The reporter at the center of a recent defamation case against cable news giant CNN announced on Monday that he was leaving the network &#8220;after 8 terrific years.&#8221;
Alex Marquardt, who worked for ABC News prior to his nearly decade-long stint at CNN, was the focal point of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-found-liable-ordered-to-pay-5-million-to-navy-vet-in-defamation-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defamation suit</a> brought by U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young. The network lost that lawsuit, and was ordered to pay out $5 million in economic and emotional damages. CNN was also on the hook for punitive damages, but the amount was never made public.
The reporter made the announcement in a post on X, saying, &#8220;Some personal news: I’m leaving CNN after 8 terrific years. Tough to say goodbye but it’s been an honor to work among the very best in the business. Profound thank you to my comrades on the National Security team &amp; the phenomenal teammates I’ve worked with in the US and abroad.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: CNN reporter <a href="https://twitter.com/MarquardtA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarquardtA</a> who defamed Navy veteran Zachary Young announces he’s leaving the network <a href="https://t.co/l8tEkbWxJY">https://t.co/l8tEkbWxJY</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1929569012402311226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The lawsuit came about after Marquardt <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-under-fire-as-navy-veteran-testifies-in-1-billion-defamation-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">featured Young</a> in a story about private contractors assisting with evacuations in the aftermath of former President Joe Biden&#8217;s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Marquardt framed the story in a way that unfairly painted Young as greedy and willing to capitalize on the pain of families desperate to get people out of the country.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Young’s attorney Kyle Roche claimed during opening statements that the CNN report was “reckless” and that the network had “set out to destroy Zach’s reputation.”
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&#8220;They didn’t care about the truth. They cared about theater and they cared about ratings,” he said, previewing internal messages from CNN editors who stated that Marquardt’s report was “full of holes like Swiss cheese” and “80 percent emotion and 20 percent obscured fact.”
Other text messages between Marquardt and Young — and Marquardt and his colleagues at CNN — played a role in revealing just how far the reporter had been willing to go for a story that Young warned him would result in legal action.
Marquardt did not give any indication as to where he might be headed following his departure from CNN.

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CNN Reporter At Center Of Navy Veteran Defamation Case Is Out Of A Job

Defamation

Media

Politics

US Navy

The United States Navy is reportedly planning to send a second destroyer to patrol the waters around the southern border as part of President Donald Trump&#8217;s historic crackdown on illegal immigration and drugs.
U.S. Northern Command deployed the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely to the Gulf of America on March 15, 2025, to work with the U.S. Coast Guard in drug interdiction missions.
A <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/19/navy-plans-deploy-second-destroyer-patrol-waters-off-us-and-mexico-week.html">report</a> from Military.com on Wednesday said that the Navy was deploying a second destroyer to the region to further bolster efforts to secure the border.
The U.S. Coast Guard seemingly confirmed the news this week when it issued a statement that said U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has &#8220;deployed two U.S. Navy warships to the southern border to support Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Coast Guard operations.&#8221;
&#8220;These U.S. Navy warships will operate in direct support of the Coast Guard and carry Coast Guard law enforcement teams that will enable them to shift to Coast Guard control during interdiction operations,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/4124185/coast-guard-achieves-major-milestone-in-drug-interdiction-border-control-operat/">statement</a> read. &#8220;As the Coast Guard hardens and sustains its operational posture, including the arrival of these U.S. Navy warships, it is fully integrated with DHS and the Department of Defense (DoD) through NORTHCOM and U.S. Southern Command.&#8221;
The arrival of destroyers to the region is a significant development in America&#8217;s fight against Mexican drug cartels as destroyers have significantly greater capabilities, are larger, and carry a more extensive and far more lethal array of weapons than cutter ships that the Coast Guard uses.
The news comes as the administration has already deployed more than 10,000 active-duty soldiers to help secure the southern border, which led to the U.S. experiencing the lowest number of border apprehensions of illegal border crossers in recorded history during Trump&#8217;s first full month in office.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pentagon-considers-buffer-zone-on-border-to-boost-illegal-immigration-crack-down">Pentagon Considers Buffer Zone On Border To Boost Illegal Immigration Crack Down</a>

U.S. Navy Sets Destroyers On Standby For Possible Strike On Syria

U.S. Navy Deploys Multiple Warships To Waters Around Southern Border

Drug Cartels

Gulf of America

Military

U.S. Navy

BULGARIA-NATO-DEFENCE-MILITARY-EXERCISE

A Daily Wire Investigation: Are There Really 15K Trans Military Members?

LGBTQ

Transgender

U.S. Army

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/north-korea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Korea</a> accused the U.S. of an “an undisguised military provocation” on Friday as an American aircraft carrier battle group arrived in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/south-korea" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South Korea</a>.
The USS Ronald Reagan sailed to the southeastern port of Busan on Thursday after participating in naval exercises with Japan and South Korea in international waters, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-us-aircraft-carrier-be56e91daba9eeeaf2edefdccf3c9133" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Associated Press.
South Korean officials said the Reagan was there as a means of deterrence while North Koreans claimed it was going to be part of a U.S. attack on North Korea.
“The [North Korean] doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons already opened to public allows the execution of necessary action procedures in case a nuclear attack is launched against it or it is judged that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent,” the government&#8217;s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday.
The KCNA added that North Korea’s “most powerful and rapid first strike will be given to the ‘extended deterrence’ means, used by the U.S. to hallucinate its followers, and the bases of evil in the Korean peninsula and its vicinity.”
North Korea also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-denies-its-weapons-used-by-hamas-against-israel-2023-10-13/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> reports that its weapons had been used by Hamas terrorists during their brutal attack against Israel that began last Saturday. The communist country claimed that the reports were an attempt at U.S. propaganda.
&#8220;It is nothing but a bid to shift the blame for the Middle East crisis caused by wrong hegemonic policy onto a third country and thus evade the international criticism focused on the empire of evil,&#8221; KCNA said.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said that he has not been able to confirm the reports of North Korean weapons being used in the terror attacks.
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Relations between the the U.S. and North Korea have been sour in recent months, especially after North Korea’s Kim Jong Un <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kim-jong-un-putin-discuss-military-cooperation-space-tech-and-ukraine-war-at-russian-summit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">met with</a> Russian President Vladimir Putin last month to discuss the war in Ukraine, space technology, and the potential for military cooperation between the two countries.
According to the White House, North Korea <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/north-korea-sent-over-1000-containers-of-ammo-to-russia-white-house-5509709?ea_src=frontpage&amp;ea_med=top-news-world-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has been</a> supplying Russia with arms and ammunition, sending 1,000 weapons shipments to a Russian munitions depot.
“We now have information that North Korea has delivered arms to Russia for use in Ukraine,” Kirby said this week. “Our information indicates that in recent weeks North Korea has provided Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions.”

North And South Korean Leaders Meet For Third Summit In Pyongyang

North Korea Accuses U.S. Of ‘Undisguised Military Provocation’ After Aircraft Carrier Arrives In South Korea

North Korea Accuses U.S. Of 'Undisguised Military Provocation' After Aircraft Carrier Arrives In South Korea

Global Politics

Kim Jong Un

North Korea

South Korea

World

Can being versed in gender and sexuality theory help you be a more effective Navy sailor? The U.S. Naval Academy appears to think it can, and is <a href="https://www.usna.edu/HRO/jobinfo/Tenure-track-English-GenderStudies-AY24.php">looking to hire</a> a specialist in Gender And Sexuality Studies to join its faculty for a tenure-track position.
The professor will teach a course that brings Naval cadets up to date on the topics &#8220;through a set of focused readings of theories, histories, perspectives, and/or major figures in LGBTQ, women&#8217;s and/or gender studies,&#8221; <a href="https://www.usna.edu/Academics/Majors-and-Courses/course-description/HE.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the course description on the Naval Academy&#8217;s website.
According to the description, readings for the elective course may include the authors Audre Lorde, Sarah Ahmed, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Gloria Anzaldua, who describes herself as a “Chicana dyke-feminist.&#8221; If these authors are a smattering of the Naval Academy&#8217;s curriculum for this course, the country&#8217;s next generation of sailors is in for a solid dose of woke academic theories.
Sarah Ahmed, a contemporary British-born feminist professor of Pakistani and English descent, focuses on the intersection between sexuality, race, and feminism. She is the author of &#8220;The Feminist Killjoy Handbook,&#8221; which <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sara-ahmed/the-feminist-killjoy-handbook/9781541603752/?lens=seal-press" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argues</a> that &#8220;killing joy can be a radical world-making project.&#8221;
&#8220;Do you refuse to laugh at offensive jokes? Have you ever been accused of ruining dinner by pointing out your companion’s sexist comment? Are you often told to stop being so &#8216;woke&#8217;? If so, you might be a feminist killjoy — and this handbook is for you,&#8221; reads the book&#8217;s description.
Gloria Anzaldua, who, like Ahmed, was a lesbian, describes herself as a “Chicana dyke-feminist&#8221; as well as a &#8220;poet, writer, and cultural theorist.” She writes about her experience as a &#8220;Chicana&#8221; — a term used by some Mexican Americans to describe their Native Mexican ancestry — intersects with gender, race, and colonialism.
Although Anzaldua primarily identifies as a lesbian, she <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=2Nelm_7frboC&amp;pg=PA80&amp;lpg=PA80&amp;dq=Gloria+Anzaldua%C2%A0sexual+fantasies+about+father-daughter,+sister-brother,+woman-dog,+woman-wolf,+woman-jaguar,+woman-tiger,+or+woman-panther.+It+was+usually+a+cat-+or+dog-type+animal&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=e4pB1u8hg3&amp;sig=ACfU3U22sAhw2i02tFAwGxxMqJAA6F8xKA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj7x9jy6OSAAxX6rokEHdYLBlIQ6AF6BAgkEAM#v=onepage&amp;q=Gloria%20Anzaldua%C2%A0sexual%20fantasies%20about%20father-daughter%2C%20sister-brother%2C%20woman-dog%2C%20woman-wolf%2C%20woman-jaguar%2C%20woman-tiger%2C%20or%20woman-panther.%20It%20was%20usually%20a%20cat-%20or%20dog-type%20animal&amp;f=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> to having sexual fantasies involving a father and daughter, a sister and brother, and even a woman and a dog, wolf, jaguar, tiger, and panther.
Audre Lorde, yet another lesbian, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> herself as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” She was a professor and progressive activist who was influential in the civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements during the &#8217;70s and &#8217;80s.
One of her poetry collections, &#8220;The Black Unicorn,&#8221; <a href="http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/News/Justice_Matters_50.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">draws on</a> African mythologies as the basis for exploring questions about gender, sexuality, racial identity, pride, and motherhood, according to the college.
Lorde and two other women writers <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde" target="_blank" rel="noopener">founded</a> an activist publishing company called Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, which was dedicated to promoting black feminist authors.
The last author on the Naval Academy&#8217;s Gender and Sexuality course list is Kimberle Crenshaw, a Critical Race Theory scholar and lawyer who teaches at both Columbia Law School and UCLA and is credited with coining the term &#8220;intersectionality,&#8221; which is widely used by progressives today to refer to a method of analyzing privilege and discrimination.
Crenshaw, who is black, was also part of the legal team representing Anita Hill at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas&#8217; Senate confirmation hearings in the 1990s. Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment.
She first used the term in her essay &#8220;Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti-discrimination Doctrine Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.&#8221;
In 2020, she insisted that intersectionality is not &#8220;identity politics on steroids&#8221; or &#8221; a mechanism to turn white men into the new pariahs.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s basically a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other,&#8221; she <a href="https://time.com/5786710/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Time Magazine. &#8220;We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status.&#8221;
The Biden administration has promoted woke themes across the federal government for years.
Earlier this year, President Biden doubled down, <a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-03779.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signing</a> yet another executive order requiring the federal government to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Over the last few years, that guidance has permeated the whole of government, including the military.
Earlier this summer, the administration <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-drag-show-02786741192dac64e566d41048a96ee5#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pumped</a> the brakes on drag shows at U.S. military bases after criticism from Republicans. Last year, the Navy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/navy-hires-active-duty-drag-queen-to-combat-sinking-recruitment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hired</a> an active-duty sailor and drag queen to be the face of the Navy’s campaign to fight plummeting recruitment. In 2021, the Army <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/army-releases-woke-cartoon-recruitment-ad-after-woke-cia-ads-mocked" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debuted</a> ads showing a cartoon lesbian wedding, just days after the CIA caught flack for a similarly woke recruitment ad campaign.
The Naval Academy defended the course in an emailed statement, saying the Academy &#8220;focuses on respect and inclusion of people of all backgrounds in order to develop well-rounded future leaders in the Navy and Marine Corps.&#8221;
&#8220;A vast array of intellectual ideas, approaches and theories are mentioned during classroom discussions,&#8221; the Academy told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The Naval Academy educates midshipmen to be critical thinkers who can analyze issues from multiple perspectives and contexts; our focus is on how to think, not what to think.&#8221;
Besides the Gender And Sexuality course, the Naval Academy&#8217;s English Department also offers a course on Latinx Studies, in which students will learn about &#8220;identity formation through many of its facets, including: class, race, gender, sexuality, and language.&#8221;
And of course, since the Navy <a href="https://www.usna.edu/Admissions/Student-Life/General-Information-for-Midshipmen.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pays</a> 100% of cadets&#8217; tuition, room, and board, you the taxpayer get to foot the bill for all of it.
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President Biden Speaks At U.S. Naval Academy Graduation In Annapolis

Here’s What Naval Academy Students Are Learning In Their Gender And Sexuality Class

Here's What Naval Academy Students Are Learning In Their Gender And Sexuality Class

Biden Administration

Gender

Naval Academy

Readers Pass

U.S. Military

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-answers-bill-mahers-question-about-origin-of-woke-mind-virus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Walsh</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/megyn-kelly-goes-viral-with-7-word-response-to-dylan-mulvaney-complaining-about-being-labeled-a-man" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Megyn Kelly</a> slammed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-cant-believe-i-fought-for-this-bulls-navy-seal-who-killed-bin-laden-blasts-u-s-navy-using-drag-queen-to-recruit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Navy</a> for using a drag queen sailor as a &#8220;digital ambassador&#8221; to attract new recruits.
Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley acted as a &#8220;digital ambassador&#8221; for the U.S. Navy from October 2022 to March 2023 as part of a program “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates.”
During &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshShow/status/1653868252332687360?s=20">The Matt Walsh Show</a>&#8221; podcast on Wednesday, the host said the only pitch that will work to recruit young men to fight for the country and enlist in their military branch is appealing to &#8220;masculine energy&#8221; not &#8220;feminine.&#8221;
&#8220;Yeoman second class Joshua Kelley, who identifies as non-binary, was appointed as the first of five Navy digital ambassadors in a pilot program that ran from October to March,&#8221; Walsh said as he read the report before he played a clip of the drag queen&#8217;s performances and joked that the sailor&#8217;s &#8220;terrifying our enemies.&#8221;
WATCH:
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The U.S. Navy hired an active-duty drag queen to be the face of their recruitment drive. 
Oh yes, let&#39;s terrify our enemies by filling the military with cross-dressers. China is definitely looking at this and saying, &quot;We can&#39;t mess with these guys and girls and theys and thems.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Ma1YXkWxL9">pic.twitter.com/Ma1YXkWxL9</a>
&mdash; The Matt Walsh Show (@MattWalshShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshShow/status/1653847739745071105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
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The Daily Wire host said throughout history, the number one focus for the military has been &#8220;effectively killing the bad guys, killing the enemy.&#8221; He said that has been achieved by &#8220;being a unit &#8230; suppressing your individual priorities and desires,&#8221; and this drag queen recruiter is totally opposite of that.
&#8220;This not going to reverse that [recruitment] problem. It&#8217;s just not going to,&#8221; Walsh said. &#8220;There really is no way to recruit consistently and reliably and keep the military strong without appealing to masculinity. They could try all these other ways of recruiting. None of it works. The only thing that consistently works is by trying to appeal to men, to young men, to appeal to their sense of duty, their sense of honor, their sense of patriotism.&#8221;
&#8220;And also appealing to their, at an even kind of baser level, more fundamental level, just their masculine energy, their masculine aggressiveness, channeling,&#8221; he added. &#8220;You know, the military has always been a way to channel male aggressiveness and violence in a productive and not just productive, but a noble and courageous way.&#8221;
&#8220;In the military it&#8217;s an even higher calling of it&#8217;s not a game anymore,&#8221; Walsh continued. &#8220;It&#8217;s about protecting your nation. It&#8217;s about patriotism. And that ultimately has to be the pitch really for the military. And if it&#8217;s not, if you&#8217;re trying to recruit based on feminine, you know, appealing to people&#8217;s feminine instincts, it&#8217;s not going to work. &#8221;
On Wednesday, the Sirius XM &#8220;The Megyn Kelly Show&#8221; podcast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpFOJdxp5S0">host</a> shared similar comments about the situation and asked flat out, &#8220;Where&#8217;s our men?&#8221; She said the Navy missed its recruitment goal in 2022 and is reportedly expected to miss it by 6,000 in 2023.
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&#8220;I would much rather have a bada** actual woman defending the country or a regular man, that [drag queen sailor] I don&#8217;t want defending me,&#8221; the former Fox News host said. &#8220;I miss our men. I quote him everyday, Christian Walker, &#8216;bring our men back.&#8217; Where are our men? Where are they?&#8221;
&#8220;This is not somebody anybody wants in a foxhole with them,&#8221; she added. &#8220;The Navy has hired him, named him as a Navy digital ambassador. &#8230; This is how they think they are going to get new recruits. Now, even in the military, this is why it&#8217;s a bridge too far, they want to divide them by identity.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Military Now Using Drag Queen to Help Recruitment Efforts, with the Ruthless Podcast Hosts" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fpFOJdxp5S0?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>
&#8220;This is not the way to improve the Navy&#8217;s ridiculous recruiting effort. Fail,&#8221; Kelly continued. &#8220;They are already way behind. &#8230; You don&#8217;t understand who you&#8217;re trying to recruit.&#8221;
Later, Kelly explained that there&#8217;s an &#8220;unusually high&#8221; percentage of those in the trans community who are suffering from &#8220;very disturbed thinking&#8221; and &#8220;issues&#8221; and that&#8217;s not the kind of &#8220;people we want to recruit and give guns to.&#8221;

Matt Walsh_Megyn Kelly.-1jpg

Matt Walsh, Megyn Kelly Slam U.S. Navy Using Drag Queen Sailor For Recruitment

‘Attack On Masculinity’: Matt Walsh, Megyn Kelly Slam US Navy Using Enlisted Drag Queen Sailor For Recruitment