WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the “Seditious Six,” the Democrats who urged service members to disregard what they called illegal orders from the Trump administration, The Daily Wire has learned. The FBI is now scheduling interviews with the members of Congress involved.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) appeared in a video urging service members and intelligence officers to &#8220;refuse illegal orders.&#8221;
Both the DOJ and the FBI confirmed to The Daily Wire that they are scheduling interviews with these lawmakers. After this story was published, the six lawmakers put out a joint statement accusing the president of &#8220;using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass Members of Congress.&#8221;
In their Nov. 18 video, the lawmakers said: &#8220;We want to speak directly to members of the military and the intelligence community who take risks each day to keep Americans safe.&#8221;
<blockquote>
&#8220;We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now. Americans trust their military, but that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens. Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution. Right now, threats to our constitution aren&#8217;t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.&#8221;
&#8220;Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution. We know this is hard, and that it&#8217;s a difficult time to be a public servant. But whether you are serving in the CIA, the army, or navy, the air force, your vigilance is critical. Know that we have your back, because now, more than ever, the American people need you.&#8221;
</blockquote>
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the lawmakers should be arrested and tried for &#8220;seditious behavior,&#8221; saying their actions were &#8220;punishable by death.&#8221; The president later clarified that he was &#8220;not threatening death&#8221; to the lawmakers, but rather pointing out the severity of their conduct.
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has also denounced the video, calling it &#8220;despicable.&#8221; Hegseth, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/despicable-reckless-and-false-hegseth-coins-new-nickname-for-dems-pushing-military-insurrection?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=11&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=%E2%80%98Despicable%2C+Reckless%2C+And+False%E2%80%99%3A+Hegseth+Coins+New+Nickname+For+Dems+Pushing+Military+Insurrection">coined the term</a> &#8220;Seditious Six&#8221; to describe the Democratic lawmakers, argued that while the video may seem harmless to civilians, &#8220;it carries a different weight inside the military.&#8221; 
&#8220;This was a politically-motivated influence operation: It never named a specific &#8216;illegal order.&#8217; It created ambiguity rather than clarity,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It used carefully scripted, legal-sounding language. It subtly reframed military obedience around partisan distrust instead of established legal processes.&#8221;
&#8220;In the military, vague rhetoric and ambiguity undermines trust, creates hesitation in the chain of command, and erodes cohesion,&#8221; Hegseth warned. &#8220;The military already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders. It does not need political actors injecting doubt into an already clear chain of command. As veterans of various sorts, the Seditious Six knew exactly what they were doing — sowing doubt through a politically-motivated influence operation. The [Department of War] won’t fall for it or stand for it.&#8221;
On Monday, the Department of War singled out Kelly, stating that it had &#8220;received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.).&#8221; Kelly is still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice because he is a retired Naval officer.
&#8220;In accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 688, and other applicable regulations, a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures,&#8221; the War Department said. &#8220;This matter will be handled in compliance with military law, ensuring due process and impartiality.&#8221;
Meanwhile, Kelly and his fellow Democrats argue that the president and the War Department seek to intimidate them from encouraging troops to disobey &#8220;illegal&#8221; orders — though on Monday, Sen. Slotkin <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2025/11/23/elissa-slotkin-video-troops-disobey-donald-trump-cannot-name-one-illegal-order-martha-raddatz-abc/">admitted on ABC News</a> that she could not cite any illegal order issued by Trump.
&#8220;If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work,&#8221; Kelly said in a post that described his service in the United States Navy. &#8220;I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Donald Trump can try to intimidate me, but it’s not going to work. My job is to defend the Constitution and hold any president accountable. <a href="https://t.co/FzfW8qQz5f">pic.twitter.com/FzfW8qQz5f</a>
— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenMarkKelly/status/1993173763299721688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
The lawmakers released a joint statement on November 20, saying in response to Trump: &#8220;This isn’t about any one of us. This isn’t about politics. This is about who we are as Americans. Every American must unite and condemn the President’s calls for our murder and political violence. This is a time for moral clarity.&#8221;
“In these moments, fear is contagious, but so is courage. We will continue to lead and will not be intimidated,&#8221; they argued, adding, as they did in the closure of their video: “Don’t Give Up the Ship!”

Mark Kelly 10/28/25

DOJ, FBI Launch Investigation Into ‘Seditious Six’ Democrats, Interviews Set To Begin

Department of War

Donald Trump

Mark Kelly

Pentagon

Pete Hegseth

The FBI says it conducted more than a thousand interviews and is &#8220;very confident&#8221; in its assessment that Thomas Crooks acted alone in his attempt to kill President Donald Trump at a rally in 2024, pushing back on online theories that have gained momentum in recent weeks.
&#8220;It is the FBI’s conclusion that Crooks acted alone,&#8221; FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-fbi-concludes-trump-shooter-thomas-crooks-acted-alone-after-unprecedented-global-investigation">told</a> Fox News, which received a briefing on the evidence that was reviewed by authorities.
Bongino, FBI Director Kash Patel, and the senior official said in an interview with Fox News that online conspiracies about Crooks are simply not true. For example, the FBI did gain access to every electronic device from Crooks, examining &#8220;35 accounts linked to Crooks, including social media, bank, and other online accounts.&#8221;
&#8220;The FBI has been able to access all of the accounts,&#8221; the senior official said. &#8220;There has been reporting to inappropriately and incorrectly state that there was encryption that the FBI was not able to get into — that is not true. We have been able to get into every single account.&#8221;
Crooks did have foreign-based email accounts from Germany and Belgium, which were also &#8220;fully&#8221; accessed &#8220;within days of the attack,&#8221; the official said.
&#8220;There is no foreign connection in this case,&#8221; a senior FBI official echoed. &#8220;There is no individual that is outside U.S. borders or inside U.S. borders that had any role in directing him, inspiring him or assisting him in any way — and that includes foreign governments.&#8221;
&#8220;Additionally, the FBI engaged with foreign partners who also provided all of the content of those email accounts,&#8221; the official continued. &#8220;We can say with confidence that there is no communication, there are no emails that Crooks had that we have not been able to access.&#8221;
Patel also noted that Crooks&#8217; home was &#8220;completely swept.&#8221;
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&#8220;Every device in the home was collected and accessed fully,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Reports say that we didn’t get into certain devices? That’s false. We got into all of the devices.&#8221;
The FBI officials also addressed recent theories and questions related to an Antifa-linked individual named William Tepes. Crooks and Tepes never spoke to one another directly, though Tepes did respond to Crooks&#8217; online public posting, the feds said.
&#8220;Crooks posted on YouTube. Tepes is a Norwegian, nordic resistance member. He simply responded to content Crooks posted,&#8221; Patel said.
The global investigation included more than 1,000 interviews, a review of 2,000 tips, and the execution of more than ten search warrants and 100 subpoenas. The feds &#8220;specifically analyzed 13 electronic devices that were associated with Crooks and his family members from his home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania,&#8221; the official said.
Bongino noted there was no manifesto left from Crooks.
&#8220;Dan and I have been on this since we got here eight months ago,&#8221; Patel said of the investigation. &#8220;We fully briefed the president, as a victim of this case, at the White House, providing him with all of the details of our investigation, and the president was satisfied with the results and where we left it.&#8221;
&#8220;We are very confident in the outcomes of this investigation,&#8221; Bongino said. &#8220;We have pulled on every threat. We are absolutely confident, and if information surfaces, please, immediately get it over to us for instant action.&#8221;
The deputy director, who is personally close with Trump, stressed that there is no motivation for a coverup, as some online have suggested.
&#8220;I would ask the public: What motivation would Kash Patel and Dan Bongino possibly have to hide from their personal friend — not just their boss, the president — information about a crime where he was the victim?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;I don’t understand what the motivation would be.&#8221;
&#8220;No one is interested in guilt or innocence, they’re interested in someone to blame,&#8221; Bongino said, quoting &#8220;A Few Good Men.&#8221; &#8220;The public is pissed off. We get it. We sympathize with you. It couldn’t have just been this guy — it couldn’t have just been this guy — it is. There is no reason I would tell you otherwise.&#8221;
Patel added that pushing conspiracy theories online makes big money.
&#8220;As to why people keep coming back to this on social media, the reality is, many people make a lot of money on social media pushing conspiracy theories for clicks,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That is a fact.&#8221;
Responding to accusations from Congress about the FBI not disclosing all pertinent information, Patel said this was also not true, adding that lawmakers have been &#8220;fully debriefed.&#8221;
&#8220;Congress is accusing us of not turning over all of this stuff — but all of this stuff doesn’t exist. It is an empty narrative they’re firing into a vacuum,&#8221; Patel said. &#8220;The very limited information we have not turned over is respective to victims&#8217; rights. There isn’t some trove of documents that we haven’t sent over there.&#8221;

Justice Department Announces Federal Enforcement Action Against International Criminal Organization

FBI Works To Shut Down Online Theories About Thomas Crooks: ‘We Are Very Confident’

FBI Drops Major News About Would-Be Trump Assassin Thomas Crooks

assassination attempt

Crime

Dan Bongino

kash patel

Thomas Matthew Crooks

U.S.

A Democratic congresswoman from Florida is facing decades in prison after the Justice Department accused her of stealing more than $5 million in FEMA funds. Prosecutors allege that she diverted the disaster-relief money to support her congressional campaign and enrich her associates.
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that a Miami grand jury had indicted Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick for fraudulently obtaining federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds, and putting the money toward her 2021 congressional race. According to the Justice Department, Cherfilus-McCormick conspired with her brother, 51-year-old Edwin Cherfilus, to steal a $5 million FEMA overpayment that was sent to their family’s health care company.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
The $5 million payment was made in July 2021 after the siblings had a contract with FEMA for COVID vaccinations. The money was routed through multiple accounts to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign and other personal accounts, according to the Justice Department. 
“This individual and her family allegedly stole money from FEMA and then laundered it through friends toward her own personal benefits &#8211; including her campaign accounts,” FBI Director Kash Patel <a href="https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1991306995366756653">said</a>. “Today the FBI and partners at [the Justice Department] took action. No one is above the law.”
The indictment also accuses 46-year-old Nadege Leblanc, Cherfilus-McCormick’s district chief of staff, of working with the Democrat representative to funnel some of the stolen money to straw donors who then donated back to the campaign.
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An additional defendant is 41-year-old tax preparer David Spencer, who is accused of working with Cherfilus-McCormick to file a false federal tax return. The indictment says that they falsely claimed political spending and personal expenses as business deductions and inflated her charitable contributions. 
Cherfilus-McCormick faces up to 53 years in prison; Edwin Cherfilus faces up to 35 years; Leblanc faces up to 10 years; and Spencer faces up to 33 years, according to the Justice Department. Cherfilus-McCormick&#8217;s legal team <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sheila-cherfilus-mccormick-indicted-stealing-fema-funds-campaign-rcna244889">said</a> she was &#8220;a committed public servant&#8221; and that they would &#8220;fight to clear her good name.”
Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) is expected to file a motion on Thursday to censure Cherfilus-McCormick and remove her from all committees. She currently sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Veteran Affairs. 
“This is one of the most egregious abuses of public trust I have ever seen. Stealing $5 million in taxpayer disaster funds from FEMA of all places is beyond indefensible,” he <a href="https://x.com/RepGregSteube/status/1991317294870392922">said</a>. “Millions of Floridians have relied on FEMA after devastating hurricanes, and that money was supposed to help real disaster victims.”
Cherfilus-McCormick is also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick

Florida Democrat Indicted For Turning FEMA Funds Into Campaign Cash

Congress

Department of Justice

FEMA

Florida

House of Representatives

Pam Bondi

Politics

If you didn&#8217;t see Tucker Carlson&#8217;s recent segment on Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old man who nearly assassinated Donald Trump live on national television during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last year, there are a few important revelations you should know about.
The first revelation — which isn&#8217;t remotely controversial — is that the FBI has clearly been hiding relevant information about Thomas Crooks from the general public. And by itself, that&#8217;s a national scandal that justifies completely gutting the FBI, from the highest levels on down. Even if you firmly believe that Thomas Crooks was a lone gunman, and even if you believe that the Secret Service was merely incompetent (as opposed to complicit) — the fact remains, our government has been withholding important details about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump&#8217;s life, without any justification whatsoever.
We should not have to rely on Tucker Carlson, or any podcaster, to tell us that Thomas Crooks left a lengthy trail of comments on YouTube, in which he openly called for political violence for several years.
These calls were so overt, and so disturbing, that one user wrote in response to Crooks:
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1003085 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-1024x158.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="158" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-1024x158.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-300x46.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-768x119.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1.jpg 1520w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
<blockquote>You&#8217;re on YouTube threatening to shoot government officials. I sure hope the FBI is monitoring social media for violent nutcases.</blockquote>
It&#8217;s almost too on-the-nose to be real. But that comment is still available on YouTube, to this day. Thomas Crooks&#8217; account has been suspended, and all of his comments have been hidden. They&#8217;re only accessible using the Internet archive website. But the replies are still there. And yet, more than a year after the assassination attempt in Butler, we have to rely on Tucker Carlson to tell us about any of this. That is completely, overwhelmingly, unequivocally unacceptable. It shouldn’t fall to anyone in the media to tell us what Thomas Crooks was saying online — and how people were reacting to his comments.
We also shouldn&#8217;t have to rely on podcasters to tell us that Thomas Crooks decided, sometime during the COVID lockdowns, to completely reverse his political views, and to begin openly attacking Donald Trump and his administration on social media. And we certainly shouldn&#8217;t have to rely on podcasters to tell us that Crooks was in contact with a mysterious person — who remains unidentified, beyond the online alias &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; — who openly encouraged Crooks to commit acts of violence.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1003091 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1024x204.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="204" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1024x204.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-300x60.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-768x153.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1536x305.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
At one point, Willy Tepes wrote to Crooks, 
<blockquote>&#8230;authority obviously comes from the barrel of a gun. We have more guns than they do. There is no way we can avoid a war at this point, so you better just get used to the idea.</blockquote>
In common parlance, this is known as &#8220;fed posting.&#8221; Willy Tepes is almost being too obvious about it. He understands that Thomas Crooks is a radical who&#8217;s prone to violence. He sees that Crooks is posting about acts of violence against political officials — and that Crooks wrote, at one point, that even the White House could be overwhelmed if enough Americans took up arms. Willy Tepes is aware of all this. And instead of expressing concern, he encourages Crooks to go to war.
Is it possible that this is just some random internet troll? Of course it is. It&#8217;s also possible that &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; was working with a government agency or a terror cell — either in this country or some other country — to groom potential assassins. In fact, given how weird &#8220;Willy&#8217;s&#8221; comments were — and to be clear, he replied to Crooks multiple times — it seems very likely that he was trying to groom Thomas Crooks. So what has the FBI done to investigate Willy Tepes? What have they done to figure out his identity? Why is Tucker’s show the first time — literally, the first time — that anyone in this country has heard the name &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221;?
That is inexcusable, for about a million different reasons. It&#8217;s not the FBI&#8217;s job to determine what information is worth sharing to the public, or what information they deem is &#8220;important.&#8221; When it comes to the near-assassination of the leading presidential candidate, no detail is irrelevant. If Thomas Crooks went bowling every week, we should know that. If Thomas Crooks loved the film &#8220;Good Will Hunting,&#8221; we should know that. And certainly, if he was in regular communication with an anonymous person who sounded a lot like a fed, we should know that, too. At the very least we should know something about this guy. But if the feds had their way, we would know nothing at all. And that’s what we knew — nothing — until this week.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1694-tucker-carlson-reveals-shocking-details-about-thomas-crooks?"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-976065 aligncenter" 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>
And on top of that, beyond the transparency issues, it would obviously help the government&#8217;s investigation to raise awareness about these posts. Maybe someone, somewhere, knows who &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; is. And as long as Willy Tepes isn&#8217;t the alias for a CIA agent or something like that, then you&#8217;d think your government would want someone to come forward and identify him immediately. But that&#8217;s not possible if they bury his identity, and all information about him.
And then there&#8217;s the fact that Crooks&#8217;s PayPal account, for one reason or another, uses the name of an ex-FBI agent who worked in Pennsylvania, and who investigated the Las Vegas mass shooting — the one where no motive has ever been established. What exactly is going on there? We have no idea, because again, this is the first time anyone&#8217;s hearing about any of this. Our government — under both the Biden administration and the Trump administration — made the conscious decision to hide all of this information from us. The only reason we&#8217;re hearing about it now is that a random source got in contact with Tucker Carlson&#8217;s team, and tipped him off to Crooks&#8217; online history. And because this information remains uncontested by the FBI, several days after Tucker Carlson&#8217;s broadcast, we can assume it&#8217;s all true.
So let&#8217;s pause for a minute here, and zoom out. Let&#8217;s really think about what&#8217;s happened here. This is the official narrative. Last summer, Thomas Crooks — supposedly an untrained 20-year-old with an angry, inconsistent social media history — managed to outwit the Secret Service and gain access to a roof 500 feet away from Donald Trump. 
And he wasn&#8217;t particularly subtle about it. As you can see here, he was clearly visible, running along the rooftop as Trump spoke.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CRAZY. This video is from James Copenhaver &#8211; one of the bystanders who was shot twice and critically wounded during the assassination attempt against Trump. It CLEARLY shows Crooks&#8217; head scurrying on the rooftop moments before the shooting.
Takeaway: Secret Service BLEW IT and… <a href="https://t.co/1rP6083ZFH">pic.twitter.com/1rP6083ZFH</a>
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) <a href="https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1818701467190165566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @justin_hart/X.com
But the Secret Service didn&#8217;t notice him — even though random attendees in the crowd were suspicious, and notified law enforcement. Somehow the Secret Service didn&#8217;t have anyone on the roof — because it was too &#8220;sloped&#8221; — and somehow the Secret Service counter-snipers couldn&#8217;t see any of this. They only shot Thomas Crooks after he unloaded several shots at Donald Trump, including a shot that hit Trump in the head. And coincidentally enough, the rally in Butler was the first time that the Secret Service had deployed counter-snipers to a Trump rally during the 2024 campaign season. Yes, the Secret Service snipers made their debut at the Butler rally — just in time to neutralize Thomas Crooks after he got his shots off. 
So in a very tidy fashion, Thomas Crooks was quickly erased from the picture. No one could question him. No one could put him on trial. And then a funny thing happened. No one really investigated Thomas Crooks. No one told us anything about his social media posts, or his political views — beyond the claim that he was a Trump supporter, which was false. It took more than a year for us to learn that, in fact, Thomas Crooks was openly promising to commit violence on social media — and that someone was encouraging him to do so.
But the story gets even stranger from there. 
Less than 48 hours after Tucker&#8217;s reporting, out of nowhere, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/us-news/thomas-crooks-used-they-them-pronouns-had-obsession-with-violence-and-muscle-mommies-sources/">published</a> this exclusive information.
<blockquote>Thomas Crooks used they/them pronouns and posted threats of political violence and violent art on his secret social media accounts before he attempted to assassinate President Trump, according to sources who shared the suspected messages with The Post. &#8230; .Crooks had two possible accounts on DeviantArt, a site that hosts fan art and has become notorious for its community of furries — people who identify as anthropomorphized animal characters and/or are sexually attracted to them. One of the DeviantArt accounts linked to Crooks shared just one post, a repost of a towering, muscular female bodybuilder and a slight man in his underwear.</blockquote>
Separately, the Post&#8217;s Miranda Devine reported that Crooks, &#8220;had an obsession with scantily clad cartoon characters sporting muscle-bound male bodies and female heads.&#8221;
This seems to be a clear case of yet another psychologically disturbed mass shooter — someone who had been indoctrinated into the LGBT cult — turning to violence. Which is not a particularly surprising development. As I&#8217;ve said repeatedly, the LGBT cult is the single greatest domestic terror threat this country faces. In just the past few years, trans-identifying terrorists have shot up multiple Christian churches and schools. &#8220;Non-binary&#8221; mass shooters have targeted high schools and bars. A Leftist living with a &#8220;furry&#8221; assassinated Charlie Kirk in front of thousands of people.
Put simply, trans extremism is an epidemic. And the pattern of trans and “non-binary” violence is not at all surprising, even though the media tries to cover it up. Any man who identifies as a woman or a “they/them” is mentally unstable by definition. It seems nearly certain that all of these people were on psychiatric meds and in some cases hormones. And there&#8217;s another common theme here as well, which is that all of these violent LGBT shooters all probably developed their “gender identity” from consuming hundreds of hours of porn. The gender stuff is the product of extreme nihilism and extreme perversion. A steady long term diet of pornography turns anyone into a nihilist pervert. It’s not a far leap to get from that to murderer.
That&#8217;s why it’s not exactly shocking to hear that Thomas Crooks was also a member of the &#8220;they/them&#8221; cult, who regularly consumed various degenerate forms of media. At this point, you almost expect the investigation to uncover something like this. Thomas Crooks is yet another violent LGBT-linked killer, to add to a very disturbing, and fast growing, list.
There were some concerns expressed by some commentators that perhaps this revelation was an intentional diversion. A targeted leak, intended to distract us from the investigation that Tucker Carlson just published. That does seem like something the FBI might try to do, but that’s not what happened in this case. Miranda Devine has made it clear that her source is the same as Tucker’s — the information didn&#8217;t come from the FBI. Devine also provided more information on the Willy Tepes character, who was first identified by Tucker Carlson. 
Here&#8217;s what Devine <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/opinion/fbi-secret-service-butchered-the-thomas-crooks-case-and-invited-conspiracies-we-deserve-the-truth/">wrote</a>.
<blockquote>One of the people Crooks interacted with online was &#8216;Willy Tepes,&#8217; a member of Norwegian neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement, which has since been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department. In one comment on Oct. 5, 2025, more than a year after Butler, Tepes commented to another user that he had been contacted by both Russian and American intelligence. &#8216;People who ask you to contact them when they just as easily could contact you, are Feds. This is how they avoid entrapment. Both American and Russian intelligence does this. I have chatted to both.&#8217; Tepes said.</blockquote>
There are only two possibilities here. The first possibility is that we&#8217;re seeing a monumental, unforgivable failure by the FBI — a degree of incompetence that&#8217;s simply staggering. Maybe they missed all of these chats. Or maybe they didn&#8217;t think they were relevant, and just never got around to releasing them. So they&#8217;re left to respond with pathetic &#8220;rapid response&#8221; press releases when Tucker Carlson and Miranda Devine publish investigative reports a year later. That&#8217;s the best-case scenario. That is the absolute, best-case scenario we&#8217;re dealing with.
The worst-case scenario is almost too dark to say out loud. But I&#8217;ll try my best. The worst-case scenario is that the FBI has been hiding all of this information about Thomas Crooks for the same reason that the Secret Service — supposedly the most elite protective force in the entire world — failed to secure that slightly-sloped roof 400 feet away from Donald Trump, with a direct line-of-sight to his head. The worst-case scenario is that the leadership of our intelligence agencies want Donald Trump dead. And if that&#8217;s the case, then there&#8217;s no reason to think they&#8217;re going to stop trying to kill him.
It&#8217;s not my job, or your job, to decide between these scenarios. It&#8217;s the job of our government, out of an abundance of transparency, to absolve itself completely of any responsibility in the attempt to murder Donald Trump. They should be telling us everything they know, even if they don&#8217;t think the information is relevant. But our government has not done so. And for that reason, it&#8217;s not insane or paranoid to assume the worst, or at least to consider it a very real possibility. For one reason or another, we aren’t being told the whole story, or even an incomplete story. And it’s way past time for us to ask one question: why?

Secret Service Says Trump Is ‘Safe’ After ‘Incident’ At Rally

Tucker Carlson Reveals Shocking Details About Thomas Crooks

Butler

LGBTQ

Mass Shooting

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Pennsylvania

Shooting

Social Media

Tucker Carlson

The House is expected to approve a bill that would compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, new details come to light about the person who tried to kill Donald Trump, and the United States and Venezuela signal a willingness to talk as a massive warship floats into the Caribbean.
It’s Tuesday, November 18, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251118-member-exclusive">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/house-considers-epstein-files-thomas-crooks-questions/id1576594336?i=1000737219826" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">House To Vote On Epstein Files</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1002097" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Epstein-Files-Fate-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Epstein-Files-Fate-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Epstein-Files-Fate-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Epstein-Files-Fate-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Epstein-Files-Fate-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Epstein-Files-Fate.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: After weeks of intense debate and political drama, the House of Representatives is expected to hold a vote on Tuesday to release the Epstein files. 
For years, voters and lawmakers from both parties have taken turns demanding the release of the Epstein files, expressing confidence that they’ll be incriminating for the other side.
Despite implying on the campaign trail that he supported full transparency regarding the Epstein case, upon taking office, Trump shifted his tone and called the entire case a “Democrat Hoax,” arguing that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was “somebody that nobody cares about.” That response angered many on the Right, and gave more ammunition to Democrats, who’ve made the files one of their core issues lately.
Republican leadership, at the behest of Trump, had been blocking that vote, saying it was unnecessary because the House Oversight Committee was already releasing Epstein emails and other evidence as part of their own investigation into the topic. But last week, a petition to force a vote reached the necessary 218 signatures, when four Republicans joined all 214 Democrats. 
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had no real choice but to allow the vote to proceed later Tuesday afternoon. 
Trump changes tune: Trump changed course and has voiced support for releasing the Epstein files in recent days. 
Trump’s handling of the files has provided extensive fodder for Democrats, who’ve used it to their advantage in elections nationwide.
But it’s not just Democrats pushing the president on this topic. Trump’s MAGA base is deeply loyal to him on most issues, but on this one, they’ve been very frustrated. Polling shows that 75% of Republicans want the files released in their entirety, while just 40% of Republicans approve of his handling of the Epstein case — on most other issues, he’s around 90%. 
GOP lawmakers are very aware of that discontent. While only four Republicans signed the petition to force this vote, there was a good chance a few dozen would have voted in support of the measure today, regardless of what Trump wanted.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">New Evidence in Crooks Case Leads to Coverup Allegations</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1002099" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-Case-Questions-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-Case-Questions-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-Case-Questions-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-Case-Questions-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-Case-Questions-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-Case-Questions.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: Demands for answers about the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump are increasing. Though 20-year-old suspect Thomas Crooks has long been painted as a lone gunman with no clear motive, new claims are prompting calls for more transparency.
A number of media and political figures on the Right argue that the public is not getting the full story on Crooks, who was killed by an FBI sniper during the assassination attempt.
Joe Rogan and Elon Musk ignited the news cycle a couple of weeks ago when they discussed elements of the case that they did not feel made sense.
“There was never a formal report. There was never press conferences where they detailed all the information that we know currently and where the investigation stands at the moment,” Rogan <a href="https://x.com/triffic_stuff_/status/1989103407135899896?s=20">said</a> on his podcast. “There&#8217;s a lot of weird s***, the fact that they wouldn&#8217;t let people be on that roof because the Secret Service lady said it was sloped and it was dangerous. … Meanwhile, the snipers that were on the other roof was a steeper pitch.”
Tucker Carlson <a href="https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1989317393768951907?s=20">released a video</a> examining alleged evidence that the FBI and DOJ are suppressing key details about Crooks&#8217; life. Then Miranda Devine, host of the Pod Force One podcast, released her own report for the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/opinion/fbi-secret-service-butchered-the-thomas-crooks-case-and-invited-conspiracies-we-deserve-the-truth/">New York Post</a> detailing more claims.
What’s new: The new evidence is based on a confidential source who was able to gain access to Crooks’ accounts on platforms like Gmail, YouTube, and Snapchat. Seventeen accounts altogether were uncovered.
What they revealed is a shocking ideological flip: Back in 2019, when Crooks was 15, he was posting effusive praise for Trump, calling him &#8220;the literal definition of Patriotism.” But by August 2020, amid the COVID lockdowns, Crooks had turned hard against Trump, labeling him &#8220;racist&#8221; and fantasizing about &#8220;terrorism-style&#8221; attacks, including assassination.
The accounts also showed him active on pornographic sites catering to “furries,” and he was using they/them pronouns.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Floats Peace Talks With Venezuela</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1002101" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Trump-Presses-Maduro-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Trump-Presses-Maduro-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Trump-Presses-Maduro-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Trump-Presses-Maduro-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Trump-Presses-Maduro-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Trump-Presses-Maduro.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Trump suggests talks could happen with Venezuela – even as the U.S. continues to pressure dictator Nicolás Maduro. Meanwhile, Maduro is calling for peace.
Trump signaled on Sunday evening that talks could be in the works.
“We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we&#8217;ll see how that turns out. They would like to talk,” <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1990207803374395800">said</a> Trump.
Trump also referenced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has plans to <a href="https://x.com/SecRubio/status/1990187781151445245">designate</a> the cartel run by Maduro, the Cartel de los Soles, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). That designation allows Trump to direct military strikes against any cartel asset inside Venezuela.
As U.S. authorities say Maduro is both the head of the cartel and the head of state, the line between drug cartel targets and government assets is blurry.
The designation will also open up financial levers the administration can pull, likely targeting top Maduro allies. The designation will be officially made on November 24.
Maduro begs for peace: Last week, Maduro held a massive rally in Caracas and called for peace. He punctuated those calls with a <a href="https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1990117665327677700">rendition</a> of John Lennon’s song, &#8220;Imagine.&#8221;
Strikes possible: Potential U.S. strikes against Venezuela remain very real. The U.S. has about 15,000 troops in the region, along with an armada of warships that includes the world&#8217;s largest aircraft carrier. Trump said Friday that he has “sort of made up [his] mind” about how to proceed against Venezuela, but then he appeared to backtrack again on Sunday, saying talks could happen. The plan seems to be in flux.
The U.S. has put a lot of pressure on Maduro and keeps ratcheting it up every day. In the summer, the State Department increased the bounty on Maduro to $50 million – twice the bounty the U.S. put on al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Trump has given the green light for CIA operations against Maduro and has put in place more sanctions against Maduro and his allies.
Last week, The Washington Post reported that high-level discussions were underway on whether to carry out strikes against Venezuela and what those strikes would look like. According to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/16/trump-maduro-venezuela-military-talks/">report</a>, those discussions have involved officials such as Vice President JD Vance, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Secretary Rubio.

MorningWire-0428

Morning Brief: Epstein Files Vote, Thomas Crooks Questions, & Maduro Begs For Peace

Morning Brief: Epstein Files Vote, Crooks Cover-Up, And Trump Floats Talks With Maduro

Jeffrey Epstein

Media

Morning Wire

Nicolas Maduro

U.S. House of Representatives

Venezuela

WASHINGTON—Alexis Wilkins is a conservative country music artist whose boyfriend, Kash Patel, is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When the two began dating three years ago, they became a kind of conservative celebrity couple. But Wilkins never imagined that she would soon star in the internet&#8217;s pet conspiracy theory — one that would drown her and her family in a deluge of threats.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in the political sphere for a second,&#8221; she explained in a phone interview with The Daily Wire. &#8220;You get crazy things from the left, you&#8217;re kind of used to it if you&#8217;re speaking up about things that you believe in or talking positively about America. I kind of thought that [direction] would be where this would continue, just maybe more dramatic, but what&#8217;s happened is&#8230;the internet has just become a place where you can just say whatever you want and affect people&#8217;s lives, and it really reverberates.
Internet users and commentators have accused 27-year-old Wilkins of being an Israeli spy, a &#8220;honeypot&#8221; Mossad agent, assigned to manipulate her 45-year-old boyfriend as he leads the FBI. Wilkins, who is Christian, has repeatedly denied the claims, which she calls absurd.
&#8220;There&#8217;s security issues, there&#8217;s safety issues, the death threats are graphic, and, there are a lot of them,&#8221; she added. &#8220;You have to think about your house getting swatted, you deal with stuff where people are trying to harm you. That is the intent, and that&#8217;s been very real, very quickly for me in the last couple of months.&#8221; 
Their relationship, ages, and personal lives have been scrutinized publicly, as has Patel&#8217;s use of the FBI director&#8217;s plane for personal trips to see Wilkins (as FBI director, Patel cannot fly commercial and must use the plane for legitimate and needed purposes, but his <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/kash-patel-jet-tracker-fbi-director-alexis-wilkins-10980941">recent trip to Nashville</a> drew heavy criticism).
A source close to the couple told The Daily Wire that Patel &#8220;knew Alexis was the one as soon as he met her,&#8221; and that she recently moved in with him in Washington, D.C., but spends time in Nashville with her family. They will likely be engaged and married soon, that source shared.
In the meantime, the country music artist is grappling with the consequences of viral internet rumors.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Wire that Wilkins has received &#8220;hundreds of credible threats.&#8221; Wilkins now has a security detail, that spokesperson confirmed, based on security assessments of credible threats conducted due to her connection with Patel.
One concern, based on some of the threats, is that Wilkins might be kidnapped.
&#8220;She&#8217;s not getting threatened to be kidnapped by cartels because they think she&#8217;s cute,&#8221; a source close to Wilkins shared. &#8220;It&#8217;s because she&#8217;s a good hostage candidate.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1001607" style="width: 471px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kash-patels-girlfriend-alexis-wilkins-details-violent-threats-spurred-by-internet-theories/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002" rel="attachment wp-att-1001607"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1001607" class="wp-image-1001607 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-461x576.jpeg" alt="Photo courtesy of Alexis Wilkins." width="461" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-461x576.jpeg 461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-240x300.jpeg 240w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-768x960.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002-1229x1536.jpeg 1229w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/signal-2025-11-17-104407_002.jpeg 1440w" sizes=" (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px" /></a>Photo courtesy of Alexis Wilkins.</div>
Wilkins receives threatening messages almost daily on social media. The Daily Wire reviewed a number of these messages and posts, showing individuals fantasizing about killing her, graphically describing acts of sexual violence, promising to kill her within specific time frames, posting her address, phone number, and those of Patel and her parents online, and more.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t feel very comfortable going in public,&#8221; she shared, asked how this affects her daily life. &#8220;I don&#8217;t leave my house a lot.&#8221;
Less explicit but still threatening rhetoric is also publicly visible on Wilkins&#8217; social media posts as well. For example, one commenter posted on an Instagram post of Wilkins and Patel at his swearing in: &#8220;I hope these two don&#8217;t plan on going out in public. Or having a public speaking event in an amphitheater.&#8221;
&#8220;People know what to say,&#8221; she said, discussing the messages she shared with The Daily Wire. &#8220;These are not just hyperbolic threats, these are credible threats that [mention] things about you going in public together, things about you doing a public speaking engagement, things about you doing a concert outside&#8230;They want you to stop living your life. They want you to be afraid.&#8221;
About two weeks ago, Wilkins shared, her parents&#8217; home was swatted. This means that someone called in a false emergency at their home with the goal of prompting a massive law enforcement response. Swatting is particularly dangerous since victims may find themselves in violent or dangerous situations, depending how they respond to the law enforcement presence, since a SWAT team <a href="https://www.thefederalcriminalattorneys.com/swatting-crime">might be responding to what has been described</a> to them as an imminent threat, a bomb situation, or domestic violence.
Wilkins and her family now have to talk through security protocols that have never occurred to them, planning out how to respond when, for example, someone calls the house demanding to know if Wilkins herself is present — a sign that a swatting may be imminent.
&#8220;Swatting doesn&#8217;t only affect your house, you have to realize that people are also looking for your family, especially when it&#8217;s an allegation that is so untrue&#8230;you&#8217;re getting called a spy, so people are digging into your history, people are trying to find your parents, people are calling people that you&#8217;ve known,&#8221; Wilkins said. &#8220;Colleagues of mine have received calls asking for information about my family, some of them unaware of how to respond and will give a name or give my mom&#8217;s maiden name or give things that are helpful in order to find us.&#8221;
&#8220;So it hasn&#8217;t just been me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s been my family as well.&#8221;
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Wilkins has continued to attend speaking or singing engagements with organizations like Turning Point USA and the Young America&#8217;s Foundation. She is suing a number of political influencers and commentators for suggesting she is an agent of Israeli intelligence. And she says she is determined not to cower but to stand up for herself, arguing that &#8220;bullies respond to strength.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m so happy to support the person that I love, but I&#8217;m not the director of the FBI,&#8221; Wilkins said. &#8220;I&#8217;m here to support, and my parents are also&#8230;but ultimately, this is not something that they signed up for, and I think people forget that when they&#8217;re digging for what they think is the truth, they&#8217;re doing it in a way that is not helpful, and it&#8217;s very dangerous.&#8221;
Reflecting on the death of Charlie Kirk, who she knew through her work with TPUSA — at whose events she often sings the national anthem — Wilkins pointed out how massively important Kirk&#8217;s faith was to him, and how he talked about how he wanted to be remembered for his faith.
She is very proud of her own Christian faith. Yet now, she is &#8220;being called something that I&#8217;m not, a spy for another country, essentially accusing me of treason, which is horrific enough, but I&#8217;m a Christian.&#8221;
&#8220;I grew up Armenian. My family&#8217;s Armenian,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;I grew up Christian and I&#8217;m very proud of that.&#8221;
&#8220;His legacy of his faith and the things that he represented, I think that it obviously is a huge void that we all feel now, because of who he was personally and who he was in the movement,&#8221; she reflected, sharing how the day after Kirk&#8217;s assassination, she had to come to terms with the fact that Patel would be speaking at an outdoor event, and she could do nothing but wait to hear that he was ok.
&#8220;It&#8217;s that horrible feeling,&#8221; she said. &#8220;How radicalized do people become? Is this a chain of events? There&#8217;s no way to make yourself feel better about it.&#8221;
She has considered ignoring much of the criticism and threats. But, she says, she wants to be a &#8220;role model for people who are being attacked, for even just their views, no matter what side they are on.&#8221;
&#8220;I think that everyone should have the right to say what they want to say,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I love the Constitution. I love the First Amendment in this country.&#8221;
And asked what she would tell the internet folk who are posting about her, she responded: &#8220;If it feels fun behind your keyboard to hate someone, your heart is probably in the wrong place and you also probably have some details wrong.&#8221;
&#8220;Before you run with what sounds like the most fun, horrifying and cliquey conspiracy theory, there&#8217;s probably a more common sense result, a more common sense answer.&#8221;

Untitled design (70)

Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Alexis Wilkins Details Violent Threats Spurred By Internet Theories

Israel

The Department of Justice launched a &#8220;full investigation&#8221; into the leftist demonstrations that took place outside of a Turning Point USA event at the University of California, Berkeley, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Tuesday.
Bondi said that Antifa was behind &#8220;violent riots&#8221; at UC Berkeley on Monday after leftist agitators showed up at the venue hours before the TPUSA event began on campus, harassing conservative attendees as they lined up for the event. The investigation is being led by the FBI&#8217;s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which focuses on international and domestic terrorism.
&#8220;Antifa is an existential threat to our nation. The violent riots at UC Berkeley last night are under full investigation by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force. We will continue to spare no expense unmasking all who commit and orchestrate acts of political violence,&#8221; Bondi <a href="https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/1988339354754769099">wrote</a> in a post on X. &#8220;Under President Trump’s leadership, and pursuant to his Executive Order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, the Department of Justice and our law-enforcement partners are dismantling violent networks that seek to intimidate Americans and suppress their free expression and First Amendment rights.&#8221;
Two people were arrested after a fistfight broke out between one of the agitators and a man wearing a red Turning Point USA t-shirt. One person was charged with battery, but it&#8217;s unclear if the person who was charged was one of the two men who were seen fighting.
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At least two people detained after violence breaks out at a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TurningPointUSA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TurningPointUSA</a> event at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ucberkeley?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ucberkeley</a> Our crews say tensions are growing as the number of protesters grow <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ktvu?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ktvu</a> <a href="https://t.co/r8YuYvcqgr">pic.twitter.com/r8YuYvcqgr</a>
— Claudine Wong (@ClaudineKTVU) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClaudineKTVU/status/1988059428340592641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
UC Berkeley currently looks like a war zone.
An ANTIFA member just lit off a flare resulting in TPUSA event attendees being rushed inside.
A car then comes and starts backfiring visibly scaring multiple attendees who feared they were hearing gunshots. <a href="https://twitter.com/TPUSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TPUSA</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Savsays?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Savsays</a> <a href="https://t.co/u3mG8rJDSx">pic.twitter.com/u3mG8rJDSx</a>
— FRONTLINES TPUSA (@FrontlinesTPUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/FrontlinesTPUSA/status/1988063048825970850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Two more people were arrested for attempting to get past a barrier police had set up to separate protesters from attendees. Some of the agitators lit flares and shouted at the conservative attendees as they waited to enter the building, and when they left after the TPUSA event ended.
The event, which was the last stop on the &#8220;This is the Turning Point” tour, went on as planned, capping off a tour that was started by TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk on September 10 at Utah Valley University, when he was assassinated while speaking to college students.
The DOJ&#8217;s Civil Rights division is also probing the leftist demonstrations at UC Berkeley, according to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.
&#8220;We saw all of this at Berkeley back in 2017. @UCBerkeley was sued, and settled the case. The @CivilRights will investigate what happened here, and I see several issues of serious concern regarding campus and local security and Antifa’s ability to operate with impunity in CA,&#8221; Dhillon <a href="https://x.com/AAGDhillon/status/1988272046741111268">wrote</a> on X.
UC Berkeley, which has long been one of the most liberal universities in the United States, was at the center of violent demonstrations when leftist groups protested right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos’ planned speech in 2017. Dhillon brought some of the legal challenges against the university that same year over the free speech case.
&#8220;In America, we do not allow citizens to be attacked by violent thugs and shrug and turn our backs,&#8221; Dhillon <a href="https://x.com/AAGDhillon/status/1988293108686352875">added</a>. &#8220;Been there, done that, not on our watch.&#8221;
President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/designating-antifa-as-a-domestic-terrorist-organization/">designated</a> Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization in September, calling it &#8220;a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.&#8221;

Turning Point USA Tour Event Held At University Of California, Berkeley

FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force Investigating ‘Violent Riots’ That Erupted Outside Of TPUSA Event

FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force Investigating 'Violent Riots' That Erupted Outside Of TPUSA Event

California

Leftism

Terrorism

Turning Point USA

University of California Berkeley

On the morning of January 19, 2021, decorated Navy Lt. Commander Thomas E. Caldwell was resting peacefully on his Virginia family farm when FBI agents executed a pre-dawn SWAT raid.
They accused him of being a leader of the Oath Keepers, of storming the Capitol, and of hunting down members of Congress.
He says every single claim was false. Tom was never a member of the Oath Keepers. He never entered the Capitol. He never planned an attack. And yet, thanks to Biden&#8217;s DOJ, Tom spent over 50 days in solitary confinement and endured years of prosecution.
Now pardoned, he&#8217;s finally free to speak. Here&#8217;s an excerpt from his new book, &#8220;<a href="https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-mouths-of-the-wicked">The Mouths of the Wicked</a>.&#8221; — The Editors
* * *
January 19, 2021
“Honey! Get up! The FBI is at the door!”
I will never forget those words or the urgency in Sharon’s voice as she shook me awake that dreadful morning. Bundled under blankets and still foggy from two sleeping pills, I struggled to free myself from the CPAP machine.
Trying to make sense of it all, I leaned on the dresser, mind racing as an intense, other-worldly light flooded in from the great room of our home. Disembodied voices routed the night’s peace and bellowed my name.
My wobbly legs took me to the front door and the tumult beyond.
“FBI! Come out with your hands up!”
The horror show was all about creating an incident. But why? Who cares why! I was going to end up on the short end of the stick if I didn’t handle this correctly and with cooperation. Head spinning, I flashed back to all the times the news reported people being fatally shot after authorities “thought they had a gun in their hand.”
I set my trusty cane beside the door. It would be a sad tale for my wife to have to tell at the funeral of her disabled veteran husband that he was gunned down by the FBI who mistook a walking stick for a firearm.
Slowly I opened the front door to the blinding glare of searchlights. A scant two feet from the window frame of our house, I could make out the manhole-sized disc of a battering ram flowering from the end of a reinforced steel arm, jutting from total darkness. Oh my God, they’re going to smash a hole in our cottage! I let my left arm trail the storm door behind me to ensure it would close slowly, without a slam that could send these possibly trigger-happy jackanapes into a shooting frenzy.
Stepping forward, I raised my hands as far as they would go, considering their limited mobility resulting from shoulder surgeries and the reattachment of arm to torso with a brass rod. I needed to lift them high enough to appease the invisible screamers without reaching the point of initiating the bolt of pain that would cause me to reflexively pull it back to my body. A sudden movement like that could be fatal in the cloud of red dots from rifle lasers swarming me. This wasn’t the first time a firearm had been pointed at me, but I assure you, this was the first time my life was placed in jeopardy by people from the country I love and served.
<div id="attachment_998997" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-mouths-of-the-wicked"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-998997" class="wp-image-998997 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/book-cover-caldwell-384x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Puffin Publishers LLC/Thomas Caldwell" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/book-cover-caldwell-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/book-cover-caldwell-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/book-cover-caldwell-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/book-cover-caldwell-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/book-cover-caldwell-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/book-cover-caldwell.jpg 1365w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></a>Credit: Puffin Publishers LLC/Thomas Caldwell</div>
Virginia’s winter was on frigid-blast, the porch an iceberg, and the biting west wind slashed my body. Barefoot, clothed only in underwear and nightshirt, I moved forward to the edge, squinting desperately against the artificial sun in my face, trying to find the first of three steps I knew were there somewhere. Trying not to take a well-intentioned but possibly leg-breaking step into the abyss.
I stepped down blindly, relying upon muscle memory born of doing this a thousand times in broad daylight. Until my foot actually reached step number one, I didn’t know if I would be stable enough to make the climb down on my own. Guided by what I now know was divine intervention, I made each halting step until I felt the ouch of the gravel boundary between deep ruts and frosty grass. The wet lawn was only slightly less chilly than the concrete. I walked slowly, aware of shadowy figures at the edge of my field of vision. Beams of red light stabbed from the dark — rifle and pistol lasers — all merely a trigger pull away from dispatching this 66-year-old retired veteran.
The first of many “what’s going on?” inquiries crossed my lips as the designated vet-wrangler snatched me, powerful arms and hands jutting from an inky veil. With purposeful out-sized strides, he yanked me across the slippery grass, shoving my face hard into the cold metal of a car hood. What I was concerned about now was the abrupt leg-weakening shove at the waist — a bending motion not pleasant for someone like me with a spine immobilized by a jumbled mass of metal spacers and screws.
Amid the clinking of metal on metal, I addressed the faceless being through gritted teeth, informing him that my left arm could no longer naturally rotate in such a way as to reach my back due to reconstructive shoulder surgery—no matter how much he kept twisting it. He was at the point of a spontaneous displacement of the metal screw holding my arm to my body. Thankfully, cold metal cuffs were slapped on my wrists in the front instead. Then it was right back to a face plant on the car hood.
All this outrage was conducted with creatures of the dark still yowling orders in the frigid pre-dawn air. They had me in their snare. What more could they want?
In the midst of a cacophony from hell, I labored to lift my head and, to my utter horror, saw my wife standing in the searchlight’s brutal blaze. Time stopped, as did my heart.
<div id="attachment_999097" style="width: 465px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-999097" class="size-full wp-image-999097" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Caldwells.jpg" alt="Courtesy: Thomas Caldwell. https://saveourfarmva.com/ " width="455" height="575" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Caldwells.jpg 455w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Caldwells-237x300.jpg 237w" sizes=" (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px" />Courtesy: Thomas Caldwell.</div>
For there stood Sharon, barefoot, arms straight out from her sides, clad only in one of my super-sized white T-shirts made nearly transparent in the harsh glare of the spotlights. I could see her shivering as her stance proved she carried no weapon and posed no threat. That did not stop the authoritative commands shouted at her with crude epithets tossed in for good measure.
I couldn’t believe my eyes or my ears as she lifted her arms to reveal a single white sock in each hand and softly asked if she could put them on her feet.
As the screamers moved closer to her, to my heart-stopping terror, I saw the devil’s red fireflies dancing all over her face and body. The monsters had drawn down fully automatic weapons of death on my Angel!
My heart cried, “They didn’t kill me, so now they want to kill my wife!”
Sharon stood there, innocently holding a pair of socks and holding my heart—my whole world—in her hands. Her stance was nearly identical to that of Jesus, hung on the cross by hateful elitists who knew not what they were doing. She did not seem to understand the gravity of this bile-laced situation.
My memory flashed back to the murder at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, the day an FBI sniper shot and killed Vicki Weaver as she stood on her porch, holding her infant in her arms.
This scene played out for an eternity and still haunts me every day.
“Father, God!” I begged, “God in Heaven, Father, please don’t let them kill my wife! Abba, Father! Please don’t let them murder my wife!
* * *
This excerpt is published by permission from the author and Puffin Publishers LLC. “<a href="https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-mouths-of-the-wicked">The Mouths of the Wicked</a>” by Thomas E. Caldwell (November, 2025/<a href="http://puffinpublishers.com/">PuffinPublishers.com</a>)
<a href="https://saveourfarmva.com/">Thomas E. Caldwell</a> is an author and proud veteran of the United States Navy. A decorated retired Navy Lieutenant Commander, he honorably served our Nation around the world for nearly two decades, principally within the Navy&#8217;s Intelligence Community. He is the author of countless strategic and tactical intelligence assessments and possesses a deep understanding and unique perspective of global and domestic threats to our Nation. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-CRIME-shooting-SUSPECT

The Morning The FBI Came For Me

Biden Administration

Books

Capitol Riot

January 6

Prison

U.S. Capitol

U.S. Navy

Federal law enforcement arrested three more Islamic terror suspects linked to an ISIS-inspired plot to attack bars and nightclubs in Detroit on Halloween, the FBI announced Wednesday. 
Last week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michigan-terror-suspects-plotted-to-target-bars-nightclubs-during-halloween-celebrations-fbi-says?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Michigan+Terror+Suspects+Plotted+To+Target+Bars%2C+Nightclubs+During+Halloween+Celebrations%2C+FBI+Says">the FBI said agents arrested</a> four suspects accused of plotting an attack they hoped would mimic the 2015 Paris terrorist massacre that left 130 people dead. On Wednesday, three more men, two in New Jersey and one in Michigan, were hit with charges. 
The two New Jersey suspects are Milo Sedarat and Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzel, both from Montclair. Jimenez-Guzel was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport on his way to travel to Syria to join ISIS fighters, a law enforcement official <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/more-arrests-are-made-in-alleged-isis-pumpkin-terrorist-plot-6fe5e4d6?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfzLC43UvlROLGVKWI6hHud_-UTTKntEYZCGUkC4NKLla1JGlpKm7CYL98meVM%3D&amp;gaa_ts=690c9a87&amp;gaa_sig=bA3S8rI0TsYbEpPSJ1ELJNSb3VfMnBcubWzfYfqmdj-FNYgBKa2Zxz18AlpN8A4p0KXmFfQGEG9mz0xQp04Shg%3D%3D">told</a> The Wall Street Journal. 
Jimenez-Guzel has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization. Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba <a href="https://x.com/USAttyHabba/status/1986190944903803305">said</a> that law enforcement obtained a photo of Jimenez-Guzel posing in front of an ISIS flag with a knife. 
A law enforcement official told the Journal that Jimenez-Guzel was aware of the plans for the Halloween attack in Detroit and had previously visited the suspects planning that attack. Those suspects were named as Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud. Two juveniles have also been charged but have not been named. 
Sedarat has been charged with transmitting threats to interstate and foreign commerce. 
The complaint against him “describes a pattern of antisemitic messages advocating violence, along with images and purchases consistent with preparation for attack, including a knife and sword collection, tactical gear, and images of him practicing at a gun range,” Habba said. 
Habba added that both men had “pledged themselves to ISIS, and were plotting acts of terrorism in our country,” according to the criminal complaint. 
“Protecting the District of New Jersey and the United States, its people, its neighborhoods and its institutions is the core mission of our office. With our partners at the FBI and main Justice, we will continue to move swiftly and decisively whenever terrorism or hate threatens our communities,” she said. 
After the announcement of the New Jersey arrests, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said that another suspect had been arrested on Wednesday. 
“Today [FBI Detroit] and partners arrested a third additional suspect in connection to the alleged foiled terrorist attack in Michigan last week. Our investigation suggests this individual had been providing material support in preparation for the attack, inspired by ISIS,” he wrote on X. “They are now in custody. More to come. Thank you to the men and women who continue to work this case diligently.”
That suspect was identified as 19-year-old Ayob Nasser of Dearborn, Michigan. Nasser has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and having firearms that would be used to commit an act of terrorism on behalf of ISIS. 
According to law enforcement, the suspects were all in a Signal chat together where they discussed ways to support ISIS.
“We will not stop. We will follow the tentacles where they lead. We will continue to stand guard with the FBI against terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon, Jr.

MixCollage-06-Nov-2025-07-28-AM-45

FBI Nabs Three More Men Tied To ISIS-Inspired Halloween Terror Plot

ISIS

Radical Islamic Terror

terrorist attack

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that the Biden administration turned over President Donald Trump’s government phone to Jack Smith as he snooped through the president’s phone records as part of his wide-reaching investigation into the 2020 presidential election.
Bondi made the announcement on X, confirming previous revelations from Senate Republicans that the FBI seized Trump&#8217;s government-issued phone as part of Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation. That investigation, supposedly into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, targeted hundreds of Republicans in Congress and Trump allies outside of Capitol Hill.
“During the Arctic Frost Investigation, we found that Special Counsel seized President Trump’s government-issued phone. This means the Biden Administration turned over President Trump’s phone to Special Counsel—an UNPRECEDENTED action,” Bondi <a href="https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/1985754381216624949">said</a>. “In addition, Special Counsel subpoenaed all of President Trump’s PERSONAL phone records.”
“We can never again allow this kind of government weaponization in America,” Bondi added. “I submitted these new documents to our partners on Capitol Hill. I commend our team at the FBI for working diligently to expose this.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt commented more on the revelation during Tuesday’s press briefing.
&#8220;I think this is just further evidence of the egregious overreach and weaponization of government that took place under the previous White House against then former president and now President Donald J. Trump. It was a clear effort by the Biden White House and the Biden DOJ to go after the president and this is just further evidence of that.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a> on the Biden White House turning over President Trump’s phone records to Jack Smith as part of Arctic Frost:
&#8220;I think this is just further evidence of the egregious overreach and weaponization of government that took place under the previous White House against… <a href="https://t.co/OEZmOCXtJj">https://t.co/OEZmOCXtJj</a> <a href="https://t.co/ozajWcNjEn">pic.twitter.com/ozajWcNjEn</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1985783717340590170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to a March 2025 <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_johnson_to_doj_fbi_-_arctic_frost_updates.pdf">letter</a> from Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), the FBI first began the process of seizing Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence’s phones in April 2022 before they gained access to them and entered them as evidence in May 2022.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), one of the GOP senators who was targeted in the probe, said the news should enrage every American.
“This information should outrage every American,” she <a href="https://x.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1985804405871153172">said</a>. “This is one of the worst examples of government weaponization in American history.”
Blackburn, alongside Sens. Cynthia Lummis (WY), Ron Johnson (WI), Tommy Tuberville (AL), Dan Sullivan (AK), Josh Hawley (MO), Bill Hagerty (TN), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Rep. Mike Kelly (PA), all had their phone metadata analyzed by the FBI as part of Arctic Frost.

Former President Donald Trump Indicted In January 6 Investigation

Biden’s Justice Department Took ‘Unprecedented Action’ Against Trump, Bondi Reveals

2020 Election

General

Jack Smith

Islamic terror suspects <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-thwart-potential-halloween-weekend-terrorist-attack-kash-patel-says">arrested</a> by the FBI in Michigan last week sought to target bars and nightclubs near Detroit on Halloween night, according to a criminal complaint filed on Saturday.
The 73-page <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/media/1416836/dl?inline">complaint</a>, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accuses Mohmed Ali, Majed Mahmoud, and a juvenile suspect, along with five co-conspirators, of seeking to carry out a terrorist attack for ISIS, hoping to copy the 2015 Paris terrorist attack that killed more than 130 people. The suspects codenamed the attack day &#8220;pumpkin,&#8221; leading investigators to believe that the planned attack would be carried out on Halloween, when bars and nightclubs would be full of partiers.
The suspects, who are all under 21, allegedly &#8220;sought guidance from the father of a local Islamic extremist ideologue&#8221; on when to conduct their attack. Ali lives in Dearborn, Michigan, which is known for its large Muslim population, and the criminal complaint states that Ali and Mahmoud met multiple times at night at parks in Dearborn. Ali and Mahmoud also shared ISIS-related materials through encrypted messaging and social media apps, according to the criminal complaint.
FBI Director Kash Patel <a href="https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1985379689741881404">said</a> on Friday that the potential terrorist attack in Michigan was &#8220;thwarted&#8221; by federal agents. Patel added on Monday that the FBI &#8220;stopped a massacre before it could happen.&#8221;
&#8220;Two Michigan men planned an ISIS-inspired Halloween terror attack near Detroit- stockpiling weapons, scouting targets, and training at gun ranges,&#8221; Patel said. &#8220;This FBI acted fast, followed the evidence, and likely saved countless lives.&#8221;
The suspects allegedly scoped out sites of potential targets for their attack in September. According to the criminal complaint, the suspects drove past numerous bars and clubs in Ferndale, which is just north of Detroit, and is known as a go-to party spot for gay people.
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
The FBI also said that the suspects practiced shooting firearms, including AR-15 style rifles, at a gun range in September and October. Federal authorities served search warrants at Ali&#8217;s and Mahmoud&#8217;s homes on October 31, where they recovered &#8220;three AR-15 style rifles, two shotguns, four handguns, more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition compatible with the three AR-15 style rifles, optical sights, two GoPro cameras, a flash suppressor, tactical vests, and other related firearms parts and accessories,&#8221; according to the complaint.
One of the co-conspirators, referred to as &#8220;Co-Conspirator 1&#8221; in the complaint, allegedly met with Ali and the juvenile suspect in June and July before he traveled out of the country. When Co-Conspirator 1 returned to the United States, Customs and Border Protection agents looked through his phone and found photos of the co-conspirator wearing tactical gear and holding weapons, the complaint stated. The CBP agents also allegedly found Google searches for ISIS and the Islamic State.
While Co-Conspirator 1 was overseas, he got on a group call with five other people, one of whom was an FBI Confidential Human Source. During the call, which the FBI source recorded, the participants discussed traveling to Syria to join ISIS, according to the complaint. A second co-conspirator then attempted to convince Ali and the juvenile suspect to join them and travel to Syria, but the two suspects allegedly said that they wanted to stay in the United States and do the &#8220;same thing as France,&#8221; which the FBI believes is a reference to the 2015 Paris terrorist attack.

Criminal Complaint – Eastern District of Michigan

Michigan Terror Suspects Plotted To Target Bars, Nightclubs During Halloween Celebrations, FBI Says

Michigan Terror Suspects Wanted To Target Bars, Nightclubs During Halloween Celebrations, FBI Says

Halloween

Michigan

When you think about corporate wokeness, what comes to mind? DEI and ESG policies might be the most prominent examples, for good reason. But as someone in the industry of corporate engagement, helping investors use their financial influence to root out bias from America’s biggest brands, we often find ourselves asking this question: who determines parameters? Wokeness is parasitical, and its most subtle and pernicious effects emerge by latching on to legitimate corporate policies and twisting them to serve political ends.
Among the most parasitical of these organizations is the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). An activist group <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/about/our-history/">formed</a> in 1971 to combat the influence of Jim Crow, the SPLC has gradually <a href="https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/heritage-explains/what-went-wrong-the-southern-poverty-law-center">morphed</a> into a group peddling the false equivalence between conservatives and hate groups. Case in point: the SPLC’s infamous “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map/?hm_year=2024&amp;hm_ideology=Neo-Nazi">hate map</a>.” The SPLC would like you to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Making-Hate-Pay-Corruption-Southern/dp/1642934399">believe</a> that the map represents American hate in an image, with many of the groups on the map, such as the Klan, white supremacists, and the Westboro Baptist Church, being genuine hate groups. And yet, when you look at the list, you’ll see some groups that decidedly aren’t hateful: Alliance Defending Freedom, American Family Association, Focus on the Family, Moms for Liberty — and an Arizona-based nonprofit called Turning Point USA. The SPLC specifically <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SPLCenter/posts/at-the-forefront-of-the-movement-to-promote-christian-supremacy-is-turning-point/1116433363845757/">lambasted</a> TPUSA as ‘hard-right’ in June of 2025, and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/turning-point-usa-case-study-hard-right-2024/">even</a> smeared them as part of the political Right’s alleged efforts to “enforce a social order rooted in white supremacy.” Let’s be clear: the SPLC isn’t giving you a hate list. This is a list of groups, ranging from true extremists to normal conservative groups, that the Southern Poverty Law Center would simply like you to believe are all hateful.
<div id="attachment_995255" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map/"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-995255" class="wp-image-995255 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/SPLC-hate-map-1024x534.jpg" alt="Screenshot: SPLC/Hate Map" width="1024" height="534" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/SPLC-hate-map-1024x534.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/SPLC-hate-map-300x156.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/SPLC-hate-map-768x401.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/SPLC-hate-map-1536x801.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/SPLC-hate-map.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>Screenshot: SPLC/Hate Map</div>
What matters right now is that some of America’s biggest companies have used the list to guide their corporate policies. Brands as big as Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), and Amazon have used the SPLC’s Hate List for everything from writing their ‘hate speech’ policies to determining which charities they’ll support via employee philanthropy programs. In the SPLC’s eyes (a perspective granted legitimacy by some of the world’s most prominent brands), groups like Turning Point were indeed synonymous with hate.
It’s not about corporations approving of Charlie Kirk’s death (to my knowledge, that hasn’t happened). It’s about corporations enforcing bias, discriminating against conservative and Christian organizations, under the mistaken belief that this means stopping hate. If we are to move away from a society where people are shot for their political and religious views, this premise must be completely repudiated by America’s private sector. We have serious work to do.
And conservatives are <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/10/19/manufacturing-hate-conservatives-pressure-companies-drop-ties-splc/">spearheading</a> that work and using their influence to hold companies accountable for relying on the SPLC’s metrics.
This isn’t about politics, at the end of the day. It’s about getting back to business. It’s almost impossible for a company to claim to have a serious policy on combating “hate” when the organizations that define “hateful” think that the KKK and Turning Point USA belong in the same category. (This is perhaps most evident with companies like Etsy, which apparently has a problem with SPLC-deemed hate groups like TPUSA, <a href="https://www.etsy.com/legal/prohibited/">citing</a> the SPLC in their hate policies, but less of a problem with literal witches that used Etsy to <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/paid-etsy-witches-curse-charlie-124930762.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKyrSgpE_OwZ4ZR9-uaiwD15C8F7KUQ405vwpfm8CjcwAeChUfbh3bmjBTuc8iTlS74uYN3GdjWWsjSOo_gGO4Dw16hFSDCc3lCkWsbXSKy1gKoLh2Bpbh7lCm3xFwWgHkWF7b7nDllJwQMVulraHE_qktJz9S6stmmTzmYVYe-h">buy</a> an actual “hate” hex to put on Charlie Kirk shortly before he died. Because that’s not hate speech.)
As The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles recently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzs6dy74Ew8">told</a> Congress, left-wing political violence is a serious threat to the marketplace of ideas in 2025. The Southern Poverty Law Center is only part of the problem. But, as the FBI cuts <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/10/03/breaking-kash-patels-fbi-cuts-all-ties-southern-poverty-law-center/">ties</a> with the SPLC, it’s time for America’s private sector to do the same. Corporate America didn’t get Charlie Kirk killed — a gunman who believed Kirk was spreading hate did. But it’s time to get serious about how organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center reflect the same poisonous idea: that conservatism and Christianity are hateful. We are seeing now that some people will take that framing and use it to rip the peaceful fabric of society apart.
The post-Charlie Kirk world isn’t one where we can afford to wallow. There’s work to be done. It’s time for us to take all the sadness and grief of this moment and channel it into culture-building energy — for Charlie, and for the country we all love. The SPLC, and a disturbing amount of the Left, would like you (and many of America’s biggest brands) to believe that mainstream conservative views are akin to hate. That idea doesn’t warrant any support in the ideas market. And the organizations that promote that idea don’t deserve to guide our capital markets.
The best time for corporate America to ditch the SPLC was years ago, before a 31-year-old husband and father lost his life after being smeared as part of a hate group. The second-best time is now.
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Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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