There&#8217;s a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146">story</a> from POLITICO making the rounds and creating an enormous amount of dyspepsia on the Right. The story is titled, “’I Love Hitler.’ Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat.”
It is questionable whether the actual line “I love Hitler” was said in jest or whether it was said authentically.
All those quotes from the chat have been released by POLITICO. They reported:
<blockquote>Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway. They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.
William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n&#8211;ga” and “n&#8211;guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”
Giunta was referring to an upcoming vote on whether he should become chair of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old. “Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers,” he continued. Two members of the chat responded. </blockquote>
 A lot of this is edgelord-ism. It has existed on the Right, particularly among young right-wingers, for a very long time.
Back in 2015 or 2016, I was speaking at a college campus in California, and some kid came over and started using some Groyper memes in jest. I said to him, “Listen, I understand that you&#8217;re just being edgelord right now. If you actually, authentically think that stuff, you&#8217;re wrong. But second of all, if you put that stuff online, there are social consequences to saying and believing truly terrible things.”
I&#8217;m not talking here about whether we should ban people from Facebook. Obviously, the answer is no. Whether you ban people from YouTube or X, I&#8217;ve argued in favor of the restoration of people&#8217;s accounts on these platforms because they are platforms. They are not publications.
However, there are social consequences to people who say things that you believe are terrible. They don&#8217;t get to come over to dinner at your house. They don&#8217;t get to marry your kids. You don&#8217;t date them.
We all have social lines we draw all the time, and the question is where to draw those lines and how those lines ought to be drawn. There&#8217;s no question that the shutting tight of the Overton Window by the Left means that the explosion of the Overton Window in response has let in an enormous amount of garbage.
That is reality. This sort of language is routinely used now among a segment, not all, not even a majority, but among some fragmented segment of the right-wing ecosystem among young people.
So here is what I hope will represent an honest rubric for dealing with issues like this one.
<ol>
<li>Obviously, it is very cynical for POLITICO to target young GOP group chats while leaving left-wing chats untouched. I would promise you those same left-wing chats exist and are just as bad, if not worse. There are university chats among professors that are just as bad, if not worse.</li>
</ol>
All of that is true.
<ol start="2">
<li>The Right does not have an obligation to go totally insane over such chats. What the Left and the media love to do is to take stuff like this and say to every member of the Republican Party, “You must personally condemn all of this.” The answer should be, “I&#8217;m happy to condemn the crap in there, but why? Why am I responsible for it? I&#8217;m not responsible for that.” You claim that everyone on the Right is responsible for a group of young Republicans who say terrible things in private to one another, that what they did somehow implicates the entire Republican Party. Meanwhile, the attorney general candidate in Virginia publicly says horrible things and that doesn&#8217;t implicate the entire Democratic Party? Zoran Mamdani, who likely will be New York mayor, is openly pro-terrorism, and that doesn&#8217;t implicate the entire Democratic Party?</li>
</ol>
This POLITICO story, which is gaining all sorts of traction, is not comparable to actual people running for high office in Virginia or in New York City or the Democratic Party at high levels engaging with this sort of nonsense.
<ol start="3">
<li>When you&#8217;re asked about somebody saying a bad thing, whether you&#8217;re Right or Left, of course you ought to condemn the bad thing that is being said. I don&#8217;t even understand the logic of not doing that. Are you obligated to defend the bad thing being said, because the person who is questioning you is “on the other side?” Because that&#8217;s precisely how you get to a Left that defends Jay Jones. That&#8217;s how you get there. That&#8217;s how you get to a Left that openly defends Zoran Mamdani.</li>
</ol>
Forgiveness ought to be easily obtained, as I&#8217;ve said.
But — if you want forgiveness, you ought to ask for it. You ought to disassociate from the things that you say, and admit, “I was saying stuff that was dumb. I got caught up in the edgelord moment online.”
You only get out of jail free if you ask to do so. You don&#8217;t get it preemptively. If you say something terrible or you do something terrible and people preemptively forgive you, doesn’t that incentivize you to do more of that thing?
<ol start="4">
<li>Finally, it is not sufficient to publicly proclaim that you&#8217;re not going to condemn these people, say nothing about their comments, and instead just project to the other side. That’s because on a strategic level, this is how your party ends up being taken over by the ambulatory psychotics.</li>
</ol>
With the Left, that&#8217;s what happened. They decided they would not, under any circumstance, condemn their own ambulatory psychotics because those people were part of their coalition, and they couldn&#8217;t do it or they would lose.
You know what ended up happening? The alligator ate them first, not last. They ended up being taken over by the crazy wing. That’s because if you lose your systemic immunity, the crazy tends to be really, really, really infectious. 
 
There&#8217;s this weird idea on the Right that the Left wins because they&#8217;re totally unified and they completely side with one another.
But here’s the central point: The Left is not winning.
I think we on the Right have somehow become depressive, even possibly gotten addicted to the depressive. The Left is not winning.
Donald Trump has been president twice.
Republicans are in control of the Senate.
Republicans are in control of the House.
Republicans are in control of the majority of governors’ mansions.
Republicans are in control of a majority of state legislatures.
The Left is not winning because of their unity. They are being destroyed because they decided that the nutjobs and the radicals in their own party could not be condemned under any circumstances. They decided to feature Ilhan Omar on the cover of magazines and unite around the crazy college protesters, the BLM rioters, and the transgender radicals.
And guess what? They got their asses kicked because of it. Yes, they didn&#8217;t expel people from their party, but moderates walked away. The non-crazy walked away.
This is the dirty little secret of how Donald Trump won the election of 2024. He ran as a moderate. People were moderate and picked him above the unified Left that was siding with and defending and massaging all of the radicals.
This is a very big country with an awful lot of people, and the vast majority of them are not loon bags, and the vast majority of them don&#8217;t like the lunacy.
And we need to be real about the agenda of the people who are continuing to rely on the kindness of the “traditional Republicans” who “don&#8217;t want to attack.”

Unrecognizable young man using mobile phone device at home

POLITICO’s Story Reminds Us Who’s Really Losing It

Ben Shapiro

Conservatives

Democrats

Leftists

Legacy Media

Liberals

Opinion

Politico

Republicans

U.S. Politics

A key adviser in the Treasury Department is drawing up plans that would overhaul the IRS criminal-investigative division and allow the Trump administration to more easily target leftist groups, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-irs-investigations-left-leaning-groups-democratic-donors-612a095e?mod=hp_lead_pos1">reported</a> on Wednesday.
A senior IRS official involved in making the plans told the WSJ that the administration has already compiled a list of targets, including Democratic donors, that the IRS would investigate. Gary Shapley, who advises Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, has told people that he will replace career bureaucrat Guy Ficco, the chief of the service’s investigative unit, according to the WSJ.
The move would help the administration control the reins of the IRS criminal investigation division and install people who align with Trump’s vision. The plans would also open the doors for IRS investigators to go after leftist groups and target Democratic mega-donors, including George Soros, according to a senior IRS official and another source, whom the WSJ reported was “briefed on the list.”
President Donald Trump has already tasked Bessent, who is also serving as the acting IRS commissioner, with probing left-wing groups that the administration believes could be financing violent demonstrations against the Trump administration in cities across the United States. Trump has also called for Soros and his son, Alex, to be charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) “because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America.”
“We’re not going to allow these lunatics to rip apart America any more, never giving it so much as a chance to ‘BREATHE,’ and be FREE,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115100792784831675">wrote</a> on Truth Social on August 27. “Soros, and his group of psychopaths, have caused great damage to our Country! That includes his Crazy, West Coast friends. Be careful, we’re watching you!”
Bessent said on Wednesday that his department is prioritizing the effort to target “violent domestic networks,” comparing the plan to the United States going after terrorist networks after 9/11. The IRS is a bureau of the Treasury Department.
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During an appearance on a special White House edition of “The Charlie Kirk Show” on the same day that Kirk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Bessent highlighted the rise of anti-Israel demonstrations in the United States following Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state two years ago.
“Since the terrible day two years ago, the anti-Semitism and the bias that came out after October 7, 2023, many of these organizations have been financed by non-profits, and it&#8217;s going to stop. And we are going to, as they always say, follow the money … this takes a lot of money and a lot of organization,” he said.
Bessent added that the assassination of Charlie Kirk kick-started the Treasury Department’s effort to “compile lists” of networks that are responsible for funding any leftist violence.
“Charlie’s death has set this off, and we are determined, not only to honor him, but to keep our country safe and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides,” the Treasury Secretary said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Just as <a href="https://twitter.com/USTreasury?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USTreasury</a> led the effort after 9/11 to track terrorist financing, it will follow the money behind violent domestic networks. We will expose domestic terrorists and bring them to justice. <a href="https://t.co/iitcxdcgnf">pic.twitter.com/iitcxdcgnf</a>
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecScottBessent/status/1978181513251344429?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Shapley did not address the proposed overhaul of the IRS criminal investigation division when asked by the WSJ, simply stating, “I’m grateful to continue in my role in reforming the IRS.”
A Treasury Department spokesman told the WSJ that the IRS “team’s focus remains collections, privacy, and customer service.”
The Daily Wire reached out to the White House, requesting comment on the WSJ report.

President Trump Signs Order On TikTok’s US Operations

Trump Eyes IRS Overhaul To Go After George Soros, Leftist Donor Networks

Donald Trump

George Soros

Scott Bessent

Treasury Department

Trump Administration

MixCollage-15-Oct-2025-04-55-PM-9613

POLITICO Releases An Egregious Hit Piece And Many Republicans Are Falling For It

Adolf Hitler

Matt Walsh

Nazis

Social Media

Telegram

Under War Secretary Pete Hegseth, America’s military is rediscovering its true mission of forging warriors, not social justice activists. He’s already purged divisive DEI and race-based admissions policies from our elite service academies, but one seemingly benign obstacle remains: academic accreditation. And like the wall on the training course, it must be overcome.
From West Point to the Air Force Academy, all five military service academies are accredited by a handful of private, unaccountable agencies with enormous influence over higher education. Unless the academies adopt these gatekeepers’ standards, their degrees may not be recognized when graduates pursue advanced degrees at civilian universities. That gives a handful of unelected, pro-DEI activists control over curriculum at schools founded to produce warfighters, including my alma mater, West Point.
That’s a serious problem.
West Point, established by Thomas Jefferson in 1802, along with the Naval Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy, are all accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which <a href="https://www.msche.org/standards/fourteenth-edition/">lists</a> “reflection on diversity, equity, and inclusion” among its “guiding principles.” That includes applying DEI to admissions targets, student assessments, and curriculum design. 
Never mind that the Supreme Court ruled race-based admissions unconstitutional in 2023, the commission insists that DEI reflection should “address disparate impacts on an increasingly diverse student population if discovered.” Its leadership reflects this far-left agenda, including commission president Heather Perfetti, a <a href="https://www.msche.org/president/">DEI champion</a>, and board members like Valerie Lehr, a professor of “LGBTQ politics” and author of Queer Family Values.
The Coast Guard Academy is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, whose standards also reference DEI <a href="https://www.neche.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Standards-for-Accreditation-2021.pdf">at least five times</a>. While the commission is reportedly considering ditching DEI in October, it remains under the control of a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/10/169037364/300-college-presidents-call-for-guns-to-be-banned-on-campuses-other-steps">gun control extremist</a> who urged the Obama administration to ban “military-style assault weapons” and has praised the children of illegal aliens as embodiments of “<a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-dreamer-collegians-embody-america-promise/2PfaNiACsrc1EKNVTsWCNL/">America’s promise</a>.”
The same holds true for many of the military’s <a href="https://www.restorethemilitary.com/professional-military-education/">Professional Military Education institutions</a>, full of leftist ideologues and subject to the same diversity accreditation mandates.
It’s bad enough that these commissions push radical ideologies on civilian universities. But America cannot afford to waste resources indoctrinating the next generation of military officers, especially as <a href="https://restoration-news.com/is-america-prepared-for-a-war-with-china">China poses a rising threat</a>.
The military’s biggest problem isn’t meeting diversity quotas; it’s restoring a warrior ethos to military culture. For decades, political mandates imposed by Democratic presidents undermined unit cohesion and combat readiness, while leaving the U.S. military dependent on foreign manufacturing to supply critical equipment. 
The organization I lead, Restoration of America, has laid out a blueprint for reenvisioning the military at <a href="https://www.restorethemilitary.com/">RestoretheMilitary.com</a>. It includes legislative solutions for reforming our service academies.
Fortunately, President Trump is turning things around. Under his direction, the War Department is reinstating physical fitness standards. He’s also removing woke senior officers, such as Merchant Marine Academy Superintendent Joanne Nunan, an <a href="https://restoration-news.com/exclusive-service-academy-s-woke-leadership-removed">anti-Christian bigot</a> he fired in June. In July, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll <a href="https://restoration-news.com/west-point-leadership-thumbs-its-nose-at-the-trump-administration">blocked</a> the West Point superintendent from hiring Biden’s “disinformation” czar to head the Social Studies Department.
These are major victories that should be celebrated, but we cannot rest on our laurels.
The next logical step is removing all outside influence over academy curricula by withdrawing the academies from these accreditors. The service academies should either be accredited by a new War Department accrediting body or accreditation should be eliminated altogether. Accreditation exists to prevent fraudsters from issuing worthless degrees from a phony “college,” and to ensure that students know the basics.
West Point, Annapolis, and the others have nothing to prove. They’ve demonstrated their excellence on the battlefield, time and again. It’s time to let them make warriors, not quotas.
* * *
Doug Truax is a West Point graduate, former 4th Infantry Division Army Captain, Ranger, and successful entrepreneur. He is the volunteer, unpaid founder, and CEO of <a href="http://www.restorationofamerica.com">Restoration of America</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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Washington DC Celebrates Army’s 250th Anniversary With Parade And Festivities

Social Justice Warriors Shouldn’t Control West Point

Social Justice Warriors Shouldn't Control West Point

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

LGBTQ

Social Justice

U.S. Military

West Point

Woke Culture

President Donald Trump signed a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/columbus-day-2025/">proclamation</a> on Thursday declaring October 13 Columbus Day and vowing &#8220;to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory.&#8221;
While Columbus Day has been officially recognized in the United States for decades, the Italian explorer has been attacked by Left-wing activists in recent years. Last year, then-President Joe Biden <a href="https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/10/11/a-proclamation-on-columbus-day-2024/">acknowledged</a> Columbus Day, but made little mention of the explorer&#8217;s accomplishments and focused on the &#8220;history and heritage of Italian Americans.&#8221; In Biden&#8217;s first year in office, he <a href="https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/10/08/a-proclamation-indigenous-peoples-day-2021/">issued</a> the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day, which was recognized on the same day as Columbus Day.
Trump&#8217;s proclamation was a stark contrast with Biden&#8217;s words on Columbus.
&#8220;Today our Nation honors the legendary Christopher Columbus — the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth,&#8221; the proclamation states.
&#8220;Outrageously, in recent years, Christopher Columbus has been a prime target of a vicious and merciless campaign to erase our history, slander our heroes, and attack our heritage,&#8221; Trump&#8217;s proclamation adds. &#8220;Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces. Under my leadership, those days are finally over — and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination.&#8221;
In the past decade, controversy has surrounded Columbus Day, as leftists in academia and on the street argue that the day celebrates racism and colonialism. During the George Floyd riots in 2020, dozens of Columbus statues around the country were <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christopher-columbus-statue-removed-cities/">torn down</a> by radical protesters or officially removed to satisfy their demands.
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Some states and the District of Columbia have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day while other states recognize Indigenous Peoples Day on the same day as Columbus Day.
The president signed the proclamation during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. After signing the document, Trump showed it to the cameras in the room and said, &#8220;We&#8217;re calling it Columbus Day.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re back, Italians,&#8221; he added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President Trump: &#8220;Columbus Day! We&#8217;re back, Italians.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/EZdNS2dVpj">pic.twitter.com/EZdNS2dVpj</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1976321278287216661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump also signed a proclamation declaring October 9 Leif Erikson Day and recognizing the Viking&#8217;s &#8220;triumphant spirit of exploration.&#8221;
&#8220;This Leif Erikson Day, we summon his courage, we honor his enduring legacy of adventure and exploration, and we renew our resolve to advance the limits of human achievement,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/leif-erikson-day-2025/#:~:text=NOW%2C%20THEREFORE%2C%20I%2C%20DONALD,2025%2C%20as%20Leif%20Erikson%20Day.">proclamation</a> states.

Donald Trump, Christopher Columbus

Trump Signs Columbus Day Proclamation, Pledges To ‘Reclaim His Extraordinary Legacy’

Christopher Columbus

Columbus Day

Executive

Politics

U.S.

White House

MixCollage-07-Oct-2025-02-38-PM-9301

The Case Of The Child Killer Released From Prison Just Got Even More Insane

Criminal Justice

Kentucky

Murder

Prisons

Serial Killers

Violent Crime

When discussing the story of a Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate who fantasized about murdering a state GOP leader, we have to understand the reasons why this is happening.
There are these gigantic thought structures that have been created and perpetuated generationally by the Left that say it is perfectly okay to talk about murdering your political opponents because they are your political opponents.
According to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-them-virginia-dem-sent-shocking-texts-about-killing-gop-leader-pissing-on-graves">The Daily Wire</a>:  
<blockquote>Democrat Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, in recently uncovered text messages, fantasized about murdering a state GOP leader with “two bullets to the head” and “piss[ing]” on the graves of other Republicans.
In text messages obtained first by National Review, Jones says to another lawmaker that he would use two bullets to murder then-GOP House Speaker Todd Gilbert.
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones texted to Del. Carrie Coyner (R). “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.” Earlier in the text messages, Jones expressed that he would attend the funerals of Republican lawmakers in Virginia “to piss on their graves. … Send them out awash in something.”</blockquote>
What apparently ticked him off at the time was that the Republican House Speaker, Todd Gilbert, attended the funeral of Democrat Delegate Joe Johnson, who passed away at the age of 90, and Gilbert said nice things about his late colleague. And this, of course, is what made Jones, the Democratic Virginia AG candidate, very, very angry.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2293-meet-the-democrat-who-fantasizes-about-shooting-a-gop-leader"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-981859 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
A follow-up message from Jones confirmed not only that he wanted to kill Gilbert, but also that he would like Gilbert&#8217;s children to die.
The Republican state delegate wrote, “You weren&#8217;t simply asking questions and you know it.”
Jones wrote back, “I genuinely was. I wasn&#8217;t attacking you, I was trying to understand your logic.” 
The Republican delegate:  “You weren&#8217;t trying to understand. You were talking about hoping Jennifer Gilbert&#8217;s children would die.” 
Jones: “Yes. I&#8217;ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” 
The Republican delegate: “I point blank asked you more than three times and you dug in that you meant it. I honestly am questioning a lot today.” 
Jones: “I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil and that they are breeding little fascists? Yes.” 
This is all being revealed in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and it is insane. 
Winsome Earle-Sears, who is running for governor of Virginia and is currently lieutenant governor under Glenn Youngkin, put out a statement calling for the resignation of Jay Jones. 
She <a href="https://x.com/winwithwinsome/status/1974199752507208188">wrote</a>:  
<blockquote>This is horrible to read and should be wholly disqualifying of someone running for an office that protects the people of Virginia.
Jay Jones’ horrific comments are a symptom of the entire Democratic Party and his running mate, Abigail Spanberger, needs to call on him to drop out.  
Attorney General Jason Miyares has served the people of Virginia with honor and dignity, and will continue to do so come November. 
Jay Jones can never be Attorney General of Virginia.</blockquote>
Now, the way the mainstream media have covered this is quite wild and also totally insane.
First, they claim these are mere allegations that Jay Jones wanted to kill his political opponent. 
These aren&#8217;t allegations. He literally said it. 
If you text someone and then you confirm over and over again that you mean a thing, and then you say that children should die because they&#8217;re “little fascists,” at a certain point, don’t we have to take you at your word?
POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/04/virginia-elections-jay-jones-texts-00594261">reported</a> the story in the following manner, and it really demonstrates the madness of the legacy media:  
<blockquote>A string of text messages from Jay Jones, Virginia’s Democratic nominee for attorney general, where he mused about violence directed toward a political rival is triggering widespread backlash and threatening to shake up the state’s November election.</blockquote>
And this is how it always works with the legacy media. If Democrats do a bad thing, the story is,  “Republicans pounce.” If Republicans do a bad thing, the story is “Republicans did a bad thing.” 
I love the language that POLITICO used about how Jay Jones “mused about violence.” 
He was just musing. You know, it&#8217;s what you do when you call for someone&#8217;s murder. 
It&#8217;s just musing about what would happen if something really bad were to happen to them.
Pretty incredible. There&#8217;s no apology either. And so when we say the legacy media and Left have a soft spot in their hearts for murder and terrorism, it appears that there is a lot of truth to that statement.
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Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) campaigns as the Democratic nominee in the Virginia’s governor’s race.

Meet The Democrat Who Fantasizes About Shooting A GOP Leader

Political Violence

Virginia

In February 2020, two professors participated in a <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/experts-debate-the-regulation-of-hateful-speech-on-campus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/experts-debate-the-regulation-of-hateful-speech-on-campus/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0_Nus6xBc7ezkBvs9uTOra">debate</a> hosted by Harvard on the subject of hate speech and whether it constitutes “violence.”
Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychology professor at Northeastern University, argued that, yes, hate speech can be violence based on the stress responses in the brain when confronted with speech one finds offensive. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, called Barrett’s argument a “huge disservice to what we are trying to do at universities” and warned that opening up this concept to a room full of students will lead to them equating speech and ideas they don’t like to violence. And when violence is the perception, the only recourse is more violence.
Little did these professors know that they were sitting on a powder keg with a short fuse. Who can forget the chaos that ensued in 2020 and beyond? And since then, with just a few exceptions, numerous violent outbreaks in the public square have been initiated by those rallying around left-wing causes.
Given that the vast majority of college professors <a href="https://dukechronicle.com/article/duke-university-faculty-survey-political-leanings-liberal-conservative-moderate-centrist-harvard-yale-variation-across-school-tenure-status-demographics-20241022" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dukechronicle.com/article/duke-university-faculty-survey-political-leanings-liberal-conservative-moderate-centrist-harvard-yale-variation-across-school-tenure-status-demographics-20241022&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0suXDDFCeetl9-FSmRkqFb">identify</a> as “liberal” or “very liberal,” we now have a sizable petri dish in which young people learn that violence is an available tool at their disposal — a tool used to dispose of speech they want eliminated from the public square.
We saw the culmination of this earlier this month with the cruel assassination of conservative icon Charlie Kirk. According to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5506576-charlie-kirk-suspect-hatred-texts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5506576-charlie-kirk-suspect-hatred-texts/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0cG3uMfqu-15s9JBLWWPSQ">text messages</a> sent by the young man in custody for shooting Kirk, he “had enough of his hatred,” saying that “some hate can’t be negotiated out.” And what “hate” deserved silencing in this twisted mind of the killer? Allegedly, he was romantically involved with his roommate, a male who identified as a female, and Kirk was an outspoken critic of gender identity ideology, as are many others around the world.
Equating the widely held, scientific truth of biological sex to “hate” is absurd. But, regardless, “hate” speech should never be the subject of violence or censorship — especially not on college campuses. Once the bastion of the marketplace of ideas, universities are quickly becoming breeding grounds for uncritical thinking where uniformity of thought is encouraged and dissenters are silenced. Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Academic Freedom, where I serve as director, has intervened in numerous situations where conservative students and student groups — <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/turning-point-usa-suny-cortland-v-cortland-college-student-association/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://adflegal.org/case/turning-point-usa-suny-cortland-v-cortland-college-student-association/?utm_source%3Ddailywire%26utm_medium%3Doped&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3OgGQQHlGz-ZmvEMI4Y6gk">including TPUSA chapters</a> — have been attacked simply for espousing ideas that go against the grain.
Young people didn’t learn the idea of violence as a solution to discomfort in a vacuum. As previously mentioned, the left-wing bias that permeates academic faculty is eye-opening. <a href="https://heterodoxacademy.org/blog/are-colleges-and-universities-too-liberal-what-the-research-says-about-the-political-composition-of-campuses-and-campus-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://heterodoxacademy.org/blog/are-colleges-and-universities-too-liberal-what-the-research-says-about-the-political-composition-of-campuses-and-campus-climate/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3eLAotLPKJODCTDdKgtwqX">Studies</a> show that, in 1989, the liberal-to-conservative faculty ratio was 2:1; by 2017, it was 5:1. A 2022 <a href="https://freespeechcenter.universityofcalifornia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NFH-VOICE-GRANT-REPORT-Politics-of-the-Professoriate-2.7.22-1-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://freespeechcenter.universityofcalifornia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NFH-VOICE-GRANT-REPORT-Politics-of-the-Professoriate-2.7.22-1-1.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0F0adF8_CdxMyEku0U7Vcx">report</a> from the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement found 69.5% of professors identified as “solidly liberal,” while only 13.2% were “conservative.” A 2023 Harvard <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/5/22/faculty-survey-2023-politics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/5/22/faculty-survey-2023-politics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3J3uwPJgWsq3OveEVAmblP">study</a> showed that its own faculty displayed a 26:1 liberal-to-conservative ratio. This lack of viewpoint diversity has played a significant role in fostering hostility toward free speech.
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The simple solution is for the adults in the room to acknowledge the consequences of faulty ideas and take steps to foster diversity of thought. This means hiring faculty who share different opinions. This means hosting respectful debates where students can witness civil discourse. This means that, if students disrupt respectful debate, campus leadership will take measures to hold unruly protestors accountable. And this means, most importantly, that we should move past the idea that speech protected by the Constitution is equivalent to “violence.”
There are only two ways to enact change in society: speech or violence. In our current political and cultural environment, we’ve seen where both ends of the spectrum draw their lines. But a democratic society cannot long exist when one party believes that it is acceptable to kill those with whom it disagrees. Virtually every civilization throughout history has chosen violence; our founders, on the other hand, chose a better path.
Now is the time to preserve that path.
* * *
Tyson Langhofer is senior counsel and director of the Center for Academic Freedom with <a href="http://www.adflegal.org/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.adflegal.org/?utm_source%3Ddailywire%26utm_medium%3Doped&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1sroCl7-wqa7zVSXPqasqY">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/ADFLegal" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/ADFLegal&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0rr8NLbEmHuac-ozsbbWhA">@ADFLegal</a>).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Kirk Debate

Free Speech Is Essential. Universities Must Do Everything They Can To Preserve It.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

American Universities

Free Speech

TPUSA

In the wake of the horrific and historic assassination of the brilliant young conservative Charlie Kirk, there has understandably been increased focus on the rhetoric that preceded and followed the event. The overwhelming majority of Americans <a href="https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/media.deseret.com/media/misc/pdf/kirk-sky-national.pdf">(86%)</a> express concern over political violence, with <a href="https://statesunited.org/resources/political-violence-survey/">78%</a> believing it has escalated in recent years, and 57% saying it is a major problem — the highest response to that question in the last two years. 
When it comes to assessing blame, Americans are unsurprisingly <a href="https://www.deseret.com/u-s-world/2025/09/15/political-violence-america-charlie-kirk-shooting-morning-consult-poll/">split along partisan lines</a> on culpability, with the plurality of respondents believing the Left and Right bear equal responsibility. However, they find agreement in blaming politicians on both sides as being the key instigators.
Republicans point to examples of Hillary Clinton calling Trump supporters “deplorables;” Biden telling us that it’s time to “put a bulls-eye on Trump;” Maxine Waters telling supporters to “create a crowd and … push back” and during the 2021 unrest in Minneapolis “to get more confrontational;” Schumer telling Supreme Court Justices “… you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you;” Dan Goldman telling an MSNBC interviewer that Trump “has to be eliminated;” Vice President Harris telling everyone that Trump and MAGA supporters were “a threat to democracy;” and of course, the countless references to Trump and MAGA supporters being Hitler, Nazis, fascists, and Gestapo.
Democrats counter with references to Steve Bannon referring to the political opposition as “criminals, vermin,” and “enemies of the republic;” Trump telling supporters to “fight like hell” and claiming he called white supremacists “very fine people;” Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting a “peaceful national divorce” between red and blue states; Trump calling Democrats “scum, garbage” and “enemies of the people;” and Musk posting that “The Left is the party of murder.”
It is much more emotionally engaging to discuss the implications and injustices of rhetorical content, but regardless of which side has been more vitriolic, there is a far larger, more influential factor that supersedes all of it: Who controls the dominant media platforms — and specifically, the digital platforms. And that dominance overwhelmingly belongs to the Left. The result is that the Left’s messages and hyperbole are broadcast to dramatically more people, dramatically more frequently, and on dramatically more channels. Further, competing or contradictory messaging is far more likely to be absent or censored on the Left’s channels, so their audience is fed a much more homogenous diet of narratives.
Consider three important media domains: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Legacy Media, with centralized and professionally produced content, including television, radio, and newspapers (CNN, Reuters, Fox News, The New York Times, NPR, BBC, etc.)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Social media — with user-generated content, no editorial oversight, and algorithm-generated visibility (Facebook, X—formerly Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, etc.)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Search (Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.)</li>
</ul>
The waning, but still significant, mainstream media are <a href="https://www.mrc.org/liberal-mediaevery-poll-shows-journalists-are-more-liberal-american-public-and-public-knows-it">dominantly Left-leaning and becoming more so</a>. Research has shown that members of the media are <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Fact_check/Do_97_percent_of_journalist_donations_go_to_Democrats">overwhelmingly liberal</a>, with the vast majority of them supporting Democratic candidates. In 2016, 96% of journalists’ donations went to the Hillary Clinton campaign. <a href="https://www.mrc.org/node/90399">Media Research Center found</a> that 92% of Trump coverage during the 2020 presidential campaign was negative – even more so than the relentless, hostile coverage he received in 2017. When examining bias in mainstream/traditional media, <a href="https://www.biasly.com/media-bias-chart/us-main/?">studies</a> have concluded that upwards of 60% of these outlets are left-leaning. But that doesn’t tell the whole story because that percentage is based on the number of outlets, regardless of the audience size for that outlet. When considering the total audience size and the percentage of it that receives information with a left-leaning bias, the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/pj_2025-06-10_news-media-sources_report.pdf">bias number climbs closer to 75%</a>. The percentage of Americans viewing a liberal bias in the mainstream media has doubled since 1985.
However, traditional media are quickly being pushed aside by social media, where the leftist bias is even more pronounced. The top social media companies are all Left-leaning (See <a href="https://www.cato.org/commentary/how-did-ai-get-so-biased-favor-left">here</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rigged-Media-Democrats-Seized-Elections/dp/168451259X/">here</a>, <a href="https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/social-media-trump-conservative-bias/">here</a>, and <a href="https://twitterfiles.substack.com/p/the-censorship-industrial-complex">here</a>). Meta, the undisputed king of social media, owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, reaching approximately <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/">4 billion users</a> and controlling 75-80% of the social media market worldwide. Alphabet Inc., a smaller behemoth that owns Google and YouTube, has just surpassed $3 trillion in market cap and reaches some <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-sub-section-top-social-platforms?">2.2 billion users</a>. A collection of companies, including those owning TikTok, Douyin, WeChat, QQ, and Snapchat, reaches an additional <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/?">3.5 billion users</a> combined. Musk’s little X is much further down the list with a mere 500 million users.
I previously described social media as the <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/08/the_federal_government_colluded_with_social_media_to_control_content_so_what.html">800-pound gorilla in a rapidly shrinking cage</a>, noting that usage has skyrocketed from 5% in 2005 to over 70% today. Some estimates indicate that as much as 38% of all internet time today is spent on social media. Considering Facebook alone, the vast majority (nearly 70%) of <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/facebook-statistics/?">Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users</a> visit the site daily, and more than half of them visit it several times per day. 
The younger generations are particularly fond of social media, with a strong plurality — some <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/07/news-consumption-social-video/?">44% of Americans aged 18 to 24 and 34% of those aged 25 to 34 </a>— reporting that they now obtain their news and information from social media and video formats, rather than traditional media. This trend is accelerating worldwide, raising concerns about misinformation, algorithmic bias, and the blurring of entertainment and news.
What about when audiences go searching for information on their own? Most commonly today, this means using a computer, and in this world, Google controls a whopping <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share?">90% of the search market</a>, processing some <a href="https://sqmagazine.co.uk/google-search-statistics/?">8.9 billion search requests</a> per day, amounting to over 5 trillion annually. Over 70% of all clicks go to the top 5 search results (hence the industry joke that the best place to bury a dead body is on the second page of results for a Google search — because nobody ever looks there). They control a significantly larger share (<a href="https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/google-statistics/?">95%</a>) of the global mobile search market.
Just prior to the 2022 midterm elections, <a href="https://www.allsides.com/blog/google-news-shows-strong-political-bias-allsides-analysis">researchers found that the plurality of articles returned</a> for a Google search under the term “election” were from the New York Times and CNN (44%), with 0% from center or Right-leaning outlets. In 2023, <a href="https://www.allsides.com/blog/google-news-shows-strong-political-bias-allsides-analysis?copilot_analytics_metadata=eyJldmVudEluZm9fbWVzc2FnZUlkIjoiMXB5eDR2NGs1WnJkVDYxR3RWcXA4IiwiZXZlbnRJbmZvX2NvbnZlcnNhdGlvbklkIjoiOURMZ3dnaG5tdFlhWHpzc0xiZGVzIiwiZXZlbnRJbmZvX2NsaWNrU291cmNlIjoiY2l0YXRpb25MaW5rIiwiZXZlbnRJbmZvX2NsaWNrRGVzdGluYXRpb24iOiJodHRwczpcL1wvd3d3LmFsbHNpZGVzLmNvbVwvYmxvZ1wvZ29vZ2xlLW5ld3Mtc2hvd3Mtc3Ryb25nLXBvbGl0aWNhbC1iaWFzLWFsbHNpZGVzLWFuYWx5c2lzIn0=">the same research firm found</a> that 61% of the articles posted on the Google News homepage came from Left-rated sources, with only 3% coming from Right-rated sources. Repeated samplings produced very similar results.
<a href="https://www.gotchseo.com/google-biased/?">Another research firm</a> used 50 politically charged search terms with Google and found that the results were demonstrably left-leaning. Consider their results for the following:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Black Lives Matter” — 9 out of 10 results from Left-leaning outlets.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Border wall” – 7 of 10 results Left-leaning.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Dreamers” – 6 of 10 results Left-leaning.</li>
</ul>
Conversely, searches for “immigration policy” or “gun control facts” would surface snippets from CNN, NYT, or Vox, while conservative sources were buried or absent. Notably, the researchers attribute some of the results to the dominance of left-leaning outlets in Search Engine Optimization, rather than to algorithmic intent. Regardless, the result in the output is the same.
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In his 2019 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, Dr. Robert Epstein, a self-proclaimed lifelong Democrat, argued that Google posed a threat not only to democracy but also to human autonomy. He has focused particularly on ephemeral search results — the auto-complete function that Google and others provide, which offers suggestions for alternative or additional phrasing. As but one example, he found that typing “Hillary Clinton is…” yielded suggestions like “winning,” “awesome,” and “qualified,” while “Donald Trump is…” produced “dangerous,” “racist,” and “a liar.” He <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Epstein%2520Testimony.pdf">concludes</a>: 
<blockquote>We are all aware that Google deletes or blocks access to videos on YouTube, which it owns, but few people are aware that Google blocks access to millions of websites. By the way, it is not just conservative content that gets censored . . . The problem with Google is not that it censors conservatives; the problem is that it has the power to determine what content billions of people worldwide will or will not see. No single entity – especially a private company that is not accountable to the public – should have such power.</blockquote>
It is clear that all three domains — the legacy media, social media, and search — are all heavily Left-leaning. Consider what this dominance means for the sheer volume of leftist information and rhetoric being broadcast and received. Put aside for the moment the questions of whether Democrats are using more pernicious or violent language than republicans. That issue pales in comparison to the question of how frequently their message is being broadcast — how many videos, shorts, stories, op-eds, posts — the sheer volume of minutes that will be devoted to the Left&#8217;s position versus the Right&#8217;s and whether any counter to it will be available.
The Left has a massive, pervasive, powerful, and sophisticated digital network, which I previously analogized to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-democrat-warplane-takes-flak-audacity-remains-intact?author=Greg+Salsbury&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=As+Democrat+Warplane+Takes+Flak,+Audacity+Remains+Intact">stealth fighter</a>. Comparatively, conservatives have a Sopwith Camel. It is why on any number of issues, from Russiagate to Charlottesville misquotes, to Trump’s comments about COVID and bleach, to Charlie Kirk’s killer being right-wing, a shockingly high percentage of Americans still believe the lies that were broadcast ad nauseam despite their thorough debunking. Until conservatives can deal with the massive differential in scale, reach, and volume, “turning down the rhetoric” will remain a far lower priority issue.
* * *
Greg Salsbury, Ph.D. is former president of Western Colorado University and Board of Advisors member for <a href="https://starrs.us">STARRS.US</a>. He earned his Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern California and an M.A. from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Top Social Media Platforms

It’s Not Just The Rhetoric, It’s Who Controls The Mic

Big Tech

Elections

Google

Silicon Valley

Asylum Seeking Migrants Wait In Line For Immigration Customs Enforcement Appointments

Another Horrifying Reason We Need Mass Deportations Immediately

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Islam

Michigan

Minnesota

Muslims

Public Schools

Schools

Somalia

On Wednesday morning, a sniper killed an ICE detainee and wounded several others in a shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
Bullets found near the shooter&#8217;s body were reportedly engraved with anti-ICE messages.
Kash Patel, the head of the FBI, <a href="https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1970877754221498599">wrote on X</a>, “While the investigation is ongoing, the initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack. These despicable, politically motivated attacks against law enforcement are not a one-off.”
The number one clue that the shooter had a left-wing perspective is that the shooting happened at an ICE facility. This is not the first act of violence at an ICE facility in recent months. In August, there was an ICE facility that was attacked in Yakima, Washington. In July, there were ten suspects who were charged for their July 4 attack in Texas, in which, according to ICE, nearly a dozen violent assailants equipped with tactical gear and weapons attacked a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Prairie Line detention facility in Alvarado, Texas.
There was an attack on ICE officers in Los Angeles that prompted federal intervention by the Trump administration.
This is nothing new, and pretending that it is something new is ridiculous. As acting ICE director Todd Lyons <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/ice-acting-director-says-assaults-on-agents-up-1000-as-dallas-facility-targeted-in-shooting-never-seen-anything-like-this/">said</a>, “I&#8217;ve never seen anything like this in my law enforcement career. I&#8217;ve never seen threats on law enforcement, specifically ICE, increase the way it is. You know, we&#8217;re up over 1,000% assaults on officers right now. And really just a lot of the talk that&#8217;s out there, a lot of the rhetoric, is just the violence directed towards law enforcement officers just trying to do their job. And we just keep it seeing an increase step by step.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that the shooting was an attempted assassination of ICE officers. It was his belief that the ICE detainees were hit accidentally, that the sniper was not trying to hit the detainees, but was trying to fire at law enforcement.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2286-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Meanwhile, NPR host Maria Hinojosa <a href="https://x.com/TimJGraham/status/1970964318981169286">compared ICE</a> to the Nazis, saying, “Black and Latino unity and the city of Chicago will only grow thanks to Donald Trump and his Republican Party. So that is something that he and his Republican Party has feared, that unity of black and brown people coming together. Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, and we do not like outsiders coming to tell us how to run our city. &#8230; I posted, actually, right after that first day on the ground in Chicago; I posted about the fact that there are little Anne Franks, right? &#8230; little girls and boys who are afraid to come out of their homes.”
This sort of rhetoric could very likely lead to violence, because when you say that Anne Frank is hiding, that makes ICE the Nazis.
Last week, Rep. Jasmine Crockett compared ICE to slave patrols.
When you keep saying that ICE agents are Nazis, that ICE agents are slave patrols, people might get the idea that maybe you should do violence to members of ICE. That’s not a huge leap.
I&#8217;m not saying Jasmine Crockett is responsible for somebody shooting an ICE agent, any more than I&#8217;m saying that Barack Obama&#8217;s anti-police rhetoric led to the shooting of Dallas police officers.
But — if you keep ratcheting up the temperature, if you keep treating people in law enforcement as though they are enemies of the people, as though they are doing the bidding of dark Nazi gods or something of that ilk, people at the fringes are going to do acts of violence.
The night before the shooting happened, Gavin Newsom was on Stephen Colbert&#8217;s terrible show, which is still on the air like a zombie, walking beyond its own brain death.
Gavin Newsom <a href="https://x.com/BrendonLeslie/status/1970859241121685589">proceeded to suggest</a> that people need to push back on ICE agents, saying:
<blockquote>That&#8217;s happening in the United States of America. Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars. People disappearing. No due process, no oversight. Zero accountability happening in the United States of America today. People ask, “Well, is it authoritarianism? You&#8217;re being hyperbolic.’”
Bulls*** we&#8217;re being hyperbolic. If you&#8217;re a black and brown community, it&#8217;s here in this country. I&#8217;m deeply proud that I had the privilege of signing the nation&#8217;s first bill, to address the issue of masking, also to require you have simple identification. &#8230; I mean, if some guy jumped out of an unmarked car in a van with a mask on, tried to grab me, I mean, by definition, you&#8217;re going to push back. And so these are not just authoritarian tendencies. These are authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government.</blockquote>
If you keep saying these sorts of things over and over and over again, it should not be a gigantic shock when people commit acts of violence.
The Left has increasingly been committing acts of violence because the rhetoric is so unhinged. 
One of the major problems in the country right now, as polling data shows, is that Americans believe that their neighbors are their enemies. Much of that is self-reinforcing and self-perpetuating. If your neighbor says you are their enemy and then you respond, “If he thinks I&#8217;m his enemy, then he&#8217;s my enemy,” you end up with a cycle of partisan polarization that is unbridgeable. 
Once it becomes unbridgeable, you are effectuating higher levels of hatred and violence. That is a real scenario in the United States.
It&#8217;s not equally positioned. For my entire lifetime, the political Left in this country has basically treated the Right as though the Right were some form of Nazi offshoot.
If you look at the polling data, you will see that things didn&#8217;t shift for Republicans starting to react to that attitude until roughly 2013-14. Thus, for a solid decade and a half, from the time George W. Bush became president, there was a move by the Left to demonize Republicans as the “Other,” as though there was something wrong with them. Democrats didn&#8217;t just think that their neighbors were wrong; they thought they were morally bad, while Republicans tended to think that their neighbors were wrong, but not morally bad.
All of that started to shift around the second term of Barack Obama.
Now both sides think the other side is morally bad, and it&#8217;s pushing both parties out to fringe rhetoric — but the Left has been there for a long time. It&#8217;s systemically integrated into their worldviews.
This is why I&#8217;ve been talking about the permission structures for violence that are generating violence, generating things like the assassination of my friend Charlie Kirk.
When you&#8217;re creating permission structures, when you create a mental model whereby speech is violence, that people who oppose you are actually actors of deep, malicious evil who must be destroyed at any cost, you’re going to get higher levels of violence, which will generate a reaction on the other side.
And that could tear this country, the greatest nation ever created, apart.

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