Republicans appear to support a bipartisan bill led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), but the legislation remains stalled amid reported concerns that giving the Democratic socialist a legislative victory could fuel her presidential ambitions.  
<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1837/text">The DEFIANCE Act</a> (Disrupt Explicit Forged Images And Non-Consensual Edits Act) would create a federal civil cause of action allowing victims of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes to sue those who create or distribute fake nude or sexual images without their consent. 
Under the bill, victims could recover up to $250,000 in damages in cases involving sexual assault, stalking, or harassment, earning support from leftists, conservative Republicans, and Hollywood figures such as Paris Hilton.
AOC first introduced the legislation last year. In January, the U.S. Senate passed it unanimously.
“I want to thank the Senate cosponsors of this legislation, including my Republican co-lead, Senator Lindsey Graham,” Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) <a href="https://www.durbin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/durbin-successfully-passes-bill-to-combat-nonconsensual-sexually-explicit-deepfake-images">said</a> at the time. “Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez herself is a publicly confessed victim of explicit deepfakes. I commend her for working to create tools for victims in the fight against this despicable crime.” 
Despite bipartisan support, the bill remains stalled in the Republican-led House. <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2026/07/23/paris-hilton-and-the-politics-of-defiance-01009283?nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=5c65d8fa-b7c7-44e5-98d0-43e6086e71cd">Politico reported</a> Thursday that some Republicans worry passing AOC&#8217;s legislation could hand the New York congresswoman a political victory as she emerges as a potential 2028 presidential contender. 
“It’s a shame that this bill isn’t law because they are unwilling to give AOC a win,” one person working on the bill told the outlet. “When you look at it, everything is aligned for it to pass, except that they don’t want her to have this.”
“We’re depriving many, many people of the ability to set their lives right just to prevent one member of Congress from being able to pass a bill,” another person said, according to Politico. 
Ocasio-Cortez has blamed the delay on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Earlier this month,<a href="https://x.com/EricMGarcia/status/2077191769477791989?s=20"> she told The Independent</a> that the bill passed the Senate unanimously with Republican support, adding that people should &#8220;ask Jim Jordan&#8221; why it has yet to advance.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters Tuesday that he supports the legislation but was unsure of its status in committee, according to Politico. 
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-melania-backed-bill-to-fight-deepfake-revenge-porn">TAKE IT DOWN Act</a>, championed by first lady Melania Trump, into law. The measure criminalizes the non-consensual online distribution of intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes.
The impasse comes days after a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-new-2028-poll-just-shook-up-both-parties?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=A+New+2028+Poll+Just+Shook+Up+Both+Parties">New Hampshire primary poll</a> signaled an early shake-up in the 2028 Democratic presidential race, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) leading the field.
The Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, shows the Democratic socialist leading the hypothetical Democratic field with 22% support, narrowly ahead of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at 21%. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) placed third with 9%. 
“You know polls are polls, and a horse race is a horse race,” AOC <a href="https://x.com/EricMGarcia/status/2080038582211821579?s=20">said</a> in response. “I am, of course, I think very deeply humbled and grateful to you know folks who participate and convey that confidence.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
👀👀👀 AOC on a poll showing her leading in a 2028 primary in New Hampshire:
&#8220;One is that you know polls are polls, and a horse race is a horse race. I am, of course, I think very deeply humbled and grateful to you know folks who participate and convey that confidence.&#8221;
&#8220;I… <a href="https://t.co/fSXAOC0AGO">pic.twitter.com/fSXAOC0AGO</a>
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) <a href="https://x.com/EricMGarcia/status/2080038582211821579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2026</a></blockquote>

Congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar, And Pressley Hold News Conference After President Trump Attacks Them On Twitter

Republicans Love This AOC-Led Bill, But They Don’t Want To Pass It

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Artificial Intelligence

bipartisanship

Congress

Deepfakes

Democrats

Dick Durbin

Donald Trump

Jim Jordan

Lindsey Graham

Melania Trump

Mike Johnson

News

Politico

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Republicans

Politico, the Washington insider outlet that bills itself as a &#8220;leading destination for non-partisan news and unbiased policy coverage,&#8221; has been paying for the services of a liberal mega-donor who has already forked over six figures directly to the Democrat Party this calendar year.
First appearing in a February newsletter from Politico Influence, its daily bulletin on the swampy world of lobbyists in the nation&#8217;s capital, was a disclosure that one of the biggest figures in the industry, Invariant, is now working for Politico. Invariant is the influence shop founded and run by Heather Podesta, the former wife of lobbyist Tony Podesta and longtime power-player in Democrat politics.
&#8220;POLITICO is a client of Invariant,&#8221; read the disclosure, which has appeared in at least seven disclosures since the middle of February.
Podesta has contributed more than $250,000 to Democrat candidates and committees this election cycle, including the maximum allowed $44,500 to both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Over the years, Podesta has given millions of dollars to Democrats.
It is unclear what Invariant is providing for Politico. Neither responded to a request for comment.
Invariant offers not only lobbying, but also public relations and crisis management. The firm brought in over $47 million from lobbying clients in 2025, according to figures compiled by Open Secrets.
The addition of Invariant comes just a few months after Politico brought in a veteran Democrat operative to be its head of communications. The operative, Evan Hollander, was named senior vice president of communications, a post he picked up after years of crafting messaging for House Democrats, according to a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/media/politicos-new-comms-chief-is-veteran-house-dem-operative-who-called-trumps-first-term-an-unmitigated-disaster/">report</a> from the Free Beacon. 
Politico also found itself in hot water in recent weeks over a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/media/politico-publishes-cartoon-depicting-trump-republicans-wearing-blood-covered-jewish-prayer-shawls-yarmulkes-amid-bags-of-money/">cartoon that depicted</a> President Donald Trump and Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham wearing blood-covered Jewish prayer shawls and yarmulkes. The cartoon was taken down with an editor&#8217;s note saying it did not &#8220;meet our standards,&#8221; but only saying it could be &#8220;reasonably interpreted&#8221; to be &#8220;hateful.&#8221;
It is unclear whether Podesta and Invariant were involved with crafting the statement.
Politico just <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-press/2026/03/29/jonathan-greenberger-named-politico-global-editor-in-chief-00849724">added</a> a new editor-in-chief, Jonathan Greenberger, who will take the helm in May.

ELLE And Hugo Boss Women In Washington Power List Dinner

Politico Brings In Major Dem Donor’s Public Affairs Firm

John Podesta

POLITICO remained silent after reporter Josh Gerstein suggested that daycare owners who did not take kindly to independent journalists exposing fraud could simply shoot them.
&#8220;At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws,&#8221; Gerstein <a href="https://x.com/joshgerstein/status/2005863545360068709">posted on X</a> on December 29, and he drew backlash for it almost immediately.
Fox News late-night host Greg Gutfeld <a href="https://x.com/greggutfeld/status/2006393003716280704">replied</a>, &#8220;The media&#8217;s best argument for not doing real reporting — it&#8217;s safer working from home on your laptop, hitting &#8216;send&#8217; after each piece you pasted together from other sources on the Trump (ballroom, hands, insult).&#8221;
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also responded to Gerstein&#8217;s post, noting that daycare owners might use the same logic to justify shooting at federal agents who came to the door to investigate.
&#8220;You would think a &#8216;Senior Legal Affairs Reporter&#8217; for POLITICO would know better than to tweet something inciting violence against federal agents,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/ICEgov/status/2006062171134849220">the post read</a>.
&#8220;1) Stand Your Ground does not permit the murder of door knockers 2) MN is not a SYG state 3) in no world should Somali fraudsters be encouraged to murder taxpaying US citizens for doing the journalism well-funded reporters refuse to do,&#8221; The Federalist&#8217;s Mollie Hemingway <a href="https://x.com/MZHemingway/status/2006031707724546400">replied</a>.
&#8220;I’m sorry? Wut? Are you advising Somalis to shoot amateur reporters for knocking on their door?&#8221; David Marcus <a href="https://x.com/BlueBoxDave/status/2006005416044724498">asked</a>.
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&#8220;Reminder that journalists have absolutely no idea what Stand your Ground laws actually do, in what circumstances they apply, and why they were passed,&#8221; Charles C.W. Cooke <a href="https://x.com/charlescwcooke/status/2006091805952012417">added</a>.
The Daily Signal&#8217;s Tony Kennett <a href="https://x.com/TheTonus/status/2006052764376236274">observed</a>, &#8220;The senior legal affairs reporter for Politico suggesting &#8216;stand your ground&#8217; laws means shooting people who knock on the doors of a daycare. My God.&#8221;
Gerstein attempted to do <a href="https://x.com/joshgerstein/status/2006063832016552100">damage control</a> a day later, commenting, &#8220;To observe that something is likely to happen or there&#8217;s a serious risk of it happening is not to advocate for it happening.&#8221;
But critics were not buying that either, as Matt Whitlock <a href="https://x.com/MattWhitlock/status/2006065516050587809">pointed out</a>, &#8220;Have you considered that there wouldn&#8217;t be &#8216;amateur efforts to knock on doors of home daycares&#8217; if there was a *professional effort to knock on doors of [fake] home daycares?* They used to call it &#8216;shoe leather journalism.&#8217; Would those people also be likely to be shot?&#8221;
&#8220;Nice shoe leather journalism you&#8217;re doing there. Shame if someone stopped you from doing it by murdering you,&#8221; Stephen L. Miller posted.
&#8220;Hey @politico, come get your guy who is advocating the murder of American journalists,&#8221; Christopher Rufo <a href="https://x.com/christopherrufo/status/2006062046966620547">challenged</a>.
The Daily Wire pressed the outlet for a response to Gerstein&#8217;s statement and the ensuing backlash — and after asking when the deadline for a response might be, a publicist for POLITICO allowed that deadline to lapse (and then some) with no further communications.

US-TAX REFORM-NORQUIST

POLITICO Silent As Reporter Suggests Journalists Investigating Minneapolis Fraud Can Be Legally Shot

Politico Silent As Reporter Suggests Reporters Looking Into Minneapolis Fraud Can Be Legally Shot

Fraud

Gun Violence

Media

Paul Ingrassia, a Trump administration official tapped by the president to lead the Office of the Special Counsel, withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday following a POLITICO report on some of his past alleged text messages.
Ingrassia, who currently serves as President Donald Trump&#8217;s special liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, <a href="https://x.com/PaulIngrassia/status/1980770237130608774">said</a> that he was taking his name out of consideration &#8220;because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time.&#8221;
&#8220;I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!&#8221; he added.
POLITICO published a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/20/paul-ingrassia-racist-text-messages-nazi-00613608?stream=top&amp;amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&amp;amp;utm_medium=email&amp;amp;utm_source=newsletter">story</a> on Monday that dug up a group chat where Ingrassia reportedly made inflammatory remarks about black holidays and claimed to have a &#8220;Nazi streak.&#8221; Two people, who were reportedly in the chat with Ingrassia and were given anonymity, showed POLITICO the text chain and the number they said belonged to Ingrassia.
“MLK Jr. was the 1960s George Floyd and his ‘holiday’ should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs,” read one text reportedly from Ingrassia. A month later, the Trump official reportedly brought up black holidays again and used an Italian slur for black people.
“No moulignon holidays … From kwanza [sic] to mlk jr day to black history month to Juneteenth,” the message read, adding, “Every single one needs to be eviscerated.”
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
In another exchange, a person in the group chat wrote, &#8220;Paul belongs in the Hitler Youth with Ubergruppenfuhrer Steve Bannon,&#8221; to which Ingrassia allegedly replied, &#8220;I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.&#8221;
Ingrassia, a political commentator who previously wrote for The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit, sent a letter to Republicans on Tuesday addressing multiple POLITICO &#8220;hit pieces.&#8221;
&#8220;I have no recollection of these alleged chat leaks, and do not concede their authenticity,&#8221; Ingrassia wrote. &#8220;They could well be outright falsehoods, doctored, or manipulated with AI, or at the very least, lack critical context.&#8221;
Ingrassia argued that some people &#8220;cloak themselves in anonymity while executing their personal agendas to harm me at all costs.&#8221; The Trump staffer went on to highlight his efforts to address antisemitism in the White House and his &#8220;great support among the Jewish community.&#8221;
Ingrassia also pointed to another published POLITICO report that put him in a negative light. In a story earlier this month, POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/09/ingrassia-trump-harassment-dhs-00596545?nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nname=playbook&amp;nrid=00000166-fa8b-d7a1-afee-fedf35770002">reported</a> allegations that Ingrassia arranged to cancel the hotel reservation of one of his female colleagues so she would have to stay in his room. Ingrassia denied the allegation and said that the woman in the piece &#8220;is a longtime friend&#8221; who &#8220;never once complained about me.&#8221;
Despite his letter to Republicans, three GOP senators on the Homeland Security Committee signaled that they would oppose Ingrassia&#8217;s confirmation, meaning his nomination likely would have died in the committee, NBC News <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/21/trump-special-counsel-nominee-paul-ingrassia-withdraws-after-racist-texts-flap.html">reported</a>. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) stated simply on Tuesday, &#8220;He’s not going to pass.&#8221;

Paul Ingrassia

Trump Pick Paul Ingrassia Withdraws After Text Leak, Blames Media ‘Hit Pieces’

General

Office of special counsel

Trump Administration

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

Unrecognizable young man using mobile phone device at home

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

Ben Shapiro

Conservatives

Leftists

Legacy Media

Liberals

Opinion

U.S. Politics

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

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

Adolf Hitler

Matt Walsh

Nazis

Social Media

Telegram

Border czar Tom Homan pulled no punches in a recent conversation with POLITICO&#8217;s Dasha Burns, providing her with statistics and evidence when she suggested that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were inviting criticism for wearing masks while conducting raids.
Homan pointed to the backlash against ICE agents — which has led not only to them being targeted in the streets but to them being targeted at their homes, along with their spouses and their children — and argued, just as acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has, that they should be allowed some measure of protection.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: Tom Homan *STEAMROLLS* Politico&#8217;s Dasha Burns when she casts doubt on need for ICE to wear masks🚨
BURNS: &#8220;I think one of the things that&#8217;s had a lot of folks up in arms is that ICE agents — unlike other law enforcement — have been masked to protect their identities.… <a href="https://t.co/41lSuEhbEu">pic.twitter.com/41lSuEhbEu</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1944396575498805676?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I think one of the things that&#8217;s had a lot of folks up in arms is that ICE agents — unlike other law enforcement — have been masked to protect their identities,&#8221; Burns began. &#8220;That&#8217;s not something that we&#8217;ve really had on this scale in this country. Do you—&#8221;
&#8220;Well, we never had the scale of attacks on ICE we have now — up 700% attacks on ICE, doxing against ICE agents,&#8221; Homan interrupted.
&#8220;Well, you&#8217;ve had increased attacks on police officers as well in the wake of the defund the police movement, too. But they haven&#8217;t put masks on,&#8221; Burns protested.
&#8220;Name a police agency that has a 700% increase in assaults,&#8221; Homan challenged. &#8220;Name one. You can&#8217;t.&#8221;
Burns conceded: &#8220;I haven&#8217;t looked at that data, yeah.&#8221;
Homan went on to point out that it wasn&#8217;t just the agents themselves who were being targeted — although that would be serious enough — but activists and extremists were also doxxing their families.
&#8220;You won&#8217;t find one. The attacks on ICE is unprecedented, 700% increased. And we&#8217;re not even talking about the doxing of agents, their spouses, and their children,&#8221; Homan explained. &#8220;So they&#8217;re wearing masks to help give them some sort of protection &#8230; The same people that are complaining about ICE wearing masks, have they ever said anything about BLM protesters wearing masks?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, I mean, that leads me to the question that like: do you have concerns that it—?&#8221;
&#8220;Let me answer though. Let me answer,&#8221; Homan pushed back. &#8220;Did they ever say anything about the masked protesters that became criminals on college campuses that threatened Jewish students and took over buildings, destroyed property? They were all wearing masks. Did anybody pass legislation saying they can&#8217;t wear a mask during a protest? No.&#8221;
&#8220;I support ICE wearing masks &#8230; there needs to be some level of protection because the attacks is unprecedented,&#8221; Homan concluded. &#8220;They&#8217;re trying to make this country safe again — and they&#8217;re being vilified for it and attacked for it &#8230; We&#8217;re not going to tolerate it. Zero tolerance on this.&#8221;

White House Border Czar Tom Homan Speaks To Media At White House

Tom Homan Sticks It To Politico Reporter In Spat Over ICE Agents Wearing Masks

Face Masks

Illegal Immigration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Tom Homan

A board member for the media company that owns POLITICO derided an article the outlet published from the Associated Press as “one-sided Hamas support.”
Martin Varsavsky, a board member of Berlin-based media company Axel Springer, took to X on Tuesday to criticize the AP piece published by POLITICO that cited Hamas&#8217; death toll numbers even though they have lied about the count repeatedly.
“I am on the board of Axel Springer that owns Político. I consider this article one sided Hamas support,” Varsavsky said. “It fails to mention that the airstrikes were aimed at eliminating top Hamas military and thar Israel was successful at doing so. It also quotes casualty figures given by Hamas that are not believed to be accurate.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I am on the board of Axel Springer that owns Político. I consider this article one sided Hamas support. It fails to mention that the airstrikes were aimed at eliminating top Hamas military and thar Israel was successful at doing so. It also quotes casualty figures given by Hamas… <a href="https://t.co/TDWcfCaHYQ">https://t.co/TDWcfCaHYQ</a>
— Martin Varsavsky (@martinvars) <a href="https://twitter.com/martinvars/status/1901895051510272183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The AP article posted on POLITICO’s website cited Gaza Health Ministry officials claiming Israeli airstrikes killed at least 200 people and included a photo of a man holding a child with blood coming out of her nose.
The Gaza Health Ministry is notorious for lying about the number of casualties, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hamas-run-gaza-health-ministry-cited-by-legacy-media-has-history-of-lying-about-civilian-casualties" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The false statistics designed to inflate the number of casualties caused by Israel have been known for at least a decade, with a U.S. News &amp; World Report opinion piece highlighting the issue back in 2014.
“Hamas lies systematically, instructing civilians to misinform the foreign press. It lies habitually, with a formidable record of mendacity from previous conflicts. And it lies guiltlessly, convinced that the objectives of ‘resistance’ supersede quaint notions of truth-telling,” Oren Kessler wrote at the time.
In August 2024, about 80 media outlets had to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/eighty-media-outlets-issue-correction-on-ap-story-that-inflated-gaza-civilian-death-toll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issue a correction</a> to an AP story that falsely claimed that more than 40,000 civilians had been killed in the Israel-Hamas war that started after Hamas terrorists committed a massacre against Israelis on October 7, 2023. The Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, but it never said all 40,000 were civilians.
Israel estimates that more than 17,000 of those killed in the war were Hamas terrorists.
Even though the Gaza Health Ministry is known to inflate the number of casualties, media outlets continue to cite them to frame Israel as unnecessarily aggressive. The AP story criticized by Varsavksy noted in the 11th paragraph that Israel “was striking Hamas’ military, leaders and infrastructure” in the attacks, citing an Israeli official. Prior to that, the outlet described wounded Palestinians, including a crying little girl. It also provided Hamas’ perspective on the attacks while minimizing Israel’s.
The AP also reported that the “White House sought to blame Hamas for the renewed fighting” in the 9th paragraph. As National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told the outlet, Hamas “could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.” Several paragraphs earlier, the AP let Hamas blame Israel for ending the ceasefire.
The Associated Press once shared an office building with Hamas in Gaza, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/associated-press-laments-loss-of-gaza-bureau-which-shared-office-space-with-terrorist-organization-hamas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. That building was destroyed in 2021.
The AP noted at the time that all of its employees and freelancers were able to evacuate the building safely, thanks to the Israeli military calling ahead to warn them of the strike, as it does when targeting civilian buildings. The reason Israel targets those civilian structures is because Hamas and Palestinian authorities hide intelligence operations, weapons, and other important assets in these buildings, claiming victimhood after they’re destroyed.

Hamas Terrorists

Board Member Of POLITICO Ownership Group Deems Article ‘One-Sided Hamas Support’

Member Of Politico Ownership Group Derides ‘One-Sided Hamas Support’

Associated Press

Hamas

Israel

Media Bias

World

Former Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), who was recently sworn in as Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, announced on Monday that he was cutting nearly $180,000 from the VA&#8217;s expenses by canceling subscriptions to Politico.
&#8220;Ran across a $178,000 contract VA had with Politico and we promptly canceled it. That money can be better spent on Veterans health care!&#8221; Collins posted via X.
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Ran across a $178,000 contract VA had with Politico and we promptly canceled it. That money can be better spent on Veterans health care!
&mdash; VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/1888950609358749765?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Collins spoke with <a href="https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2025/02/10/another-one-bites-dust-veterans-affairs-axes-nearly-180k-politico" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Newsbusters</a> about his plan to cancel the Politico Pro subscriptions, telling the outlet that he was ushering in &#8220;a new day at VA&#8221; and adding, &#8220;We’re putting Veterans at the center of everything the department does, focusing relentlessly on customer service and convenience.&#8221;
&#8220;We’re working every day to find new and better ways of helping VA beneficiaries. That means cutting wasteful spending and redirecting resources toward programs that benefit Veterans, families, survivors and caregivers,&#8221; Collins added.
The VA has already taken actions to root out and terminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives, a move that could save the department millions of dollars.
Musk responded to the news Collins had posted, saying, &#8220;Wow. I recommend looking at all media and software subscriptions for either full cancellation or reduction.&#8221;
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Wow. I recommend looking at all media and software subscriptions for either full cancellation or reduction. <a href="https://t.co/0qALNqajZ3">https://t.co/0qALNqajZ3</a>
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1888970149933252953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Politico became a headline last week when it was reported that the federal government spent some $8 million in payments for Politico Pro subscriptions in FY 2024. Other reports indicated that the outlet has received  as much as $34 million from various federal agencies for similar subscriptions.
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The Politico scandal is worse than you think.
It’s not $8M that Politico received from USAID.
It’s $34.3M that Politico has received from various swampy federal govt agencies.
Politico is, without a doubt, a totally corrupt propaganda arm of the swamp.
Follow along below. <a href="https://t.co/OxF7Zrc4GP">pic.twitter.com/OxF7Zrc4GP</a>
&mdash; Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) <a href="https://twitter.com/Liz_Wheeler/status/1887173667504947433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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According to other reports that followed, Politico was far from the only outlet receiving large sums either through USAID or from numerous other federal government agencies.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not just Politico,&#8221; Climate Dispatch posted via X. &#8220;The NYTimes and AP are also raking in millions in subscriptions each year.&#8221;
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It&#39;s not just Politico. The NYTimes and AP are also raking in millions in subscription cash each year. <a href="https://t.co/GJ2PN3LhsN">https://t.co/GJ2PN3LhsN</a> <a href="https://t.co/oxmwktz7xP">https://t.co/oxmwktz7xP</a>
&mdash; Climate Dispatch (@ccdeditor) <a href="https://twitter.com/ccdeditor/status/1887490130962727154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Senate Nomination Hearing Held For Doug Collins To Be Veterans Affairs Secretary

Secretary Doug Collins Saves VA $180K Just By Terminating Politico Subscriptions

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Department of Veterans Affairs

Veterans Affairs (VA)

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/trump-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump administration</a> on Thursday ordered the General Services Administration (GSA) to &#8220;cancel every single media contract&#8221; by the end of the day.
The email follows shocking findings from DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, namely that legacy media outlets were taking in millions of dollars from the federal government through mass subscription contracts. For example, the federal government paid more than $8 million to Politico last year alone for the outlet&#8217;s Politico Pro service.
&#8220;GSA team, please do two things,&#8221; the email, which was first obtained by Axios, reads. &#8220;Pull all contracts for Politico, BBC, E&amp;E (Politico sub) and Bloomberg. Pull all media contracts for just GSA &#8211; cancel every single media contract today for GSA only.&#8221;
It&#8217;s unclear how many subscriptions GSA was paying for, but the agency, which manages federal property and technology services for the federal government, has about 12,000 employees.
Additionally, an X account for DOGE posted Wednesday that &#8220;Treasury leadership verified that their NYT (New York Times) contracts were cancelled today.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Treasury leadership verified that their NYT contracts were cancelled today. <a href="https://t.co/cd3STUgrzF">https://t.co/cd3STUgrzF</a>
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) <a href="https://twitter.com/DOGE/status/1887354310830272644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week that the White House can confirm that they are canceling payments for Politico Pro subscriptions across numerous agencies. 
The controversy started when DOGE highlighted waste from USAID, which had an annual budget of about $40 billion dollars and around <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2025/02/06/usaid-cut-dramatically-as-offices-set-to-close-midnight-friday/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">13,000 </a>employees. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week that the initial goal was to reform USAID, but they were met with so much resistance from the agency that they were forced to take drastic action. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
🚨RUBIO: USAID rife with “rank insubordination” — “we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.&#8221;
&#8220;They have basically evolved into an agency that believes that they&#8217;re not even a U.S. government agency&#8230;they&#8217;re completely unresponsive. They… <a href="https://t.co/LQOKRDUlBk">pic.twitter.com/LQOKRDUlBk</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1886602412485697753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
The White House released a preliminary list of wasteful projects USAID has funded, including giving millions of taxpayer dollars to a group involved with research at the Wuhan lab, hundreds of thousands to a non-profit linked to terror groups, $2 million for LGBT activism in Guatemala, and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14344255/trump-millions-dei-foreign-aid-programs-funding.html">$1.5 million</a> to advance DEI in Serbia.
Nearly all staff at the agency will be <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usaid-missions-overseas-ordered-shutdown-by-friday/">placed on leave</a> by Friday night and all overseas missions have been ordered to shut down.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-elon-musks-department-of-government-efficiency-will-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How Elon Musk’s DOGE Will Work</a>

‘Cancel Every Single Media Contract’: Trump Takes Strong Action After Shocking DOGE Findings

Executive

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Holds Daily Briefing

Another Insane Government Money Laundering Scheme Revealed

Elon Musk

Federal Government

President Trump

USAID

As The Trump administration continues cutting waste from the federal government, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the left-wing media outlet Politico will no longer receive millions of dollars from the federal government that she said was “essentially subsidizing subscriptions.”
“I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room,” Leavitt began. “I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers&#8217; dime will no longer be happening. The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now.”
“Again, this is a whole-of-government effort to ensure that we are going line by line when it comes to the federal government’s books. And this president and his team are making decisions across the board on ‘Do these receipts serve the interests of the American people? Is this a good use of the American taxpayers’ money? If it is not, that funding will no longer be sent abroad and American taxpayers will be seeing significant savings because of that effort,” she stated.
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PressSec</a>: &quot;I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers&#39; dime will no longer be happening.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/9uA1imuKtt">pic.twitter.com/9uA1imuKtt</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1887208656854270086?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The exact details of how Politico receives the large sum from the government are unclear. Politico isn&#8217;t receiving government grants, but rather has a large number of employees at various federal agencies subscribing to <a href="https://www.politicopro.com/plans/">Politico&#8217;s premium product</a>, Politico Pro, on the taxpayer&#8217;s dime. A subscription reportedly costs $10,000 a year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We can talk about whether its wasteful for government to spend so much on Politico Pro subscriptions, but this is not federal grants to Politico. <a href="https://t.co/BTb4xtxy6d">https://t.co/BTb4xtxy6d</a> <a href="https://t.co/8jYRaY7wfI">pic.twitter.com/8jYRaY7wfI</a>
&mdash; Tim Carney (@TPCarney) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/1887175889726628119?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8230;and USAID seemed to have 2 subscriptions to politico products&#8211;both their Energy &amp; Environment product. <a href="https://t.co/J3SW76FJQ1">pic.twitter.com/J3SW76FJQ1</a>
&mdash; Tim Carney (@TPCarney) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/1887177005818651101?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Politico was founded in 2007 by two former Washington Post columnists: John  F. Harris and Jim VandeHei. VandeHei later co-founded and became the CEO of Axios, another left-wing media site.  In 2022, Politico published the leaked draft of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
“Politico and Axios, which share founding members, also share first prize in producing election coverage that reads more like Democratic National Committee press releases. In this area, they have no serious competition,” Becket Adams <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/08/two-publications-that-might-as-well-be-run-by-the-dnc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opined</a> last August, as he delineated headlines showing the media outlets’ biases. “A brief review of Politico’s social-media feeds during the Democratic National Convention revealed a profoundly unserious and ideologically tilted newsroom, one whose copy contained all the unbridled glee and excitement of a teen fan magazine.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I looked at the entire list, there are over 237 examples of politico pro subscriptions at outrageous prices. Here are the agencies involved: <a href="https://t.co/LtqgGAPulp">pic.twitter.com/LtqgGAPulp</a>
&mdash; Jellenne 🇺🇸🌵🌞 (@jellen805) <a href="https://twitter.com/jellen805/status/1887160375742955622?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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And it’s not just Politico:
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The US Government gave the New York Times tens of millions of dollars over just the past 5 years despite paying relatively little money to the NYT in the years preceding 2021. For instance, in August 2024, the US government awarded $4.1 million to the NYT.
The bulk of the funds… <a href="https://t.co/XWvv3CplI8">pic.twitter.com/XWvv3CplI8</a>
&mdash; Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1887191056074350690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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White House Holds Press Briefing

Trump To Cut Off Politico From Federal Funds, Press Sec Says

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