Tag Archive for: Kristi Noem

In Ironic Twist, Man Who Allegedly Stole Kristi Noem’s Bag Is Illegal Migrant, DHS Sec Says

The suspect who allegedly stole U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s bag while she dined with family at a hamburger restaurant late Easter Sunday is a criminal illegal migrant, authorities said Sunday.

Matt McCool, Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service Washington Field Office, announced Sunday that Secret Service agents, working closely with the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., had arrested a suspect believed to have robbed Noem of her bag. “The defendant was taken into custody without incident in the District of Columbia,” McCool said.

The suspect was a “serial offender” but he appeared not to have targeted Noem because of her person or position as DHS Secretary, McCool added. The suspect will face charges in a federal court, according to McCool.

“This individual is a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years,” Noem said in a post on X, while thanking the Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and other law enforcement agencies investigating the theft that occurred April 20 at The Capital Burger. The restaurant is located a mile from the White House.

Neither Noem nor McCool named the suspect, but the New York Post — citing law enforcement sources — identified the suspect as Mario Bustamante-Leiva, 49, of Santiago, Chile.

“A law enforcement source in D.C. has confirmed to me the man accused of stealing DHS Sec. Noem’s purse is Mario Bustamante Leiva [sic],” Julio Rosas, national correspondent at The Blaze posted.

Ed Martin, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told NBC News over the phone that Bustamante-Leiva was in the country illegally.

Bustamante-Leiva is suspected of being the masked man who walked into the restaurant, past two plainclothes Secret Service officers and upstairs to a spot next to Noem’s table. There, he dragged Noem‘s purse toward himself — while Noem and her family dined — and left the restaurant with the purse tucked away under his jacket, according to NBC News. He passed by the Secret Service agents on his way out, according to the outlet.

“This was not an amateur. This was a person, a thief, that knew how to do this. You could see how he scouted the room out,” Martin told the outlet.

The stolen item was a $4,400 Gucci bag lying on the ground next to Noem and containing a $600 Louis Vuitton Clemence Purse and $3,000 in cash, according to the Post.

It also contained Noem‘s DHS access badge, her passport, various credit cards, blank checks, a set of keys and her driver’s license, NBC News reported.

Noem told podcaster, and Daily Caller Editorial Director, Vince Coglianese Wednesday that she felt the purse being moved from her feet, according to the Post.

“I thought it was my grandkids kicking me in the legs, but it was very professionally done,” Noem reportedly added on the “Vince” podcast.

Law enforcement agents were still seeking a second suspect in the theft of Noem’s possessions, Martin told NBC News.

Bustamante-Leiva was one of the most prolific thieves in London, U.K. — until he was jailed there in 2015 for conducting a five-month theft spree that included stealing phones, wallets, and computers collectively worth £21,000 (nearly $28,000), the Daily Mail reported.

Once, he stole a bag containing a whole family’s passports and airplane boarding passes, and in another instance, he brazenly stole a woman’s handbag as she chatted with a friend, the central London court reportedly learned during Bustamante-Leiva’s trial.

“You are dishonest to your fingertips,” the judge said to Bustamante-Leiva at his sentencing in London.

“Unfortunately, so many families in this country have been made victims by crime, and that’s why President Trump is working every single day to make America safe and get these criminal aliens off of our streets,” Noem said.

“What I can tell you is he won’t be back on the streets in America,” Martin told NBC News regarding the suspect.

AUTHOR

John Oyewale

Contributor

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

DHS Just Added Itself To Harvard’s List Of Trump Admin Adversaries

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday revoked its own grants from Harvard University over its alleged failure to address antisemitism.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the department is canceling two grants totaling $2.7 million to the school as part of a continued crack down against antisemitism on campus, according to a press release. Noem said the school is “unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” said Secretary Noem. “With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”

The Secretary wrote Harvard a letter demanding details on any violent and illegal activities committed by foreign student visa holders. The letter warned that, if the records were not turned over by April 30, Harvard would lose its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification and be unable to admit foreign students altogether.

Noem claims the $800,303 Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention grant “branded conservatives as far-right dissidents in a shockingly skewed study,” while the $1,934,902 Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement grant “funded Harvard’s public health propaganda.”

“Both undermine America’s values and security,” the press release stated. “With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos—DHS won’t.”

The Trump administration on April 11 demanded Harvard agree to a list of reforms to the way it handles antisemitism after a September congressional investigation found “Harvard failed” to enforce meaningful punishment on nearly 70 students who were involved in a multi-day pro-Hamas encampment during the previous spring semester. The changes asked of the school included reforming and better enforcing disciplinary processes for students who participate in antisemitic protests, improving screening of international students for “hostile” views towards America and auditing “programs with egregious records of antisemitism.”

In a public statement Monday afternoon, Harvard declared it “will not surrender” and refused the proposal. The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, made up of the Department of Education (ED), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) swiftly revoked over $2 billion in grants to the university hours later.

“Harvard is aware of the Department of Homeland Security’s letter regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas, which—like the Administration’s announcement of the freeze of $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts, and reports of the revocation of Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status—follows on the heels of our statement that Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” a Harvard spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We continue to stand by that statement. We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same.”

“Harvard values the rule of law and expects all members of our community to comply with University policies and applicable legal standards. If federal action is taken against a member of our community, we expect it will be based on clear evidence, follow established legal procedures, and respect the constitutional rights afforded to all individuals,” the spokesman continued.

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.

Kristi Noem Confirmed As Secretary Of Homeland Security

The Senate confirmed Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Saturday.

“The yeas are 59, the nays are 34. The nomination is confirmed,” Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who presided over the confirmation, said on the floor of the Senate after the livestreamed roll call vote.

Noem, 53, becomes the eighth DHS Secretary. Her confirmation hearing was held Jan. 17. She will take over from Acting Secretary Benjamine Huffman, who was serving as a placeholder pending Noem’s confirmation.

She is expected to execute President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding border security and immigration while overseeing the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies.

Noem resigned Saturday as South Dakota’s governor, with Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden to replace her. “As you assume the role of Governor, please remember our state motto: ‘Under God, the People Rule.’ I chose you because I knew that you would approach the role the same way that I did,” she wrote to Rhoden in her resignation letter.

The voting margin for Noem’s confirmation was not similar to that for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose confirmation went down to the wire Friday and required Vice President J.D. Vance to break the tie with his vote and ensure Hegseth’s confirmation.

Border security reinforcement and the deportation of illegal immigrants are already underway, as the Department of Defense announced the deployment of 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and military planes for the deportation of 5,000 illegal immigrants detained by the CBP. Two military airplanes flew 160 illegal immigrants to Guatemala Friday, Reuters reported.

Trump picked Noem to be DHS Secretary in November 2024. “Kristi has been very strong on Border Security,” Trump said. “I have known Kristi for years, and have worked with her on a wide variety of projects — She will be a great part of our mission to Make America Safe Again.”

AUTHOR

John Oyewale

Contributor.

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

Trump DHS Chucks Two Biden-Era Immigration Policies Into Dustbin

The Trump administration rescinded two major Biden-era immigration initiatives Tuesday, further cementing the White House’s dedication to tougher enforcement policies.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a directive that rescinds the Biden administration’s guidelines on so-called “sensitive locations” where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are prohibited from conducting enforcement activities. The administration also announced it would be rolling back the “broad use” of humanitarian parole and returning it to a case-by-case basis.

The Trump administration lauded the moves as a step away from the soft-on-enforcement approach taken by the previous White House.

“This action empowers the brave men and women in [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murders and rapists — who have illegally come into our country,” a DHS spokesperson said of the revocation of sensitive locations. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”

“The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” the spokesperson continued.

An ICE memo establishing “sensitive locations” was introduced in October 2011, which mostly prohibited ICE agents from entering schools, hospitals or churches. However, this list was expanded incredibly under the Biden administration to include broad areas of social services and public spaces, limiting the scope where ICE agents could work.

The second directive announced Tuesday includes a phaseout of parole programs that allowed migrants to enter and work in the U.S. en masse under the Biden administration. Republicans have long criticized parole initiatives such as the CHNV program for being rife with fraud and allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela into the U.S.

“The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country,” the DHS spokesperson said. “This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration.”

“This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis,” the spokesperson continued.

The two directives were issued by acting DHS Director Benjamine Huffman. If confirmed, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem will be taking the reins at the department.

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump issued a slate of executive orders that declared a national emergency at the border, designated cartels as terrorist organizations and sought to reinterpret the 14th Amendment as denying birthright citizenship for individuals born on U.S. soil by illegal migrant parents.

AUTHOR

Jason Hopkins

Immigration reporter.

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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.

EXCLUSIVE: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Rumored VP Contender, Met With Trump At Mar-A-Lago

Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who is rumored to be on the shortlist for Vice President, met Monday with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, a source familiar told the Daily Caller.

A new Kaplan Strategies Wisconsin poll released on February 23, shows Noem is the preferred pick to be Trump’s running mate. Trump has reportedly been considering Noem and a list of others to be his running mate. According to that poll, Noem had the highest favorability rating, with 39 percent of voters saying they have a very or somewhat favorable view of her.

In second place was Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis followed by 2024 Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, with 28 percent.

During the annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) summit, Noem tied with Ramaswamy with the highest amount of support in their straw poll, with 15 percent.

Former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard came in third with 9 percent, followed by  New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, with 8 percent.

(THIS IS A BREAKING STORY. MORE INFORMATION WILL BE ADDED AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.)

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

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

Noem’s Pro-Trans Ties Spark Protests, 2024 Skepticism

Even the frigid temperatures couldn’t keep angry South Dakotans away. Despite the blistering, nine-degree cold, as many as 150 people gathered in the snow outside the 2023 Midwest Gender Identity Summit in Sioux Falls Friday morning to protest Sanford Health’s unwelcome presence in their state. Standing by snow drifts, with a long convoy of cars heading to join them, organizer Adam Broin insisted, “This is NOT South Dakota!” But according to a bombshell report by NRO reporter Nate Hochman, it may already be South Dakota, thanks to the transgender movement’s unlikely ally: Republican Governor Kristi Noem.

For Noem, who’s been trying to rehabilitate her image for 2024 after a series of conservative betrayals, the timing of Hochman’s piece couldn’t be worse. Two years removed from her shocking veto on a girls’ sports bill — and three from her behind-the-scenes death blow to a ban on child-mutilating surgery — Noem was hoping she could put the questions about her bona-fides behind her. Instead, she’s staring down another career-crushing controversy over her cozy relationship to one of the largest providers of puberty blockers and sex change surgeries in the Midwest.

Of course, the ties between Sanford Health and the state’s establishment Republicans haven’t exactly been a secret in South Dakota. What has come as a surprise is just how deep those political tentacles run — often, as Hochman points out, dictating policies at complete odds with the states’ social conservative roots.

“I think it’s impossible to understate or to overstate how powerful Sanford Health is in South Dakota,” Hochman told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch” Thursday. “It’s a $7.5 billion company.” They employ almost seven times more people than the second largest employer in South Dakota, he explained. “And they fund the campaigns of a lot of Republican leaders in the state, including a bunch of the Republicans who sit on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which is the committee that killed the bill” protecting minors from gender transition procedures.

As for Noem, Hochman explained, “She has a very close relationship with Sanford Health. It’s her top career donor.” In exchange, she’s bowed to their demands on LGBT issues, even when it’s in direct conflict with her state’s wishes or her party’s agenda. In a state where the number of self-identified conservatives outweigh liberals by more than 30 points, it’s not a place “where one would expect to find a major trade conference for transgender medical specialists,” he wrote.

But unfortunately, Sanford Health’s influence runs deep — so deep, the country learned in 2020, that Noem was willing to do their bidding on a profoundly popular policy to protect kids. At her behest, the bill’s sponsors said, the committee voted to sink a measure that would give teenagers and their families more time to weigh a decision that could destroy them forever. It’s a “pause button” on transgender surgery, Rep. Fred Deutsch (R) called it. “Nobody is saying that kids can’t pursue these treatments later on — but surely, we can all agree that children who can’t even drive shouldn’t be steering themselves into permanent medical procedures.” Despite having the committee majority, Republicans voted 5-2 to sink the only hope South Dakota parents had.

That was the first inkling that the “most conservative governor in the country,” as Noem likes to call herself, wasn’t as advertised. The second shoe dropped in 2021, when the fight to protect women’s sports started to break out in state legislatures. Buoyed by Idaho’s momentum, both chambers of the South Dakota legislature rushed a bill to the governor’s desk to make biology the determining factor of any athlete’s team.

It wasn’t a heavy lift. As Perkins pointed out, “Almost every state that’s even pink has embraced that.” Noem herself seemed to be on board with the idea at first, tweeting that she was “excited to sign this bill very soon.” Two weeks later, after meetings with left-wing activists (including, Hochman writes, Sanford Health), the governor abruptly changed her mind. On a Friday afternoon, to the astonishment of Americans everywhere, she announced she was vetoing HB 1217 — caving to the mob in spectacular fashion and reaping a whirlwind of backlash so intense that people wondered if her career would recover.

Noem went on a face-saving media tour to try to mitigate the damage, but it was too late. She was tagged as a phony, a squish, a sellout to the liberal interests of the state. Her cowardice was helpful in one way, conservatives would say later. More than a dozen leaders raced to sign sports bills into law, hoping to avoid the wrath the South Dakota governor endured for capitulating.

In the months since, Noem has tried to rebuild her status as a GOP firebrand — an effort that’s fizzled with every failed bill. As Hochman points out, “Conservative lawmakers have struggled to get any number of social-conservative bills, particularly as they pertain to transgender issues, across the finish line” — including more conscience rights for medical practitioners (HB 1247), a ban on sex change surgeries and drugs for children (HB 1057), a ban on changing South Dakotans’ sex on birth certificates (HB 1076), a requirement for teachers to inform parents if their child is struggling with gender identity issues (SB 88), a requirement that students use bathrooms and locker rooms that matches their biology (HB 1005), and the establishment of the “fundamental” parental right “to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education and care of a child” (HB 1246). As of February 2021, there had also been seven failed attempts to protect women’s sports, according to the ACLU.

By all rights, South Dakota has become a state where conservative bills go to die. That’s been incredibly frustrating to the state’s grassroots organizations. Norman Woods, director of South Dakota’s Family Heritage Alliance, told Hochman, “We see [Sanford] attack good social conservative ideas all the time.”

It’s no wonder, Hochman told Perkins, since plenty of Sanford Health employees are either South Dakota legislators themselves or lobbyists — or both. “One thing that I found through a lot of digging through old … legislative hearing files is that Sanford lobbyists show up often, literally in lab coats, to effectively lobby against a lot of these bills that are on the record as testifying and lobbying against things like the ban on the chemical castration of children. And they’ve lobbied against a variety of other social conservative bills, almost all of which have died.”

Sounds like “an enormous conflict of interest,” Perkins shook his head. “And did they recuse themselves,” Perkins asked, “from voting on issues of interest to Sanford?” “Not only do they not recuse themselves,” Hochman replied, “but they actually actively champion the efforts to kill a lot of these bills.”

Meanwhile, for Woods, Noem’s alliance with the far-Left is personal. After South Dakota State University hosted a “kid-friendly” drag show on state property, he dashed off a December 20 letter to the governor, urging her to act.

“Considering you have the power to hold the South Dakota Board of Regents accountable and fire at will, I am greatly disappointed you and your administration have taken no action to rectify this situation or to ensure that drag shows for children never happen again on South Dakota soil. The only answer we have seen from your office is for South Dakotans to reach out to the Attorney General. Our children deserve our protection, and as Governor, you have not only the duty, but the responsibility to act.”

Noem flew into a rage, publicly calling for Woods’s head if the Family Heritage Alliance ever wanted to work with her again. The disproportional response to Woods’s run-of-the-mill call to action was a stunning, over-the-top display.

“I am disappointed in Mr. Woods’ decision to attack me publicly by sending this letter out of the blue and releasing it to the media at the same time, instead of reaching out to my office to have a productive conversation about how we can work together. This behavior is both counterproductive and unbecoming of the executive director of your organization, but unfortunately, it has become a pattern in recent years,” Noem wrote.

“As a result, my office will no longer work with the Alliance until and unless its executive director chooses to act professionally.” She goes on to claim that she shares the Alliance’s goals of “faith, family, and freedom” (despite a checkered record to that effect) and expresses “disappoint[ment]” that the Alliance’s Woods “has made it impossible for us to work together to accomplish our shared goals.”

“I’d encourage the Family Heritage Alliance to evaluate the purpose of your organization. Is it to promote family values—or is it to attack the most conservative governor in the country? I believe it is the former and urge you to focus your efforts on bringing our shared pro-family message to the people of South Dakota. I suggest you find an executive director who agrees.”

Shocked, Woods told reporters, “As an organization exclusively lobbying on behalf of South Dakota families, we naïvely thought we could engage America’s ‘most conservative governor’ (her words) in an effort to put an end to the explicit sexualization of children on our public university campuses. Sadly, she misconstrued our efforts. Regardless, just like Protecting South Dakota Kids was successful this fall, so will we be when it comes to putting an end to these grooming events.”

As for the governor’s insistence that the Alliance should have reached out to her privately, conservative organizations understand firsthand how futile that would have been. At the height of the debate over gender transitions for minors in 2020, Family Research Council’s Perkins requested a phone call with Noem to discuss the bill. In a letter obtained by The Washington Stand, FRC’s president outlined the urgency of the conversation, writing, “I would love to talk to you as soon as possible, to alleviate any concerns you may have about this bill and to receive your assurance that you will do everything possible to protect vulnerable children in South Dakota.”

The governor never responded, despite a follow-up call to then-General Counsel Tom Hart. The only time she did reach out to FRC, ironically, was a year later when she needed help cleaning up the PR mess of her girls’ sports veto.

Unfortunately, Noem’s vindictive streak toward Woods won’t come as a surprise to the state’s conservatives, many of whom found themselves primaried in 2022 for upholding true South Dakota values. The Blaze’s Daniel Horowitz was “shocked” to discover that the governor was “declar[ing] war” on social conservatives like Fred Deutsch, who wrote the child protection bill. Together with Sanford Health, who Hochman explained had “dumped a really significant amount of money into efforts to [unseat] all of the conservatives … who got in their way,” Noem began openly campaigning against several solid Republicans in the midterms.

“All of the people on her target list are true Christian conservatives, and those are the people she wants gone,” Rep. Rhonda Milstead, the lead sponsor of the girls’ sports bill told The Blaze. Noem aligned with “liberal leader of the Senate,” Republican legislators warned, working to purge incumbents with a 90%+ rating from the Family Heritage Alliance.

Less than two months later, the same governor was on Fox News, angling for a spot on the 2024 ticket and insisting her state is “thriving because we put forward and put in place conservative policies.” If those “conservative policies” include rolling out the red carpet to dangerous transgender extremism, count voters out. As Hochman explained to Perkins, he’s been “inundated” with emails and messages from South Dakotans saying they had no idea this was happening in their state — and they’re appalled.

“You know, South Dakotans are a good, solid conservative people. This does not represent their interests or their views, but … a lot of it has been sort of happening under clandestine circumstances. And the Republicans who lead the state aren’t broadcasting that. … The average South Dakotan often isn’t aware. And I think they would be horrified — and they are horrified — when they find out that it is.”

Broin, who organized the event outside of Sanford’s transgender conference Friday, talked about the passion of the protestors who showed up “at the crack of dawn,” shoveling the snow-covered sidewalks outside the event to make room for more. “A lot — a lot — of people want to stand up [to this agenda],” he told “Washington Watch” guest host Jody Hice, including freshman state Representative John Sjaarda (R), who joined the crowd.

“We wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing as a group if the political folks of South Dakota would truly represent the people,” Broin said. “But unfortunately, even though there’s great people in our in our state … [who] say a lot of really nice things, the most important conservative legislation seems to always fall through the cracks, not make it through committee, get vetoed for mysterious reasons …”

That’s why, he believes, more groups are springing up to fight the “secrecy” and duplicity of the state’s Republican leaders. “With everything in the national media,” Broin said, “we’ve really started to pay attention and realize that our party isn’t doing what they should be doing. … [W]e are pushing back” on anyone urging the GOP to “cleave itself from grassroots engagement,” he insisted. “And hopefully, we can get our party to represent the third most conservative voting population in the nation.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This The Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. 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.