A New York Supreme Court justice ruled earlier this week that the state&#8217;s 11th Congressional District needs to be redrawn, likely jeopardizing another Republican seat as the nationwide redistricting battle rages on.
Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman ruled that the map is unconstitutional on the grounds of it being racially discriminatory, and ordered that the state’s Independent Redistricting Committee should have a new map compliant with the ruling by February 6.
“Petitioners have shown strong evidence of racially polarized voting bloc […] they have demonstrated a history of discrimination that impacts current day political participation and representation, and they have shown that racial appeals are still made in political campaigns today,” the ruling <a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2026-01-21-Order.pdf">stated</a>.
Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis represents the district, which covers Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.
“We are reviewing the judge’s decision and our options to protect the voices of the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn,&#8221; Malliotakis said on X. &#8220;Nothing changes the fact that this is a frivolous attempt by Washington Democrats to steal this congressional seat from the people and we are very confident that we will prevail at the end of the day.&#8221;
The New York Daily News editorial board also <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/01/23/no-redistricting-for-staten-island/">railed</a> against the ruling, asking if “some higher court, either the Manhattan Appellate Division or the state Court of Appeals, New York’s highest bench, please stop this nonsense? Otherwise, the U.S. Supreme Court will have to get involved.&#8221;
However, some Democrats rejoiced at the news, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who also represents parts of New York City.
“This ruling is the first step toward ensuring communities of interest remain intact from Staten Island to Lower Manhattan,” Jeffries said in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve the fairest congressional map possible.”
Mid-decade redistricting has faced a complicated mix of successes in battles throughout the country, including in Texas and California. The United States Supreme Court already ruled that Texas’ five additional GOP-favored seats can hold, as California Republicans are hoping to take their fight against five Democrat-favored seats to the court as well.

House GOP Members Attend Weekly Conference Meeting

New York Judge Orders Republican Congressional District Redrawn

Democrats

New York City

Nicole Malliotakis

Redistricting

At last year&#8217;s Golden Globes telecast, Nikki Glaser spoke the ugly truth.
The awards host called the star-studded crowd famous, talented, and powerful. “I mean, you could really do anything &#8230; I mean, except tell the country who to vote for.&#8221;
That joke landed for all the right reasons. The 2024 presidential election proved that everyday Americans tune out political advice from their celebrity betters. Even Legacy Media outlets admitted as much, suggesting that star endorsements may have actually hurt Vice President Kamala Harris’s White House dreams.
Somehow, even pop superstar Taylor Swift couldn’t sway Americans to vote for Harris.
Some predicted Hollywood stars would downgrade their political activism moving forward. And, for the first few months after President Donald Trump’s election, and following Glaser’s spot-on joke, the stars mostly kept quiet.
No longer. Celebrities are louder than ever. And so are <a href="https://ew.com/why-mark-ruffalo-others-wearing-be-nice-pin-at-golden-globes-2026-11883213?srsltid=AfmBOoqcsYgLyf_Q5gDoE-p5rGFqOwuCzww6y-QjmkcM1oBA9MLRUPAg">their “Be Good” activist pins</a>.
<div id="attachment_1032127" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1032127" class="size-large wp-image-1032127" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255319046-865x576.jpg" alt="US comedian Wanda Sykes wears a pin reading &quot;be Good&quot;, in tribute to Renee Good, who was fatally shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, as she attends the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 11, 2026. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images) / -- IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE --" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255319046-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255319046-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255319046-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2255319046.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images</div>
They’ve weighed in on ICE arrests, the overthrow of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, and the Epstein Files. Just once or one thousand times.
But why? If their endorsements and social media posts aren’t moving the electoral needle, why bother sharing them in the first place? Aren’t they hurting their own cause?
For one, it’s the ultimate virtue signal in a relentlessly progressive industry. Sharing the “correct” views will never hurt one’s career, even if the average movie or TV fan cringes in response.
That’s hardly the only reason. These missives could actually help their careers at a critical time.
Hollywood jobs have rarely been this insecure. Theatrical attendance is shrinking. Major streaming platforms are struggling to make ends meet. Late-night TV is going the way of the pager and the 8-track tape. Quality films often come and go without so much as denting the pop culture zeitgeist, even with the biggest stars attached.
Last year, a gangster flick with not one but two Robert De Niro performances <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt21815562/?ref_=bo_se_r_1">earned $6 million at the domestic box office.</a>
For stars, spouting off about “Gestapo”-style ICE agents is a way to signal to fellow progressives. I’m like you. I vote like you do. And, if you happen to know of an upcoming gig, please keep me in mind.
Consider it virtual networking. Chances are, it works more often than it doesn’t.
Plus, legacy media outlets love sharing progressive stars and their political missives. The aforementioned Mr. De Niro rages against President Trump early and often, a real dog-bites-man news story.
Yet every time he does so, it inspires a fresh wave of news articles. Most, if not all, publicity is good publicity.
<div id="attachment_1032113" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1032113" class="size-large wp-image-1032113" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2154511594-864x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - US actor Robert De Niro speaks in support of US President Joe Biden outside of Manhattan Criminal Court as former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends his criminal trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments in New York City, on May 28, 2024. De Niro on Tuesday spoke outside the New York court where Donald Trump is standing trial, branding him a dangerous &quot;clown&quot; who will become a dictator for life if reelected. De Niro, a longtime political activist and critic of Trump, has taken a growing role in the campaign to reelect Joe Biden, including starring in a new hard-hitting TV ad for the Democratic Party. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2154511594-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2154511594-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2154511594-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2154511594.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images</div>
In the dog-eat-dog world of Tinsel Town, every advantage should be taken to secure future work. It explains why prominent liberal stars like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck just sat down with Joe Rogan for the comic’s rebel podcast. The stars may still be mad about Rogan endorsing Trump at the end of the 2024 presidential election. Or, they could resent Rogan’s subversive take on the COVID shot that their friends and neighbors insisted everyone take … or else.
And yet, they still understand if they want more eyeballs on their new Netflix original film, “The Rip,” they’d better hide those hard feelings and make nice with the former “Fear Factor” host.
Progressive stars still won’t drop by the set of Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” They don’t need to promote their films and TV shows that badly, apparently.
The secret to their political commentary? Supporting the right, or approved, causes. Anything that smacks of an anti-Trump sentiment is held dear to their hearts. The stars stayed silent during the worst woke cancellations. They ignored the rise of sensitivity readers influencing what words can and can’t be shared in fiction.
No anti-Trump or anti-GOP angle to exploit.
Yet when Jimmy Kimmel got suspended for insinuating MAGA Nation killed Charlie Kirk on September 10, 2025, they rose up en masse to protect Kimmel’s “free speech” rights, presuming without evidence that President Trump had benched the far-Left broadcaster.
The lack of a Trumpian angle may explain why the Israeli women who endured brutal sexual assaults, and worse, during the October 7 atrocities didn’t get support from Hollywood’s MeToo activists.
More recently, Hollywood gathered for the latest Golden Globes soiree as Iranian protesters squared off against their tyrannical government. Once again, the Hollywood elite couldn’t spare a syllable to support those risking their lives for freedom.
After all, President Trump had the Iranian people’s back, so it wasn’t worth sticking their neck out to support the cause.
There are always exceptions to the political celebrity rule. Two recent examples spring to mind.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1032119" style="width: 392px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1032119" class="size-large wp-image-1032119" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2245927941-382x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 09: BIlly Bob Thornton attends PaleyFest NY 2025 - Paramount+'s &quot;Landman&quot; on November 09, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Manny Carabel/Getty Images)" width="382" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2245927941-382x576.jpg 382w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2245927941-199x300.jpg 199w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2245927941.jpg 679w" sizes=" (max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px" />Manny Carabel/Getty Images</div>
Actor Billy Bob Thornton of “Landman” fame told Joe Rogan last November that you won’t find him <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/billy-bob-thornton-talks-hollywood-politics-with-joe-rogan">lecturing fans</a> from any awards show podium.
“I’m very strong in my opinions, but my opinions don’t belong to any political party. I just look at what makes sense, and I think we need a common sense party in this country. That’s actually what I think we need. Just figure it out. It’s pretty easy to figure out what this is all about.”
And Claire Foy went from admonishing President Trump several years ago to declaring <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/actress-claire-foy-trump-political-opinions/">politics off limits</a> in her promotional efforts.
“What I believe and who I am and where I stand on things is constantly in flux, as much as it is for everyone else, and I have absolutely no authority to discuss or proclaim about anything other than what I do as an actor.
“If you’re just making noise for the sake of it, then you should probably shut up – so I tend to shut up.”
Actors, by and large, will never shut up. Nor should they. If they actually practiced some consistency with their political activism, they might start changing some hearts and minds after all.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-TELEVISION-AWARD-GLOBES-ARRIVALS

Why Stars Keep Getting Political, Even When No One’s Listening

Why Stars Keep Getting Political, Even When No One's Listening

actors

Billy Bob Thorton

Donald Trump

Elections

Entertainment

Leftists

Movies

Robert de Niro

Television

U.S. Politics

If you need a preview of what the country will look like if Democrats ever take back control of the federal government, let&#8217;s review the events that have taken place in Virginia over the past few days — a state now led by a CIA officer and sociopath named Abigail Spanberger.
Since taking complete control of the state, Democrats have raced to eliminate penalties for a series of crimes, from illegal migration to robbery to DUI, for the benefit of the non-white population that commits most of them. In fact, DUIs will no longer carry mandatory prison time in the state, and Spanberger has issued an executive order ending police cooperation with ICE. So that&#8217;s a real win-win for Virginia&#8217;s illegal alien community. 
Democrats have also moved to formalize anti-white discrimination in government contracting. They&#8217;re planning to raise taxes on basically everything — including sports facilities, dry cleaning, landscaping, home repairs, and digital services. They&#8217;re adding a new 20-cent tax to every single Amazon delivery and installing surveillance cameras across the state to generate more revenue by fining motorists. They&#8217;re also dramatically raising income taxes on wealthy individuals, who are mostly white, in order to fund free education for illegal aliens. They&#8217;ve commenced a new &#8220;Home-based Child Care Provider Start-Up Grants&#8221; program, so that more taxpayer money can be funneled to their own Somali &#8220;lear-ing centers.&#8221; They took one look at Minneapolis and decided, &#8220;We want that in our state.&#8221; 
Here&#8217;s a quote from just <a href="https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1082201.PDF">one of the bills</a> that Virginia Democrats have just introduced, to give you an idea.
<blockquote>The Small SWaM Business Procurement Enhancement Program (the Program) is hereby established to facilitate the participation of small SWaM businesses in state procurement. The goal of the Program shall be the achievement of a 42 percent small SWaM business utilization rate.</blockquote>
The bill continues:
<blockquote>The Program shall include a small SWaM business set-aside for the purchase of goods, services, and construction by executive branch agencies and covered institutions. Purchases up to $100,000 shall be set aside for award to small SWaM businesses.</blockquote>
You might be wondering, what&#8217;s a &#8220;SWaM?&#8221; And what&#8217;s a &#8220;Small SWaM?&#8221; Well, if you go back and look at the definitions, here&#8217;s what the bill tells you.
&#8216;Small SWaM business&#8217; means a small business &#8220;certified by the Department as being small, any subcategory of small, small women-owned, small minority-owned, or small service disabled veteran-owned.&#8221; 
Meanwhile, &#8220;SWaM means small, women-owned, or minority-owned or related to a small, women-owned, or minority-owned business.&#8221;
So this is one of those cases where they&#8217;ve clearly messed up the acronym. They&#8217;re talking about &#8220;Small Small minority owned businesses.&#8221; That&#8217;s what a &#8220;Small SWAM&#8221; is, if you spell it out. It&#8217;s not merely a &#8220;small minority-owned business.&#8221; It&#8217;s a &#8220;small small business,&#8221; whatever that means. No one ever accused Marxists of being intelligent.
But the intent of the bill is clear: The state of Virginia wants more taxpayer money to flow to minorities — not because those minorities are the best candidates, but because they&#8217;re not white. If you&#8217;re a white guy who runs a large business, then you&#8217;re going to be shut out of contracts under $100,000. A &#8220;minority owned&#8221; business will take that contract from you — unless, of course, you want to hire them as a &#8220;subcontractor.&#8221; If you pay the racial equity fee, you can get the job.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1721-democrats-are-doubling-down-on-their-anti-white-agenda-here-s-the-proof?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-976065" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
These are policies that, as contractors already know, are the norm in many cases. It&#8217;s already standard in federal contracting, thanks to the Civil Rights era. And now Virginia wants to drastically expand this kind of discrimination.
It&#8217;s obviously bad policy that&#8217;s eventually going to lead to some very obvious, potentially catastrophic outcomes. And therefore, just to make sure they never lose power again, Virginia Democrats have also introduced legislation that would make it illegal to count machine-readable ballots by hand, as well as legislation that makes it much easier to obtain and submit absentee ballots without identifying yourself, along with legislation that allows people who are &#8220;incapacitated&#8221; — to the point that they need a conservatorship — to cast ballots. In other words, they&#8217;re enabling voter fraud on a massive scale. There are dozens more bills like this. The account &#8220;NOVA Campaigns&#8221; has cataloged many of them.
If you lived in Virginia as recently as 2018 or so, all of this would&#8217;ve seemed hard to imagine. Democrats in the state were considered to be relatively moderate, all things considered. They certainly weren&#8217;t anywhere near as far-Left as, say, California. But that changed when every moderate in the Virginia state house was primaried in 2019, and in the state senate a few years later. The party is now under the complete control of California Marxists. And now that they&#8217;ve assumed power, they aren&#8217;t wasting any time transforming the entire state.
Leftists continue to destroy the American entertainment industry with terrible writing and communist messaging, as we recently covered, pushing DEI and so on. But at the same time, no one takes these shows seriously anymore. They&#8217;ve become parodies of themselves. Look all over the internet, and you won&#8217;t find a single serious video praising the new &#8220;Star Trek&#8221; show, for example. All of the comments on the show&#8217;s YouTube premiere are negative, and very few people watched it. And that&#8217;s one of many, many indicators that wokeness, to a large degree, has peaked. Axios just asked two dozen prominent Democrats whether men can become women, and virtually all of them ducked the question. The party is moving away from the fringe, deranged messaging that cost them the last election.
But in turn, they&#8217;re replacing wokeness with something much more deeply rooted, more insidious, and potentially much more harmful. And the state of Virginia is Exhibit A for what they&#8217;re planning. Democrats have decided to go all-in on anti-white hatred, which every institution in this country has deliberately fostered for at least 60 years. It&#8217;s not going away any time soon. As the Left moves away from transgenderism and some of the other excesses of the LGBT movement, they will double and triple down on the racial narrative. That narrative has proven far more enduring and far more effective.
And we know this is a much broader, party-wide strategy based on how top Democrats are talking now. Michelle Obama, for instance, just stated that buying clothes from white designers and white-owned companies is wrong.
You need to start practicing wardrobe equity, apparently.
Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Michelle Obama says she is mindful to try to avoid white-owned brands and others also should be <a href="https://t.co/5MqY5gaxUv">pic.twitter.com/5MqY5gaxUv</a>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2013356579802767412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @EndWokeness/X.com
The women all nod, as if it&#8217;s a completely normal thing to say. You&#8217;re not allowed to avoid &#8220;black-owned&#8221; businesses. If you&#8217;re an Uber driver and you try to avoid high-crime areas because you don&#8217;t want to get carjacked and shot, your account will be suspended for racism. But if any other race wants to openly discriminate against whites, the Democrat Party will support them, wholeheartedly.
Yes, Democrats have been talking like this for a very long time. But unlike traditional wokeness, they&#8217;re doubling down on the rhetoric. Everywhere they seize power, they&#8217;re implementing an anti-white platform.
That&#8217;s why Zohran Mamdani just appointed Afua Atta-Mensah to be the chief equity officer of New York City. The New York Young Republicans&#8217; club has found several posts in which this woman openly attacks white people, which of course, is the entire reason Mamdani hired her.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1031487 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/G_Czx5MWQAAapRi.jpeg" alt="" width="680" height="272" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/G_Czx5MWQAAapRi.jpeg 680w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/G_Czx5MWQAAapRi-300x120.jpeg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px" /></div>
Credit: @AfuaAttaMensah/X.com
In this post, for example, someone posted his thoughts on the television show &#8220;Succession.&#8221; And Mamdani&#8217;s new equity director responds by saying, &#8220;Tax them to the white meat.&#8221; Yes, &#8220;tax them to the white meat.&#8221;
This woman also frequently talks about her &#8220;comrades,&#8221; and how they&#8217;re going to dismantle white supremacy and so on.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1031485 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/now-deleted-tweets-mayor-zohran-119176979.webp" alt="" width="1024" height="368" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/now-deleted-tweets-mayor-zohran-119176979.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/now-deleted-tweets-mayor-zohran-119176979-300x108.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/now-deleted-tweets-mayor-zohran-119176979-768x276.webp 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Credit: @AfuaAttaMensah/X.com
She also reposted and endorsed a message stating, “There’s NO moderate way to black liberation.”
And guess what? None of this is scandalous in the Mamdani administration, because they all think this way. That&#8217;s why his platform called for raising taxes on &#8220;richer and whiter neighborhoods.” And as Cea Weaver, Mamdani&#8217;s Director of Tenants, put it, they&#8217;re going to &#8220;impoverish the white middle class.&#8221; They&#8217;re going to declare that homeownership is a &#8220;weapon of white supremacy.&#8221; Mamdani himself has confirmed all of this. 
Watch: 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Zohran Mamdani was given multiple chances to walk back his language that he wanted to tax Whiter neighborhoods at a higher rate but he refused to walk it back. He wants higher taxes for affluent Whites. As I’ve said, he’s a communist.<a href="https://t.co/yvsnHavzaS">pic.twitter.com/yvsnHavzaS</a>
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) <a href="https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1978463560729612600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @robbystarbuck/X.com
It&#8217;s reminiscent of the defenses we saw concerning those South African &#8220;kill the Boer&#8221; chants. Remember how the New York Times ran cover for that?
&#8220;What exactly did you mean when you said, &#8220;Kill the White Farmer?”
“Oh, that&#8217;s just a common expression. It doesn&#8217;t mean anything.&#8221;
Actually, when you come out and say that you&#8217;re going to raise taxes on whites, to their &#8220;white meat,&#8221; everyone understands exactly what you&#8217;re doing. The Left has committed to full-on racial warfare.
And they&#8217;re going to win, using this strategy, unless the Republican Party stops playing the same game in reverse. A big part of the reason why Republicans lost the governor&#8217;s race in Virginia is that they selected an anti-Trump candidate from Jamaica, and patted themselves on the back for their commitment to &#8220;diversity.&#8221; She spent most of the campaign talking about being an immigrant who won in a black district, and about how she can win more of the black vote.
Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Winsome Sears For Lieutenant Governor" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKSP5u3pRbc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Credit: Winsome Sears/YouTube.com
If Republicans insist on running political campaigns on the Left&#8217;s terms, they will lose every time. And the reason this is a losing strategy is that the Left doesn&#8217;t actually care about the demographics of their candidate. Or at least, that&#8217;s not their primary concern, or even close to it. Instead, the Left is principally concerned with selecting candidates who will ruthlessly and efficiently disenfranchise, bankrupt, incarcerate, and ultimately destroy white conservative men. 
That&#8217;s why they elected Joe Biden, who allowed FBI SWAT teams to arrest (and in some cases, kill) conservatives who offended the Left on the internet. It&#8217;s why they rallied around Abigail Spanberger, an extraordinarily dull and uncharismatic white woman. She promised to rig all of the government contracts against white men, to let the illegal aliens out of prison to take jobs from white men, to make it easier to rob white men, and so on. And now she&#8217;s delivering on those promises, along with every Democrat in Virginia.
Left unchecked, this anti-white fervor will lead to cases like this one, out of Ontario, Canada. A 19-year-old woman who left her 14-month-old toddler unattended in a full bathtub, resulting in the child&#8217;s death, just received a mere 3-year prison sentence.
That&#8217;s because, according to the judge, there was &#8220;systemic racism identified in the community&#8221; that &#8220;explain the woman&#8217;s conduct in this case.&#8221; Yes, &#8220;systemic racism&#8221; explains why the woman left her toddler alone in a full bathtub for 5 to 10 minutes, without any kind of bathing chair or support whatsoever, even though he couldn&#8217;t walk — and even though she had been warned by the government, on two occasions, to never leave her child unattended. Race, in effect, now excuses murder in Canada.
The logic used in this case, of course, justifies reduced sentences for any homicide — including acts of violence committed by black criminals against whites, which are extremely common. In fact, 84% of interracial crimes involving black and white people are black-on-white crimes. In places like Canada — and Virginia, and New York, and Minneapolis, and every other jurisdiction controlled by Leftists — those anti-white crimes will soon be excused, if they aren&#8217;t being excused already.
We cannot allow this to continue. But Democrats will continue racking up wins like this unless we start fielding candidates who will recognize what the Left is doing, call it out openly, and pledge to defend white men from the onslaught of racial discrimination that they will face if and when Democrats regain power. We have mostly defeated the trans agenda, which would have had civilization-ending consequences if we had failed. Now we have to confront the Left&#8217;s anti-white agenda — which, as the rise of Democrats across the country demonstrates, will be a much harder campaign to vanquish.

Abigail Spanberger Is Sworn In As First Female Virginia Governor

Democrats Are Doubling Down On Their Anti-White Agenda. Here’s The Proof.

Democrats Are Doubling Down On Their Anti-White Agenda. Here's The Proof.

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Virginia

Zohran Mamdani

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ended his campaign for re-election, a stunning reversal and likely the end of the political career of a man who many pundits projected would be the Democratic nominee for president as early as 2028.
But if a once-popular governor can be toppled by widespread welfare fraud, where does that leave other Democratic presidential hopefuls?
The revelations of staggering levels of fraud in Minnesota — and Walz’s preemptive exit from the big stage — should send a chill down the spines of Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, and JB Pritzker, who are likely sitting on powder kegs of fraud themselves. What are the odds that Tim Walz is an outlier among blue-state governors with the exact same political philosophy and ideology? Unlikely.
Federal prosecutors allege more than <a href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/12/18/u-s-attorney-fraud-likely-exceeds-9-billion-in-minnesota-run-medicaid-services/">$9 billion</a> in Minnesota Medicaid dollars were stolen by scammers primarily from the state’s Somali community, an enormous sum, equivalent to roughly three-quarters of <a href="https://nbs.gov.so/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Somalia-GDP-2024-release-text-v3-2025.pdf">Somalia’s GDP</a>. Investigations are ongoing, and the real total loss may be even higher.
Welfare programs are an enormous money pot that inevitably attracts scammers. And the bigger the pot, the bigger the potential payoff for thieves. With state budgets the size of those in California, Illinois, and New York, not to mention Democrats’ general posture toward welfare expansion, it would be truly shocking if there were less fraud in those larger states.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins requested data from the states on who is receiving food stamps early last year, including identifying information like Social Security numbers and, importantly, immigration status. The Trump administration has previously discovered that more than one million people were illegally receiving <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/cms-doge-identify-wasteful-duplicate-medicaid-enrollments.html">Medicaid in multiple states</a> — and it’s likely the same with food stamps and SNAP benefits. Individual states are not able to detect this kind of fraud: only the federal government can find it by comparing recipients across the states.
But Democrats have refused to help the Trump administration find fraud. In fact, <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-sues-trump-administration-over-illegal-demands-states">in July</a>, 22 blue states sued to block the Trump administration from requiring the data. Democrats want the federal government to pay for food stamps without knowing who is receiving them.
Tim Walz and the other 21 governors have all seen the information they are currently hiding from the feds. In the absence of transparency from these elected officials, federal investigators, journalists, and citizens of goodwill all need to keep digging until the American people get the truth and law enforcement can bring fraudsters to justice.
Food stamp fraud is a known fact. According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), more than <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-107753.pdf">$10 billion</a> in the food stamp program is wasted every year — <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/key-statistics-and-research">more than 10%</a> of the program. Some blue states have even higher error rates: Massachusetts and D.C. overpay by an average of more than <a href="https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-fy24QC-PER.pdf">13%</a> — and New York and New Jersey aren’t far behind at more than 12%. That means that one out of every eight dollars in these states is wasted — and this is just the waste, fraud, and abuse that we know about.
Nearly <a href="https://thefga.org/research/categorical-eligibility-in-food-stamps-is-fraud-by-design/">every Democrat-run state</a> in America also uses an accounting gimmick called Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility, or BBCE, to hide its own erroneous payments from the federal government. BBCE means that if someone receives a non-monetary TANF benefit, like a brochure or the number to a welfare agency hotline, the state assumes that they qualify for food stamps, too, without bothering to check their assets to see if they are actually eligible. The result is an explosion in the welfare state, costing taxpayers more than <a href="https://thefga.org/solution/promoting-work-over-welfare/bbce/">$11 billion per year</a>, with the benefits going to people with liquid assets well above the limits set in federal law.
The good news is that, thanks to a new law signed by President Trump, states with high error rates can no longer waste federal tax dollars with impunity. States with food stamp payment error rates over <a href="https://www.sas.com/en_us/news/press-releases/2025/november/payment-integrity-food-assistance.html">six percent</a> are now legally required to start paying back a small part of the cost of the program. Left-wing Massachusetts could owe more than <a href="https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/understaffed-dta-faces-steep-snap-penalty-risks/">$250 million per year</a>. Deep-blue Maryland may be on the hook for more than <a href="https://marylandmatters.org/2025/12/03/maryland-may-face-more-than-300-million-in-new-snap-costs-due-to-high-payment-error/">$300 million</a>. This is a great first step, and not only will it help repay federal taxpayers, but it will also encourage states to finally get their act together and stop wasting money.
As the old story goes, criminals rob banks “because that’s where the money is.” And there are no bigger pots of money than the federal treasury and the bloated budgets of blue states. Attorney General Bondi and investigators across the country are beginning to look at where the real money is — and the fallout could bring down the entire top-tier slate of 2028 Democratic presidential nominees.
* * *
Adam Gibbs is the communications director for the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Opening Day Of World Economic Forum (WEF) 2026

Welfare Fraud Threatens Top-Tier Democratic Presidential Nominees Ahead Of 2028

Welfare Fraud Threatens Top-Tier Democratic Presidential Nominees Ahead of 2028

2028 presidential election

Fraud

Gavin Newsom

J.B. Pritzker

Josh Shapiro

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Somalis

Tim Walz

The following is an excerpt from the new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Coup-American-Foreign-Immigration/dp/0063422506/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2ScE6yhPpWqhjL9vQ0veoZeFEKoK-SW5klvoqsOrofi5dqZ60RyEVuzkFwB3LsOB17N4pN3mZpCSC5zE1aFMtve6anXBe8oVZp9CoFhGsDpYwva-kFxORiBxiVBMt78ybm_Iygi_kecSx4vYe2JcLtMEuL0K7i6iVkZebu9Kohc9Qn0jouOAUKFgRB0Za0X97c1aNyuAbj-t7jdHQx0frPGg87S_lZPTI61G0KphbvLFWANCW3c_oI7BeOZxtcz9GBkjzK_Ezxh0ua-mek9YNUNf9bjyZdK9pgM1ZThetSY.LdA0LH4Y17VKDUSKjfHiNEJbmz3cE6tB0Zy5hkU3NVk&amp;qid=1768834032&amp;sr=1-1">The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon</a>” by Peter Schweizer (January 20, 2026/HarperCollins)
* * *
It was a hot July 2009 in Washington, DC, and a silver-haired labor boss stood before the crowd and personified the fusing of Mexico’s territorial ambitions with those of an American president looking to create new voters.
Eliseo Medina was the secretary-treasurer of one of the most powerful unions in America, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. He also had the ear of the newly elected president, Barack Obama, who had met with him when he was a senator. “Before immigration debates took place in Washington,” Obama had said, “I spoke with Eliseo Medina and SEIU members.”
Medina was a labor boss, but he was also an immigrant. Apparently, he wanted to change America profoundly.
“When they [recently naturalized migrants] voted in November,” Medina observed, “they voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates. Barack Obama got two out of every three voters who showed up.”
<div id="attachment_1029777" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1029777" class="size-large wp-image-1029777" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-156516304-864x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 16: Service Employees International Union Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina arrives at the White House on November 16, 2012 in Washington. U.S. President Barack Obama met with Congressional leaders today to discuss deficit reduction and other economic issues. (Photo by Roger Wollenberg/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-156516304-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-156516304-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-156516304-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-156516304.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Roger Wollenberg/Getty Images</div>
So, I think there’s [sic] two things that matter for the progressive community: Number one: If we are to expand this electorate to win, the progressive community needs to solidly be on the side of immigrants. That will expand and solidify the progressive coalition for the future. Number two: [If] we reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters. Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? If we have eight million new voters . . . [we] will create a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.
What Eliseo Medina didn’t say on that day was that he was not only an immigrant, labor leader, and Obama confidant. He was also an advisor to the Mexican government’s foreign ministry—in particular, the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, which, as we saw earlier, was created by officials because “Mexico needs Mexican Americans to lobby the US government to make decisions favorable to Mexico.”
Elected in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis, President Barack Obama brought a message of “hope and change” through the “fundamental transformation of America.” The transformation he envisioned was both cultural and political, and Obama likely saw migrants as the vectors for such transformation. Obama’s second job out of college was as a community organizer for the Chicago-based Gamaliel Foundation, “an organization that had long supported immigrant rights.” Immigrants had long been a cornerstone of the progressive coalition in Chicago, where Obama grew up politically.
<div id="attachment_1029755" style="width: 391px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Coup-American-Foreign-Immigration/dp/0063422506/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2ScE6yhPpWqhjL9vQ0veoZeFEKoK-SW5klvoqsOrofi5dqZ60RyEVuzkFwB3LsOB17N4pN3mZpCSC5zE1aFMtve6anXBe8oVZp9CoFhGsDpYwva-kFxORiBxiVBMt78ybm_Iygi_kecSx4vYe2JcLtMEuL0K7i6iVkZebu9Kohc9Qn0jouOAUKFgRB0Za0X97c1aNyuAbj-t7jdHQx0frPGg87S_lZPTI61G0KphbvLFWANCW3c_oI7BeOZxtcz9GBkjzK_Ezxh0ua-mek9YNUNf9bjyZdK9pgM1ZThetSY.LdA0LH4Y17VKDUSKjfHiNEJbmz3cE6tB0Zy5hkU3NVk&amp;qid=1768834032&amp;sr=1-1"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1029755" class="wp-image-1029755 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Invisible-Coup-381x576.jpg" alt="Cover credit: Harper" width="381" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Invisible-Coup-381x576.jpg 381w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Invisible-Coup-199x300.jpg 199w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Invisible-Coup-768x1160.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Invisible-Coup.jpg 993w" sizes=" (max-width: 381px) 100vw, 381px" /></a>Cover credit: Harper</div>
During the 2008 Democratic Party campaign, Obama lost the hotly contested Pennsylvania primary to Hillary Clinton. He was later caught on tape explaining to donors why, blaming rural voters who opposed mass migration:
“And it’s not surprising that they get bitter; they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
When he wasn’t expressing concerns about the immigrant sentiments of ordinary Americans, Obama declared that his immigrant roots gave him unique and special insights. He told voters in Iowa that “his childhood years in Indonesia and his Kenyan roots” led him to oppose the Iraq war because those experiences had taught him “how powerful tribal and ethnic sentiments are.” For the 2008 election, Obama and his team brazenly “adopted a prominent phrase from within the immigrant rights movement” and made it their campaign slogan: “Sí se puede! Yes we can.”
What Obama understood was that, unlike those rural voters, the most supportive group in the United States for his expansive government agenda to transform America were immigrants. And many of them, like Obama, wanted America to change from the foundation up.
Not only did newly naturalized migrants vote for Democrats in large numbers, but they were also significantly to the left of the typical Democrat. In 2010, 69 percent of immigrants supported Obama’s plans for a massive government takeover of health care, according to polling. Surveys regularly demonstrated that migrants preferred larger and more intrusive government practices, often reflecting socialist experiences in their home countries. During Obama’s first term, 75 percent of Hispanic immigrants told pollsters they preferred a “bigger government providing more services.” Only 41 percent of the general American population agreed.
At the same time, migrants were shown to be less supportive of preserving America’s core values. A 2013 Harris Interactive survey found that “only 50 percent of naturalized citizens” believed “schools should teach children to be proud Americans,” compared with 81 percent of those who were native-born. When asked if “the US Constitution is a higher authority than international law,” only 37 percent of naturalized citizens agreed, compared to 67 percent of American-born natives. And while surveys found that 85 percent of Americans viewed themselves as US citizens and not “citizens of the world,” only 54 percent of naturalized citizens embraced that view.
The partisan advantage for Democrats that Obama and Medina noted was not only real; it was growing. Four years after his election, in 2012, a YouGov survey found that recent immigrants favored Democrats over Republicans by almost four to one.
Therefore, the hard work of ignoring citizenship standards to create these voters needed to continue.
* * *
This excerpt from “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Coup-American-Foreign-Immigration/dp/0063422506/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2ScE6yhPpWqhjL9vQ0veoZeFEKoK-SW5klvoqsOrofi5dqZ60RyEVuzkFwB3LsOB17N4pN3mZpCSC5zE1aFMtve6anXBe8oVZp9CoFhGsDpYwva-kFxORiBxiVBMt78ybm_Iygi_kecSx4vYe2JcLtMEuL0K7i6iVkZebu9Kohc9Qn0jouOAUKFgRB0Za0X97c1aNyuAbj-t7jdHQx0frPGg87S_lZPTI61G0KphbvLFWANCW3c_oI7BeOZxtcz9GBkjzK_Ezxh0ua-mek9YNUNf9bjyZdK9pgM1ZThetSY.LdA0LH4Y17VKDUSKjfHiNEJbmz3cE6tB0Zy5hkU3NVk&amp;qid=1768834032&amp;sr=1-1">The Invisible Coup</a>” is published by permission from Harper, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. “The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon” is written by Peter Schweizer and is available on January 20, 2026.
Peter Schweizer is a #1 bestselling investigative journalist and author. He is the president of the Government Accountability Institute. His previous works have uncovered widespread corruption and have led to official investigations and significant policy reforms. Known for his deep-dive forensic research, Schweizer has become one of the most respected and impactful investigative reporters of his generation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-VOTE-2012-DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN

‘Eight Million New Voters’: Barack Obama And The Democrat Plan To Flood The Nation With Immigrants

'Eight Million New Voters': Barack Obama And The Democrat Plan To Flood The Nation With Immigrants

Barack Obama

Books

Illegal Immigration

Investigation

Labor Unions

Mexico

Minnesota’s decline did not occur overnight. It was engineered, year after year, under the failed leadership of Governor Tim Walz and Minnesota Democrats. Ideology replaced oversight, political narratives replaced accountability, and “compassion” became an excuse for corruption.
In 2009, Forbes magazine named Minneapolis the safest city in America. Today, however, our state is a shell of itself, no longer known for clean government or competent leadership. It is now known for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bessent-blasts-coward-tim-walz-for-withholding-security-amid-fraud-probe-anti-ice-protests">fraud and abuse.</a>
Across the state, hundreds of childcare centers are under investigation for allegedly stealing <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/12/opinion/annual-600b-federal-fraud-is-killing-us-crack-down-now/">billions of taxpayer dollars</a> meant to help children. Federal auditors are demanding proof that children were even present at these make-shift daycares with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minneapolis-quality-learing-center-is-officially-closed-state-records-show?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Minneapolis+Quality+%E2%80%98Learing%E2%80%99+Center+Is+Officially+Closed%2C+State+Records+Show">misspelled names</a> and fake addresses. Minnesotans are rightly asking how such a massive scheme could operate openly for years without intervention. The answer is obvious and uncomfortable: Tim Walz and Minnesota Democrats allowed it to happen.
A recent press conference captured the rot. A daycare operator claimed that enrollment records, documents that would supposedly exonerate his organization, were conveniently stolen during a break-in. Worse yet, as he spoke about his business, he wore <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15426835/minnesota-somali-daycare-fraud-nokomis-daycare-glasses-interpreter.html">designer sunglasses</a>, valued at thousands of dollars.
This was not an isolated failure. Under Tim Walz, widespread fraud has become a recurring pattern. The <a href="https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/feeding-our-future-investigation/full-coverage-feeding-our-future-fraud-scheme/89-c288f8ca-2b8d-405f-b027-e15035bf42bf">Feeding Our Future</a> scandal exposed the laundering of federal nutrition funds, even as warning signs were ignored and whistleblowers were pushed aside. Oversight collapsed. Agencies failed. The amount of fraud in Minnesota can be tied up neatly in one sentence: Tim Walz awarded Ayan Abukar the &#8220;Outstanding Refugee Award,” and four years later, Abukar is one of thousands of Minnesotans convicted of what may be the <a href="https://knsiradio.com/2025/01/27/one-sentence-one-plea-announced-in-250-million-feeding-our-future-fraud-scheme/">largest case of fraud</a> in American history.
This only exposed the central deception of Democratic governance: the idea that fraud-ridden bureaucracies are synonymous with compassion. They are not. Real compassion demands accountability, because every dollar stolen through fraud is a dollar taken from a child who needs help.
I know what government assistance is meant to do because I grew up relying on it. I was raised by my divorced mother on welfare in Harlem and later with my father in a trailer park in Oklahoma. Nothing about my childhood promised success, and the only way out was hard work. I delivered pizzas to put myself through college. I went on to serve as an Army officer stationed in South Korea on the DMZ. Five years later, I was the first in my family to begin a business career in the private sector. My life is a living case study that the promise of America is available to everyone, regardless of race or social station — if they embrace it.
That path was only possible in the United States. But I wouldn’t have been able to do that in today’s Minnesota.
Minnesota Democrats outright reject the very principles of hard work, merit, grit, and dedication. Under their leadership, fraudsters live lavishly while working families are lectured about “equity.” Agencies distribute billions of taxpayer dollars with no verification. Democrats moralize about social justice while presiding over the largest fraud scandal in American history. And unfortunately, fraud is only one symptom of a much deeper problem.
Sadly, the same Democratic ideology that tolerated corruption has also undermined public safety in our state. Under Governor Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis, once one of America’s safest major cities, fell into <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/minneapolis-government-george-floyd.html">chaos</a>. In 2020, rioting and looting turned entire neighborhoods into war zones while Walz hesitated, excused, and justified lawlessness. We witnessed politicians excuse rioting and looting for four-days while families fled Minneapolis and trust evaporated.
Let’s be honest – it’s not any better today. The Left’s open border policies that began under Joe Biden’s administration have further strained local resources and eroded confidence in the rule of law. We’re seeing violent rioters destroy businesses, fight law enforcement, and cause chaos in our streets. Meanwhile, they are encouraged and egged on by Democrat leaders. Meanwhile, crime is out-of-control and families are scared to have dinner or see a show in Minneapolis.
As a result, businesses have left the state in droves, and we have quickly become a desert for opportunity and economic growth. Taxes continue to skyrocket, and both families and small businesses leave for safe havens. They don’t have to move far. It’s not only Florida, Tennessee, or Texas; instead, they are finding refuge in the neighboring states of Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. From an economic perspective, nearly every economic indicator in Minnesota has been in free fall for a decade.
If this state were a publicly traded company, its leadership would have been fired and its stock dumped years ago.
Now, Tim Walz is <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/us-news/gov-tim-walz-expected-to-drop-reelection-bid-amid-minnesota-somali-fraud-probe-report/">stepping aside</a>, and Minnesota Democrats want voters to believe the damage leaves with him. The sad truth is, Walz is not the exception; he is the product of a one-party system that normalized failure. This fraud did not occur in one day. It happened over years, in plain sight, while Minnesota’s legislators from both parties voted, agencies approved payments, and oversight mechanisms failed again and again.
Let me be clear — we can’t fix the problems in St. Paul by electing another legislator from St. Paul. We need someone like me, a political outsider and a successful businessman. You don’t have to look far to see how President Trump has revitalized our economy with his business background and shook up the status quo to Make America Great Again. That’s what I want to emulate in Minnesota.
If we want to dismantle the largest fraud case in American history and restore trust in our state’s government, Minnesota needs leadership fundamentally different from what Democrats have to offer. We need someone willing to audit aggressively, prosecute decisively, and dismantle corrupt systems without fear of political backlash. We need a leader who understands that compassion without accountability is not kindness, it is betrayal. Minnesota does not need another lecture from progressives. It needs a reckoning.
This November, we have a once-in-a-generation moment to elect a leader that rejects the notion of socialism – doubles down on free market capitalism and our country’s Judeo-Christian founding principles. The future of Minnesota looks bright if we choose wisely.
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Kendall Qualls is an Army veteran, business leader, and the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Tim Walz announces he won’t seek reelection for Minnesota governor, January 2026

Minnesota Is A Case Study In Democratic Failure. Here’s How We Fix It.

Republicans

Liberals have taken many radical, nonsensical positions in recent years. Few are as baffling as their outrage over President Trump’s removal of Nicolás Maduro, the illegitimate, narco-terrorist dictator of Venezuela — a move the long-suffering citizens of Venezuela are openly cheering.
But not so among progressives, such as the clueless governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, <a href="https://x.com/GovPritzker/status/2007864220017115141?s=20">who claims</a> Trump&#8217;s action was designed, &#8220;To distract from Epstein, the explosion of health and homeowners insurance costs, and the tariffs that are decimating small businesses &#8230;&#8221;
Or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who downplays Maduro’s tyrannical brutality <a href="https://x.com/AOC/status/2007472955882692798">by claiming,</a>&#8221; It’s about oil and regime change. And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from Epstein + skyrocketing healthcare costs.&#8221;
So, who exactly are Pritzker, AOC, and others of their ilk defending? Why are they saying we should have left him in power?
In 2023, Joe Biden&#8217;s State Department produced a 76-page <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/528267_VENEZUELA-2023-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf">assessment</a> of specific human rights abuses committed by Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his thugs (many of whom were apparently Cuban mercenaries) against their hapless victims. The assessment documents a staggering range of abuses, including:
<blockquote>&#8230;unlawful or arbitrary killings… enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention by security forces… political prisoners… punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative… use of children by illegal armed groups; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists… harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations; extensive gender-based violence… trafficking in persons… and the worst forms of child labor.</blockquote>
The report makes for a tough read, given its summation of the viciousness, cruelty, and ruthlessness of Maduro and his henchmen. 
Want more? What about the details in the federal <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1422326/dl">criminal indictment</a> of Maduro issued by a grand jury in New York?
The superseding indictment charges Maduro and a host of other confederates with running a drug cartel “to import tons of cocaine into the United States.” Makes sense from Maduro’s point of view: his disastrous policies turned Venezuela into an economic basket case, making a once-prosperous country a bankrupt third-world hellhole. Thus, Maduro had to get money from somewhere to line his pockets and finance his depredations.
According to the indictment, Maduro essentially turned the Venezuelan government into a massive drug and illegal weapons smuggling operation, doing everything from using Venezuelan law enforcement to protect his distribution system to issuing “diplomatic passports to drug traffickers” and providing “diplomatic cover for planes used by money launderers to repatriate drug proceeds.”
All of the money was used to enrich himself, his family, and the “political and military elite” who kept him in power. That also included partnering “with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world,” extremely dangerous criminal cartels and terrorist groups that have kidnapped and murdered Americans, like FARC, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas, or Cartel del Noreste, and Tren de Aragua.
By the way, the Caribbean drug smugglers that our military has been taking out? Part of the indictment talks about the 200 to 250 tons of cocaine “trafficked” to the U.S. annually by Maduro and his cartel cronies through “maritime shipments…north from Venezuela’s coastline using go-fast vessels, fishing boats, and container ships.” Additionally, “air shipments were often dispatched from clandestine airstrips, typically made of dirt or grass, and also from commercial airports under the control” of Maduro and his corrupt officials.
I don’t think the majority of Americans have a lot of sympathy for the criminals smuggling drugs on these “go-fast vessels, fishing boats, and container ships.”
From the drugs poisoning our citizens, especially our youth, to the citizens of Venezuela who have been censored, arrested, tortured, and killed, Maduro has been a scourge who has caused untold harm and suffering.
The political parties and both sides of the political aisle may disagree on many domestic issues. But when it comes to the removal of Nicolás Maduro Moros, progressives, liberals, and Democrats, along with conservatives and Republicans, should be praising the president for finally taking action to rid our hemisphere of this menace.
* * *
Hans von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law at Advancing American Freedom.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-US-VENEZUELA-POLITICS-TRUMP

Why Are Democrats Defending A Narco-Terrorist Dictator?

Cartels

drug boat

Drug Cartels

Liberals

Nicolas Maduro

Smuggling

Venezuela

The following is an edited transcript from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1891-the-real-reason-trump-plans-to-conquer-greenland?elementPosition=10&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
The Left can’t let the transgender issue go away.
They were clobbered on it last November. They’ve been losing on it for years. Conservatives won the argument, decisively — and yet the Left keeps dragging it back into the spotlight. Now they’re pushing cases all the way to the Supreme Court under the guise of “defending girls’ sports,” even as the Court is actively weighing a major transgender-related case.
That context matters, because it’s why a recent Senate hearing landed the way it did.
During a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) hearing focused on abortion drugs, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of the best to ever do it, grilled Democrat witness Dr. Nisha Verma, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, on the question that has dominated American politics for the past five years.
The exchange, which quickly went viral, revolved around a simple inquiry: “Can men get pregnant?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
SPOILER ALERT: Men cannot get pregnant <a href="https://t.co/08JwHUlxIj">pic.twitter.com/08JwHUlxIj</a>
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href="https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/2011480384467349892?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Hawley is so good at this.
This question is just another version of “What is a Woman?” It’s another way of asking whether men can become women. It should be a layup for the Left. All they have to say is: “No, men cannot become pregnant.”
They could even try to weasel out of it. They could say something about “trans men” or redefine terms in the usual bureaucratic way. Any halfway competent liberal operative would recognize that this issue is pure political poison and dodge it immediately. 
But they can’t.
The transgender issue may be the single biggest loser for the Left in my lifetime — possibly even more damaging than their insistence on flooding the country with foreign criminals. And yet they refuse to abandon it. Not because it’s culturally edgy or titillating, but because it represents the inescapable conclusion of their entire political project.
Conservatives sometimes understate what’s actually going on here. We describe transgenderism as a natural outgrowth of gay marriage, gay rights, or feminism — movements that insist men and women are fundamentally the same. That’s part of the story, but it doesn’t go deep enough.
The reason Republicans and conservatives keep hammering this issue — and the reason the Left cannot give it up — is because it strikes at the core of liberalism itself.
At its heart, liberalism is about maximizing individual autonomy. That idea goes back centuries. The seed of liberalism says: I am primarily an individual, and I will control everything. I will control my destiny, my traditions, my morality, my religion, my history, and even my country. And eventually, I will liberate myself from my own body.
That is the culmination.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1891-the-real-reason-trump-plans-to-conquer-greenland?elementPosition=10&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
It took centuries to get here. First, we had to liberate ourselves from the king. Then from the Church. Then from the family, through the liberalization of divorce. Then from history, through radical revisionism. Then from the nation, through the collapse of patriotism. Then from the moral order, especially in matters of sex.
And finally, liberation from biological reality itself.
Liberalism is not complete until the body is treated as irrelevant.
Which brings us, inevitably, to St. Thomas Aquinas.
Aquinas identified the idea underlying transgenderism — that the body has nothing to do with who we really are — as one of the oldest and most dangerous heresies. The belief that I am born male but am really female, and therefore my body is wrong or bad, is not new. It appears in ancient heresies like Gnosticism and Docetism, which treated matter as corrupt and the physical world as a mistake.
Aquinas argued that these were the worst heresies of all, because they directly deny the central truth of Christianity: the Incarnation — that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
So it should not surprise us that modern liberalism, which often functions as an inversion of Christianity, would culminate in precisely this heresy. A political philosophy built on autonomy over reality eventually arrives at the rejection of the body itself.
That’s why the Left can’t walk away from this issue, no matter how badly it hurts them politically.
It isn’t just another policy debate.
It’s the logical endpoint of their worldview.

Senator Josh Hawley

Why The Left Can’t Let The Transgender Debate Go

Catholicism

gender ideology

Josh Hawley

Michael Knowles

Transgender

U.S. Senate

What Is A Woman

The negative portrayal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by Democrats is leading to violence in the streets, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned on Thursday after The Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olohan asked her about rising unrest.
Leavitt showed a picture of a CNN chyron that read: “Protests Erupt After Federal Agent Shoots Man In Minneapolis.”
“That’s not the story,” Leavitt said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> goes OFF on the MSM and Democrats for demonizing ICE agents:
&#8220;I would encourage everyone in this room, and I would encourage Gov. Walz and other Democrats who are demeaning law enforcement to sit down and have a cup of coffee with an ICE agent&#8230;
The Democrat party… <a href="https://t.co/AB7SIjKgdB">pic.twitter.com/AB7SIjKgdB</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/2011893315365462099?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
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To learn the real story, Leavitt urged Americans to turn to the Department of Homeland Security’s statement.
“This ICE agent was executing a targeted operation against a Venezuelan illegal alien who was unlawfully present in this country,” Leavitt said. “When this ICE agent tried to detain the individual, three more of his comrades came rushing out of the house and started ambushing and attacking the ICE agent. They used a shovel or a broom to smash his face in, and so yes, that agent had to use self-defense and take up his weapon to protect his own life.”
The press secretary reiterated that ICE agents and law enforcement are enforcing the country’s immigration laws while “elected officials are encouraging violence” against “our brave men and women in law enforcement.”
“Democratic governors and mayors” were not the only targets of Leavitt; the press secretary had a fiery exchange with a reporter who brought up Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s comment that ICE agents “are doing everything correctly.”
The reporter asked Leavitt, given that Renee Good was shot in the head, how ICE agents could be doing “everything correctly.” Leavitt first responded with a question, asking the reporter: “Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?” The reporter answered, “Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> absolutely nukes a Fake News loser:
&#8220;You&#8217;re a left-wing hack. You&#8217;re not a reporter. You&#8217;re posing in this room as a journalist&#8230; You and the people in the media who have such biases but fake like you&#8217;re a journalist — you shouldn&#8217;t even be sitting in that seat.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/ebZzHj7hPs">pic.twitter.com/ebZzHj7hPs</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2011874658694676942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Leavitt responded, “Oh, okay, so you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion. … Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country? I bet you don’t. Shame on you and the people of the media who have a crooked and biased view.”
She then encouraged Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and other Democrats “who are demeaning law enforcement to sit down and have a cup of coffee with an ICE agent or a border patrol agent.”
“These are great, patriotic men and women who have families who put on the uniform every day and are following our nation’s immigration laws at the direction of their bosses, and again at the direction of the law. They are simply trying to enforce the law and the Democrat Party has demeaned these individuals; they have even referred to them as Nazis and as the Gestapo.”
Leavitt said it is that very rhetoric that is “absolutely leading to the violence we are seeing in the streets.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Holds News Briefing

‘Shame On You’: White House Fed Up With Disrespect Toward Law Enforcement

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Karoline Leavitt

Media

Politics

The Democratic Party is insisting that basic law enforcement action against illegal immigrants, particularly criminal illegal immigrants, is some sort of violation of the American compact. They are, astonishingly, equating the American system with the Iranian ayatollahs in terms of tyranny. 
That is the case currently being made by Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee.
And it’s nuts.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ken-martin-dnc-ice-donald-trump-iran-renee-good-ee393f1e?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfhG8GUKeO8i8pRXbhSPQ-_Fcv_8DrnExtMG4lDLLwfMCiYuS3EPmunTq1dqXk%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69693e81&amp;gaa_sig=Bhn77IXYRUIPQsFvjsdV-YyKHIRO_XSupTQYSh-LjlWNsFRe6JKgW0tRbM62DzetJBMdDKOZlibDV-WRTYtQMQ%3D%3D">reported</a>:
<blockquote>As President Trump cancels meetings with the Iranian regime, increases the economic pressure and promises imminent help for the protesters being slaughtered in the streets, the Democratic Party’s boss has chimed in. Consider what Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee Chairman, has to say:
“From Tehran to my birthplace of Minneapolis, people are rising up against systems that wield violence without accountability,” Mr. Martin wrote Sunday on social media. “Solidarity across borders means opposing authoritarian power everywhere and defending the right to live free from fear and state violence.”
When told that the continuing massacres by Iran’s regime and the tragic, split-second Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by a U.S. law-enforcement officer aren’t the same, Mr. Martin plunged deeper into moral equivalence.
“If comparing the U.S. to Iran makes you angry, ask why,” he wrote. “Killing protesters. Crushing dissent. Kidnapping and disappearing legal citizens. Ignoring courts. Threatening critics. Terrorizing communities. That’s authoritarian behavior—anywhere.”</blockquote>
This is incredibly ironic, as the leader of the DNC — the party that has treated Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the various terror arms of Iran as some sort of half-political organizations, treated the Iranian government as a quasi-innocent in the region — now cites Iran as the repressive power to compare to President Trump, the president who actually struck Iran back in June of last year, blowing up their nuclear facility at Fordow.
It&#8217;s also amazing he compares the ayatollahs who are ordering the shooting of thousands of people in the streets to ICE agents enforcing criminal law while obstructed by benighted and misguided people.
“Killing protesters?” The Trump administration is not unleashing ICE to mass-shoot protesters. That&#8217;s insane. That&#8217;s psychotic.
And disgusting.
Ken Martin is out of his mind. “Kidnapping and disappearing legal citizens. Ignoring courts. Threatening critics. Terrorizing communities. That’s authoritarian behavior—anywhere.”
That is absolutely insane. The fact that Ken Martin would say such things is demonstrative of how disconnected the Democratic Party is from reality at its top levels.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2347-democrats-ice-is-just-like-the-ayatollahs?elementPosition=8&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+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>
He&#8217;s not the only one who&#8217;s saying this, by the way. Representative Eugene Vindman of Virginia said on CNN, &#8220;We need to support the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and independence. They&#8217;re protesting largely peacefully on the streets. And they&#8217;re being attacked and murdered. And I think, you know, there&#8217;s an irony, obviously, in what we see with ICE on America&#8217;s streets.&#8221;
Peter Baker of The New York Times was on MS NOW, where he declaimed, “People are watching the split screen situation of mass protests in Tehran and mass protests in Minneapolis. And of course, they&#8217;re looking to see how a president handles each of them. And while you really can&#8217;t compare the substance of these two very important issues happening for different parts of the planet, you can, I think, look at the rule of thumb that Donald Trump brings to it.”
“And I think the rule of thumb is pretty simple,” he continued. “If you&#8217;re protesting against a regime he disfavors, he opposes, then you&#8217;re heroes. If you&#8217;re protesting him or his policies, then you are illegitimate. You&#8217;re radicals. You&#8217;re radical Left lunatics.”
That&#8217;s ridiculous. If you are protesting the Ayatollah’s regime — the one where they murder you if you protest; the one where women are forced to wear hijabs; the one where they spread terrorism all over the region while impoverishing their people to the tune of no water or power in their capital — I don&#8217;t see how that is comparable to someone looting gun lockers in ICE vehicles in Minneapolis.
Why do Democrats and the Left embrace this equivalence? The truth is that they make excuses on a consistent basis for some of the worst people in the Middle East while ripping into governments that attempt to fight those people in the Middle East.
There&#8217;s been significantly more ire from the mainstream media at Israel for its action in the Gaza Strip, which was targeted action against a terrorist group hiding behind civilians, than there has been against the Iranian government thus far.
The enemy of good sense is the failure to speak basic truths.
There is a deeper agenda at work, of course. And that deeper agenda has to do with a Democratic party point of view that suggests that the importation of a large number of people from outside the United States inherently makes the United States culturally stronger.
That leads to this agenda: Don&#8217;t enforce immigration law.
The narrative that is being promoted by the Democrats and by the legacy media is that ICE is willy-nilly mass-arresting people for no reason at all based on the color of their skin.
That is a lie.
The vast majority of people that ICE is detaining and actually arresting after detention are criminals.
The Democrats are hoping that a little chaos and willfully misleading people will convince America to give up on immigration enforcement.
They are wrong.

BRITAIN-IRAN-PROTEST-RIGHTS

Democrats: ICE Is Just Like The Ayatollahs

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Democratic National Committee

Iran

Wall Street Journal

Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin said that she is under federal investigation following her role in a video made by Democratic lawmakers in November, urging military members to &#8220;refuse illegal orders.&#8221;
Slotkin <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/us/politics/slotkin-pirro-trump-justice-dept-video.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share">told</a> The New York Times on Monday that the office of Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, reached out to the Senate sergeant-at-arms to request an interview with the first-term senator or her private counsel. Pirro&#8217;s office told The Daily Wire that it neither confirms nor denies &#8220;the existence of an investigation.&#8221;
Slotkin, a former CIA officer, organized the <a href="https://x.com/SenatorSlotkin/status/1990774492356902948">video message</a> to military members, which included five other Democratic lawmakers who are also veterans. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), and Jason Crow (D-CO) all appeared in Slotkin&#8217;s video and told military members, &#8220;This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.&#8221;
&#8220;Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution,&#8221; the Democrats added. &#8220;Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren&#8217;t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear: you can refuse illegal orders &#8230; you must refuse illegal orders.&#8221;
The Trump administration has referred to the group of Democrats in the video as the &#8220;Seditious Six,&#8221; arguing that their message is an attempt to undermine the commander-in-chief&#8217;s authority over the military. After the video was released, President Donald Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115582703277798715">suggested</a> that it constituted &#8220;seditious behavior, punishable by death.&#8221; Trump later said that he was not threatening the Democrats with the death penalty, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-democrats-sedition-death-threat-military-rcna245156">adding</a>, “I think they’re in serious trouble. I would say they’re in serious trouble. I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death. That was seditious behavior.”
Sen. Kelly, a retired astronaut and naval officer, is currently under investigation by the War Department for his role in the &#8220;seditious video,&#8221; and War Secretary Pete Hegseth <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hegseth-moves-to-strip-mark-kelly-of-rank-and-pay-over-seditious-military-video">moved</a> earlier this month to strip Kelly of his rank and retirement pay. Kelly filed a lawsuit against Hegseth on Monday, arguing that Hegseth&#8217;s action violates the First Amendment.
&#8220;Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him—and this or any administration—accountable,&#8221; Kelly <a href="https://x.com/SenMarkKelly/status/2010787235549876286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2011151451381498107%7Ctwgr%5E51310249b3c4ab3a335554f0d8d33fc75ab47b7d%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fpete-hegseth-hits-back-at-captain-mark-kelly-he-knows-exactly-what-he-did">said</a>. &#8220;His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.&#8221;
Hegseth <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pete-hegseth-hits-back-at-captain-mark-kelly-he-knows-exactly-what-he-did?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Pete+Hegseth+Hits+Back+At+%E2%80%98Captain%E2%80%99+Mark+Kelly%3A+He+%E2%80%98Knows+Exactly+What+He+Did%E2%80%99">fired back</a>, saying that Kelly is &#8220;worried and cranky.&#8221;
“&#8217;Captain&#8217; Kelly knows exactly what he did, and that he will be held to account,&#8221; he added.

Elissa Slotkin

Dem Senator Says Feds Are Investigating Her After Urging Military To ‘Refuse Illegal Orders’

Jeanine Pirro

Trump Administration

U.S. Military

The following is an adapted transcript excerpt from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1887" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
When it comes to the unrest in Minneapolis, the more you allow people to get away with this kind of behavior — direct threats, incitement to violence, blocking traffic, blocking law enforcement, even driving their cars into law enforcement — the more of it you&#8217;re going to get. People will become accustomed to the behavior and to the idea that it is acceptable.
Of course, now other bougie white ladies who have been doing the same thing are concluding from this incident that, well, maybe they shouldn&#8217;t.
This Charlotte woman is now terrified to obstruct law enforcement:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This woman says shes also been driving around looking to interfere with ICE operations in Charlotte and now shes horrified.
Maybe she should stop, then. <a href="https://t.co/I9Umys6VDZ">pic.twitter.com/I9Umys6VDZ</a>
— Cassandra MacDonald (@CassandraRules) <a href="https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/status/2009012340046586034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Credit: @CassandraRules/X.com
<blockquote>I am shocked because only a few weeks ago, I was driving around this town that I live in, in Charlotte, doing very similar things, looking for ICE agents, trying to prevent them from kidnapping people off the street. And there was a lot of other people out there doing that on a daily basis, as is our right to drive around the streets of our city. It&#8217;s frightening right now.</blockquote>
The last part is really all that matters. “It&#8217;s frightening right now.”
You can tell how confused this woman is. She might be sincere, but she&#8217;s so confused.
She says the woman was trying to drive away. She wasn&#8217;t actually driving away. We now have all the video footage from all the angles. Even CNN is running it. The woman was clearly trying to obstruct federal law enforcement. And guess what? You don&#8217;t have a right to obstruct federal law enforcement, or local law enforcement, for that matter. You don&#8217;t have that right. You may think you have that right because Democrat politicians have lied to you and have encouraged this behavior and have allowed the anarchy to fester and are now largely responsible for that woman being killed. 
So let’s correct the record right now: You don&#8217;t have that right.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1887" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h3>
Vice President JD Vance said all of this beautifully. He gave one of the best performances I&#8217;ve certainly ever seen from a vice president — one of the best performances in this administration. He came out with his typical lucidity and moral clarity. 
Here is his take on Minneapolis:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
JD VANCE: &#8220;There&#8217;s a part of me that feels very sad for this woman, not just because she lost her life, but because she&#8217;s a victim of left wing ideology. What young mother shows up and decides to throw their car in front of ICE officers who are enforcing legitimate law?
You have… <a href="https://t.co/XnRWWn1lfb">pic.twitter.com/XnRWWn1lfb</a>
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) <a href="https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/2009339510816211022?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Credit: @AustismCapital/X.com
<blockquote>The one final point I&#8217;ll make about this is, look, there&#8217;s a part of me that feels very, very sad for this woman, not just because she lost her life, but because I think she is a victim of left wing ideology. What young mother shows up and decides they&#8217;re going to throw their car in front of Ice officers who are enforcing legitimate law. You&#8217;ve got to be a little brainwashed to get to that point&#8230;</blockquote>
Spot on. This is exactly the right tone. 
We&#8217;re not saying, “That evil domestic terrorist woman, yeah we love that she&#8217;s dead!” We know, it’s sad. It&#8217;s sad that she was perhaps so brainwashed that she thought the ICE officers really were the Gestapo. Where did she get that from? She got it from cable news. She probably thought that illegal aliens have a right to be in this country. They don&#8217;t. But she has heard that from all the Democrat bullhorns. She&#8217;s heard that from anyone who says that illegal aliens are &#8220;undocumented Americans.&#8221; &#8220;Well, if they&#8217;re Americans, they have a right to be here.&#8221; They&#8217;re not Americans. That&#8217;s the point.
She probably thought these people were totally innocent. They&#8217;re not. 
She probably thought they&#8217;re not face-tattooed gangsters, they&#8217;re not defrauding the government. They&#8217;re all just little &#8220;abuelas&#8221; trying to peacefully make a pie in the kitchen when the Gestapo suddenly shows up. No — she was brainwashed.
And she betrayed her family. She betrayed her daughter. She may not have meant to — I don&#8217;t doubt that — but she did. And why? To go out there, not just for a stupid cause, but for such an unjust cause? And leave your kid without a mother? I feel sorry for this woman that her mind would be so scrambled to get to that point. 
But it doesn&#8217;t change the fact that it was all wrong. In fact, that should impel you to want to set the record straight, which is what JD does when it comes to the news media.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a> delivers a much needed torching the Fake News: &#8220;Everybody who has been repeating the LIE that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement shot at her — you should be ashamed of yourselves.&#8221; 🔥 <a href="https://t.co/rArUNnzPxi">pic.twitter.com/rArUNnzPxi</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2009336334675324991?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Credit: @RapidResponse47/X.com
<blockquote>The way that the media, by and large, has reported this story has been an absolute disgrace, and it puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day. Everybody who&#8217;s been repeating the lie that this is some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her — you should be ashamed of yourself.</blockquote>
And that is precisely the point. If you lie generally, you should be ashamed of yourself because you&#8217;re committing a mortal sin. If you lie about an event of public interest, you should especially be ashamed of yourself because it causes political scandal. But if you lie about this kind of issue, you should be ashamed of yourself because you are setting the stage for naive and ignorant people to put themselves in harm&#8217;s way for your lie.
And that&#8217;s what happened. The liberal media — it is not hyperbole to say — bear a considerable amount of responsibility for that woman&#8217;s death.

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