI policies, <a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/sustainability/bp-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-report-2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">including racial equity audits</a>, <a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/investors/bp-directors-remuneration-report-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DEI-linked executive compensation schemes,</a> and <a href="https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/careers/life-at-bp/our-stories/bp-recognized-by-stonewall.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gender identity training</a> protocols.
American citizens, through federal procurement budgets, are effectively subsidizing an imported ideology that increasingly lacks democratic legitimacy at home.
<a href="https://1792exchange.com/company/accenture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Accenture</a> ($3 billion) and <a href="https://1792exchange.com/company/deloitte/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deloitte</a> ($3.7 billion), incorporated in Ireland and the United Kingdom, respectively, have become deeply embedded in federal operations, making their cultural influence within agencies indistinguishable from that of internal leadership. These firms frequently promoted their DEI credentials in competitive bids, and until now, federal officials have often highlighted these characteristics as value-added features instead of liabilities.
It’s commendable that Accenture <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/accenture-dropping-corporate-dei-policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced it would end its DEI initiatives</a>. However, given its history of establishing headquarters in foreign countries — first in Bermuda, then moving to Dublin in 2009 to avoid paying American taxes — it’s concerning that the company promoted this agenda at any point without being fully invested in the outcome of our nation.
Given that $3 billion of its $64.9 billion in revenue comes directly from American taxpayers, and its global CEO operates from an office in the Washington, D.C., area, one should question how Accenture can claim to be Irish. Notably, the company is aware of this line of inquiry, listing its Irish domicile as a risk factor in its <a href="https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/accenture-com/a-com-custom-component/iconic/document/Accenture-2024-10-K.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 10-K filing</a> with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Likewise, <a href="https://1792exchange.com/company/rolls-royce-holdings-plc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rolls-Royce</a> ($1.1 billion), the British aerospace firm, completes the list of foreign-headquartered contractors that combine technological excellence with radical ideological activism. Although it <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/rolls-royce-dei-us-diversity-backlash-9hcs2zdrm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> rolled back funding for its identity-based employee resource groups in the United States, Rolls-Royce previously enacted internal policies that reflect the most radical tenets of the DEI framework, including <a href="https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/annual-report/2021/ar2021-strategic-report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“anti-racism” events</a> and <a href="https://www.rolls-royce.com/country-sites/sea/our-stories/2019/women-in-stem.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unconscious bias training</a>.
The central paradox is this: as the United States reorients its federal policy around merit, neutrality, and excellence, some of the largest beneficiaries of government contracts are foreign actors advancing the very ideologies that Americans just voted to reject.
Congress and the Trump administration must act swiftly to align federal contracting policy with the new executive directives. A contractor’s country of incorporation must not allow it to launder political agendas through backdoor bureaucratic channels.
Ultimately, federal contracting is more than an economic matter; it is a matter of sovereignty. American taxpayers should not be subsidizing foreign entities that undermine American values. 1792 Exchange’s report has exposed this vulnerability. Now, it falls to policymakers to close the gap between the will of the people and the behavior of those paid to serve them.
Daniel Cameron is the CEO of the 1792 Exchange and the former attorney general of Kentucky.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Davos become a showcase for global companies

Foreign Companies Use Taxpayer Dollars To Push DEI. That Needs To Stop.

Federal Government

Lockheed Martin

Taxes

United Kingdom

Top Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, apparently withdrew as headline speakers at the National Diversity Conference after The Daily Wire revealed the conference is run by a man accused of stealing millions from a diversity nonprofit.
The National Diversity Conference took place April 7-10 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, after selling non-refundable tickets with Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Obama cabinet secretary Julian Castro as the main draws. The conference had been selling photo ops with Oprah for $50,500 for one person or $550,000 for eight people, according to its <a href="https://nationaldiversityconference.com/2025/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sponsorship.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sponsorship materials</a>.
But as the event rolled around, the only keynote speaker listed on the conference website was far-left professor Cornel West. Others apparently pulled out after The Daily Wire’s March 27 story exposing the conference as a scam, with the website quietly <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250330081515/https://nationaldiversityconference.com/2025/speakers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">removing</a> <a href="https://nationaldiversityconference.com/2025/speakers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">names</a> without noting the change.
For years, marketing materials gave the impression that the National Diversity Conference was a program of a longstanding nonprofit called the National Diversity Council (NDC). The Council <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsb.480568/gov.uscourts.txsb.480568.1.0.pdf?utm_source=www.courtwatch.news&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=118-give-us-43-minutes-your-honor&amp;_bhlid=cc0105e9be5906e96ab277c8a3c8624ccecd8545" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed for bankruptcy</a> on March 17 after its board said in a lawsuit that its founder, R. Dennis Kennedy, “improperly paid himself millions of dollars from NDC’s donor funds.”
The <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsd.1911128/gov.uscourts.txsd.1911128.25.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suit</a> said Kennedy “paid himself a grossly excessive salary” while using the nonprofit as a front for his for-profit diversity consulting business called Diversity &amp; Leadership Inc., intertwining the two in imperceptible ways so that costs went to the nonprofit and revenue-generating activities went to his company.
A tax form on the conference’s website indicates that it is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250327093145/https://nationaldiversityconference.com/2025/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/w9.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">run by</a> Diversity &amp; Leadership Inc. According to Texas business filings, the company’s corporate registration was revoked in March 2023 for failure to pay taxes, but was reinstated two months later.
The nonprofit’s 2020 <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/711037612/202202179349300715/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IRS disclosure</a> said Kennedy was paid $450,000 for 10 hours of work per week. In 2022, at the height of corporations’ DEI hype, Kennedy, chief executive officer Ángeles Valenciano, and chief financial officer Jason deGroot also “unilaterally decided that they were owed almost $3 million in ‘back pay,’ and then paid themselves more than $1 million of donor funds,” the lawsuit said.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-898123 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/conference-clinton-995x576.jpg" alt="" width="995" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/conference-clinton-995x576.jpg 995w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/conference-clinton-300x174.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/conference-clinton-768x445.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/conference-clinton-1536x889.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/conference-clinton-2048x1185.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 995px) 100vw, 995px" /></div>
As board members became suspicious and determined that there was no basis for the payments, Kennedy systematically moved the nonprofit’s trademarks and web domains into his own name, and essentially created a fake organization with the same name that would trick people into paying him directly, the suit indicated.
In 2021 and 2022, Kennedy filed for 350 trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, registering NDC’s name, <a href="https://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn97537006&amp;docId=FTK20220809105529&amp;linkId=10#docIndex=9&amp;page=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initials</a>, and key program names, such as the National Diversity Awards, to himself personally. In some cases, Kennedy allegedly waited for notification that the NDC’s trademarks were expiring, and instead of renewing them for the organization, he re-trademarked them in his own name without telling the board.
<a href="https://nationaldiversitycouncil.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NationalDiversityCouncil.org</a> now leads to a website of an organization that purports to be the National Diversity Council, listing Kennedy as its founder and with no board. Dawn Hooper, an accountant who is managing the bankruptcy for NDC’s board, told The Daily Wire that the site is “not operated by the National Diversity Council.”
The suit said the trio’s conduct “gives rise to criminal liability…at a minimum, a third degree felony.”
In addition to the for-profit D&amp;L Inc., Kennedy ran two Texas-based nonprofits, the Texas Diversity Council and the California Diversity Council, which were used to double-dip on salaries for the trio of executives and siphon off consulting revenue from NDC, while using NDC staff and resources for all the groups’ expenses, the lawsuit said.
According to tax disclosures, in 2021 Kennedy was paid $787,000 in salary by the national nonprofit and $351,113 from the Texas one; Valenciano was paid $460,000 from NDC and $133,000 from Texas; and deGroot was paid $460,000 from the national nonprofit and $123,000 from Texas. The IRS filings claim Valenciano and deGroot worked 40 hours a week for the Texas nonprofit while also working 35 hours a week for the national nonprofit. They also claim Kennedy worked 40 hours a week for the Texas nonprofit, which would leave little time for his many for-profit ventures or the national nonprofit.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-898349 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/ndc-2021-990-1024x527.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="527" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/ndc-2021-990-1024x527.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/ndc-2021-990-300x154.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/ndc-2021-990-768x395.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/ndc-2021-990-1536x791.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/03/ndc-2021-990.jpg 1884w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
“Kennedy, along with his co-defendants, used NDC resources, such as their own time and the time of NDC staff, to assist with non-NDC organizations in order to benefit Kennedy’s other ventures and, ultimately, Kennedy himself,” the suit said.
Kennedy is now running a constellation of identity- and anti-racism-focused groups, all of which appear to be bare-bones fronts for his for-profit firm.
The conference’s materials indicate that numerous politicians have been taken in by the alleged grifter, with Barack Obama, Jeb Bush, Colin Powell, Eric Holder, and Hillary Clinton all listed as past speakers.
The speaker changes came just after The Daily Wire asked the Harry Walker Agency, which represents both Clinton and Winfrey in speaking engagements, about the story, though Walker never responded to the request for comment.
Dwayne Mason, a patent attorney who has represented Kennedy, responded to The Daily Wire’s inquiry by saying, “You’d think if he stole millions of dollars, then somehow there’d be charges brought by the state [of Texas], which hasn’t happened.” He demanded that it delete its story because it is &#8220;full of lies.&#8221; When asked for an example, he said, &#8220;No, I’m staying at the 6,000-foot view.&#8221;
Kennedy appears to have escaped culpability in the civil lawsuit precisely because his alleged fleecing of the nonprofit was so extensive. On March 28, the lawsuit was administratively <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsd.1911128/gov.uscourts.txsd.1911128.103.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closed</a> because the nonprofit had filed for bankruptcy.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-diversity-council-files-for-bankruptcy-says-top-employees-stole-millions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Diversity Council Files For Bankruptcy, Says Top Employees Stole Millions</a>

Dennis Kennedy with Hillary Clinton / National Diversity Council

Bill Clinton Quits Scam DEI Conference Following Daily Wire Exposé

Bill Clinton

Julian Castro

President Joe Biden’s USAID awarded an $800 million contract to a business operating out of a Virginia home even after it formally ruled that its key manager lacked “honesty or integrity” — a reference to the fact that, according to a May 12 guilty plea, he had secured USAID contracts through bribery for a decade.
The contract was for addressing “issues affecting the root causes of irregular migration from Central America to the United States” — the work that Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-dnc-platform-was-printed-the-program-it-touts-as-top-border-success-was-shut-down-for-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assigned</a> to Vice President Kamala Harris, but which she never appeared to address, a Daily Wire investigation found.
The Department of Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/usaid-official-three-contractors-plead-guilty-to-half-billion-dollar-bribery-scheme">announced Friday</a> that Walter Barnes III, the founder of government contractor Vistant (previously known as PM Consulting Group, or PMCG) and Roderick Watson, a USAID contracting official, pleaded guilty to a bribery scheme in which Barnes and two others conspired to pay Watson $1 million in exchange for $544 million in contracts.
What has not been reported is that the Biden administration continued to steer contracts to Vistant/PMCG even after it knew of the massive corruption: the migration contract, even larger than the $544 million in the indictment, and others that are still active.
The $800 million contract went to a joint venture between Barnes’ company and CollaborateUp, a tiny consultancy run out of a suburban home in Falls Church, Virginia, where its CEO, Richard Crespin — who runs the company while also working at a think tank — lives. The Virginia home was the address listed on the $800 million contract.
In <a href="https://collaborateup.com/central-america-regional-support-services-carss-idiq/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcing</a> its $800 million contract, CollaborateUp said it would address the “irregular migration from Central America to the United States” by addressing “climate change.” Its <a href="https://collaborateup.com/services/our-work/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> also touts its work “advancing DEIA” and combating “misinformation.”
This year, it added Mark A. Green, a former Republican congressman who served as Donald Trump’s appointee to lead USAID during his first term, to its payroll as a <a href="https://collaborateup.com/who-we-are/our-team/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“senior advisor,”</a> according to its website.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft wp-image-934911 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/hq-299x576.jpg" alt="The headquarters of the recipient of the $800 million USAID migration grant" width="299" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/hq-299x576.jpg 299w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/hq-156x300.jpg 156w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/hq.jpg 730w" sizes="(max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-934909" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/green-398x576.jpg" alt="The headquarters of the recipient of the $800 million USAID migration grant" width="398" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/green-398x576.jpg 398w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/green-207x300.jpg 207w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/green-768x1111.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/green-1062x1536.jpg 1062w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/green.jpg 1206w" sizes="(max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px" /></div>
Vistant’s criminal scheme relied on joint ventures to exploit a DEI policy called 8(a) contracting, which lets the government award contracts with no or limited competition when the recipient is a racial minority or a small business. It formed a joint venture with a larger company —which was bribing Watson and would actually do the work — so Watson could use Barnes’ status as a black man to steer the contracts to him, rather than being obligated to go through an open competitive process.
Barnes’ company ultimately received hundreds of millions of dollars, stripping his “disadvantaged” status, and the CollaborateUp joint venture reversed the maneuver, relying on CollaborateUp’s status as a small business to win a contract with limited competition, while relying on Barnes and other larger firms to actually do the work.
CollaborateUp says it &#8220;co-developed&#8221; USAID&#8217;s <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yo_qnb-WmfPY9YExhZ2FiqIqkOeAYubY/view">&#8220;procurement reform&#8221;</a> policies &#8220;alongside former Administrator Mark Green.&#8221; That means the company that USAID put in charge of contracting reform got a massive contract for itself after partnering with someone who criminally corrupted the USAID contracting process, then put a former USAID official on its payroll.
The bribes by Barnes and his co-conspirators laid out in charging papers — which included cash, fake payroll payments, a country club wedding, a trip to Martha’s Vineyard, a down payment on a house, and basketball tickets — took place between 2013 and 2022. By 2023, USAID inspector general investigators knew of the corruption. On November 9, 2023, the government barred Vistant and Barnes from contracting based on “evidence of conduct indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity.”
That same day, it notified the Vistant-CollaborateUp joint venture, called PMCG CollaborateUp JV LLC, that it had been chosen for the “root causes of migration” contract.
A USAID contracting official believed the contract was “legally questionable” and told the contractors later that month that he was yanking it. He said that even though CollaborateUp owned 51% of the joint venture, according to the proposal, almost all the work would be done by Vistant or subcontractors. That meant CollaborateUp brought little to the table except being a middleman, while the contract’s “driving force” was banned for lack of integrity, according to civil court papers.
Yet the contractors appeared to feel so entitled to nearly $1 billion in government money that they took the government to <a href="https://ecf.cofc.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2024cv0079-35-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">court demanding it</a>. It asked a judge for a permanent injunction “prohibiting USAID from rescinding its award.”
On June 10, 2024, Paul Young, a go-between who paid Watson to obscure the paper trail to Barnes, was <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.561574/gov.uscourts.mdd.561574.1.1.pdf">indicted</a> for his role in bringing Watson to influence &#8220;the award of USAID contracts valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.&#8221; The indictment refers to Vistant and Barnes as Company 3 and CC-3 and says, &#8220;Young began making payments from CC-3 to CC-1 [Watson].&#8221; It describes how, for example, in October 2022, CC-3 sent a down payment for Watson&#8217;s home to him through Young.
Two days later, on June 12, 2024, Judge Charles F. Lettow issued “a limited injunction,” punting the decision about the $800 million contract back to USAID to reevaluate. By that time, Vistant had been removed from the list of banned contractors, though the ban on its founder, Barnes, remained.
On August 22, 2024, USAID awarded the <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_72051924D00017_7200" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“indefinite quantity” contract of up to $800 million</a> for “USAID Central America Regional Support Services” to PMCG CollaborateUp JV LLC. It made an initial payment of $10,000 that day.
Further demonstrating that the government knew at the time that Vistant/PMCG had gotten its previous USAID contracts through bribery, one week later, prosecutors offered a <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.567709/gov.uscourts.mdd.567709.13.2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plea deal</a> to a co-conspirator of Barnes, Darryl F. Britt, that laid out the findings of a long-running investigation from USAID&#8217;s inspector general. The plea deal referred to Vistant as Company 2, and Barnes as CC-2.
“Indefinite delivery” contracts are open-ended contracts that allow the government to send repeated work to a company over a period of time up to a maximum amount, meaning the government could pay PMCG CollaborateUp as much as $800 million, but could also pay less.
The migration contract was terminated in February 2025 — not because Barnes was corrupt, but because the Trump administration was shuttering USAID over suspicion that graft and insider deals were common, which liberals decried as a conspiracy theory.
Yet the Biden administration&#8217;s General Services Administration, which oversees government-wide contracting, also gave PMCG CollaborateUp JV LLC two contracts lasting five years each, despite the government’s knowledge that Barnes had gotten contracts through bribery.
On November 6, 2024 — the day after the presidential election — GSA awarded the joint venture an indefinite delivery <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_47QRCA25DSD24_4732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contrac</a><a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_47QRCA25DSD24_4732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">t through 2029</a>, whose cap was listed as $999,999,999,999.00. It paid $2,500 as the opening salvo.
On December 19, shortly before the Biden administration left office, GSA gave it <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_IDV_47QRCA25DSD24_4732" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another</a> indefinite delivery contract with similar terms. According to its GSA Price List, the company rents administrative assistants to the government for <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yo_qnb-WmfPY9YExhZ2FiqIqkOeAYubY/view">$93.68</a> an hour. CollaborateUp did not return a request for comment.
The half-billion dollar bribery scheme is just one instance of fraud at USAID that was known about during the Biden administration, but not prosecuted until the Trump administration.
Stephen Paul Edmund Sutton, a British citizen who worked for a USAID contractor, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/former-contractor-usaid-funded-program-extradited-united-states-convicted-and-sentenced" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pleaded guilty</a> on May 19 to taking kickbacks related to an electric program in Pakistan. Sutton and a co-conspirator who worked for him were in charge of giving out subcontractors to Pakistani vendors to perform work.
In 2015, the pair created two companies and had the contractor pay them for forklift and crane services. Then, those companies hired Pakistanis for half the amount. Prosecutors said the agency was defrauded of $100,000. Sutton was ordered to be handed over to immigration authorities instead of jail.
The Daily Wire previously revealed that USAID’s inspector general told a federal court in November that another foreign aid contracting official, Matthieu Zahui of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-aid-official-who-resisted-doge-took-secret-payments-after-steering-africa-money-to-friend" target="_blank" rel="noopener">African Development Foundation</a>, had steered contracts to a friend who secretly paid him personally. USAID had credible tips about Zahui for years, but didn’t take his phone until February 2024. The phone, it said, contained evidence that he was receiving wire transfers to his personal bank account from the owner of a contractor he had steered government funds to.
But USAID did not ask a judge for a search warrant to conduct further investigation until November 4, the day before the election. Zahiu has not been criminally charged as of now.

crespin-barnes

USAID Gave Known Con Man $800M Contract To Do Kamala’s Work On ‘Root Causes Of Migration’

Immigration

Kamala Harris

USAID

Three dozen federal contractors are at “high risk” of violating President Donald Trump’s executive orders barring the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies among those who do business with the federal government.
A new report from the 1792 Exchange highlights which federal contractors have previously advanced the DEI agenda most aggressively, honing in on companies that have offered rhetorical and financial support to leftwing organizations. It highlights 36 “high risk” companies that raked in $265 billion in federal contracts in fiscal year 2023 and are “likely to be maintaining diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and gender policies” in defiance of Trump’s executive orders <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">addressing DEI</a> and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/">transgender ideology</a>.
Daniel Cameron, the former Attorney General of Kentucky and the President of the 1792 Exchange, told The Daily Wire that the <a href="https://1792exchange.com/contractors/">database</a> provides the Trump administration with a tool to scrutinize companies that could be violating the president’s orders.
“The American people have the right to know if our hard-earned money is subsidizing any corporation’s subversive ideological programs. President Trump has taken bold action to remove DEI programming from federal institutions, including government contractors,” Cameron explained. “This report empowers government agencies and legislators to align procurement decisions with that vision of neutrality and excellence,” he added.
Among the 36 companies deemed “high risk” by the organization are Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin, which the 1792 Exchange says have discriminated against other companies “that do not promote divisive sex and gender policies.”
The three companies, the organization says, pledged to modify the demographic composition of its leadership “through the establishment of gender and racial targets” in recruiting and signed a “commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace” and “strategize on DEI programs.”
Raytheon pointed The Daily Wire to a statement it made in January, assuring the public that it would ditch the DEI agenda. “Our highly dedicated workforce is built and advances on merit in pursuit of our mission to protect and connect the world. RTX is taking the necessary actions to comply with the Presidential Executive Orders,” Raytheon said.
Another high-risk company is Honeywell International, which the 1792 Exchange said forced employees to attend “multiple controversial trainings on gender identity, sexual orientation, transgender issues, and divisive racial ideology.” There’s also Boeing, which the 1792 Exchange said has emphasized “racial diversity in its hiring practices” and similarly required employees to attend DEI trainings.
Consulting giant Deloitte is also listed as a high-risk company, with the 1792 Exchange noting that the company joined the <a href="https://www.global-lgbti.org/who-we-are">Partnership for Global LGBTIQ+ Equality</a>, reflecting Deloitte’s “commitment to vet business partners based on LGBTQ+ policies.”
“These companies have engaged in politicized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that often include executive compensation schemes linked to diversity targets and the creation of employee affinity groups, race-conscious training programs, or gender policies that prioritize identity categories over merit,” the 1792 Exchange said.
The 1792 Exchange says its database will serve as “a resource for regulators, lawmakers, and watchdogs to scrutinize whether public funds are being directed toward companies that may now stand in violation of federal mandates.”

Defense Contractors, Others At High Risk Of Violating Trump’s Anti-DEI Order, Watchdog Says

Seattle University has been hit with a federal civil rights complaint over scholarships and programs that select students on the basis of race and sex, including one that’s administered in partnership with Costco.
In its complaint, the Equal Protection Project cites three different scholarships and programs that advance the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda, including one sponsored by the retail giant. The complaint, first viewed by The Daily Wire, calls on the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate the university and enforce civil rights law.
The Costco Scholarship Fund, which both Seattle University and the University of Washington participate in, is intended for “underrepresented students of color.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-929909 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-05-at-1.01.07-PM-300x193.png" alt="" width="719" height="463" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-05-at-1.01.07-PM-300x193.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-05-at-1.01.07-PM-897x576.png 897w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-05-at-1.01.07-PM-768x493.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-05-at-1.01.07-PM.png 1124w" sizes="(max-width: 719px) 100vw, 719px" /></div>
William A. Jacobson, the founder of the Equal Protection Project, told The Daily Wire that the Costco program doesn’t outline specific racial or ethnic requirements, but that it could foster exclusionary practices.
“Costco has created a program for &#8216;underrepresented students of color&#8217; but allows others to participate,&#8221; Jacobson said. “We call on Costco to make clear both in its program and in its partnerships with schools like SU that discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is prohibited.&#8221;
Costco told The Daily Wire that the scholarship fund takes into account several factors when selecting recipients, including academic record, community service history, and whether or not the applicant is &#8220;part of an underserved group, such as youth in foster care, historically underrepresented minority students, and students who are the first in their family to pursue a college degree.&#8221; Costco added that &#8220;the program is legally compliant.&#8221;
Seattle University offers other programs explicitly designed for people of specific demographic backgrounds.
The Sinegal Fellowship, open to students who graduated from Seattle University’s undergraduate program and are going on to pursue an advanced degree at the school, is specifically designed for students who participated in the Costco Fund Scholarship. Seattle University states that the fellowship “provides support for underrepresented minority Costco scholars.”
&#8220;Creating educational opportunities based on race, color, national origin, or sex violates Titles VI and IX of the Civil Rights Act, as well as Washington State law and SU&#8217;s own non-discrimination policies,” Jacobson explained. “We are asking SU to live up to the law and its own rules, and to remove the discriminatory eligibility barriers it has erected.&#8221;
The university also offers the Justice Mary I. Yu Endowed Scholarship, which offers financial assistance to “underrepresented students at Seattle University School of Law, especially women of color.”
The Women of Seattle University Endowed Scholarship, available to current students who meet a certain GPA threshold, is targeted at “underrepresented student populations, especially women.”
Jacobson told The Daily Wire that Seattle University’s programs are in violation of the Civil Rights Act.
“Aggressive DEI programming must never be permitted to cross the line into unlawful discrimination in violation of the Civil Rights Act. This line, unfortunately, appears to have been breached at SU,” Jacobson said. “It is time for higher education everywhere to focus on the inherent worth and dignity of every student rather than categorizing students based on identity groups.”
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
&#8220;The Equal Protection Project calls on the Department of Education to require the senior administration of SU to uphold nondiscrimination standards throughout the institution,” he added.
Seattle University did not respond to a request for comment.
Seattle University isn’t the first institution that the Equal Protection Project has hit with a federal civil rights complaint. It also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-rhode-island-hit-with-civil-rights-complaint-over-discriminatory-scholarships">reported</a> the University of Rhode Island’s 51 DEI-focused scholarship offerings, which discriminated against white and male students. The complaint <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/education-department-to-investigate-university-of-rhode-islands-discriminatory-scholarships">prompted</a> a federal investigation from the Department of Education.

Costco

EXCLUSIVE: Seattle University Hit With Federal Complaint Over Costco-Backed DEI Scholarship

Academia

University of North Carolina Asheville parted ways with administrator Megan Pugh after video surfaced of the now-former Dean of Students bragging about her plans to use her position to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) despite it being banned.
Corey DeAngelis shared the story in a thread posted to X on Tuesday, beginning with video obtained by an undercover journalist – working with Accuracy In Media —who spoke with Pugh and recorded her in her office.
&#8220;Undercover journalists caught an administrator at UNC Asheville bragging about pushing DEI despite it being banned. She said, &#8216;I LOVE BREAKING RULES,'&#8221; DeAngelis began.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: Undercover journalists caught an administrator at UNC Asheville bragging about pushing DEI despite it being banned.
She said, &#8220;I LOVE BREAKING RULES&#8221;
She also did a moment of silence &#8220;to honor those lost to White Supremacist Violence&#8221;
I have the videos 
Buckle up 👇🧵
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1929922915778326862?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In the video that followed, Pugh revealed to an undercover journalist that she was still doing &#8220;equity work&#8221; despite official policies banning it — and that she loved &#8220;breaking rules.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The pro-DEI administrator says they &#8220;gotta keep it quiet&#8221; when it comes to their equity work.
She says, &#8220;I LOVE BREAKING RULES.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/NP7Gh0W9P7">pic.twitter.com/NP7Gh0W9P7</a>
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1929923028189884448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Pugh said that she planned to continue pushing DEI &#8220;until they get mad at us.&#8221;
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The discussion turned to &#8220;implicit bias training,&#8221; and Pugh admitted, &#8220;The sort of guidance from the system office has been very specific about implicit bias training in a way that I don&#8217;t enjoy&#8221; — but she said that she intended to find a way to &#8220;incorporate&#8221; it in spite of that guidance.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The pro-DEI administrator says the university would be interested in implicit bias training.
She acknowledges guidance against implicit bias training but says &#8220;my intention is that we can still incorporate&#8221; it anyway. <a href="https://t.co/Q6BhQa7ttK">pic.twitter.com/Q6BhQa7ttK</a>
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1929923235535303146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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DeAngelis followed that with an older video of Pugh beginning a video meeting with a moment of silence &#8220;to honor those lost to White Supremacist Violence&#8221; and a description of herself, written by Pugh, that read, &#8220;I center the teachings of Black, queer, feminist scholars as well as other BIPOC thought leaders in my leadership, advocacy, and student engagement practices.&#8221;
A report from Fox News Digital revealed that Pugh was &#8220;no longer employed by the university&#8221; following the video&#8217;s release.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Fox News found out that after &#8220;a prompt review of the matter&#8221; the &#8220;individual is NO LONGER EMPLOYED by the university.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/SNwD7iJOzU">pic.twitter.com/SNwD7iJOzU</a>
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1929924075016859875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
DeAngelis followed up with the university and got confirmation on Pugh&#8217;s termination.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: The university&#8217;s communications director responded to my email:
&#8220;UNC Asheville takes these comments seriously. Following a prompt review of the matter, the individual is no longer employed by the University.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/t2AY0BxDFK">pic.twitter.com/t2AY0BxDFK</a>
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1929970723734298871?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The remarks do not represent the practices on UNC Asheville,&#8221; the statement read. &#8220;The University remains firmly committed to all UNC System policies as well as federal and state laws, both in principle and practice. UNC Asheville takes these comments seriously. Following a prompt review of the matter, the individual is no longer employed by the University.&#8221;

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Text on Wood Block

UNC Cans DEI Dean Over Undercover Video: ‘I Love Breaking Rules’

University of North Carolina

A federally-funded education program warned teachers that babies could be racist and pushed other forms of DEI and transgender ideologies on educators, The Daily Wire can exclusively report.
A new report from the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) reveals just how deeply woke ideology has permeated Head Start, a government program that provides education and other services to children three to five. Head Start held webinars for teachers on “anti-bias and anti-racism strategies Head Start programs can use in their practices, services, and systems.”
One webinar warned that even infants “discriminate between faces by race” and that “babies can categorize people by gender and race.”
Head Start also embraced transgender ideology, referring to pregnant women as “birthing parents” and “pregnant people” in social media posts. The program also proposed ways to make activities for children “more inclusive,” including by changing the lyrics to “Old MacDonald Had A Farm.”
“Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O And on that farm he/she/they had a pig, E-I-E-I-O,” the updated lyrics read.
<div id="attachment_927965" style="width: 660px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-927965" class=" wp-image-927965" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.24.55-AM-300x175.png" alt="" width="650" height="379" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.24.55-AM-300x175.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.24.55-AM-989x576.png 989w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.24.55-AM-768x447.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.24.55-AM.png 1168w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px" />FGI Report</div>
“Head Start now promotes radical diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology, peddling a divisive world view on the government’s dime,” the FGI report reads. “A microscope must be applied to the program to assess how, where, and why our taxpayer money promoted controversial political ideologies antithetical to the real progress America has made for children and families.&#8221;
The 2020 presentation, titled “Anti-Bias Teaching and Learning Environments in Head Start Programs,” sought to foster “anti-bias learning environments” and warned of “implicit bias.”
“Explore children&#8217;s understanding of race and identity development,” the seminar description states. “Discover strategies to promote anti-bias practices through supportive interactions and activities with children.” The presentation outlined the “four core goals of anti-bias education” of identity, diversity, justice, and activism.
Another presentation dealt with “Personally-Mediated Racism in Early Education” and featured a graphic with the phrase “They’re not too young to talk about race!”
<div id="attachment_927969" style="width: 680px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-927969" class=" wp-image-927969" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.25.54-AM-300x176.png" alt="" width="670" height="393" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.25.54-AM-300x176.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.25.54-AM-980x576.png 980w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.25.54-AM-768x451.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.25.54-AM.png 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px" />FGI Report</div>
“Apply a racial equity lens to all Head Start policies AND funding,” reads a slide titled “Addressing Racism in Early Childhood.”
Yet another presentation encouraged teachers to talk to young children about race.
“If we commit to collectively trying to talk about race with young children, we can lean on one another as we, together, envision a world where we actively challenge racism each and every day,” the slide said.
<div id="attachment_927973" style="width: 688px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-927973" class=" wp-image-927973" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.26.59-AM-300x175.png" alt="" width="678" height="395" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.26.59-AM-300x175.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.26.59-AM-988x576.png 988w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.26.59-AM-768x448.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.26.59-AM.png 1238w" sizes="(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px" />FGI Report</div>
Head Start was <a href="https://acf.gov/ohs/about/head-start">launched</a> in 1965 and offers a variety of services to children from impoverished families. Program benefits are administered throughout the country by partner organizations, including school districts, non-profits, and faith-based organizations, which provide medical assistance, nutritional support, and education to eligible families.
Head Start also encouraged teachers to read texts on critical race theory, including the 1619 Project from Nikole Hannah-Jones and “How to be Antiracist” by Ibram X Kendi.
In September 2022, Head Start teamed up with Sesame Street to push for “racial justice” in childhood education. Sesame Street used the occasion to showcase new characters, including one that encouraged “black pride” among children.
<div id="attachment_927975" style="width: 709px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-927975" class=" wp-image-927975" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.28.26-AM-300x176.png" alt="" width="699" height="410" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.28.26-AM-300x176.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.28.26-AM-980x576.png 980w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.28.26-AM-768x451.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screen-Shot-2025-06-02-at-10.28.26-AM.png 1198w" sizes="(max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px" />FGI Report</div>
A project of the Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start has funded organizations that cater to illegal aliens. The Mexican American Opportunity Foundation has received nearly <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/recipient/6c9a2ff8-db6c-4013-7cc9-de4f348b510f-C/all">$33 million</a> in federal grants to support the administration of the Head Start program across its various locations. The organization simultaneously offers free and discounted <a href="https://maof.org/community-development/immigration-services">legal services to illegal aliens</a>.
The organization offers assistance with applications for the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shelters some illegal aliens from deportation.
Head Start did not respond to a request for comment.
Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro slammed Head Start in an April episode of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show,&#8221; calling the program &#8220;one of the great fails in federal history.&#8221;
&#8220;The data on Head Start has been pretty solid for a long time showing effectively no difference between kids who go to Head Start and kids who do not.&#8221;

Baby

EXCLUSIVE: Federal Education Program Warned Teachers About Racist Babies, Made Old MacDonald Trans

Critical Race Theory

A black media personality was convicted last week of faking a hate crime against Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade to gin up votes for him, with the ringleader Derrick Bernard testifying that Mobolade was in on the hoax, and the FBI testifying that the mayor misled agents about his contact with Bernard.
Mobolade, who is Nigerian, won the election as a left-leaning independent in the traditional Republican stronghold in 2023 after the n-word was scrawled on one of his campaign signs and a cross set ablaze in front of it. Video of the scene was sent to the media, resulting in a swell of sympathy.
At the five-day trial in federal court for Bernard and his wife, Ashley Blackcloud, that concluded May 23, FBI agent Ethan Doherty testified that the mayor falsely denied contact with Bernard, despite records showing the pair was in contact before, the day of the hate crime, and afterward. Doherty testified that when the FBI interviewed the mayor, Mobolade said he was “120% sure” he did not have a phone call with Bernard three days after the incident, and that Mobolade seemed “nervous,” according to <a href="https://www.koaa.com/news/news5-investigates/fbi-agent-defendant-testify-in-election-hate-crime-hoax-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KOAA</a>. Doherty also revealed that Mobolade began using a <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/bernard-blames-colorado-springs-mayor-other-politicians-in-hate-crime-hoax-trial/article_2f4a6ffe-07be-4d4b-ae28-afbaf5267596.html">new cell phone</a> the day after the hoax.
The FBI’s courtroom testimony <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayor-lied-in-hate-crime-hoax-probe-but-doj-refused-to-charge-him-fbi-official-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">corroborated</a> Daily Wire reporting from November 2024, which Mobolade denied at the time. Mobolade <a href="https://gazette.com/government/mobolade-statement-hate-crime-investigation/article_52f0bf8e-acdf-11ef-8efc-1b6a6e58dabc.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the local paper that “politically motivated websites will weigh in with no regard for accuracy or truth,” and his deputy chief of staff told the city council the article was “unfounded.” He produced a video in response, saying “I did not lie to the FBI,” and claiming he had paperwork from the Department of Justice showing he was a victim.
But a Justice Department document produced at trial said that Mobolade was at one point under investigation, that the investigation was closed but could be reopened, and that its closure should not be considered an exoneration.
The hoax began after an April 12, 2023 election in which neither Mobolade nor Wayne Williams, a white Republican, received a majority, triggering a runoff. According to court papers, the next day Bernard texted Mobolade: “Theirs [sic] a plot amidst. I’m mobilizing my squadron in defense and for the final push. Black ops style big brother. The klan cannot be allowed to run this city again.”
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayor-lied-in-hate-crime-hoax-probe-but-doj-refused-to-charge-him-fbi-official-says">Mayor Lied In Hate Crime Hoax Probe But DOJ Refused To Charge Him, FBI Official Says</a>
On April 23, Bernard, Blackcloud, and a third conspirator named Deanna West, who previously pleaded guilty, worked together to scrawl the n-word on a campaign sign at 3:00 a.m., erect a cross with twine on it, and set the twine on fire. They photographed the display and sent it to the media, suggesting that white Republican supporters of Williams were to blame.
That night, Bernard texted Mobolade, “I guarantee the finish,” referring to a request from Mobolade to help him get across the finish line. Three days later, the pair spoke on the phone for five minutes. After Mobolade won the May runoff, Bernard texted him: “We got you through it all brother&#8230; Another time though, we’ll handle business.”
Bernard, who is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for an unrelated killing, testified that Mobolade, along with state Rep. Regina English (D-El Paso), helped plan the hoax, according to <a href="https://krdo.com/news/2025/05/23/couple-found-guilty-of-threatening-yemi-mobolade-with-hate-crime-hoax-during-2023-mayoral-race/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KRDO</a>. He said Mobolade was to have steered city money to Bernard’s radio station in return. Blackcloud did not testify, but told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cross-burning-hoax-colorado-springs-black-mayor-1900f7765e9fe5693d5df2a5ea50ffee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a> that the mayor was in on it from the beginning.
<blockquote>
<h1>“Theirs [sic] a plot amidst. I’m mobilizing my squadron in defense and for the final push. Black ops style big brother. The klan cannot be allowed to run this city again.”</h1>
</blockquote>
There was evidence that the mayor did not seem to want a thorough investigation into the incident. He waited until the Monday after the news broke to contact the local police chief, whom he told “I don’t want to make a big deal about this,” according to <a href="https://www.koaa.com/news/news5-investigates/mayor-mobolade-testimony-continues-in-hate-crime-hoax-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testimony</a>. After the FBI identified Bernard as a suspect, Mobolade did not tell investigators that he had been in contact with him, testifying at trial that he was waiting for the FBI to <a href="https://krdo.com/news/2025/05/20/mayor-yemi-mobolade-and-wife-take-the-stand-in-colorado-springs-hate-crime-hoax-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">take the lead</a> by asking questions, according to KRDO.
That seemed to contradict the fact that when the FBI did ask him, he denied the contact. At trial, Mobolade said he didn’t recall denying his phone call with Bernard to the FBI, until he was presented with a transcript of his FBI interview.
&#8220;At the time I was confident,&#8221; Mobolade testified, according to the <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/colorado-springs-mayor-grilled-on-day-2-of-hate-crime-hoax-trial/article_ce378cbc-adde-4547-a91a-0625bce9b6db.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colorado Springs Gazette</a>.
The Gazette reported that “Mobolade appeared flustered as he fielded questions from the defense about the timeline of events and specific details about his communication with Bernard. He often was not able to provide an answer.” He could still not explain what the five-minute phone call was about.
Bernard testified that the five-minute call was about the “hoax,” and that Mobolade “promised to ‘squash’ the story when Bernard expressed concern over backlash,” the <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/bernard-blames-colorado-springs-mayor-other-politicians-in-hate-crime-hoax-trial/article_2f4a6ffe-07be-4d4b-ae28-afbaf5267596.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gazette</a> reported.
The day after the call, KRDO ran a story quoting the Mobolade campaign asking people not to give the incident “<a href="https://krdo.com/news/2023/04/24/colorado-springs-mayoral-candidates-sign-painted-with-a-racial-slur-in-front-of-burning-cross-springs-mayoral-candidates-sign-painted-with-a-racial-slur-in-front-of-burning-cross/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">any oxygen</a>.” At trial, Mobolade acknowledged that “he tried to keep the story under wraps at the time, saying he ‘didn&#8217;t want that to be the story of Colorado Springs,’” the Gazette reported.
Emails obtained by The Daily Wire show that, after he became mayor, Mobolade used city employees to deter the local media from picking up The Daily Wire’s report that Mobolade had given false information to the FBI.
When The Daily Wire notified spokeswoman Vanessa Zink about the allegation that Mobolade lied to the FBI, the mayor’s chief of staff, Jamie Fabos, intervened to encourage her to take an ad hominem approach, calling the Wire a “bizarre far right” outlet whose reporters “don’t actually qualify as journalists.”
When the Gazette asked for comment about The Daily Wire’s story, Zink wrote: “Use caution in perpetuating gossip and rumors from politically biased outlets.”
“I guess I had hoped that our community could rise above what appears to be political bait from a source that doesn’t even have the decency to blur out racial slurs on its graphics, but, sadly, it seems that is not possible,” she wrote.
When media outlets used a blurred version of the photo to obscure the n-word, the blurring also concealed the fact that the fire was clearly coming not from the wooden cross, but from a small amount of twine wrapped around it. That was strong evidence from the beginning that it was a hoax, since twine would only burn for a few seconds, meaning the people who took the photo and sent it to the media were likely the same people who set the fire, rather than passersby. At trial, security camera footage confirmed that the fire only burned for 20 seconds.
City Councilman Dave Donelson said Zink resigned her job shortly after the trial, though he doesn’t know the reason.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2t4GKsTFjQk?si=jjoJJKxqRx2xq51h" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&nbsp;
An FBI official told The Daily Wire in November 2024 that Mobolade repeatedly concealed his contacts with Bernard from the FBI, despite scrolling through his phone in the interview room. The official said the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden refused the bureau’s request to indict the mayor for false statements because “we can’t indict the first black mayor of Colorado Springs,” instead telling agents to interview him again so he could change his story.
When the Justice Department indicted the trio, it issued a press release that falsely said that one of Bernard’s incriminating messages — that he was “mobilizing my squad” for “black ops” — was sent to his co-defendants, when it was actually sent to Mobolade.
A Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Colorado has still not been confirmed, and under Acting U.S. Attorney J. Bishop Grewell, a career Justice Department lawyer, the federal government has portrayed Mobolade, not the Republican candidate Williams, as the victim. That&#8217;s despite the fact that the culprits, in their anonymous message to the media, explicitly used the burning cross to frame supporters of the white Republican and harm Williams’ candidacy, and Williams ultimately lost the race.
Prosecutors charged the trio using a legal theory that seemed to require making it seem like Mobolade had no knowledge of the stunt in order to secure convictions against Bernard and his accomplices for making “threats” to him.
The defendants said it was “political theater” designed to win an election, not a threat, since the black left-wing operatives obviously did not intend to actually harm the black left-wing candidate because of his race.
But the trio was charged with “Willfully making a threat to kill, injure or intimidate by fire” and “Maliciously conveying false information concerning a threat to kill, injure or intimidate by fire, knowing the information to be false.”
As a result, the <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cod.238660/gov.uscourts.cod.238660.178.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">judge’s instructions</a> said in order to secure a conviction, prosecutors “must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants willfully meant the cross burning not as political hyperbole or political theater but rather, for Candidate 1 to fear a real possibility that violence would follow.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Candyce Cline said in the prosecution’s opening argument that the burning cross was not “political theater,” but rather a “threat of violence,” according to the Gazette. “Lead U.S. Attorney Bryan Fields argued the incident was not a hoax to the Mobolade family, but rather their worst nightmare,” it <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/hate-crime-hoax-trial-jury-returns-guilty-verdict-on-all-counts-after-4-hour-deliberation/article_94cc53e8-55c4-4109-b9d5-904240bee57d.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Mobolade cried on the witness stand and, despite evidence that the Mobolade campaign suspected that a black person was behind the hoax at the time, claimed that the defaced sign left him living in fear.
His wife “Abbey Mobolade testified she bought a fire ladder and trauma kit in the weeks after the incident, adding that she doesn&#8217;t let her kids outside alone anymore,” the Gazette reported.
The convicts have not yet been sentenced, but West, who pleaded guilty, is expected to receive only probation.
Mobolade issued a statement after the convictions that cast the hoax as a reminder of the importance of anti-racism.
“This moment brings a sense of closure and relief, not only for our family, but for the Colorado Springs community as a whole. We deeply appreciate the work of the judicial system, federal prosecutors, law enforcement, and everyone who worked diligently to bring this case to justice. Moments like this remind us that hate has no home in our city. As we move forward, we do so with gratitude, healing, and a commitment to the values that make Colorado Springs a safe, just, and united community,” he said.
Councilman Donelson told The Daily Wire that the statement painting Mobolade as the victim was unseemly. He said now that the trial is over, Mobolade is out of excuses to stay mum. “For this councilman, something doesn’t add up. If I were the mayor, I’d want to clear this up,” he said.
He said new Justice Department leadership should examine whether the false-statements case into Mobolade was closed for political reasons, and whether it should be reopened. He questioned whether the DOJ’s strategy showed a bias towards protecting Mobelade. “The DOJ charges were that this was truly a threat to Mobelade. If he knew about it, then their case falls apart,” he said.
He said at a city council meeting: &#8220;I call for an investigation into these accusations and actions.  The citizens of Colorado Springs deserve answers about the mayor’s involvement.”
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/prosecutors-indict-trio-for-staging-hate-crime-to-elect-left-wing-colorado-mayor">Prosecutors Indict Trio For Staging Hate Crime To Elect Left-Wing Colorado Mayor</a>

Untitled design (34)

Colorado Springs’ First Black Mayor Implicated In Hate-Crime Hoax At Federal Trial

Colorado

Department of Justice

Hate Crime

As corporate America continues to abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion schemes, Microsoft is doubling down on race-based hiring and pay policies — and a watchdog group is sounding the alarm.
Consumers’ Research, a non-profit that works to “educate and protect consumers,” is sending out a “woke alert” to warn consumers of the tech giant’s campaigns to push far-left ideologies, even as other corporations ditch the ideological agenda.
“Despite many companies distancing themselves from woke ideology, Microsoft continues to double down on its radical agenda,” the Consumers’ Research Executive Director, Will Hild, told The Daily Wire. “From promoting divisive DEI policies and harmful gender ideology targeting children, to advancing a politically charged climate crusade, Microsoft has made one thing clear: it prioritizes activism over innovation.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meta-axes-dei-programs-in-the-lead-up-to-trumps-inauguration?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=146&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Meta+Axes+DEI+Programs+In+The+Lead-Up+To+Trump%E2%80%99s+Inauguration">Meta</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disney-walks-back-dei-initiatives-changes-disclaimers-on-classic-films">Disney</a>, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/target-rolls-back-dei-joining-other-major-companies-like-walmart-meta">Walmart</a>, and other major corporations have stepped back from their radical DEI policies in the wake of President Donald Trump’s re-election. Not so Microsoft, whose Chief Diversity Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/doing-work-intention-inclusion-impact-lindsay-rae-mcintyre-cvg4c/?trackingId=S3Le8KssrO0uhupaH0qc8A%3D%3D">wrote</a> in December that the company&#8217;s &#8220;diversity and inclusion work is more important than ever.”
Just two months earlier, the diversity officer wrote in a <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/10/23/microsofts-2024-global-diversity-inclusion-report-our-most-global-transparent-report-yet/">DEI report</a> that “if ever there were a critical time for the business case for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, it is now.” That report featured a section on “pay equity” comparing the average salaries of employees by their race and gender, irrespective of the roles that are held across the different demographic groups.
Microsoft says its goal is to increase the number of women and non-white employees in leadership roles, in part to ensure a leveling of any pay gaps.
“As we continue to increase representation for women and racial and ethnic minority groups at more senior levels, and continue to ensure pay equity for all,” the report reads, with the Vice President of Global Compensation Mike Cyran adding that “any pay gaps indicate opportunities to increase representation at more senior levels.”
“Microsoft seems to be implying diversity metrics should be a main factor in salaries, rather than professional performance and merit,” Consumers’ Research says in its woke alert.
Microsoft’s commitment to DEI policies — especially those that could be used to engineer specific demographic balances within various roles — may place the tech giant on a collision course with the Trump administration. Shortly after taking office, Trump ordered the Department of Justice to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1388501/dl?inline">author a report</a> on actions that the federal agency could take to enforce civil rights law to “investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities in the private sector.”
Microsoft has already taken an oppositional posture against the administration and <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/3398418/microsoft-support-europe-hires-anti-trump-law-firm/">threatened to sue</a> it amid tariff negotiations between the United States and Europe.
The company’s 2023 DEI report appeared to indicate that Microsoft pays white employees <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/microsoft-brags-that-it-pays-white-employees-less-than-non-white-employees-despite-same-job-title">less than</a> non-white employees, often for performing the same job.
“All racial and ethnic minority groups who are rewards eligible combined earn $1.007 total pay for every $1.000 earned by US rewards-eligible white employees with the same job title and level and considering tenure,” the report said.
The company also maintains an “<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/inclusion-journey/library">inclusion journey library</a>” with videos on “allyship,” “inclusive perspectives,” and how to fight implicit bias. The library, Microsoft says, can be used for “re-learning past behaviors and approaches to constantly improve our self-awareness and adopt inclusive behaviors.”
Microsoft’s left-wing agenda has seeped out from its workplace and into its products. The company <a href="https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/articles/2024/06/xbox-pride-2024/#:~:text=Since%202019%2C%20Xbox%20and%20its,head%20over%20to%20Xbox%20Wire.">partnered</a> with the Trevor Project in 2019, an organization that advocates for child transgenderism, to create “more inclusive” video games.
In 2024, the company <a href="https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/05/31/xbox-pride-2024/">boasted</a> that one of its video games “allows players to romance and marry characters regardless of their gender,” while another “tells the story of Tyler, a transgender man, with sensitivity and depth.” A third “features openly LGBTQIA+ characters.”
The Trevor Project, which runs an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schools-across-u-s-push-kids-to-chatrooms-where-they-can-talk-transgenderism-with-lgbtq-adults">online chat platform</a> where children can talk to adults about transgenderism and their sexual identity, is just one of the far-left LGBT organizations that Microsoft has bankrolled. The company and its employees have dropped more than $16 million to “organizations that support LGBTQIA+ communities.”
Hild says that it is time for the tech giant to drop its left-wing agenda.
“As if subjecting millions of people to Microsoft Teams wasn&#8217;t bad enough, the tech giant has become a megaphone for left-wing politics,” Hild said. “It’s time for Microsoft to get back to what&#8217;s made it successful — rolling out poorly conceived products, full of bugs, with annoying features no one wants, and using their monopoly status to force it on the world.”

Microsoft Building

Woke Alert! Microsoft Slammed For Race-Based ‘Pay Equity’ Scheme

Microsoft

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