James Comey Deletes ‘8647’ Post After Online Backlash Sparks Calls For Investigation

Former FBI Director James Comey deleted a post depicting ‘8647’ from his Instagram on Thursday after sparking online outrage from Republicans and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, who opened an investigation.

In a now-deleted post to Instagram, Comey uploaded a picture of shells that depicted four numbers, ‘8647,’ saying he found the ‘cool shell formation’ during his walk on the beach. Republicans swiftly called out the former FBI director, saying the message was a threat to President Donald Trump as the term ’86’ is commonly used to “get rid of” or “throw out.”

With backlash piling on from figures like Trump’s senior advisor Dan Scavino Jr. and Donald Trump Jr., Comey deleted his original post and added a new one saying he didn’t “realize” the association of the numbers.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence of any kind so I took the post down,” Comey wrote.

WATCH: Former FBI director James Comey under investigation for Trump post

Prior to the takedown of his post, Trump Jr. took to X saying Comey is “causally calling for my dad to be murdered.”

“This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!”

Scavino Jr., in another post on X, called the former FBI director a “POS,” alleging he “knows exactly what he’s doing.”

“Comey truly is a POS. While he’ll claim not to know what 8647 means, there’s no doubt that the former disgraced FBI Dir. knows exactly what he’s doing, with a plea to bad actors/terrorists to assassinate the POTUS’ while traveling internationally,” Scavino Jr. wrote. “Don’t let him get away with it!!”

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk said on X that Comey is making “cringe posts,” adding that the country should be “grateful” he was removed from the law enforcement agency.

“James Comey held himself up as a bastion of fairness and moral rectitude,” Kirk wrote. “Now, he makes cringe posts like a childless 50-year-old liberal woman on Facebook. The entire country should be grateful Trump put this weirdo out to pasture.”

Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also spoke out, asking how “many times” Democrats are “going to try to assassinate President Trump”?

Noem in response said Comey “called for the assassination” of the 47th president, adding that both DHS and the Secret Service will investigate the “threat and will respond appropriately.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the agency is aware of the post, adding they are in “communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran.”

“Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support,” Patel wrote.

Trump has yet to publicly respond to Comey’s post. The president left the United States and this week is conducting discussions in Saudi Arabia. During Trump’s 2024 campaign, he faced two assassination attempts, with the first leaving him injured by a bullet and one rally attendee killed.

AUTHOR

Hailey Gomez

General Assignment Reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Liberal Media Suggests Trump Was Asking For It After Second Failed Assassination Attempt

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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Senate Rejects Dem Effort Defending Illegal Migrant Criminals

The Senate on Thursday afternoon voted down a resolution from Senate Democrats to require President Donald Trump’s State Department to write a report on El Salvador’s human rights practices — in light of the administration’s deportation of illegal migrant criminals.

Senators voted along party lines — 50 to 45 — to reject the motion to discharge the resolution, led by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Alex Padilla of California and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senate Republicans sharply criticized the effort as “pure political theater” and another example of their Democratic colleagues defending illegal migrant criminals and obstructing the president’s deportation agenda.

The resolution also required the State Department to report any steps the administration is taking to comply with a court order to “facilitate” the return of reputed MS-13 gangbanger and human trafficker, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The El Salvadoran national has been named in two domestic abuse cases against his wife and has been accused of trafficking illegal migrants across state lines.

Van Hollen referred to Abrego Garcia as his “constituent” on the Senate floor Thursday prior to the vote. Van Hollen was the first Democratic lawmaker to travel to El Salvador in April to protest his deportation and advocate for his return to the United States.

“I have made very clear from the start that I’m not vouching for Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen said Thursday. “I am vouching for his rights, because if you deny his rights, you put in jeopardy the rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America.”

Senate Republicans torched Democrats for forcing a vote on the resolution.

“Senator Van Hollen says he does not ‘vouch’ for Garcia, yet he’s one of many Democrats who visited Garcia in El Salvador,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso during a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. “What they’re proposing is to shield illegal immigrant criminals from deportation and help them evade arrest.”

“This [Kilmar Abrego Garcia] is who Democrats are defending – not just that one individual, but that whole style of behavior that has now impacted every community in America,” Barrasso continued.

“I’m frustrated why we have to have extensive due process for folks who ignore due process to come here,” Republican Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy told the Daily Caller News Foundation Tuesday. “This is a very curious turn of constitutionality from folks who had no concern about the constitutionality of millions of people coming here illegally.”

Senate Republicans also noted that their Democratic colleagues have largely rejected efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in the 119th Congress.

Just 12 Senate Democrats voted for the Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation Trump signed into law during his second term. The law requires the detention of illegal migrants accused, charged or convicted of an array of criminal offenses.

Similarly, no Senate Democrats in April supported Republicans’ budget resolution unlocking historic amounts of funding to fast-track the president’s deportation agenda.

“What they should be doing is taking their energy to work with us to improve the economy, to make the country safer, to reduce government spending — that’s what they should be doing,” Republican Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno told the DCNF. “This stuff is just total nonsense.”

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The War On Cops — Cincinnati Is Ground Zero

Ryan Hinton was an 18-year-old black man living in Cincinnati, Ohio. On May 1, 2025, he and three friends were pulled over by the police in a vehicle the police officers believed was stolen. The four youths took off running. The two police officers who had made the stop pursued on foot.

Seconds later, Hinton appeared from between two dumpsters with a semi-automatic pistol in his hand and pointing it at one of the police officers. He was shot dead.

On May 2, 2025, the police showed Hinton’s parents body cam footage taken by one of the officers, clearly showing their son holding a pistol. The weapon was recovered from the scene.

The father, Rodney Hinton, Jr., was upset. So, later that day, he got in his car and ran over a sheriff’s deputy directing traffic outside a University of Cincinnati graduation event. The officer was killed.

Other members of the Hinton family were in another vehicle following Rodney Hinton, Jr., when he ran over the police officer. It is unclear if they knew what Hinton was going to do in advance.

Rodney Hinton, Jr., is now being charged with murder and may face the death penalty. The Black Panthers and the Democratic Socialists of America have shown up. Rodney Hinton has a long criminal record including grand theft, aggravated robbery, and domestic violence. That is irrelevant. Hinton is, you understand, being oppressed. The answer is not that he should be prosecuted. The answer is that more cops should die.

“They might wanna kill Rodney for avenging his son. We say no, sir!” said Mmoja Ajabu, Executive Director of Pan-African Affairs for the Black Panther Movement, at a rally in support of Rodney Hinton. “You do that, and other things are gonna happen!”

“No justice! No peace!” the crowd at the rally chanted.

“Say his name! Rodney Hinton! And we’re not going to just say his name, we’re going to protect his body.”

Ajabu was surrounded by armed members of the Black Panther Party in full military regalia.

Later that day, Mmoja Ajabu spoke again at a town hall. Hinton was lionized as some sort of revolutionary hero, and the act of running over a deputy was glorified as an act of revolutionary courage.

“Most of us think like this, especially in this room, but how many of us have the courage to carry it out?” Ajabu asked.

“When we start seeing each other as brother and sister, then if it’s your child, it’s mine too.”

“Rodney has shown us, and we’re gonna support him. Now they’re talking about killing him,” Ajabu said.

“That ain’t gonna happen without there being a price. But see, we don’t want to riot. We want to have a military strategy that we bring them to their knees.”

“If you ain’t ready for the killing, then you’re in the wrong place.”

A group of representatives from the Democratic Socialists of America at the University of Cincinnati attended the town hall as well. Someone asked about identifying the officer who shot Ryan Hinton. “We take the position that Rodney took,” Ajabu replied. “Any of them will do.”

There is no ambiguity here. Ajabu is not calling for an inquiry or due process. Ajabu is legitimizing the deliberate murder of a police officer and encouraging others to act as Rodney Hinton did. “Any of them will do.” The objective is to kill police officers. In Ajabu’s terms, a “military strategy”.

The Democratic Party set this monster loose. It made common cause with revolutionary Marxists who want to burn the system down. It encouraged mobs to destroy cities and demonized the police. Trump is in the White House, but the revolutionary forces across the nation remain powerful and fully intent on destroying the existing social, economic, and political order.

This is the United States of America. We give a wide berth to free speech as we should. We need to understand, however, that groups like the Black Panthers and others on the far left have no real interest in talking. They are organizing for overt, violent action.

At some point, we are going to have to recognize that and act accordingly. These guys are already talking about a war on cops. All the rest of us are next.

©2025 . All rights reserved.


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Rome Likens Jesus to Buddha: Pope Leo XIV Affirms Continuity on Interfaith Dialogue

New pontiff assures Jews that he will strengthen Catholic-Jewish dialogue in the spirit of Vatican II.

The Vatican is equating the teachings of Jesus with those of Buddha in its first interfaith message since Pope Leo XIV’s election, signaling the pontiff’s desire for continuity with the dialogical approach of Vatican II and Pope Francis to the world religions.

The pope’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue sent its greetings to Buddhists on the occasion of the festival of Vesak on Monday, likening the message of Jesus in John’s gospel with the teaching of the Buddha in the Dhammapada — an anthology of teachings in the Buddhist canon.

“The Buddha taught that, ‘he who is free from craving and attachment is perfect in uncovering the true meaning of the Teaching, and knows the arrangement of the sacred texts in correct sequence — he indeed is the bearer of his final body,’” the Vatican noted.

“He is truly called the profoundly wise one, the great man” (Dhammapada, Ch. 24, V. 352),” the document, titled “Buddhists and Christians in Liberating Dialogue for Our Time,” stated, marking the “sacred festival” commemorating the Buddha’s birth and enlightenment.

“For Jesus, knowledge of Truth is liberating: ‘You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32),” Cardinal Jacob Koovakad, the dicastery’s prefect who cosigned the document, wrote in his comparison of the Son of God with the prince who founded Buddhism.

Buddhism Offers “True Liberation”

Koovakad, a Syro-Malabar priest who was raised to the cardinalate by Pope Francis in December 2024, said, “This yearning for true liberation finds deep resonance in our shared pursuit of truth and fullness of life, and it aligns with the teachings of our respective traditions.”

The Vatican’s endorsement of Buddhism as one of the paths of “true liberation” echoes the sentiments of Pope Leo XIV, who shared a post on the Buddha’s teachings from Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi in 2014. The post, in Italian, quoted the Buddha as saying: “Life is not a problem to be solved but an experience to be lived.”

Koovakad’s message also echoes the final statement of the Seventh Buddhist-Christian Colloquium on “Karuna and Agape in Dialogue for Healing a Wounded Humanity and the Earth,” which involved the Holy See and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand and put Jesus on the same plane as the Buddha concerning redemption and healing.

“As Buddhists and Christians, we see the Buddha and Jesus as Great Healers. The Buddha pointed to greed and Jesus to sin as the cause of suffering,” the colloquium declared. “On many levels, Jesus and the Buddha proposed love and compassion as medicine to drive out the darkness in the human heart and the world.”

“For those of us who work in Buddhism, the Vatican releasing that document also speaks volumes! Really happy where this is headed,” tweeted Tyler McNabb, a Catholic associate professor of philosophy at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania.

Great Healers, Hopeless, or Heresy?

In comments to The Stream, the Rev. Dr. Rohintan Mody, who converted to Christianity from his background in Zoroastrianism and is author of the book Empty and Evil: The Worship of Other Faiths in 1 Corinthians 8-10 and Today, noted that the new document “compares both Buddha and Jesus as two great healers with the same solution: love and compassion.”

“Yet it leaves the big question unanswered: the existence, nature, and identity of God,” he said. “Even if you want to do interfaith dialogue you have to start with God, not anthropology. The wrong starting place means the wrong answer. It is prima facie heresy.”

Dr. Paul Williams, a former Buddhist who is emeritus professor of Indian and Tibetan Philosophy at the University of Bristol, agrees. “If the Buddhist position is correct, our death in this life is actually, really, the death of us. Death will be the end for us,” he writes.

“I began to see that if Buddhism were correct then unless I attained enlightenment (nirvana) or something like it in this life, where the whole cycle of rebirth would finally come to a complete end, I would have no hope. Each one of us — the person we are — is lost forever. Buddhism for me was hope-less.”

Open-Minded Augustinian Pontiff

The message from the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue signals continuity with the religious inclusiveness heralded by the Second Vatican Council and the extraordinary strides Pope Francis made in interreligious dialogue during the 12 years of his pontificate.

When asked if Leo XIV would follow Francis’s lead when it comes to interfaith dialogue, Dr. Craig Considine, Islamic scholar and senior lecturer in the department of sociology at Rice University, told ABC News, “I think we’re going to see a continuation of Pope Francis’s approach.

“When he was at the Chicago seminary, one of his professors was a leading Jewish scholar on Jewish-Catholic relations, and I would surmise that this professor had a big impact on Pope Leo,” Considine observed. “I think that one of the big reasons why Pope Francis was so beloved was that he wasn’t trying to force-feed Catholicism on anyone.”

Pope Leo’s professor at CTU, Fr. John T. Pawlikowski, told The Jewish Chronicle: “My experience of him was he’s a very open-minded person who’s very much in the context of Vatican II.”

“Being an Augustinian means being pretty open,” explained Fr. Alejandro Moral Antón, the prior general of the Augustinian order to which Leo XIV belongs. Compared to other orders, theirs does not have “very rigid norms.”

Leo Praised for Inclusive Approach

Leo XIV’s alma mater, the Catholic Theological Union, is known for its interfaith emphasis, including courses on Catholic-Jewish and Catholic-Muslim studies. In 2020, CTU appointed a Muslim scholar, Prof. Syed Atif Rizwan, as the director of its Catholic-Muslim Studies Program.

On May 8, the day he was elected, Leo XIV wrote to the American Jewish Committee’s Director of Interreligious Affairs, Rabbi Noam Marans, pledging “to continue to strengthen the Church’s dialogue with the Jewish people in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate.”

Marans’s response was warm. “We are deeply moved that Pope Leo XIV, so early in his papacy, has reaffirmed his commitment to Catholic-Jewish relations,” he wrote. “As we approach the 60th anniversary of this landmark declaration, we look forward to working together to deepen understanding and cooperation.”

“Complete Commitment” to Vatican II

In his first papal address, Leo XIV issued a call to dialogue: “Help us as well — help one another — to build bridges through dialogue, through encounter, uniting everyone to be one single people always in peace.”

Over the course of his first week in office, Leo XIV has repeatedly emphasized his desire to pursue continuity rather than rupture with the new magisterium of Vatican II and Pope Francis.

“I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council,” he told the College of Cardinals on May 10. “Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.”

Conservative Catholics reacted negatively to this inclusive approach. When asked how he would respond to the new pontiff’s “complete commitment” to Vatican II, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, a leading voice in the traditionalist movement, said: “I think a pope should not speak so because our first complete commitment is to Jesus Christ’s gospel.”

The prelate stressed that Leo XIV’s first task must be to correct issues that are “disfigured” or “confused” in the life of the Church, beginning with “the truth about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the only way to salvation and that other religions are not means of grace or means or ways of salvation.”

The Smiling Buddha and the Crucified Christ

In his Credo: A Compendium of the Catholic Faith, Schneider notes that some of the affirmations of the Second Vatican Council “are in themselves ambiguous and can lead to an erroneous understanding.” The bishop writes that Catholics may “propose emendations or corrections of evidently ambiguous or erroneous statements or commands of a pope or ecumenical council.”

“Is Buddhism a means to supreme illumination and liberation from evil?” Schneider asks, citing Vatican II’s endorsement of that religion. “No. Buddhism rejects the Incarnation and Redemption, proposing instead a path of self-extinction through meditation techniques. Such a path is contrary to God’s plan for divine union with man in Christ, culminating in the illumination of the Beatific Vision in heaven.”

Koovakad, by contrast, cites Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate: Buddhism “proposes a way of life by which people can, with confidence and trust, attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination either through their own efforts or with divine help.”

“Where is the basic difference between Jesus and the Buddha to be found?” theologian Hans Küng asks in his book Christianity and the World Religions. “We can bring it into sharp focus by holding side by side the figure of the smiling Buddha, seated on a lotus blossom, and that of the suffering Jesus, nailed to the cross.

“Christian faith is convinced, this Crucified One did not fall into nothingness [as in the teaching of Buddhism], but was taken up out of this temporary, fleeting, inconstant reality into the true, eternal life.”

AUTHOR

Dr. Jules Gomes (BA, BD, MTh, PhD) has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral. This article has been cross-posted with the author’s permission from The Stream.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Ed Martin Teases Potential Target For His DOJ Weaponization Group’s Microscope

Newly-appointed head of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Weaponization Working Group Ed Martin revealed Thursday that he may spend time looking into bar associations for targeting conservative attorneys.

Martin, who says he is being targeted by the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, told the Daily Caller News Foundation he wants to expose the “weaponization of the bar associations against lawyers.”

“The bar associations exist with a sort of monopoly, but they also exist at the discretion of the courts,” he said, noting they mostly target conservatives. “I’ve seen the impact on the legal system, not only advocates like myself who are targeted, but rank and file prosecutors who are abused by the system because the left wants to have sort of lawlessness.”

James Phalen, executive attorney of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, told the DCNF that “any matters involving allegations of disciplinary misconduct are confidential unless and until Disciplinary Council brings charges.” Disciplinary counsel Hamilton Fox also told the DCNF that investigations are confidential until formal charges are brought.

Martin revealed in a going-away email to staff that he was under an ethics investigation by the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Democratic lawmakers requested an investigation into Martin in March for allegedly abusing his position as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, accusing him of “dismissing charges against his own client and using the threat of prosecution to intimidate government employees and chill the speech of private citizens.” The office previously declined in February to address a prior complaint against Martin for dismissing charges against a Jan. 6 defendant he previously represented.

“Most bar associations, state and national, are 501(c)(3) organizations,” he told the DCNF, noting that status comes with certain benefits. “If they’re not living up to what they should be, they’ll have to face scrutiny. And also, part of it is just the name and shame.”

There are hundreds of bar associations in the United States.

Other conservative attorneys, like John Eastman in California, have faced disciplinary proceedings from the bar.

Martin said the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel is “completely hypocritical” about how it does its job.

“It’s one thing for liberals, another thing for conservatives, confidentiality for themselves, and yet, somebody like me, I had a complaint against me, they exposed my confidential, the confidentiality of the bar complaint, and exposed it to random people in my work environment.”

The DOJ implemented a policy in April placing restrictions on its attorneys participation in American Bar Association (ABA) events.

“The ABA is free to litigate in support of activist causes, including by inserting itself into pending litigation as an amicus curiae,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in the memo. “The Department of Justice must, consistent with the Constitution, be careful stewards of the public fisc, represent all Americans regardless of ideology or political preferences, and defend the policies chosen by America’s democratically elected leadership-as reflected in Congressionally enacted statutes and Presidential policy choices.”

A judge blocked the DOJ’s effort to cancel $3.2 million in grants to the ABA on Wednesday.

“Part of it is the monopoly that bar associations maintain over the practice of law may have to change,” Martin said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from another D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility official.

AUTHOR

Katelynn Richardson

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Ed Martin Says He’s Looking Into Last-Minute Sweeping Pardons Issued By Joe Biden

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Elite University Withholds Student’s Diploma After He Went Rogue During Grad Speech, Ranted About Palestine

New York University (NYU) is withholding a student’s diploma after he turned his graduation speech into a pro-Palestine rant.

The student allegedly lied about the contents of his speech and instead used his time addressing the graduating class only to condemn the U.S.’s supposed “complicity” in genocide, according to a statement from the school on Wednesday. NYU apologized for the student’s speech and announced  that it is pursuing disciplinary action against the speaker.

“As I search my heart today in addressing you all … the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine,” the student began. “I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months, and that I do not wish to speak only to my own politics today, but to speak for all people of conscience, all people who feel the moral injury of this atrocity. And I want to say that I condemn this genocide and complicity in this genocide.”

The student ended his speech after adding the usual congratulatory statement to the graduating class.

“NYU strongly denounces the choice by a student at the Gallatin School’s graduation today—one of over 20 school graduation ceremonies across our campus—to misuse his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views,” the university said in a statement. “He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules. The University is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.”

“NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and that this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him,” the university continued.

Rising rates of pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses disrupted graduation ceremonies across the nation in 2024, with some schools having to cancel the events altogether.

The Trump administration has demanded universities tackle anti-Israel bias on campuses and has been swiftly punishing schools that refuse to comply, gutting them of billions of dollars.

NYU did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

Jaryn Crouson

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

VIDEO: Joint Legislative Hearing on Arizona’s Family Court System

On Monday May 12th, 2025, an all-day Joint Legislative Hearing in the Arizona Senate occurred. Senator Mark Finchem chaired the hearing, and this interview on ARIZONA TODAY addresses major portions of the day-long legislative hearing. Those tuning in across the nation be informed that documented evidence had previously been received and was further presented to the committee revealing that six other states are experiencing very, very similar problems and challenges as Arizona. The conversation on this segment of ARIZONA TODAY with Senator Finchem will provide a very sobering glimpse to the horrendous and damaging effects from a system that has gone astray and turned on the family bringing pain, financial collapse, and other hardships that are quite sobering and damaging.

The woke and DEI political philosophy and antics are meant to subvert the gift of family. You will hear just how this DEI subversion is damaging families. More evidence and revelations are coming. Once again Arizona is taking the lead confronting a most destructive attack determined to alter another dimension of what makes America great.

WATCH: Arizona Today with AZ Senator Mark Finchem

©2025 All rights reserved.

Michigan: Islamic State mass shooting at military base thwarted, former Michigan Army National Guard member arrested

What could have motivated a member of the Michigan Army National Guard to plot mass murder for the Islamic State?

Will we hear that he is mentally ill?

Or angry with Israel?

Or simply misunderstood his peaceful faith?

Which excuse will be in play this time?

Trump: Oct. 7 one of the worst days in world history, Hamas must be dealt with

President Donald Trump says U.S. must “tale Gaza, make it a freedom zone,” while adding that Hamas must be “dealt” with.

The Gaza invasion of Israel on October 7th, 2023 marked one of the “worst days in history,” said President Donald Trump in Doha on Thursday.

During a meeting with business leaders in the Qatari capital, Trump lamented the 2023 invasion of southwestern Israel, during which some 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage.

October 7th was “one of the worst days in the history of the world, not only in this region,” the president said, calling it “one of the worst, most atrocious attacks anyone has ever seen.”

During the meeting, Trump also echoed his comments made in the White House on February 4th, in which he suggested the U.S. take control of the Gaza Strip.

“If it’s necessary, I think I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone,” Trump said.

“Let some good things happen, put people in homes where they can be safe and Hamas is going to have to be dealt with,” the president continued, without mentioning whether he still backed his previous call to resettle the entire population of the Gaza Strip abroad.

“We’re working very hard in Gaza. Gaza has been a territory of death and destruction.”

World Israel News

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: House GOP’s Medicaid Reform Would Force Millions Of Able-Bodied Americans To Get Back To Work

House Republicans’ proposal to impose work requirements on Medicaid would force millions of Americans to meet new eligibility conditions or lose coverage, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

At least 3.5 million individuals will be removed from Medicaid rolls due to House Republicans’ proposal to require most able-bodied Americans to work, volunteer or be in school for at least 20 hours a week to qualify for the entitlement program, according to a source familiar with an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that could be released as early as Friday. GOP lawmakers have justified the imposition of work requirements among other reforms to Medicaid by arguing that the entitlement program should prioritize Americans who need coverage the most, not able-bodied adults or illegal migrants.

“We are protecting Medicaid for the people who need and deserve it,” Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday at the House GOP leadership press conference. “This program is an essential lifeline for our most vulnerable Americans: pregnant women, single mothers, low-income seniors, the disabled. That’s who Medicaid is intended to be for and that’s who we’re protecting while we’re eliminating fraud, waste and abuse.”

“These are reforms to ensure to restore and preserve the system so that it doesn’t collapse on itself,” Johnson continued. “That means ensuring illegal aliens don’t get coverage meant for Americans in need. It means implementing work requirements to ensure that adults who can work but refuse to cannot keep cheating the system”

House Republicans are proposing to expand Medicaid work requirements by mandating that able-bodied, childless adults aged 19 to 64 years-old prove they are working, seeking employment, volunteering or in school for at least 80 hours a month. GOP lawmakers’ proposal to tighten eligibility standards would save roughly $300 billion over seven years, according to a partial CBO estimate released by House Republicans.

The floated work requirements are not expected to kick in until 2029. Conservative lawmakers have criticized the implementation for being far too late.

Four Trump administration officials called on Congressional Republicans to impose new work requirements on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), in a New York Times essay Wednesday.

House Energy and Commerce chairman Brett Guthrie defended work requirements and other Medicaid reforms Tuesday, calling them “common sense policies that will return taxpayer dollars to middle-class families.”

“Let me be clear – these work requirements would only apply to able-bodied adults without dependents who don’t have a disqualifying condition, encouraging them to re-enter the workforce and regain their independence,” Guthrie added.

Despite House Democrats blasting the Republicans’ proposal, work requirements are popular with a majority of Americans, per recent polling.

More than six in ten Americans, including 47% of Democrats, favor implementing work requirements that would require “nearly all adults” to be working or looking for work in order to be enrolled in the entitlement program, according to a February 2025 poll by KFF, a health policy research and polling firm.

Support for work requirements increased to 77% among all voters when participants were told that implementing the measure would allow health insurance from the entitlement program to be reserved for vulnerable groups, such as seniors, low-income children and Americans with disabilities, according to KFF.

About 7.6 million people are projected to go uninsured in 2034, including 1.4 million illegal immigrants, according to the CBO’s preliminary estimate on coverage changes resulting from House Republicans’ draft budget.

“President Trump and Republicans are protecting Medicaid — and that starts with kicking 1.4 million illegal immigrants off the program to prioritize the Americans who need it,” White House Spokesman Kush Desai told the DCNF Wednesday.

House Republicans have torched their Democratic colleagues for allegedly “fighting to protect Medicaid for able bodied adults who refuse to work.”

When asked by Republican Texas Rep. August Pfluger if Congress should institute any work requirements in order to qualify for Medicaid benefits, Democratic California Rep. Raul Ruiz unequivocally answered “no.”

“That’s an easy one,” Ruiz said.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Embattled House Dem Drops Trump Impeachment Effort After Backlash From His Own Party

Democratic Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar dropped his ill-fated effort to force the House to vote on his impeachment resolution against President Donald Trump following widespread pressure from Democrats to stand down.

Thanedar, an embattled two-term lawmaker facing a primary challenge from the left, filed a privileged resolution Tuesday that would have forced House Democrats to vote on seven articles of impeachment brought against the president. Thanedar’s decision to cave to House Democratic leadership and not trigger a vote Wednesday, comes as Democrats viewed his impeachment effort as a distraction from the conference’s united opposition against the president’s “one big, beautiful bill.”

“[A]fter talking with many colleagues, I have decided not to force a vote on impeachment today,” Thanedar wrote on X Wednesday afternoon. “Instead, I will add to my articles of impeachment and continue to rally the support of both Democrats and Republicans to defend the Constitution with me.”

Thanedar said earlier Wednesday he had no misgivings about making his colleagues, even Democratic lawmakers representing battleground districts Trump won in November, vote on his impeachment resolution.

“We’ve got to take a stand,” Thanedar told the Daily Caller News Foundation at a press conference Wednesday morning. “As a member of Congress we take hard votes every day. Every day there is a hard vote to take.”

“They [Democrats representing swing districts] just need to look into not what plays well politically, not what the polls are saying. We got to do the right thing. That’s what you [voters] sent us here to do,” the congressman added.

House Democratic Conference chair Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 House Democrat, publicly criticized Thanedar’s impeachment effort at his weekly news conference Wednesday.

Many House Democrats privately torched Thanedar to reporters with one lawmaker telling Axios under the protection of anonymity, “This is the dumbest fucking thing. Utterly selfish behavior.”

Another House Democrat told the outlet the anticipated impeachment vote was “a waste of fucking time.”

“Our focus is on health care being stripped away from the American people,” Aguilar said. “That is the most urgent and dire thing that we could be talking about this week. Everything else is a distraction.”

Thanedar did not rule out forcing a vote on his impeachment resolution in the future.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Liberal Pollster Warns Lefty Activist Group to Focus on Hill GOP and Gov’t Corruption, Not Trump and Musk

Liberal activists should focus their attacks on congressional Republicans and perceptions of widespread corruption in government instead of the policies and actions of President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, according to a Democratic political research firm.

The firm analyzed responses from participants in four focus groups consisting of swing voters and those who are not strongly committed to either of the major political parties. The analysis suggests the intense focus of Democrats in Congress and the mainstream media on Trump and Musk is at least somewhat out of step with the most important group of voters, especially in midterm elections.

“For these swing participants, their views on Trump and Elon are complicated and still forming. Trump retains some inoculation on corruption issues. His longstanding ‘drain the swamp’ rhetoric combined with the way he’s messaging DOGE through the framework of ridding waste and corruption gives him some credibility,” Impact Research (IR) said in a memo first made public by a liberal activist group, End Citizens United.

End Citizens United frequently commissions IR for political polling and data analysis. The firm boasts on its website that “we’ve flipped more Republican-held congressional seats over the past ten years than any other polling firm in the country.”

“Likewise, while participants had real concerns about Elon’s role, they were ill-formed, and they saw some positives from his cuts. They are not positive towards either person, but candidates should note that only utilizing corruption framing against Trump and Musk will present some barriers,” the IR memo continued.

Instead of the chief executive and the man leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the deepest-ever government-wide anti-corruption investigation, liberal activists should, according to IR, aim their energies at Capitol Hill Republicans, who have a razor-thin House majority and only a modest edge in the Senate.

“However, members of Congress are ripe targets for corruption messaging — voters view all (nameless) politicians as corrupt, focused on self-enrichment and gaining power. They attach a lot of the problems facing the country to these ills, and while they are not necessarily able to articulate specific examples of corruption, they are certain that corruption is rampant in Washington,” the memo said.

Significantly, the IR analysis says voters view Democrats and Republicans on equal terms on the corruption issue, even though traditionally GOPers devote much more time and political capital to condemning waste, fraud, and abuse than do Democrats, who in the past, while ignoring such concerns, have put far more emphasis on the alleged benefits of big federal spending programs.

“Participants view Washington’s culture as the corrupting influence — it is a disease that infects both parties equally. Even as Republicans have taken control of Washington, participants are no more likely to fault them for it than Democrats who they see as weak, ineffective, and self-interested,” the IR analysis stated.

In addition, the IR analysis pointed to the increasing irrelevance of critiques of Trump and Musk as threats to democracy.

“In past cycles, ‘threats to democracy’ was a motivator for the base and persuasive to swing voters. While all participants agreed that our democracy is under threat, there was much less clarity about what that means than in the past. Participants struggled to define what a threat to democracy is,” the analysis explained.

By contrast, the corruption issue, according to the analysis, “is both a salient issue and universally defined as politicians looking out for their own interests and against the interest[s] of the people. We should push hard on taking on corruption and should be mindful that just talking about democracy broadly without specific definition does not have the same intuitive meaning for voters.”

FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter told The Washington Stand the focus group results are no surprise, given recent history, particularly with regard to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“There’s a reason why the Senate’s anti-insider trading bill is called the PELOSI Act — she’s the poster child of congressional insider trading and one of the most prominent congressional Democrats,” Carpenter said. He further noted that “there is no doubt the American public is cynical about the work of Congress. Many of their concerns about politicians using their influence to enrich themselves is, unfortunately, justified. This is fuel for the populist sentiment that has propelled Donald Trump to the presidency twice.”

Carpenter is skeptical that Democrats heeding the IR memo will enjoy complete success. He contends that “left-wing groups will have difficulty making the case to voters that it’s only Republicans who trade on insider information or otherwise use their positions to gain wealth for themselves.”

AUTHOR

Mark Tapscott

Mark Tapscott is senior congressional analyst at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Wisconsin Judge Criminally Charged for Obstructing Deportations. Who’s Next?

As Democrats fret over possible arrests for opposing deportations, a federal grand jury has handed down an indictment against a Wisconsin judge who hid an illegal immigrant from law enforcement. A grand jury on Tuesday indicted Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan on charges of “knowingly concealing” an illegal immigrant named Eduardo Flores-Ruiz when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers showed up at the courthouse to arrest him and “corruptly endeavor[ing] to influence, obstruct, and impede the due and proper administration of the law” by actively trying to prevent the Mexican national’s arrest. Dugan was accused in the indictment of knowingly lying to ICE officers and telling Flores-Ruiz to leave by a back door to avoid being arrested.

Dugan was arrested last month after confronting and obstructing ICE agents waiting outside her courtroom to arrest Flores-Ruiz, who was in court for allegedly assaulting his roommate. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reported that Flores-Ruiz “has a laundry list of violent criminal charges including strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse.” The Mexican national has entered the U.S. illegally twice and was ordered deported in 2013. Dugan faces up to six years in prison if convicted of the charges.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, said, “Of course, this judge and other judges should be prosecuted for obstructing federal agents from enforcing the law. It is long past time for those obstructing law enforcement to face the consequences of their own actions.” In a Tuesday night interview, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said he was “glad” Dugan had been indicted, referring to her actions as an “egregious case” of flouting U.S. law. He suggested that other local, state, and even federal officials should face prosecution for obstructing President Donald Trump’s deportation program. “Let every other judge and member of Congress out there take a lesson from this: you are not above the law,” the senator said.

The Trump administration certainly appears poised to initiate prosecutions against officials who obstruct ICE operations. Last week, a group of protestors — including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka (D) and Reps. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), Robert Menendez, Jr. (D-N.J.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) — tried to “break into” an ICE detention facility in New Jersey and reportedly shoved and threatened several federal law enforcement officers and facility guards. McLaughlin said in a statement at the time, “Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk. Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities.”

Department of Justice (DOJ) official Alina Habba confirmed that Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center” and was subsequently arrested. The former Trump defense lawyer added, “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”

The Trump DOJ is reportedly weighing criminal charges against McIver, Menendez, and Watson Coleman, eliciting fierce backlash from House Democrats. In a video posted to social media, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) claimed that her congressional colleagues had done no wrong. “If anyone’s breaking the law in this situation, it’s not members of Congress, it’s the Department of Homeland Security,” the congresswoman said, specifically naming border czar Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who are in charge of ICE operations and deportations. “You lay a finger on someone, on Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman … or any of the representatives that were there, you lay a finger on them, we are going to have a problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She added, “Because the people who are breaking the law are the people not abiding by it.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) made similar comments in a Tuesday press conference. When asked what would happen if the Trump administration followed through on filing criminal charges against McIver, Menendez, and Watson Coleman, Jeffries repeatedly replied, “They’ll find out.” Fox News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram asked, “What would you do?” Jeffries replied again, “They’ll find out.” The Democratic official said that arresting his congressional colleagues would be a “red line” for the Trump administration. “They know better than to go down that road. And it’s been made loudly and abundantly clear to the Trump administration. We’re not going to be intimidated by their tactics,” Jeffries said. He continued, “No one’s intimidated by this dude. No one. And so there are clear lines that they just dare not cross.”

However, some Republicans are seeking penalties for the New Jersey Democrats, whether prosecutions come or not. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) introduced a resolution Tuesday to strip McIver, Menendez, and Watson Coleman of all committee assignments. In a social media post touting the resolution, he commented, “The radical left has lost their minds — they would rather raid an ICE facility to defend criminal illegal immigrants than represent their own constituents.” He added, “The three Democratic members involved in this stunt do not deserve to sit on committees alongside serious lawmakers.”

Ries told The Washington Stand that consequences are necessary for the Democrats’ conduct. “It has been the absence of consequences in so many aspects of American society that has allowed illegal behavior and corruption to escalate,” she said. Ries continued, “The perpetrators have relied on non-action to continue their transgressions, as demonstrated by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries threatening yesterday, in essence, ‘Don’t you dare arrest Democrat lawmakers for bum-rushing an ICE detention facility and shoving federal agents.’”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Liberal Pollster Warns Lefty Activist Group to Focus on Hill GOP and Gov’t Corruption, Not Trump and Musk

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

JUDICIAL TYRANNY: Supreme Court to Hear Trump Challenge to Universal Injunctions by Radical, Rogue Judges

Far left judges issue rulings that go far beyond the scope of resolving cases or controversies. It is a grotesque seizure of power that puts the entire nation at risk.

The Supreme Court under a corrupt and compromised Justice Roberts has abandoned it’s judicial responsibility to uphold the Constitution. He is owned.

The case proper is over birthright citizenship. This hearing, however, will be about the numerous injunctions that have sought to limit the administration’s efforts coast to coast. SCOTUS Blog: The dispute is one of the relatively rare proceedings that came to the justices as an emergency appeal – on the so-called “shadow docket” – only to be set for oral arguments…. the primary issue before the court on Thursday is whether lower-court judges can issue what are known as universal injunctions to block an order nationwide. With a universal injunction, a federal judge (or several in this case) can that bar the government from enforcing an executive order – or, in another case, a law or policy – anywhere in the country. The Trump administration, which has been blocked by many such injunctions in recent months, argues that the practice is unconstitutional…. President Donald Trump set the events leading to Thursday’s argument in motion on Jan. 20, when he signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship. Under the order, which was originally slated to go into effect on Feb. 19, children born in the United States would not be automatically entitled to U.S. citizenship if their parents were in this country illegally or temporarily – for example, on a work or student visa…. Seven years ago, in a concurring opinion in Trump v. Hawaii, Justice Clarence Thomas called universal injunctions “legally and historically dubious.” Moreover, he added, they are “beginning to take a toll on the federal court system — preventing legal questions from percolating through the federal courts, encouraging forum shopping, and making every case a national emergency for the courts and for the Executive Branch” (SCOTUSblog).

The very fact that they are holding this hearing may bode well for the president. Margot Cleveland at the Federalist: That the Supreme Court scheduled oral argument on the nationwide injunction issue, while the underlying question of the constitutionality of the president’s EO continues to percolate in the lower courts, suggests several of the justices have grave concerns over nationwide injunctions. Further, as the Trump Administration’s brief highlights, five justices — Justices Alito, Barrett, Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch — at different times and in various concurrences or dissents, have criticized the use of nationwide injunctions (Federalist).

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

U.S. Government Lost $1 Trillion in COVID Relief Funds to Fraud

The U.S. government loses nearly $1 trillion in emergency relief funds annually, according to experts. In a “60 Minutes” interview Monday night, Audient Group founder and former Government Accountability Office executive Linda Miller alleged that international crime rings defraud American taxpayers of billions of dollars every year.

“I believe the government is losing between $550 billion and about $750 billion a year — we’re coming up close to the $1 trillion amount — [that’s] lost every year to fraud,” Miller stated. She explained, “What we’re really talking about is nation-state actors, we’re talking about organized crime rings, we’re talking about using vast amounts of stolen American identities to monetize them for criminal activity.”

Fraud was rampant during the COVID-19 era, Miller explained. “I mean, it was like they threw money in the air and just let people run around and grab it. The most egregious part is that a lot of the people who stole that money were foreign, adversarial nation-states,” she said, estimating that over $1 trillion in COVID-19 relief funding was stolen through fraud.

However, she warned that security measures need to be increased even though the COVID-19 era has ended. “One of the things I found really disheartening is, since then, I’ve talked to some folks who said, ‘Well, that was just the pandemic. We don’t have to worry about it anymore.’ Was it? No,” Miller said. She added, “It’s whack-a-mole and these guys are paying close attention. They’re seeing where better controls are being put in place, and then they’re going to where the controls still haven’t been improved.”

Miller identified disaster relief funds as a top target for fraudsters. “When a disaster happens in the country, the fraud actors see where it’s coming, they look at the zip codes and they begin buying stolen identities so that they can begin applying for disaster loans, disaster grants on behalf of stolen identities,” she explained. FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran confirmed, “All of our personally identifiable information — name, date of birth, former address, and social security number — is available on the dark net and can likely be purchased.”

Vorndran explained that much of the fraud being committed against the U.S. is sponsored by China and other nations hostile to America. He cited one case last year where the U.S. identified a $6 billion loss in COVID-era unemployment funds. The FBI agent confirmed that, unfortunately, “very little” of the money lost to fraud will ever be recovered. “These are arguably digital gangs in the 21st century that are built off of having safe haven status, meaning their governments are not going to interrupt their activity even if it’s illegal,” he said, pointing to foreign governments that sponsor or allow large-scale fraud operations in an effort to cripple the U.S. He added, “I believe that there are sustained campaigns across this globe that are very well resourced, with a goal of causing damage to the United States.”

Miller noted the fact that billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are doing more than other agencies have to combat and prevent fraud. “Elon Musk coming out and saying there is a huge amount of fraud — I welcome that message completely because finally someone is actually saying this,” she quipped. “When I watch DOGE today, I do see some hints that they are addressing the right issues,” she added. However, she advised the bloat-slashing agency not to conflate fraud with wasteful spending. “Fraud is willful deception,” Miller said.

She continued, “Often, you may not agree with what USAID does. You may not want to be investing American dollars in foreign fertilizer, for example. You may think that’s the wrong thing to be spending money on, but that’s not fraud.” She continued, “I really think fraud is not a political issue. This is mom and apple pie stuff, we all agree that bad actors should not be stealing American taxpayer dollars. … We see the adversary not as Republicans or Democrats, but as foreign adversarial nation states and organized crime rings.” Miller added, “I believe that there [are] opportunities for DOGE to save a lot of significant money if they focus on the right things, if they focus on real fraud.”

According to the Government Accountability Office and the FBI, up to $135 billion in unemployment insurance, at least $135 billion in economic injury disaster loans, and nearly $65 billion in paycheck protection program funds were stolen through fraud during the COVID-19 era. Thousands of individuals have been charged by the Department of Justice with fraud-related crimes over the past several years.

“I think it’s safe to say future historians will make entire careers on writing about the failures of the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter told The Washington Stand. “More than five years removed from the start of the pandemic, we now know masking, closures, social distancing, and vaccinations did little to nothing to stop the spread of COVID-19. Now, we know the government’s prescription to prevent the economy from collapsing during COVID-19 not only did not work but led to the largest instance of fraud in American history, that we know of at least. We are a country $36 trillion in debt. We cannot afford to have a trillion dollars lost to fraud and abuse.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council,


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘Hang It Around Their Neck’ — Against Long Odds, GOP Operatives Have A Plan To Win In 2026

Whether it’s a 12-hour-long protest on the Capitol steps about inflation, assaulting police officers during a protest at an ICE facility, or the threat of ousting the newly elected leadership of the DNC, it’s safe to say that since President Donald Trump retook the White House in November, Democrats have found themselves lost as a party, if not in total disarray.

The Democrats’ apparent lack of direction and constant infighting could help carry the GOP through a midterm cycle that, given historical trends, they appear destined to lose.

Over more than a dozen interviews, party officials and GOP consultants told the Daily Caller that they have a plan to bring Republicans more victory in 2026 — and they’re fully intending on using the divisions in the Democratic Party to achieve this goal.

“There’s an old rule in politics that I tell my clients, which is when your opponent is committing suicide, stay out of the way,” a national GOP operative told the Caller. “And that’s what the Democrats are doing right now.”

DEMS IN DISARRAY

In stark contrast to the Democratic Party, the GOP is fresh off a week-long celebration touting the Trump administration’s success in the first 100 days of his second term. Six months after Trump was elected for the second time, and the party took both the House and the Senate, the GOP is in prime position to enact the MAGA agenda.

Despite the celebration, the thought of the 2026 midterms still looms. The question of how to continue to capitalize on the nation’s massive shift to the right is on the minds of GOP strategists, top party officials and the White House.

“What I am going to tell my clients is let the Democrats be Democrats. If they think that transgender issues and Harry Sisson and those guys are going to deliver them great wins, God bless them. Keep going, kids,” one Midwestern conservative strategist told the Caller.

Since the 2024 election, Harris’s camp signaled that she wouldn’t make a decision about her political future until the summer. Joe Biden retreated to Delaware for a quiet life. Gavin Newsom launched a podcast. Gretchen Whitmer was spotted in the White House. And AOC and Bernie Sanders, two of the party’s furthest left candidates, stepped up to become the new faces of the Democratic Party.

“Democrats may not know who their leader is, but we do – it’s the Jasmine Crocketts, the AOCs, and the Bernie Sanders of the party. We’ll elevate their most extreme voices, like Jasmine Crockett, because they are the ones running the party right now, and they couldn’t be more out-of-touch with what most Americans care about,” Abigail Jackson, the deputy communications director for the Republican National Committee, told the Caller. 

Andrew Clark, founder of Relentless Strategies, told the Caller that the media is primed right now to cover tension within the Democrat ranks and that Republicans can use this opportunity to push Democrats to be on the record talking about the division in their party. Alternatively, they can force them on the record defending unpopular policy positions – like men in women’s sports. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election in Georgia, and Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, who is running for an open Senate seat in Michigan, are both cosponsoring legislation that would allow men to compete in women’s sports, for example.

“Get Democrats on the record talking about it, draw attention to it,” Clark told the Caller. “If the Democrats go on the record now, that’s what gets used for ads in the fall — that lays the foundation for what these Republicans can run on and what these Democrats have to defend.”

In November, nearly every area of the country shifted to the right. American voters signaled leading up to Election Day that they were worried, first and foremost, about Democrats’ handling of the border crisis and the effect ‘Bidenomics’ had on the economy. But voters were also heavily persuaded by the candidates’ views on transgender issues. According to an analysis by Future Forward, a Democratic super PAC, Trump’s most effective ad was one telling voters that Harris was for “they/them” but that he was for “you.” That ad shifted viewers 2.7 percentage points in favor of the now president.

One strategist told the Caller that getting Democrats to take the unpopular stance on 70-30 and 80-20 issues – like wanting men in women’s sports – can prove to be lucrative for Republicans.

“It provides really kind of stark differences between our candidates and theirs that manifest themselves on the earned media front,” a GOP strategist told the Caller.

The Democrats’ collapse hasn’t just been on Capitol Hill, as one strategist pointed out. Across the country, Americans have protested the administration, especially Elon Musk’s role, by lighting Tesla chargers on fire, keying the cars and throwing Molotov cocktails at Tesla dealerships.

“What am I doing about this? I’m just collecting footage, some of this unhinged protest footage, like … domestic terrorism and like people keying cars and looking completely out of their minds,” one national strategist focused on full service creative services told the Caller.

The strategist also pointed out that Democrats have rushed to back federal workers: “These overpaid suburban D.C., career bureaucrats… if that’s their rallying cry, I think that they’re in trouble in the swing states.”

“I think any little bit of stuff that we have showing the Democrats spending a lot of time on those folks is going to be beneficial for us to hold, to have in the quiver to use,” the source added.

THE VIEW FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

Echoing what the strategists pointed out, one top White House official told the Caller that the “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill will give them an opportunity to further bury Democrats on policy.

“Like the big tax package and all this that’s come forward [in the reconciliation bill], we think there will be really popular things in there that 100% of Democrats will vote against, and then we will hang it around their neck like an anchor,” the official told the Caller.

While nailing Democrats to unpopular policy positions and highlighting the ongoing disarray in the party is important, the White House believes that the president’s ability to deliver on his campaign promises will be the best advertising the party has going into 2026, the official told the Caller.

“The big picture, the thing we’ve been most focused on so far, is just delivering the agenda that the president ran on, which is critical issue number one. We have to give the voters what they paid for to try to cement the coalition that brought him into office, which is, of course, the coalition that we need — at least some version — to turn up in the midterms in order to be successful where we want to be successful,” the senior White House official told the Caller.

That means delivering for voters on securing the southern border – which the administration has made leaps and bounds on. Illegal crossings were down roughly 95% in March from the monthly average during the Biden administration.

It also means putting more money into Americans’ pockets and addressing their concerns on the economy, something the administration is still trying to navigate as the stock market reacts to Trump’s tariff policies. The economy is something every strategist and consultant that the Caller spoke to agreed could tank the election for Republicans in 2026. And it’s an element the White House knows they have to address.

“The question is, what does [the economy] look like, sort of Q2 of next year? And if we can get the economy really moving in the right direction … by the data it already is … But get people feeling that, then I think we’ll be really successful,” the official told the Caller of the White House’s plans to address the economy.

WHERE TO FOCUS

Fixing the economy isn’t the only thing the party will be looking at the White House to do to help ensure the 2026 midterms are a building year for the GOP. Across the country, strategists, PACs and party officials will follow the White House’s direction on which states and races they should focus their time and resources.

The House of Representatives will be a big target focus, the White House official told the Caller, adding that “all of the swing districts, whether on the offensive or defensive side” will be a priority.

“The Senate is probably in a little bit safer territory, but we think we’ve got a great offensive opportunity in Georgia, good offensive opportunity in Michigan, and potentially good offensive opportunity in New Hampshire,” the official said of the top targets for the party moving into 2026.

The NRCC plans to build on down-ballot gains with different demographic groups, including Hispanic, African-American, and young voters, one party official told the Caller.

“I think for the Senate map, one of the things to lean into is the fact that Democrats don’t even want to be here,” one NRSC official told the Caller, mentioning all of the recent Senate Democrat retirees that have been announced. Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tina Smith of Minnesota and Gary Peters of Michigan have indicated that they will not be running for reelection in 2026.

And don’t count out New Jersey, a typically blue state that Trump narrowly lost in 2024.

At the time the White House official spoke to the Caller, Trump had yet to endorse in the New Jersey governor’s race. The official noted that they would continue to monitor the race and would get involved if they felt Republicans were in “striking distance.”

That would “bode well for ’26 and in the future,” the official added.

On Monday, Trump announced an endorsement of Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who is the frontrunner in the primary.

Part of the puzzle to defeating the Democrats in 2026 and securing further victory for the GOP is capitalizing on what the party has only recently embraced: early voting and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts.

American Majority Action’s Ned Ryun told the Caller that it comes down to the fundamentals: voter registration, more absentee voting, and embracing early voting where it benefits the party. Ryun also stressed the importance of the GOP – both on a national and local level – pressuring county clerks to clear their voter rolls of ineligible voters. In March, the Republican National Committee (RNC) requested all states provide the party information on how it maintains and cleans up its voter rolls, the Daily Caller previously reported.

After working on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Ryun and his group are now shifting their focus to Virginia, where they plan to practice the “fundamentals.”

NEW MEDIA APPROACH

Early voting isn’t the only new tool that the GOP harnessed for the 2024 election. Trump’s media strategy, which included appearing on podcasts and talk shows outside of legacy media programs, was a break from the traditional route politicians usually take on the campaign trail. It was also a strategy Harris and her campaign struggled to embrace, fumbling a potential interview with Joe Rogan that would’ve given the vice president a better chance at reaching independent and undecided voters.

The White House has indicated that the new media strategy is here to stay, shaking up the press briefing room to include new and independent media outlets and adding them into the daily rotation of reporters that cover the president.

The NRSC, meanwhile, is encouraging Senate Republicans to embrace this new approach — and create a novel media strategy of their own.

A national Republican working on Senate races told the Caller that the NRSC advised each Senate office in February to have an active presence on social media and to draft up a new media engagement plan as part of a list of benchmarks meant to assist incumbents up for re-election in 2026.

A month later, the NRSC encouraged incumbents to “lead the fight” for President Trump’s efforts to cut waste, fraud, and abuse from government spending through unconventional channels. Candidates were advised to “be a leader on cuts your senator is passionate about through regional and new media,” the source told the Caller.

The NRSC also appointed Senator Marsha Blackburn to be vice chair, with the expectation that she will assist Senate Republicans in breaking into the new media sphere.

One senator who took the new media strategy in stride was Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

A Senate aide explained to the Caller that they first implemented the new media strategy when Congress was voting on the “Keep Men Out Of Women’s Sports Act.”

Sen. Tuberville had already appeared on Megyn Kelly’s independent podcast to promote the bill and the pair started a pressure campaign on X in support of the legislation. That “opened up the door” for Thune to use that outlet to publicly advocate for the bill.

“She had a call with the leader [Thune] and it was him saying, ‘Look, this is a priority,’” the aide recounted to the Caller. “We gave her the exclusive so that she could be the one to announce when that vote would be taking place on her show. We gave that to her because we saw that as being the best place for it, because that’s where the conversation was focused.”

Another Senate aide told the Caller that it has been important to put members of Congress on hour-long podcasts in addition to quick TV hits because it helps show in-depth policy knowledge and allows constituents to get to know their senator on a more personal level. Some senators do podcasts that correspond with specific policy focuses, like cryptocurrency or culture war issues.

“What has kind of been the playbook forever has been five minute Fox [News] hits, and you get your message out,” the Senate aide explained. “But people don’t really know you.”

ANGRY VS. HAPPY VOTERS

“Policy is the politics,” is a message the Caller heard from nearly every consultant or party aide over the course of numerous interviews. The best message the party can campaign on, they stressed, is the president and the GOP delivering on promises made to the American people.

The fear, though, is that angry voters are typically more motivated to turn out in a midterm than happy voters.

The GOP has already learned this lesson from the special election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. Although Republicans managed to hang on to now U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz’s vacant seat, the March race was much closer than the party anticipated — particularly after Trump’s decisive victory just six months prior.

The party faced the hard truth that yes, voters upset with the current administration are more motivated to show up to the polls, one national GOP strategist told the Caller. However, the source noted that the tight race shouldn’t have been a total shock given how much money Democrats poured into the race.

“Our people – they got the message on time, but it took them a little bit longer. And so they basically needed to be rustled up to say, ‘Hey, this is important.’ But once the message was delivered that, ‘hey, the President’s agenda is on the line,’ it was lights out,” the source told the Caller.

The White House feels similarly, one official told the Caller, acknowledging that, at a certain point, they can’t help but make Democrats angry if they deliver on Trump’s campaign promises.

But the official added that the fight in 2026 is really about inspiring the Republican coalition to keep fighting each and every election cycle. Voters need to understand that Trump’s long-term success is in many ways predicated on having a friendly Congress to codify his agenda through legislation, the official explained.

“What it really comes down to is the Republican coalition … can we connect the need for a Republican Congress to Trump’s success in the minds of those voters that have really only turned out when Trump is on the ticket,” the official said.

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House Correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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