<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/house-republicans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Republicans</a> announced on Tuesday the creation of a task force geared toward the investigation and declassification of covert government materials ranging from the assassinations of prominent figures in American history to the origins of COVID to UFOs.
Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) declared that Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) will lead the &#8220;Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets&#8221; just weeks after President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an order to declassify the assassination files of former President John F. Kennedy, former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
&#8220;For too long, the federal government has kept information of public interest classified and the American people are demanding greater transparency. This secrecy has sowed distrust in our institutions,&#8221; Comer said in a statement. &#8220;The Task Force will build on the Trump Administration’s efforts to declassify records of national importance and ensure Americans get the answers they deserve. Representative Luna is committed to shining a light on the truth and ending the era of secrecy. It’s time to let the sunlight in and finally provide answers the American public has long demanded.&#8221;
A press release said the task force has been authorized for six months pursuant to committee rules, and members would be announced at a later date. The Oversight Committee also revealed a battery of <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Task-Force-Letters.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letters</a> that Comer and Luna sent to leaders, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, seeking briefings in light of Trump&#8217;s order and noting they would then request to see relevant documents and make recommendations on the declassification process.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Signed</a> on January 23, Trump&#8217;s directive said the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General would have 15 days to &#8220;present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy&#8221; and 45 days to &#8220;review records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of these records.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The Daily Wire, Trump said: &#8220;A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.&#8221;
The House Oversight task force announcement <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-discovers-thousands-of-secret-jfk-assassination-records-after-trump-order-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">followed</a> a report by Axios on Monday that said the FBI found thousands of records that were never submitted to a review board overseeing the release of documents related to the 1963 assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.
Luna, who was first elected to the House in 2022, has been a key player in the bipartisan inquiry into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), formerly described as unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
&#8220;The federal government has been hiding information from Americans for decades. We have spent years seeking information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, Reverend King, and other government secrets without success,&#8221; Luna said. &#8220;It is time to give Americans the answers they deserve, which is why I am honored to lead this bipartisan task force that seeks truth and transparency. We will also investigate UAPs/USOs, the Epstein client list, COVID-19 origins, and the 9/11 files. We will work alongside President Trump and his cabinet members to deliver truth to the American people. From this moment forward, we will restore trust through transparency.&#8221;
During a press conference with Comer at the U.S. Capitol, Luna suggested the task force&#8217;s first area of focus will be on the John F. Kennedy assassination and then made a stunning assertion that cast doubt on Lee Harvey Oswald <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lee-harvey-oswald-tied-to-cia-before-jfk-assassination-investigator-claims" target="_blank" rel="noopener">being the lone gunman</a>.
&#8220;I can tell you, based on what I’ve been seeing so far, the initial hearing that was actually held here in Congress was actually faulty, and the single bullet theory — I believe there were two shooters and we should be finding more information as we are able to gain access into the SCIF before the files are actually released to the public,&#8221; Luna said.
Watch the full press conference below:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Anna Paulina Luna Answers Questions About New Committee On Exposing Gov Secrets On 7 Major Events" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gPYl8yGHJj8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Reps. James Comer and Anna Paulina Luna

Luna To Lead New House Disclosure Task Force: JFK Files, Epstein List, UFOs On The Table

Congress

COVID

Donald Trump

James Comer

Jeffrey Epstein

John F. Kennedy (JFK)

Martin Luther King Jr.

Transparency

U.S.

U.S. House of Representatives

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on X for the first time in nearly a month on Friday to thank President Donald Trump for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-will-be-revealed-trump-declassifies-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-jr-assassination-files" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declassifying</a> the files related to the assassination of his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, and father, Robert F. Kennedy.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to declassify the JFK and RFK files, along with the files on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. After signing the order, the president told his aide to give the pen he used to RFK Jr., his nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary.
&#8220;A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed,&#8221; Trump said.
In a post on Friday, Kennedy thanked Trump &#8220;for trusting American citizens and for taking the first step down the road towards reversing this disastrous trajectory&#8221; of government secrecy. He argued, &#8220;A government that withholds information is inherently fearful of its citizens’ ability to make informed decisions and participate actively in democracy.&#8221;
&#8220;JFK warned that &#8216;The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secrecy … We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it,'&#8221; Kennedy wrote.
&#8220;The 60-year strategy of lies and secrecy, disinformation, censorship, and defamation employed by Intel officials to obscure and suppress troubling facts about JFK’s assassination has provided the playbook for a series of subsequent crises — the MLK and RFK assassinations, Vietnam, 9/11, the Iraq war and COVID — that have each accelerated the subversion of our exemplary democracy by the Military/Medical Industrial Complex and pushed us further down the road toward totalitarianism,&#8221; he added.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
JFK warned that “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secrecy … We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers… <a href="https://t.co/cM0lxiycA7">https://t.co/cM0lxiycA7</a>
&mdash; Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1882848590563065858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
According to Trump&#8217;s order, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the Attorney General will have 15 days to come up with a plan for the release of the JFK files and 45 days to plan for the release of the RFK and MLK files. The Senate still has to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to serve as DNI and Pam Bondi to serve as AG.
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“More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events. Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,” Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declassification-of-records-concerning-the-assassinations-of-president-john-f-kenned/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> states.
The family of MLK also released a <a href="https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/king-family-responds-trump-ordering-files-assassination-declassified" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> after Trump signed the order and asked for &#8220;the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.&#8221;
&#8220;For us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years,&#8221; the King family said.

RFK Jr.

RFK Jr. Thanks Trump For Declassifying JFK Files, Blasts ’60-Year Strategy Of Lies And Secrecy’

RFK Jr. Thanks Trump For Declassifying JFK Files

Executive

Executive Orders

Politics

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> signed an order on Thursday to declassify the assassination files of former President John F. Kennedy, former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
As he signed the order, Trump said, &#8220;A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.&#8221; The president then instructed his aide to give the pen he signed the order with to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary and the son of RFK and nephew of JFK.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: President Trump signs an Executive Order to declassify the JFK, RFK, and MLK Jr. files<a href="https://t.co/X0GwLocBnS">pic.twitter.com/X0GwLocBnS</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1882531336965312695?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
When more JFK files were made public in 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration said 97% of the roughly 5 million pages were public, but around 3,000 documents remained classified and another 30,000 had redactions, CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-announces-jfk-rfk-mlk-assassination-files-to-be-released/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Trump has promised since his first term in office to make all of the files public. Questions have swirled for decades around President Kennedy&#8217;s assassination, which occurred in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.
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&#8220;More than 50 years after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Federal Government has not released to the public all of its records related to those events. Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,&#8221; Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declassification-of-records-concerning-the-assassinations-of-president-john-f-kenned/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> states.
All records relating to JFK&#8217;s assassination were to be made public by 2017 as specified by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, but Trump &#8220;accepted proposed redactions from executive departments and agencies (agencies) in 2017 and 2018&#8221; while ordering &#8220;the continued re-evaluation of those remaining redactions.&#8221; Former President Joe Biden then allowed agencies to take additional time to review the files and withhold information from the public.
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&#8220;I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue,&#8221; Trump&#8217;s order continues. &#8220;And although no Act of Congress directs the release of information pertaining to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I have determined that the release of all records in the Federal Government’s possession pertaining to each of those assassinations is also in the public interest.&#8221;
Per the order, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General will have 15 days to &#8220;present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of records relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy&#8221; and 45 days to &#8220;review records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and present a plan to the President for the full and complete release of these records.&#8221;

‘Everything Will Be Revealed’: Trump Declassifies JFK, RFK, And MLK Jr. Assassination Files

assassination

Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) compared former President Donald Trump&#8217;s supporters — particularly evangelical Christians — to segregationists and slavery advocates during a recent interview, suggesting that they must be answering to a different God.
Warnock joined host David Remnick for a lengthy conversation that aired over the weekend on &#8220;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/senator-raphael-warnock-on-americas-moral-and-spiritual-battle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New Yorker Radio Hour</a>,&#8221; and Warnock insisted that the political fight against Trump was also a &#8220;moral and spiritual&#8221; battle.
It was Remnick who raised the question about pro-Trump evangelicals and what he called a &#8220;movement&#8221; among them to call for becoming a &#8220;Christian Nation with laws instituting Christian principles.&#8221;
&#8220;The enormous number of people of earnest faith, who look at someone who lives the way he does, who’s now been convicted of multiple felonies, how do you analyze that?&#8221; Remnick asked.
Warnock responded by suggesting that evangelical Trump supporters were no different from the Christians who had at one time supported either slavery or segregation.
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&#8220;Well, there were a number of Christians, a whole lot of Christians, who were pro-slavery. And, there are a whole lot of Christians who were pro-segregation,&#8221; Warnock explained, adding, &#8220;There’s a recurring line by Martin Luther King Jr in his letter from the Birmingham jail. He says it a few times, and in his speeches — he says, &#8216;I am so disappointed in the American church. What kind of people worship there? Who really is their God?&#8217; That’s the question for this moment. &#8216;Who really is their God?&#8217; Particularly when we’ve been told by a lot of folks on the far right for years that their focus is family values.&#8221;
Warnock went on to attack evangelicals for their position on &#8220;matters of private morality,&#8221; such as sex and gender issues.
&#8220;And those same people now are lined up behind Donald Trump,&#8221; Warnock kept hammering the point. &#8220;A man who has, had several marriages who found himself caught up in the crosshairs of, his decision to having an affair with a porn star, and these same folks who raised these issues around family values and private morality are the ones who are speaking as if he is the Messiah of God. I think the question that Doctor King asked all those years ago is especially relevant at this moment: &#8216;Who really is their God?'&#8221;

President Biden Holds Campaign Rally In Atlanta Area

‘Who Really Is Their God?’ Sen. Warnock Compares Trump Supporters To Segregationists, Slavery Advocates

'Who Really Is Their God?' Sen. Warnock Compares Trump-Supporters To Segregationists, Slavery Advocates

Christians

Raphael Warnock

Segregation

Slavery

Bernice King, chief executive officer of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center For Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, said this week that President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden&#8217;s</a> campaign is in trouble with black voters who do not believe that things are better for them under his administration.
King, who is the youngest daughter of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., made the remarks during a Wednesday interview on Bloomberg Television.
&#8220;I think there are people in the black community who are feeling like not a lot has changed, especially economically, in the black community, and I think many of them are being driven by that,&#8221; she said.
Polling has shown that while Biden maintains a lead over Trump with black voters, his lead is very low for a Democratic president, and the amount of support that Trump has from black voters is high for a Republican candidate.
&#8220;And it&#8217;s not speculation, especially black males who seem to be more attracted to Donald Trump and his candidacy, and I think there has to be a plan, a strategy for the Biden administration to really creatively figure out how to reach especially this next generation who&#8217;s very disgruntled right now with the Biden administration,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;It&#8217;s not going to be easy, unfortunately, but this probably is the most defining election of my time.&#8221;
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WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., says Biden is in trouble with black voters:
&#8220;I think there are people in the black community that are feeling like not a lot has changed, especially economically in the black community and I think many of them are… <a href="https://t.co/jp1M6j2rz5">pic.twitter.com/jp1M6j2rz5</a>
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1791177941873041542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2024</a></blockquote>

The 2024 Martin Luther King, Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service

MLK’s Daughter Bernice King: Black Men ‘More Attracted To Donald Trump And His Candidacy’

Elections

Joe Biden

On Monday, Democrat Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in Congress, gave the annual Martin Luther King sermon at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, where he offered aid impassioned response to those who have cheered and celebrated the Hamas massacre of 1,230 Israelis on October 7.
Speaking of the “moral crisis we are facing in a post-October 7 world,” Torres continued, “Like all of you, I was profoundly shaken, not only by October 7, but by its aftermath. I found it utterly horrifying to see fellow Americans openly cheering and celebrating the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
“And for me, the aftermath of October 7 revealed the barbarity of the American heart that reminded me of an earlier and darker time in our nation’s history; a time when the public mobs of Jim Crow would openly celebrate the lynching of African-Americans or the lynching of a Jewish-American like Leo Frank,” he continued.
“And so words cannot express the overwhelming outrage that I felt at the barbaric reaction to the barbarism of October 7. You know, people often ask me, ‘Why do you care so deeply? Why do you speak out so frequently and forcefully against anti-Semitism?’ And I simply reply, ‘You are asking the wrong question. The question is not why have I chosen to be outspoken; the question is why have others chosen to be silent amid the deadliest day for the Jews since the Holocaust.’”
“Dr. King once said that history will record that the greatest tragedy is not the strident clamor of the bad people, but it’s the appalling silence of the good people,” Torres recalled. “Elie Wiesel once said that the opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference. And what we’ve seen in the aftermath of October 7 is appalling silence and indifference and cowardice from so-called leaders in our society; from institutions that we once respected and admired. And if we as a society cannot bring ourselves to condemn the murder of innocents with moral clarity, then we must ask: What are we becoming as a society? What does that reveal about the depth of anti-Semitism in the American soul?”
“October 7 has been an awakening for the Jewish community, but it must be a reckoning for all of America,” he declared. “We must confront the deepening rot of anti-Semitism; on social media platforms, on college campuses, and elsewhere in America. We must ask ourselves: What kind of society do we wish to be? Do we wish to be a society that affirms that every life, every Jewish life, every black life, every life, has inherent dignity and value and worth? That each of us is a child of God, that each of us is an equal creation in the image of God?”
“Or do we wish to be a society that affirms that violence and terror, no matter how barbaric, can be justified and even glorified, under the guise of ‘resistance,’” he asked pointedly.
“I, for one, cannot imagine anything, more hostile to the teachings of Dr. King. More contemptuous of the non-violent life that he led and the non-violent legacy that he left behind, than the glorification of violence and terror that we saw in the aftermath of October 7,” he continued. ‘And so let us reshape our society in the image of Dr. King.”
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“Like Dr. King, I had the honor of speaking at the National Mall in the presence of hundreds of thousands of people; the context was the March for Israel, the march against anti-Semitism, the march to secure the release of our hostages,” he said. “And as I spoke, I took note that year in which I spoke, 2023, was historic in more ways than one; it marked the 75th anniversary of Israel’s rebirth and the 60th anniversary of Dr. King’s I Have A Dream speech. And those words, ‘I have a dream,’ reminded me that the Jewish people have long had a dream of Jewish liberation through a Jewish state. And Israel itself is the realization of a dream that is both ancient and modern. And that realized dream, despite the tragedy and trauma of October 7, will live on for the next 75 years and beyond.”
“You know, a rabbi once shared with me a story about the origins of the phrase, ‘Am Yisrael Chai’” (The people of Israel live), he remembered, continuing:
<blockquote>
In 1945, there was a BBC reporter, Patrick Gordon walker, who was present during the fifth day of the British Second Army’s liberation of the (Bergen) Belsen Nazi concentration camp. And since he arrived on a Friday on the eve of Sabbath, he recorded for the BBC broadcast a religious service held in the concentration camp by Rabbi Leslie Henry Hartman. And as you might imagine, the religious service was both inspired and inspiring. Here you had survivors who had just been liberated; many of them were frail and seriously ill; many of them were starved and emaciated. These survivors easily could have felt overwhelming despair, but instead found the inner strength and inspiration to sing HaTikvah, which is, as all of you know, means hope. And after the singing of HaTikvah, the rabbi cried out loud the words Am Yisrael Chai, which was captured live on the BBC radio broadcast.
</blockquote>
“That was said to be the first and earliest recording of those words, and for me, I find that there’s something poignant and even providential about the words Am Yisrael Chai emerging from a moment of hope and liberation,” he stated. “And I always found it poignant that the national anthem HaTikvah predates the Jewish state by half a century, which meant that there were early Jewish leaders and dreamers who were singing HaTikvah, hoping for a Jewish state, but realizing that they themselves may never live to see one. And this thought reminded me of Dr. King’s final and fateful speech; a speech in which he prophetically yet tragically predicts that he himself may never live to see the realization of his own dream.”
“Even though he knew he would never live to see the realization of the dream for which he fought, Dr. King never lost hope,” Torres declared. “The survivors of the Holocaust who sang HaTikvah from the depths of a Nazi concentration camp, never lost hope. And so if some of the greatest people who ever lived can never lose hope, then neither should we.”
“Hope is the anthem of the Jewish people, and hope was the animating principle of America’s greatest dreamer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. God bless you all,” he concluded.
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I had the honor of delivering the annual MLK sermon at Central Synagogue. 
My speech touches on a range of topics and themes: October 7th, Jim Crow, Leo Frank, MLK, Elie Wiesel, silence, indifference, moral clarity, nonviolence, Israel, Am Yisrael Chai, Hatikvah, and hope. <a href="https://t.co/stxqxzgyLi">pic.twitter.com/stxqxzgyLi</a>
&mdash; Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) <a href="https://twitter.com/RitchieTorres/status/1747065334467584292?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Last Votes

Ritchie Torres Gives Impassioned Speech Denouncing Those Cheering, Celebrating October 7 Massacre

Hamas

Israel

Ritchie Torres

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a> attempted to celebrate the late Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday — but X&#8217;s Community Notes quickly reminded the public that the FBI was responsible for wiretapping MLK.
The FBI shared a photo via X, showing the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial juxtaposed with the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
&#8220;This #MLKDay, the #FBI honors one of the most prominent leaders of the Civil Rights movement and reaffirms its commitment to Dr. King’s legacy of fairness and equal justice for all,&#8221; the caption read.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MLKDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MLKDay</a>, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FBI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FBI</a> honors one of the most prominent leaders of the Civil Rights movement and reaffirms its commitment to Dr. King’s legacy of fairness and equal justice for all. <a href="https://t.co/tj9EUoXsFK">pic.twitter.com/tj9EUoXsFK</a>
&mdash; FBI (@FBI) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBI/status/1746910418436513980?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The Community Note that appeared after the photo was posted cited several articles from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/18/956741992/documentary-exposes-how-the-fbi-tried-to-destroy-mlk-with-wiretaps-blackmail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Public Radio</a> and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlks-family-feels-vindicated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a>, and read: &#8220;The FBI engaged in surveillance of King, attempted to discredit him, and used manipulation tactics to influence him to stop organizing. King’s family believe the FBI was responsible for his death.&#8221;
In December of 1999, a jury found that King had been a &#8220;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlks-family-feels-vindicated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">victim of a conspiracy</a>&#8221; rather than a lone wolf attacker when he was shot in 1968. An attorney for King&#8217;s family said during the trial that the cover-up after King&#8217;s assassination had involved not only the FBI, but also the CIA, the media, and U.S. Army Intelligence.
Documentary film director Sam Pollard explored the FBI&#8217;s interest in the Civil Rights leader in his 2020 film titled &#8220;MLK/FBI&#8221; — and he set the stage by explaining, &#8220;The first fear that [FBI director J. Edgar Hoover] had was that King was going to align himself with the Communist Party, which &#8230; J. Edgar Hoover was obsessed with destroying.&#8221;
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During a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/14/rfk-jr-defends-wiretap-mlk-00135543" target="_blank" rel="noopener">POLITICO interview</a> that was published on the eve of the holiday, independent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his family&#8217;s role in approving the wiretaps on King.
&#8220;They were betting not only the Civil Rights Movement but their own careers. And they knew that Hoover was out to ruin King,&#8221; Kennedy explained. &#8220;My father gave permission to Hoover to wiretap them so he could prove that his suspicions about King were either right or wrong. I think, politically, they had to do it.&#8221;

Dr King Speaks at Sproul Plaza in Berkeley

FBI Slapped With ‘Community Note’ After Trying To Celebrate MLK Day

FBI Slapped With 'Community Note' After Trying To Celebrate MLK Day

Civil Rights

General

Tourists stopped a 26-year-old U.S. Navy veteran this week from burning down the birth home of civil rights icon <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/martin-luther-king-jr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Martin Luther King Jr</a>.
Laneisha Shantrice Henderson &#8220;was detained by the bystanders at the historic home on Auburn Avenue and taken into custody Thursday night,&#8221; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/police-woman-attempts-to-burn-down-martin-luther-king-jrs-birth-home/IXSOU5F4IFDIHK4CKUPVDYWEMA/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. &#8220;Unlike many national monuments, there is no gate restricting access to the civil rights leader’s birth home, which attracts more than 700,000 visitors from around the world annually.&#8221;
“That action saved an important part of American history tonight,” Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters at the scene.
A man who became suspicious of Henderson asked her what she was doing after he saw her throw a liquid onto the front porch of the residence. Once he smelled gasoline and realized what she was allegedly doing, he grabbed her car keys — which she left in the grass — to prevent her from leaving. The man then blocked her from getting back on the porch when she returned with a lighter.
Henderson then took off and two off duty police officers rushed in to apprehend her until law enforcement arrived on scene.
“If the witnesses hadn’t been here and interrupted what she was doing, I mean, it could have been a matter of seconds before the house was engulfed in flames,” said Atlanta fire Battalion Chief Jerry DeBerry.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
UPDATE: Police arrested Laneisha Shantrice Henderson, 26, Thursday night after she attempted to set fire to the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr.: <a href="https://t.co/tbryVVbBU5">https://t.co/tbryVVbBU5</a> <a href="https://t.co/w2K31wDANA">pic.twitter.com/w2K31wDANA</a>
&mdash; Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@ajc) <a href="https://twitter.com/ajc/status/1733177176940261630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Henderson was charged with second-degree criminal attempt to commit arson and interference with government property. A Fulton County magistrate denied Henderson bond due to an unstable place of residence and the nature of the alleged offense.
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&#8220;She gave an address in a different state. So I find that there is a likelihood that she may not return to court,&#8221; said Fulton County Magistrate Judge Holly Hughes. &#8220;I&#8217;m extremely concerned about the randomness of this event. There does not seem to be any reason or tie to that particular location.&#8221;

Laneisha Shantrice Henderson

Woman Arrested For Trying To Burn Down Martin Luther King Jr.’s Home: Police

Woman Arrested For Trying To Burn Down Martin Luther King Jr.'s Home: Police

Atlanta

Crime

Georgia

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/motherfer-hit-me-over-a-bulls-joke-chris-rock-unleashes-on-will-smith-over-oscars-slap" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Rock</a> is in final negotiations to direct and produce a Martin Luther King Jr. biopic for Universal based on Jonathan Eig&#8217;s 2023 biography &#8220;King: A Life,&#8221; according to The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/chris-rock-to-direct-martin-luther-king-jr-biopic-1235609939/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hollywood Reporter</a>.
Eig&#8217;s critically acclaimed book is based on the recent release of FBI documents, letters, oral histories and other material, along with White House telephone transcripts, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/books/the-new-definitive-biography-of-martin-luther-king-jr.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a> noted.
Eig&#8217;s publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux, described the book as an &#8220;intimate portrayal of King as a courageous but emotionally troubled individual who demanded peaceful protest while grappling with his own frailties and a government that hunted him.&#8221;
Steven Spielberg will be the executive producer via his Amblin Partners, with Kristie Macosko Krieger also producing, THR noted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A Martin Luther King Jr biopic is in the works with Chris Rock set to direct.
(Source: Deadline) <a href="https://t.co/LbHVz7in1F">pic.twitter.com/LbHVz7in1F</a>
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) <a href="https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1709997105329078553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
There is no word yet on what actors/actresses will potentially make up the cast for the upcoming movie.
The &#8220;Grown Ups&#8221; star is not new to the directing role. He previously directed and starred in the Toronto International Film Festival favorite &#8220;Top Five&#8221; in 2014.
In 2007, he directed the romantic comedy &#8220;I Think I Love My Wife&#8221; in which he starred alongside Gina Torres and Kerry Washington. Four years earlier, he directed, wrote and starred in the political comedy &#8220;Head of State&#8221; alongside the late-comedian Bernie Mac.
Earlier this year, he appeared on the big screen in George C. Wolfe&#8217;s civil rights biopic &#8220;Rustin,&#8221; starring Colman Domingo, the outlet noted.
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In March, Rock kicked off a live stand-up comedy special titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-rock-torches-wokeness-meghan-markle-and-will-smith-in-netflix-special-dont-fall-into-the-woke-trap" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Rock: Selective Outrage</a>,&#8221; in which he unleashed jokes directed at actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/will-smith-says-he-totally-understands-and-respects-if-people-arent-ready-to-see-his-new-film" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Will Smith</a> and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, that dealt with the now-infamous slap he received from Smith during the his presentation at the Academy Awards in 2022.
In the special, he said Smith exhibited &#8220;selective outrage&#8221; when he slapped him at the Oscars.
&#8220;Will Smith practices selective outrage because everyone that knows what happened, everybody that really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that s***,&#8221; Rock shared. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t have any entanglements. His wife was f***** her son&#8217;s friend.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-rock-torches-wokeness-meghan-markle-and-will-smith-in-netflix-special-dont-fall-into-the-woke-trap" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Rock Torches Wokeness, Meghan Markle, And Will Smith In Netflix Special: &#8216;Don&#8217;t Fall Into The Woke Trap&#8217;</a>

The National Board Of Review Annual Awards Gala – Inside

Chris Rock In Final Negotiations To Direct Martin Luther King Jr. Movie

Celebrities

Chris Rock

Entertainment

Hollywood

Movies

Most people would agree the far-Left in America has an incredible history of successful and effective boycotts. Is it possible, however, that we are all having some sort of fever dream? A deeper look back into the 20th century reveals some interesting facts about the Left and boycotts in the modern era. 
The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 &#8211; 1956 has long been considered the largest and most successful boycott in modern American history. This iconic moment in American history is a fascinating encapsulation of the differences between the Left and the Right. The boycott was squarely focused against the Democrats — meaning Alabama elected only five Republicans to the United States House <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_representatives_from_Alabama" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from 1900 to 1980</a>. The state, run entirely by Democrats at the time, was segregating people based on skin color and then legislating accordingly. How is there a modicum of difference between the Alabama Democrats of 1955 and the Democrats of today? 
The boycott was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955 and subsequently organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Once the movement picked up speed, Dr. King was arrested for violating a 1921 statute regarding conspiracies against lawful businesses. According to The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/king-found-guilty-leading-illegal-boycott-announces-boycott-will-continue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stanford University</a>, “Judge Carter finds him guilty of leading an illegal boycott and sentences him to pay a $500 fine plus court costs or to serve 386 days in jail.” The trial garnered national attention, and while the financial ramifications might not have been staggering, it started a national conversation around the issue, ultimately leading to a Supreme Court ruling striking down the practice of segregation on buses. The Democrats were thoroughly defeated.
Arguably, the second most successful boycott in American history was led by Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) against Schenley Industries, a leader in the California grape business. At first glance, the boycott seemed to be motivated by better wages for farm workers, but the specifics are more interesting. A lifelong opponent of illegal immigration, Cesar Chavez was convinced that the economic woes of the farm workers would be virtually non-existent if not for the presence of illegal, cheap labor. The boycott targeted Schenley due to its national recognition and its involvement in various other businesses. In December 1965, the NFWA voted to boycott Schenley, which not only meant that all NFWA members were to strike during the 1966 grape harvest, but also that they would boycott and picket against Schenley and their products nationwide.
Initially, Schenley was unmoved by the strike and decided to utilize the 1942 “Bracero Program,” an agreement between Mexico designed to supply the U.S. with cheap, temporary labor from non-citizens. The harvest was completed, but by April of 1966, Schenley experienced a significant sales drop and earned horrible stain on their reputation. This forced Schenley to sign a labor agreement with the NFWA, and conditions for farm workers began to improve. A few years later, Chavez testified in front of Congress in reference to the Schenley boycott and he <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-115hres791ih/html/BILLS-115hres791ih.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>: “We gave the I.N.S. and Border Patrol stacks and stacks of information. They did not pull workers from the struck fields … this is why we are forced to boycott: we have no enforcement by the Border Patrol.” 
Today, is it the Left or the Right in this country that stands in staunch opposition to Border Patrol and restrictions on immigration?
In contrast to the above examples, let’s review some of the Left’s most widely known boycotts in the modern era. In 2011 the President of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, expressed his personal views in support of traditional marriage and the family unit. This caused widespread backlash in the mainstream media and the LGBT (no extra letters and symbols yet) community. Calls for a boycott echoed from every leftist politician, media personality, and activist, but what were the results? Approximately eight months into the boycott, Chick-fil-A sales <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chick-fil-a-sales-2012_n_2590612" target="_blank" rel="noopener">skyrocketed</a> by 12%, from around $4.05 billion to $4.6 billion. The calls for boycotts continued and the pressure campaigns in the media were ceaseless. The effect? Chick-fil-A has managed to <a href="https://www.scrapehero.com/best-fast-food-store-in-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase its sales</a> by roughly half a billion dollars or more each year since the boycott. Is there a more popular fast-food restaurant in America?
Another Left-organized boycott involved a multi-year campaign against The Salvation Army that began in 2019. The charitable organization was accused of both racism and bigotry against the LGBTQI (gaining some letters now) community. One thing worth pointing out: The Salvation Army was one of the leading organizations championing the 1964 Civil Rights Act and has publicly disavowed any race-based rhetoric numerous times. Nevertheless, they have made company statements in keeping with the traditional understandings of marriage and the family, similar to Dan Cathy. That was enough for the radical Left. They demanded people stop giving donations to the familiar, ubiquitous red kettles during the 2019 and 2020 Christmas seasons. The result? In 2020, as with the rest of the world, profits were down. But in 2021, The Salvation Army received the second most donations in the history of the 158-year-old organization. Not quite the smashing success the Left was hoping for.
Lastly, everyone remembers the vaunted Hobby Lobby Boycott of 2014. The situation occurred after Hobby Lobby was sued by an employee for failing to offer insurance coverage for birth control. This drew the ire of another special sect of the far-Left, the pro-abortion wing. Protestors were seen outside of Hobby Lobby stores across the nation and nearly every outlet and publication were in support of the boycott. The result? The revenue for Hobby Lobby has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/hobby-lobby-stores/?sh=8fbaf36cee6b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> from $3.3 billion in 2014 to $7.7 billion in 2022. They just had the most successful year in company history.
Now, fast-forward to present time, and what could end up being the two most devastating boycotts in American history are occurring simultaneously.
Target Corporation gained national attention in mid-May for constructing “Pride” displays at its stores across the nation. The prominence of the displays, along with the outrageous nature of some of the products — “tuck friendly” bathing suits — seemed to push people on the Right to their limits. Calls for a national boycott began to circulate among conservatives and the results have been astonishing. Since May 2023, the Target Corporation market cap has fallen by $15.7 billion dollars.  
A successful boycott, no doubt, but it pales in comparison to the Anheuser-Busch apocalypse.
On April 1, 2023, social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney created an advertisement video for Bud Light, which featured a can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s image on it. The Right in America has made it perfectly clear in recent years that they will no longer accept the infusion of sexual values into everyday products; but Bud Light decided to find out. The world has rarely witnessed the level of resolve this video provoked from customers. And the results have been Biblical.
As of June 2, 2023, Anheuser-Busch had lost approximately $27 billion dollars in stock prices, multiple executives were placed on leave, and calls for the CEO to resign continue to intensify. Once ranked in the top ten of the nation’s favorite beers for decades, Bud Light has <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/bud-light-no-longer-ranks-among-americas-top-10-beers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">now fallen </a>to the 14th spot after three months of the boycott.
The last four months have shown conservatives they possess a power they did not know they had. 
The Right should take heart. The sleeping giant is waking up.
* * *
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Bud Light Brand

The Left Wrote The Book On Effective Boycotts. Then Came Bud Light.

Alabama

boycotts

Cesar Chavez

Chick-fil-A

Conservatives

Leftists

Readers Pass

Harry Belafonte, the singer whose folk music broke through racial barriers in the 1950s and made him an international star, has died at the age of 96.
Born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. on March 1, 1927, in Harlem, Belafonte joined his mother and younger brother to move to Jamaica in 1936, but in 1940, his mother returned to New York and left him and his brother with relatives in Jamaica. He returned to New York in 1940.
After serving in the Navy, Belafonte joined Erwin Piscator’s Dramatic Workshop; his classmates included Marlon Brando and Tony Curtis. He later befriended Sidney Poitier, who became his friend for the rest of his life.
After landing a recording contract with RCA, he won a Tony Award for his performance in the 1953 revue “John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.” He was then cast in the film of “Carmen Jones,” an all-black version of Bizet’s opera “Carmen.
“By 1959 he was the most highly paid Black performer in history, with fat contracts for appearances in Las Vegas, at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and at the Palace in New York,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/arts/music/harry-belafonte-dead.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. Belafonte immortalized songs such as “Day-O” and “Jamaica Farewell.” In 1960, his special “Tonight With Belafonte” won an Emmy.
Belafonte became a political activist, a principal fundraiser for Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as providing funds to bail King out of jail; King stayed at Belafonte’s apartment in New York several times; he maintained an insurance policy for King with King’s family as the beneficiaries.
He later made harsh comments about former President George W. Bush, calling him “the greatest terrorist in the world” in 2006; supported Bill de Blasio in the 2013 New York mayoral election, and called the Koch brothers “white supremacists” and likened them to the Ku Klux Klan.
The New York Times published an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/opinion/campaign-stops/harry-belafonte-what-do-we-have-to-lose-everything.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opinion piece</a> by Belafonte on Election Day 2016 in which he called Donald Trump “feckless and immature,” adding of black voters, “Mr. Trump asks us what we have to lose, and we must answer: Only the dream, only everything.”
In 2020, he echoed, “We have learned exactly how much we had to lose — a lesson that has been inflicted upon Black people again and again in our history — and we will not be bought off by the empty promises of the flimflam man.”
Belafonte was married three times; he met his first wife Marguerite Byrd while he was in the Navy; they married in 1948 and had two children. They later divorced; he then married Julie Robinson, with whom he had two children. They divorced in 2004, and he married Pamela Frank, a photographer, in 2008, who survives him.

Harry Belafonte Performing

Singer Harry Belafonte Dies At 96

Harry Belafonte

PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada apologized after quoting <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/martin-luther-king-jr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Martin Luther King Jr.</a> while announcing that her company would implement mass <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/unemployment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">layoffs</a>.
Tejada revealed in a company <a href="https://www.pagerduty.com/blog/letter-to-employees/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> last week that roughly 7% of positions at the cloud computing firm would be eliminated to reduce costs and improve return on investment.
“Like most technology companies, our most significant investment is our workforce,” she wrote. “These decisions were carefully considered and are necessary to set PagerDuty up for long term success, especially in the context of ongoing uncertainty.”
At the conclusion of the memo, however, Tejada cited the civil rights leader’s statement that “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” She apologized three days later, calling the inclusion of the quote “inappropriate and insensitive.”
“The way I communicated layoffs distracted from our number one priority: showing care for the employees we laid off, and demonstrating the grace, respect, and appreciation they and all of you deserve,” she remarked. “There are a number of things I would do differently if I could. The quote I included from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was inappropriate and insensitive. I should have been more upfront about the layoffs in the email, more thoughtful about my tone, and more concise. I am sorry.”
The original announcement garnered backlash on social media. Meta Communications Manager Tom Gara <a href="https://twitter.com/tomgara/status/1618008253698572291" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the memo an “all time classic bad layoff announcement” since the letter ran for 370 words before mentioning the layoffs, then continued for another 1,250 words.
Shares for PagerDuty have increased 4.7% over the five trading days since the initial announcement; the company’s stock price has fallen 12% over the past year, exceeding losses witnessed by the S&amp;P 500 Index and the technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite.
The headcount reduction at PagerDuty follows the actions of other larger technology companies. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-white-house-brushed-off-concerns-about-mass-firings-at-microsoft-and-amazon-now-google-is-laying-off-employees-too" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> their intentions to decrease payrolls by more than 40,000 workers over the past few weeks. More than 58,000 workers have been discharged from prominent American technology companies in the first month of 2023, according to a <a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/tech-layoffs/#:~:text=More%20than%2046%2C000%20workers%20in,person%20layoff%20announcements%20this%20week." target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from Crunchbase, even after firms in the sector dismissed 140,000 positions last year.
Several investors have contended that Silicon Valley companies must reduce headcount to compensate for macroeconomic tumult following post-recession hiring sprees. The Children’s Investment Fund Management CEO Christopher Hohn <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/google-should-dismiss-more-employees-cut-excessive-salaries-from-median-300k-investor-argues" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> for Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to reduce headcount by another 25,000 workers, referencing excessive median salaries surpassing $300,000 and rapid growth in payrolls.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karine-jean-pierre-gives-non-answers-on-massive-tech-layoffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deflected questions</a> from journalists on whether the layoffs could be a bad omen for the rest of the economy. One reporter noted that President Joe Biden has appeared “quite optimistic” in his statements about the labor market and asked if the layoffs are a “matter of concern.” Jean-Pierre responded that the commander-in-chief watches closely “anytime there are reports of Americans losing their jobs.”
“More broadly speaking, layoffs remain near record lows according to job openings data,” she said. “Companies across the economy are continuing to grow and invest in the United States.”

Web Summit 2022 – Day Two

CEO Backtracks After Quoting Martin Luther King Jr. In Layoff Announcement: ‘Inappropriate And Insensitive’

CEO Backtracks After Quoting Martin Luther King Jr. In Layoff Announcement

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