President Donald Trump commented on the federal charges facing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) early Friday morning, arguing that the leftist group&#8217;s potential fraud &#8220;is another Democrat Hoax&#8221; that places the 2020 election results into doubt.
Trump made the comment in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116457972455781406">post</a> on Truth Social, marking the first time he has publicly addressed the allegations against the SPLC, which was charged earlier this week with multiple counts of wire fraud over its scheme to pay the leaders of multiple white supremacist groups in exchange for information.
&#8220;The Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the greatest political scams in American History, has been charged with FRAUD. This is another Democrat Hoax, along with Act Blue, and many others,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;If it is true, the 2020 Presidential Election should be permanently wiped from the books and be of no further force or effect! Thank you for your attention to this matter.&#8221;
The SPLC, which started in the 1970s as an organization to push back against racism and segregation in the South, has been paying leaders of extremist groups for decades, according to an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Tuesday. The indictment states that the SPLC secretly used donor cash to pay so-called informants affiliated with racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, over $3 million between 2014 and 2023.
The SPLC is closely aligned with Democratic Party goals and talking points and has a political action fund that almost exclusively <a href="https://www.splcactionfund.org/endorsements/">endorses</a> Democrats in state and local elections in the South.
Between 2015 and 2023, the SPLC <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lefty-anti-hate-group-paid-white-supremacist-to-plan-infamous-charlottesville-rally-indictment">paid</a> a member of a white supremacist group that planned the &#8220;Unite the Right&#8221; rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to the indictment. The rally, which turned deadly when a man drove his car through a crowd of counter protesters, became the main reason behind former President Joe Biden&#8217;s 2020 election campaign. Biden pointed to the rally in his campaign announcement video, pinning blame on Trump and saying, “In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime.”
The SPLC has also engaged in a campaign to label mainstream conservatives as &#8220;extremists&#8221; and has used its influence to pressure social media companies and the federal government to censor conservative voices. The SPLC was used as a resource by the FBI to identify extremists before FBI Director Kash Patel cut the bureau’s ties with the leftist organization last year.
In his post on Friday morning, Trump also called out Democratic Party fundraising platform ActBlue, which is under scrutiny over accusations that it allowed foreign contributions in American elections. Trump maintains that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election, which Biden won by over 70 electoral votes amid major controversy over mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting methods.

Donald Trump

Trump Hints At Major 2020 Move If SPLC Found Guilty Of Fraud

2020 Election

Democratic Party

Executive

Politics

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

Democrats in Michigan nominated a Muslim attorney who has honored terrorists for a position on the University of Michigan&#8217;s Board of Regents.
At the Michigan Democratic Party&#8217;s nominating convention on Sunday night, delegates chose Amir Makled over incumbent regent Jordan Acker for a seat on the board that controls the university&#8217;s budget and leadership appointments, The Detroit News <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/04/19/jordan-acker-university-of-michigan-board-of-regents-amir-makled-wins-democratic-convention-vote/89691921007/">reported</a>. The contrast in the race could not have been clearer for Democratic delegates, who ultimately picked a Muslim who recently shared a post that referred to Israelis as &#8220;demons&#8221; over a Jewish regent who has faced antisemitic attacks.
Last June, Makled <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/04/09/university-of-michigan-regent-candidate-lawyer-amir-makled-deletes-posts-praising-hezbollah-leaders/89533176007/">shared</a> a post that called former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a &#8220;martyr,&#8221; less than a year after Nasrallah was taken out in an Israeli airstrike. Another post shared by Makled honored Hezbollah official Abu Ali Khalil as a &#8220;martyr on the road to Jerusalem.&#8221;
In July 2025, Makled shared a post from Candace Owens, in which Owens referred to Israelis as &#8220;demons&#8221; who &#8220;lie, steal, cheat, murder, and blackmail.&#8221; The Muslim lawyer has since deleted those social media posts.
Makled secured the nomination over Acker, who has faced antisemitic threats from anti-Israel radicals following Hamas&#8217; attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. In December of 2024, Acker&#8217;s home was vandalized and damaged, and his wife&#8217;s car was spray painted with the words &#8220;Divest&#8221; and &#8220;Free Palestine.&#8221; Anti-Israel radicals also vandalized Acker&#8217;s law firm building, which police investigated as a hate crime, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/09/us/university-of-michigan-regents-vandalized-acker">reported</a>.
Last year, Acker, along with regents Mark Bernstein and Sarah Hubbard, were given 24/7 security due to threats from anti-Israel demonstrators. Makled represented anti-Israel students who were arrested and charged last year with trespassing and resisting arrest when police broke up an encampment on Michigan&#8217;s campus.
The nomination of Makled over Acker reflects a major shift in the Democratic Party throughout the country, which has seen multiple leftist Muslims elected to public office. That shift is on full display in Michigan this year as another leftist Muslim, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, is in a tight race for the Democratic nomination to the open seat for U.S. Senate. El-Sayed <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/19/politics/michigan-senate-democratic-primary">told</a> CNN over the weekend that Hamas is just as evil as the Israeli government.
The Michigan Democratic Party did not release the vote tally for Sunday&#8217;s nominating convention. For many statewide offices in Michigan, the Democratic Party chooses its nominees through delegates who meet to cast their votes at a nominating convention. Acker&#8217;s ticket-mate, Paul Brown, who has also called for punishment for anti-Israel demonstrators, was renominated to run alongside Makled in the general election.
Makled rode a wave of support from leftist University of Michigan students and campus labor unions to his nomination victory.
“This is beyond the support that I was expecting,” Makled <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/news/administration/amir-makled-defeats-regent-jordan-acker-at-democratic-convention-to-run-alongside-incumbent-paul-brown/">said</a> after he was nominated. “This is the largest convention I’ve participated in in 20 years, and I’ve been coming to them since 2006. This really shows how much the Democratic Party has expanded the electorate and energized the base of what people want to see come November.”
Makled will face Republicans Lena Epstein and Michael Schostak in the general election on November 3.
Not all Democrats were enthused by Makled&#8217;s candidacy. Brandon Dillon, a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, blasted Makled and <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2026/04/17/dillon-the-democratic-party-has-no-room-for-amir-makled/89665735007/">wrote</a> in a Detroit News opinion piece that Makled&#8217;s social media posts &#8220;reflect a pattern of extremism and bigotry, all of which should be disqualifying for someone seeking one of the most powerful positions in Michigan higher education and statewide office.&#8221;
Acker faced opposition from Makled and many within the Michigan Democratic Party for his desire to hold anti-Israel radicals accountable after they intimidated Jewish students and obstructed law enforcement officers. Acker also faced scrutiny just a few days before the Democratic nominating convention when The Guardian published a report on alleged messages sent by Acker on Slack that appeared to be sexual in nature and included obscene comments about a female Michigan student.
Acker said that parts of the messages sent to The Guardian appeared to be &#8220;doctored,&#8221; adding that Acker &#8220;has never been on Slack.&#8221; Acker told The Detroit News that the allegations published in The Guardian are &#8220;ridiculous&#8221; and &#8220;fake.&#8221;

Amir Makled/University of Michigan

Dems Make A Stunning Switch And Backlash Is Building Fast

anti-Israel

Elections

Jewish

Michigan

Muslims

University of Michigan

Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivered an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/opinion/iran-war-families-affordability-trump.html">op-ed</a> for The New York Times on Thursday, offering her advice to Democrats on how to win against &#8220;brain-dead&#8221; Republicans in the future.
Clinton, who served as Secretary of State after losing the 2012 Democratic primary to former President Barack Obama, criticized Republicans generally — and President Donald Trump specifically — for requesting an increase to the military budget, complaining that the administration was ignoring working families to do so.
Questioning those concerned with America&#8217;s falling birth rate — which is well below the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/first-came-overpopulation-panic-then-came-the-birth-collapse">replacement rate</a> and predicts an imminent population drop-off — she added, &#8220;Their answer is too often nostalgia and misogyny: If we could turn back the clock to a time when women didn’t work (and knew their place), the economy would thrive and families would flourish. This is substantively and politically brain-dead.&#8221;
Clinton then proceeded to tick off a list of priorities she believed Democrats should focus on if they wanted to succeed in the future — but most of her proposed solutions were either already well-entrenched in the Democratic Party&#8217;s platform or had already been tried, with varying degrees of success or failure, by one or both parties.
One such solution, according to Clinton, was an increase in child tax credits — specifically refundable tax credits. The IRS describes a refundable tax credit as &#8220;a credit you can get as a refund even if you don&#8217;t owe any tax.&#8221; The end result of a refundable child tax credit would be a redistribution of wealth based on number of dependents — and in past years, this has been accomplished through the Earned Income Credit.
Another solution — one that has already been embraced by both parties to some degree — is paid family leave. Clinton also focused on early education, childcare, and health care — all of which have been key elements of her party&#8217;s platform for years, if not decades. The key driver in all of those suggestions was her insistence that those programs be delivered at the national level rather than by individual employers looking for a competitive advantage or even by more local jurisdictions where the specific needs of the people in that area could be addressed.
Her final suggestion was a national baseline for artificial intelligence safeguards — again, something that both parties and the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/">White House</a> have expressed an interest in exploring.

Bill and Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton Mocks Traditional Family Concerns As ‘Brain-Dead’ And Misogynistic

Two-Time Presidential Loser Has Thoughts On How Dems Can Win

Democrats

General

Hillary Clinton

Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore is attacking his state&#8217;s largest newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, for investigating his political record and probing potential falsehoods concerning his upbringing and military service.
The Baltimore Sun is collaborating with sister television station Sinclair to scrutinize Gov. Wes Moore as he gears up for reelection and weighs a 2028 run for the White House, <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/04/05/2026/marylands-biggest-newspaper-is-going-after-the-governors-2028-campaign?utm_medium=media&amp;utm_campaign=flagshipnumbered1&amp;utm_source=newslettercta">Semafor reported</a>.
The investigative series, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/tag/spotlight-on-maryland/">Spotlight Maryland</a>, includes FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun. These outlets will examine whether Moore exaggerated his military service and investigate the athletic scholarships he received in college.
Reporters with Spotlight Maryland have exchanged tense emails with Wes Moore&#8217;s staff, citing frustration over what they describe as a lack of transparency.
“Our news team will continue pursuing this matter until they are satisfied that there is either no story &#8211; or until further investigation shows that events did not occur as they should have,” the team wrote in one letter to Moore’s office <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/04/05/2026/marylands-biggest-newspaper-is-going-after-the-governors-2028-campaign?utm_medium=media&amp;utm_campaign=flagshipnumbered1&amp;utm_source=newslettercta">obtained by Semafor</a>. “If our team finds the latter, they will report that. … We are also prepared to present our findings and concerns to the Secretary of the Army’s office; and if gets to that point, we fully expect it will have become a national level news story requiring the Army Secretary’s attention.”
Moore’s team has complained that the investigation is &#8220;needlessly hostile and politically motivated,&#8221; according to Semafor.
Then, the liberal governor ran to MS NOW.
&#8220;The Baltimore Sun used to be our paper of record,&#8221; Moore <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jutl4tq6nqhumm5exzk52f5t/post/3mixau63lak2m">told former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s now become the paper of the right-wing.&#8221;
Moore complained that in 2024, media executive David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/01/15/baltimore-sun-media-sold-david-d-smith/">bought the paper</a>.
&#8220;I think we&#8217;ve seen how their readership continued to decline, but it&#8217;s happened because you&#8217;ve had a MAGA billionaire who is now currying favor for the President of the United States,&#8221; Moore said.
The liberal governor added that he was &#8220;deeply proud&#8221; of his military service and claimed nobody in the U.S. Army questions his integrity.
In 2024, The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/29/us/politics/wes-moore-bronze-star.html">New York Times</a> reported that Moore falsely claimed on a 2006 White House fellowship application that he had been awarded a Bronze Star for his military service while deployed in Afghanistan.
&#8220;The soldiers I served with don&#8217;t question my integrity,&#8221; Moore said. &#8220;But we are seeing how the right wing and these right-wing billionaires like David Smith is then using his wealth to be able to manipulate local media.&#8221;
Spotlight on Maryland executive producer and managing editor <a href="https://x.com/candynotcandace/status/2041903427786068360?s=20">Candy Woodall called out</a> Democrats for &#8220;putting in a lot of work to discredit a series before it&#8217;s even started running.&#8221;
&#8220;This is standard journalism to scrutinize the words and records of elected officials and candidates who hold positions of power and public trust,&#8221; Woodall said. &#8220;If you want to know more, keep reading The Baltimore Sun, a 200-year-old newspaper that has survived many governors.&#8221;

Wes Moore

Dem Presidential Hopeful Flails At Local Newspaper For Daring To Investigate His Record

Corruption

Journalism

Media

Former reality TV star Mark Moran has launched his U.S. Senate bid in Virginia, positioning himself as an independent challenger to incumbent Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and ripping both major parties.
Moran, best known for appearing on the short-lived HBO Max dating series &#8220;FBoy Island,&#8221; announced his campaign in a video posted Friday, saying he is “breaking free from the Democratic establishment&#8221; to run as an independent and will put &#8220;Virginia &amp; America First.&#8221;
&#8220;I’m doing that because I’m putting our country first. I’m putting it above these divisive issues that the Left, that the Right, and our corporate media control,” he said in the announcement. 
Moran has framed his campaign around what he describes as “big, bold ideas” to &#8220;simplify&#8221; and &#8220;restructure&#8221; government, arguing that &#8220;everything is wrong, and that&#8217;s because money controls.&#8221;
He has taken aim at the incumbent Democrat, calling Warner an &#8220;oligarch&#8221; and urging voters to reject establishment politics ahead of Virginia&#8217;s August 4 primary.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today, I am putting Virginia &amp; America First, to announce that I am running as an Independent for U.S. Senate. <a href="https://t.co/NUPa5xTvd0">pic.twitter.com/NUPa5xTvd0</a>
— Mark Moran for U.S. Senate (@itsmarkmoran) <a href="https://twitter.com/itsmarkmoran/status/2039721552439066964?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Moran previously worked in investment banking and built an online following centered on what he called &#8220;Wall Street culture.&#8221; He claims to have left the industry due to moral objections.
The political newcomer has also broken with Democratic orthodoxy on some issues, including gun rights.
“After facing a personal safety issue, I got a gun. It made me realize how extreme our party’s stance has become,” Moran <a href="https://x.com/itsmarkmoran/status/2036561327699726492?s=20">posted</a> on social media. “The founders wrote the 2A to protect us from tyranny…whether that tyranny comes from Donald Trump or a state legislature trying to disarm you.”
“The Second Amendment isn’t about hunting. It’s about power…the people’s power,” Moran’s campaign website says. “It’s the final check on a government that seeks to control its citizens. It’s exactly what Jefferson warned us about.”
Moran has drawn attention for his combative online presence as well. In response to a critic on his campaign launch video, he <a href="https://x.com/itsmarkmoran/status/2039899492133089454">wrote</a>, “Read the website retard, nobody has ever talked about my ideas bc no one has had my unique experience &#8211; enjoy !!”
This was in response to an X user writing, “Yeah, cool Mark. Go ahead and TURN IT ALL AROUND once you get elected. No clue why no one else has ever thought of all these buzzwords and catchphrases before, I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll sort it all out.”
Moran <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2026/03/30/mark-moran-virginia-warner-spanberger-democrats-gerrymandering-second-amendment/">told</a> The Daily Caller that he has taken cues from President Donald Trump&#8217;s use of media and public persona. 
“It always makes me laugh when people think Donald Trump is dumb. Donald Trump understood the power of the medium of reality TV earlier than anyone else, and he saw that to have any sway over the American populace, you had to control the hearts and minds … of the American people,” he told the outlet. “This is a concept that goes back to Thomas Jefferson.”
He added that reality TV remains one of the most effective ways to reach a broad audience.
“I’ve always known that I would [run for office], and in looking at reality TV, I saw an opportunity to learn firsthand this … is the only medium right now, aside from social media, that can capture the attention of over 50% of Americans. Fox News can’t do that. CNN can’t do that, but reality TV can,” he said. “The Kardashians saw that. What you learned is you’re essentially a caricature of yourself.”
“You play an aggrandized version of yourself, which Trump does masterfully,” Moran went on. “And why people love him is he is so unapologetically American. And that is the thing that people come to love about certain reality TV individuals, whether it’s the Kardashians or it’s &#8216;The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,&#8217; all of this that they’re just themselves, and they don’t apologize for it.”

Mark Moran

Failed ‘F*ckboy Island’ Contestant Launches Senate Bid

Mark Warner

Senate

Virginia

The NBA took a historic step Wednesday, voting unanimously to explore expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas. After 18 years of waiting, there&#8217;s finally real hope that the SuperSonics are coming home. It&#8217;s genuinely good news for a city that desperately needs something to cheer about.
But leave it to Washington Democrats to find a way to pick the team&#8217;s pockets before it plays a single game.
Seattle has been gutted by years of soft-on-consequences governance. King County&#8217;s homelessness authority tallied a revised 16,868 homeless individuals in its most recent completed count, and the agency&#8217;s own leadership has already signaled the 2026 survey, completed just weeks ago, will push that number higher still. Open-air drug use has become a defining feature of Seattle&#8217;s public spaces, with encampments stretching across parks and neighborhood corridors that once drew shoppers and tourists. Businesses fled. Residents followed. From 2021 to 2022, Washington logged a <a href="https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_faf025f3-cf18-4cb7-aa19-907760238841.html">net migration loss</a> of nearly 19,000 people and a $1.66 billion net loss in adjusted gross income.
This is the economic wreckage that Democrat-run Olympia and Seattle City Hall built through years of consequence-free drug policies and hostility to accountability. So when the NBA Board of Governors voted to formally pursue expansion talks with One Roof Sports and Entertainment, the ice hockey team the Kraken&#8217;s umbrella ownership group, fans had every reason to celebrate.
Climate Pledge Arena, a little virtue signal for woke Seattle, is ready. The fanbase never actually left. And for a city that&#8217;s been told for years things are improving while watching them deteriorate, the return of the Sonics is a rare piece of unambiguously good news. A possible 2028-29 season start is now squarely on the table.
The unconstitutional income tax that crashed the party
Here&#8217;s the catch. Just weeks before the NBA made its move, Democrats <a href="https://seattlered.com/seattle-red/jason-rantz-opinion/ferguson-delays-signing-washington-income-tax-sb-6346/4117495">rammed through Senate Bill 6346</a>, a 9.9% income tax on households earning more than $1 million annually. It passed the House 51-46 after Republicans waged a historic 25-hour floor fight, then cleared the Senate 27-21. Gov. Bob Ferguson has pledged to sign it.
Republicans called it exactly what it is. A 1933 Washington Supreme Court ruling established that income is property under the state constitution, meaning it must be taxed at a uniform rate. Democrats are betting courts will reverse nearly a century of precedent. That is a bold gamble with other people&#8217;s money.
Visiting players are on the hook
Here is what most fans celebrating the expansion news haven&#8217;t fully absorbed: SB 6346 doesn&#8217;t just hit Seattle residents. The bill codifies duty-day apportionment rules for nonresident athletes, meaning every opposing NBA team that walks into Climate Pledge Arena will owe Washington state a cut of income earned during those games. Tax professionals call this a &#8220;jock tax,&#8221; and Washington has never had one until now.
The math is ugly. For an NBA player earning $35 million a season, a two-game road trip to Seattle could generate over $800,000 in Washington-sourced income subject to the 9.9% rate, after only a minimal prorated deduction. Add coaches and high-earning staff, and a visiting team&#8217;s aggregate tax exposure for a single Seattle road stop could run several hundred thousand dollars.
This also changes the Sonics&#8217; own competitive position in free agency. For years, playing in Washington meant zero state income tax, a genuine edge when players compared contract offers. That advantage evaporates above the million-dollar threshold. Democrats didn&#8217;t just tax the team. They taxed every opponent who came to watch them play.
Silver lining: the encampments will disappear (temporarily)
There is one unexpected upside to the NBA expansion push, and Seattle residents near the city&#8217;s worst encampments already know what it is. A homeless camp sat for five months in the shadow of the Space Needle, on a vacant private lot at 5th Avenue North and Harrison Street, right across the street from Seattle Center, where Climate Pledge Arena is located. Neighbors and nearby businesses reported open drug use, discarded needles, and assaults.
The city claimed for months that it couldn&#8217;t touch it because the land was privately owned. It took a court-appointed receiver, a negotiated agreement, and a police presence to finally clear it last week.
&#8220;This is a high-profile spot, a very high-profile corner,&#8221; the receiver told <a href="https://komonews.com/news/local/space-needle-area-encampment-cleared-after-five-months-on-private-lot-housing-crisis-shelter-resources-drugs-needles-pollution-assault-crime-police-statistics-sweeps-katie-wilson-seattle">KOMO News</a>. &#8220;There was an emphasis to get this taken care of.&#8221;
Seattleites have seen this movie before. When the city hosted MLB All-Star Week in 2023, Mayor Bruce Harrell&#8217;s administration suddenly found the <a href="https://seattlered.com/seattle-red/jason-rantz-opinion/rantz-seattle-cleans-up-the-city-for-mlb-all-star-week-not-for-us/3905798">urgency to clear SODO</a>, Pioneer Square, and downtown of the encampments that residents had begged them to address for years. The streets looked almost livable for about a week.
I covered it at the time and was clear about what was actually happening. The city cleaned up for baseball executives, not for the people who live and work there. The same performance is coming for the NBA&#8217;s ownership vetting process, when someone has to justify writing a check somewhere between $7 and $10 billion for an expansion franchise. I&#8217;ll be honest with you: as a Seattle resident, I&#8217;ll take it. Beggars can&#8217;t be choosers. Just don&#8217;t mistake a pressure-wash before a sales pitch for an actual policy change. And, by the way, it did little to end the stench of urine downtown that is so thick you can taste it.
Democrats broke it. Now they want the trophy.
Progressive leadership spent years presiding over open-air drug markets, soaring homelessness, and a documented business exodus. Now they are racing to be photographed standing next to the NBA expansion announcement.
Democrats didn&#8217;t fix Seattle. They just got lucky the NBA still sees enough value in a market they&#8217;ve been running into the ground. The Sonics may well be back by 2028. They&#8217;ll arrive right as Washington&#8217;s unconstitutional income tax kicks in, ready to collect from every player who pulls on the jersey and every opponent who comes to town.
Welcome home, Sonics. Watch your wallets.
***
Jason Rantz is a <a href="https://seattlered.com/podcast_results?i=1676&amp;n=The+Jason+Rantz+Show">Seattle-based talk show host</a> and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Killing-America-Radical-Destruction/dp/1546006141/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0">“What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities.”</a>

Kentucky v Gonzaga

The Sonics Are Coming Back And Democrats Are Already Taxing Them

Blue States

Seattle

Taxes

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
In this piece, Manhattan Institute Vice President of External Affairs Jesse Arm warns Michigan voters not to trust a rising generation of radical lawmakers masquerading as traditional Democrats — most especially &#8220;far-left podcaster-physician Abdul El-Sayed.&#8221;
***
Michigan&#8217;s U.S. Senate race is viewed as one of the most consequential and contentious elections of the 2026 cycle. The three-way Democratic primary contest to replace retiring incumbent Gary Peters — between moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens, progressive state senator Mallory McMorrow, and far-left podcaster-physician Abdul El-Sayed — has emerged as a proxy war over the soul of the Democratic Party. As Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/01/michigan-senate-mcmorrow-stevens-el-sayed-00758408">noted</a> last month, the race is a &#8220;catch-all for every question and problem plaguing Democrats politically and tactically.&#8221; Democrats need to flip four Republican-held seats to win a Senate majority. Michigan is not optional.
But two weeks ago, the national spotlight on the Great Lakes state got a little brighter. Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon living in Dearborn Heights, collected arms and drove an explosive-laden truck into the preschool at Temple Israel in my hometown of <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/temple-israel-west-bloomfield-michigan-synagogue-shooting-attack">West Bloomfield</a> — the nation&#8217;s largest Reform synagogue in the heart of Michigan&#8217;s Jewish community. By some miracle, security guards engaged him and stopped the violent rampage before he could kill the nearly 140 children and their caretakers inside.
The attack was an act of Islamic terrorism, possibly carried out as revenge for a conflict between combatants on the other side of the globe. Ghazali’s brother was a commander in the Hezbollah terrorist organization, killed in a recent Israel Defense Forces airstrike. But Ghazali’s desire to sow terror could’ve also been incubated in Michigan. He lived next to “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/welcome-to-dearborn-americas-jihad-capital-pro-hamas-michigan-counterterrorism-a99dba38?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqeUTMNFjSRKEfwkYQ0IjPbfnp66S4OqNvk1IFXeBo3o5BCIKVDFzY0uvS1V54k=&amp;gaa_ts=69b39d4b&amp;gaa_sig=bX6tBUfC_GFHlVuLaQyJG3NhliIh5ORaMzQfDJqHkUzN9aDIqrza94PpOtdWtvInqzoQmCbcVWGKkEYS3tNfQw==">America’s jihad capital</a>,” a community where, in the days after October 7th, 2023, thousands marched through the streets celebrating Hamas&#8217;s slaughter of more than 1,200 innocent men, women, and children — including 46 Americans.
In the week following the West Bloomfield attack, one might expect a Michigan Senate candidate to take pains to lower the temperature. El-Sayed chose differently. Six days after the near-massacre at Temple Israel, he <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2034360293116067859">posted</a> a smiling photo of himself appealing to fans of Hasan Piker. Shortly thereafter, his campaign <a href="https://x.com/AbdulElSayed/status/2036431020233293934">announced</a> joint appearances with Piker at rallies on the trail.
For those unfamiliar: Piker is a <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/the-handsome-face-of-terror-apologia">Twitch streamer</a> and self-described <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/democrats-are-too-cozy-with-hasan-piker-2ecee4cc?st=R2ZQfB&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">Marxist</a> with three million followers who has built his brand on antisemitism, terror apologia, misogyny, and anti-Americanism. He has called Jews &#8220;inbred&#8221; and declared that property owners who don&#8217;t rent out their homes should be <a href="https://x.com/Rightanglenews/status/1966264506486853810">killed</a> while letting &#8220;the streets soak in their red capitalist blood.&#8221; He has compared supporters of Israel&#8217;s existence to being a &#8220;rabid neo-Nazi&#8221; and <a href="https://freebeacon.com/media/from-defending-rape-to-excusing-9-11-10-statements-that-define-mainstream-media-darling-hasan-piker/">said</a> he doesn&#8217;t “have an issue with” the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. He has offered justifications for Hamas&#8217;s October 7th massacre and stated that &#8220;it doesn&#8217;t matter if rapes happened on October 7th.&#8221; He has claimed &#8220;America deserved 9/11,&#8221; praised the Chinese Communist Party, and gleefully shared Houthi terrorist recruitment videos with his audience.
El-Sayed is only a slightly more polished version of the <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/michigan-senate-candidate-abdul-el-sayed-compared-an-oklahoma-ban-on-sharia-law-to-the-trail-of-tears/">same thing</a>. He has appeared at Islamist conferences alongside speakers who praised the October 7th attackers. He has raised money from an Arab-American PAC whose leader called for Israeli Jews to be sent &#8220;back to Poland.&#8221; And while speaking before a chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations — which has been designated a terrorist organization by both <a href="https://x.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1998156452377293228">Florida</a> and <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-designates-muslim-brotherhood-cair-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations">Texas</a> — he once compared an Oklahoma ballot measure restricting the application of Sharia law to the Trail of Tears.
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What makes much of this increasingly normalized radicalism especially maddening is how unrepresentative it all is, even of most Democratic voters. The median Michigander who tends to vote Democrat is not any sort of Hasan Piker acolyte. New Manhattan Institute <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/do-democrats-want-to-be-normal-survey-analysis-of-todays-democratic-coalition">polling</a> of nearly 2,600 Democratic voters found that most Democrats affirm Israel&#8217;s right to exist, that a plurality want their party to move toward the ideological center, and that an overwhelming majority believe political violence is never justified. The faction demanding maximalist anti-Western positioning as the price of progressive authenticity represents a small, loud, hyper-online minority.
So why does the radical left seem to continue gaining traction? As I’ve written previously in <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/democrats-party-voters-manhattan-institute-poll">City Journal</a>, the answer lies in examining who controls the actual machinery of Democratic politics. Over the past two decades, a network of progressive advocacy groups, ideological nonprofits, activist donors, and aligned unions has accumulated enormous influence over candidate recruitment, messaging, and policy prioritization. In election cycles without a presidential contest and thus lower voter turnout, that influence is magnified. Hit the right notes on all the crazy woke stuff, and the George Soros-types will make it worth your while. If not, it will go to your primary challenger. Many of these entities are deploying resources to achieve total ideological fealty to their extreme ideas, rather than to help Democrats win elections. After all, were ideological moderation to prove consistently successful at the ballot box, it would be economically threatening to the progressive groups&#8217; ecosystem itself.
Look at El-Sayed’s relationship with the Pod Save America network. Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Ben Rhodes — the former Obama aides turned podcast hosts — organized a <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/former-obama-speechwriters-to-fundraise-for-progressive-dem-senate-candidate-abdul-el-sayed/">fundraiser</a> for El-Sayed. Rhodes, notably, earned the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/05/huckleberry-capone-turd-blossom-white-house-nicknames-523723">nickname</a> &#8220;Hamas&#8221; during his White House years, bestowed by senior White House staffers for his relentlessly hostile stance toward Israel even then. That same crew has now attached itself to El-Sayed&#8217;s campaign as part of a broader attempt to nationalize the lesson they took from Zohran Mamdani&#8217;s mayoral victory in New York City: that the path forward for Democrats is to move left, not toward the center.
Mamdani won a Democratic primary in one of the bluest cities in America, under highly unique circumstances and against a uniquely unpalatable field. Attempting to run that same play in a dark purple Midwestern state and expecting the same result is what you do if you are chiefly focused on advancing a radical agenda and only secondarily on optimizing for victory. But all that won&#8217;t stop a large group of well-paid consultants coasting on Mamdani’s win from trying to sell that blueprint everywhere. And it won&#8217;t stop left-wing donors eager to believe it from buying it.
Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/polls/michigan-us-senate-election-polls-2026.html">polling</a> is clear. Stevens held an early lead in the primary. While the race has tightened considerably, she has consistently posted the strongest numbers against expected Republican nominee Mike Rogers — a former longtime congressman and well-known Michigan political figure who has run statewide before — in every publicly available general election survey to date.
Republican voters tempted to root for El-Sayed’s nomination — or operatives considering meddling on his behalf, as Democrats <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-democratic-group-meddles-michigan-republican-congressional-primary">did</a> in Michigan&#8217;s 3rd Congressional District Republican primary in 2022 when the DCCC spent big bucks boosting election-denier John Gibbs against moderate GOP incumbent Peter Meijer — should think carefully. Democrats successfully flipped that seat after helping Gibbs win his primary. But primary meddling remains a highly risky and unreliable instrument, especially in an election cycle where the fundamentals do favor the Democrats. In this case, the downside risk is particularly severe: Abdul El-Sayed in the United States Senate.
We already have a pair of bigoted, America-hostile Islamic terror sympathizers in the House in Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. That is two too many. Patriotic Americans of all political persuasions should be unified in their desire to ensure that a third does not join them in the Senate — especially in the weeks following the resurgence of jihadist violence, not just in Michigan, but in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/12/shooting-old-dominion-university">Virginia</a>, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/suspect-in-texas-bar-shooting-wore-property-of-allah-clothing-and-iranian-flag-emblem-according-to-ap-source">Texas</a>, and <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-isis-supporters-charged-attempting-detonate-explosive-devices-during-protests-outside">New York</a> as well.
***
Jesse Arm is the vice president of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, where he oversees communications, government relations, and polling.

Abdul El-Sayed Campaigns for U.S. Senate Seat

Michigan Voters, Don’t Let Radicals Fool You Into Thinking They’re Normal

Islam

A controversial Maine Democrat already dogged by questions over a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol is again under fire after promoting an openly antisemitic conspiracy theorist — the latest episode in a pattern critics say underscores how radical and politically toxic he is.
Graham Platner, a 41-year-old Senate candidate seeking the Democratic nomination to take on incumbent Susan Collins (R-ME), faced backlash this week after amplifying a social media post about a looming war with Iran from Stew Peters, a neo-Nazi influencer known for Holocaust denial and antisemitic rhetoric. Platner <a href="https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/02/26/politics/elections/graham-platner-stew-peters-post/">later deleted</a> the post, with his campaign claiming it was shared “in error” and removed immediately after discovering it elevated a “despicable account.”
But the incident was not isolated.
In late January, Platner <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/platner-sat-lengthy-interview-antisemitic-075439570.html">appeared</a> for an hour-long interview on Valhalla VFT, a YouTube show hosted by Nate Cornacchia, a retired Green Beret who has promoted conspiracy theories alleging Israeli involvement in high-profile assassinations and suggesting the global war on terror was conducted at the “behest of Israel.” During the interview, Platner described himself as “a longtime fan” of the show and said it was “an absolute pleasure” to appear.
Cornacchia has pushed claims tying Israel to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and agreed with assertions that President John F. Kennedy was “probably” killed in a covert joint operation between the CIA and Mossad. Platner’s campaign did not respond to Jewish Insider&#8217;s questions about Cornacchia’s remarks.
The controversy compounds scrutiny Platner has faced since last year over a tattoo on his chest that closely resembled a Totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones emblem adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit. Platner <a href="https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2025-10-22/democratic-senate-hopeful-graham-platner-gets-tattoo-of-nazi-symbol-covered-up">said</a> he received the tattoo while serving in the Marine Corps during a drunken night in Croatia and claimed he was unaware of its historical meaning at the time. The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/maine-platner-senate-trump-mills-tattoo-collins-fa8328a3c8aa5d5e0f34adb379e977b8">Associated Press</a> later confirmed that he had the tattoo covered once the comparison became public, saying he did not want a symbol associated with hate on his body.
“For what it’s worth,” Maine Governor Janet Mills, who’s running against Platner in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat, quipped on <a href="https://x.com/JanetMillsforME/status/2027421147956969915">X</a> amid the controversy, “I don’t have any tattoos.”
In past posts, Platner has described U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East as being overly shaped by “foreign influence,” and has argued that Washington’s alliance structure requires “fundamental rethinking.” Critics say such rhetoric mirrors themes common in online spaces where antisemitic conspiracy theories flourish.
National Republicans have begun to take notice. A spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee blasted Platner this week, saying Democrats are “flirting with extremism” in a race they view as central to their hopes of regaining Senate control. Allies of Collins have also circulated screenshots of Platner’s deleted posts, arguing they raise serious questions about his judgment.
The Democratic primary race in Maine is expected to be one of the most closely watched Senate contests of the cycle. Democrats view the seat held by moderate Republican Collins as a key pickup opportunity. But Platner’s growing list of controversies, from boosting a neo-Nazi influencer to praising a YouTube host who traffics in antisemitic conspiracies, to the lingering fallout over his tattoo, threatens to complicate that strategy.

Graham Platner Maine

Dem Senate Darling Stumbles Into Third Nazi-Related Scandal Of Primary Campaign

Anti-Semitism

graham platner

Maine

Susan Collins

Moj Mahdara, a Democratic Iranian-American entrepreneur and founding member of the Iranian Diaspora Collective, blasted Democratic Party lawmakers on Sunday over their negative response to Trump’s Iranian strike.
“I think that it is imperative that the Democratic Party wake up and get past their dislike of Donald Trump … and their feelings of international conflicts going on,” Mahdara began, noting that this operation has a broad impact that includes Gulf state security and “resetting our relationship with China.”
“Right now, 55% of the oil production that Iran produces goes to China, despite sanctions. You want to support the people of Ukraine? You want to end that war? You have to — there is no getting around dismembering this Islamic Republic. It is non-negotiable. It is not a want to have. It is a have to have,” Mahdara continued.
She added that the Iranian regime’s fall will reverberate around the world, not only altering the Middle East, but also impacting Ukraine, Venezuela, and China.
“And I think at this point, we have a tremendous opportunity. This will be like ending the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall. This is a transformational moment for humankind, for security, and as an American &#8230; this is in our interest to complete it,” said Mahdara.
After noting that she is a “huge Democrat,” she expressed how disappointed she is with the Democratic Party: “I do not see myself in them in this moment.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. CNN was just FORCED to air a Democrat Iranian-American EVISCERATING her own party for attacking President Trump!
&#8220;It&#8217;s imperative the Democrat Party WAKE UP and get past their dislike of President Trump!&#8221;
&#8220;I AM a huge Democrat. I am INCREDIBLY disappointed with… <a href="https://t.co/RGAmS6Fzal">pic.twitter.com/RGAmS6Fzal</a>
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2028113844585795906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Prominent Democrats offered much criticism in the aftermath of the Iranian strike.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) promised to compel a vote on the War Powers Resolution introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
“The framers of the United States Constitution gave Congress the sole power to declare war as the branch of government closest to the American people,” Jeffries said in a statement. He added that Iran is a “bad actor” that must be “aggressively confronted for its human rights violations,” but said the Trump administration should have sought congressional approval.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) <a href="https://x.com/SenSchumer/status/2027765113617277225">said</a> in a statement on X that &#8220;Iran must never be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon but the American people do not want another endless and costly war in the Middle East when there are so many problems at home.&#8221;
The minority leader added that the administration must answer many questions about the scope of this operation, and said President Trump&#8217;s &#8220;fitful cycles of lashing out and risking wider conflict are not a viable strategy.&#8221;
&#8220;The Senate should quickly return to session and reassert its constitutional duty by passing our resolution to enforce the War Powers Act,&#8221; Schumer concluded.
Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a <a href="https://x.com/NYCMayor/status/2027799160574120418">statement</a>, calling the strikes a &#8220;catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression.&#8221;
&#8220;Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace,&#8221; the mayor added.
Some Democrats, like Sen. <a href="https://x.com/SenFettermanPA/status/2027674658091204808">Jon Fetterman</a> (D-PA), have broken with their party to praise the strikes.
“President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region,” Fetterman said in a post on X. “God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel.”
Catherine Maxwell contributed to this report.

Moj Mahdara

‘Wake Up’: Iranian Democrat Blasts Her Own Party’s Iran Strike Backlash

Iranian Democrat Blasts Party's Negativity Over Iran Strike: 'Imperative That Democratic Party Wake 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Global Politics

Iran

World

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not consider the Munich Security Conference a springboard into the 2028 presidential election. At least, that&#8217;s what she told The New York Times after she was roundly criticized for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-spits-out-word-salad-when-asked-about-china-refuses-to-say-if-u-s-should-defend-taiwan?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=AOC+Spits+Out+Word+Salad+When+Asked+About+China%2C+Refuses+To+Say+If+U.S.+Should+Defend+Taiwan">failing to answer</a> a basic question on U.S. foreign policy at the conference last week.
The Munich Security Conference is considered one of the most important stages for lawmakers, diplomats, and world leaders to set themselves apart as important voices on foreign policy and the direction of global politics. For Ocasio-Cortez, the event came as speculation swirls around 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, with the New York leftist often floated as a top contender. After multiple missteps at the conference, Ocasio-Cortez picked up the phone and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/us/politics/aoc-germany-munich-security-conference.html">spoke</a> to her hometown paper, telling the legacy media outlet that the link between her supposed presidential aspirations and the conference is far-fetched.
&#8220;Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez said. &#8220;I could give — whatever, about that, to be honest.&#8221;
Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s appearance in Munich was marked by an awkward response to a question on China and Taiwan and an indecipherable comment on the &#8220;rise of populism.&#8221; During one panel discussion, the congresswoman was joined by Matt Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, and Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who is also considered a 2028 presidential hopeful. When asked whether the United States should send troops to Taiwan if China advances on the island, Ocasio-Cortez struggled to speak for around 20 seconds before her attempt to answer the question.
When she finally spit out an answer, she said only that the United States should &#8220;avoid any such confrontation,&#8221; and did not answer whether U.S. troops should be deployed if China attempted to invade Taiwan. Ocasio-Cortez was blasted over her response, including by President Donald Trump.
&#8220;I watched AOC answering questions in Munich. This was not a good look for the United States,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2023579424491253844">told</a> reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday night.
&#8220;She had no idea what was happening,&#8221; he added. &#8220;She had no idea how to answer, you know, very important questions concerning the world.&#8221;
Whitaker, Trump&#8217;s NATO ambassador who was sitting next to Ocasio-Cortez during the panel discussion, <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2023753952874164640">told</a> Fox &amp; Friends on Tuesday morning that he was surprised that Ocasio-Cortez and Whitmer &#8220;didn&#8217;t have better answers, or at least, better preparation.&#8221;
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s really quite obvious that the Left really does not have an answer for President Trump&#8217;s very clear articulation and success on the international stage, and they&#8217;re struggling to do that,&#8221; Whitaker added. &#8220;But on the China and Taiwan issue, that issue is so obvious what the answer is; it&#8217;s to make sure China doesn&#8217;t make a move on Taiwan, that Taiwan is strong and can defend itself, and that the region is stable and prosperous and that American interests are protected.&#8221;
Ocasio-Cortez told the Times that it is &#8220;out of touch&#8221; to consider the Munich Security Conference as an important gauge for the 2028 presidential election, adding that she was really there to send a warning about &#8220;right-wing populist movements&#8221; throughout the world. The lawmaker told the Times that a reporter asked her whether Munich is &#8220;the new New Hampshire,&#8221; referring to the important early primary election.
&#8220;I cannot say enough how out of touch and missing the point, genuinely, that is,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Global democracies are on fire the world over, and established parties are falling to right-wing populist movements.”
She added that she went to Munich &#8220;not because I’m running for president, not because I’ve made some kind of decision about a horse race or a candidacy, but because we need to sound the alarm bells that a lot of those folks in nicely pressed suits in that room will not be there much longer if we do not do something about the runaway inequality that is fueling far-right populist movements.&#8221;
Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro told Fox News host Dana Perino on Tuesday, &#8220;It&#8217;s not our fault for noticing she&#8217;s horrible.&#8221;
&#8220;My favorite conceit here is that she goes abroad and says a bunch of incredibly stupid things. &#8230; I&#8217;m sorry, but if you give an answer reminiscent of that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww">famous clip</a> of Miss South Carolina attempting to answer a question about the Iraq War from 15 years ago, and you&#8217;re on an international stage, that is your fault,&#8221; Shapiro added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, but if you give an answer reminiscent of that famous clip of Miss South Carolina attempting to answer a question about the Iraq War&#8230; that&#8217;s your fault.&#8221;<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a> joins <a href="https://twitter.com/DanaPerino?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DanaPerino</a> to slam AOC&#8217;s geopolitical incompetence at the Munich Security Conference 😂 <a href="https://t.co/w3EIJUdf0Z">pic.twitter.com/w3EIJUdf0Z</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/2023792851201699861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Some of the congresswoman&#8217;s other gaffes during the conference included saying that Venezuela is below the equator (the entire country is north of the equator) and mocking Secretary of State Marco Rubio for saying in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rubio-declares-new-western-century-in-world-speech-says-america-wont-oversee-managed-decline">his speech</a> at the Munich Security Conference that the American cowboy was born in Spain.
&#8220;My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain,” Ocasio-Cortez <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-mocked-absolute-train-wreck-weekend-global-stage-made-fool-out-of-herself">said</a>. “And I believe the Mexicans and descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that.”
Spain is largely responsible for introducing horses to North America in the 1500s, and historians credit the Spanish vaqueros with influencing American cowboy culture, as Rubio mentioned during his widely praised speech.
During another panel discussion at the conference that focused on &#8220;the rise of populism,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez offered another head-scratching answer. While addressing President Trump’s shift on foreign policy and how the rest of the world has responded, Ocasio-Cortez said, “I think what we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West, we look the other way for inconvenient populations to act out these paradoxes, whether it is kidnapping a foreign head of state, whether it is threatening our allies to colonize Greenland, whether it is looking the other way in a genocide. Hypocrisies are vulnerabilities, and they threaten democracies globally.”
Ocasio-Cortez told the Times that the criticism of her answers in Munich that have gone viral on social media &#8220;distract from the substance of what I am saying.&#8221; In its article breaking down Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s Munich appearance, the Times wrote that there were &#8220;mostly positive&#8221; responses to Ocasio-Cortez &#8220;on the ground in Germany.&#8221;
Warsaw&#8217;s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, was quoted in the Times article and praised Ocasio-Cortez for speaking out about &#8220;right-wing populism.&#8221;
“It’s of course refreshing to see some American politicians who talk openly about all of those challenges that we face,” said  Trzaskowski. “It’s good to hear progressive voices which are courageous enough to call a spade a spade.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

AOC Mocked For Global Stage Disaster — Then Phones A Friend

2028 presidential election

Congress

Munich

The New York Times

Americans may not be in love with everything President Trump is doing, but they really hate the radicalism of Democrats.
According to <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/cnns-harry-enten-reports-an-all-time-high-percentage-of-americans-think-the-dems-are-too-liberal/">CNN</a>, among voters who say the Democrats are now too liberal, the percentage rose from 42% in 1996 to 48% in 2013 to 58% in 2025.
Democrats continue to swivel to the Left. It&#8217;s truly insane. After Donald Trump shellacked Joe Biden, their decision was, “Perhaps we should move further to the Left.”
Bernie Sanders, a career useless person and a leech on the ass of American society for all of his eight decades, has somehow become the ideological thought leader of an entire major party in the United States.
This is totally psychotic. Totally crazy. The man has produced nothing of value. He has the political mentality of a seven-year-old. Everything he says is along the lines of the fortune cookie idiocy only found in small children.
Yet, somehow, this has gained all sorts of credibility inside the Democratic Party base.
According to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/02/11/bernie-sanders-mejia-left-primaries-new-jersey">Axios</a>:
<blockquote>Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is feeling emboldened by progressives&#8217; shock victory in a New Jersey special House primary last week — and sizing up his next targets. The senator has endorsed over a dozen progressive House and Senate candidates who are aiming to reshape the Democratic Party. 
Asked in a phone interview where else he thinks the left can win upset victories, Sanders pointed to a &#8220;Fighting Oligarchy&#8221; rally he is doing on Friday with Nida Allam, who is challenging Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.). &#8220;That might be another area where progressives can win a strong victory,&#8221; he said. Brad Lander, the former New York City comptroller challenging Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), also has &#8220;a strong chance to win,&#8221; Sanders said.</blockquote>
All of this is following the victory of leftist Analilia Mejia to succeed now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill in a special New Jersey primary election last week. “Mejia will have to win an April general election to get seated and then another primary in June to keep the seat for another two years, but New Jersey&#8217;s Democratic establishment is now beginning to coalesce around her,” Axios stated. 
Of course, Democrats have decided to coalesce around her because this is the way it works. Apparently, neither party has the stomach to simply say to its most extreme actors, “No, you don&#8217;t get to hang out with us.”
Sanders told Axios that she ran on a strong, progressive agenda and will stand up to “oligarchs” while comparing her to Zohran Mamdani.
Sanders has also endorsed leftist House candidates in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, Utah and Montana. He is also backing radical Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Graham Platner in Maine, the man who had the SS logo carved into his chest and then had to pretend that&#8217;s not what it was. He also endorsed radical leftist Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, as well as Maine gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2368-it-s-bernie-s-party-you-can-cry-if-you-want-to?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
The Democratic Party is swiveling out to the Bernie Sanders Left.
Let us never forget that Bernie Sanders’ ideas have failed everywhere they&#8217;ve ever been tried. They are garbage ideas, trash ideas.
His latest trash idea is that he wants a moratorium on data center construction.
Okay, cool. Let&#8217;s just destroy economic growth in the country. Sounds great.
His chosen proteges have already destroyed tens of thousands of jobs across the country. You&#8217;ll recall AOC — bartender turned congresswoman turned media sensation because of her “fresh-facedness” — who, when Amazon was thinking of relocating to her district, killed it, thus shoving tens of thousands of jobs out of her own district, a major win for her constituents.
And now Sanders wants to destroy data center construction. On MS NOW, he said, “We have not a clue. We are totally unprepared for what is coming. We&#8217;ve got to slow this thing down.”
What is he talking about? Slowing down AI, because redistributing misery is better than redistributing prosperity.
Sanders says that AI is bad because it alienates workers from their labor.
The real issue, of course, is that businesses might do well on the stock market and, in general, that’s what he wants to oppose.
If Democrats want to choose the “Let&#8217;s destroy the economy wing” of the party, good luck to you.

Bernie Party

It’s Bernie’s Party, You Can Cry If You Want To

Artificial Intelligence

Ben Shapiro

Bernie Sanders

Leftists

Opinion

U.S. Politics

The influence wielded by the far-left in the Democratic Party has grown significantly stronger in recent decades, according to CNN polling analyst Harry Enten.
Enten presented data on Thursday that shows the number of Democrats who identify as “very liberal” has surged from 5% in 1999 to 21% today, while the number who identify as “conservative” has plunged from 26% to just 8% within the same period. As the Democratic Party drifts leftward, data suggests that movement could lead to political trouble in the future.
“The far-left, which used to just be a smidgen within the Democratic Party, has gained considerable power,” said Enten.
The CNN analyst made the point following a New Jersey special election in which the progressive Democratic candidate, Analilia Mejia, beat her primary opponent in the race to represent the state’s 11th Congressional District. Mejia was backed by prominent socialists, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and lacked the support of the party establishment inside the Garden State, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/new-jerseys-special-election-politics-desk-rcna258478">NBC News</a>.
“The results from that special election, that Democratic primary in the 11th District in New Jersey, speak to a larger point within the Democratic Party, and that is that the far-left is significantly more powerful than they once were,” said Enten.
The percentage of self-identified democratic socialists in the Democratic Party registers at about a third, but appears to be ascending. Among younger Democrats, those under the age of 35, 42% of them identify with the far-left label.
“Bernie Sanders and [New York City Mayor] Zohran Mandani are not alone. They are a considerable part of the Democratic base at this point,” said Enten.
“What happened in New York City is not some aberration, right? It is not something that just happened in New York City, it is something that we are seeing grow within the Democratic Party at this particular point,” he added.
Americans generally appear to be growing increasingly dissatisfied with the leftward drift of the Democratic Party. Enten pointed to polling showing that a majority of Americans now feel that Democrats overall are “too liberal,” from 42% in 1996 to 58% today.
“The Democrats are moving to the left, the far-left is gaining power, and there could be some electoral repercussions because what we see right now is voters, the clear majority, say that they are too liberal,” said Enten.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
An all-time high, 58%, of voters say the Dem Party is too liberal.
This comes as 1-in-3 Democrats think of themselves as Democratic Socialists!
And the % of Dems who say they&#8217;re very liberal has quadrupled since 1999.
NJ-11, NYC mayor &amp; Bernie Sanders are no aberration. <a href="https://t.co/J0xuskHgn6">pic.twitter.com/J0xuskHgn6</a>
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) <a href="https://twitter.com/ForecasterEnten/status/2021987601612517792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 12, 2026</a></blockquote>

Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

CNN Analyst: ‘Far Left’ Has Grown ‘Significantly More Powerful’ In Democratic Party

Harry Enten

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