A newly approved Florida congressional map could eliminate up to four Democratic-held seats ahead of the November midterm elections, intensifying a nationwide redistricting fight.
Florida Republicans, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, passed the map on Wednesday <a href="https://x.com/FLVoiceNews/status/2049508175368315113?s=20">over loud liberal opposition</a>, sending it to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk. DeSantis is expected to sign the bill. 
The redrawn districts target Democratic seats in the Tampa, Orlando, and South Florida areas, aiming to flip them to Republican control. Democrats currently hold seven of Florida&#8217;s 28 districts. 
Under the plan, Florida Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor, Darren Soto, Jared Moskowitz, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz could face significantly tougher re-election fights. 
If enacted, the map would reflect the Sunshine State&#8217;s broader political shift in recent years. Once a swing state that backed Barack Obama twice, Florida has moved decisively to the Right, with Republicans now holding a roughly 1.5 million-voter registration advantage.
&#8220;Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 Census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ron-desantis-unveils-new-florida-congressional-map-would-give-gop-extra-four-seats">DeSantis told Fox News Digital</a>. &#8220;Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited.&#8221;
The push to redraw Florida&#8217;s map coincides with a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-109_21o3.pdf">bombshell</a> Supreme Court ruling sharply limiting the use of race in congressional redistricting. 
In a 6-3 decision, the court struck down Louisiana&#8217;s map, which included two majority-black districts, as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the Constitution generally forbids race-based line drawing absent a compelling justification.
Wednesday’s ruling clears the way for other states with majority-minority districts to change course. New maps in states including Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee could net Republicans as many as 12 seats in Congress, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/upshot/supreme-court-voting-rights-gerrymander.html">according to a New York Times analysis. </a>
Democrats decried the decision as an attack on democracy, despite pursuing partisan gerrymandering in California and, more recently, Virginia. 
“Now we&#8217;re now at a point where affirmative action is gone, diversity is gone, equity gone, inclusion gone, racial tolerance gone, the Voting Rights Act largely gone, but guess what, extremists, we’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Hakeem Jeffries: “We&#8217;re now at a point where affirmative action is gone, diversity is gone, equity is gone, inclusion is gone&#8230;” <a href="https://t.co/4b9Bm7KNwy">pic.twitter.com/4b9Bm7KNwy</a>
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) <a href="https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/2049567900688605318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2026</a></blockquote>
Florida’s map is likely to face legal challenges. A provision in the state constitution effectively bars partisan gerrymandering, according to The New York Times. DeSantis has argued that recent court rulings from both the state and U.S. Supreme Court have laid the groundwork to uphold the maps.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The SCOTUS ruling also invalidates the below provisions of the FL Constitution requiring the use of race in redistricting:
”…districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in… <a href="https://t.co/IqrLoWdO0L">https://t.co/IqrLoWdO0L</a>
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) <a href="https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2049510607108358651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2026</a></blockquote>
Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling did not address political gerrymandering. 
“So at least from a federal constitutional perspective, the federal constitution isn&#8217;t going to have anything to say about political gerrymanders,” Smith said in an interview with The Daily Wire. 
“That&#8217;s going to be left to the states and really depend on what each state&#8217;s laws in each state&#8217;s constitution says about how their state legislatures draw their legislative maps,” he added.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, holds a press conference to speak

Florida Passes New Maps That Could Threaten Multiple Democratic Seats

Florida

Redistricting

Ron DeSantis

The only thing thicker than Hakeem Jeffries’ hypocrisy is the smog of self-delusion that follows him into every room, choking the life out of the very truths he claims to uphold.
Last week, Jeffries, the House minority leader, was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkJG--0ScE0">practically doing a victory lap</a> in the end zone after Virginia Democrats pulled off the ultimate &#8220;Democracy™&#8221; maneuver: convincing 51.5% of voters to scrap an independent commission so the General Assembly could gerrymander a 10-1 split. To Jeffries, this wasn&#8217;t a power grab; it was a &#8220;big victory for America&#8221; and a &#8220;march toward a more perfect union.&#8221; Apparently, a &#8220;more perfect union&#8221; looks exactly like a map where half the voters get 90% of the representation.
Jeffries and the &#8220;Dollar-Store Obama&#8221; brigade framed this as a noble &#8220;firewall&#8221; against the orange man in the White House. Even Barack Obama emerged from his latest Netflix production to explain that gerrymandering is actually fine, as long as Democrats do it to &#8220;level the playing field.&#8221; It’s a bold strategy: saving democracy by destroying it first.
But fast forward to Monday, April 27, and Jeffries has suddenly rediscovered the sanctity of &#8220;Fair Districts.&#8221; The moment Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suggested that the Sunshine State—which has seen a decade of growth in just three years—might need its own mid-decade tune-up, Jeffries’s halo reappeared.
Jeffries took to X to huff and puff about &#8220;blatant partisan gerrymandering&#8221; and &#8220;nakedly targeting communities of color.&#8221; He actually wrote, &#8220;See you in Court,&#8221; without a hint of a blush, despite the fact that a Virginia judge just tossed his own party’s referendum into the trash for being unconstitutional.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The DeSantis Dummymander blatantly violates Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment banning partisan gerrymandering.
It also violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by nakedly targeting communities of color. 
See you in Court. <a href="https://t.co/DeDqW84s7M">pic.twitter.com/DeDqW84s7M</a>
&mdash; Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeemjeffries) <a href="https://twitter.com/hakeemjeffries/status/2048812217915642288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The hypocrisy is so thick you could carve it. When Virginia Democrats attempt a 10-1 sweep, it’s a &#8220;march toward justice.&#8221; When DeSantis looks at a map, it’s a &#8220;Dummymander&#8221; and a violation of the 14th Amendment. Jeffries has <a href="https://x.com/Breaking911/status/2046984191716340211">told</a> Florida Republicans to &#8220;F around and find out,&#8221; which sounds a lot like a threat from a guy whose own &#8220;victory&#8221; is currently stuck in judicial purgatory.
DeSantis, ever the happy warrior, has <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2047020226785493096">responded</a> by offering to pay for Jeffries’ plane ticket to Florida. He even offered to take him fishing.
It’s a generous offer: Jeffries could use the time on the water to practice his latest trick—complaining about the &#8220;rigged system&#8221; in Florida while the ink is still wet on his own attempt to rig Virginia.
If Jeffries wants a war, he’s found a battlefield, but he might want to check his own backyard before he starts crying about the neighbors&#8217; fences.

Hakeem Jeffries

High Priest Of Hypocrisy: Hakeem Jeffries Demands Fairness In Florida Only After Rigging Virginia

Congress

Politics

Virginia

A political firestorm has ignited in Southwest Florida after a local Democrat Party organization posted &#8220;that sucks&#8221; after the failed assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents&#8217; Dinner.
The controversy began Saturday night shortly after a shooting unfolded at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. In the immediate aftermath of the security breach, the Sarasota County Democratic Party appears to have <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/792986-sydney-gruters-rips-sarasota-county-democratic-party-social-media-message-following-shooting-near-donald-trump">posted</a> a message to Facebook, stating, “Well, that sucks,” accompanied by a laughing face emoji and a status update noting the group was “feeling disappointed.”
While thousands of guests, including senior government officials, were gathered to honor the First Amendment, an armed suspect—later identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of California—attempted to rush the ballroom. Allen was apprehended and faces multiple charges, including assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon.
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The official Sarasota County Democratic Party posted this after the Trump ass*ssination attempt 
This is not fringe. This is the mainstream Democrat Party view
Absolutely abhorrent 
How are we supposed to share a country with these people? <a href="https://t.co/mwJw0on66U">pic.twitter.com/mwJw0on66U</a>
&mdash; Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/2048551469259833388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐓𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐒𝐒∗𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐓.
Above is a screenshot of the Sarasota County Democratic Party’s… <a href="https://t.co/DzZuX4SfuO">pic.twitter.com/DzZuX4SfuO</a>
&mdash; M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelARothman/status/2048565146528931918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The fallout has drawn sharp condemnation from Republican leaders, who are calling the rhetoric &#8220;disgraceful&#8221; and a dangerous escalation of political tension.
Sydney Gruters, a Republican congressional candidate for Florida’s 16th District, was among the first to seize on the post before it was deleted Sunday morning.
“This was not a joke, and it should not be treated like one,” Gruters said in a scathing news release. “People could have been killed last night. Southwest Florida deserves leaders who understand the weight of their words. Political violence is wrong no matter who it targets.”
The Republican Party of Sarasota County joined the fray later Sunday, issuing this statement:
<blockquote>
Once again, our nation has been put through an assassination attempt against President Trump during a time of unparalleled hysteria in our nation, driven by the political left and the Democratic Party, calling President Trump a Nazi, fascist, authoritarian, dictator who is destroying the nation, is bound to bring out the crazies. And it has and it will.
</blockquote>
While the post has been scrubbed from the Democrats’ social media presence, the digital footprint has left local leaders demanding a formal apology. Gruters insisted that a &#8220;deleted post and the hope that no one noticed&#8221; is insufficient for the community.
As of Sunday evening, the Sarasota County Democratic Party had not issued an official response to the backlash. Meanwhile, federal investigators continue to probe the security lapses at the Washington Hilton, an incident that has once again put the nation on edge regarding the safety of political figures in an increasingly polarized climate.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP

‘WELL, THAT SUCKS’: Florida Democrats Mock Failed Assassination Attempt On President Trump

assassination attempt

Democrats

Donald Trump

Sarasota

The nationwide mid-decade redistricting battle appears to be entering its final stretch, with major developments unfolding in Florida, Texas, and Virginia.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday unveiled his proposed congressional map that could add up to four GOP- leaning seats, as lawmakers prepare to take up the plan during a special session that kicks off on Tuesday.
&#8220;Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 Census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since,&#8221; DeSantis told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ron-desantis-unveils-new-florida-congressional-map-would-give-gop-extra-four-seats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>. &#8220;Our population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage. Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas’s congressional map to move forward, shooting down a lower court ruling that had blocked it over claims of race-based gerrymandering. The map is expected to produce five Republican-leaning seats, according to the <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/27/texas-redistricting-map-ruling-us-supreme-court-upheld-2026-midterms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas Tribune</a>, and the high court had previously signaled in December that it was likely to allow the plan to stand.
“This was an intentional effort to limit the power of people of color in a state known for going to extremes to suppress the vote,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “It is one of the most blatant examples yet of modern-day racial gerrymandering, under the thin guise of partisanship.”
In Virginia, the state Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a closely watched case that could determine the fate of a newly approved congressional map. Voters last week narrowly backed a constitutional amendment that would shift the state&#8217;s delegation from a 6-4 split to a 10-1 Democratic advantage.
If the Virginia court blocks the new map, it could significantly alter the broader redistricting fight and determine which party will come out on top.
“Hang in there. This isn’t over in Virginia, and that’s just the Virginia chapter,&#8221; former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican, told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-dem-power-grab-faces-courtroom-showdown?author=Cameron+Arcand&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Virginia+Dem+Power+Grab+Faces+Courtroom+Showdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a>. &#8220;I think there’s a lot of regret across the country about the redistricting play in Virginia.”
With Republicans holding a narrow 218-212 majority in the House, and five seats currently vacant, the outcome of these redistricting battles will play a decisive role in determining control of Congress.

Governor DeSantis And ICE Announce Largest Joint Immigration Enforcement Operation In Florida History

Map Wars Heat Up As DeSantis, Supreme Court, And Virginia Clash Over Congressional Lines

Texas

Florida could be the Republicans’ last stand in the mid-decade redistricting battle, as the state legislature prepares to convene a special session Tuesday to consider new congressional maps.
If approved, the proposed maps could add three to five seats that favor Republicans in the state, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/23/florida-redistricting-desantis-republicans-maps-trump-00887120" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politico,</a> potentially shaping the balance of power in a narrowly divided U.S. House.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has criticized the effort, warning Florida Republicans to “F around and find out.”
“If they go down the road of a DeSantis dummymander, the Florida Republicans are going to find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans who are on the run right now,” Jeffries said at a Wednesday press conference.
Jeffries also expressed confidence that Democrats will win tough seats in red states, adding, &#8220;Under no circumstances are Texas Republicans picking up five seats. They&#8217;ll be fortunate if they get two or three. While in California, we are going to get all five.”
“The Republicans are dummymandering their way into the minority before a single vote is cast because they started this war and we&#8217;re going to finish it,” he continued.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis laughed off Jeffries&#8217; comments, suggesting that a national campaign by Democrats targeting the Sunshine State would only bolster the GOP.
“There’s nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida to see Hakeem Jeffries everywhere around this state,” DeSantis said, according to <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/792314-the-door-is-open-ron-desantis-scoffs-at-hakeem-jeffries-threat-to-expand-dem-efforts-in-florida/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida Politics</a>. &#8220;Please, be my guest. I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign. I’ll put you up in the Florida Governor’s mansion. We’ll take you fishing.&#8221;
Mid-decade redistricting efforts have rocked numerous states. In California, recent changes are expected to favor Democrats in several districts, while Texas Republicans have approved new maps to strengthen their position.
In Virginia, a Tuesday special election approved changes that could create four more Democrat-leaning seats, though a state circuit court judge has temporarily blocked the results from taking effect pending further legal review, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-dem-power-grab-faces-courtroom-showdown?author=Cameron+Arcand&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Virginia+Dem+Power+Grab+Faces+Courtroom+Showdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> reported.
When The Daily Wire reached out to DeSantis’ office for further comment, a spokesperson simply stated, “Stay tuned!”
At the state level, Democrats in Florida are also pushing back on the process. State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith criticized the lack of publicly released maps ahead of the session.
“Just 6 days out from the Florida GOP dummymander and still NO MAPS!” Smith posted to X on Wednesday. “They want rigged Congressional maps that keep Trump’s Republican party in power despite majority opposition from Florida voters.”
Florida&#8217;s current congressional delegation includes eight Democrats and 20 Republicans. Nationally, Republicans hold a slim 218-212 majority in the House, with several vacancies and a number of competitive races expected to factor into the chamber&#8217;s balance of power. The <a href="https://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cook Political Report</a> ranks 16 House races as &#8220;toss-ups,&#8221; with 14 contests considered &#8220;Lean Democrat&#8221; and two as &#8220;Lean Republican.&#8221;

GettyImages-2181789679

GOP Has One Final Chance To Counteract Dems Big Win

House of Representatives

The political war over the American map reached a fever pitch this week as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivered a blistering takedown of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). After the New York Democrat attempted to use a narrow, legally shaky victory in Virginia to threaten the Sunshine State’s redistricting plans, DeSantis didn&#8217;t just push back—he dismantled Jeffries’ entire political persona.
The spark for the confrontation was Tuesday’s referendum in Virginia. In a move that critics have slammed as a naked partisan power grab, Virginia voters narrowly approved—51.5% to 48.5%—a constitutional amendment allowing the Democratic-led General Assembly to bypass a bipartisan commission. The goal? Redrawing maps to transform a 6–5 Democratic edge into a crushing 10–1 advantage.
While Democrats celebrated the move as &#8220;defeating gerrymandering,&#8221; the victory was short-lived. A Virginia judge immediately threw a wrench in the works, ruling the referendum unconstitutional and blocking certification due to procedural failures.
That didn&#8217;t stop Hakeem Jeffries from &#8220;popping off,&#8221; as DeSantis put it. Flush with the Virginia news, Jeffries took to the microphones and social media to issue a warning to Florida Republicans. &#8220;Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out,&#8221; Jeffries barked, claiming Republicans are &#8220;dummymandering&#8221; their way into the minority and vowing to &#8220;crush&#8221; what he called the &#8220;DeSantis Dummymander.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Rep. Jeffries &quot;Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out. If they go down the road of a DeSantis &#39;dummymander&#39;, the Florida Republicans are going to find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/RlNH0OH4Kp">pic.twitter.com/RlNH0OH4Kp</a>
&mdash; Breaking911 (@Breaking911) <a href="https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/2046984191716340211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Democrats defeated Donald Trump’s gerrymandering scheme in Virginia tonight. 
We will crush the DeSantis Dummymander in Florida next.
Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time. <a href="https://t.co/zM1oXhZT8K">pic.twitter.com/zM1oXhZT8K</a>
&mdash; Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeemjeffries) <a href="https://twitter.com/hakeemjeffries/status/2046754383707148505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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DeSantis, who has called a special session for late April to address Florida&#8217;s massive population-driven malapportionment, was more than happy to accept the challenge.
&#8220;This guy, Jeffries, popping off in Washington about Florida,&#8221; DeSantis told reporters with a grin. &#8220;He wants to be Speaker of the House, and he&#8217;s kind of like—more liberal than Pelosi and all this other stuff from New York City. I just want to know: &#8216;Ooh, Florida. We&#8217;re going to go after Florida.&#8217; Please: be my guest.&#8221;
DeSantis then leaned into a devastatingly polite mockery, offering to pay for Jeffries’ travel and put him up in the Governor’s Mansion. &#8220;We&#8217;ll take you fishing,&#8221; DeSantis quipped. &#8220;We&#8217;ll do all this stuff. There&#8217;s nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Hakeem Jeffries everywhere around this state. Voters will not like what they see.&#8221;
The governor then twisted the knife, pointing out that despite Jeffries’ attempts to move further left to appease his base, the radical wing of his own party remains unimpressed. &#8220;I kind of feel bad for the guy because he&#8217;s as Left as they come. He&#8217;s always going Left. And yet the far-Left hates him. You know, they call him a &#8216;dollar-store Obama.&#8217; They call him &#8216;AIPAC Shakur,&#8217; all these different derogatory names that they do. And so he&#8217;s tried to ingratiate himself with [them], but they&#8217;re just not drinking the Kool-Aid.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 HOLY CRAP! Gov. Ron DeSantis just BODIED Hakeem Jeffries threatening Florida if we re-draw our 2026 maps
&quot;&#39;Oh, we&#39;re gonna go after Florida.&#39; PLEASE. BE MY GUEST. I will PAY you to come campaign! I&#39;ll put you up in the Florida governor&#39;s mansion! We&#39;ll take you fishing.… <a href="https://t.co/uAN8gVXVHR">pic.twitter.com/uAN8gVXVHR</a>
&mdash; Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2047020226785493096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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While Jeffries relies on bravado, DeSantis has pointed to the cold reality of Florida’s growth. The governor has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_lIyHRCw68">noted</a> that Florida has seen ten years of population growth in just three, rendering current districts unfair. He has also hinted at an upcoming Supreme Court decision, likely penned by Justice Samuel Alito, that could further solidify the legal standing for mid-decade adjustments.
As the legal battles in Virginia prove that Democratic overreach often hits a judicial wall, DeSantis made one thing clear: if Hakeem Jeffries wants a war in Florida, the governor is happy to provide the battlefield—and the fishing rod.

DeSantis Obliterates ‘Dollar-Store Obama’ Over Redistricting Threats

Florida opened a criminal investigation into OpenAI one year after a gunman killed two people at Florida State University in an attack he planned with &#8220;significant advice&#8221; from OpenAI&#8217;s artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, the state&#8217;s Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Tuesday.
The gunman, whom The Daily Wire will not name, relied on ChatGPT to get information on firearms and when the most people would be present at Florida State&#8217;s student union, where he opened fire on April 17, 2025, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/us/florida-criminal-investigation-openai-chatgpt-fsu-shooting.html">reported</a>. The attacker also asked ChatGPT if a specific gun would be effective at short range, according to Uthmeier.
“If this were a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” the Florida attorney general said. “We cannot have AI bots that are advising people on how to kill others.”
The criminal investigation will now run alongside a civil investigation into ChatGPT that the Florida attorney general opened earlier this month.
The 20-year-old gunman killed two people and wounded six others in the shooting. He was also a student at Florida State and is the stepson of a sheriff&#8217;s deputy in Leon County, Florida, which includes Tallahassee. The gunman, who survived a serious gunshot wound from responding officers, has been charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
The gunman appeared to be intrigued by whether a mass shooting at Florida State would gain nationwide attention and asked ChatGPT how the country would react to an attack on the campus, according to the Times.
OpenAI, which is led by AI entrepreneur Sam Altman, pushed back on Florida&#8217;s decision to open a criminal investigation and said the company &#8220;proactively shared this information with law enforcement&#8221; after it identified the shooter&#8217;s account.
&#8220;Last year&#8217;s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,&#8221; an OpenAI spokeswoman told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;We continue to cooperate with authorities. In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,&#8221; the spokeswoman added.
Uthmeier, a Republican, said at a press conference on Tuesday that he believes government &#8220;should only interfere in business activities when you have significant harm to our people,&#8221; adding, &#8220;This is that.&#8221;
The criminal investigation will focus on looking into whether OpenAI or any of its employees should face charges over the programming of ChatGPT&#8217;s answers.
The Florida State shooter is not the only gunman to rely on ChatGPT for information before opening fire on innocent victims. Earlier this year, a trans-identifying <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-shooters-use-of-ai-puts-chatgpt-ceos-push-for-ai-privilege-under-the-microscope">shooter</a> in Canada raised warning signs among OpenAI employees for conversations he had with ChatGPT on shooting scenarios months before killing his mother and brother and then going to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, where he killed another six people, including five children.
The trans-identifying gunman&#8217;s messages with ChatGPT in June 2025 resulted in his account getting banned, but OpenAI did not report the conversations to law enforcement, The Wall Street Journal reported. OpenAI tells users that it hands over information to law enforcement &#8220;if required to do so to comply with a legal obligation, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation.&#8221;
Last year, however, Altman said that he wanted a policy passed to allow him to give AI users assurance that their conversations with ChatGPT would never be shared with the government.
“If I could get one piece of policy passed right now, relative to AI, the thing I would most like, and this is in tension with some of the other things that we’ve talked about, is I’d like there to be a concept of AI privilege,” Altman <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmpT-BoVf4&amp;t=1911s">told</a> podcast host Tucker Carlson last September. “When you talk to a doctor about your health or a lawyer about your legal problems, the government cannot get that information.”
“We have decided that society has an interest in that being privileged and that a subpoena can’t get that, the government can’t come asking your doctor for it, whatever. I think we should have the same concept for AI,” he added.

ChatGPT

Criminal Investigation Targets ChatGPT After What Gunman Did With AI

Investigation

Mass Shooting

OpenAI

Republicans are on the cusp of expelling Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) for pocketing millions in federal disaster relief funds and funneling them into her campaign. The House Ethics Committee has already found her in violation of House rules, and it will meet on Tuesday to determine her punishment. Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled the full House will take up her expulsion soon. That vote, if it passes, would hand Republicans a sufficient margin in the House to do what needs to be done and expel Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL).
The Florida Republican is a walking disaster. In February, police responded to a disturbance at Mills’ D.C. penthouse. His girlfriend was found in the lobby, physically shaking and scared, with fresh bruises on her arm. She later walked back her account and no charges were filed, but the episode exposed more mess: Mills was still married at the time, a fact his own staff didn’t know. Another person who was blindsided was his other girlfriend, former Miss United States Lindsey Langston, who quite reasonably looked at Mills’ conduct and decided to break things off. Mills responded by threatening to release explicit videos of her if she dated anyone else, according to texts reviewed by The Blaze.
But domestic violence and threats to release revenge porn barely scratch the surface of Mills’ scandals; there’s also the matter of stolen valor. Mills has repeatedly told voters he is an Army Ranger. He is not. He has claimed attendance at military sniper school and described being “blown up” twice in Iraq, including in campaign videos. Colleagues who served alongside him in contractor roles told investigators the claims were false. He lacked basic sniper knowledge that any graduate of the sniper school would possess. In one IED incident he cited, he wasn’t even in the vehicle that was hit and suffered no injuries. And when DynCorp, the contractor he worked for, demanded proof of the claims he made on his resume, Mills reportedly left his gear on his bed and walked off the job rather than produce documentation.
Add to that: his marriage (which he treated so cavalierly) was performed by a radical Islamist cleric, and there are serious questions about whether he converted to Islam around the same time. The scandals have piled up for months. Any one of them would be disqualifying for most professions. Together, they paint a picture of a man whose personal conduct makes him a permanent liability.
Mills’ recent votes prove it. Last September, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) brought a censure resolution against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) after Omar suggested Charlie Kirk brought his own assassination on himself. The resolution should have passed with unanimous Republican support. Omar’s comments were grotesque, and yet the resolution failed. Mills was one of only four GOP members to vote no. He proffered frivolous First Amendment arguments to justify his vote and even implied Charlie himself would have agreed. No one who watched the vote believed that for a second.
The real reason was obvious: Axios reported days earlier that Democrats planned to counter by threatening Mills with his own censure resolution. Mace herself later said Mills texted her threats after the vote. He wasn’t defending free speech; he was protecting his own hide. When the personal risk to Cory Mills went up, the interests of his constituents and his party went out the window.
This is not an isolated lapse. Mills has a pattern of self-dealing with his votes on censure resolutions. Lawyers get disbarred for putting their own interests ahead of their clients’. Members of Congress take an oath to their constituents and the Constitution. When personal scandals create an irreconcilable conflict that distorts their votes, the remedy is the same: removal.
Mills will not resign on his own. He has shown zero interest in an honorable exit. The only path left is for the House to do what it must. Expel him. Let Florida voters choose a replacement who can serve without a cloud of personal scandals dictating every vote. The Republican Party will be better for it.
 * * *
Will Chamberlain is senior counsel at the Article III Project.

Former President Donald Trump’s Hush Money Trial Continues In New York

Cory Mills Has Become A Liability Republicans Can’t Ignore

censure

DW Opinion

Ethics

Expulsion

Nancy Mace

U.S. House of Representatives

Disney World just took a giant step away from wokeness with a small change in its parks that has the normies cheering.
According to park visitors, the automated announcements are once again using the phrase “Ladies and Gentlemen.” This is a change from the parks originally pivoting to use more “inclusive” language on their properties.
The revelation about Disney’s foray into progressivism came in 2022 when journalist Chris Rufo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/not-at-all-secret-gay-agenda-disney-employees-break-down-adding-queerness-to-shows-and-degenderizing-theme-parks">released video recordings</a> from employee all-hands meetings at the company. One of the clips showed Vivian Ware, who was at the time serving as Disney’s diversity and inclusion manager, explaining how Disney altered gendered greetings and language in its theme parks for live spiels and other aspects of the park in 2021.
“We trained, we provided training for all of our cast members in relationship to that. So now they know it’s ‘Hello, everyone,’ or ‘Hello, friends,&#8217;” Ware explained.
“We don’t want to just assume because someone might be, in our interpretation, may be presenting as female, that they may not want to be called ‘princess,’” she went on. “So let’s think differently about how do we really engage with our guests in a meaningful and inclusive way that makes it magical and memorable for everyone.” 
The company released a <a href="https://disneyparksblog.com/disney-experiences/a-place-where-everyone-is-welcome/">statement</a> that same year, confirming that its aim is for “guests to see their own backgrounds and traditions reflected in the stories, experiences and products they encounter in their interactions with Disney.”
“That means cultivating an environment where all people feel welcomed and appreciated for their unique life experiences, perspectives and culture,” it said. “Where we celebrate allyship and support for each other. And where diverse views and ideas are sought after as critical contributions towards our collective success.”
Now Disney World visitors are overjoyed to hear their favorite theme park is ditching the virtue signaling.
“It was very nice to hear that ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ has returned to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail recently!” one X user<a href="https://x.com/GreenCheetah99/status/2041370321744167371"> shared</a> earlier this month alongside a video clip of the greeting being used. “For context, it was removed around 2021 when Disney tried to make the parks more ‘inclusive,’” a follow-up post added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It was very nice to hear that “Ladies and Gentlemen” has returned to the Magic Kingdom Express Monorail recently! <a href="https://t.co/PqtBI6u2qx">pic.twitter.com/PqtBI6u2qx</a>
— Theme Park Cheetah (@GreenCheetah99) <a href="https://twitter.com/GreenCheetah99/status/2041370321744167371?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“We’re so f***ing back,” a reply to that post <a href="https://x.com/chazzimusslots/status/2041521972920680835?s=46&amp;t=vdDC8_Kq-sBDxiYlIfWGVw">said</a>.
“Thank goodness!” Elon Musk agreed, prompting another person to <a href="https://x.com/RitaChizoba2/status/2044671923003502608">reply</a>, “Finally, sanity returns to the Magic Kingdom. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls;  the spell is broken. The woke experiment failed, and reality just won the day. Disney heard the parents. The kids deserve magic, not lectures. Thank goodness indeed.”
&#8220;The world is healing,&#8221; Libs of TikTok <a href="https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2044562287176868033">added</a>.

Disney World

Disney Quietly Reverses Woke Move And It’s The First Thing You Hear Walking In

Disney

Wokeness

This article is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
In this piece, originally published in <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-college-florida-gender-studies-activism">City Journal</a>, Colin Wright argues that faculty at New College of Florida continue to advance activist scholarship in ways that undermine the state’s post-woke reforms.
* * *
When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pledged to rein in “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/13/1110842453/florida-gov-desantis-is-doing-battle-against-woke-public-schools">woke indoctrination</a>” in public education, he wasn’t bluffing. Over the last several years, he and the legislature have pursued an aggressive legal and governance strategy to push far-left ideology out of taxpayer-funded institutions. The justification is straightforward: the people have the right to demand that public universities not become subsidized activist factories.
Laws can close academic departments and impose subject-area bans on paper, but campuses are still run day-to-day by faculty and administrators who may not be interested in what voters want. When progressive activists dominate a university, they will inevitably try to circumvent the law.
Such efforts appear to be happening at New College today. Though the Gender Studies department was shut down at the Sarasota school, and Florida law forbids the use of state and federal funds to “promote or engage in political or social activism,” faculty continue to oversee work promoting activist pseudoscience, treat opposition to explicit content in K-12 libraries as equivalent to Nazism, and celebrate “queer bibliographies” and “resistance” to elected officials.
Consider a 2025 undergraduate thesis covering the “Evolution of Gender” in drama and fashion.
Nova Myhill, a professor of English and Theater, Dance &amp; Performance Studies at New College, sponsored the thesis, which explicitly lists “Gender Studies” as its “Area of Concentration.”
At a glance, the thesis appears to be a broad, benign survey of gender-expression conventions through fashion in the context of theater. But it quickly advances to extreme activist views of sex and biology. The opening section, titled “Our Idea of Sex,” portrays sex in humans not as “concrete” or “permanent” but as something “closer to being reflections of societal preconceptions than anything based only on ‘biology.’” It claims that the idea that humans have two sexes became widespread only “around the mid-1700s” due to “changing values of what was important within identity, class and gender beginning to take the utmost importance when using clothing as a symbol or sign of identity.” It even asserts that “there was a time when we conceived of the human race as only ‘one-sex’,” and that our “re-envisioning of the sexes” during the Enlightenment into two categories — male and female — actually “led to the differentiation and specific designation of reproductive organs; the penis, testicles, ovaries, and uterus.”
If this were the only undergraduate thesis at New College promoting such radical activist views, it might be dismissed. It is not.
In January 2026, the college approved and archived an undergraduate thesis in the Division of Humanities that engaged in political activism and covered Gender Queer and Fun Home — books the sexually explicit content of which has prompted parents to oppose their inclusion in school libraries. Myhill also sponsored this thesis and is thanked effusively in the acknowledgements.
Oddly, this thesis includes two abstracts. The first, more formal one describes an exploration of “book censorship, theft, and destruction,” framed as actions “employed to specifically target queer, trans, Jewish, and other marginalized communities,” and ends by describing the authors’ “queer works” as “an act of cultural legacy, heritage transmission, and resistance.” The second reads like a direct taunt of DeSantis and New College’s policy reforms:
<blockquote>This thesis is about queers, trans people, gender, Nazis, book burning, moral panics, censorship, Magnus Hirshfeld, pornography . . . queer bibliography, the Phantasma, classroom libraries, Ron DeSantis, what it’s like to be erased, and also how people fight back . . . so why not read it already?</blockquote>
This isn’t “academic” in any meaningful sense, but rather activist writing designed to indoctrinate, recruit, and promote activism.
In one section, the thesis classifies Gender Queer as essential reading and mocks DeSantis for displaying redacted pages from the book during his November 2023 debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom. It frames Florida’s higher education reforms as part of an “anti-gender movement” with “chilling reach.”
The thesis also compares Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Christopher F. Rufo’s rhetoric to the “paranoia and persecution of McCarthyism in the 1950s” and claims that he helped incite a “reactive moral panic” like the one behind Nazi-era book purges in 1930s Germany. It compares <a href="https://x.com/christopherrufo/status/1824307070839165333">Rufo’s tweet</a> about abolishing the college’s Gender Studies program to a “long and fiery radio address” delivered by “Joseph Goebbels.” Again, such comparisons are not objective scholarship but political activism.
Other recent theses at New College also veer in an activist direction, including a 2025 thesis on “Queer Resistance and the Fight for Change in Morocco,” a 2026 thesis on “Why Queer People Like Horror Films,” and another in 2025 titled “Who Holds the Mic?: Exploring Image, Control, and Identity in Queer.”
Of course, Florida’s higher-ed reforms don’t ban students from discussing controversial topics in class or engaging in activism in their free time. State leaders intended them to prevent public institutions from using public funds to “promote, support, or maintain” programs or activities that “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “promote or engage in political or social activism.”
The work required to shepherd student theses entails faculty time and labor, institutional oversight, and curriculum funded by and developed under the authority of the university. It strains credulity to present as legitimate scholarship works that push false, ideologically charged views of biology or that describe themselves as works of “resistance.” A process that produces such works appears to flout Florida law’s intent to prevent state and federal funds from being used to “promote or engage in political or social activism.”
None of this is to say that shutting down New College’s gender-studies department was in vain. The volume of activist “scholarship” produced at the institution has declined markedly, and that’s a true achievement.
Nonetheless, Florida’s academic reforms are not self-enforcing. As always, personnel is policy. True believers on the faculty will look for workarounds. If nobody is paying attention, abolished departments will soon reappear inside more traditional ones — in this case, the departments of English and Theater, Dance &amp; Performance Studies.
Institutional responsibility lies with the faculty and administrators who decide which scholarship to approve, endorse, or reward. New College’s trustees and the state legislature can pass resolutions and rewrite statutes, but they cannot monitor every thesis committee or syllabus. 
That requires constant vigilance, because the pattern is predictable: abolish the department, then watch its ideology migrate to the English department, the history department, or the library.
If New College wants to fulfill its evolution into a post-woke institution, its guardians should not approve scholarship that treats its vital reforms as analogous to a second Holocaust. Leaders should hold faculty accountable when they use university resources to resurrect discarded programs and pursue activism under new names.
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<a href="https://www.city-journal.org/person/colin-wright">Colin Wright</a> is an evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute Fellow.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis engages with New College of Florida

At New College of Florida, Gender Studies Quietly Continues

College

Education

Gender

gender ideology

Leftism

Manhattan Institute

MI x DW

School Board

Woke Culture

Hatem Fariz has quite a rap sheet.
He served roughly three years in prison after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to provide material support to Iranian terror proxy Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and for additional counts in a separate case involving a reported $1.4 million food stamp <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna14416473" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scam</a>. He once bragged about assaulting a child he believed was “cooperating with the Jews” and laughed off a deadly bombing in Israel while helping raise funds for terror groups in the Middle East, <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2024/06/07/among-usf-gaza-protesters-past-supporter-palestinian-islamic-jihad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Tampa Bay Times.
But Fariz appears to have undergone a reinvention. Now he’s best known as a pillar of Florida’s Muslim community.
Fariz landed in Florida after his release from a federal prison in 2010, according to the Tampa Bay Times. While serving as the director of the Islamic Community of Tampa — also known as the Al-Qassam Mosque — Fariz has organized pro-Palestinian protests and become a prominent community member. The local police chief, Kenneth Albano, even called him &#8220;a force for reason within the Muslim community,” the Tampa Bay Times reported in 2024.
At the time, he was also characterized by his former attorney as the &#8220;worker bee&#8221; of another man convicted of supporting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the same case, Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor, the local news outlet <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2024/06/07/among-usf-gaza-protesters-past-supporter-palestinian-islamic-jihad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The Tampa mosque run by Fariz was registered in Al-Arian’s name in 1992, <a href="https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/ConvertTiffToPDF?storagePath=COR%5C1607%5C0119%5CAR007229.tif&amp;documentNumber=N50793&amp;__cf_chl_rt_tk=cS_4PQbBuE4SpccV7XaeKWsRii7jhChEr4sqPKTepcU-1775848730-1.0.1.1-fbYKMu5z54qPMwhiyLcgP.Ws65p4AcSo051StYnxa1I" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to state records.
Al-Arian has since been <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2015/02/al-arian-saga-ends-with-deportation-202233" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deported</a> to Turkey. But thanks to Fariz, he still appears to have a footprint in Florida.
A new <a href="https://networkcontagion.us/reports/from-tehran-to-tampa-iranian-proxy-networks-operating-through-floridas-501c3-sector/">report</a> from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) says that figures like Fariz are just a small part of a seemingly benign “network of nonprofit, religious, and advocacy organizations operating in and connected to Florida that show repeated documented overlap with individuals convicted of terrorism-related offenses, designated under U.S. sanctions authorities, or publicly associated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and broader Iran-aligned influence ecosystems.”
The report says that the Iran-aligned influence network is gaining a foothold in Florida, and the claims have caught the attention of Florida lawmakers. Florida Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins told The Daily Wire he’s “100% serious” about addressing the allegations made in NCRI’s report.
Collins shared his concern that the “deceptive and slow insidious method” of radical groups that entails “embedding in communities and changing people&#8217;s mindsets.”
“We better understand that we have to get ahead of this now so this doesn&#8217;t become a problem,” said Collins, a candidate for Florida governor.
Florida&#8217;s current governor, Ron DeSantis, has already taken action on the issue. Just last week, DeSantis <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/red-state-slams-door-on-sharia-law-ramps-up-fight-against-domestic-terrorism?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Red+State+Slams+Door+On+Sharia+Law%2C+Ramps+Up+Fight+Against+Domestic+Terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed a law</a> that would allow state authorities to designate groups as terrorist organizations and even expel students attending local universities who support them.
Florida has also zeroed in on the influence of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the state. In December, DeSantis signed an order designating CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization. CAIR has denied any connection to terrorism and has filed a lawsuit regarding the order.
The designation was based on the group’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Florida also designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
“CAIR was founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and was created, in the words of persons affiliated with CAIR, as ‘an official U.S. cover representing the Islamic community’ to conceal ties to Islamic extremist groups,” the state’s order on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/desantis-joins-texas-in-designating-cair-and-muslim-brotherhood-as-terrorist-organizations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designation</a> read.
Last month, the designation was blocked by a federal judge after CAIR&#8217;s lawsuit.
CAIR’s Florida chapter has promoted both Al-Arian and Fariz, casting them as victims of political prosecution. Both have been close allies of CAIR in the state.
Fariz solicited donations for CAIR’s galas in 2018 and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100000732120533/posts/2824374567596920/?rdid=4wVlW22xDydq7EZe#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2019</a>, highlighting its &#8220;great work.&#8221;
“Please donate generously for the great work that CAIR is doing and continue to do. Our goal through this post is $10k,” Fariz <a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2185617568139293&amp;id=100000732120533&amp;rdid=147NTcrMXRTIofpH#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in one of the posts.
CAIR’s Florida branch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/xBS09KpfWm4?t=1160s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed</a> Fariz&#8217;s Islamic Community of Tampa as “a leading sponsor” of its 2021 gala. The Islamic Community of Tampa was also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=5241359602565059&amp;id=100000732120533&amp;http_ref=eyJ0cyI6MTc2NTU3MTkyMTAwMCwiciI6IiJ9&amp;_rdr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed</a> as a co-sponsor of a community fundraiser advertised for March 2022. Fariz was listed as a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CyghF6QAUWU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contact</a> for CAIR Florida’s “Week of Action” in October 2023.
The organization’s Tampa chapter organized a <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_in_the_news/cair-fl-1200-turn-out-for-al-arian-doc-premier/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showing</a> of Al-Arian’s documentary in 2007. CAIR Florida <a href="https://www.cair.com/cair_in_the_news/cair-fl-al-arian-film-takes-familys-perspective/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the film focused on “post-Sept. 11 hysteria and the persecution of a Muslim, as well as the emotionally grinding devastation the prosecution brought to the Al-Arian family.”
CAIR Florida <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDuYqJYgeQW/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">featured</a> Al-Arian in a 2020 webinar on the experiences of “political prisoners.”
That same year, the group promoted Fariz’s story during a webinar on “persecution in the United States.” He was also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100064587523594/posts/4449023131779167/?rdid=jX5ffBVuBejNV9gX#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nominated</a> for a CAIR Florida “Protect Award” at the time.
A CAIR Florida 2021 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDA4uyvYy8U">fundraising video</a> featured Fariz hailing the organization for having “provided … relief” during his case.
He also spoke at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/xBS09KpfWm4?t=1932s">CAIR Florida’s 2021 gala</a>, where he characterized his terrorism case as “baseless.”
The Islamic Community of Tampa mosque received a $9,000 grant in 2021 from another organization tied to the pair of figures, the Coalition for Civil Freedoms, <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/451653796/202201369349305635/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a financial disclosure statement.
While behind bars, Al-Arian &#8220;spent much of his time in prison drafting a vision for an organization that would support political prisoners and their families,&#8221; which eventually became the Coalition for Civil Freedoms, <a href="https://www.civilfreedoms.org/page/about-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the organization&#8217;s website.
The organization pays stipends to Muslim prisoners accused of terrorism and provides the &#8220;most vulnerable prisoners $100 each month,&#8221; <a href="https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/donate-to-give-relief-to-muslim-political-prisoners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to its donation page.
Fariz is now listed as the chairman of the board, development director, and treasurer for the Coalition for Civil Freedoms. The group also has a branch registered in Florida under Fariz’s name, according to state records.
In the Coalition for Civil Freedoms&#8217; latest annual <a href="https://www.civilfreedoms.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/Annual%20Report%20-%202024%20%20.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, CAIR’s Florida chapter is listed as a member organization. Fariz also appears to have close connections with the group.
Al-Arian currently serves as the director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Istanbul Zaim University in Turkey, <a href="https://www.izu.edu.tr/en/ciga/about-us/director's-message" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to his bio on the school’s website.
CIGA has previously hosted terror-tied individuals.
In 2024, the center hosted Hamas official <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-815165" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Osama Hamdan</a>, who is sanctioned by the United States government. He was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/l1nHOUBhJ7Y?t=5931s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">billed</a> as a speaker on “Palestinian resistance.” During his remarks, Hamdan advocated for “a new map” of the Middle East that excludes Israel.
In February 2025, CIGA <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9VhaA2vfI0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hosted</a> Majed Al-Zeer for a seminar on his book months after he was <a href="https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=48631" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sanctioned</a> by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
That May, Al-Arian <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cigaistanbul/posts/join-us-for-a-powerful-conversation-on-al-daymuma-the-permanence-of-the-struggle/1242329581236105/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moderated</a> an event for CIGA featuring Al-Zeer to discuss another one of his books on keeping “the Palestinian cause alive.”
Neither Al-Arian nor Fariz responded to requests for comment. CAIR also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

How Terror-Linked Figures Built A U.S. Community And Operated In Plain Sight

Iran

Terrorism

Mass amnesty would be a slap in the face to the American people — and a betrayal of the mandate voters delivered in 2024. The American people sent Republicans to Washington to secure the border, enforce our laws, and put American workers and families first. Yet some in our own party are attempting to resurrect the deeply flawed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4393">DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act</a>.
This bill must die in the cradle. It is not “commonsense reform.” It is mass amnesty dressed up in deceptive language, and it undermines the agenda Americans demanded.
Sponsors of the legislation, led by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, insist the bill is not amnesty. They claim it merely brings people “out of the shadows” with earned legal status while securing the border and protecting American workers. Rep. Mike Lawler, a vocal co-sponsor, has even touted it as a bipartisan fix that codifies tough immigration policies.
Salazar has pushed back against critics of the bill, suggesting opponents simply haven’t read the text. So let’s examine the legislation’s own provisions.
The bill’s Sections 2102-2104 establish a version of the Dream Act that grants conditional lawful permanent resident status to illegal aliens who entered the United States before age 18, have been continuously present since January 1, 2021, meet education, employment, or military service requirements, and pass background checks. DACA recipients receive an accelerated track to conditional green cards.
This is a direct path to citizenship for an estimated 2.5 million “Dreamers” who entered unlawfully as minors, eventually making them eligible for U.S. citizenship and sponsor their lawbreaking parents. The bottom line is the Dignity Act rewards breaking our laws with a clear pathway deeper into the American system.
The bill goes much further, though, in Sections 2301-2305 by creating the Dignity Program, a separate track for the estimated 10.5 million illegal aliens here prior to 2021 who do not qualify for the “Dreamer” provisions. If they pay a simple $1,000 “restitution” fee, submit biometrics, pass a background check, and have no felony convictions, they receive a 7-year renewable “Dignity status” with work and travel authorizations, which they can use existing pathways to adjust to a green card (and therefore a pathway to citizenship).
Sponsors emphasize that there is no path to citizenship and no access to most federal benefits. This is false, and the critical detail they downplay is this: qualifying for the program suspends deportation for anyone who applies and meets the basic criteria, including certain criminals. In practice, this effectively halts mass deportations for the overwhelming majority of the illegal alien population already here. In fact, Section 2204 of the bill explicitly allows illegal aliens deported on or after January 20, 2017 – the day President Trump was first inaugurated – to apply for the bill’s permanent resident status (the “dignity status” outlined above) directly from their home country and, if approved, to return to the United States as lawful permanent residents. This bill seeks to unwind the tremendous successes of President Trump in enforcing our nation’s immigration laws.
Estimates of the unauthorized population have ranged between 12 million and 20 million. The bill’s cutoffs capture nearly all long-term illegal residents, effectively legalizing their presence and shielding them from removal. Proponents call this “earned” status. Conservatives recognize it for what it is: a de facto amnesty that signals to the world that entering illegally carries little permanent consequence once you settle in.
This is unacceptable. American voters did not elect us to rubber-stamp the Biden-era border crisis or to create new legal protections that make large-scale enforcement impossible. Granting work authorization and deferred removal to millions rewards lawbreakers, undercuts wages for American blue-collar workers, and shifts enormous costs onto taxpayers for education, emergency healthcare, housing, and law enforcement. Even if the bill claims “no federal benefits,” indirect costs remain substantial, and local governments bear much of the burden.
Republicans should be expanding detention capacity and streamlining deportations — not creating new protected classes of illegal aliens.
The solution is not to legalize the problem; it is to enforce the law consistently and deter future illegal immigration. The American people understand this. Polling consistently shows strong support for enforcement first, not amnesty-first “compromises.”
As members of the House Freedom Caucus, we stand with the voters who rejected open borders and demanded accountability. We will oppose any legislation that grants mass legal status to illegal aliens, suspends deportations on this scale, or weakens our resolve to restore the rule of law. The DIGNIDAD Act is not a solution — it is a surrender. It must be rejected outright.
No amnesty. No amnesty-lite. No DIGNIDAD Act. That’s our red line.
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Keith Self represents Texas&#8217;s Third Congressional District and serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Andrew Clyde represents Georgia&#8217;s Ninth Congressional District and serves on the House Appropriations and Budget Committees.
Sheri Biggs represents South Carolina’s Third District and serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Randy Fine represents Florida’s Sixth District and serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

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