A former police officer was charged last week with leaking the writings of the transgender-identifying woman who murdered three children and three adults at the Covenant School in March 2023.
But retired Lt. Garet Davidson — who was arrested and jailed on May 6 — says that he&#8217;s innocent. Davidson claims he&#8217;s being retaliated against for a complaint he filed against the department criticizing its Covenant investigation in May 2024, four months after he retired.
Davidson&#8217;s May 2024 <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/17k--mes3tmiC54vjj0uiZ9NJTsc69cau/view" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> complaint</a> against the police department alleges numerous instances of misconduct by top police officials, including mismanagement of the Covenant investigation, a pattern of bias in disciplinary investigations, altering performance results for low-achieving recruits, avoiding accountability, and failure to follow sexual harassment policies.
Davidson&#8217;s legal team believes that the charges were brought in retaliation for his efforts to expose problems at the police department.
“The charges against retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson represent a transparent attempt to discredit and silence a whistleblower who exposed serious misconduct within the Metro Nashville Police Department,” Davidson’s legal team said. “We look forward to vigorously defending Mr. Davidson against these retaliatory charges.”
Davidson has <a href="https://tennesseestar.com/news/retired-mnpd-lt-garet-davidson-claims-fbi-told-nashville-police-not-to-release-documents-from-covenant-school-killer-audrey-elizabeth-hale-investigation-pointed-to-precedent-for-document-destruction/tpappert/2024/06/04/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">been outspoken</a> about the investigation into the Covenant shooting, telling conservative radio host Michael Patrick Leahy in June 2024 that the FBI sent a memo to police instructing them not to release any details of the attacker&#8217;s writings.
At the time, Davidson said that he had some concerns that there would be action taken against him based on the information he had shared about the FBI memo.
“I don’t put it beyond anybody,” he said. “Part of the reason why I left law enforcement was to avoid some aspects of retaliation, but that doesn’t guarantee anything.”
In the charges unveiled last week, Davidson is accused of being involved in the leak of the writings of the woman who entered the Covenant School, a Christian school in an affluent Nashville neighborhood, on March 27, 2023, and murdered six people before she was killed by police.
Following the attack, the police announced that the shooter had a &#8220;manifesto,&#8221; but refused to release it to the public. Despite that refusal, media outlets, including The Daily Wire, obtained portions and uncovered that the shooter wrote frequently of her desire to be a man and anger at her parents for resisting her so-called transition.
Prior to his arrest last week, Davidson had been linked to the police department&#8217;s investigation into the leak.
His home was raided by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in November 2024 in relation to the investigation into the leak. He faces two indictments: one charges him with theft, two counts of burglary, and 30 counts of official misconduct; the other charges him with six counts of official misconduct related to the Covenant School shooting.
The raid came after he was named in a June 2024 court filing on the leak, though he was not directly named as a leaker. That came just weeks after he filed a misconduct complaint against the police department, which included criticism of the Covenant investigation.
A GoFundMe Davidson set up to help with his legal expenses has been shut down. A spokesman for the platform told The Daily Wire that the fundraiser was removed because of its policies not to raise money for “the legal defense of financial and violent crimes, including those related to money laundering, murder, robbery, assault, battery, sex crimes or crimes against minors.”
The spokesman did not further elaborate on why the fundraiser had been shut down. A <a href="https://www.givesendgo.com/garetdavidson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GiveSendGo</a> page has since been set up for Davidson&#8217;s legal fees.
Last month, the Nashville police department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nashville-police-in-final-report-downplay-covenant-shooters-transgender-identity-hatred-of-christianity?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Nashville+Police+In+Final+Report+Downplay+Covenant+Shooter’s+Transgender+Identity%2C+Hatred+Of+Christianity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> its final investigative report into the shooting. The report, released over two years after the attack, downplayed the attacker&#8217;s hatred of Christianity and fixation on gender ideology and &#8220;white privilege.&#8221;

3 children, 3 teachers fatally shot in US city of Nashville school shooting

Retired Cop Accused Of Leaking Covenant Shooter’s Diary Says He’s Being Set Up

Nashville

Police

Tennessee

The Covenant School

President Donald Trump deepens U.S. ties in the Middle East with historic economic partnerships, while domestic battles over tax cuts and Medicaid rage on in Congress. The Federal Aviation Administration calls an urgent meeting with airlines to address critical staff shortages and faulty equipment at major travel hubs, grounding thousands of flights. And, a sweeping ICE raid in Nashville nets nearly 200 illegal aliens, sparking backlash from the city’s Democratic mayor and a larger national debate on Homeland Security protocols. 
It’s Thursday, May 15, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
 
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If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>Budget Battle Continues</h2>
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Topline: House Republicans negotiated Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” this week in marathon sessions that began Tuesday and stretched well into Wednesday morning. Lawmakers muscled the legislation forward to prepare it for passage by the end of next week.
As budget negotiations continue to shape the bill, Congressional Republicans are focused on permanently extending Trump’s 2017 &#8220;Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.&#8221; On top of that, Republicans want to make good on Trump’s campaign promises, such as no tax on tips, and boost funding for the military and immigration enforcement.
“We&#8217;re checking all the boxes,&#8221; Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Newsmax. “ [The president] promised no taxes on overtime, no taxes on Social Security, no taxes on, for example, interest on car loans that are made in America. A number of those things are woven into this bill, and we&#8217;ve made all the math work so we can do that.“
So far, Republicans have agreed on new tax exemptions for tips and overtime pay for those earning less than $160,000 annually. The government will pay $1,000 to parents for babies born through December 31, 2028. The House bill also raises the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction from $10,000 up to $30,000, which some Republicans in blue states have said is still not enough.
However, to balance the books, the GOP must find funding offsets. For example, the bill limits itemized deductions for the 37% top bracket, and some Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for electric vehicles and green energy will be scrapped, though not entirely until 2029. The bill would also introduce work requirements for able-bodied people to access Medicaid, and would create new safeguards to prevent waste and fraud, although those reforms could face opposition in the Senate.
And… Yesterday, the White House announced an agreement that it said would generate an economic exchange worth $1.2 trillion with Qatar. As part of that deal, Qatar Airways said it plans to buy as many as 210 planes from Boeing. The U.S. has also agreed to deeper military cooperation with Qatar. Earlier this week, the president struck deals with Saudi Arabia that the White House says are worth about $600 billion.
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<h2>FAA Reforms</h2>
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Topline: The Trump administration is putting pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after several deadly plane crashes and concerns with staffing shortages.
On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy testified to lawmakers on a House Appropriations subcommittee about the Transportation Department’s new budget request. He’s asking for billions of dollars to update the country’s air traffic control system, which has been the target of widespread criticism after several deadly disasters and major snarls in the system.
Hundreds of flights were grounded at Newark Liberty International Airport last week when air traffic controllers lost communications with planes for about 90 seconds. Newark needs 38 air traffic controllers – it only has 24, and five of them are on a 45-day trauma leave due to stress resulting from recent problems. Also, construction at Newark has caused about 34 flight cancellations per day. Duffy blamed the Biden administration for failing to fix a broken system.
“This did not have to be our story,” Duffy said. “Over the last four years, the last administration, they knew this was a problem. And by the way, during COVID, when people weren’t flying, that was a perfect time to fix these problems.”
On Wednesday, airlines met with the FAA to address the situation at Newark. The FAA is already working on the Newark airport — it installed a software update to prevent another outage and is slashing the number of flights for now.
Duffy has made reversing the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI ) hiring practices implemented under the Obama and Biden administrations a major focus and has introduced a new recruitment program to address the air traffic controller shortage. He also <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/5290613-sean-duffy-air-traffic-control-overhaul/">wants</a> to invest in new equipment — new radios for air traffic controllers, radar on the ground, tarmac sensors, and a new flight management system to improve airspace efficiency. As he was testifying to Congress on Wednesday, Duffy’s Transportation Department announced it had just approved dozens more infrastructure grants, for a total of 405 grants worth nearly $5 billion so far. The department says it has cleared about 13% of the backlog under former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served during the Biden administration.
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<h2>Nashville ICE Raids Nab Nearly 200 Illegals</h2>
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Topline: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out a week of raids in Nashville, Tennessee, arresting nearly 200 illegal aliens and prompting outrage from the city’s Democratic mayor.
A week-long ICE raid in Nashville that started on May 3 captured nearly 200 illegal aliens, many of whom have been convicted of criminal offenses. Of the 196 illegal aliens detained by ICE, 95 had prior criminal convictions or pending charges, and 31 had illegally re-entered the United States after previously being deported.
A Daily Wire investigation found that one of the illegal aliens captured is a 60-year-old Iraqi national who was convicted of rape and failed to register as a sex offender. Another is a 33-year-old from El Salvador believed to be affiliated with MS-13, a violent gang that was recently designated a foreign terror organization by the Trump administration. The government of El Salvador also suspects the man of committing aggravated murder. There’s also a Haitian male convicted of possessing meth with the intent to distribute, a Salvadoran convicted of possessing cocaine with the intent to manufacture and sell the drug, and a Guatemalan national with a conviction for aggravated assault.
Nashville Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell said that ICE’s immigration enforcement raids caused “deep community harms” and added that he was “heartbroken” over the federal law enforcement agency’s actions. O’Connell announced the creation of the “belonging fund,” a joint project between the city of Nashville and a local foundation to support organizations that assist illegal aliens with their childcare, transportation, and food needs. The mayor also signed an executive order requiring city employees and police to report any communications with ICE to his office.
But Nashville Legal Director Wally Dietz said that the city government can do nothing to prevent ICE from carrying out enforcement operations in Nashville. “We are powerless. We have absolutely no authority to instruct ICE not to carry out their enforcement actions…we have no authority to tell [Tennessee Highway Patrol] they cannot cooperate with ICE.”
Tricia McLaughlin, the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, called O’Connell a “pro-open borders politician&#8221; who would “rather protect illegal aliens than American citizens.” O’Connell was also slammed by ICE acting director Todd Lyons, who said that the Nashville mayor should be thanking the federal law enforcement agency for protecting his city.

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Morning Brief: Budget Battles, Billion-Dollar Bets & ICE Busts

Budget

Congress

Department of Transportation

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Illegal Immigation

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

NASHVILLE — The federal deportation raids in Tennessee that have garnered outrage from local Democrats resulted in the capture of rapists, drug dealers, and gang members, according to a Department of Homeland Security dossier obtained by The Daily Wire.
Nashville&#8217;s Democrat mayor Freddie O&#8217;Connell has <a href="https://fox17.com/news/local/nashville-mayor-issues-new-protocol-for-metro-employees-amid-ice-communication-fallout">said</a> he was very &#8220;frustrated&#8221; to see immigration enforcement in the city, stating, &#8220;We did not request this approach to safety, we do not support it.&#8221; In response, he signed an executive order mandating that communications from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) be directed to his office immediately.
His outrage comes with little public information known about the scale about the raid, but The Daily Wire has learned that nearly 200 illegal aliens were captured during the weeklong raids, including rapists, drug dealers, and gang members.
The raids, which ICE carried out in conjunction with local and federal law enforcement partners, began on May 3 and resulted in the arrest of 196 illegal aliens. Of those arrested, 95 had prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, while another 31 had reentered the country after being previously removed from the United States, a felony offense, the federal law enforcement agency told The Daily Wire.
“This operation resulted in getting gang members, sex offenders, and other violent criminals off Nashville’s streets,&#8221; Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, told The Daily Wire. &#8220;President Trump and Secretary Noem will continue to stand with victims and the brave ICE agents who are on the frontlines making America safe again.&#8221;
Here are some of the criminal illegal aliens captured in Nashville:
Jassim Jafaf Al-Raash, a 60-year-old convicted rapist and citizen of Iraq. Al-Raash failed to register as a sex offender following his rape convictions, for which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The Iraqi national was also convicted of false imprisonment and larceny.
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ICE also captured Franklin Oswaldo Velasquez-Reyes, a 33-year-old Salvadoran who is affiliated with MS-13, a violent gang that was recently named a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump State Department. El Salvador suspects Velasquez-Reyes of committing aggravated murder and issued a notice requesting foreign governments to locate and arrest Velasquez-Reyes. The Salvadoran national has several criminal convictions, including possession of methamphetamines, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to appear, and criminal impersonation.
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Haitian national Richard St. Baptiste, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. St. Baptiste was also sentenced to 30 days in prison for marijuana possession.
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Inmar Antonio Penado-Membreno, a 34-year-old Salvadoran, was sentenced to eight years in prison for possession with intent to manufacture, deliver, and sell cocaine and four years for aggravated assault.
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Carlos Reinaldo Alvarado-Rodriguez, a 39-year-old citizen of Guatemala with a conviction for aggravated assault.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-919551 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-13-at-9.54.57-AM-260x300.png" alt="" width="260" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-13-at-9.54.57-AM-260x300.png 260w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-13-at-9.54.57-AM-499x576.png 499w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-13-at-9.54.57-AM.png 548w" sizes="(max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px" />The five criminal illegal aliens were joined by a 39-year-old Mexican national who had been deported from the United States six different times and was convicted of felony domestic assault and sex with a minor; a 37-year-old Venezuelan affiliated with Tren de Aragua; a 28-year-old Mexican national convicted of reckless aggravated assault; and another Mexican national who was convicted of drug possession.
“You would think all public officials would unite around DHS bringing violent criminal illegal aliens to justice and removing them from American communities,&#8221; McLaughlin charged. &#8220;However, pro-open borders politicians — like Mayor O’Connell — would rather protect illegal aliens than American citizens.” 
O&#8217;Connell, Nashville&#8217;s mayor, not only spoke out against the raids, but also put local resources towards helping the illegal immigrant community. He announced the creation of the “belonging fund” to offer monetary support for illegal aliens. The fund will allocate money to non-profit organizations that provide childcare, transportation, and food to illegal aliens, though the money will not be used to provide them with legal assistance.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons told The Daily Wire that O’Connell should be thankful for the federal agency’s operations in Nashville.
“Instead of vilifying the brave men and women who ensure his constituents stay safe from criminal alien murderers, drug dealers and rapists, the mayor should be saying thank you to ICE and its partners for taking these public safety threats out of his neighborhoods.”
RJ Hauman, the president of National Immigration Center Enforcement and visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, similarly slammed Nashville’s Democrat mayor.
“Sanctuary city mayors keep trying to outdo each other, and Americans are fed up,&#8221; Hauman said. “ICE is stepping up, nabbing serious criminals like child rapists and Tren de Aragua gang members. The American people are behind ICE’s work to kick these threats out and keep our communities safe. Now it’s time for Congress to give them more resources.”
Despite O’Connell’s response to the ICE raids, Nashville’s Legal Director Wally Dietz admitted that the city has no authority to obstruct the operations.
“We are powerless, we have absolutely no authority to instruct ICE not to carry out their enforcement actions,” Dietz explained. “We have no authority to tell THP they cannot cooperate with ICE,” he added, referring to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R) praised the raids, saying. “No one wants these criminals in their community” and that it was &#8220;a good thing that ICE is rounding them up and deporting them.”

ICE arrest

EXCLUSIVE: Dems Rage Over Nashville ICE Raids That Targeted Rapists And Gang Members

Border

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

mass immigration

A Republican-backed bill allowing Tennessee citizens victimized by illegal aliens to sue non-governmental organizations that provided housing to that illegal alien has been sent to Governor Bill Lee’s desk.
The <a href="https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0811" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> was passed by the Tennessee House 70-23 on Wednesday, advancing the bill to the governor’s desk. The legislation would give citizens harmed by an illegal alien a private right of action to sue entities enabling illegal immigration.
“This is a public safety bill in keeping with the Trump administration’s renewed focus on illegal immigration,” Republican Rep. Rusty Grills, who sponsored the legislation, <a href="https://tnga.granicus.com/player/clip/31956?view_id=775&amp;redirect=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on the House floor. “What we&#8217;re doing with this bill is anyone who is a victim of crime committed by an illegal alien will have a private right of action against any NGO that has assisted an illegal alien with housing in a community.”
Grills noted that housing as defined in the bill would not include homeless shelters or storm shelters, as some Democrat opponents have claimed. It would include long-term housing situations or rental homes.
In the Senate, the bill was sponsored by Republican Sen. Brent Taylor and passed 24-4 earlier this month.
The text of the legislation says that NGOs “may be held liable for a loss, damages, injury, or death resulting from a criminal offense committed by the person who is unlawfully present in the United States while the person is receiving housing services from the charitable organization if the charitable organization&#8217;s conduct in providing housing constitutes negligence, gross negligence, or willful and wanton misconduct.”
Many NGOs have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-ngos-enabling-mass-immigration-under-the-banner-of-religion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faced scrutiny</a> over their role in facilitating mass migration into the United States and some have been accused of enabling human trafficking.
Tennesseans have not been exempt from the flood of illegal immigrants that occurred under former President Joe Biden. For example, nearly 3,000 illegal aliens <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-data-show-how-much-crime-illegal-immigrants-committed-in-red-state?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=New+Data+Show+How+Much+Crime+Illegal+Immigrants+Committed+In+Red+State" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were arrested</a> in Tennessee for crimes ranging from murder to rape during the last three months of 2024.
In one prominent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/saying-goodbye-is-hard-nashville-restaurant-closes-doors-after-owner-killed-by-illegal-immigrant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">case</a>, local Nashville business owner Matt Carney was killed by an illegal immigrant from Mexico during an attempted robbery at his beloved restaurant.
On Tuesday, the House also sent another <a href="https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0833" target="_blank" rel="noopener">illegal immigration bill</a> to Lee’s desk in a 75-20 vote. The bill would require law enforcement, with the exception of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, to “report monthly to the department of safety each interaction that the law enforcement agency had with illegal aliens over the previous month.”
Reports need to include “the date of the interaction, the number of illegal aliens encountered, and a description of identification documents, if any, in their possession.”
Another bill, which would allow schools in Tennessee to charge illegal aliens tuition, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/red-state-senate-passes-bill-allowing-schools-to-stop-giving-illegal-aliens-free-education?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Red+State+Senate+Passes+Bill+Allowing+Schools+To+Stop+Giving+Illegal+Aliens+Free+Education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed the Senate</a>, but was placed behind the budget by the House as the session is coming to a close. The bill still could be revived, but it has currently stalled out. Backers of the bill hope to challenge Plyler v. Doe, a Supreme Court decision that forced states to provide education to illegal aliens.

TOPSHOT-MEXICO-HONDURAS-US-MIGRATION

Red State Deals Major Blow To Groups That Facilitate Illegal Immigration

Bill Lee

Politics

The final police report on Nashville&#8217;s deadly Covenant School shooting, released more than two years after the attack, claims the motive of the attack was &#8220;notoriety&#8221; and makes little mention of the shooter&#8217;s radical positions on gender, race, or religious animus.
While pages from the writings of the 28-year-old woman who murdered three children and three adults at The Covenant School in March 2023 demonstrate that she was fixated on gender ideology and &#8220;white privilege,&#8221; police <a href="https://www.nashville.gov/sites/default/files/2025-04/Covenant_Final_Summary.pdf?ct=1743609642" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> that she was primarily motivated by a desire for notoriety. Investigators said that neither her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/covenant-journal-revealed-my-imaginary-penis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documented hatred</a> of Christianity or affluent white people played a role in her targeting of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in a wealthy area of Nashville.
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&#8220;Regarding why she selected The Covenant, many have speculated [the shooter] selected this location for racial, religious, or economic motives,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;It is certainly true she raged over these topics at times in her writings. But none of those motives impacted her decision to attack The Covenant.&#8221;
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Instead, the police said that Covenant was targeted because the attacker, who was killed by police, believed that she would receive greater notoriety by murdering young children. Three of the victims of the March 27, 2023, attack — Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney — were all just 9 years old. The other victims of the attack were adults Michael Hill, Katherine Koonce, and Cynthia Peak.
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Throughout the report, police made little mention of the attacker&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/covenant-shooter-cited-transgender-rights-in-shooting-spree-manifesto-contradicting-official-claims" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transgender identity</a>, only mentioning that she identified as a male and that she had made references to wanting to transition. 
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&#8220;It should be noted that in life, the offender &#8230; gender identified as a male and used he/him as preferred pronouns. Under Tennessee law, a person’s gender identity must correspond with their biological sex or with information present on their certificate of live birth,&#8221; police wrote. &#8220;As [the attacker] was a biological female at the time of her death and throughout the incidents described in this summary and in the case file, [the attacker] will be referred to as a female.&#8221;
In the only other mention of her transgender identity, investigators said that they uncovered no evidence of her undergoing any gender medical procedures.
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&#8220;Nothing has been found to suggest she initiated or was undergoing a transition at the time of her death, including medical documentation,&#8221; police wrote. &#8220;During her autopsy following her death, it was determined she was biologically female.&#8221; 
These mentions don&#8217;t appear to fully take into account the attacker&#8217;s transgender identity, which dominated her life.
In journal entries previously published by The Daily Wire, the attacker wrote just weeks before the deadly shooting about her fantasy of having an “imaginary penis” and said that it was a &#8220;f***ing curse&#8221; that she was born a woman.
“I want to know what that’s like, but I never will because I was damned to be born this way,” she wrote in the journal of her desire to have a penis. “I swear to f*** I hate it so goddamned much. It’s a f***ing curse.”
<div id="attachment_750005" style="width: 730px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-750005" class="size-full wp-image-750005" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/page2_720.jpg" alt="Image of Covenant School shooter's journal obtained by The Daily Wire" width="720" height="480" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/page2_720.jpg 720w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/page2_720-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" />Image of Covenant School shooter&#8217;s journal obtained by The Daily Wire</div>
She said that puberty ruined her life, lamenting the fact that her parents never put her on puberty blockers.
“A bare flat chest made me free. Girl puberty imprisoned me. And so does my mind. Puberty = life sentence. The people in this world adds more bullets to shoot violent thoughts into my head on full-auto,&#8221; she wrote.
In other journal entries, the attacker made clear her hatred of  Christianity and people with &#8220;white privilege,&#8221; which she believed hindered her development.
For example, she wrote that she wanted to kill “crackers going to private fancy schools&#8221; and explained why she rejected her parents&#8217; faith.
“Parents actually believe religion can change nature,” the shooter wrote. “That could explain why I don’t practice religion anymore. Let kids think for themselves, listening to parents does no damned good but to mold their premature minds into a pre-formatted program.”
These writings were portions from 16 notebooks, which some have referred to as her manifesto, and were the subject of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nashville-judge-appears-to-back-off-on-threats-to-punish-journalist-over-articles-on-covenant-shooter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lengthy legal battle</a>. In their report, police denied the existence of a manifesto, saying that there was no singular &#8220;document explaining why she committed the attack, why she specifically targeted The Covenant, and what she hoped to gain, if anything, with the attack.&#8221;
Police investigators also ruled that the attacker was &#8220;sane&#8221; despite numerous mental health disorders.
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&#8220;Despite all her assorted mental health disorders, [the attacker] was certainly sane,&#8221; police wrote. &#8220;She was capable of adjusting her plans as needed, manipulating others into seeing her as meek and nonthreatening, and fully understood her attack was not only criminal but morally reprehensible.&#8221;
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Police say that the attacker first started to fantasize about carrying out a school shooting in 2017 before beginning to plan one in 2018.
&#8220;By this point, [the shooter] wrote how she was tired of being alone and ignored, ostracized by those she felt were her friends, and shunned by society for being autistic,&#8221; the police wrote. &#8220;After writing an expletive rant directed towards her &#8216;best friend&#8217; for choosing a relationship with a man over her, [the shooter] decided it was time to make others notice her for a change. She felt by &#8216;killing a bunch of children&#8217; she would no longer be ignored.&#8221;
Police said that the attacker floated in her mind a number of different targets, including various Nashville schools and malls. At one point, one of her plans was disrupted after her guns were confiscated by her parents, with whom she lived in Nashville.
She moved away from targeting one school because it was predominantly black, worrying that she &#8220;would be seen as a racist, which would affect how much control she had over the narrative after her death and allow others to state her motive behind the attack.&#8221;
Eventually, police say that she settled on the Covenant School because she believed she would receive more notoriety by attacking a Christian school and that the faith of the students would make them &#8220;meek and afraid.&#8221; She prepared for the attack for years, even going on a tour of the facility in September 2021 so she could map out the school&#8217;s layout in preparation.
Despite this conclusion, police said that the attacker never left behind any evidence of having a specific animosity for the Covenant School.
&#8220;She never remarked of being bullied and ostracized there; on the contrary, she remarked on a couple of occasions how she established friendships, which included play-dates at the homes of other children and a sense of acceptance,&#8221; police said. &#8220;She gave no examples of how anyone at the school belittled her or harmed her, as she did in other places she attended school.&#8220;
At the end of the report, investigators officially closed the investigation, saying that they identified no other individuals who were criminally culpable for the shooting.

Nashville Police In Final Report Downplay Covenant Shooter’s Transgender Identity, Hatred Of Christianity

School Shooting

Transgender

Federal authorities charged a previously deported illegal alien on Tuesday after he allegedly shot a man in front of his seven-year-old daughter in Nashville, Tennessee, authorities say.
Jose Guadalupe Vazquez-Delgado, a 36-year-old Mexican national, was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdtn/pr/illegal-alien-charged-immigration-and-firearm-offenses-shooting-man-front-his-daughter">allegedly</a> drinking heavily at a house in Nashville&#8217;s Antioch neighborhood when he began arguing with the victim. The two men and the victim’s young daughter went outside, where Vazquez-Delgado allegedly shot the victim several times before fleeing the home.
Authorities say that Vazquez-Delgado left behind his Mexican passport, 14 shell casings, and his truck at the site of the crime. The victim was transported to the emergency room and received life-saving medical care.
The illegal alien, who federal authorities say has been deported from the United States twice, has now been charged with possession of ammunition by an illegal alien and unlawful reentry into the U.S. Vazquez-Delgado could face up to 15 years in federal prison for the firearm charge and another two years for the illegal reentry charge.
“Operations like this underscore the FBI’s commitment to working with our partners to keep dangerous people and weapons from infecting our communities,” said Joseph E. Carrico, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Nashville Field Office. “The FBI in Tennessee is committed to actively investigating and apprehending individuals wanted for federal violations and those unlawfully present in the United States and remains steadfast in its mission to uphold the Constitution.”
Federal authorities have recently charged illegal aliens with various crimes in Nashville. Just last month, eight Venezuelan illegal aliens were <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdtn/pr/eight-venezuelan-nationals-charged-offenses-related-their-roles-transnational">busted</a> for allegedly running a sex trafficking ring out of motels throughout the city.
Authorities say that three of those illegal aliens leveraged their connections to the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which President Donald Trump officially designated as a foreign terror organization, in order to coerce women into engaging in commercial sex acts. The operation was brought to a halt following a joint investigation from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

ICE Agents

Previously Deported Illegal Alien Charged With Shooting A Man In Front Of His 7-Year-Old Daughter

Crime

illegal alien

U.S.

Conservative credit card company <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/by-conservatives-for-conservatives-new-credit-card-offers-alternative-to-americans-fed-up-with-woke-businesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coign</a> donated nearly $40,000 dollars to a Christian non-profit that has served over 350,000 meals to storm victims and first responders in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene. 
Coign recently presented <a href="https://mercychefs.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mercy Chefs</a> a check for $39,535 at its Nashville community kitchen as part of the organization’s quarterly donations to conservative charities. Coign CEO Rob Collins told The Daily Wire that Mercy Chefs was chosen because of the work they have done in North Carolina. 
“We’re proud to partner with them, they’re doing great work,” he said, adding that the charity was continuing to provide meals to areas of Western North Carolina still reeling from the devastating flooding. 
Founded in 2006, Mercy Chefs provides meals to victims of natural disasters and the first responders and others volunteering in areas slammed by tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, or fires.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Coign Charity Check Presentation: Mercy Chefs" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Sc-A_VC1CA?start=4&#038;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>
Coign, which operates a VISA-backed credit card, donates portions of its transaction fees to conservative organizations chosen each quarter by cardholders. The company has donated to a variety of causes in the past, including groups looking to reduce suicide among soldiers and the Alliance Defending Freedom. 
Jim Kirk, the executive director of development at Mercy Chefs, told The Daily Wire that the donations from Coign were helping its work across the country from California to North Carolina to Kentucky. 
“It&#8217;s been a busy year, and Coign’s customers have been an incredible blessing to people who have lost everything, only to receive hope and love in a hot, chef-prepared meal,” he said. “You&#8217;ve also fed first responders, teachers, volunteers, parents, and children.. people of all walks who needed a nutritious meal.”
“May you experience JOY in your giving, and for making such an amazing impact!” he added. 
Coign’s charitable contributions have dramatically increased since it was first founded back in 2022. Collins said that the total money given in the first quarter was around $5,000, while the most recent quarter was around $190,000.
He said there was a large demand for the card because of the misalignment between conservative customers and major corporations and that Coign was an effective product for &#8220;cultural change.&#8221; 
“It really does provide conservatives a strong alternative to get off the treadmills supporting corporate liberals who hate our way of life, hate our culture, hate our values, but still be able to buy stuff you need,&#8221; he said. 
Last year, Coign <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/credit-card-company-donates-to-crisis-pregnancy-center-targeted-by-vandals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">donated</a> over $15,000 to the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center, a pro-life crisis pregnancy center in the heart of radically pro-abortion Washington, D.C.

Storm Helene Causes Massive Flooding Across Swath Of Western North Carolina

Conservative Credit Card Company Backs North Carolina Hurricane Relief Efforts

Charity

credit card

Hurricane Helene

North Carolina

County music legend Dolly Parton shared the heartbreaking news on Monday that her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, had died. He was 82.
In a message posted on the 79-year-old singer’s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DGwdXPoPvoj/">Instagram</a> account, Parton said that Dean passed away in Nashville and will be laid to rest in a private ceremony.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years,” the country singer shared in a statement.  “Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
At the time of this publication, the cause of death has not been announced.
The Tennessee businessman and Parton met the day she moved to Nashville; she was 18, and he was 21. It was outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dolly-parton-husband-carl-dean-dies-2b17ba0e44bcb864a3800bc17afdedeb?taid=67c648700119c30001f804d4&amp;utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&amp;utm_medium=AP&amp;utm_source=Twitter">Associated Press</a> reported.
“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton described of their meeting. “He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
Two years later, the two tied the knot at a small wedding in Ringgold, Georgia, on Memorial Day, May 30, 1966.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Some sad news…
Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of 58 years, has died.
He was 82.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can&#8217;t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/8D4kpXswbK">pic.twitter.com/8D4kpXswbK</a>
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1896720415973572624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
While Parton’s career took off, Dean remained mostly out of the spotlight, supporting her behind the scenes, even being the inspiration to one of her biggest hits ever, “Jolene,” per <a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/10/09/95520570/dolly-partons-jolene-still-haunts-singers">NPR</a>.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton said of a bank teller who seemed interested in Dean. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention.”
“It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money,’” she added. “So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”
During a recent interview with Parton about the couple’s marriage, she opened up about their relationship and said it was just “meant to be.”
“I like it when people say, ‘How did it last so long?’ I say, ‘I stay going,&#8217;” Parton explained during an interview with <a href="https://etcanada.com/news/952554/dolly-parton-says-warped-sense-of-humour-is-key-to-56-year-marriage-with-carl-dean/">ET Canada</a>.
“You know, there’s a lot to be said about that. So, we’re not in each other’s face all the time. He’s not in the business, so we have different interests, but yet we have the things we love to do together,” she added. “So it was meant to be, I think. He was the one I was supposed to have and vice versa.”
After Parton was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she said Dean inspired her to make a rock album, something she accomplished in 2023, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dolly-parton-new-album-rockstar-15f6efbfe89e9370eee4bf71e0ea26de">AP</a> noted.
&#8220;I did it because I’m in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” Parton <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/entertainment/dolly-parton-husband-carl-dean/index.html">said</a>. It was Dean, she said, who “really made me make that final decision to think, ‘You know what? I’ve got this great opportunity to do this, and I’m just gonna do it.’&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dolly-parton-achieves-career-milestone-with-new-album-at-77" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dolly Parton Achieves Career Milestone With New Album At 77</a>

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton Shares Heartbreaking News About Husband Of Nearly 60 Years

Celebrities

Country Music

Country singer

Death

Entertainment

LENOIR CITY, Tenn.—Nearly a year after a Nashville jury convicted them on federal conspiracy charges over a peaceful pro-life protest, a group of pro-life Christians reunited to celebrate their pardons from President Donald Trump, recount their time in prison, and encourage each other in the fight against abortion. 
In the year since they had last all been together, two had gone to prison, one was slated to go to prison, and the rest were restricted from traveling, owning guns, and voting. But thanks to Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-should-not-have-been-prosecuted-trump-pardons-23-pro-lifers-targeted-by-biden-doj">January 23 pardons</a> of the nearly two dozen pro-lifers targeted by the Biden administration, 10 of the pardoned traveled last week for a reunion at the Patriot Church, just outside of Knoxville. 
Those pardoned who made the trek to East Tennessee included Paul Vaughn, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, Chet Gallagher, Heather Idoni, and Cal Zastrow, all of whom were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-demonstrators-found-guilty-face-up-to-11-years-in-federal-prison">convicted</a> on felony conspiracy charges in January 2024 over a sit-in at a now-closed Mt. Juliet, Tennessee abortion facility. Each of them had faced over a decade in prison, with Zastrow getting six months, Gallagaher 16 months, and Idoni eight months to run concurrently with her two year sentence over a similar protest in Washington, D.C. 
Other pardoned pro-lifers in attendance at the reunion were Paul Place, Eva Edl, and Eva Zastrow, who were convicted on a lesser Freedom of Access To Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act charge in Nashville; and Justin Phillips, who was convicted in August on conspiracy charges over a pro-life protest at a Michigan abortion facility.
Steven Lefemine, who spent 60 days in prison after sitting in front of the door to a South Carolina abortion facility, also was in attendance. He did not apply for a pardon because he wanted to continue to fight the FACE Act, which he says is unconstitutional. 
This reunion featured a potluck dinner, Christian worship songs, and testimonies from the pardoned pro-lifers.  
“I was in prison. I’m out of prison. Just like that. By one man’s signature. By a declaration that way. I was pardoned from prison by the president of the United States,” Zastrow said on Wednesday as he spoke to a cheering crowd at the Patriot Church while holding up a copy of his pardon.
Zastrow, who was imprisoned in Thomson Federal Correctional Institute in Illinois, said that he didn’t expect to be pardoned based on his experience with previous politicians. 
“I’ve helped other guys run for office and I just quit believing that when people promise what they’re going do when they’re elected,” Zastrow said. “So I don’t have real high expectations when somebody says they’re going to do something when they’re running for office.” 
He thanked the crowd for their letters and phone calls to his wife, saying that “God used your lobbying for a pardon.”
He added that he wasn’t afraid of prison because of his faith. 
“It&#8217;s because I just get so close to Jesus, I press in so close to Jesus and I just receive and accept his love for me and I just channel that out to other people,” he said. 
He recounted several stories from prison, including one involving a prison guard whom he said used to swear at the prisoners when they were in line for food. Zastrow said that one day the guard took God’s name in vain, and he responded by saying “praise your name oh Jesus,” after which the prisoners standing around him backed away from him because, he said, no one ever talked while they were in line for food. Everyone stopped for a moment before Zastrow said that the prison guard responded by saying, “Amen.”
“That was the last time he ever swore at us and took the Lord&#8217;s name in vain,” he said. 
Heather Idoni, another one of those who was freed from prison, also spoke about how prison gave her an opportunity to share her faith, joking that she had a “captive audience for the Gospel.” 
“Prison is the best federally-funded mission trip you can go on. Everywhere I went, there were women hungry for the Lord,” she said. “They didn’t, some didn’t know it yet. Do you know what I got to tell them? I got to say, ‘I’ve been praying for you for two years now and I didn’t even know who you were yet.&#8217;”
Idoni, who was convicted on FACE Act and felony conspiracy charges in Nashville, Detroit, and D.C., had been imprisoned since the summer of 2023, before she was freed in January. She previously spoke about how she was shuttled from prison to prison, exacerbating some of her health challenges. 
“God was keeping me every day, his peace, his presence, not one day without it,” she said. 
Both Idoni and Zastrow met new grandchildren for the first time when they were released from prison. 
The final pardoned pro-lifer to speak was 89-year-old Eva Edl, who spoke about her experience surviving a communist prison camp in Yugoslavia as a young girl. Edl said that witnessing Nazis targeting Jews and the communists targeting her people group because of their ethnic heritage motivated her to fight the dehumanization of the unborn.
Both of her parents were taken prisoner during World War II, and she was sent to a prison camp at the age of nine.
“The Nazis had taken my daddy. The Russians had taken my mother and my grandfather to dig trenches on the Russian side,” she said. 
She was shipped in a cattle car to the camp and nearly died of starvation while she was mistreated horrifically by the prison guards, saying that “people were eating rats and rats were eating people.”
During her time in prison, she said that she got her hands on a Christian prayer book, which was “more important to me than the food itself that I was craving.”  
“When you have that closeness and that peace, you lose the fear of anything else,” she said. 
Edl, her mother, brother, and sister eventually escaped to Austria before immigrating to America in the 1950s. Witnessing the horrific way that people were demonized motivated Edl to become outspokenly pro-life, and she began engaging in sit-ins at abortion facilities around the country. 
When pardoned, she was facing sentencing for a felony conspiracy charge after she sat outside an abortion facility in Sterling Heights, Michigan in 2020. She could have been sentenced to over a decade in federal prison before receiving a pardon from Trump.
Edl closed her testimony by urging churches to encourage adoption and support women in crisis pregnancies. She said she always wished that someone had stood up for her back when she was thrown into the prison camp, and that people should stand up for the unborn today. 
She turns 90 in May and is determined as ever to fight for the unborn. 
While they’ve been pardoned, the shakeout of the Biden pro-life prosecutions are still being played out in court, as lawyers for the defendants are attempting to present arguments that the FACE Act should be ruled unconstitutional and voided.

Screen Shot 2025-03-03 at 11.51.24 AM

‘By One Man’s Signature’: Pro-Life Defendants Reunite A Year After Conviction To Celebrate Pardons

Abortion

Department of Justice

FACE Act

Joe Biden

Pro-Life Movement

Nearly 3,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee</a> for crimes ranging from murder to rape during the last three months of 2024, according to a report compiled by the state’s district attorneys.
The <a href="https://www.tndagc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/PC998-Immigration-Report-2025-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> released last week by the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference found that around 2,719 illegal immigrants from over 92 different countries were arrested from October to December 2024. Sent to GOP Governor Bill Lee and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, the report sheds light on how the border crisis has led to increased crime in the Volunteer State.
Compiled as a result of a new state law requiring law enforcement to report on the arrests of illegal immigrants, the report found that 447 of the estimated total 3,854 charges were violent offenses. The data only included 73 counties since the other 22 did not submit their statistics.
There were a total of 11 homicides reported across the state, including three cases of first degree murder, one case of second degree murder, and seven instances of vehicular homicide.
Other violent offenses reported include rape of a child (3), aggravated rape (6), continuous sexual abuse of a child (2), aggravated kidnapping (3), especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor (1), statutory rape (9), aggravated sexual battery (6), aggravated robbery (6), aggravated domestic assault (27), sexual exploitation of a minor (8), robbery (2), and assault on a law enforcement officer (4).
The most common offenses illegal immigrants were arrested on were driving under the influence (654), driving without a license 549, traffic violations (533), domestic assault (154), public intoxication (147), failure to appear (150), probation violation (91), open container (83), and aggravated assault (80).
<div id="attachment_872131" style="width: 1949px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-872131" class="size-full wp-image-872131" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-05-at-2.36.24-PM.png" alt="" width="1939" height="872" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-05-at-2.36.24-PM.png 1939w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-05-at-2.36.24-PM-300x135.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-05-at-2.36.24-PM-1024x461.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-05-at-2.36.24-PM-768x345.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Screen-Shot-2025-02-05-at-2.36.24-PM-1536x691.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1939px) 100vw, 1939px" />TN District Attorneys report.</div>
Results of the charges were reported as a mixed bag with 136 cases still open, 37 dropped by prosecutors, 85 cases dismissed, 128 found guilty, and 198 with no record indicating the outcome.
Most of the arrests were made in the cities of Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, and the counties surrounding those cities. Surprisingly, Shelby County, home to Memphis, reported just 59 arrests of illegal immigrants.
The greatest number of illegal immigrants came from Mexico (892), though a significant number came from Guatemala (564), Honduras (332), Venezuela (130), and El Salvador (86).
Over the past few years, illegal immigrants have been arrested in Tennessee for a number of high-profile crimes, including the murder of popular Nashville restaurant owner Matt Carney. Carney died from injuries after police say an illegal immigrant struck him with his truck in the parking lot of his restaurant. Carney’s death <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-decries-vicious-illegal-immigrant-suspected-of-murdering-nashville-restaurant-owner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drew the attention</a> of then-candidate Donald Trump, who has warned of an illegal immigrant crime wave stemming from lax border policies implemented by the Biden administration.
Last week, Tennessee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-passes-bill-to-assist-trumps-illegal-immigration-crackdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> sweeping legislation during a special session intended to help carry out Trump’s mass deportation plans.

Federal Agents Target Immigrant Gangs On Long Island

New Data Show How Much Crime Illegal Immigrants Committed In Red State

Donald Trump

Memphis

Violent Crime

A couple&#8217;s raucous fight at a Nashville Chili&#8217;s caused such a commotion that the entire mall where the restaurant is located was evacuated and the adjacent highway was closed in both directions.
Police were called to the Opry Mills Mall on Saturday due to reports of gunshots fired, and eventually had the entire place cleared out while they investigated. The Tennessee Department of Transportation closed down the highway exits to the mall for the next several hours, even after police said there was no evidence that any shots were fired.
Witnesses say there was panic as people sprinted out of the mall, reporting gunshots.
&#8220;We were sitting on the little swings over there, right past the food court, and everybody started running and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?,’&#8221; a witness named Ladonte <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/fight-leads-to-rushed-mass-exodus-at-opry-mills-mall-police-say/amp/">described to a local news station</a>. &#8220;And I see them on their walkie and he’s like, ‘Oh, they’re shooting! You need to get out! Run, run!&#8217; So we just start running this way, and the people that were coming in, I just told them, ‘Come on out because they’re shooting up in there!&#8217;”
Another woman said she was checking out at the Bass Pro Shop when people came running through yelling, &#8220;Code Red, Code Red, everybody&#8217;s gotta go.&#8221;
A man named Andrew Margerison was at a restaurant near the Chili&#8217;s and told a local news station he was convinced he heard seven gunshots.
&#8220;We were in like the first row of tables by O’Charley’s, which was right by the entry between TGI Friday’s and Applebee’s, so the first thing that was weird is there was kind of a small group of people that kind of hurried out from, we think, Applebee’s, but definitely down that corridor that leads out from in between the restaurants, and then, all of a sudden, we heard a distinctive seven pops,&#8221; he told the local station.
Nashville police say it was really just an angry girlfriend whose boyfriend worked at Chili&#8217;s. The public interest officer Kris Mumford says he believes people mistook plates crashing to the ground in the casual dining chain restaurant as gunshots.
&#8220;A female reportedly came into the restaurant and assaulted her boyfriend who was working there, the fight spilled outside, and that led to the calls of shots fired as people started to flee the mall or shelter in place,&#8221; the local news reported. &#8220;Mumford said the victim of the fight at Chili’s is safe, but detectives are still looking into the initial assault and whether or not weapons were involved.&#8221;
This is the second time in recent years that a false alarm of a shooting caused a mass exodus at the mall, which is attached to the famed Grand Ole Opry music hall. In <a href="https://www.wsmv.com/2023/12/28/no-shooting-opry-mills-teen-fight-mistaken-gunfire-police-say/">December 2023</a>, a fallen chair during a fight between two teenagers was mistaken for a gunshot, and the mall was cleared by law enforcement.
&nbsp;

Florida, Orlando, Chili’s Grill & Bar, restaurant entrance

Couple’s Fight At Chili’s Causes Mall Evacuation, Highway Closure

Fight

General

Nate Bargatze is doing everything right – except follow the Hollywood formula.
Stand-up comedians often jump on the first big-screen project that comes their way. Not Bargatze, who still hasn’t made a feature-length comedy all his own. Others snag a sitcom deal promising a lifetime of residual checks if the stars align.
Think — Tim Allen, Roseanne Barr, Jerry Seinfeld, Brett Butler, Martin Lawrence and other funny folks.
Bargatze isn’t going that route. He’s content to Hoover up money on the road. He was 2024’s most successful comedian, <a href="https://news.pollstar.com/2024/08/27/why-nate-does-great-comedy-chart-topper-nate-bargatze-is-americas-favorite-funny-man/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">earning nearly $80 million in ticket sales</a>. That’s in a landscape where Jim Gaffigan, Kevin Hart, Sebastian Maniscalco and others happily roam.
His Prime Video special, <a href="https://deadline.com/2024/11/nate-bargatze-the-breadwinner-tristar-pictures-1236166588/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Nate Bargatze: Hello World” became the</a> streamer’s most popular comedy special in less than a month. He even scored a viral “Saturday Night Live” sketch at a time when the NBC showcase rarely rocks the zeitgeist.
That “Washington’s Dream” clip earned more than 19 million views as well as a video sequel with nearly 9 million more.
<div id="attachment_865155" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-865155" class="size-large wp-image-865155" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2176181694-864x576.jpg" alt="SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- Episode 1866 -- Pictured: (l-r) Kenan Thompson, host Nate Bargatze, Mikey Day, and Bowen Yang during the &quot;Washington's Dream 2&quot; sketch on Saturday, October 5, 2024 -- (Photo by: Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2176181694-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2176181694-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2176181694-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2176181694.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images</div>
He’s a clean comedy machine, and he’s unabashedly heartland friendly.
Bargatze’s red state appeal is no monkey trick. He’s from Tennessee, and his gentle southern accent is just one giveaway. A 2022 profile describes his Tennessee home as surprisingly modest, understanding he could afford a home that would make Architectural Digest readers swoon.
He’s opened up about his Christian childhood with tenderness and humor.
“I think Jesus had more fun than I did [growing up],” he said playfully on the stand-up circuit. “I’m not complaining. My parents did a great job, I was just naïve a little bit longer than most kids were.”
His self-effacing shtick scores with fans, and he’s never more self-critical than when he describes his marriage.
He also loves to pay it forward. His Nateland Entertainment <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Nateland" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube channel</a> features both his podcast and shows featuring fellow comedians who lack his national presence. If Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” helped launch stand-ups in the 1970s and ‘80s, podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “Nateland” do something similar for today’s cutups.
<div id="attachment_865205" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LqGm0csbqo"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-865205" class="size-large wp-image-865205" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-16-PM-6409-1024x576.jpg" alt="Screenshot: YouTube.com/Nateland Entertainment" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-16-PM-6409-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-16-PM-6409-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-16-PM-6409-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-16-PM-6409-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-16-PM-6409-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>Screenshot: YouTube.com/Nateland Entertainment</div>
Bargatze’s runaway success is part of the larger, clean comedy revolution. The term “clean” once meant “clunky,” “edge-free” or just plain dull to some. Now, with superstars like Gaffigan, Maniscalco, Brian Regan and Bargatze working the comedy circuit that’s hardly the case.
Established comics like Adam Carolla wash their own mouths out with soap to appear on Utah’s Dry Bar Comedy circuit.
It’s worth noting Bargatze is the opposite of an overnight sensation. He’s been telling jokes for more than 20 years, but for much of his career he wasn’t a household name. Blame social media clips, Netflix specials, or just a never-say-die spirit. He’s now the biggest name in comedy.
<div id="attachment_865227" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-865227" class="size-large wp-image-865227" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-35-PM-1378-1024x576.jpg" alt="Credit: NateBargatze.com. Nateland Entertainment. Grand Rapids, MI." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-35-PM-1378-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-35-PM-1378-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-35-PM-1378-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-35-PM-1378-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/MixCollage-24-Jan-2025-01-35-PM-1378-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: NateBargatze.com. Nateland Entertainment. Grand Rapids, MI.</div>
Podcaster and actor Marc Maron called it years ago, telling Rolling Stone magazine Bargatze was “<a href="https://variety.com/2022/legit/features/everyman-comic-nate-bargatze-1235319057/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a comic who should be big</a>.” Finally, America agrees.
Perhaps his gentle brand of humor, observational and endlessly kind, is just what we needed in troubled times.
Rebel comedians aren’t hurting for work, either. Tony Hinchcliffe’s nasty jab at Puerto Rico during that infamous Madison Square Garden Trump rally could have hurt the mogul’s re-election chances, but Hinchcliffe emerged from the non-scandal bigger than ever.
Comedy podcasters like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Tim Dillon and Andrew Schulz throw razor-sharp elbows and have made themselves rich in the process. There’s room for all shades of comedy in 2025.
Still, Bargatze can&#8217;t imagine that <a href="https://variety.com/2022/legit/features/everyman-comic-nate-bargatze-1235319057/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cobalt blue approach.</a>
“I was always uncomfortable making people uncomfortable. I’d be sad if I made somebody feel bad. That would break my heart. I didn’t realize my purpose was to be a relief, but the people who come to my shows — all different backgrounds, political belief, ages, especially since the pandemic — you can feel the relief when you hear them laugh.”
<div id="attachment_865157" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-865157" class="size-large wp-image-865157" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2190016465-864x576.jpg" alt="THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 2071 -- Pictured: (l-r) Comedian Nate Bargatze during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 -- (Photo by: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2190016465-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2190016465-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2190016465-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2190016465.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images</div>
The funniest part of his shocking rise to fame? A Slate.com profile attacking him for <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2024/12/nate-bargatze-comedian-snl-netflix-special-your-friend-comedy.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ducking the culture war battles.</a>
Of course, Bargatze’s neutrality is a politicized stance in its own right. His dogmatic avoidance of controversy might be celebrated in progressive circles, but it also renders his catalog incapable of addressing any of the glaring frailties in American culture.
As it turns out, Bargatze has been waiting to make his big-screen closeup on his terms. He recently signed up to star and <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nate-bargatze-reveals-plans-future-144600920.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-produce “The Breadwinner</a>,” a comedy with few details available at the moment. It’ll be his first starring role in a feature film, and the pressure will be immense.
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*1lail3r*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3MzIyMDEyNDkuQ2owS0NRaUEwZnU1QmhEUUFSSXNBTVhVQk9JSkM0VnNsMFVreURxYXUxVWVEVWdOdjZkNzR2Y1pEeEZQeHVBcGl2R3BLaTdBMjVzT1p5TWFBdG1nRUFMd193Y0I.*_gcl_au*NDUxNDQ0NzYwLjE3MzY3ODI2NDY.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczNjk1NzYwMy4zNDAuMS4xNzM2OTU3NzE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">CELEBRATE #47 WITH 47% OFF DAILYWIRE+ MEMBERSHIPS + A FREE $20 GIFT</a></h3>
There’s zero chance it’ll duplicate the bawdy antics of a “Hangover” or “Old School” style romp. Bargatze has wisely protected his brand up until now. Why fix what isn’t broken?
&#8220;I was never great at auditioning for other people’s movies. So I kind of figured I would have to just make my own. I want to be able to create movies that hopefully the whole family can come out to. I believe people still want to go to movies and [that they] still like appointment-type television.&#8221;
Be warned. Sebastian Maniscalco took that path last year with “About My Father,” a story based on his life co-starring Oscar-winner Robert De Niro. It flopped. So did Bert Kreischer’s “The Machine.”
There’s no shame in sticking with what works.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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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