Blaze Media

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

5 news outlets FIRE BACK at Trump over ban — including Fox News

Various news outlets, including Fox News, have agreed to suspend pool reporting at the White House as a way to protest the president's news ban.On Friday, President Donald Trump accused CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of peddling fake news and banned them all from the White House.'If they had credibility, I wouldn't be sitting here right now.'In response, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News announced on Monday that they had suspended White House TV pool reporting."This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President," Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton wrote in an email obtained by Politico."This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place," he added.Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and NBC News also released a joint statement about the suspension."The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting," the group wrote.Many noted that CNN had defended Fox News in 2009 when former President Barack Obama had limited its access. Fox News returned the favor in 2018 when Trump shut out a CNN reporter.The president justified his ban in comments to reporters Friday."I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here," he said."The ban is because they are fake news, they cannot write the truth," he added. "If they had credibility, I wouldn't be sitting here right now."RELATED: CNN says Trump press ban is illegal — then the Trump team THROWS DOWN fiery response The president had also threatened to expand the ban to include other outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.In a post Monday on Truth Social, the president compared fake news to a "cancer" afflicting the country."It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control," he wrote. "It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Canada kills 83-year-old Christian grandmother without consent, family claims — outrage ensues

Despite intense protests and warnings about a "slippery slope," Canada's liberal government legalized medically assisted suicide nationwide in 2016.As critics predicted, the so-called Medical Assistance in Dying program — recognized by Canada's Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer as a cost-saver for the country's immigration-strained and eugenicist-founded health care system — has been grossly liberalized over the past decade, become a leading cause of death and claiming the lives of ineligible victims.'This is murder.'The family of an 83-year-old Christian woman who was allegedly killed by lethal injection without proper consent in a MAID procedure has filed a complaint with the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, sounding the alarm about the euthanasia regime.Brigitte Kranendonk noted in a July 21 post on Facebook that her German-born grandmother, Brigitte Stegemann, a resident of the Pearl — a long-term care facility in Cannifton, Ontario — was diagnosed earlier this year with untreatable stage 4 stomach cancer.While Stegemann could have potentially survived for years, a meeting was held several months ago to discuss the possibility of MAID, Kranendonk said."At that time, GG clearly stated that she did not wish to pursue it. As a devout Christian, she explicitly expressed that MAID conflicted with her personal beliefs and faith," Kranendonk, who held legal power of attorney for Stegemann, claimed on Facebook.The grandmother was approached on two occasions about pursuing MAID while her granddaughter was on a 10-day vacation, the Facebook post claimed, then visited on July 7 for a MAID assessment by a physician identified in Kranendonk's complaint as Catherine Koester.The Christian Canadian think tank Cardus noted in an August 31 report that unlike most first-world nations, Canada requires only one written request for euthanasia and one witness to that request and does not legally require communication with a patient's family members about the patient's medical history and state of mind.RELATED: Priest breaks hip — now Canada apparently wants him dead Universal Images Group/Getty ImagesDuring the July 7 assessment, Stegemann allegedly failed to evidence soundness of mind — "GG repeatedly provided objectively incorrect answers to basic, factual questions about her own life and immediate family" — and signaled distress while family members protested the evaluation, Kranendonk claimed.'They saw an opportunity.'Among the questions the elderly Canadian apparently got wrong was a query about how many siblings she had. While the actual answer was 13, Stegemann said that she had none, according to her granddaughter.Despite Stegemann's apparent disorientation, the physician allegedly found her fit to make the MAID decision, then informed the family that the procedure would take place just days later.Kranendonk suggested to the Daily Mail that her grandmother's final moments were a horror show, alleging that a gloveless nurse who supposedly treated the family members contemptuously had repeatedly failed to tap the right vein in one arm for the deadly IV before switching to the other arm and beginning the prodding anew."There was a phenomenal amount of blood," said Kranendonk, who indicated that Stegemann had wept bitterly in the lead-up to her final day. "It is all over my Oma's arm, it is all over her nightie, soaking through her pillow, all over the sheets, there is so much blood."According to Kranendonk, the doctor entered the room on July 10, explained to Stegemann that she was going to administer some "medicine," and after 10 minutes, the woman was pronounced dead."She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity," added Kranendonk.Kranendonk's complaint to the province's chief coroner, which was obtained by Canadian combat veteran and MAID critic Kelsi Sheren, states that in the case of her grandmother's demise, there was a "severe failure of statutory safeguards, procedural requirements, and patient consent protocols."In addition to Stegemann allegedly lacking the capacity to make the decision to pursue MAID, the complaint alleges that "care home staff actively initiated private MAID discussions and facilitated the completion and witnessing of official application paperwork in secret, deliberately bypassing" the patient's legal power of attorney. It also alleges that the euthanasia took place without verbal confirmation from Stegemann."One of our greatest ethical concerns is that GG [Stegemann] had explicitly declined MAID, stating it violated her Christian faith," Kranendonk said in her Facebook post. "Once a vulnerable patient explicitly declines this path, the facility should never have targeted her for re-evaluation behind closed doors while her primary advocate was away — especially when the facility had no trouble contacting [Kranendonk] daily for minor, routine care decisions."Blaze News did not immediately receive comment from Ontario Premier Doug Ford's office, Ontario Health at Home, the Pearl, or Dr. Koester.While the Office of the Chief Coroner told Blaze News that it "does not share details related to any death investigation," it noted that "the MAiD Review Team (MRT) reviews every MAiD death reported in the province to ensure compliance with all federal legislative and regulatory requirements. This includes reviewing the MAiD Death Report submitted by the practitioner, confirming completeness and accuracy of the information, and directly contacting a representative of the deceased to identify any issues or concerns."Kranendonk — who greatly regrets not applying for a legal injunction to halt the procedure — told the Daily Mail that she is also appealing to the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police in an effort to determine whether what happened to her grandmother was legal.A spokesman for Belleville Police told the Daily Mail, "This incident is currently open and under investigation with our Criminal Investigations Division. We are unable to provide any additional information at this time."The death of Brigitte Stegemann has attracted international attention, especially in the United States.Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) wrote, "The intersection of assisted suicide and socialized medicine results in state-led horrors, treating the young, old, infirm, and distressed as disposable people. We must never allow this barbarity to spread in America.""This ... is ... evil," tweeted Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican born in a Canadian province that has recently taken some steps to rein in Canada's sick experiment.Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck emphasized that "this is murder. Canada murdered this woman."Jason Kenney, Canada's former conservative defense minister and Alberta's 18th premier, said that the tale of Stegemann's demise is an indictment of the Canadian Supreme Court's "decision to trample on its own precedent, and the democratic decisions of Parliament, by opening the floodgates to killing the elderly and the infirm. If the claims made here are credible, the Crown must charge those responsible for the murder of Brigitte Stegemann."Like Blaze News? 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by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Patrick Clancy held out hope for his 8-month-old son after Lindsay Clancy strangled him, siblings — but 'he died in my arms'

Patrick Clancy held out hope for his 8-month-old son Callan after Lindsay Clancy strangled him and his siblings — 5-year-old Cora and 3-year-old Dawson — in January 2023, according to a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday.He said he returned to his Duxbury, Massachusetts, home from an errand to find Lindsay lying in the back yard; her throat and wrists were cut — and she was paralyzed after jumping from an upstairs window, CBS News reported.'There was a time where I didn't think I would live to see my 35th birthday. And I was completely fine with it.'Patrick, 36, said he found his children strangled in the basement; Cora and Dawson were dead — but Callan was hanging on and was airlifted to Boston Children's Hospital, the news network noted."I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live," Patrick said in the interview. "I remember just thinking, 'Just give me one. Just give me one kid, and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could. I'd tell him about his brother and sister.' And I was holding out hope for that."Callan's heart continued to beat for four days, according to "60 Minutes.""I got to hold him. I got to lay down next to him," Patrick revealed. "And he died in my arms."In the following days, CBS News said Patrick wrote tributes to each of his three children — and decided to publicly forgive Lindsay, who's now his ex-wife."I saw headlines that said, you know, 'Killer Mom,' and 'Baby Murderer,' 'Monster.' And none of them were accurate," Patrick noted in the interview. "I believe that it was her mental illness that caused that. So I shared those words."The news network said Lindsay never asked Patrick for forgiveness, but Patrick gave it to her anyway.CBS News said Patrick and Lindsay both brought medical malpractice lawsuits against health care providers who treated Lindsay — and while some have denied wrongdoing, others haven't yet responded to the claims.Patrick noted to "60 Minutes" that he believes he "did the best I could with what I had at the time. And I live with the outcome. I live with it every day."He also shared that shortly after his children's deaths "there was a day where I, really without thinking, I drove by their school, and it was at the exact time that all of their friends were getting dropped off, and I ... just couldn't be there anymore."RELATED: Lindsay Clancy murder trial hits huge speed bump (UPDATE) JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty ImagesPatrick was asked in the interview if he had suicidal thoughts. His reply? "There was a time where I didn't think I would live to see my 35th birthday. And I was completely fine with it."He added that he no longer could stay in Duxbury, and in April 2023, he moved to New York City where he sought anonymity, CBS News reported."Five weeks after I moved to New York, on May 26, I had to figure out how I'm going to celebrate Callan's first birthday," Patrick shared in the interview, his eyes welling up. "And how do you celebrate your son's first birthday months after he's passed away? And so I go to St. Patrick's Cathedral, I light a candle, and I said, 'I love you buddy.' And I walk out on 5th Avenue, and I stared crying my eyes out. And nobody cared ... and I thought, 'This is where I need to be. I can grieve.'"Patrick added that before moving from the family house in Duxbury, he kept a number of items that reminded him of his children: Interviewer Ross Douthat mentioned a stuffed "baby sloth that Cora carried everywhere; a photo of Callan wearing a bow tie almost bigger than him; [and] Dawson's battered and beloved helicopter."You can view the entire "60 Minutes" interview here; the below clip is a summary of its content:RELATED: Lindsay Clancy murder trial fireworks: Defense attorney wants 1 juror kicked out, tells judge his jury instruction is 'soft' By this April, Patrick was remarried to Rachel Danis, a New York City fertility doctor, CBS News said.Danis told the news network that she met Patrick in January 2024 in a New York City run club and got to know each other over coffee."Pat pulled out his phone to pay, and I noticed this adorable photo of children as the wallpaper," Danis shared with CBS News. "And I just asked, 'Who are those cuties?' And Pat said, 'Those are my kids.' And then I think I asked if they live in Massachusetts, and Pat said, 'They died.' And this is just at the cashier."Danis noted in the "60 Minutes" interview that she tried to "take some of the weight from Pat.""I can't bring his kids back," she noted. "But if I can honor them and allow Pat to grieve but also just continue to honor them in the present, I guess that's all I can do."What's more, the couple shared with "60 Minutes" that they're starting a family — and Patrick is preparing to one day tell his future child about their older siblings, Cora, Dawson, and Callan."I think every parent can agree, you have different relationships with your kids, but they're all your kids," Patrick said, according to CBS News. "And I can't wait to tell them about their brothers and sister."During Lindsay Clancy's murder trial over the summer, Patrick testified and found himself at the center of an online swarm of sleuths and influencers dissecting every detail of the case, developing theories that portray him as uncaring, unfaithful — and even the murderer of his children, CBS News reported."It's painful to see. And it makes it difficult to be in public, and it's possible that some of those people, after seeing lie after lie after lie, they start to believe it, and that's what we're left with," Patrick said in the "60 Minutes" interview.CBS News reported that one of the catalysts for theories about Patrick was his apparent stoicism on the witness stand, but Patrick said testifying was difficult — and that he experienced a "massive, traumatic panic attack" on the second day of his testimony."They put me in an ambulance," Patrick noted in the interview. "They offered me some medication, but I said, 'I don't want it, because I want to go back, and I want to finish this so I can be done with this.' And I went back, and I finished the testimony."Lindsay Clancy's trial ended with a hung jury earlier this month.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Nick Freitas: The real crisis isn’t too many fathers ruling — it’s the ones who refuse to

Feminism has sold women the lie that “patriarchy” is a crisis that’s followed their female ancestors throughout the centuries — but BlazeTV host Nick Freitas believes the real crisis isn’t too many men ruling.Rather, it’s those who refuse to. And author Jeremy Pryor couldn’t agree more. “The word patriarchy is actually very recent,” Pryor tells Freitas. “It’s sort of like less than 100 years old. It was actually invented by people on the left to really attack the idea of there’s too many men. And so they came up with this word.”“The word patriarch is extremely old. The word patriarchal is very old. The word patriarchy, that’s a fairly new word,” he explains, noting that he’s “wrestled” with whether or not to “embrace” it.“Because part of what they mean by that is the oppression of a class of people, primarily powerful men over women and over everyone else in society, and we got to smash the patriarchy,” Pryor says. The word means “ruling father,” and he says he “cannot imagine something more important” than “helping fathers understand that they need to begin to rule families.” “There’s nothing better for women and for children,” he tells Freitas. “The worst thing that happens to women and children is when men decide to abandon that responsibility.” “And so what a patriarch is, is somebody who takes that responsibility very personally and very seriously, somebody who doesn’t just protect and provide but also sets a vision for the family,” he adds. And this is a natural way for men to behave, as Freitas notes that “men crave legacy.” However, modern culture has seen family legacies take a hit. “When you turn the family into something that basically is a temporary occupation,” Freitas says, “that eventually breaks down, and then your kids put you in a home. ... If I want to build something that’s going to last, well then I build where I think it’s going to last, not where I know it’s by design supposed to break apart and do its own thing.” “Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK40 for $40 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Muslim NFL players say they're confused after thousands of dollars in fines: 'I need answers'

Arizona Cardinals defensive back Kei'Trel Clark became the second Muslim player to receive a fine from the NFL in the past week or so.Following a letter from the league, the 25-year-old is searching for answers, but he probably doesn't have to look too hard.'I got to report to God at the end of my days on the day of judgement!'Clark posted the NFL's correspondence on his Instagram page, telling him he was "in violation of the NFL Uniform and Equipment Rules.""Specifically, you displayed a personal message on your eye black," the letter continued, per the Instagram story cited by the Daily Mail.Clark was spotted on the field on September 13 against the Los Angeles Chargers wearing the message "Glory Be 2 God ..." with a peace sign in the middle.This message appears to directly violate Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of the NFL rulebook, which states, "Players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages" during game day when the player is visible to the stadium or television audience.As a result, Clark was fined $6,651.Clark shared a screenshot of the letter with a picture of himself, writing, "I need answers. 6.6k for Giving God the Glory."He later added, "I got to report to God at the end of my days on the day of judgement! I'll always give God the Glory and out loud. All good."RELATED: The NFL says it could expand with multiple teams — and you won't like where they're going Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images At the same time, Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was fined following a loss to the Buffalo Bills for having the name "Hind Rajab" written on his eye black during the game on September 13, per Fox News.Hind Rajab is the name of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was allegedly shot and killed in her family's car by Israeli forces in 2024 during the Israel-Palestine war.For that, Al-Shaair received an $11,492 fine.On Sunday, Al-Shaair was spotted during warm-ups wearing a different message on his eye black: "Wafaa Akila." A translation through Arabic123.com says Wafaa means "completeness, fulfillment, and loyalty," while Akila means "a woman who is thoughtful and articulate in expressing her views and opinions on important matters."Any fines for that message could be announced later this week.Al-Shaair was also fined $11,593 in January for wearing "Stop the Genocide" on his eye black during a playoff game. He told reporters at the time he knew he was in violation of the rules."I knew that that was a fine. I understood what I was doing," he said before expressing some confusion."But I was told that if I wore that in the game I would be pulled out the game, so I think that was probably the part I was confused about."RELATED: Travis Kelce duped by Indian illegal immigrant in massive Ponzi scheme Brooke Sutton/Getty Images Clark did not appear to be fined for wearing eye black in September 2025 that read, "Inshallah ...," one of his many public expressions of his Muslim faith.In a 2025 Instagram post he wrote, "I put my heart into this $h!t, it’s always been bigger then me. Only Allah Knows."As well, the front of his Instagram page contains Arabic writing that, when translated by Google, reads, "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."It also features links to photos of Quranic passages.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Parents Weren't Asked. Many Still Don't Know. Inside the New School Surveillance Nightmare.

More school districts are banning smartphones and AI use in classrooms, and more parents are understandably pleased. They picture learning environments returning to the good old days of pen and paper and actual eye contact.But don’t pop the champagne just yet. Behind the crackdown, school administrators are building a corporate surveillance dragnet that would make a Cold War spy agency blush.This diabolical system routinely harvests sensitive personal details about your home life.American children are growing up inside an all-knowing, all-seeing system bankrolled directly by local tax dollars. A recent report from the Brookings Institution reveals that 88% of teachers report their schools use student monitoring tools on classroom devices.Worse yet, 42% of those teachers confirm the tracking follows kids right out the front door and directly into their bedrooms after the final bell rings. The local school board effectively installed electronic ankle monitors on America’s children — all in the name of educational progress and student safety, of course.A secret scandalThe process usually starts with a sneaky sales representative who convinces a school board to purchase thousands of cheap laptops or tablets for daily use. To keep kids off video game sites, administrators install intrusive software like GoGuardian, Bark, or Gaggle. These platforms record search histories. They read private messages and log physical coordinates. They track keystrokes in real time. Digital hall pass apps log the exact minute a child leaves a classroom to use the drinking fountain or restroom, generating a permanent, timestamped record of students' daily body functions. Although America is not China, what’s happening in Beijing is now happening in Boston.Parents were never asked for their consent. Under federal law, they don't have to be. School boards signed multiyear software contracts with private operators without sending a single permission slip home to mom and dad. Intoxicated by their own sense of importance, administrators assumed absolute authority over your child's digital activity, completely bypassing traditional parental rights.This diabolical system operates under the wonderful promise of keeping kids safe, yet it routinely harvests sensitive personal details about your home life. Powerful algorithms scan student emails, private documents, and home web searches for keywords related to mental health, domestic arguments, and more. When an automated system flags a few words typed late on a Sunday night, it generates an instant alert sent directly to school officials or local police departments. A teen typing out a frustrated diary entry on a school-issued laptop suddenly finds a police car parked in the driveway for a late-night wellness check.RELATED: They just announced the ultimate freedom phone — and getting your hands on it won't be easy Bloomberg/Getty Images The information these devices generate doesn’t stay safely locked inside the principal’s office file cabinet. Third-party software companies store student location records and behavioral histories on commercial cloud servers. Many of these tech vendors reserve the right to share broad student metrics with data brokers, software developers, and research institutions of questionable merit. The private details of your child's daily routine become valuable fuel for commercial products, helping train corporate algorithms on your family's personal habits without your knowledge.Restoring privacy Few things in life are guaranteed, but one certainty is that surveillance tech always expands beyond its original purpose. Systems initially built to block bad websites now use computer cameras to track eye movements and score attention levels during standardized state tests. Automated systems process this data to generate risk scores for individual students, flagging kids as potential troublemakers before they even finish middle school. A minor behavioral mark recorded on a classroom tablet can become a permanent digital footprint that follows a child throughout his academic years.This is not healthy, and it’s certainly not an environment that any sane parent should want his child educated in. It must stop, but it won’t happen without a clear plan and the will to enforce it.Restoring privacy to the American classroom requires direct, decisive action from parents and local communities. Parents can immediately opt their kids out of school-issued laptops by submitting formal written requests to school principals. They are well within their rights to demand traditional paper textbooks, physical workbooks, and standard notebooks instead. Concerned voters must show up at local school board meetings to demand strict district rules that ban student tracking outside school hours, forbid third-party data sharing, and require mandatory written parental consent before any new software enters a building.Genuine freedom depends on raising independent children who know what it means to live without an overseer monitoring their every move. If parents fail to draw a firm line now, the public school system will help raise a generation of compliant citizens who accept constant surveillance as just another part of everyday life. Again, America is not China. But step inside schools across America, and the comparison suddenly looks far less absurd.

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

DOJ claims ICE agent made up wild 'broom' attack story after shooting — but lawyer says he's being used as a 'political pawn'

Did an ICE agent spin up a wild story after shooting a Venezuelan national in Minnesota early this year? Or has he been scapegoated by a state filled with "rage" over immigration law enforcement in general?Both federal and Hennepin County prosecutors have formally charged Christian Castro, 52, for allegedly lying to investigators, but one of his attorneys, David Lindenmuth, told Blaze News that his client has been unfairly targeted by "rabid" officials looking for someone to blame for other controversies associated with Operation Metro Surge.'He was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled. ... There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.'"They went through some pretty serious things up there with the federal law enforcement being sent up there. There's a couple of high-profile deaths," Lindenmuth said. "And because of that, I think that what happened, to be quite honest ... [is] Mr. Castro is basically the one that they chose to prosecute."Lindenmuth did not name names regarding the "high-profile deaths," but the incident involving Castro occurred just one week after Renee Good was fatally shot on January 7. On January 14, the Department of Homeland Security reported that an unnamed federal immigration officer had "fired a defensive shot to defend his life" during an immigration operation in Minnesota.The officer had sustained a brutal attack, during which three individuals "ambushed" him and struck him with a "broom handle" and a "snow shovel," the DHS claimed on January 14.Now, however, the Department of Justice claims the officer made the whole thing up. On September 2, a federal grand jury indicted Castro on six counts of making a materially false statement.RELATED: Trump threatens Insurrection Act after ambushed ICE agent shoots illegal alien: 'Put an end to the travesty' Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesThe federal indictment claims that on January 14, Castro told the FBI that while he was attempting to arrest one man, a second "unknown man grabbed a red broom off the front porch," "a third unknown man came out of the house, grabbed a black snow shovel," and all three ganged up on him. Castro then claimed that "he tried to block strikes from the broom to his face with his left hand and reached for his gun," according to the indictment. The men then bolted for a nearby residence, and Castro "lifted his back off the ground and fired one round from his gun in the general direction of the men at the same time they started running."Castro estimated to the FBI that he struggled on the ground with the original subject, identified as "A.A.," for "approximately three minutes," the indictment said.According to federal prosecutors, none of Castro's claims are true. Instead, prosecutors claim: No one struck Castro with a broom or a snow shovel at that time; there was no third person involved; Castro was standing when he shot through the front door of the duplex residence, where the two men had already hidden themselves; and the scuffle on the ground lasted only 11 seconds.A probable cause statement from Hennepin County indicated that, following a 911 call, Minneapolis police took "remote-control of a city camera" and angled it at the residence in time to capture much of the incident. Castro's bullet struck one subject, identified as Julio Sosa-Celis in news reports but referred to as "J.S.-C." in the federal indictment. Sosa-Celis was wounded in the leg but has recovered from his injury.The indictment describes J.S.-C. as a 24-year-old "citizen of Venezuela" who resided in the duplex. The probable cause statement claimed that at the time of the shooting, Sosa-Celis and A.A. "were residing in Minnesota lawfully, having been granted 'Temporary Protected Status' by the United States Department of Homeland Security."Sosa-Celis was arrested shortly after the incident, but all charges against him have since been dropped. Though Lindenmuth admits that Castro "fired his weapon" that fateful night, Lindenmuth insisted that Castro is "innocent" and "had no intent to lie to federal agents."'The federal government has to prove that Mr. Castro lied to them, and then the state government has to prove that he actually committed a crime,' he explained to Blaze News. "The facts as I understand them is that he was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled, right? They fled. Then they fled on foot. There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.'In the county probable cause statement, the original subject of the operation — whom the federal indictment referred to as "A.A." — admitted to investigators on January 14 that he fled from the agents in his vehicle because "he feared for his life" and led them on a 25-minute chase. Once he arrived at his residence, he made a run for the front door but "slipped on the ice" and was then "tackled" by the ICE agent.Video of the incident also shows that prior to the shooting, Sosa-Celis "stepped onto the front lawn of the home holding a snow shovel," the probable cause statement indicated. Castro was originally indicted by the Hennepin County district attorney back in May on four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime.He was arrested following the federal indictment and booked into Hennepin County Jail. Jail records show only the state charges. Castro pled not guilty to the federal charges on Friday. He was released from jail after posting a $200,000 bond.Castro is scheduled to appear in court again for the state charges on November 3. The DHS has suspended him without pay, Lindenmuth confirmed.The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota, the DHS, the Hennepin County Prosecutor's Office, and the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (DFL) did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.RELATED: Anti-ICE aid fund in Minnesota shuts down — and you can probably guess the reason why Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesLindenmuth characterized the charges as a miscarriage of justice against a devoted American patriot who has been turned into a "political pawn" by bad actors."Mr. Castro was a 13-year veteran in the Army, a combat veteran deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he received a 100% disability rating as a result of his service for 70% for PTSD, 30% for traumatic brain injury, where he was hit by the last wave of a suicide bomber on the American embassy over there. And so this is a person who was injured serving his country," Lindenmuth claimed, adding that Castro has also spent a decade as an immigration officer."He has given his life to serving this country, and he's not [been given] the benefit of the protections of the presumption of innocence. ... Basically he's being tried out in public by the state of Minnesota, and it's sad to see. "That's not how we're supposed to operate."Like Blaze News? 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by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

CNN analyst pours cold water on Democrats' dream of a political takeover in November

Pollsters and prediction markets are prophesying overwhelming Democratic success in the midterm election, which is now seven weeks away. CNN admitted in a recent analysis, however, that those hoping for a blue tidal wave might be left greatly disappointed in November.Doom and gloom for the GOPPolymarket presently suggests that Democrats have a 62% chance of taking the U.S. Senate and a 92% chance of taking the House. Kalshi similarly forecasts Democrats taking over the House and Senate.'It’s going to be close.'According to the Economist's latest midterm forecast, Democrats have a 93% chance of flipping the House and securing a 238-197 majority, and a 59% chance of taking the Senate.The latest New York Times/Siena poll shows Democrats enjoying an eight-point edge on the generic ballot.A recent NBC News poll found that while the Democratic Party is viewed more negatively than both President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, 50% of respondents favored Democratic control of Congress.RELATED: The cost of living is coming for Congress The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service/Getty ImagesPollster Nate Silver argued on Sunday that the idea of the Senate as a "toss-up" is "misaligned with the long history of strong opposition performance in midterm elections, especially when the incumbent president is as unpopular as Trump."Blue disappointment?In light of recent polling, the average price of gasoline sitting at an estimated $4.44 per gallon, and the sense that the midterm vote serves as a referendum on Trump's policies, hope is mounting on the left that a blue wave will wash away the Republican trifecta in Washington.That hope may, however, be unfounded.CNN political analyst Ronald Brownstein suggested just over a week ago that Democrats might not be in a position to exploit the president's waning public approval, Americans' economic woes, and growing political discontent.In addition to noting that many Democratic candidates are not attracting the numbers of voters who disapproved of Trump in 2018 and 2020, Brownstein wrote that despite disenchantment among some voters on the right, few appear willing to turn coat."The share of non-MAGA Republicans who say they are still voting for Republicans this fall is about 20 points higher than the portion who approve of Trump’s performance," Brownstein wrote, citing GOP pollster Micah Roberts' analysis of CNBC survey data."There are a lot of people who may think, 'I don’t like Trump but ... I don't agree with the policies of the other party and where they would take us,'" said Roberts.While Republican voters might not cast votes for Democratic candidates, Brownstein noted that the GOP still faces the possibility that disenchanted Republican voters might decide not to vote at all — a big problem given the enthusiasm among likely Democratic voters.Voter enthusiasm might threaten Republicans' hold on power; however, the GOP's redistricting efforts have placed breakers before any blue wave.After all, far fewer House seats are competitive now than were in 2018, and 13 House Democrats must now defend districts where Trump netted at least five points more than his share of the national vote, said Brownstein.The CNN analyst cast greater doubt on Democrats' senatorial ambitions, noting that "of the Republican-held seats Democrats are most seriously contesting, Maine is the only one in a state that supported Harris; North Carolina is the sole other state on the Senate map where Harris even came close. Trump prevailed by double digits in every other state whose Senate seat Democrats are targeting."Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, the GOP — not similarly hard up for cash like the Democrats — also enjoys a financial advantage Brownstein reckons could be wielded to limit Democratic gains.National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson told the New York Post earlier this month that instead of a blue or red wave this November, there will be "30 knife fights in 30 dark alleys.""It’s just a handful of races, but every one of them will be decided by a few thousand votes. It’s going to be close," added Hudson.The Cook Political Report projects that the GOP and the Democratic Party are set to win 208 and 205 House seats, respectively, and marked 21 seats as toss-ups.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Former Muslim's warning about Islam leaves Glenn Beck STUNNED

Islam is widely known as a religion, but former Muslim and Ideological Defense Institute founder Danny Burmawi doesn’t believe that’s actually what it is.“When people think of Islam, they think of Christianity,” he tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck.“No, when you think of Islam, think of the United States of America. Think of France, China, because Islam is a state. Now, that state has a religion,” he says.“It has a constitution. It’s called Sharia. Just like the constitution of the United States. It has a population. They’re called Muslims. So Muslims are not analogous with Christians. It’s analogous with Americans,” he continues.“We must look so incredibly ignorant and stupid,” Glenn says in response. “Because they say it in their mosque. They say it out loud. ‘We are going to take over. We will have Sharia.’ That means overthrow the constitution of whatever country they’re in.”“And they’ve done it in country after country after country,” he continues.“We just don’t see it. We’re not willing to stand up and speak the truth,” he adds.However, Burmawi explains that the majority of Muslims do not adhere to the extremist beliefs of the few, because if they wanted “to adhere to everything that Islam teaches,” they would be better suited living with ISIS.“Islam is not practical at all, and Muslims, they have cognitive dissonance. I was a Muslim. I’m telling you that confusion, you don’t know how to live in the word because your belief system is completely contradictory with the reality around you,” he tells Glenn.“So you ignore it,” he continues. “However, if we have 1% out of the five, six million Muslims in America, only 1% who are faithful, who are willing to carry out all the teachings of Muhammad, then what is that, like 50,000 people?”“You have literally 50,000 ISIS terrorists living in America today just at 1%,” he adds.Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Texas shuts down rioters, Democrats fan the flames after ICE shooting

Radicals waving foreign flags and leftist signage flooded the streets of North Austin on Sunday following a nonfatal shooting involving a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and a Venezuelan national.As the sun set on a day full of anti-ICE rhetoric from Democratic officials, including Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, protesters turned violent, prompting a crackdown from Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.The shootingThe shooting took place just before 1 p.m. on Sunday in the 8000 block of Anderson Square.'I am ready to Melt ICE.'Austin-Travis County EMS Rob Luckritz noted that the individual who caught the bullet — identified by his immigration attorney as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national allegedly working as a DoorDash driver — had stable vital signs but was nevertheless taken to Dell Seton Medical Center in "serious condition."A video live streamed around the time of the shooting and reviewed by the New York Times captures the sound of screeching tires and a collision, then pivots to show a damaged Corolla driven by Perez stopped next to an SUV driven by an ICE officer, the NYT reported. The vehicles can be seen on the video facing in opposite directions.In a different video obtained by ABC News that shows the aftermath of the shooting, Perez can be heard claiming in Spanish that he was shot for failing to "brake," the outlet reported.RELATED: The mass-deportation promise is disappearing Masked radical throws a rock at law enforcement at an anti-ICE demonstration in Austin on Sept. 20. Brandon Bell/Getty Images.Homeland Security Investigations is now investigating the shooting with the help of the FBI.According to the Department of Homeland Security, the individual shot on Sunday is an "illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal, during a law enforcement operation today in Austin, TX."Perez received treatment at the hospital and was transferred into ICE custody.The Democratic reflexFollowing the shooting, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson joined other Democrats in presuming the worst and attacking ICE, stating, "I am very angry and extremely disappointed that a person was shot on the streets of Austin by ICE. While I’m angry and disappointed, I’m not surprised. This has happened in other cities. With the rogue nature of ICE and the chaos we’re seeing fomented by ICE, there’s no reason to be surprised."Texas Rep. Greg Casar (D) also seized the opportunity to remind everyone that he loathes federal immigration enforcement, stating, "The horror has come to our city: ICE has shot a person in Austin this morning.""Just like Americans have from Minneapolis to Houston, Austinites will speak out peacefully against this deadly mass deportation machine. ICE has been terrorizing our country for far too long. We will not be silent," added Casar, the son of immigrants.Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) tweeted, "Trump has allowed ICE to flood our streets and put our communities in harms [sic] way again and again and Governor Abbott is complicit every time."Anchor-baby Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) accused the DHS of being the "biggest threat to our collective safety" and noting, "I am ready to Melt ICE and dismantle DHS!"While admittedly short on information, Texas state Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D) stated, "This violence cannot continue."The restoration of orderAs Democrats took turns attacking ICE online, a horde of anti-ICE demonstrators rallied near the scene of the shooting, waving signs that said, "Stop ICE murder," "F**k ICE," "Moms against ICE," "Justice 4 Wilber," and "Abolish ICE." The mob grew increasingly unruly, not only lobbing rocks and other projectiles at law enforcement but attempting on multiple occasions to march on the taped-off site of the shooting. The Texas Department of Public Safety troopers responded by firing pepper balls toward the radicals while Austin police officers in riot gear stood ready.After deploying tear gas, tackling some rioters, and successfully dispersing the mob, whose assembly was declared unlawful, troopers left the scene around 11 p.m., reported NBC News.Blaze News reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the DHS for comment but did not immediately receive responses.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

How Europe turned illegal immigration into a 5-star vacation package

Welcome to the golden age of "illegal immigration tourism,” a truly perverse hospitality trend sweeping the European continent. In this upside-down world, guests don’t pay, hosts can’t say no, and room service is billed directly to someone else.The author and academic Steven Pinker argues there has never been a better time to be alive. That is certainly true if you happen to be living on the receiving end of Western Europe’s taxpayer-funded generosity.In Ireland, where I was born and raised, village hotels that once sustained regional tourism now operate as full-time reception facilities for Africans.The Brussels packageThere was a time when getting to Europe from North Africa was difficult, if not impossible. It required real planning and actual savings. Not anymore. Brussels bureaucrats streamlined the process entirely. Today, a person needs only a dinghy and a willingness to let the German state handle the reservation details — complete with complimentary linen changes and a buffet breakfast.The recent real estate pivot in Hamburg-Harburg’s Inner Harbor perfectly illustrates the absurdity. Developers recently spent €60 million in combined public and private funds to transform a postindustrial harbor into a sleek waterfront destination. The crown jewel of this urban renewal project is the Niu Quay, a charming hotel aimed at middle- and upper-class visitors. It was supposed to transform the neighborhood’s dining, tourism, and nightlife. Instead, it opened with plenty of fanfare, enjoyed a remarkably brief run as a business, and then promptly shut its doors to paying guests.Hamburg’s municipal housing agency, Fördern & Wohnen, then stepped in with taxpayer money, leasing all 340 rooms through at least the end of the year. The hotel’s primary function shifted overnight from hosting respectable tourists to serving as an all-inclusive sanctuary for incoming asylum seekers. The city’s public housing system is currently at 102.8% capacity, with hotel suites serving as an administrative workaround to avoid the optics of encampments in public parks.Seasonal depressionThere is plenty of dark humor in this arrangement. A Hamburg native, hamstrung by inflation and stagnant wages, faces an immediate dilemma. He hands over his hard-earned money that funds the municipal lease, only to be priced out of the very city his taxes are supposed to support. He buys the train ticket to the district. Upon arrival, he finds he cannot book a room at the newest hotel because the state outbid him using his own paycheck. If he wishes to enjoy a luxury staycation in his own city, he is out of luck. The state has monopolized the reservation desk and effectively nationalized the local leisure economy.This situation is dire, and it’s not limited to the banks of the Elbe River. Across Europe, the traditional hospitality sector has morphed into a state-subsidized sanctuary network. In Britain, former Victorian seaside resorts and historic country houses have seen their traditional guest books replaced by lucrative, state-funded government contracts, effectively gutting the high streets and seasonal economies of beautiful coastal towns. Five-star accommodations, complete with full spa access, state-of-the-art gyms, saunas, and heated indoor swimming pools, are now routinely repurposed to house one-star guests. In Ireland, where I was born and raised, village hotels that once sustained regional tourism now operate as full-time reception facilities for Africans, leaving local pub owners and shopkeepers to wonder where the actual tourists went.RELATED: 'The ship is already sinking': Why the 'Citizen Vigilante' director wants to shock you bollfilms.com5-star fandangoThe daily economics highlight the insanity. Last year, Hamburg spent an average of €82 ($95) per person per day just on hotel placements for migrants. Combined, the city-states of Hamburg and Berlin dump approximately €4 billion annually into housing and processing costs. That sum buys a staggering amount of high-end lodging. While local residents cancel their own vacation plans to save money for winter heating bills, the government operates as Europe’s most aggressive luxury travel agent, booking out entire floors of freshly renovated properties without ever asking for a credit card pre-authorization.City officials in Hamburg recently announced plans to dial back their reliance on expensive hotel leases. Directly after making that public pledge, they signed the lease for the Niu Quay. Municipal negotiators insist they push for below-market rates, yet city agencies routinely sign off on premium room rates when state-run facilities close suddenly. A major processing center on Schlachthofstrasse shuts down this autumn, and the state's immediate solution is to upgrade the occupants to a trendy harbor hotel — proving that in public administration, failure simply buys you a better view of the marina.Holding the bagEveryday citizens are left holding the bag. The chairman of the local parliamentary group pointed out that small restaurants, family-run cafes, and retail shops built their entire financial models around a steady influx of tourists with plenty of disposable income. Now, the district's primary commercial center is occupied by a population being housed at the taxpayer’s expense. These men and women don't dine out on corporate expense accounts. They don’t order local services or buy goods from nearby stores. Why would they, when everything is taken care of?This asinine arrangement shapes a migrant’s first impression of their host nation. Arriving directly into this level of comfort fosters an immediate sense of entitlement. It instills the expectation that the government will never stop providing luxury accommodations and daily provisions and that the rewards will come without any personal effort, financial contribution, or integration into local society.European governments have created a system where the easiest way to secure a mid-tier luxury room in a major city is to abandon your documentation at the border. The working class finances the hospitality. The business class loses its customers, and the state acts as the master concierge, ensuring every stylish guesthouse stays filled at public expense.

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

What Jesus would say to the Senate according to James Talarico: ‘I was sick and you kicked me off Medicaid’

Democrat Texas Senate nominee James Talarico is once again attempting to rewrite the gospel, and this time it was while sitting down with Jimmy Kimmel — who claimed that they could only air it on YouTube “because of Trump.”In the interview, he explained to Kimmel that Scripture “tells us that you can’t love God and hate other people.”“You can’t love God and abuse the immigrant. You can’t love God and oppress the poor. You can’t love God and bully the outcast,” he began.“Matthew 25 tells us Christians exactly how we’re going to be judged and how we’re going to be saved: by feeding the hungry, by healing the sick, by welcoming the stranger,” he said. “I often wonder: What would Jesus do if he visited the U.S. Senate?”“I think he would tell the senators on the floor, ‘Depart from me, for I was hungry and you cut my food assistance. I was sick and you kicked me off Medicaid. I was a stranger and you deported me and my family,” he added.BlazeTV host Pat Gray “can’t” with Talarico’s bizarre interpretation of God’s word.“No more,” he says. “Because Jesus was advocating for all of those government programs. Really?”“That is so unbelievably stupid and wrongheaded and not the gospel. This guy is an antichrist. Again, he may not be the antichrist, but is an antichrist,” he continues.“He is continually preaching the opposite of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is unbelievable. Wow,” he adds.Want more from Pat Gray?To enjoy more of Pat's biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

The cost of living is coming for Congress

I have spent more than two decades working in politics and have been involved in roughly 50 campaigns, from local races to presidential contests. If there is one lesson I have learned, it is this: Never tell voters that what they are experiencing isn’t real.With the midterm elections eight weeks away, too many campaigns risk making that mistake. Washington wants to talk about foreign policy, economic indicators, and political strategy. Voters are looking at receipts, and those receipts tell a different story.Voters can forgive difficult circumstances. What they will not forgive is being told those circumstances don’t exist.In the week ending September 7, the national average for diesel reached a record $5.97 a gallon. That matters far beyond truck stops. Farmers, contractors, freight carriers, and delivery networks all depend on diesel.When those costs rise, they move through the supply chain. Fuel becomes part of the grocery bill, the restaurant bill, the cost of construction, shipping, and nearly everything else Americans buy. The consumer ultimately pays.The line between foreign policy and affordability is not always clean. Wars, sanctions, and instability abroad can raise oil prices and transportation costs at home. But voters experience those events through household economics: the price on the pump, the supermarket receipt, and the balance in the checking account.Politicians love macroeconomics. Voters live in microeconomics.A candidate can talk about GDP, job creation, or the stock market, but those figures do not erase what a family pays for groceries, housing, insurance, and energy. The voter's checking account gets the final vote.As much as it pains me to admit it, Democrat strategist James Carville got at least one thing right. During Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, Carville drove home a simple message: “It’s the economy, stupid.” More than three decades later, Republicans would be wise to remember the lesson.I have seen campaigns become consumed with the issue they want voters to care about rather than the issue voters actually care about. Those are not always the same thing.The evidence this year is hard to miss. A July Pew Research Center survey found that voters most wanted congressional candidates to discuss economic issues, especially prices and affordability. In a companion survey, 66% said they were very concerned about food and consumer-goods prices, 64% about housing costs, and 56% about gasoline prices.RELATED: Can a $1.2 trillion giveaway become a fiscal bargain? Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesForeign policy and national security still matter. China, Russia, Iran, and America’s place in the world cannot be dismissed. No single issue will decide every race. But elections are personal, and voters usually encounter national policy through its effect on daily life.A parent in a supermarket aisle is not conducting a geopolitical analysis while comparing grocery prices. A driver filling the family SUV is watching the numbers on the pump. Both are asking the same question: How much is this going to cost me?They are thinking about the mortgage, electric bill, car payment, insurance, groceries, gas, child care, and credit cards. They are wondering why an income that once felt comfortable now seems barely sufficient. That is affordability, and it will decide November.Economic frustration helped return Donald Trump to the White House. Republicans cannot assume that the issue automatically works in their favor now. They cannot tell families struggling with grocery and fuel bills that everything is fine or insist that distant events matter more than household finances.That does not require Republicans to abandon foreign policy or the administration’s agenda. It requires candidates to acknowledge what voters are experiencing and explain what they intend to do about it. There is an enormous political difference between saying, “The economy is great,” and saying, “We’ve made progress, but prices are still too high, and here is what we’re doing next.”RELATED: Free money wins elections — and that’s why America’s debt will keep growing Blaze Media IllustrationDemocrats should not celebrate, either. Economic frustration does not automatically translate into support for Democratic policies. Voters will judge which candidates understand their financial situation and offer credible solutions. That gives both parties an opportunity, but neither a guaranteed victory.Campaigns succeed when candidates understand what voters are feeling. They fail when consultants persuade candidates that voters should care about something else. After roughly 50 campaigns, I have found that voters can forgive difficult circumstances. What they will not forgive is being told those circumstances don’t exist.The question in November will not be whether Washington can produce statistics showing that parts of the economy are strong. It will be whether Americans believe they can afford their lives.When they enter the voting booth, they will not be carrying economic charts. They will be carrying their grocery receipts.

by Blaze Media Sep 17, 2026

Islamic Society of North America illegally supported Muslim candidate's campaign, congressman says

Republican Rep. Keith Self of Texas called for the Treasury to investigate the Islamic Society of North America for allegedly illegal campaign donations.Self said that the nonprofit violated financial rules by supporting Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat candidate for one of the two U.S. Senate seats from Michigan.'Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize a nonprofit acting like a campaign committee for the Red-Green Alliance.'Self cited a report in the Middle East Forum that said the campaign had set up a booth at the Huntington Place hall during an Islamic Society of North America convention."The booth displayed large 'Abdul for U.S. Senate' and 'Muslims for Abdul' campaign banners, urging attendees to elect Mr. El-Sayed. Campaign personnel reportedly distributed campaign literature, solicited donations, and promoted a $50 contribution in exchange for campaign [T-shirts]," the letter read."Attendees were also provided with QR codes directing them to donate or volunteer for the campaign, as well as given invitations to a campaign fundraiser," he added. "Campaign personnel were also reportedly active participants throughout the convention. They were observed waving campaign posters, distributing campaign flyers, and placing campaign materials on seats. A campaign volunteer reportedly distributed literature to attendees as they exited the hall following Mr. El-Sayed's speech."Self wrote that the candidate would be allowed to attend the event but that 501(c)3 rules strictly forbid that group from endorsing the candidate or allowing fundraising for the campaign to occur.He also pointed out that the group was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, involving the provision of funding for the Hamas terror group.Self called on Scott Bessent, the secretary of the Treasury, to investigate the group and review its tax-exempt status. RELATED: 'He's full of s**t': Trump RIPS INTO Abdul El-Sayed after his victory in Democratic primary "Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize a nonprofit acting like a campaign committee for the Red-Green Alliance," Self wrote."These circumstances warrant a thorough examination of whether ISNA participated or intervened in a political campaign," he concluded.Blaze News requests for comment from both the Islamic Society of North America and the El-Sayed campaign were not returned in time for publication.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here

by Blaze Media Sep 16, 2026

Gavin Newsom finally ADMITS the pandemic shutdown was 'insane' while fly-fishing with Jake Tapper

Years after defending California's response to the coronavirus pandemic, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom listed some of the mistakes made. Newsom made the admissions in a bizarre interview with Jake Tapper of CNN where both appeared to be trying to fly-fish in a river in Montana. 'I regret that, obviously.' Tapper asserted that there needed to be a commission to understand the pandemic and what responses worked and which did not work. 'Yeah, look, everyone's a genius in hindsight, so, you know, coulda woulda,' Newsom responded. 'What would you do differently?' Tapper asked. 'I had a whole chapter just about Purell. We were running around doing price-gouging legislation against Purell, and everyone was thinking it was a Purell-based crisis,' referring to his book. 'People were scrubbing their groceries,' Tapper recalled. 'Yeah! I mean, [Republican Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis was closing down his beaches before we closed ours. The idea that we closed beaches was insane. In hindsight,' Newsom replied. 'Obviously the schools taking too long,' he added. 'A lot of districts were open, but the big ones weren't. L.A. refused. And I regret that, obviously.' Tapper noted that teachers said that reopening schools too soon would kill them. Then he pressed Newsom on the scandal when he was caught attending a dinner at a ritzy restaurant with little to no pandemic protections. 'What on earth were you thinking?' Tapper asked. 'Just a boneheaded decision, a stupid decision, I just ... dialing it in, we were exhausted, friend's birthday, it was a restaurant that was open the night before.' And it was just against the spirit of the rules that I was promoting,' he added. 'It was completely legit condemnation.' He said he had a mask when he walked in and when he walked out of the restaurant. BlazeTV host Steve Deace lambasted the governor in comments to Blaze News. 'I don't think there's anything sincere about Gavin Newsom whatsoever except his political ambitions,' said Deace. 'So I suspect this is only being said as a means by which to triangulate as the Democrat nominee in 2028, when he'd likely be running against someone seen as an extension of Trump, who was president at the advent of the scamdemic.' RELATED: Gavin Newsom tries to dunk on Trump and gets obliterated with online ridicule Newsom has admitted that he's looking at a possible campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. The entire video of the fly-fishing interview can be viewed on CNN's YouTube channel. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 16, 2026

UNDERCOVER VIDEO: 'Shady as f**k' scheme paid people to vote for Talarico in 'roundabout way,' Soros PAC leader caught admitting

The head of a Texas political action committee has been caught on an undercover video apparently admitting how his group was able to pay voters indirectly to vote for the group's candidate for the U.S. Senate.The undercover video, shared Wednesday, was recorded by Townhall and appeared to show Texas Majority PAC organizing manager Sky McAdams explaining how the scheme worked.'If I was a Republican, I would be pissed. I would be like, that’s shady as f**k.'"We are paying people $25 to attend a one-hour Zoom class to learn why voting is important and why the Republicans are causing all of these bad things," McAdams says, according to the video. "So it’s, like, a roundabout way of paying people for their votes, essentially. Which is interesting."While paying voters directly would be illegal, McAdams seemed to admit that his program is "essentially" doing that indirectly."You can’t pay someone to vote for someone," McAdams continues, according to the video. "You can’t be like, ‘Here’s $25. Go vote for me.’ You can say, ‘Attend a one-hour class and you can receive $25.’ And then the class just talks about, like, the importance of it. It’s a little gray."On the video, McAdams smiles and adds, "If I was a Republican, I would be pissed. I would be like, that’s shady as f**k."The scheme is called a "paid relational program" that is run through software named "Rally" and operated by a company called "Relentless."Texas Majority PAC was under investigation for allegedly funding state Democrats who fled Texas in order to block a vote on congressional redistricting. The group is funded in part by billionaire leftist George Soros.Townhall posted the edited video on social media, where it was widely circulated.RELATED: James Talarico shamelessly politicizes Amazon worker's tragic death to attack capitalism In response to the video, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico's Republican opponent, said, "Absolutely outrageous! James Talarico's team just admitted they are trying to bribe people for votes. Texans aren't for sale, no matter how much James Talarico thinks they are."A Texas Majority PAC spokesperson told Blaze News that McAdams had misrepresented the program and has since been fired."Participants in the program are being paid for grassroots organizing work," the spokesman added in a statement. "The way it was described by one rogue employee is factually incorrect, not how we operate, and they were immediately fired."Blaze News' requests for comment from Relentless and the Talarico campaign were not returned in time for publication.Relentless claims on its website that it netted "47,533 Democratic votes" in other campaigns in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania in 2024.The Texas Majority PAC said in financial disclosures that it had spent $500,000 on services from Relentless. Townhall noted hypothetically that at $25 per vote, that sum could net about 20,000 ballots.AG Paxton also oversaw the investigation into Texas Majority PAC.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 16, 2026

'Racist' new Sacha Baron Cohen film sparks a boycott before it even hits theaters

Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing Ali G back to the big screen, but the character is already stirring controversy.Tens of thousands of emails were sent urging theaters not to screen "Ali G: Who Iz I?" over accusations that the character is rooted in offensive racial stereotypes — something that’s never stopped theaters from promoting his films before.And for this reason, BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau aren’t sure the negative hype is entirely organic.Dave recalls his old films where he would interview important figures like Dick Cheney who “wouldn’t know who he was.”“It was always a fascinating interview because he would just bomb the interview, and it was always pretty funny to watch,” he says, noting that his film "Borat" made him laugh “the hardest” he ever has in theaters at “how unbelievably funny and inappropriate it was.”“I am not a fan at all ... of this, ‘Well, our standards have changed, and now he can’t do this character anymore.’ It's more of just like, 'I don’t know, I’m kind of done with that character from 20 years ago,'” Stu chimes in.“Well, everybody knows who he is,” Dave agrees. “So it’s either they’re in on the joke, or they’re being paid to be on it. I mean, half the trailer is just people breaking because they know who he is.”“It’s played out,” he continues. “We know the joke and so do the people that he’s playing the joke on. I certainly don’t think it’s racist. If it’s racist against anybody, it’s probably Jews, and he’s Jewish.”“I mean, the most offensive stuff in Borat was against Jewish people,” he adds.Dave also notes sarcastically that “sending emails because a movie shouldn’t be shown and getting 37,000 of them” doesn’t “at all build hype and give incentive for places to show a film.”“I’m kind of skeptical, honestly,” Stu says. “It feels to me like a promotional stunt, like, ‘Oh gosh, everyone’s calling him racist, this is a big controversy.'”Want more from Stu and Dave?To enjoy more of Stu and Dave's lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

by Blaze Media Sep 16, 2026

'Do you have your own math?' Frank Turek exposes the absurdity of ‘my truth’

When feelings become the ultimate authority, society is in trouble. And based on recent events, it would appear that society is indeed already in trouble — and it’s because of what Christian apologist Frank Turek calls the “war on reality.”“I don’t have my law of gravity and you have your law of gravity. There’s just gravity. There’s not my laws of logic and your laws of logic. There’s just the laws of logic,” Turek tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey.“And so when people come around saying, ‘I have my truth; you have your truth,’” he says, “I like to say to them, ‘Do you have your own math?’”“You don’t have your own math. You don’t have your own truth either,” he adds.As this way of rejecting the truth has become all too common, Turek explains, “we’re given over to futile thinking and then ultimately to a depraved mind, where not only are we doing evil, we’re cheering on other people who do it.”“And I know you covered this,” he tells Stuckey, “but a few weeks ago, that law up in Massachusetts, which allowed a woman to kill her baby up to the moment of birth. And they’re cheering this.”“They’re not only doing evil; they’re cheering on other people who are doing it. And every OB-GYN knows this. There’s never a reason, if a woman has a problem with her pregnancy in the third trimester, that you need to kill the baby,” he continues.“You can just do a C-section, take care of the mom. But no, if I choose to kill my baby, then it’s a right. That’s madness,” he adds.“I mean, we already saw the logical conclusion of that with the Lindsay Clancy trial, in the same state. You have this mentality that a person’s value is dependent upon their location or their size, which is basically the justification of abortion,” Stuckey agrees.“Now we see that a person’s value and the justice that belongs to them is dependent upon still the woman’s choice and still her hormones and her emotions and everything that was apparently affecting her,” she continues.“There’s just no sense of, it seems like, because of this war on reality, objective truth and therefore objective justice. You can’t have justice without objective truth, because then everything is like, you know, I call it empathy-based justice,” she adds.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

by Blaze Media Sep 16, 2026

Has Britain fallen? Nick Freitas’ documentary ‘The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy the West’ delivers a dire warning to America

Walk through the district of Whitechapel in the East End of London today, and you’ll feel like you’re in the slums of Bangladesh — so glaring are the Bengali shop signs, the East London Mosque, the hijabs and salwar kameez, and the market stalls shouting in Sylheti.But mass migration, true to its name, has remade far more places than Whitechapel. From Greater London, Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester, and Luton, among others, the U.K. looks and feels far removed from the recognizably British country it was just 30 years ago. That’s largely because of the sheer volume of immigrants, but also because of the specific cultures the country has embraced — Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali, and other cultures that do not melt into Britain so much as plant their own institutions inside it.With the government’s open-door, anti-assimilation posture, and with the state branding any opponent of mass migration racist or xenophobic, it’s no wonder immigrant crime has flourished.As a former Virginia Republican delegate who served during the Biden administration, BlazeTV host Nick Freitas is keenly familiar with being labeled a bigot for protesting the flooding of immigrants, many of them criminals, across America’s own borders. “Britain and the United States have something in common,” he says. “We’ve both been subjected to a well-funded and organized effort to convince us that mass immigration is necessary economically, socially, and even morally, that to the extent that we have a culture of our own, we should be ashamed of it.” While the jig is up — people on both sides of the Atlantic have stopped swallowing the lecture — the threat is far from over. With both nations fundamentally altered demographically, the spread of radical Islam poses perhaps the greatest threat to the West. “The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy the West” is a documentary from the Heritage Foundation and the Daily Signal that takes a daring look over that very precipice — peering into the future of a world where the West, with its rich history, cultures, and customs, faith-rooted principles, and economic and political traditions, is forever lost. Nick Freitas teams up with Heritage Foundation experts Mike Gonzalez, Nile Gardiner, and Lora Ries, along with British voices Konstantin Kisin, Matt Goodwin, Winston Marshall, Connor Tomlinson, Rafe Heydel-Mankoo, and Patrick Christys, to not only give an honest assessment of how close we are to losing it all but to unpack the strategy that can pull it back from the brink. “I absolutely believe that we can still correct this,” says Freitas. “What needs to be understood is that you don't have unlimited time to correct it, and the hour is late.” Early access to the Heritage Foundation documentary “The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy the West” is available now on BlazeTV+ exclusively for subscribers. Use promo code NICK for $20 off your subscription.

by Blaze Media Sep 16, 2026

As AI panic spreads, Josh Hawley launches federal investigation

Just a month ago, one of OpenAI’s models escaped from its testing environment and hacked into an AI repository site, Hugging Face. The news sparked concern over AI’s illicit capabilities, and it even caught the government’s attention.Since then, leading figures in tech and politics have scrambled to draw battle lines and choose sides.Now, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is opening an investigation to mitigate the damage of future breaches, and at least one AI CEO is asking for consequences.In a letter sent to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on September 9, Hawley outlined the extent of the attack and its implications. According to the document, more than 1,200 OpenAI agents escaped from their testing zone and colluded across 70,000 messages and files sent among each other as they plotted their attack on Hugging Face. Reportedly, 700 of the agents successfully breached the website and accessed the site’s internal systems and code. Even more astonishing, the bots then attempted to hide their activity.’Who is held [liable] when Al goes rogue?’Hawley labeled this as rogue behavior. Furthermore, he called OpenAI “reckless,” accusing the company of knowing that its AI bots went rogue and continuing evaluation tests anyway, despite the illicit activity.The letter ended by asking the questions that all of us want answers to: “What happens to critical infrastructure, banks, and utilities if Al agents hack into their systems? How can personal data of millions of Americans be properly safeguarded? And who is held [liable] when Al goes rogue?”Seemingly, these are the answers that Hawley’s investigation aims to uncover. Now OpenAI has a deadline to turn over as much information and documentation as possible by October 1, 2026.Hawley’s investigation comes at a time when the Big AI CEOs all suddenly agree that AI development should slow down. Over the weekend, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk all joined forces to say it’s time to “pace the frontier.”In a blog post, Amodei warned, “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.” The fear, according to Amodei, is that AI will soon reach a point of artificial superintelligence where models can build the next generation of models on their own without human intervention. He also cited the OpenAI Hugging Face incident as further proof for a necessary slowdown.Keep in mind that even though three of the top AI platform holders have asked to ease up the gas on AI development, this doesn’t mean any of them will actually follow through and cede ground to the other. At this point, it’s just wishful thinking.RELATED: Now they’re saying the AIs built ‘secret civilizations’ — the truth is far worse Ole_CNX/Getty ImagesThe paradox of accelerating toward your own worst fears may seem irresponsible in and of itself, but for Amodei, the endgame is a more global form of governance, which he doesn't think is a bad thing.“My view here is it has always been very strange that this technology is being built by a private company,” Amodei confessed in a recent appearance on "Face the Nation."“The government and the public needs to have a stake, and this is why we’ve supported regulation of the technology. Regulation constrains the private companies. Regulation allows the public and its elected representatives to have a say and limits what the private companies can do.”When asked if he would be willing to hand control of Anthropic’s AI to the government, Amodei admitted, “To the right combination of governments.” When pressed, he clarified, “I am concerned that one single government could abuse this technology just as easily as a single company could. But I think a combination of democratically elected governments — I don’t know about handing over, but some kind of oversight, some kind of joint governance, again, that would be the work of years, but I wonder if that’s the direction we need to go in.”In other words, Amodei is interested in a globalist government system essentially owning his AI platform and possibly others like it. This would give the body of governments control over a technology that will determine how information is gathered, processed, and shared, opening up plenty of opportunities for censorship, information suppression, and more nefarious acts.Of course, the cause for extreme government oversight has raised plenty of eyebrows online, and it even got the Vice President’s attention. “Personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier AI tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them,” said JD Vance in a recent interview. “It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan horse.”Only time will tell if he’s right. In the meantime, we have Hawley’s investigation on the horizon as he uncovers what really happened with OpenAI’s rogue agent issue.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!