Monthly Archives: September 2023

This weekend, ABC News and the Washington Post released a poll showing former President Donald Trump with a commanding 10-point lead over President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

The Washington Post was clearly embarrassed by its poll, and scrambled to come up with reasons readers should ignore it. Democrat analyst Larry Sabato, who confidently predicted Hillary Clinton would win 352 electoral votes in 2016 (she received 227 in her loss to Donald Trump), asked the Washington Post, How could you even publish a poll so absurd on its face? Will be a lingering embarrassment for you.

Other Democrats also composed panicked posts for social media.

Now, on the one hand, like all polls, the ABC News/Washington Post poll should be viewed skeptically. Its the poll that had Biden up 12 points in 2020, overestimating his support by eight points. The media outlets last Wisconsin 2020 poll predicted Biden would win by 17 points. In fact, he eked out a win by seven-tenths of 1 percent.

The poll systematically privileges Democrat candidates in dramatic fashion, both nationally and at the state level. But that just makes this weekends results more frightening for Democrats.

Further, the Washington Post is clearly sounding the alarm about Biden in particular. It published David Ignatius dispatch from the Deep State telling Biden to get out of the race and take the politically toxic Kamala Harris with him. In case their perspective wasnt clear, the left-wing propaganda outlet followed it up two days later with a missive from the deputy editorial page editor saying much of the same.

The poll could be a legitimate snapshot of public opinion or an attempt to shape public opinion. But a wide range of other polls is also showing Biden weakness. Josh Kraushaar points out that President Bidens disapproval rating is at 56 percent in multiple polls, dangerous territory for any incumbent.

Langer Research, which conducted the poll for ABC News and the Washington Post, speculated that voters might be trying to send a message about their frustration with Bidens policies.

Susan Glasser, a left-wing writer for The New Yorker, stumbled around this point in a social media post venting her frustration that Americans werent siding with Biden:

Take away the unhinged ranting about insurrections and personal revenge and note the underlying point: Biden and other Democrats took a speedboat across the Rubicon and had their main political opponent indicted four times in an attempt to prevent his election, and its completely backfiring.

Democrat activists up and down the Eastern Seaboard have indicted the former president on an overwhelming number of charges, some serious and the vast majority patently absurd. In so doing, they violated norms kept by every president up to Trump himself of not prosecuting defeated candidates.

Biden let his desire to target his top political opponent be known through an April 2022 story placed in The New York Times, these days something of an in-house Democrat newsletter. Democrats in New York, Atlanta, and D.C. followed through. Its not just Jack Smith, Fani Willis, and Alvin Bragg. As Chris Bray reports, its also New York Attorney General Letitia James, who campaigned on a pledge to prosecute Trump:

Attorney General Letitia James is waging scorched-earth economic warfare against a political enemy, using governmental power in an attempt to crush multiple generations of a family that disagreed with her about party politics. You can win an election, sure, but then your family starves, so.

While politics-addled leftwingers love what Democrats are doing to their political opponents, most Americans are absolutely shocked and appalled by what theyre witnessing. Its not just Trump who is being targeted by the regime, but other Republicans and their grassroots supporters. Attacking the right to legal representation, free speech, the right to redress, and freedom of the press is popular with Democrats, yes, but horrifying to many other Americans.

Are we the baddies? you can see the few self-aware Democrats asking.

The strategy of indicting political opponents was supposed to help Democrats wage political warfare in an environment where their policies have led to open borders, endless war, pro-crime district attorneys, and economic malaise. These outcomes are exceedingly unpopular. On top of the policy failures, theyre trying to imprison their top political opponent and keep him off the ballot.

They rushed headlong into the campaign strategy of indicting their political opponents without realizing it would be difficult to change course if that backfired. They cant very well drop the charges at this point, but the more aggressively they prosecute them, the more it reminds Americans of how absolutely reckless and dangerous theyre being.

The Democrat proposal is to vote for open borders, inflation increases, energy dependence, rampant crime, and actual imprisonment of political opponents. In this light, the polls arent so surprising. Even people who dont love Donald Trump, however much they enjoyed his presidency, are saying they think its Democrats who are the real threat to the republic, and its not even close.

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Polls: Democrat Campaign Strategy Of Indictments Has Backfired - The Federalist

U.S. Attorney, now Special Counsel, David Weiss did not have full charging authority during the bulk of his federal investigation into Hunter Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland slyly admitted in his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Garlands confession contradicts his previous under-oath insistence that Weiss possessed all of the authority he needed to properly charge President Joe Bidens youngest son with various tax and gun crimes, some of which extended to other jurisdictions.

You said [Weiss] had complete authority but hed already been turned down. He wanted to bring an action in the District of Columbia and the U.S. attorney there said no, you cant. And then you go tell the United States Senate under oath that he has complete authority, Chairman Jim Jordan explained during the hearing.

No one had the authority to turn him down, Garland claimed. One second later, Garland divulged that those U.S. attorneys in fact could refuse to partner with him.

Even after acknowledging Weisss attempts to charge Hunter were hampered by a U.S. attorney acting on behalf of the DOJ, Garland doubled down on his claims that the attorney has full authority to conduct his investigation however he wishes. He repeatedly invoked Weisss position as a Donald Trump appointee as proof that he was acting independently of the AG.

Despite the potential penalty of perjury, Garland claimed during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 1, 2023, that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware has been advised that he has full authority to bring cases in other jurisdictions if he feels its necessary.

In a June 7 letter to Jordan, Weiss appeared to confirm that I have been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges. In a subsequent June 30 letter, however, Weiss reversed his claim and declared that his charging authority is geographically limited to my home district.

Weisss June 30 clarification is consistent with testimony from IRS whistleblowers, including email documentation they recorded in 2022, and testimony from FBI agents.

During the hearing, Garland attempted to discredit the agents attestations that the DOJs cumbersome bureaucratic process made it difficult for Weiss to charge Hunter by claiming their description of the process as cumbersome is an opinion, not a fact. He also claimed that Weisss letters reflect that he had never asked me to be special counsel and that he understood the process for asking for a signature on a Section 515 form, the form which Garland needed to sign for Weiss to prosecute outside of Delaware.

Weisss lack of jurisdiction was further confirmed in August when Garland named Weiss special counsel, an authority that allows the prosecutor to charge Hunter outside of Delaware. If Weiss truly did possess full autonomy in the Hunter case, as Garland dubiously declared on numerous occasions, he wouldnt have needed the special counsel appointment to prosecute the presidents son.

Garland still claimed he had made it clear that Weiss could bring a case in any jurisdiction with the attorney generals blessing via a Section 515 form.

For most of the hearing, Garland tried to appear as a hands-off department head who let Weiss independently conduct his investigation. Republicans quickly saw through that facade when Garland immediately refused to disclose whether he had communications with Weiss about Hunters case.

He also claimed could not recollect whether he discussed the investigation with anyone at the FBI.

There is no question that he can answer whether such conversations occurred, legal scholar Jonathan Turley noted on X, formerly known as Twitter. When Bill Barr testified as Attorney General he confirmed subjects even in communications with the President while declining details on conversations.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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Garland Accidentally Admits DOJ Thwarted Weiss's Hunter Probe - The Federalist

It is just shy of one year since my dream of being a broadcast journalist ended. I was hired as a multimedia journalist in 2017 by Gray Media after being a stay-at-home mom for 25 years. I was a homeschooling mom and a student myself. I was also a freelance writer, journalist, and portrait photographer. To inspire my kids, I finished my bachelors degree. I received my bachelor of science in leadership and started at the Nebraska NBC affiliate KNOP-TV in September 2017.

I rose quickly to morning producer/anchor by 2018. Not long after, I was promoted to producer and co-evening anchor. As I grew in the industry, my personal life was filled with struggle. My mother died of cancer just three months after I started in 2017, and in 2019, my 25-year-old daughter and her unborn son died unexpectedly.

It was the most difficult time of my life. I immersed myself in my family and my job. I kept my mind busy by finishing my masters degree in international security and intelligence from Bellevue University, and I started my Ph.D. in forensic psychology. Covid-19 hit not long after.

In May 2020, KNOP-TVs news director left the station for a Mississippi Gray station, and in June 2020, I became the news director. I continued to produce and anchor the 6 p.m. show, and sometimes the 10 p,m, show. When Covid was in full swing I lost employees who either moved away or quit rather than getting the mandatory vaccine. So, I taught myself how to produce and anchor weather with the help of my weatherman.

For one full year, I had no contact with the outside world of Gray Media. No one came and no one went. I was the boss (hiring, firing, managing payroll, overseeing office management, and so forth.). I was also producing, anchoring, sometimes doing the weather, and occasionally reporting. I did not miss a day of work during the pandemic.

In 2021 I was still doing these things, and sometimes even produced and anchored the morning show. I had a makeshift cot in my office for days when it did not make sense to drive home after the 10 p.m. show.

I live in Curtis, Nebraska, which does not get the KNOP-TV television signal. I grew up in small-town Nebraska where being a news director doesnt really mean much to the average person. I dont think people realized the extent of my job responsibilities in North Platte.

In 2022 an elder at St. John Lutheran Church started a petition to let voters decide if Curtis should be a sanctuary city for the unborn, a movement started by Mark Lee Dickson of Texas. A reporter from the Flatwater Free Press inquired about my involvement.

The reporter asked me a few questions one morning while I was getting my kids ready for school. I told her I was active in my church and pro-life. I answered her questions and volunteered that I had notarized petitions and witnessed signatures made. I assured her I never reported on my involvement or my actions in my church.

After our conversation ended, she asked me if I did or did not realize that as a journalist, I should never do what I did. I was confused. In my view, I had done nothing wrong. The issue of life is nonpartisan. There are pro-life people who are Republicans and pro-life people who are Democrats.

The reporter pressed me, and I said in frustration, You know what, youre right, I shouldnt have done it. I responded in duress, and it wasnt even a coherent sentence. Yet it was the only quote she took from me for her story.

On the morning of September 30, 2022, the news article crossed news desks in Nebraska. By 6 p.m., I was no longer employed by Gray Media.

My Lincoln-based Gray Media bosses called me into my office in North Platte on my day off to tell me it would be my last day. I was escorted out. And while it may be a law in Nebraska that an employer may fire an employee, or an employee may leave employment, without reason, my former employee gave me a reason: I was told I was being fired for practicing partisan politics. I did not have a contract when I was fired.

Ironically, pro-life groups in North Platte later told me they thought I was pro-choice because I reported in a nonbiased manner. Furthermore, about a week after I was fired, nearly 30 articles written by me about abortion were all removed from the companys website after I publicly asked people on my own social media to read the stories and tell me if I was reporting in a biased way. Nearly 300 stories I wrote covering other topics remain on Gray Medias websites today.

Today, I continue to write stories on my own platform. I now have about 8,500 followers on Facebook. And I am unapologetically pro-life.

I have been given a lot of support by the community of North Platte and surrounding areas I am still treated like a journalist by most.I sat at an anchor desk for EWTN (a Catholic Network) in Washington D.C. during the pro-life march in January 2023 and was interviewed by Lifesite News. I was on podcasts across the nation and have been given a couple of awards, most recently a Freedom Fighter Award in Hastings, Nebraska.

None of these activities pay, however. I am also completing my Ph.D. in forensic psychology. I had the honor of serving on a floor committee in St. Louis, Missouri for the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church prior to 2023s 68th Regular Convention in Milwaukee. After Milwaukee, I was on Issues, etc. in St. Louis during the evening drive-time hour.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is currently reviewing my firing by Gray Media, and then I will be given a right to sue letter. I am praying about the course I should take.

Im not sure what God wants me to do. I pray a prayer of thanksgiving and a prayer for clarity every day, among my other daily talking and walking with Him. I know that He strengthens us and draws us closer to Him in heartbreak and despair.

I always thought I was very close to God through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, my baptism and confirmation, and now He must be rendering me for something important. I know that being fired in this way was a direct attack by the enemy. But we know what Jesus meant in John 19:30 when he said, It is finished. All that is important is indeed already finished in Him, and Christ has done all the work. I trust Him to know how He plans to use me to encourage others to know these truths.

To deny that life is life from conception to natural death is to deny Christ. And that, I will never do.

I still live in Curtis, Nebraska. My husband is a truck driver. I have four kids still in school, and the others are in various stages of their adult lives. I have six living grandchildren. My biggest dream now is to be salt and light in a dark, tasteless world. I want to write and make a difference where God will allow. Then I will rest in Him and with hope spend eternity praising Him where I will be with Him and my family in Heaven forever.

This story has been updated to reflect that the Flatwater Press has multiple offices in Nebraska.

After the story was published, Matt Wynn with the Nebraska Journalism Trust claimed in an e-mail to The Federalist that the reporter did not specify that the conversation, a recording of which Wynn said he listened to, was off the record.

Melanie Standiford is an independent journalist.

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I Was Fired From Corporate Media For Being Pro-Life - The Federalist

Did former President Donald Trump ask then-Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clarks legal opinion concerning Department of Justice options for addressing voting irregularities in Georgia, or did Clark volunteer his legal analysis on the question without the presidents prompting?

The federal judge presiding over Clarks removal case, who will decide whether Clark must defend himself in the Democrat stronghold of Fulton County or in a Georgia federal court, focused on that question during last weeks hearing. In doing so, the judge revealed just how crazyand dangerousthis political prosecution is to the future of our constitutional republic.

Currently, Clark faces criminal charges in Fulton County, Georgia, after get-Trump prosecutor Fani Willis obtained a sprawling grand jury indictment against him and 18 co-defendants, including former President Donald Trump. That mid-August indictment charged the defendants with supposed crimes related to alleged postelection interference with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

A week after the indictment dropped, Clark sought to remove the criminal case against him to federal court, based on a federal statute, codified at 1442(a)(1). That removal statute provides that a criminal prosecution that is commenced in a State court against an officer of the United States or any federal agency may remove the case to a federal court if the prosecution is for or relating to any act under color of such office

In arguing for removal, Clark stressed that Williss charge against him rested on a Dec. 28, 2020 draft letter he presented in his role as assistant attorney general to his superiors, Jeff Rosen, then acting attorney general, and Richard Donoghue, then deputy attorney general. Clark urged Rosen and Donoghue to sign the letter addressed to the Georgia governor, the Georgia speaker of the House, and the Georgia president pro tempore of the Senate.

It stated that the DOJ was investigating various irregularities in the 2020 election for President of the United States and noted that we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.

In light of these developments, Clarks proposed letter continued, the Department recommends that the Georgia General Assembly should convene in special session so that its legislators are in a position to take additional testimony, receive new evidence, and deliberate on the matter consistent with its duties under the U.S. Constitution.

Rosen and Donoghue refused to sign the letter and took issue with Clarks view of the facts. That made Clarks drafting of the letter a crime, according to the Fulton County indictment that charged him with criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings for drafting that letter, presenting it in an email to Rosen and Donoghue, and later meeting with the two on January 2, 2021, to seek authorization to send the draft letter.

But if it were a crimesomething Clark strenuously challenges, stressing he was merely presenting his legal analysis of the issuethen Willis is seeking to prosecute him for or relating to conduct he undertook under color of his federal office. Thus, according to Clark, he has the right to remove the criminal case to federal court.

Last Monday, Judge Jones held an evidentiary issue on the issue. Initially, attorneys for Willis argued Clark was not acting under color of his federal office, by positing that the assistant attorney general for the civil division had no role in investigating or pursuing election cases on behalf of the federal government.

To support that argument, Willis pointed to previous statements by Rosen and Donoghue, both of whom disagreed with Clarks position and maintained it was not for Clark or the Department of Justice to involve itself in Georgia election issues. Willis also presented testimony from Joseph Jody Hunt. Hunt, who served as assistant attorney general of the civil division from August 2018 until July 2020, testified on Monday that Clark, in effect, was out of his civil division lane in drafting the letter.

But, as Clarks attorney stressed during the hearing, as an assistant attorney general Clark held authority to advise the president on all relevant issues, not just those within the province of the civil division. And, as Clarks lawyer stressed, President Trump wanted to hear Clarks legal opinion. The then-president met on January 3, 2021, with Rosen, Donahue, and Clark in the Oval Office, along with six other senior administration lawyers from DOJ and the White House. There the group discussed Clarks draft letter for three-and-a-half hours.

While in the end Trump opted against sending the letter to Georgia, that the president huddled with the lawyersincluding Clarkto discuss the issue confirms Clark was acting within the color of his office as a former assistant attorney general.

Judge Jones, however, seemed to see the issue differently, as demonstrated by his query of whether former President Trump had solicited Clarks opinion or whether Clark, in violation of Department of Justice protocols, had reached out to the president first. The mere posing of this question exposes how far afield this entire prosecution has become.

Donald Trump was the head of the executive branch of government. Whether Trump solicited Clarks opinion or Clark ignored Department of Justice protocol to present what Clark believed the best course of action to the president is not the courts concern. And it is definitely not the concern of a county prosecutor.

If Clark was out of line, if Clark acted outside the color of his office, that was for the president of the United States to decide. By obtaining Clarks advice and weighing it against the advice of others in the Department of Justice, the president confirmed Clark was acting under the color of his office as assistant attorney general of the civil division at the time.

In short, that Clark violated department protocols, or even assumed functions beyond his normal authority, matters not because the president is the executive and the president holds the authority over the Department of Justice.

Consider, for instance, another scenario: An assistant attorney general bypasses protocols to inform then-President Trump that then-FBI Director James Comey was running a covert investigation into Michael Flynn based on a Hillary Clinton-funded fake dossier. It would be ridiculous to say that such a hypothetical assistant attorney general was operating outside the color of his office by taking such concerns directly to the president.

The same is true here. Clark apparently believed the Department of Justice was not adequately investigating voting irregularities in the national election, and he attempted to argue that position to his superiors. While it is unclear whether Clark also went directly to Trump, even if he did, that does not mean Clark was acting outside the color of his position.

Judge Jones has yet to issue his decision on whether Clark properly removed the Fulton County criminal case to federal court, but if the federal judge rejects Clarks efforts to remove the case and finds Clark acted outside the color of his office, that would represent a dangerous precedent calling into question not just Clarks authority, but the authority of the president of the United States.

Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalists senior legal correspondent. Margots work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion (forthcoming), National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press. She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Privethe law schools highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishmentsher dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.

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Fulton County Judge Reveals How Dangerous This Prosecution Is - The Federalist

Mark Campbell is a registered sex offender convicted of first-degree sexual assault for raping his 10-year-old daughter, but thanks to the state of Wisconsin, he is now housed in a womens prison in Fond du Lac.

Despite his biology and the heightened threat he poses to women based on the nature of his crime, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections allowed him to be categorized as FEMALE, and subsequently to be incarcerated with female inmates at Taycheedah Correctional Institution since August of 2022.

Campbell began serving his 34-year sentence in 2007, and has since been receiving wrong-sex hormones and claiming to be a woman named Nicole. In 2013, he requested a surgical operation to mutilate his male sexual organs to appear more female, and was initially declined for not meeting prerequisites.

In 2016, Campbell sued the Department of Corrections for not allowing him to undergo the procedure, claiming it was an Eighth Amendment violation. In 2019, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that clearly established law did not require Wisconsin prison officials to provide Campbell with gender-dysphoria treatment beyond hormone therapy.

But as of December 2020, a federal judge ruled that Wisconsin must offer Campbell taxpayer-funded transition surgery and move him to a womens prison while awaiting that surgery, according to reporting from The Daily Signal.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge James Peterson referred to Campbell by inaccurate female pronouns and argued the disfiguring genital surgery was necessary because Campbell was still in anguish thanks to his gender dysphoria, even after receiving experimental female hormones on Wisconsin taxpayers dime. While he awaits the procedure, the convicted rapist continues to be housed with female inmates.

Campbells status as a sex offender isnt unusual for male inmates with whom female prisoners are forced to live. According to The Daily Signals reporting on Wisconsin data, 81 of the 161 male inmates who claim to be transgender have been convicted of sexual assault or sexual abuse.

Nor is the trend of leftist localities housing dangerous men with female inmates to appease the pro-transgender agenda of the Democrat Party limited to Wisconsin. A California law passed in 2019 requires men who say they are women to be housed in womens prisons. In both the 116th and 117th Congress, House Democrats overwhelmingly voted for H.R. 5, which sought to bar so-called discrimination based on gender identity in federal institutions effectively demanding that men like Campbell be treated as women under the guise of equality.

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WI Forces Female Inmates To Live With Man Who Raped Daughter - The Federalist

A clip of comedian Louis C.K. on the Joe Rogan show has been circulating on X (formerly Twitter) this week in which he goes on and on about how opening up the southern border would be a good thing because Americans shouldnt have such a high standard of living compared to the rest of the world, how poor people in other countries just want what Americans have, and how its not fair that we have so much. It shouldnt be so great here, he says. So open the border and let them pour in.

Its possible hes joking, that its just a comedy bit hes practicing. Thats what my friend Inez Stepmanthinks. Get liberals to nod along in agreement and then expose the consequences of such an insane idea. You can judge for yourself:

I dont think it comes off as a joke but as an almost perfect distillation of globalist liberalism. Louis C.K. cannot fathom why Americans should have a say about who comes into their country and who does not. He clearly has no real allegiance to his country or countrymen, and is actually embarrassed by their prosperity and presumably his own as well.

There is nothing special about America, according to this view, and no reason the rest of the world should not enjoy her ill-gotten riches. Opening the border is the least we could do for the cause of justice.

Whether its a joke or not, the substance of what Louis C.K. articulates is the logical endpoint of leftist ideology. Its what the mainstream left actually believes and the Biden administration has been actively working to accomplish at the southern border.

This week, the border began collapsing completely in south Texas. Over five days,about 45,000 people illegally crossed the Rio Grandenear the small town of Eagle Pass, Texas, population 28,000. In one especially active 24-hour period, nearly 10,000 people forded the river.

Customs and Border Protection shut down two international bridges to deal with the crisis. The mayor of Eagle Pass, Rolando Salinas,declared an emergency on Wednesday, it seems with good reason. He told The New York Post that the surge of illegal immigrants, most of them single adult men from Venezuela, has swamped the citys only migrant shelter. Many of them, says Salinas, dont want to listen to instructions. He added, Not all of them come in peace.

Bill Melugin of Fox News has been in Eagle Pass this week posting jaw-dropping videos and images of the influx, which sure enough consists of mostly single adult men. The lines stretch over the river and along both banks as far as the eye can see. Whatever you think of the border and U.S. immigration policy, this is shocking.

All of it recalls the mass encampment of some 15,000 Haitians under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, two years ago. At the time, images of what looked like a refugee camp you might see in a war-torn country dominated several news cycles, goading the Biden administration to disband the encampment and deport a small number of Haitians as a warning to others. Most of them fled back across the Rio Grande rather than face being deported to Haiti, a country they had left years ago for better jobs in South America (which countries they in turn left for better jobs in the United States).

But notice how the illegal immigrants in Melugins footage are walking calmly, not running, not trying to evade Border Patrol. They show every indication they believe they will not be detained long.

And of course theyre right. Its impossible for federal authorities to detain this many people arriving within such a short timeframe. There is simply nowhere to put them.

A soft-sided facility erected by Customs and Border Protection that could house about 2,000 quickly reached capacity early in the week, leaving federal officials little choice but to parole mass numbers of illegal immigrants and release them from custody on their own recognizance. They are now making their way to points all across the United States. The vast majority of them will stay for good.

This is not a mistake or a mishap, the unintended result of an ill-considered policy. This is intentional. Flooding the border with illegal immigrants is the actual policy.

When White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeats the talking point that President Biden has done more than anyone else to secure the border and deal with illegal immigration, asshe did again last week, what she really means is that under Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, uncontrolled illegal immigration is not something federal officials are trying to stop, its something theyre trying to facilitate and manage.

The numbers tell the tale. Nearly six million people have been arrested crossing into the United States illegally since Biden took office. Millions more have gotten in without being caught. About 200,000 are arrested every month. They are coming in such great numbers because they know that if they can get across the river theyll be allowed to stay. Under Biden, there is almost no chance of being deported. Its not more complicated than that.

That brings us back to Louis C.K.s comments and the ideology from which they spring. Deterring illegal immigration is a policy you pursue only if you believe foreign nationals do not automatically have a right to enter the United States simply because they want a better life. Borders are something you enforce only if you believe you have a duty to your fellow citizens and the nation at large to protect the country and safeguard its way of life.

Biden and Mayorkas and the ruling elite in this country do not believe these things. They believe a borderless world is better, that the United States does not belong to the American people, to whom they feel no particular allegiance.

To quote Louis C.K., they believe it shouldnt be so great here. And theyre determined to make it so.

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It's No Accident The Southern Border Is Collapsing, It's Intentional - The Federalist

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion on Friday that, if granted, would effectively bar President Donald Trump from criticizing him, President Joe Biden, and other deep state bureaucrats for their hyperpartisan prosecution of his First Amendment right to claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Through his statements, the defendant threatens to undermine the integrity of these proceedings and prejudice the jury pool, in contravention of the undeviating rule that in our justice system a jurys verdict is to be induced only by evidence and argument in open court, and not by any outside influence, Smith wrote in the motion to D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

Under Smiths proposal, chatter about the high-profile case would be legal for everyone, including President Joe Biden, but not Trump himself. The jury pool, judges, and others involved would hear campaign commentary from corporate media and Biden about the case. They would not, however, be privy to any takes from Trump, whose primary campaign strategy thus far is to repeatedly call attention to the weaponization of the federal government.

Smith paints his radical demands for Trumps muzzling as modest, permissible restrictions that might be applied in any routine federal criminal case. This, however, is no routine case. Its a partisan indictment led by bureaucrats handpicked by Trumps Democrat replacement and 2024 rival that has quickly become one of the most egregious examples of sweeping state abuse this nation has ever seen.

Even corporate media like the Washington Post acknowledge Smiths latest attempt to criminalize political speech and make criticism into defamation amounts to election interference in an already legally flawed and unwise indictment.

If Chutkan grants Smiths request for a sweeping gag order, she will be endorsing the silencing of not just the former leader of the free world but also the Biden administrations top political rival a current presidential candidate.

Chutkan has yet to rule on Smiths motion but her previous pronouncement regarding Trumps case inspires no confidence that the Republicans First Amendment rights will be considered or protected.

Mr. Trump, like every American, has a First Amendment right to free speech. But that right is not absolute, Chutkan said during proceedings in August. In a criminal case such as this one, the defendants free speech is subject to the rules.

Chutkans declaration that I cannot and I will not factor into my decisions how it will factor into a political campaign also seems to suggest means she doesnt care about the political implications of handicapping the speech of a man who is in the middle of an election cycle.

What the defendant is currently doing the fact that hes running a political campaign has to yield to the orderly administration of justice. If that means he cant say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, thats how it has to be, the Obama appointeeconcluded.

Smiths motion and Chutkans comments only confirm Americans fears that the Department of Justice is corrupt, weaponizes itself against its citizens for political purposes, and wants to capitalize on the lefts 2020 censorship campaign.

A large majority of Americans believe the U.S. has a two-tiered system of justice. Another56 percentrecognize the Trump indictments as interference by the Department of Justice in the 2024 election instead of a fair application of the law.

The incumbent administration grasping at the First Amendment rights of the leading presidential candidate to shut him up is a perfect example of the abuse of power and political hit jobs Americans worry about.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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Smith's Gag Order Designed To Destroy Trump's Rights - The Federalist

Twenty-eight Republicans publicly vowed on Thursday to oppose the use of billions of American tax dollars to fund a proxy war in Ukraine.

The rejection, sent in a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young, is a direct response to the Biden administrations recent demand that Congress send $24 billion more in American taxpayer-funded resources to Volodymyr Zelensky in an attempt to curb Vladimir Putin and his regime.

Sen. J.D. Vance, who spearheaded the letter, said Congress should not keep funding an indefinite conflict without more fact-based information about the war.

Yesterday at a classified briefing over Ukraine, it became clear that America is being asked to fund an indefinite conflict with unlimited resources, Vance wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Enough is enough. To these and future requests, my colleagues and I say: NO.

More than half of the nation says Congress should stop financing Ukraine, a country plagued by corruption. Yet, President Joe Biden, his cabinet members, and even establishment Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have repeatedly pledged to support the war for as long as it takes.

Retiring Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley reportedly received a standing ovation on Wednesday after he also swore that the United States will continue to provide support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.

My tenure may be ending but the mission for this group continues until the end state of a free and sovereign Ukraine is attained, Milley said.

These statements imply an open-ended commitment to supporting the war in Ukraine of an indeterminate nature, based on a strategy that is unclear, to achieve a goal yet to be articulated to the public or the Congress, the signees wrote.

The statements also lack any transparency about how the nations previous aid was used.

In their letter, the Republicans note the whopping $114 billion total often used to measure U.S. funding for Ukraine does not reflect the full picture, which includes transferred and reprogrammed funds. They add that in all five of its supplemental requests for Ukraine funding to Congress, the Biden administration requested additional authority to transfer and reprogram funds.

The vast majority of Congress remains unaware of how much the United States has spent to date in total on this conflict, information which is necessary for Congress to prudently exercise its appropriations power, the Republicans warn.

The ignorance is not due to a lack of curiosity from the Republicans behind the letter, who have made multiple inquiries over the last two years demanding more information. In January, Vance and three dozen other Republicans in Congress signed a letter to Young demanding a full accounting of U.S. aid to Ukraine. Their requests went largely unaddressed.

It is difficult to envision a benign explanation for this lack of clarity, the Republicans state.

As prime examples of the executive branchs reckless Ukraine spending spree, the GOPers highlighted the Department of Defenses recent $6.2 billion Ukraine aid accounting error and the Biden administrations $5 billion request for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a number which exceeded 15 times what Congress allotted in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

The American people deserve to know what their money has gone to. How is the counteroffensive going? Are the Ukrainians any closer to victory than they were 6 months ago? What is our strategy, and what is the presidents exit plan? What does the administration define as victory in Ukraine? the GOPers ask.

To grant another round of Ukraine funding requests by the Biden administration without answers to these questions, the GOP members declared, would be an absurd abdication of congressional responsibility.

The 28 Republicans pledge to keep their purse strings closed until the Biden administration explains its funding frenzy to Congress and taxpayers.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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28 Republicans Say 'No' To Funding Indefinite War In Ukraine - The Federalist

Its the season for respiratory viruses. Chances are, you and your loved ones might catch one, but just say no, at least to the nasal swab. Encourage your family and friends to do the same. The Covid-19 test wont change anything, but positive tests will fuel the media and health bureaucracys hysterical efforts to impose medical martial law.

Im not just pontificating here. Recently, I felt myself going downhill. Thinking it was strep throat, which seemed to be going around the kids school, where Id spent a number of hours watching my oldest play volleyball, I booked an appointment at my doctors office. The test for strep came back negative, though, and thats when the nurse practitioner said something that surprised me.

It may be the early stages of the flu, she said. It could be Covid. Its going around. But the tests are so inaccurate, I dont recommend getting one.

So I skipped the test. She prescribed steroids and a Z-Pak and sent me on my way, which is what she would have done if I had tested and it had come back positive. Given the brain fog I suffered and that the kids at the school tested positive for Covid and negative for strep, I likely had the best-engineered virus U.S. taxpayers could buy.

In other words, I had an unpleasant cold for about a week. No one around me got sick, I healed, and life moved on.

With the fall virus season in full swing, theres a chance youre going to get it. Theres a chance your kid is going to get it. Theres a chance a loved one is going to catch it.

Dont play the game. Dont get tested, dont self-report, and dont be a statistic for the neurotic control freaks stoked by corporate media in the past few years. Be the anti-Nike: just dont do it. Stay away from people, eat some chicken noodle soup, maybe get some steroids and a Z-Pak from your doctor, but dont give the Branch Covidians the numbers they want to see.

The neurotics are anxious for Covid panic to come back. Theyre looking for excuses to reassert control. An elementary school in Maryland has already brought back mask mandates. So, too, have Rutgers University, Morris Brown College, hospitals in California and New York, and Lionsgate Studios.Joe Bidens staff announced hes wearing masks again.

If you think Im being paranoid, then look to the Associated Press, which tells us not to worry because theres no sign that anyone in federal or state leadership is considering widespread COVID-19 restrictions, requirements or mask mandates. Someone should ask a gas stove for its opinion on the media assuring us that people have nothing to fear.

For starters, masks dont work. They are the tiger thwarting rocks of respiratory virus interventions. More important, though, the latest variant, whatever its called, is continuing Covids evolutionary journey toward becoming a fairly mild and constantly circulating cold.

Dr. Jill Biden, despite being a doctor, caught it and quickly recovered without incident, and shes 72. Her husband, President Joe Biden, did allow himself to be tested, but in a rare moment of clarity he refused to wear the mask his handlers tried to put on him. Instead, he told a group of reporters, Dont tell them I didnt have it on, when he was caught on camera without it.

For once, Biden made the right call. In this narrow instance, its even okay to emulate him, though you might also want to bite his style if youre trying to win a dog in a truth-telling contest at a church carnival. Do not emulate him when it comes to getting tested constantly, though.

Look, I get it. Spring of 2020 was a mildly terrifying time the media helped ensure that it was but its time to let it go. The Wu Flu is here to stay, regardless of any of the measures that have completely failed to stop it ever since it escaped the lab via a plucky pangolin. Dont test. Dont report. Dont worry about it.

Youre not dying. You just cant think of anything good to do, and besides, in 2023, its just Covid.

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You Just Have A Cold. Don't Give Covidians Numbers By Testing - The Federalist

Yesterday, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy gave a masterclass on how to handle the corrupt corporate media by going on the offense and thwarting a Washington Post hit job. After learning about the looming negative Post article by reporter Emily Heil on his Brooklyn, New York One Bite Pizza Festival scheduled for this Saturday, Portnoy cold-called Heil and confronted her for using dishonest media tactics.

Portnoy posted his phone call exchange with Heil on X (formally known as Twitter), and the video has since garnered nearly 30 million views. Since then, Heil and her co-writer Tim Carman have cowered away, protecting their tweets and canceling their interview scheduled for this morning with Portnoy.

Portnoy knew Heil had been contacting advertisers of his pizza Festival, and he asked Heil on the call why she was asking his sponsors how they could support a misogynistic racist. Heil immediately denied doing so.

Portnoy didnt let Heil get away with lying, reading to her out loud an email she sent to one of his advertisers, in which Heil stated that Portnoy has a history of misogynistic comments and other problematic behavior. Caught in a lie, Heil was left stuttering and later claimed that this was just one of her standard media tactics.

This is kind of standard journalistic stuff, said Heil, explaining that she was hoping for a dialogue with [the advertisers] and that indicat[ing] that there might be something negative in her report on the event was a reporting tactic used to get [the advertisers] to engage.

That is a sad state of journalism, Portnoy responded, pointing out her tactic is to lie, and her motive is to destroy his festival because she created a false characterization of him in order to scare off his sponsors.It seemed like you were going to try to shame sponsors for being associated with me and put them in a box, said Portnoy.

In a statement published after the phone call, Portnoy explained that what hes learned over the years with these types of hit pieces is that [you] cant give an inch. So rather than just sit[ting] back and let[ing] them dictate the pace of the game I decided Id speed them up and make them play by my rules.

Portnoy is exactly right. In going on the offensive, he shamed and publicly humiliated Heil for her bad-faith journalism. Before Heil and Carmans article even comes out, the public now knows exactly what to expect because Portnoy spectacularly discredited their journalistic integrity.

Anybody whos listened to this [and] think[s] you are going to give me a fair chance is crazy, Portnoy told Heil.

Amazingly, after Portnoy read Heils damning email, she still tried to claim that she was engaging in honest reporting. Im just asking people about, you know, how they came to participate and how they view it, Heil said.

No, but you could have just as easily said, Whats your involvement? Are you proud to be involved with somebody who has done so much for the pizza and service industry? Right? Portnoy asked, in reference to the millions of dollars he raised for small businesses during Covid.

Without answering his question, Heil attempted to end the conversation by inviting Portnoy to interview for the article the next day. Portnoy pointed out that if Heil really wanted to get my perspective, it wouldnt be me calling you. You would have already reached out to me in a fair manner.Portnoy also said that all interviewing would do is validate all the stuff youre about to make up against me, adding, I wasnt born yesterday.

Eventually, however, Portnoy agreed to the interview, but after his video received millions of views and the public presumably began criticizing Heil and Carman, the pair canceled on Portnoy. The @washingtonpost just [canceled] the 10am call, Portnoy wrote on Twitter. Shocker.

The Washington Post, which claims to be a non-partisan publication, has a history of deceptive and slanted journalism. The Post attacks Christians and homeschoolers while weaponizing its stupidity to defend the Biden Administration at all costs. For example, without evidence, the publication worked to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election, and even though its authenticity is indisputable today, the publication has doubled down on its false reporting. It also buried sexual assault allegations against President Joe Biden while incessantly pushing the unsubstantiated allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Portnoys cold call to Heil was a humbling moment for her. Rarely are members of the corporate media confronted for their journalistic malpractice. They are used to spinning narratives and telling lies that hurt people without facing any consequences.

Not this time. Portnoy beat Heil to the punch and, in doing so, took away her power and credibility.

Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.

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WaPo Reporters Cower Away From Interviewing Dave Portnoy - The Federalist