Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Gates

[admin]

UPDATE on Kimmel cancellation SURGES into news
by Brian Tyler Cohen
Sep 18 2025



Transcript

Donald Trump shows the world that the
president of the United States can
handle anything except for some jokes
from late night hosts. This is just
another day.
[Music]
Last night's abrupt suspension of Jimmy
Kimmel and the indefinite suspension of
his program has stunned an already
overly stunned nation. And today we
found out all the reasons why. The point
is that Kimmel's comments went way too
far for some television executives. Not
for me, not for you, but for them. And
they turned up the heat on Kimmel, the
host, to calm down the rhetoric.
Okay, so that's why they did it. It was
done by executives to calm down the
rhetoric. Got it. An A+ choice on the
messenger. I mean, who better than Brian
Kilme, who 4 days ago said this,
involuntary lethal injection or
something. Just kill him.
Glad we've got that guy serving as the
moral compass on the national discourse.
But I don't know. Anyone else got an
explanation for what's going on?
Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he lied
on on ABC about the identity of the of
the man that Tyler Robinson that
murdered uh assassinated martyed Charlie
Kirk. He lied and said he was MAGA.
Tyler Robinson was not MAGA. Not one.
Not one bit. He was part of Antifa. He
was in a relationship. He was in a
relationship with someone who identified
as furry and trans.
First of all, MAGA and Antifa are
ideologies, not official groups with
membership cards that require swiping
before you're let in the door. But
second, this idea that this murderer was
or wasn't in a relationship with someone
who is trans or a furry doesn't mean
anything. People are allowed to be in
relationships with whoever they want.
And I'm surprised that you have a
problem with someone who's into cosplay
because you seem to be a guy who
cosplays as a journalist every single
day. Can't someone give us a clear
explanation as to why Kimmel was taken
off the air? Our goal and our obligation
here is to make sure that broadcasters
are serving the public interest. And if
there's local TV stations that don't
think that running that programming does
it, then they have every right under the
law in their contracts to preempt it.
And we'll see how this plays out. But I
do think that again we are in the midst
of a massive shift in dynamics in the
media ecosystem for lots of reasons.
Exactly. So many reasons. I mean one
might be that media companies like
NextStar that own ABC affiliates around
the country and are the ones who
capitulated to the Trump
administration's demand that Kimmel be
taken off the air are looking to acquire
their rival for $6.2 billion. and that
crazy lucrative deal probably wouldn't
go through unless they did what the FCC
chairman wanted. Why do I feel like
there's another reason though?
I think there's a lot of commentary on
late night having shifted dramatically
over the last 10 years. It used to be
that they would go for laugh lines and
it's shifted to going for applause
lines.
Gee, I wonder what changed over the last
hm 10 years that could have inspired
comedians to write different types of
material. Look, I can tell that Brendan
Carr has a terrific sense of humor, and
so I'm probably saying stuff he already
knows, but one of the main jobs of a
late night host is to talk about what's
going on in the world through their
point of view. And when what's going on
in the world is a journalist asking
Donald Trump how he's holding up after
the murder of Charlie Kirk. And the
president's response is,
I think, very good. And by the way,
right there you see all the trucks. They
just started construction of the new
Bolo for the White House. To not point
out that that is an absurd response
would be a dereliction of duty. I mean,
even the guy who paid $300 million to
get Trump into the White House knows how
important comedy is. Except he said it
was going to be the left who was going
to kill it.
The left wanted to make comedy illegal.
You know, like you can't make fun of
anything. So then it's like comedy
sucks. It's like nothing's funny. You
can't make fun of anything. It's like
legalize comedy. Yeah. See, according to
Brendan Carr, there is nothing remotely
humorous about that. I mean, to say Elon
looks less like a wealthy CEO and more
like a swollen Ed Hardy model trying to
navigate his way out of a K-hole isn't
funny at all. In fact, it's just
downright inappropriate. Look, a
comedian's material is not what's out of
bounds here. It is the actions that
inform the material that are. But I
still feel like there's some other
reason behind the canning of Kimmel.
Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had
bad ratings more than anything else. And
he said a horrible thing about a great
gentleman known as Charlie Kirk. And
Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person.
He had very bad ratings. And they should
have fired him a long time ago. So, you
know, you can call that free speech or
not. He was fired for lack of talent.
And if there's one person who knows
about talent, it's a guy who fires a
highly decorated chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and then picks a man to
lead the entire Pentagon who has a
history of binge drinking and sexual
assault. because talent is his top
priority and he doesn't care which parts
of the Constitution he has to shred to
get it.
Do you have concerns about, you know,
some people look at this and your
critics will say, "Well, um, this
crackdown is is a crackdown on free
speech."
You know, it's interesting. I watch your
show and I watch others and I see people
saying things, they're crazy. These
people are crazy lunatics. Even the way
they'll answer, you know, it's like
you'll see them and the things they say
are really bad, but they look crazy.
I know. It's like, get these crazy
people saying crazy stuff off my TV
already and get them into the halls of
Congress where they belong. And the
reality is Donald Trump and every one of
his right-wing sick fans can float
whatever far-fetched reasons they want
as to why Jimmy Kimmel shouldn't be on
the air. But the truth is there is only
one reason for Trump's actions. And that
is Donald Trump is a fragile, spineless,
thin skinned And I don't
say that because we now have to watch
his old man blood traverse his tiny
hands for the next 3 years. I mean that
because this man can't handle anyone
saying or writing anything about him
that isn't pure asskissing flattery,
which is insane when you realize Trump
and all the Republicans control all
three branches of government, have a
majority of justices on the Supreme
Court, control a majority of state
legislatores, and still whine about
being victims. In just this year alone,
the Trump family has earned $3.4 billion
off the presidency. And yet, this is
what Eric Trump titles his book.
All right, Eric, your new book, Under
Siege, coming into number one.
Yeah, pretty sure every American would
love to be under siege like that. Just
this week, Trump sued the New York Times
for defamation to the tune of $15
billion. And one of the reasons he
believes he's owed billions, Trump's
legal team also argued that the Times
wrongly gave producer Mark Bernett
credit for the success of the NBC
reality contest show The Apprentice,
rather than to Trump, who served as the
show's host. and star. That's right. The
president of the United States is pissed
off that he didn't get enough credit. If
only someone would finally pay but a
sliver of attention to poor ignored
Donald Trump. And this is on top of the
countless other lawsuits that Trump has
brought against media outlets for daring
to allow criticism to sully their pages
or airwaves or simply reporting the
truth. The sad part is, I mean, besides
all of it, is that having a thin-kinned
leader is not super original. There are
a handful of other leaders around the
world who also can't stand to be
criticized. Guys like the prime minister
of Hungary, Victor Orban, North Korea's
Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, the
president of China, Xihinping, and
Trump's Siberian soulmate, Vladimir
Putin. All of these men have used the
power of their government to silence and
intimidate media outlets, journalists,
and anyone else who speaks ill of them
as a way of maintaining their grip on
power. I mean, it's not exactly an
accident that this is North Korea's
highly rated late night host. You know,
her classic bits like kind tweets and a
closer look at our heroic dear leader.
But while Trump's autocratic moves
aren't original, what is original is
that it's being done in America. This
isn't a move towards authoritarianism.
We've arrived. Donald Trump is baking an
autocrat cake and following the recipe
to a tea. Suppression of dissent,
election manipulation, taking control of
our institutions, declaring states of
emergency to enact any measures he
wants, and now using intimidation
tactics to silence free speech. Donald
Trump may occupy the most powerful
office in our country right now, but
through his petty and vindictive
actions, he is showing the world how
weak he truly is. We cannot sit back and
watch him destroy our values like this.
We need to make our voices heard,
protect the rights of all Americans, and
uh and uh I could have sworn there was a
third thing.
Legalize comedy.
Yeah,
sure.
[Music]
Before you go, if you enjoyed this
content and you want to see more and
support independent media, please
subscribe to this channel. The subscribe
button will be right here on the screen.
But second, the reality is that we are
now in a political environment where
this administration can lean on any of
the social media platforms to suppress
certain voices if they don't like
critical coverage. That means my
longevity here is in the hands of a few
tech billionaires who are already making
it clear that they are willing to cater
to this administration. To that end,
signing up for my newsletter is a way
for me to reach you directly if that
ever becomes necessary. I'll put the
link right here on the screen as well.
So, please sign up. It's free, but
there's also an option to do a paid
subscription if you'd like to support me
and my team. I really appreciate it.

***

Trump makes CONFESSION about Kimmel cancellation
by Brian Tyler Cohen
Sep 18, 2025 Brian Tyler Cohen



Transcript

In case there was any doubt about the
real reason that Trump's FCC went after
Jimmy Kimmel, you don't even have to
guess because Donald Trump just came out
and confessed.
That's something that you'd be talking
about for licensing Jews. When you have
a network and you have evening shows and
all they do is hit Trump, that's all
they do. If you go back, I guess they
haven't had a conservative one in years
or something, somebody said, but when
you go back and take a look, all they do
is Trump, they're licensed. They're not
allowed to do that. They're an arm of
the Democrat party.
In other words, this wasn't about
Kimmel's comments on air, which by the
way were completely innocuous, but
rather that Donald Trump has a broader
agenda of suppressing any coverage
critical of Trump. Quote, "All they do
is hit Trump." This is about heaping
praise onto an aspiring autocrat all
because he's too fragile to shoulder any
criticism whatsoever. And this has
become a recurring theme. Donald Trump
also got Steven Colbear canled just
weeks ago by leaning on CBS as their
parent company Paramount was seeking a
merger with Sky Dance. Trump sued ABC
News which settled. Sued 60 Minutes
which settled. Sued Meta which settled.
He is currently suing the New York
Times, the Wall Street Journal, Simon
and Schustster. He barred the Associated
Press from the press briefing room. He
even barred the Australian Broadcasting
Company ABC from his UK press conference
this week because the reporter dared to
ask a critical question of him. Anyone
who touted Trump as some champion of
free speech is either a liar or a fool.
In fact, it's not just Trump who's too
ham-handed to understand how to not
confess to the reality of what happened
here. Here's FCC Chairman Brendan Carr,
who has been beyond overt in giving the
whole game away. This is what he said
just prior to Kimmel's cancellation.
But frankly, when you see stuff like
this, I mean, look, we can do this the
easy way or the hard way. These
companies can find ways to change
conduct to take action, frankly, uh, on
Kimmel, or, you know, there's going to
be additional work for the FCC. Again,
there's actions that we can take on
licensed broadcasters. And frankly, I
think that it's it's it's really sort of
past time that a lot of these licensed
broadcasters themselves push back on
Comcast and Disney and say, "Listen, we
are going to preempt. We are not going
to run Kimmel anymore until you
straighten this out because we we
licensed broadcaster are running the
possibility of fines or license
revocations from the FCC if we continue
to run content that ends up being a
pattern of news distortion."
Think about that language for a second.
We can do this the easy way or the hard
way. That's not regulatory oversight.
That is extortion. Plain and simple. It
is a federal official threatening a
media company with government
retaliation unless they silence a critic
of dear leader. And that's exactly what
ABC did, which raises the question, is
this constitutional? And the answer is
absolutely not. Just last year, the US
Supreme Court ruled 9 to nothing that
quote government officials cannot
attempt to coersse private companies in
order to punish or suppress views that
the government disfavors. That is a
ruling wherein everyone from Clarence
Thomas and Samuel Alo agreed with Sonia
Sotomayor and Katanji Brown Jackson.
When you've got the White House running
far to the right of this US Supreme
Court, you might have lost the plot. But
let's be clear here. While Donald Trump
is a desperate and his acolytes like
Brendan Carr are some of the most vile
human beings to ever ascend to the
highest ranks of the US government and
they deserve all the scorn in the world
for their horrific behavior. This
administration will not feel as
emboldened as they do without the
cooperation and buyin from these
corporations that are so focused
on money and shareholder value that they
will sacrifice everything in pursuit of
it. Let's not forget the backstory
behind the Kimmel cancellation. Nextar
Media Group is the largest provider of
local news in the country and they
operate ABC affiliate stations in dozens
of markets across the US. Next is right
now seeking FCC approval for a $6.2
billion merger with a company called
Tegna. At the same time, you've got the
federal government demanding ransom for
everything and making it perfectly clear
where they stand on these late night
hosts who dare criticize Dear Leader. In
fact, Donald Trump himself literally
posted on the truth social back when
Colar got cancelled, quote, "I
absolutely love that Colbear got fired.
His talent was even less than his
ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next."
And guess what? That is exactly what
happened. And because these companies
like NextStar and ABC and CBS and
Paramount and Washington Post and Meta
are all so overleveraged and so
desperate to grab even more cash, they
continue to capitulate to Trump. And the
cost of that is that we all are now less
safe because we all now live in a
country wherein the president feels
emboldened to commit more of these acts.
ABC's decision to pull Kimmel show
doesn't just hurt Jimmy Kimmel. It gives
Donald Trump cart blanch in his mind to
feel that this autocratic behavior is
acceptable. It hurts all of us. ABC and
these other outlets are hurting all of
us. All because they need another buck.
Because God forbid they don't focus
solely on more money, more growth, more
shareholder value. God forbid. To that
end, I can promise you one thing from my
part. I will never be bought. I will
never stop speaking out. I am not owned
by some money grubbing corporate entity
that needs something from the federal
government. I'm 100% independent. And
independent media clearly has never been
more important than it is right now. So,
if you'd like to support my work, which
is and always will be completely free,
please subscribe to this channel. And I
hope the rest of the media outlets
across this country understand that by
capitulating to Trump, you are not
plating him. You're just showing him
that you're weak. You're showing him
that you can be extorted. You are
showing him that if and when he wants to
do this again. And I can assure you he
will do this again, that he'll be able
to do it without a problem. And I can
assure you, he isn't stopping with
Kimmel, just like he wasn't stopping
with Colbear, just like he wasn't
stopping with ABC News and CBS and the
New York Times and 60 Minutes. All of
these cowardly media conglomerates are
not understanding that you do not buy
Trump off. You buy yourself just a
little bit of time. That's it. And
eventually, sure as he'll come
back because he knows that you are weak
and you stand for nothing. And the only
thing more pathetic than bowing down to
this thin-kinned autocrat is your
collective inability to recognize that
he will never be satisfied. Trump is
basically a shark praying on you. And
you cut off your arm to feed it to him
thinking that he'll be full. And
eventually he comes back for the next
arm and then your leg and then your
other leg and then the rest of your
body. And where did that bargain leave
you? It left you with nothing. prey to a
predator who smelled blood in the water
because you were too stupid, too
shortsighted to protect yourself when
you had the chance. So, my advice to the
rest of the media, wake the up.
Recognize the moment that we're in and
for sake, stand for something.
Stand for anything. Anything that isn't
money. I am so tired of watching
every trusted voice in this country
expose themselves as a money starved
leech who will sell out anything and
everything if it means they can make
another buck. ABC should know that we
won't forget. On a personal note, I've
canled my Hulu Disney package. They
might be desperate to pander to Trump so
they can pad their bottom line, but it
works both ways. And it's hard to
succeed in business without customers.
If ABC won't show some spine, then we
will because our money is just as green
as everybody else's. And in the
meantime, I need to ask one more thing
of everybody watching. Do not disengage.
The Trump administration wants you to
feel helpless, wants you to feel
desparing, wants you to feel small. But
remember, Trump wouldn't be so focused
on suppressing speech from individuals
if it wasn't so powerful. So do not
quiet down. Do not obey in advance. Do
not reward him by giving him exactly
what he wants. Speak up. Be as loud as
possible. Spend your money wisely and
appropriately and use it as a weapon.
Talk to your circles of people. Let
these big moneyed interests know that
capitulate to Donald Trump that there is
a cost. There is a cost of doing
business with him. And let this
administration know that you're awake.
You're energized. And you're engaged.
And when it's time to take to the
streets, bring 10 people. When it's time
to campaign, bring 20 people. When it's
time to vote, bring 30 people. The
window to save this democracy is
closing, but I will be damned if we
don't go down without a fight.
Before you go, if you enjoyed this
content and you want to see more and
support independent media, please
subscribe to this channel. The subscribe
button will be right here on the screen.
But second, the reality is that we are
now in a political environment where
this administration can lean on any of
the social media platforms to suppress
certain voices if they don't like
critical coverage. That means my
longevity here is in the hands of a few
tech billionaires who are already making
it clear that they are willing to cater
to this administration. To that end,
signing up for my newsletter is a way
for me to reach you directly if that
ever becomes necessary. I'll put the
link right here on the screen as well,
so please sign up. It's free, but
there's also an option to do a paid
subscription if you'd like to support me
and my team. I really appreciate it.
Thanks so much for watching.

[admin]

If We Do Not Have The Ability To Criticize Our Leaders, We Are No Longer The U.S.A. - Jake Tapper
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Sep 19, 2025 #Colbert #Comedy #JakeTapper

Best-selling author and CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jake Tapper joins Stephen to discuss the Trump administration’s role in Disney’s decision to take “Jimmy Kimmel Live” off the air. Stick around for more with Jake Tapper and check out his book, “Race Against Terror,” available October 7th.



Transcript

>> Stephen: WELCOME BACK, EVERYBODY.
IT SMELLS LIKE CHEAP COLOGNE OVER HERE.
WELCOME BACK. WELCOME BACK, MY FRIENDS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MY FIRST GUEST TONIGHT
IS A NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON
CORRESPONDENT, AND ANCHOR OF "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER."
PLEASE WELCOME BACK TO "THE LATE SHOW,"
JAKE TAPPER! [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
♪ ♪ HI.
♪ ♪ HI.
>> Jake: HELLO. >> Stephen: NICE TO SEE YOU
AGAIN. TO BE TWO THINGS ARE GREAT.
>> Stephen: YEAH, EVERYTHING IS GREAT.
WE HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR A LONG TIME FOR YOUR POLITICAL
REPORTER. >> Jake: 21 YEARS.
>> Stephen: 21 YEARS. WHO'S COUNTING?
I WOULD IMAGINE YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
>> Jake: IT'S MY FAVORITE. >> Stephen: HOW MUCH OF WHAT
WE ARE SEEING, OF WHAT WENT DOWN YESTERDAY WITH KIMMEL AND ABC
AND BRENDAN CARR, HOW MUCH OF THAT IS A FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUE
VERSUS THE MISUSE OF EXECUTIVE POWER BY THE PRESIDENCY?
TECHNICALLY THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW.
BUT THIS IS THE -- THIS ISN'T CONGRESS.
THE PRESIDENT PULLED A FEW LEVERS AND POPPED HIM OUT OF
THERE LIKE A STUCK CLAM. >> Jake: LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO
YOU, WE THINK WE KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.
BUT IT WAS ALL BEHIND CLOSE DOORS.
>> Stephen: THE NETWORK HAD A RATIONALE.
THE SHOWS HAD RUN THEIR COURSE. >> Jake: THE TIMING WAS, AS
THE KIDS SAY, SUS. >> Stephen: WOW.
WHO IS KING? >> Jake: VERY HIP.
PUT THAT ON YOUR TIKTOK. >> Stephen: 6-7.
>> Jake: THAT'S VERY NICE. WHAT HAPPENED WITH BRENDAN CARR,
AS YOU KNOW, THE FCC CHAIRMAN, GOING ON A RIGHT-WING PODCAST
AND SAYING DISNEY NEEDS TO CHANGE ITS BEHAVIOR.
DISNEY OBVIOUSLY OWNS ABC. AND ALL THOSE LOCAL TV NETWORKS,
YOU NEED TO SAY WE'RE NOT GOING TO CARRY THIS QUOTE, UNQUOTE,
GARBAGE ANYMORE. THAT WAS
IT 1:01 P.M. THAT WAS AT
1:01 P.M. YESTERDAY AND BY 5:00, NEXT ARE AS YOU NOTED EARLIER,
THE BIGGEST OWNER OF LOCAL TV NEWS STATIONS THAT NEEDS BRENDAN
CARR TO GIVE A SEAL OF APPROVAL. SO THEY CAN BREAK A RULE, AND
FCC RULE SAYING THEY CAN'T OWN -- BUT NOBODY CAN OWN MORE THAN
ENOUGH TV STATIONS TO REACH 39% OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
THAT'S THE RUE RIGHT NOW. AND FOR THEM TO BUY THIS
COMPETITOR THEY NEED BRENDAN CARR TO BE LIKE NO, WE'LL GET
RID OF THAT RULE. BRENDAN CARR SIGNAL HE WANTS
LOCAL MEDIA TO STOP CARRYING THIS SPEECH AT THIS SPEAKER THAT
TRUMP DOESN'T APPROVE OF. GOT IT.
GOT THE MESSAGE AND RESELL IT HAPPEN.
THIS IS A DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT BECAUSE IT
IS THE GOVERNMENT TELLING COMPANIES WHAT TO DO WITH THE
IMPLICIT THREAT OF "HE SAID WE CAN DO THIS THE EASY WAY OR WE
CAN DO THIS THE HARD WAY. AND THEY CHOSE THE EASY WAY.
>> Stephen: WELCOME OF THE FCC, IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE AN
INDEPENDENT INSTITUTION? >> Jake: INDEPENDENT AGENCY,
QUOTE, UNQUOTE. >> Stephen: YOU COULD TAKE THE
QUOTES OFF I SUPPOSE NOW. THROW THEM IN THE GARBAGE.
THROUGH THE WORDS IN THE GARBAGE TOO.
>> Jake: FTC, FEC, THEY ARE ALL SEMI-INDEPENDENT AGENCIES.
>> Stephen: HAS IT BEEN POLITICIZED BEFORE THIS?
>> Jake: NOT TO THIS DEGREE. I'VE NEVER SEEN AN FTC CHAIRMAN
CALL FOR A DIRECT ACTION BY LOCAL AFFILIATES TO DO SOMETHING
TO REMOVE A SPEAKER AND SPEECH THAT THEY DON'T LIKE.
IT'S CHILLING AND IT'S ACTUALLY THE EXACT OPPOSITE --
THESE WERE SUPPOSEDLY GOING TO BE THE FREE-SPEECH CHAMPIONS.
>> Stephen: THAT WAS PART OF THE CAMPAIGN.
THEY WERE TIRED OF BEING CENSORED.
FREE-SPEECH ABSOLUTISTS. >> Jake: I WILL ALSO SIGN AN
EXECUTIVE ORDER TO IMMEDIATELY STOP ALL GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP
AND BRING BACK FREE SPEECH TO NEVER AGAIN WILL THE IMMENSE
POWER OF THE STATE THE WEAPONIZED TO PERSECUTE
POLITICAL OPPONENTS. DONALD TRUMP.
JANUARY OF THIS YEAR. [BOOING]
AND GUESS WHO THIS IS. "UNDER DONALD TRUMP'S LEADERSHIP
WE MAY DISAGREE WITH YOUR VIEWS BUT WE WILL FIGHT TO DEFEND YOUR
RIGHT TO OFFER IT IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE."
GUESS WHO THAT IS. >> Stephen: IS THAT BRENDAN
CARR? >> Jake: THAT IS J.D. VANCE,
OUR VICE PRESIDENT. >> Stephen: OKAY.
ARE YOU SAYING THAT J.D. VANCE SOMETIMES SAYS ONE THING AND
DOES THE OTHER? YOU SOUND LIKE A GUY WHO DOESN'T
WANT A TV SHOW ANYMORE. >> Jake: IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE
ABILITY TO CRITICIZE, MOCK, INVESTIGATE OUR LEADERS, THEN WE
ARE NO LONGER THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
[APPLAUSE] YOU REFERENCED GEORGE WA
GEORGE WASHINGTON -- BY THE WAY, IT WAS GREAT TO SEE
THAT GUY, STEPHEN COLBERT. >> Stephen: IT SMELLS LIKE
CHEAP COLOGNE OVER HERE NOW. >> Jake: I MISS THAT MUSK.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, MY PERSONAL FAVORITE FOUNDING FATHER IS A
GUY NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD OF, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S GRANDSON, HA
NEWSPAPER. HE RIPPED INTO
GEORGE WASHINGTON. HE COVERED THE FACT THAT
WASHINGTON HAD. GEORGE WASHINGTON DOESN'T EVEN
DRAW SALARY. HE TREATS THE TREASURY AS IF
IT'S HIS OWN BANK ACCOUNT. IT'S IN THE LIFEBLOOD OF THIS
COUNTRY. HE DID THE SAME TO JOHN ADAMS.
JOHN ADAMS PASSED THE ALIEN AND SEDITION ACT.
THROUGH HIM IN PRISON. THAT IS WHERE WE ARE.
AND THA IT EXPIRED AND SINCE THEN PRESIDENTS WHO HAD AN
UNEASY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PRESS BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN
ANYTHING LIKE THIS. >> Stephen: WE HAVE TO TAKE A
QUICK BREAK. WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH MORE
JAKE TAPPER, EVERYBODY. STICK AROUND.

**************************************

Brendan Carr’s Threat To ABC Seemed Like Something Out Of “Goodfellas” - David Remnick
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Sep 19, 2025 #Colbert #Comedy #DavidRemnick

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and “The New Yorker” editor David Remnick reacts to the words of FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who said “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” in comments aimed at ABC regarding Jimmy Kimmel. His documentary, “The New Yorker at 100,” will premiere on Netflix on December 5th.



Transcript

>> Stephen: WELCOME BACK, EVERYBODY.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MY NEXT GUEST IS A PULITZER
PRIZE-WINNING EXPERT ON RUSSIA AND THE EDITOR OF
"THE NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE. PLEASE WELCOME TO
"THE LATE SHOW," DAVID REMNICK!
[APPLAUSE] GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN.
>> David: GREAT TO SEE YOU. >> Stephen: "THE NEW YORKER"
HAS BEEN CALLED THE GREATEST MAGAZINE OF ALL TIME PERIODS TO
DO IT YOU ARE A NEW YORKER WRITER NOW.
>> Stephen: I AM. SIGNIFICANT ONLINE PRESENCE.
MAJOR MEDIA FIGURE. YOUR FAMILIAR WITH HOW
FREE-SPEECH CAN BE STIFLED. IT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU
HEARD THAT BASED UPON WHAT JIMMY HAD SAID ON MONDAY NIGHT AND
WHAT BRENDAN CARR SAID YESTE YESTERDAY, TO HEAR THAT JIMMY
HAD BEEN PULLED OFF THE AIR. >> David: THE BRENDAN CARR
LINE SEEMED LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF ""GOODFELLAS"."
REALLY OMINOUS. WE CAN DO THINGS THE HARD WAY OR
THE EASY WAY. I HAVE TO TELL YOU FROM MY
PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE I AM NO LONGER A KID REPORTER BUT WHEN I
WAS, I WAS LIVING IN MOSCOW IN MY LATE 20s AND MY EARLY
30s. THINGS WERE GETTING BETTER AND
BETTER IN THE WORLD IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS, NOT LEAST IN THE
SOVIET UNION. FREE SPEECH WAS ARRIVING FOR THE
FIRST TIME. AFTER A THOUSAND YEARS OF
CZARIST AND DECADES OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN THE
BOLSHEVIKS, MIKHAIL GORBACHEV DECIDED TO MODERNIZE THE COUNTRY
AND IN ORDER TO MODERNIZE THE COUNTRY AND BREATHE NEW AIR INTO
IT, WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING HE DID WAS BEGIN WITH SOMETHING
CALLED GLASNOST, FREE EXPRE EXPRESSION.
HE STARTED TO SEE NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ABOUT THE INVASION OF
AFGHANISTAN. ABOUT ALCOHOLISM AND SOCIETY.
CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT. THIS WAS INCREDIBLY MEANINGFUL
AND VALUABLE IN WHAT SEEMED TO BE THE BEGINNING OF
MODERNIZATION FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE SOVIET UNION.
IT WAS EXHILARATING. PEOPLE TOOK TO THIS LIKE FISH
TAKE TO THE SEA. IT WAS OXYGEN.
AND TO SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR COUNTRY TODAY, IN MY
COUNTRY, AND THE -- ONE OF THE THINGS I PRIZE MOST
ABOUT AND LOVE MOST AND MAKE MY LIVING AT IT IS SO DEAR TO ALL
OF US I THINK, TO SEE THIS TREATED SO CAVALIERLY AND SO
CYNICALLY AND SHUT DOWN, TO WATCH US MOVE BACKWARDS AND SEE
IT HAPPENING ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD TOO, EACH IN THEIR OWN
WAY, IS TO ME A HORRIFIC TRAGEDY.
[APPLAUSE] >> Stephen: WHEN PUTIN CAME TO
POWER, HE CONSOLIDATED HIS POWER AROUND '99 AND RIGHT AFTER THAT
STARTED ROLLING UP MEDIA. HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE WHAT'S
HAPPENING OUT TO WHAT PUTIN DID? THERE WERE THREE BIG NETWORKS IN
RUSSIA. >> David: WHAT HAPPENED UNDER
GORBACHEV AND THEN EVENTUALLY YELTSIN.
THERE WERE LOTS OF FLOSS AT THE BEGINNING OF DEMOCRACY OR
WHATEVER IT WAS CALLED. BUT THE MOST EXHILARATING THING,
ONE OF THEM WAS THE SHOOTS OF A FREE PRESS.
AND THERE WAS A REAL ON TELEVISION AND IN NEWSPAPERS AND
RADIO. IT WAS EXCITING, PRODUCTIVE, THE
WORLD WAS FULL OF DEBATE. PUTIN CAME TO POWER ON
NEW YEAR'S NIGHT, 1999-2000. YOU KNOW WHO HE WENT AFTER
FIRST? THIS WILL SOUND A LITTLE
FAMILIAR TO YOU. COMEDIANS.
>> Stephen: I DIDN'T KNOW THAT.
>> David: THERE WAS A TELEVISION SHOW.
IT WAS A SATIRICAL COMIC POLITICAL PUPPET SHOW.
THERE IS A CHARACTER ON PUTIN. A BIG RUBBERY NOSE, STERN KGB
EYES, THE WHOLE THING. THEY WENT AFTER HIM AND HE HATED
IT. SUDDENLY THAT SHUT DOWN.
THAT WAS BROUGHT TO HEEL. AND THEN THE ENTIRE NETWORK WAS
SHUT DOWN. AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN.
AND NOW WE'VE REACHED THE POINT WITH THE WAR IN UKRAINE, THE
INVASION OF UKRAINE, IF THERE IS IN FACT A RUSSIAN FREE
PRESS, THEIR HOMEBASE IS IN THE BALTIC STATES, IN HOLLAND AND
ABROAD. >> Stephen: ARE THERE EXAMPLES
OF COUNTRIES THAT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO RESTORE A FREE AND
INDEPENDENT PRESS AFTER HAVING LOST IT?
>> David: WELL, YOU KNOW, YOU COULD SAY THAT THERE ARE
NATIONS, FOR EXAMPLE IN EASTERN EUROPE THAT HAVE BEEN DEMOCRATIC
OR SEMI DEMOCRATIC AND THEY CAME UNDER COMMUNIST RULE AND STRICT
CENSORSHIP AND THEN REGAINED IT. THE CZECH REPUBLIC FOR EXAMPLE.
BUT WE HAVE TO REMEMBER, AND I THINK WE OFTEN FORGET, HOW
INCREDIBLY PRECIOUS FREE EXPRESSION IS, HOW RARE IT IS
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, AND HOW FRAGILE IT IS.
WHAT WE ARE SEEING NOW IS THE GOVERNMENT ACTING AT THE
DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO PUT
PRESSURE ON, TO MANIPULATE, TO SILENCE, AND EVEN TO SHUT DOWN
INSTITUTIONS OF THE FREE WORD. THEY HAVEN'T REACHED PUBLISHING
HOUSES QUITE YET. BUT YOU KNOW, STAY TUNED.
>> Stephen: SPEAKING OF WHICH, JUST A FEW HOURS AGO, THIS NEW
COVER OF THE "NEW YORKER" CAME OUT.
IT'S TINY HAND AND A BIG SUIT. HOLDING A TV REMOTE.
[APPLAUSE] WHAT DO YOU, ANYTHING --
>> David: SOME GUY WHO WATCHES TV I GUESS.
THE ARTIST IS BARRY BLITT, WHO IS A KIND OF CARTOONIST GENIUS
REALLY. KIND OF LIKE THOMAS AND ASKED
FOR OUR GENERATION AND IT CAPTURES IN ONE IMAGE TRUMPS PEH
THE MEDIA PARTICULARLY TELEVISION I'D HAVE TO SAY.
THE BUTTON SATAN MUTE, PAUSE, STOP, SILENCE, STIEFEL, SHUN,
SACK, BANISHED. IT'S FUNNY HA HA BUT IT'S ALSO
VERY REAL. THIS IS WHAT'S GOING ON.
>> Stephen: WELL, DAVID. >> David: IT'S GOOD THAT I
CAME OUT FOR THE COMEDY PORTION. >> Stephen: IT'S BEEN A
CHEERFUL CONVERSATION. >> David: I LIKE TO BRING A
LITTLE LIFE INTO EVERY TALK. >> Stephen: THANK YOU SO MUCH
FOR BEING HERE. HIS DOCUMENTARY,
"THE NEW YORKER AT 100," WILL PREMIERE ON NETFLIX ON
DECEMBER 5TH. DAVID REMNICK, EVERYBODY.
WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK.

[admin]

Newsom SCARES Trump SO BAD he CALLS SECRET SERVICE
MeidasTouch
Sep 21, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on very scared Donald Trump calling the Secret Service on California Governor Newsom as Newsom takes the fight directly to Trump in Los Angeles at a powerful event.



Transcript

Donald Trump just can't handle it.
California Governor Gavin Newsome is so
efficiently cleaning Donald Trump's
clock that Trump's United States
Attorney in the Central District of
California, get this, called the Secret
Service on California Governor Gavin
Newsome. That's how much Nuome is living
rentree in Donald Trump's head. Let me
show you what went down. And let me show
you the powerful press conference that
California Governor Gavin Nuome had in
Los Angeles over the weekend as the
Trump regime was literally calling the
Secret Service on Governor Nuomo. So,
California Governor Gavin Newsome posted
this. It was a repost of the White House
imagining what the UFC fights going to
look like on the White House lawn. It's
an AI rendering of a massive stadium on
the White House lawn where again a UFC
fight is going to take place pretty soon
at the White House. To which Governor
Nuome says, "Thank God they are focused
on the priorities of all Americans."
Yep. Golden ballrooms that are 90,000
square ft demolishing the Rose Garden
and creating Club Rose Garden. Donald
Trump gallivanting with the royal family
in the United Kingdom while Americans
can't afford groceries and are worried
that their healthc care is about to be
taken away. Governor Nuome then posted
this and this is what triggered Donald
Trump's regime to call the Secret
Service on Governor Nuome. Nuome writes,
"Christy Gnome is going to have a bad
day today. You're welcome, America."
Now, Governor Nuome was saying that
because he was holding a press
conference in Los Angeles where he was
going to be signing legislation into law
that would prevent ICE from wearing
masks in California and numerous other
measures to protect the people of
California from Donald Trump's fascist
regime. That's why Governor Nuomo posted
that. But then the acting United States
attorney, so Trump's top attorney from
the federal prosecutor from the Central
District of California, this like young
and unqualified guy who Trump has there
who's an ultra MAGA extremist. He goes,
"We have zero tolerance for direct or
implicit threats against government
officials. I've referred this matter to
the Secret Service and requested a full
threat assessment to which the Secret
Service then responds in response to the
statement of the United States attorney
Esley referral regarding the social
media post directed at the Secret
Service Protectee Secretary Christine.
The Secret Service writes, "Our field
office is in receipt of the Department
of Justice's communication to preserve
operational integrity. We're not able to
comment on specific protective
intelligence matters. However, the US
Secret Service must vigorously
investigate any situation or individual,
regardless of position or status that
could pose or be perceived as posing a
threat to any of our protectes,
especially in a politically charged
climate such as this. How utterly
pathetic can you be for the post that
Governor Nuome made? You're calling the
Secret Service on the governor of
California. What weak, pathetic losers
they are. That's one of these things for
me. These people are just freaking
losers. All of them. Then Governor Nuome
shows when Donald Trump posted back on
March 10th, 2020 the following. Going to
be a bad day for Crazy Bernie. to which
Governor Nuome got the receipts from
Donald Trump's 2020 post and Governor
Nuomo goes, "We have zero tolerance for
direct or implicit threats against
government officials. We've referred
this matter to the Secret Service and
requested a full threat assessment. But
on a very serious note, Governor Nuomo
is responding to this report that
reporters at the Pentagon have been told
they can no longer report information
which has not been approved by Pete
Hexith. Those who refuse will lose their
press credentials. To which Governor
Nuome writes, "Your freedom is being
strangled." This is how authoritarianism
starts. Don't look away. We also learned
that the Bureau of Labor Statistics
under the Trump regime, which just had
its Bureau of Labor Statistic
Commissioner fired by Donald Trump a
month or so ago because Donald Trump
didn't like the labor data which was
reported. Well, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics is now postponing
indefinitely key inflation data reports.
They're not publishing what inflation is
because they're trying to cover up
Donald Trump's uh crashing economy. So,
Governor Nuomo posts the pink dressed
lady from North Korea. And Newsome goes,
"The next jobs report brought to you by
Pink Dress Lady." Governor Nuomo in all
caps then goes, "Because of his horrific
music, California will indefinitely
suspend Kid Rock from performing in the
Golden State." You're welcome. GCN
Governor Nuomo post this image of ICE
agents wearing masks who are now banned
by California law from wearing masks.
Great job, California legislature. Great
job, Governor Nuome. He writes,
"Governor Nuome just signed a law making
California the first state in the nation
to prohibit federal law enforcement
officers, including ICE, from hiding
their identities." He then posts this
image. Governor Nuomo writes, "Happy
weekend, patriots." He then um posts the
following. The new laws I just enacted
are a direct response to Donald Trump's
lawless immigration raids and arrests in
California. California is fighting to
end this chaos by one, requiring schools
and public hospitals to limit access and
implement privacy protocols to protect
against Trump's immigration chaos. Two,
schools are now required to work with
families and personnel to develop
notification protocols when immigration
authorities are present on campus.
Three, most federal officers are now
banned from concealing their faces.
Four, most law enforcement officers are
now required to publicly display their
agency and name or badge number. Then
Governor Nuome took the stage
notwithstanding the Trump regime
referring him to the Secret Service. And
here's what Governor Nuome had to say.
And to me, this is one of the most
powerful messages I've heard anybody
talk about what's going on in
California, Los Angeles, across the
country. But he talks about California
in a way that as someone who lives in
California, gives me so much pride.
watched Governor Nuome yesterday in Los
Angeles and one of the most powerful
press conferences I've ever seen. Let's
play it. Let me first try to set a
scene. It's one very familiar uh to many
of you, but not necessarily to some
folks that may be watching uh from other
parts of the country. We're here in Los
Angeles, the most diverse city in the
most diverse state, California, in the
world's most diverse democracy. It is a
point of pride. Uh we are a majority
minority state California. At our best
we don't tolerate that diversity. At our
best we celebrate that diversity. We're
a universal state. 27%
of Californians are foreignb born. You
heard the superintendent talk about all
the mixed status families. Our status is
unique in the United States of America.
It's what makes California great. It's
what makes America great and it's under
assault by this administration. There's
a word that you've never heard uttered
from the president of the United States
lips. Uh certainly not Steven Miller and
that's pluralism. We practice pluralism.
It's a deep point of pride.
Those values are under assault to a
degree we could have never imagined.
For those of you here in Los Angeles,
you deeply absorb this. You deeply
understand this.
You saw your streets militarized. You
saw the president of the United States
who in his first term never sent the
military anywhere. Not overseas,
nowhere. In his second term, he sent the
United States Marines, active duty
Marines,
to the city of Los Angeles.
He federalized
4,000 of our National Guard. We said at
the time, it was a preview of things to
come. Folks thought that was hyperbolic.
They thought we were overstating it. Ask
the folks in Washington DC. asks the
folks uh other states like Illinois and
what's about to happen in Memphis.
We announced just a few weeks ago that
we were standing up and pushing back as
it relates to the rigging of elections.
We were at the democracy center in
Little Tokyo, the sacred site where we
were interning and busing the Japanese,
that shameful part of our past.
And what did the administration do? What
did Steven Miller do? What did Donald
Trump do? They sent masked men
to intimidate folks from walking in to
that event.
Masked men.
Poor soul that happened to be in the
area. Delivery guy delivering
strawberries was detained because he
just happened to be in the area.
Collateral damage disappeared.
These mass men had no identification.
These mass men did not provide any
information, name, badge number,
hidden from accountability,
any transparency, any oversight.
That's Trump's America. But it is not
the America we've grown up in. And so
we're pushing back against this. And
then Governor Nuome talks about the
important legislation that he is signing
into law. And he talks about how what
the Trump regime is doing is like a bad
sci-fi movie. We can't look away. He
says we need to act with authority and
most importantly with moral authority.
Here, watch this. Impact of these
policies all across this city, our state
and nation are terrifying. It's like a
dystopian sci-fi movie.
Unmarked cars, people in mass, people
quite literally disappearing, no due
process, no rights, no rights in a
democracy where we have rights.
Immigrants have rights and we have the
right to stand up and push back. And
that's what we're doing here today. This
is a disgrace.
This is an outrage what we have allowed
to happen in this country
and I could not be more proud of this
legislature, the legislative authors to
the community demanding more from all of
us at this moment to push back. I'll be
signing a bill the first in the nation
saying enough to ice unmask. What are
you afraid of?
What are you afraid of?
What are you afraid of?
[Applause]
If you're going to go out and you're
going to do enforcement,
provide an ID. Tell us which agency you
represent. Provide us basic information
that all local law enforcement is
required to provide.
have the decency
not to threaten people as they go to
school
to go out the parking lots proximate to
these schools to create chill
packed attendance
we talked to these kids they were saying
I've got one of you said I've got
friends they don't go on the metro
anymore it's a public space
so your superintendent had the decency
foresight and leadership to provide
transportation
That's Trump's America.
Hospitals.
You talk about health infrastructure.
You talk about community health.
People scared to death to even access a
community clinic for preventative
medicine. Worried that somehow they're
going to be turned in or someone without
identification looking like anyone else
with a mask on may just jump out of a
car and they may disappear.
So, I want to thank the legislative
leaders for asserting themselves and
providing me the privilege, the ability
to sign these laws, pushing back at this
moment. I thought John Stewart said it
best. This is not about the pronoun
police. This is about the secret police.
We're not North Korea, Mr. President.
We're not the Soviet Union. This is the
United States of America.
And I'm really proud of the state of
California and our state of mind that
we're pushing back against these
authoritarian tendencies and actions of
this administration.
ICE is now the largest private
police force in the United States of
America. And I say private because
increasingly
it appears to many of us that they have
sworn an oath to Donald Trump, not the
Constitution.
A private police force whose ranks are
going to grow by some 10,000
dwarfing the FBI and DEA.
only comparable staffing and investments
are you military operations around the
globe.
That's what Congress, the supine
leadership in Congress provided along
with the supine members
of the Supreme Court that have allowed
racial profiling on the basis of accent,
basis location, and skin color.
This is not America. And so we are
pushing back firmly. We're pushing back
using not just our formal authority but
perhaps the most important authority and
that's our moral authority. So, thank
you to the members of the legislature.
Thank you to the authors of these bills.
Uh it is my honor now to sign into law
uh four pieces of legislation that go in
effect immediately upon signature and
one on the masking that will formally go
into effect January of 2026. With that,
um let's sign. Well, there you have it,
folks. Let me know what you think. Hit
subscribe and let's get to 6 million
subscribers together. Want to stay
plugged in? Become a subscriber to our
Substack at midasplus.com. You'll get
daily recaps from Ron Filipowski, ad
free episodes of our podcast, and more
exclusive content only available at
midasplus.com.
[Music]

[admin]

Trump aide Homan accepted $50,000 in bribery sting operation, sources say
by Sarah N. Lynch
Reuters
September 22, 20259:18 AM MDT Updated 8 hours ago
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump- ... 025-09-21/


Washington, U.S., September 9, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

• Justice Department shut down Homan bribery probe
• Acting AG Bove criticized Homan probe as 'deep state' operation
• In undercover sting, Homan allegedly promised government contracts for bribe

WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover FBI agent last year in a since-closed U.S. Justice Department bribery investigation, two sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

In the alleged scheme, Homan promised immigration-related government contracts when he joined the Trump administration in exchange for the money, the sources said, speaking anonymously to discuss nonpublic investigations.

FBI Director Kash Patel ordered the investigation closed over the summer, one of the sources said. Homan could not be reached for comment.

“This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing," Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on Sunday.

"The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed.”

The probe into Homan started around August 2024 near the end of President Joe Biden's administration and stemmed from a separate national security investigation, one of the sources told Reuters.

In that unrelated probe, the target repeatedly brought up Homan, saying he was collecting bribes in exchange for future government contracts, the two sources told Reuters.

An undercover sting operation was set up, and Homan was caught on a recording accepting a $50,000 bribe in a bag from the restaurant chain Cava, the sources said.

Homan oversees the Trump administration's campaign of mass deportations of people in the country illegally. The White House said he has not been involved in awarding any contracts.

"He is a career law enforcement officer and lifelong public servant who is doing a phenomenal job on behalf of President Trump and the country,” Abigail Jackson, White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement.

A grand jury probe into Homan in the Western District of Texas was still in its early stages when Trump returned to the White House in January, the sources said.

Emil Bove, who was acting deputy attorney general and is now a federal judge, was briefed on the case in February, one of the sources said. In that exchange, he expressed displeasure with the probe and said it was an example of a "deep state" operation, referring to the idea that unelected officials secretly control the government.

The statement from Patel and Blanche said the probe was a "blatantly political investigation" and "yet another example of how the Biden Department of Justice was using its resources to target President Trump’s allies."

Homan was an official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Barack Obama and its acting director during Trump's first term.

During Trump's four years out of power, Homan ran a consulting business to help companies obtain immigration-related government contracts.

In the recorded sting operation, Homan claimed he would keep the bribe money in a trust until he had completed his service in the Trump administration, one of the sources said.

Not long after the meeting when he criticized the Homan probe, Bove separately ordered corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped, prompting career prosecutors to resign. The Justice Department has also largely dismantled the unit that prosecutes corruption cases, which took part in the Homan probe.

The now-closed probe into Homan was reported earlier by MSNBC.

Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Mark Porter and Cynthia Osterman

[admin]

ICE Assaults Congressional Candidate Kat Abughazaleh at Chicago Protest
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
September 23, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/23/kat_abughazaleh



Illinois Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh was thrown to the ground by ICE agents on Friday during a protest outside the Broadview Processing Center in Chicago, where immigrant detainees are held. At least 10 people were arrested as federal agents fired pepper balls and tear gas into the crowd, which was there to oppose the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”

“If they are willing to do that to a congressional candidate on camera in front of press, imagine what they are willing to do to their detainees behind boarded-up windows,” says Abughazaleh.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We end today’s show in Chicago, where Juan is. As at least 10 people were arrested in protests outside an ICE facility Friday, with federal immigration agents firing pepper balls and using tear gas on the crowd, Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh was thrown to the ground by ICE agents. People had rallied outside the facility to protest the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” which has led to the arrest of nearly 550 people in a sweeping crackdown on immigrants in the city.

We are going to Chicago, where we’re joined by Kat Abughazaleh, who is a progressive congressional candidate in Illinois’s 9th District, which includes Chicago.

Kat, welcome to Democracy Now! Describe what happened to you. We’re going to show the video.

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: Yeah, so, this is actually the third time that ICE has thrown me to the ground. I have been at this facility for the last three weeks every Friday morning, and I’ll be back this Friday. I encourage anyone in Illinois to join me, 7 to 9 a.m. at 1930 Beach Street, B-E-A-C-H. This was, as I said, the third time that ICE has done this to me. It was probably the most violent occasion of throwing me to the ground. But, essentially, a car was about to run over a fellow protester, and so I went to check on that person. And that was all the justification an officer needed to pick me up and throw me to the ground despite being half his size.

And what I really want to stress here is that is what these officers are willing to do when there is press and cameras around. The reason we are protesting at this facility is because they are committing human rights abuses within the Broadview processing facility. It is a processing facility, so people are not supposed to be kept there for more than 12 hours at a time, but they are being kept for days or weeks, without beds, without hot meals, with hygienic products. And if they are willing to do that to a congressional candidate on camera in front of press, imagine what they are willing to do to their detainees behind boarded-up windows.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Kat, you say you found two badges there. What did it say on the badges?

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: So, I have no idea, the people who have accosted me. I have no idea who they are. I have no idea who these men are. They have had masks and sunglasses and hats, sometimes when the sun is still down. We have seen two badge numbers the entire three weeks that we have been here — four weeks, if we include a vigil earlier in the summer — and they were just numbers. There was no name, and there was no identifying law enforcement agency. I have no idea if these men are actually affiliated with ICE. For all I know, this could just be random men who said, “I’m going to put on a mask and a costume I got from Spirit Halloween to make me feel like I’m in the Army, and go and rough up some protesters today.” We have no idea who these people are.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of what you know about the conditions in the Broadview facility, could you talk about that?

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: Yes, this Broadview facility is horrific. We’ve gotten reporting about dozens of people being kept in one cell. And these are our neighbors. These are pregnant women and grandmothers sleeping on concrete floors. I have not been inside the facility. Elected officials that have tried to inspect it have not been allowed inside. But I can attest that two weeks ago, when I saw prisoners being marched into a van, they were in the same clothes they were detained in, and we have no idea how long they’ve been in there, and they were in the same clothes they were detained in. The conditions at this facility are horrendous. They are committing crimes against humanity. And it is so important to remember that all of the treatment that we went through as protesters doesn’t hold a candle to what these detainees are dealing with. I mean, ICE agents shot and killed a man two Fridays ago in the Chicago area. They are able to act with impunity. They are able to hurt whoever they want. Last Friday was the first time they had taken protesters inside the facility.

And while the video of me being thrown to the ground has gone kind of viral, I want to talk about a few other things that happened that day, because they haven’t been covered as much. We had to play tug of war with a man’s body to keep him from being abducted inside the facility. Right before we were tear-gassed, ICE was carrying a van with a protester that had been detained inside of the van. We stood arm in arm. All this is happening on Broadview public property, on public streets. They tried to ram the van through us. A man fell in front of the van, and the van was going to drive over his head, and I helped him up before that happened. But they were totally willing to do that. They shot a man in the face with a pepper ball bullet. They tear-gassed us as they were trying to drive a car through a crowd. And then, after that, they threw a tear gas canister at the press area, very intentionally, after protesters were already dispersing, because, you know, we were coughing and trying to get tear gas out of our eyes.

AMY GOODMAN: Kat Abughazaleh, you are running for Congress, a congressional candidate in Illinois’s 9th District, which includes Chicago. The election is in November of ’26, the ultimate election. Why are you running for Congress?

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: I’m a researcher and journalist who covers the far right. I have spent my career deradicalizing and educating people on far-right narratives and misinformation. I have spent my career, just as my colleagues have, trying to get Democrats to put up a resistance to the far right, to understand that the old playbook is gone and that it’s not coming back. And I don’t feel like our leaders are doing that. And so I got sick of waiting around, and I decided to run the type of campaign I think we should.

And that is with unapologetic progressivism, anti-fascism and using our resources to materially improve people’s lives right now. So, we do voter outreach, but our campaign office also doubles as a mutual aid hub. We don’t ask for $500 a plate at an event. For our kickoff event, for instance, we asked people to bring a box of pads or tampons for Chicago’s Period Collective. We are about mobilizing people on the ground right now and making politics as accessible as possible, while also not compromising on basic human rights.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you’re running for the seat to replace Jan Schakowsky, who’s retiring. There are several other candidates running in that field right now. Why do you think that voters would be best choosing you as the candidate?

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: You know, Illinois does a lot of things right, and that’s the reason they aren’t dealing with, until very recently, people like Stephen Miller and Elon Musk on a daily basis. I have been. I am the only candidate in my race with a track record of fighting and winning against the far right.

I am the most effective communicator in my race. And I am the only candidate in my race to have the majority of her money come from small-dollar donations. We’ve raised over a million dollars, and our average donation is just 32 bucks. We have over 7,000 volunteers, and that’s not because I’m some force. It’s because people want progressive policies. They want commonsense policies. They want a center that recenters —

AMY GOODMAN: Five seconds.

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: — actual voters. And that’s what we deserve from our leaders.

AMY GOODMAN: Kat Abughazaleh, I want to thank you for being with us, progressive congressional candidate in Illinois’s 9th District, which includes Chicago. That does it for our show. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

***************************

No Secret Police Act: CA Gov. Signs Law Against Masked ICE Agents; Feds Say They Won’t Comply
September 23, 2025

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/23/ ... police_act



California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the No Secret Police Act into law this week, banning all law enforcement — including federal immigration agents — from covering their faces while conducting raids in the state.

“What this law is trying to do is to take us back from the era of routine masking based on completely foundationless officer claims of fear,” says Eva Bitran, the director of immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Southern California.

Trump administration officials have already vowed to ignore the California law, “and this is why we need to have a federal solution that will apply nationwide,” says New York Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, who has introduced the No Masks for ICE Act in Congress. “This administration is out of control, and it’s affecting everyone.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now to California, where Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law the No Secret Police Act, banning all law enforcement, including ICE agents, from covering their faces while conducting raids. The ban is a response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles and other areas where ICE officials made mass arrests while heavily masked. This is Governor Newsom speaking before signing the legislation.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM: The impact of these policies, all across this city, our state and nation, are terrifying. It’s like a dystopian sci-fi movie — unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing, no due process, no rights, no rights in a democracy where we have rights. Immigrants have rights. And we have the right to stand up and push back.

AMY GOODMAN: The new California law was quickly denounced by Trump administration officials, including Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at Homeland Security. She said, quote, “A sanctuary politician is trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers,” unquote.

The acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, didn’t just denounce the law, but said ICE agents should not follow it. This is U.S. Attorney Essayli during an interview with KCAL News.

BILL ESSAYLI: We’re not going to follow it. The law has no force or effect on federal agencies. The state of California has no jurisdiction to regulate anything that we do in the federal government. And I’ve instructed our agents to disregard it. So we will continue doing our operations as we have been doing them. The reason the officers wear face masks…

AMY GOODMAN: We’re now joined by two guests. Eva Bitran is the director of immigrants’ rights at the ACLU of Southern California, joining us from Riverside, California. And in Harlem, we’re joined by New York Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, who introduced the No Masks for ICE Act in Congress, which would bar agents nationally from wearing facial coverings during enforcement actions and require them to wear clothing displaying their name and affiliation with iCE.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Eva Bitran, let’s begin with you in California. The significance of the No Secret Agents Act being signed into law, and yet Trump officials saying, “Do not follow the law,” to ICE agents? Talk about where this law came from.

EVA BITRAN: This law came from the enormous siege of our immigrant people here in Southern California that we have seen the federal government, beginning in June, carry out all the way until now. What we saw were bands of masked, powerfully armed and really swiftly moving federal agents kidnapping our community members. And that’s what prompted California to react, to say this is not how we handle our immigrant people. For us, it is important that due process prevail, that transparency prevail, and that we free our people from the kind of siege of kidnappers that’s come out to Southern California.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Eva, some people have criticized this law because it has loopholes, that it allows mask exceptions for SWAT teams and undercover operations. How do you respond to those concerns?

EVA BITRAN: My understanding is that what this law is trying to do is to take us back from the era of routine sort of masking based on completely foundationless officer claims of fear, and back to sort of the technical necessities that officers would claim in previous years or previous administrations. And the loopholes are designed to sort of protect for that.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’d like to bring in U.S. Congressmember Nydia Velázquez. Welcome back to Democracy Now! I wanted to ask you about the legislation that you’ve introduced. What are the specifics of the legislation, and also your hopes, your expectations of whether it can pass or not?

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Good morning, and thank you for having me, Amy and Juan.

So, as you can — as you see, the Trump administration is already saying that they are not going to comply with the law passed by California. And this is why we need to have a federal solution, that it will apply nationwide, and it will ban the use of masks, and it will require for any ICE agent to wear a uniform that clearly has their names and badge numbers, so that there is transparency and accountability.

AMY GOODMAN: Eva Bitran, I just wanted to ask you: What does this mean? As Congressmember Velázquez tries to introduce a federal solution, which would require these federal agents, on the ground, what is this now going to look like? First of all, it doesn’t go into force, the No Secret Police Act, for — until next year. Is that right? And how do you get ICE agents to comply, if the No Masks bill is not passed in Congress?

EVA BITRAN: So, that’s right that the bill does not go into effect until next year, but what we are really seeing is our communities coming out to demand an end altogether, masked or unmasked, to the lawless and unconstitutional raids that we have seen ICE carrying out here. We’ve seen people in the streets peacefully asking for ICE to leave our community neighbors alone. We’ve seen Rapid Response Networks. We’ve seen community defense initiatives to keep people safe. And we know that’s the path forward, whether or not legislation is in effect.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, and I’d like to go back to Representative Velázquez. The ICE data shows, for instance, in New York, that there’s been nearly a sixfold increase in immigration detentions, going from 500 last year to almost 2,800 in the first seven months of this year. What is — what has been your experience as these ICE dragnets have spread across the country and even in your state?

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Well, people are terrorized. Families do not want to — parents do not want to go to bring their children to school, to take the subway, to even be — appear before an immigration judge, because they know that they could be ambushed by ICE agents in those federal courts. People are terrorized. And this is the whole purpose of this mass deportation. It’s just to terrorize, to instill fear.

And my message to America is that we live in a country with laws. And everyone, every person, whether you are undocumented or not, you have a right to due process. And this is — this use of police tactics, of agents wearing masks, of ambushing people in the streets in front of school children, is undermining safety and security in our communities. And we have to have a federal response.

This administration is out of control, and it’s affecting everyone, not only — not only undocumented, bystanders, who sometimes when they witness on masked — not only masked agents, but cars that are not identified, they think that a kidnap is taking place, but also it incentivizes criminals to wear masks so that they could commit crimes and assault immigrants in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about Federal Plaza, 26 Federal Plaza, Congressmember Velázquez. A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction to improve the conditions at this notorious ICE jail inside this federal building in Manhattan. Immigrants have described being imprisoned for days or weeks at a time in overcrowded cells, without access to medication or proper sanitation, forced to sleep on the concrete floor, left hungry, without outside contact. In the last week, something like 11 of your fellow Democratic elected officials were arrested. Does ICE’s use of masks, do you think, directly connect to their refusal to allow transparency in these facilities, that now a federal judge is saying must be scrutinized? You just — most recently, City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is campaigning around the city with Zohran Mandani, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams were among those arrested. Lander was arrested again.

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Yes. You know, I have attempted three times — two times, twice, with Jerry Nadler, Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, to enter 26 Federal Plaza. And every time, they have not allowed us to go into the 10th floor. Adriano Espaillat and myself, we forced ourselves to get into the 10th floor, but not into the detention facility itself, because they prevented us.

They keep lying. They’re saying that there is not a detention facility, that it’s a processing center. Yet we have seen videos that shows how crowded they are, and it is, and the unsanitary conditions, the lack of meals, showers and so on. So, the judge instructed them to improve the conditions. But not only do they lie, they are in violation of the statute, because we are within our legal right as members of Congress to go there and inspect the conditions of those facilities, and time and again, they prevent us from exercising our oversight responsibility.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I just have one more question for —

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: And so, again, this is —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I’m sorry, I just have one more question for Eva before we break. There have been —

REP. NYDIA VELÁZQUEZ: Sure.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: As the congresswoman said, there’s been numerous arrests, up to more than 80 arrests, of people who have been trying to assist these migrants when they’re being rounded up by ICE. What is the ACLU’s recommendation to people who are trying to support immigrants in these crises?

EVA BITRAN: Yeah, we are really thankful to community members, immigrant and otherwise, who are coming out to give real testimony and witness to what’s happening here. We continue to recommend that community members, if it is safe to do so, show up and record with their phones the interactions that are happening around them, to really give witness and also to force some transparency on what have been incredibly secretive operations. We also know that it’s important for people to have Know Your Rights information. And we’ve seen our community members, Rapid Response Network members shouting out Know Your Rights information to people as they are being detained, which has also been really powerful.

At the ACLU, we have litigation that’s been defending the rights of protesters who have been outraged about what’s happening to immigrant neighbors here in L.A., as well as litigation both about the conditions at the short-term holding facilities and as well as at the sort of conduct of these unconstitutional operations.

So, we are watching. Community is watching. Our neighbors are looking out for one another. We know that what happens in L.A. becomes the blueprint for the rest of the country with these enforcement operations, and we’re also trying to model how to mount a proper civil response.

AMY GOODMAN: Eva Bitran, I want to thank you for being with us, director of immigrant rights at the ACLU of Southern California. And thank you to Congressmember Nydia Velázquez, who introduced the No Mask for ICE Act in Congress. We just mentioned Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani. She has endorsed Zohran Mamdani. We’re hoping to have the New York City mayoral candidate on Democracy Now! tomorrow.

Next, we go to Chicago, where ICE agents threw a Democratic congressional candidate to the ground. Back in 15 seconds.

[admin]

Kristi Noem FREAKS OUT Over Gavin Newsom Post Amid Horrific ICE Raid Chaos
The Damage Report
Sep 23, 2025 #TheDamageReport #JohnIadarola #TheYoungTurks

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem rages over a tweet from Gavin Newsom over his order to block ICE agents from wearing masks despite the horrific chaos, targeted traps, family destruction and gross tweets ICE has created. John Iadarola and Viviana Vigil break it down on The Damage Report. Leave a comment with your thoughts below!

Read more here:

Kristi Noem Rips Gavin Newsom’s ‘Menacing’ Post About Her: ‘Panicked My Family and Friends’ - https://www.mediaite.com/politics/kri...

"Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem called out California Gov. Gavin Newsom for writing a “menacing” post about her on Monday, telling Fox News it sent her family and friends into a panic.

Newsom received backlash on social media after his press office wrote, “Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today. You’re welcome, America,” just weeks after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University.

Responding to the post on Fox News’ Hannity, Monday, Noem said:

It was cryptic and it was really menacing, I would say, Sean. It immediately panicked my family and friends. Within, I would say, a couple of minutes of that being posted I started to get text messages and phone calls."

Transcript

[Kristi Noem] It was cryptic, and it was really
menacing. I would say Sean, it
immediately panicked my family and
friends.

So, Kristi Noem is now running to
the news to be like, "My family, my
friends are all terrified."

Did something happened to you? Are you going to be
okay? Well, wait. What was this cryptic
and menacing comment? Well, we showed it
to you yesterday. It was put out by
Gavin Newsom's press office. It was
this:

Kristi Noem is going to have a
bad day today.

You're welcome, America.

And as we showed yesterday, it was
because he was signing a bill that was
going to stop ICE from masking while
terrorizing the people of California.
That's it. And Noem is freaking out
like, "Everybody thought I was about to
be murdered. Everybody thought that was
it for me. It's Gavin Newsom. He
tweeted it."

Does anybody think that
Gavin Newsom was going to rub out the
head of the Department of Homeland
Security. And if Gavin Newsom was going
to do that, was he going to tweet about
it? No. Nobody believes this, even a person
that is crazy as Kristi Noem,
and perpetually looks crazy like Kristi Noem,
could actually believe that. But
she's got to get something out of this.
She's got to make a big to-do. And the
to-do continues in this clip.

Within, I would say, a couple of minutes
of that being posted, I started to get
text messages and phone calls, family,
my kids saying, "Are you okay, mom?
Are you fine?" They know the threats
that I've had. They know the threats
that they've had, the things that have
happened to them because of politicians
like this that say things, and somebody
grabs on to them that has an agenda. The
cartels and criminals that have
threatened our family already.

You know, Gavin Newsom, cartel leader,
radical Gavin, violent Gavin Newsom.
These people are absolute clowns.
They're not deserving of any respect.
And I know it's not like you were
probably predisposed to give any to
Kristi anyway, but these people are
such whiny babies. [u][size=120]They want to be
victims more than they want to be
anything.
Because if if they can pitch
themselves as victims, then they can
strike back. They're the ones assaulting
our constitution. She's the one
assaulting LA, let alone cities
around the country. They're the ones
trampling on our rights. And if we just
allow that to be the truth, if everybody
agrees on that, well, then they look
really bad. But if oh god, they're the
minority, then I guess it's okay for them to take away our
rights, and crack your skull open,
or whatever. And that's what this is all
really about.

Her freaking out in
that way was performative.
Nobody, nobody, thought that Gavin Newsome
was going to do something violent. It's
pathetic. And if we had a serious
right-wing media, she would have gotten
much more pushback in that appearance,
but unfortunately that didn't happen.
Viviana, what do you think?

A couple things, John. I love that her
children are just glued to Gavin
Newsom's Twitter. Just minutes
later, they're like "Mom, are you okay? I'm following
Gavin Newsom." But you know what,
Kristi, you know who's grabbing on to
people? ICE. YOUR GOONS. They're
grabbing on to people in my community.
It's YOU terrorizing cities across the
country. You're afraid for your life
because of a tweet that the governor of
California is saying that? I mean,
ridiculous.

You're absolutely
on point, John. It's this victim
mentality that is used to justify
further violence, further threats. I
mean, nobody has been more threatening
than Kristi Noem. I mean, maybe it's a difficult call
to make, but she has been extremely
threatening the last several months to
cities all over the country. And for her
to cry up there with her puffed-up lips,
as if she's really scared -- we know you're
not scared.

But I will say I loved it when Gavin Newsom's team came
out with this Trump-like response. And I'm getting a little
sick of it, to be honest. Okay, it was funny.
Let's be serious. We don't want to
be them. We don't want their
whole thing. They are not like us. They
co-opted that slogan.
Just be you, dude." They use everything
as cannon fodder. So like just be the
governor that you were before. We have
our questions about as well.

But these kind of jokes, when
when Trump's administration does it,
they don't even respond, you know, and
they don't even justify them. But here,
yeah, here we are. They make excuses for Gavin
when he's joking. I don't I don't know
at Gavin Newsom's core what he is. So,
I don't know if he's being himself or
whatever. I do know that six
months ago he was like doing podcasts
with Steve Bannon. So this is
better than that, I guess. Like, if he's
going to be an act, I prefer the tough guy act.
But, but I think that there are other people who I
think are a little bit more comfortable
being authentically themselves. And maybe we'll hash all of that out
in the primary when it comes.

But yeah, Kristi Noem is going to be
absolutely fine. She's not in any danger,
like any dog would be while in the same
room as her. So I think that she's
going to be just fine.

Let's move on to a little bit more Kristi
Noem news on her job performance. Kristi Noem's
incompetence regularly rears its head.
Her response to natural disasters. When
we need DHS to work, it unfortunately
can't, because she doesn't know what
she's doing. She doesn't seem interested
in the job. She's only interested in the
photo opportunities. And the bad
press that she's gotten, because she's
doing such a bad job, has apparently
rubbed her the wrong way. So, she's
apparently very mad. And we're getting
behind-the-scenes reports of this,
which we'll give you the specifics on,
but just understand she does not appear
to be mad about the failures of DHS.
She's not mad about the fact that aid
wasn't doled out in a timely fashion,
that lives might have actually been lost
because of her incompetence, and because
of the policy changes that she
championed. No, she's just mad that
people are acknowledging it.

So don't take this as a sign that maybe
she'll do better in the future. She
doesn't seem to think that she needs to.
She's addressing this in the same way
that Donald Trump is, and the others.
She doesn't want critical press,
basically.

But unfortunately, her position is an
important one. These are
life and death matters. So, it's kind
of unfortunate for America that she's
not committed to doing better in the
future.

But here's one of the policy
changes that she made that ended up
with her getting a lot of bad press. She
announced in June that she would need to
personally sign off on all payments
exceeding $100,000 for disaster relief. The previous
threshold for the secretary of the
department to sign off on was $25
million. So, she drastically took it
down, because she wanted to be a doggy
person. She wanted to be like Elon Musk.
"I'm going to weed out the waste, fraud,
and abuse." The issue is that frequently,
things cost more than $100,000. And
frequently when it comes to DHS, when it
comes to FEMA, time is of the
essence. A

So in July, the secretary
waited four days to sign off on crucial
aid for Texas flood victims, delaying
the deployment of urban search and
rescue crews, and leaving thousands of
disaster assistance calls unanswered
because FEMA didn't renew a
contract for hundreds of call center
workers, because she didn't sign it. Now,
when she was going to sign it
herself, it took 4 days, I think that
deserves congressional oversight.

How many photo ops did she do? How many
costume changes did she do in those four
days as people in Texas desperately
needed help?

Anyway, there was a lot
of negative press, including from the
damage report over that. And after the
press picked up on this change, and the
delay, her chief of staff,
Corey Luwandowski, who is widely
believed to also be her partner
behind the scenes, got together and got
mad at the staff. They were
screaming at them. A DHS employee said the level
of disrespect and screaming at everybody
in the room was really
shocking, and they were taken aback. They also
accused the people in the room of lining
their pockets from government contracts,
which seemed like projection to the
people listening who had nothing to do
with the criticism they were facing.

Another former DHS staffer said that it
was clear that Noem and Luwandowski,
who's heavily involved in the
department's contract work, were
embarrassed by the coverage, feeding off
one another's negative energy, which is,
I assume, the vibe of their
relationship. Noem dropped multiple
F-bombs. But you can swear all you want.
You can take a great day out
to a gravel pit to work your
feelings out. But that's not actually
going to solve the fundamental problem,
which is that you don't take this job
seriously. You think that it's about
dressing up like a fireman, like a chef,
and then taking a photo or whatever, and
spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars to make yourself look cool, cuz
you have a vain idea that someday you're
going to be the President or something.

No, you're supposed to be making
sure that the homeland is secure, that
we're protected. And until you actually
take that seriously, you're going to
keep getting negative press like this.
Viviana, what do you make of this?

You're right on point, John. You know,
there are serious consequences to
her incompetence ,and her greed,
frankly, because I do believe there's a
lot of grifting going on as well. It's a
really serious job to be the
director of homeland security. We do
have legitimate terrorist threats
against the country that we need to
protect, but the anger, and the hate of
the people that are okay with the ICE
raids, and the crackdown on undocumented
people, are blinding them to the harm
that this woman is causing them
directly. And I wonder how long it's
going to take for them to wake up, and
see that this is not helping them at
all.

You remember when Biden got in,
and he gave Secretary of
Transportation to Pete Buttigieg.
I think a lot of people were like, "Well
what experience does he have to merit
that?" It felt like he helped out Biden during the campaign, and
and the Democratic party says,
"We're going to give you position. But it's an important
position, and there were some
challenges, and failures
in that area. And maybe if Pete had more
experience, the response would have been
better. I do think that he tried over
the four years to take it seriously, even if it's just
pure ambition. He seemed to know that
doing the job well would help him.

We're almost a year into this, and what
has Kristi Noem done? She poses with guns.
She poses with trucks. She poses with
helicopters and planes and acts like, "Oh,
I'm the one steering the boat", or
whatever. Like, "This is not serious."
And I know that she just sees it
as a stepping stone to something.

But a lot of families are being hurt.
We've potentially lost a lot of families.
There are few positions more singularly
critical than being Secretary of
Homeland Security. And she treats it
like it's a podcast, or like she's
an Instagram influencer, just going
to take some photos or
whatever. And unfortunately, it's more
important than that.

And so, another reason, by the way, why I would love for
the midterms to go well for the
Democrats, is for getting her in there to
answer some questions for these missteps, that I
think would be great for America.
[Music]

_______________

COMMENTS:

@rclayman4432
2 minutes ago
The ttRump regime is full of nothing but BIG BABIES! What am embarrassment!

@dyssent8744
3 minutes ago (edited)
She is FULL of shit
And herself.

@mm4884_fp
6 minutes ago (edited)
oh brother. White woman tears

@ustunod9645
7 minutes ago
You, head of home whatever. Grow some balls, like when you shot your dog.

@taintedlife2618
7 minutes ago
What a whiner. Who gives a damn about her.

@CarlExsted-oe9fb
7 minutes ago
What a lame excuse she works for the government get Real you’re a grown woman who shoots dogs and you can’t take a remark from Newsome. I think you have serious problems in your head.

@rhoca_sings
8 minutes ago
Oh my, clutch my effing pearls. Give me a damn break, Cosplay Kristi and cry me a river. Nothing about that tweet was menacing and you know it. You’re a pathetic puppy killer. So, cry me a river while your goons go out TERRORIZING innocent people, smashing their car windows, wearing masks, not identifying themselves, literally KILLING people who are rightfully in fear of their lives, then lying about it and trying to cover it up. Ugh! The whole lot of them are lying, disgusting, dishonest fascist C.H.U.D.s (look it up)

@pabloteveni7099
10 minutes ago
There should be a nickname for Trump's motley cabinet of sycophants, dimwits, villains, and monsters. How about Donald's Dime-a-Dozen Dummies or the evil entourage or Trump's Terrible Troupe?

@DickieNuts
11 minutes ago
She better calm down. She gets too heated, the ass fat they cranked into those fugly duck lips is going to melt and seep out of her massive pores.

@MA-dr1wj
12 minutes ago
You really want to talk of unconstitutional? Bunch of hypocrites. The trump culitists have no right to even try to be sanctimonious when you are promoting militarized policing, weaponizing the government against perceived "enemies ", and applauding violating rights to freedom of speech, religion, and right to protest if its even remotely different than the neo nazi mentality. Bunch of despicable hypocritical tyrant terrrorists.

@c.s.7266
12 minutes ago
She's no victim

@martyroberson1761
14 minutes ago
All your troubles are your own fault ice barbie. Stop being so dramatic you POS

@Tsimy876
14 minutes ago
More Botox!! Was there a special at Costco?

@VerdantHuman
16 minutes ago
Typical HYPE by Noem over nothing at all. Whats next Christy? Did a bush or plant look sinisterly at you too? Go and ARREST IT! The Trump Admin creates its own bad days every day - with total incompetence and stellar lack of performance on EVERY FRONT in every portfolio.

@Tsimy876
18 minutes ago
Probably a burning bush. But then a puppy put out the flamer by lifting its leg on it - so she Noem'd the puppy!!!

@Vivy-vixen
16 minutes ago
I wonder why you're getting death treats This lady is full of [SHIT.]

@Vivy-vixen
18 minutes ago
Thank you Mr Newsom!!!!! We can wish!!!

@michaelh8890
20 minutes ago
Noem is SO friggn stupid

@madielynn53
26 minutes ago
Please freak out Noam you nut ball. Just Please, Please, go away you plastic winey face.

@DavidMason-j4b
26 minutes ago
this whole story is complete BULL SHIT --- - this Witch is as dumb as tRUMP Is -- put the dingdong in jail !! Liar Liar Pants on fire !! where is the BIG DOG KILLER ??? messing her pants it seems

@JB-tr6nu
29 minutes ago
Hypocrisy and lies keep maga united.

@lisamills161
30 minutes ago
Hi Dear People on Damage Report. There is a toxic MAGA troll ComicChrisBook (I call him ComicPaedoTurd for good reason) who has spilled his effluence from TYT Investigates (where he is wholly ignored) to this site. The other day, he dragged up a previous name of ComicBookGuy. A putrid, and impenetrably stupid Maga person, elderly (70), homophobe, misogynist, and racist from Tucson who purports to sit on a school board whilst having said this about his own female children. I quote "Ask my daughter and granddaughter whether or not I am a virgin" Euuchhhh. He has a son too! Why not ask his son. Try to ignore (as he revels and gloats over every reply and deliberately taunts decent people to get replies), but if you can't, just ask him if he has stepped down from the school board yet and back to jail (where he has been four times). Cheers NB All info from the troll himself.

@briannicholson5130
31 minutes ago
“Crater Face “ needs to look in the mirror and see the damage that she has caused to families by tearing them apart!!!

@MeMyrrh
31 minutes ago
Too many drama queens in the current administration. Geez.

@ellenrainwalker9173
32 minutes ago (edited)
This horrible woman is such a whiny little snowflake if anyone jokes about her, but she has no problem killing puppies.

@Duckster183
33 minutes ago
Taste of your own medicine Kristie! How do you think all the nonwhite people you’re taking off the streets feel?!

@YT-GoDiSwAtChInG
34 minutes ago (edited)
You forgot they like to hold children hostage to get to the parents. Like the 5 yr old austic child they held to get the father out of the home. May they real what they sow.

@HankZadid
34 minutes ago (edited)
Oh Yeah, Bimbo ICE Goon, BOTOX Lips?
Pray that her Family shits bricks every day and the soul of the dog she shot terrorizes these GNOME Snow !! Newsom’s Speech is protected by 1st Amendment !!

@FernandoPerez-wb1re
37 minutes ago
Kristi "Botox Barbie" Noem wants pity and empathy from Americans now but that wretched whore Kristi Noem showed no compassion to human beings she was deporting and imprisoning she only brought upon them woe, despair, grief and sorrow. Maga is nothing but a plague that's been unleashed upon America and it needs to be eradicated.

@Floer-esch
37 minutes ago
I have to disagree on Viviana's take on Gavin Newsom. He needs to keep holding up the mirror but needs help from others to highlight that it is a mirror and not his actual content. He's trying to show how insane the right is using their own words and methods.

@dianaddimich4933
38 minutes ago
These people are atrocious. Whiners and hypocrites. Yea be afraid of a governor. Like he really would threaten her. Go a pair, and feel scared like your immigrants feel everyday. Baby!

@Hawkshaw3030
42 minutes ago
Please don't get her shooting innocent dogs

@gregmuon
42 minutes ago
Snowflakes.

@TruthAICanada
43 minutes ago
MAGA TEARS

misslamarr
48 minutes ago
My life is a terrifying mess with Trump in office!!!

@farcebrook
49 minutes ago
Jiminy Cricket! At least she was more outraged when DJT said Bernie's gonna have a bad day
Cheers to single standards, unless you want to make yours a double

@kirastars
50 minutes ago
It's like she's talking about Trump and how many manipulate people.

@MrSixxshooter
51 minutes ago
This woman is extremely dangerous . Very dark times for our country .

@talonanthony
1 hour ago
Disaster of plastic surgery on that one

@BarryCorcoran-fj2td
1 hour ago
BoBo is into rubbing out at the theater.

@MichaelVaughn-c3v
1 hour ago
The entirety of the Admin are drama queens and are delusional, clinically delusional

@junekemp5646
1 hour ago
Wow, what a snowflake. She shots and kills a puppy and freaks out over a post.

@sierra9614
1 hour ago
Too bad her face can no longer move to convey all the 'fear" she experienced by a tweet! The lady that haunts the dreams of puppies across the nation, needs to get a grip, no one is buying her shit

@RonaldPhan-r3z
1 hour ago
Gavin Newsom is always trolling Kristi Noem because she is a puppy killer and a devil woman.

@benwa-m2s
1 hour ago
of course that cruel twat thought she will be murdered, it is because she wants to murder everybody. every accusation is an admission with these boneheads

@BarryCorcoran-fj2td
1 hour ago
I thought maybe Kristi dreamt about Cricket, the goat and the pony. I guess it's just another hypocritical snowflake displaying their PVS - Perpetual Victim Syndrome.

@creativedesignsolutions7310
1 hour ago
Her family knows she is BatSh** crazy.

@americansfortruthandjustic7504
1 hour ago
Gavin didn’t even invite her behind the barn.

@lourdesperez2861
1 hour ago
Get out of politics and no more threats, this comes with the job

@davidv7275
1 hour ago
Kinda tough to feel sorry for this life and family destroyer of 100's of thousands people. Poor Kristi.

@sandralovell5624
1 hour ago
Hey, Ice Barbie! You forgot to add how afraid the homeless people are as well now that your friend, Killmeade has announced on the Fox show that they should all be involuntarily euthanized! Yes, "just kill them", he said! And then somebody did just that to some of these people! I will never in my life step foot back in the United States! I always knew that there were a lot of crazies there, but now they're running the country!! Actually, they're running the country into the ground. What a hellhole America has become.

@tonysu8860
1 hour ago
Biggest issue is whether California has any way to put teeth in that bill to require unmasking and identification by federal law enforcement.
Trump has been pushing boundaries whenever he doesn't see a penalty.
Will California law enforcement be empowered to confront, arrest, incarcerate and expel violators of the act? Maybe even deport to South Sudan and Uganda or anywhere else?

@Steven-k2n1t
1 hour ago
Trying to start shit

@chriscorey5164
1 hour ago (edited)
Oh, puh-leeze…they’re just so anxious to be victims. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so damn pathetic.

@SharonVero3
1 hour ago
Why would anyone bother to rub her out??

@erkang2359
1 hour ago
Ugly Magabitch, you are looking frustrated....kill a dog, but let it be a Maga dog

@drfranks1158
1 hour ago
has won, no one is talking about the TRUMPSTEIN FILES anymore

(didn't take long did it)

@rubenramirez1216
1 hour ago
cankles says stuff

@timothypayne78
1 hour ago
Please let her get what karma a psycho freak deserves

@rubenramirez1216
1 hour ago
she's stupid

@1oldgar
1 hour ago
Puddy ssy

@permasteve4184
1 hour ago
Maga would believe it, you bet your booty

@JoYoon-yo4qu
1 hour ago
Does Kristi Noem realize the threats that hre puppy, horse and goat gets every time she shows her face on TV.

@damonhines8187
1 hour ago
F.T.H.O. YOU DERANGED TW@T!!
Why are we subjected ad infinitum to this c**t's bleatings. Stop grabbing people, including citizens and other legal residents, off the MOTHERF**KING streets!!

@wendellmccain4303
1 hour ago
This is the lipstick pig that runs around thinking she is gi Jane crying like the little bi**h she is. Just trying to suck up any sympathy she thinks she deserves. No sympathy here for the fake loser

@mazzamonk
1 hour ago
She killed people

@MaryKuczko-m5x
1 hour ago
She only in danger by a crazed maga with a gun ! No Democrats likes her enough to shoot her lmao

@RMSBones
1 hour ago
WHY ARE YOU NOT REPORTING THE EXECUTIVE ORDER!!!! Am I crazy?

@GaryKemp-t4j
1 hour ago
Cartels and criminals, oh my. She’s lying. Can’t Corey protect her.

@ambesa1
1 hour ago
As an American that appreciates our constitution, bill of rights, & declaration of independence—-this regime can eat a 8- pack of hot dogs.

@wyntahsummah9547
1 hour ago
She is sickening, so fake disgusting

Want to hang out with us Drapes tonight?




MRS. VERNON-WILLIAMS: Allison Vernon-Williams, get in this car.


BALDWIN: What's the trouble, honey?


These hoodlums bothering you?


Grandmother, Baldwin, this is Wade Walker.


WADE: They call me Cry-Baby.
This here is my sister, Pepper.


PEPPER: Greetings, Granny-o.




BALDWIN: Allison's my girl, so hands off, Cry-Baby


WADE: You could have fooled me, Square.


Mrs. Vernon-Williams, I hear you're having a talent show
at your charm school today.


MRS. VERNON WILLIAMS: I can barely imagine what you would call music.


WADE: I can sing pretty good.


MRS. VERNON WILLIAMS: "Well," not "good."
Haven't you ever heard of the English language?


PEPPER: Don't go flip out, mama.


HATCHET FACE: Yeah. Sometimes shook-up old ladies get cut.


C'mon honey.


They're just bums.


WANDA: Mr. Puniverse wants a fat lip.


ALLISON: I'd like to hear you sing...

"PLEASE MR. JAILER" SCREENCAP GALLERY
"Please Mr. Jailer," song from the Cry Baby soundtrack
"Please Mr. Jailer" Little Movie (DVD)

-- Cry-Baby, written and directed by John Waters, Starring Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Polly Bergen, Iggy Pop, Rikki Lake, Traci Lords, Kim McGuire, Darren E. Burrows, Stephen Mailer, Kim Webb, Alan J. Wendl, Troy Donahue, Mink Stole and Joe Dallesandro, © 1989 Universal Studios

[admin]

We Put A Mirror Up To The Absurdity Of Donald Trump - How Gov. Newsom Got Under The President’s Skin
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Sep 24, 2025 #GavinNewsom #StephenColbert #GovernorNewsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom comments on his use of social media to beat the president at his own game, and argues that Democrats as a whole need to go on the offensive now before it’s too late. Stick around for two more segments with Gov. Newsom.



***

“I Fear We Will Not Have An Election In 2028 Unless We Wake Up” - Gov. Gavin Newsom
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Sep 24, 2025 #GavinNewsom #StephenColbert #GovernorNewsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom issues a stark warning about President Trump’s efforts to “rig” the 2026 midterm elections, and what it could mean for 2028. Stick around for more with Gov Newsom.



Transcript

>> Stephen: WE'RE BACK WITH THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA,
GAVIN NEWSOM. TELL US ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE
HEALTH POLICY YOU'RE PUTTING TOGETHER WITH WEST COAST DATES.
WHAT DO YOU CALL THIS? >> Governor Newsom: WEST COAST
OFFENSE, WESTERN ALLIANCE. >> Stephen: OKAY.
WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING? WHAT'S THE AGREEMENT?
>> Governor Newsom: I RUN THE LARGEST PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM IN
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CALIFORNIA, SIZE OF 21 STATE
POPULATIONS COMBINED. SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST
SCIENTISTS, RESEARCHERS, NOBEL LAUREATES.
AS A CONSEQUENT WE ARE ADVANCING AN INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC REVIES
TO COUNTER THE MISS INFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION COMING FROM
THE CDC. PUBLIC HEALTH.
>> Stephen: WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE NA AGENT CDC IS
HEARTBREAKING TO ME. MY DAD WAS A IMMUNOLOGIST AT THE
NIH UNDER KENNEDY AND I LOVE SEEING THIS PERSONALLY BUT TELL
THE PEOPLE WHY IT'S IMPORTANT THERE ARE GOVERNMENTAL
INSTITUTIONS THAT ARE GOING TO CERTIFY AND SAY THESE ARE THE
TREATMENTS OF THESE DRUGS. WHAT IS IT MEAN IN TERMS OF
INSURANCE? >> Governor Newsom: WE
REQUIRED THAT INSURERS PROVIDE INSURANCE AND COVER THE COST OF
ALL THESE VACCINES AS WELL. AND SO AGAIN --
>> Stephen: NORMALLY THEY WOULD USE THIS CDC --
>> Governor Newsom: CDC GUIDELINES.
IF THEY ARE NOT MAKING THE RECOMMENDATIONS THEY ARE NOT
GOING TO COVER THE COSTS. AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THAT, PEOPLE
COULD POTENTIALLY LOSE THAT COVERAGE.
IN CALIFORNIA WE ARE REQUIRING HEALTH PLANS, REQUIRING
INSURANCE COMPANIES TO PROVIDE ACCESS AND WE ARE MAKING SURE
THAT OUR OWN INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS PROVIDES A LIST OF
RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON FACTS BASED ON SCIENCE, NOT BASED ON
[BLEEP] AND FEAR. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
>> Stephen: WHEN YOU SAY... WHEN YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT
"WE'VE GOT TO PUSH BACK." IN THIS CASE YOU ARE
SPECIFICALLY REFERRING TO DEMOCRATS.
YOU MADE AN OUTREACH TO MOVE BEYOND DEMOCRATS.
IT'S NOT LIKE DEMOCRAT VERSUS REPUBLICAN IS WHAT I HEAR
SOMETIMES. SANITY VERSUS INSANITY.
REASON VERSUS FEAR. YOU HAVE GONE TO SOME LENGTHS TO
DO THAT. YOU'VE GOT YOUR OWN PODCAST.
YOU TALK TO STEVE BANNON. HE SPOKE TO THE LATE CHARLIE
KIRK. >> Governor Newsom: HE WAS MY
FIRST GUEST ON THE PODCAST. >> Stephen: WHAT DID YOU GET
FROM THOSE CONVERSATIONS? SOMETIMES SOME PEOPLE COME ON
PODCASTS OR TELEVISION SHOWS AND AREN'T HONEST REPRESENTATIVES OF
THEIR IDEAS. WHAT DID YOU GET FROM THOSE?
>> Governor Newsom: I GOT A LOT OF GRIEF, CRITICISM FOR
QUOTE, UNQUOTE, PLATFORMING. DIVORCE IS NOT AN OPTION.
WE HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO LIVE TOGETHER.
SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES. THEY WERE SUCCESSFUL IN THE LAST
ELECTION. PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT
MOTIVATES, HOW THEY KEEP WINNING IN THE CONTEXT OF HOW THEY KEEP
ORGANIZING AND BUILDING A COALITION PARTICULARLY YOUNG
MEN. CHARLIE KIRK AND WHAT HE WAS
ABLE TO DO. HE WAS KIND ENOUGH TO FLY OUT.
WE SPENT AN HOUR AND HALF TOGETHER.
INTERESTINGLY WE WERE STAYING CONNECTED UP UNTIL JUST A FEW
WEEKS AGO UNTIL HIS TRAGIC ASSASSINATION.
WE HAD STEVE BANNON ON FOR THE SAME REASON.
NO EXAGGERATION. ABOUT 40 MINUTES INTO THE BANNON
CONVERSATION -- FOR IS NOT AN INDICTMENT OF BERNIE SANDERS BUT
IT SOUNDED MORE LIKE BERNIE SANDERS IN TERMS OF THE
POPULIST MESSAGING. I NEVER EXPECTED THAT.
W DIDN'T GET INTO JANUARY 6TH, ALL THE THINGS WE DISAGREE ON.
I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO HAVE CIVIL ENGAGEMENT.
IT'S IMPORTANT TO THE DIALOGUE. IT'S IMPORTANT TO LEARN FROM
YOUR OPPONENTS AND IS IMPORTANT TO RECONCILE YOUR WEAKNESSES.
AS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, WE HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO TO MAKE UP
FOR OUR FAILURES IN THE PAST. WE GOT CRUSHED IN THIS LAST
ELECTION. NOW WE'RE IN A POSITION WHERE WE
ARE STRUGGLING TO COMMUNICATE. WE ARE STRUGGLING TO WIN BACK
NOW THE MAJORITY AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THAT'S A BIG
PART OF WHAT I'M DOING NOT JUST TODAY IN TERMS OF THE WORK OUT
HERE, RAISING MONEY, ALSO RAISING AWARENESS AROUND HOW
DONALD TRUMP IS TRYING TO RIG THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS AND HOW I
FEAR THAT WE WILL NOT HAVE AN ELECTION IN 2028.
I REALLY MEAN THAT. IN THE CORE OF MY SOUL.
UNLESS WE WAKE UP TO THE CODE RED, WHAT'S HAPPENING IN
THIS COUNTRY. WE WAKE UP SOBERLY TO HOW
SERIOUS THIS MOMENT IS. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
>> Stephen: WE ARE GOING TO TAKE ANOTHER QUICK BREAK.
WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH MORE GAVIN NEWSOM, EVERYBODY.

***

California Will Now Require ICE Agents To Show Their Faces - Gov. Gavin Newsom
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Sep 24, 2025 #GavinNewsom #StephenColbert #GovernorNewsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom explains the state’s new law that bans members of President Trump’s ICE force from concealing their identities while on duty.



Transcript

>> Stephen: HEY, EVERYBODY, IT'S GAVIN NEWSOM, GOVERNOR OF
CALIFORNIA. I WANTED TO ASK YOU ABOUT PROP
50 VOTE BEFORE I DO THAT, YOU RAISE A BIGGER QUESTION ABOUT
WHO WILL WIN IN THE MIDTERMS. TO THE IDEA THAT PERHAPS WE
WON'T HAVE FREE AND FAIR AND OPEN ELECTIONS.
>> Governor Newsom: WE WILL HAVE PUTIN-TYPE ELECTIONS.
>> Stephen: THE ULTIMATE FEAR IS THAT YOU NO LONGER HAVE YOUR
DEMOCRACY TO MAKE CHANGE PEACEFULLY.
>> Governor Newsom: HE KNOW HE'S GOING TO LOSE THE MIDTERM
ELECTIONS. HE'S UNDERWATER.
HE IS WEAK IN EVERY CATEGORY. DONALD TRUMP IS WEAKNESS
MASQUERADING AS STRENGTH. HE IS WEAK IN EVERY KEY
CATEGORY, THAT'S A FACT AND I THINK IT'S AN IMPORTANT FACT.
HE KNOWS THAT. AND THAT'S WHY HE DIALED NOT FOR
VOTES BUT DIALED FOR SEATS. SAID HE IS QUOTE, UNQUOTE,
ENTITLED TO FIVE SEATS. CALLED GREG ABBOTT AND SAID
"YES, SIR, AND" DID THE SAME THING IN INDIANA, MISSOURI,
DURING THE SAME THING IN FLORIDA, LIKELY OHIO AND WE WILL
SEE WHAT HAPPENS IN UTAH. DEMOCRATS, WE ARE GOING TO HOLD
HANDS, TALK ABOUT THE WAY THE WORLD SHOULD BE, TALK ABOUT HOW
IT'S UNFAIR, MAYBE WRITE AN OP-ED.
MEANWHILE THIS GUY'S CONSOLIDATING POWER SO WE
DECIDED TO PUSH BACK AND FIGHT BACK BUT IT'S NOT JUST THAT.
THAT IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG READING THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS
BECAUSE HE KNOWS OTHERWISE HE WILL LOSE.
WHEN WE KICKED OFF THE CAMPAIGN SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND
WHEN WE KICKED IT OFF AT THE DEMOCRACY CENTER IN LOS ANGELES
HE SENT OUT I.C.E. AND BORDER PATROL TO INTIMIDATE FOLKS FROM
WALKING IN TO OUR EVENT. IT RESTING THIS POOR SOUL THAT
WAS TRYING TO SELL STRAWBERRIES AS COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO
INTIMIDATE US. THAT'S A PREVIEW OF THINGS TO
COME AND VOTING BOOTHS AND POLLING PLACES ACROSS THE
COUNTRY. HE FEDERALIZED 4,000
NATIONAL GUARD IN MY STATE. HAS HUNDREDS OF FEDERALIZED
NATIONAL GUARDS. HE SENT THE UNITED STATES
MARINES, NOT OVERSEAS BUT TO AN AMERICAN CITY.
700 ACTIVE-DUTY MARINES. HE SENT THE MILITARY TO AMERICAN
CITIES TO POLICE AMERICAN CITIZENS.
THE I.C.E. ISSUE IS ALARMING ONWARDS.
IT'S THE LARGEST PRIVATE DOMESTIC ARMY OF ITS TYPE,
POLICE FORCE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
WE WILL HAVE 30,000 PEOPLE THAT INCREASINGLY APPEARED TO BE
SWEARING AN OATH OF OFFICE TO HIM, NOT THE CONSTITUTION OF THE
UNITED STATES. AGAIN, WAKE UP TO WHAT'S GOING
ON IN THIS COUNTRY. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
>> Stephen: ONE OF THE THINGS THAT YOU JUST DID COME ON THAT
SUBJECT, OVER THE WEEK AND YOU SIGNED A NEW CALIFORNIA LAW THAT
BANS IC FROM CONCEALING THEIR IDENTITIES WHICH IS A GREAT IDE
IDEA. I'M CURIOUS, THERE'S ALL THESE
REASONS WHY YOU WOULD WANT TO DO IT FOR THE POPULATION THAT IS
ACTUALLY BEING POLICED BY THEM BUT WHEN I DON'T UNDERSTAND,
WHENEVER I HEAR THAT THEY WANT TO HIDE THEIR IDENTITIES, WHY
DON'T ANY PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICER UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE SAFER
BY IDENTIFYING THEMSELVES. AMERICA IS THE PLACE LOADED WITH
GUNS AND HEAVEN FORBID ANYTHING SHOULD HAPPEN TO ONE OF THESE
GUYS BECAUSE THEY WERE MASKED. NO I.D., WINDOWLESS VAN, THAT
LOOKS LIKE AN ATTACK. FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY.
SHOULDN'T THESE PEOPLE SHOW WHO THEY ARE AND NORMALIZE THEIR
BEHAVIOR SO PEOPLE AREN'T TERRIFIED?
>> Stephen: THIS IS THE WORST PART ABOUT IT, I HAD DEEP
EMPATHY FOR THESE NATIONAL GUARD.
TEACHERS, FIREFIGHTERS, THESE ARE THE PEOPLE HELPING WITH
RECOVERY IN L.A. BEING USED AS PAWNS, SAME THING FOR A LOT OF
THESE FEDERAL AGENTS. I'VE DEEP EMPATHY, TO YOUR
POINT. LOSING CONFIDENCE AND TRUST IN
LAW ENFORCEMENT. IT'S HAVING AN IMPACT, CHILLING
IMPACT ACROSS THE SPECTRUM FOR OTHER LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
AGENCIES. WE HAD A 15-YEAR-OLD DISABLED
KID IN LOS ANGELES WHO WAS WAITING FOR HIS SISTER TO COME
OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL AND THEY PULLED OUT GUNS ON THIS KID.
THEY PULLED OUT GUNS AND HANDCUFFED THIS YOUNG CHILD.
THAT'S HAPPENING IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, MASKED
MEN JUMPING OUT OF UNMARKED CARS.
PEOPLE DISAPPEARING, NO DUE PROCESS.
NO OVERSIGHT, ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY.
HAPPENING IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TODAY.
PEOPLE ASK IS AUTHORITARIANISM --
YOU'RE BEING HYPERBOLIC. [BLEEP] WE ARE BEING HYPERBOLIC.
IF YOU ARE IN A BLACK OR BROWN COMMUNITY, IT'S HERE IN THIS
COUNTRY SO I'M DEEPLY PROUD THAT I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF SIGNING
THE NATION'S FIRST BILL TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF MASKING,
ALSO TO REQUIRE SIMPLE IDENTIFICATION, TO YOUR POINT.
IF SOME GUY JUMPED OUT OF AN UNMARKED CAR AND A MAN WITH A
MASK AND TRIED TO GRAB ME, BY DEFINITION YOU'RE GOING THESE
ARE NOT JUST AUTHORITARIAN TENDENCIES, THESE ARE
AUTHORITARIAN ACTIONS BY AN AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT.
YOU SAW WHAT STEPHEN MILLER SAID LAST WEEK.
CALLED THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND EXTREMIST ORGANIZATION,
BASICALLY A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION SAYING HE'S GOING
AFTER HIS ENEMIES. HE SAW THE TWEET DONALD TRUMP
SENT OUT BASICALLY TELLING PAM BONDI I WANT THESE THREE
PEOPLE TAKE IT OUT. IT'S HAPPENING IN THE
UNITED STATES. THIS CAN'T BE NORMALIZED.
NONE OF IT CAN BE NORMALIZE. >> Stephen: GOVERNOR,
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HER HERE.
GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM, EVERYBODY.
WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH PRISCILLA PRESLEY.

[admin]

Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner blasts the Kimmel suspension: 'Where has all the leadership gone?'
by Madeline Berg and James Faris
Business Insider
Sep 19, 2025, 1:41 PM MT
https://www.businessinsider.com/disney- ... ion-2025-9

• Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner sounded off on ABC's decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel's show.
• Eisner called out a lack of corporate leadership in a social media post.
• Disney has faced a wave of backlash since suspending "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

Disney's Jimmy Kimmel suspension has started a mouse-on-mouse fight.

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner criticized the company's decision to pull "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" from ABC indefinitely after the late-night host's remarks on Charlie Kirk's death.

"Where has all the leadership gone?" Eisner said in an X post on Friday, referencing Kimmel's suspension.

Jon Stewart suggests Colbert's cancellation is tied to Paramount's Trump settlement

Although Eisner — who ran the Mouse House from 1984 to 2005 — didn't call out current CEO Bob Iger by name, he took a clear shot at his successor.

Eisner lamented what he characterized as the capitulation of university presidents, law firm partners, and other corporate leaders to Trump and his allies.

"Maybe the Constitution should have said, 'Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, except in one's political or financial self-interest,'" Eisner wrote.

In the post, Eisner defended Kimmel, praising him as "very talented and funny."

He didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Disney has been the target of backlash in recent days in Hollywood and beyond, including protests at its studio headquarters in Burbank, California.

Eisner ran Disney for more than two decades. During his tenure, the company's market value grew from around $2 billion to a full-fledged entertainment giant worth roughly $60 billion. Disney is now valued at over $200 billion.

[admin]

Trump FCC SMACKED with COMPLAINT after PLAN FAILS
by Sidney Blumenthal & Sean Wilentz & Seth Stern.
Court of History
Legal AF
Sep 24 2025

The Court of History's Sidney Blumenthal & Sean Wilentz are joined by the director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, Seth Stern. The discussion revolves around the Freedom of the Press Foundation's recent complaint against FCC Chairman, Brendon Carr.



Transcript

Welcome to the Court of History. I'm
Sydney Blumenthal. I am here with my
colleague Sean Wentz of Princeton
University.
Well, the court is now in session. Sean
and um it turns out Jimmy Kimmel Live is
live again.
That was
right.
Jimmy Kimmel's dead for a short period
of time.
Well, what do you make of that? I mean,
look, I mean, this I gather that all of
Hollywood just revolted. I went crazy
about this that they saw what was going
on. It wasn't just the Hollywood left,
quote unquote, but everybody saw that
this was completely out outrageous. And
um I gather um I have no inside
knowledge, but I gather that's the
reason why ABC finally decided to uh to
back off. But now, what's the FCC going
to do? I mean, you know, he's been
pretty ferocious, pretty thuggish in his
in the way he's gone about doing things.
We the the the plot thickens, as they
say.
Yeah. Well, Brendan Carr, who is the
chairman of the FCC, said that Disney
could do it the easy way or the hard
way. And it turns out that um Disney
learned it the hard way because all of
Hollywood revolted against what it was
doing. And
yeah,
Michael Eisner, the former CEO of
Disney, came out and really trashed Bob
Iger, the current CEO, for his
cowardice. Um, no love lost there.
Now Jimmy Kimmel's back is um but um
Sinclair
and Nextar,
is that what it's called? are
yes
going to censor continue censoring him
on their own.
Um there are a lot of issues involved
here with all of these people doing it
and I think we need to bring in an
expert.
So I'm delighted to introduce an old
friend of the court of history, Seth
Stern. He is the director of adv
advocacy at the freedom of the press
foundation. Now that foundation monitors
and documents virtually every press
freedom violation in the United States
and engages in advocacy to defend the
public's right to know. And as it
happens,
um, just two days ago,
um, the Freedom of the Press Foundation
sent a letter to the Office of
Disciplinary Council of the District of
Columbia Court of Appeals.
That was a complaint against Brendan
Carr. Seth, we know you have filed a
previous complaint on July 28th against
Brendan Carr that addressed his
egregious conduct and um sought, I
think, for them to consider uh his
disparment.
Why did you file a supplementary letter
and tell us what's in it?
Yeah, that's the thing with Brendan
Carr. Whenever you think you have
comprehensively documented all of his
violations of the rules of professional
conduct or the first amendment, he sends
you right back to the drawing board with
another one. So, we filed a supplement
to our original complaint. Not overly
confident it'll be the last time we need
to supplement that complaint. But we
just thought that his conduct now um
proved that his conduct with respect to
Paramount was not an anomaly. This is
his MO. he is going to wield the FCC's
power to approve mergers of lenses
as a weapon to um compel the press into
compliance with the MAGA agenda. We see
we saw it with Paramount, which was
seeking to to merge with Sky Dance. That
merger was held up until Paramount wrote
Donald Trump a $16 million check to
settle his frivolous lawsuit and made
editorial concessions including agreeing
to bring in a bias monitor who turned
out to be a career partisan um equipped
to monitor bias. Um now we're seeing the
same thing. Um, NextStar has a merger in
the works with Tegna, which not only
requires FCC approval, but actually
requires a rule change because it would
exceed current um ownership caps if
those two entities were to merge. Next,
of course, has all the reason in the
world to get Brendan Carr on his on on
their side, knowing that he's a
political operative and not an
independent regulator, and that's how
you get favors out of him. So, that's
what they did. They agreed to pull
Kimmel, put ABC in a position, and I'm
not at all excusing ABC for its own
capitulation, but put ABC in a position
where a large number of ABC's local
affiliates between NextStar and
Sinclair, which also pulled Kimmel, were
not going to be able to um to watch the
show. And one thing I would say about
that is speaking of Nextstar's merger,
this is really exhibit A for why that
merger should not be permitted. Because
you see Nextstar, even with its current
market share, even with its current
number of affiliates, has enormous
leverage to wield against the ABCs of
the world um to carry out Trump and
Carr's censorship agenda. and we're
seeing it doing so. Do we want to give
the next stars of the world even more
power to throw the First Amendment under
the bus for profit? I'd say not. This is
exactly why the market cap should not be
expanded.
Right. Yeah.
Right.
Well, you know, Brendan Carr works for
somebody who thinks he's a king, and
Brendan Carr apparently thinks he's the
king of Hollywood. Um but you go through
his rule violations which are quite
extensive. Um starting with competence
and um going through criminal acts. What
criminal acts has he committed?
Well, I'm not a criminal lawyer, but
you've got um Republican senators like
Ted Cruz saying that this was a mafioso
shakedown. um when Brendan Carr gets on
on air um on Benny Johnson's show of all
places to talk about media integrity.
Kind of ironic there, but when he gets
on
Yeah.
Who is Benny Johnson?
Who's Benny Johnson? Just mention it
quickly.
Oh, sure. He's a a right-wing influencer
with a history of plagiarism and
conspiracy theories. There was a big New
York Times article about him a month or
so ago. Um but he's a favorite of the
Trump administration and is uh being
given um access that normally would be
granted to serious people but is now
being
he was also a recipient
uh he says unknowingly of Russian money.
That's right. Yeah, I forgot that part.
There's Yeah.
Yeah. So you also say that Brendan Carb
um is uh liable for misrepresentation.
He me misrepresented the FCC's
authority.
How do you do that?
Well, that is um from the language of
the rules of professional conduct
governing attorneys. So it's sort of a a
legal term, but he is representing to
lences that the FCC has the authority to
regulate their content, which it plainly
does not. There is a public interest
requirement that FCC licenses operate in
the public interest. That requires them
to not, for example, air blatant fraud
or um other or or pornography or other
extreme categories. There is absolutely
no precedent for the public interest
requirement, meaning that the FCC is
entitled to sit in Washington DC and go
line by line through a late night
comedian's monologue and parse every
word they say to decide whether they
believe that they that they're speaking
in the public interest. The reasons for
that is because that kind of power is
sure to be abused. That's why we have a
First Amendment um in the first place.
And you can see it being abused because
Brendan Carr shows absolutely no
interest in fallacies broadcast over the
public airwaves that are favorable to
Donald Trump or criticism of Donald
Trump's adversaries. Somehow the only
time he believes something is not in the
public interest is when it is counter to
Donald Trump's agenda. So he's misre
misrepresenting the FCC's authority to
lences. And the thing is the lences know
that the FCC is not authorized to
regulate content. But when Brendan Carr
contacts them, they know they are not
speaking to a good faith regulator with
serious curiosity as to whether they're
in compliance with their requirements.
They're talking to Donald Trump's
henchmen, as Ted Cruz said, someone who
is engaging in mafioso tactics. I I I I
can't say how a criminal court would
ultimately rule, but to me, it looks a
lot like extortion. It looks a lot like
deprivation of of of rights. Um it looks
a lot like a a number of offenses um on
the books whether criminal, civil or
attorney ethics rules. And and and it
looks like one other thing too though,
right? It looks like to me part of the
um comprehensive effort to redefine what
the public interest is, which is to say
the public interest is Donald Trump's
interest. and he hammers that home and
he hammers that home and he keeps going
at it in such a way as I think he hopes
that eventually people will start
believing it or at least you know
acquiescing in it that there's no
distinction between Donald Trump's
well-being and that of the nation
because he speaks for the nation he is
the king and and I and I think that that
always has to be brought in mind bear
borne in mind not only in this case but
every time he tries to do this this
happens to be a case that's particularly
egregious and has you know tremendous
ripple effect throughout the culture
without the politics but that's what's
going on here, right? I mean, he's just
trying to say we are
I'm the country. That's it, right?
I I think that's that's exactly right.
That's what he is doing with the FCC
through the public interest requirement.
That is his hook to attempt to regulate
content in the rest of the world that is
not regulated through the FCC. Um the
hook seems to be national security and
safety. Of course, the Pentagon Papers
case held that the government can't just
scream national security like a magic
word whenever it wants to censor the
press. That point appears to be lost on
this administration, as we saw with its
uh requirement that Pentagon reporters
pledge to not print anything they're not
authorized to print. As we see with its
frivolous claims that reporting on ICE
operations or identifying ICE agents
somehow threatens national security. as
we see with its efforts to deport people
like Remisa Sterk for writing a a
relatively tame oped that the Trump
administration claims somehow threatens
national security or or or or puts us in
a boat with terrorist supporters with
with with Hamas who's not even mentioned
in the op-ed right now. Mario Gua, a
journalist from Atlanta, is facing
deportation for nothing but covering a
no Kings protest, doing his job,
reporting the news. And I do commend all
the Hollywood celebrities and everyone
else who got behind the um the push for
Kimmel, but they should be spending that
same energy on someone like Mario Gua
who did nothing but report news of
public interest to the public, is not
facing any criminal charges, is a lawful
is lawfully in the United States, and is
on the verge of being deported. Um he
might not be as famous as Jimmy Kimmel.
He was never on the man show, but he is
um just as worthy a cause for people to
to to get behind.
And the Freedom of the Press Foundation
has called attention to his case. Yes.
Yes, we have, as have plenty of other
organizations, uh Free Press, the
Committee to to Protect Journalists.
There's a whole coalition behind Mr.
Gua's case. Uh but so far to no avail.
He is he is facing deportation. um as is
Ramisa Sterk, although she is out of
jail finally. Um she still has
deportation proceedings open against her
again for nothing more than writing an
op-ed. This attempt to link advocacy or
journalism to terrorism is sort of
another layer of the abuse of national
security. We saw a bill that fortunately
failed that would have given Marco Rubio
authority to deny or revoke passports
based on his decision that someone's a
supporter of terrorism. He's the same
person who decided that Ruma Sterk is a
is is is a supporter of terrorism. We've
seen these attempts to go after
nonprofits, including nonprofit news
media, for supposedly supporting
terrorism. Again, according to people
like Marco Rubio and others in this
administration who who who see any
divergence from the administration's
foreign policies as support of
terrorism, yesterday, I believe Trump
declared Antifa a
a domestic terrorism organization, a a a
designation that doesn't exist for an
organization that doesn't exist. So, um
ask you about Antifa. So Antifa is means
anti-fascist presumably,
right?
And um somehow it got conjured up um
from some people who adopted that label
during the the 2020 period. and uh Trump
um somehow regards them as this shadow
organization a an immense conspiracy
there there's no organization of this
you know by its very nature it seems to
be anarchist if if it's anything there
no there's no leadership there's no
membership but how can he after having
signed an executive order uh wield the
power of the executive against the
press, which is your purview, using such
um a broad and vague order.
Well, we saw where this is headed in the
Cop City case um down in Georgia. There
you had a group of protesters against
the police training facility often
referred to as Cop City who are indicted
under RICO charges, the racketeering and
conspiracy law simply for being part of
a protest movement. Essentially, the
theory was there were a few protesters
that were part of this group who
vandalized property, set fires,
and the rest of the protesters, even
though they had nothing to do with
vandalizing property or setting fires,
are still part part of the conspiracy,
not because they actually conspired to
set those fires, but because they are
advocating for the same cause, stopping
Cop City. So you had an indictment
issued, a RICO indictment that alleged
that acts as simple as holding press
conferences or writing essays for for Z
or shaping messaging for the media or
recording police. All very con very much
centrally constitutionally protected
conduct. All of those things are acts in
furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.
Fortunately, that was dismissed a week
or two ago on procedural grounds, but
it's going to be appealed and and and
and and might be back. And one of the
allegations that was core to this
indictment is that these folks were
anarchists. Um, I don't remember if they
were specifically accused of being
Antifa, but they're being anarchists was
central to the whole thing. I should
mention just to as a as an additional
show of bad faith, the prosecutors in in
in this indictment listed the start of
the conspiracy as the date that George
Floyd was murdered, even though Cop City
had not even been proposed on that date.
So read into that what you will. Now,
not soon after, not long after that Cop
City case was dismissed on procedural
grounds, you heard the Trump
administration, Trump himself and uh
Todd Blanch floating the idea of using
RICO charges against protesters, against
people like Antifa, and now you have
this Antifa designation. So, I think
it's it's pretty clearly all part of the
same plan to be able to come after
activists, to come after protesters
based on their being part of a movement
regardless of whether they did anything
actually illegal as part of the
movement. And as we see at protests all
the time, once you come after the
protesters, the journalists go hand in
hand. The journalists are there covering
the protests. The uh authorities attempt
to conflate the acts of journalists with
the acts of protesters.
Protesters are often sources for
journalists who are covering their
movement. They are chilled from coming
forward from speaking to journalists
when there's a pro a crackdown on the
protest movement overall. And we saw in
that Georgia indictment speaking to
journalists was one of the acts and
furtherance that were alleged. Um,
authorities often crack down on
encrypted communication, VPN, other
methods used by journalists and
protesters alike to communicate securely
and confidentially. Uh, you know, Pete
Pete Hagsath knows a little bit
something aboutations,
but I don't think that he would um be
eager to protect journalists right to
use the same uh the same tools that he
uses.
Yeah. So, not to get, you know,
paranoid, but how far can this go? Um I
mean when you've got um this executive
order on Antifa, you've got arrests of
elected officials who are doing their
um duty uh uh as part of their offices
to monitor um immigration courts and ICE
procedures who have been arrested. Um
could they be charged with RICO? Could
they be said to be part of Antifa? Who
knows?
Domestic terrorist. Yeah. What happens
on the universities? Um what h you know
could you know is a lawyer who defends
these people? Can they be charged as
well? How far does this go? I mean um
once you have that kind of executive
order, you're no longer under what we
used to call the United States. Um
you're somewhere else. Um it's very much
like um Turkey or Egypt or Russia or you
know another despotic regime when and um
the Supreme Court of course is
um lolly gagging along and allowing them
to commit uh all of these acts um before
they can come to a decision to whether
or not they're going to allow them. Um
so that there are fetical pleas uh which
you know as far as the vast majority of
the American people are concerned are
violations of constitutional rights. But
back to my original question, how far
does this go?
Like so many other things, it depends on
the courts holding the line and it
depends on the public speaking up. Um
the Trump administration, I think, is
going to push it as far as it can. Um,
we've seen the courts at times serve as
an effective backs stop at times um, not
as much. But in the case of ABC, we we
we we saw the power that the public has
to stop some of these actions in their
tracks. There's been push back on the
Pentagon policy I mentioned as well. So,
it's a key point in time now for the
public to make its voice heard. um not
only in reaction to the fires that are
currently burning, but as you're saying,
in anticipating where this is next
going. Um I I was speaking last night to
an incarcerated journalist who
occasionally contributes to Freedom the
Press Foundation. I'm not incarcerated
for his journalism. He's been covering
Prisons from Inside for 27 years. His
name's Jeremy Busby. and he was saying
that from where he's sitting, it seems
obvious that there are going to be a lot
more incarcerated journalists pretty
soon because journalists are going to be
locked up for their journalism. So, it's
high time that press freedom advocates
and the public at large get concerned
with the problems that journalists who
are currently in prison are are are
facing. That's the kind of foresight we
need to we we need to have. Jimmy Kimmel
getting suspended. That's a great great
response to that and a good success
getting him back on the air. But we also
need to be thinking about what comes
next.
Yeah. In your wheelhouse is also the uh
the obviously meritless suits that Trump
has been filing against news
organizations lately. The New York Times
that was dismissed out of hand rather
quickly by a a federal judge.
Yeah. Tell tell us about that suit and
where that might lead and what the
intent is on the part of the Trump
administration to mute, silence, and
intimidate
the press and press freedoms. Well, one
of many strategic lawsuits against
public participation that Trump has
filed. Of course, this has long been his
mo. Um, and he's bragged about it in the
past about the the the fact that even if
these lawsuits don't go anywhere, he's
making his adversaries spend some money.
and in many cases he has more money than
his adversaries do. The suit against the
New York Times in particular was almost
comically frivolous. It was illustrated
like a children's book. He would allege
that he has tall buildings and then
there would be a picture of a tall
building to prove his point. He spent, I
don't know, 80% of the complaint
establishing how wealthy and successful
he is for purposes of setting up the
absurd proposition that New York Times
reporting could cost him $15 billion
with a B in damages. And then, as the
judge recognized in throwing out the
suit, had virtually no legal or factual
allegations to back any of it up. It was
essentially a a his a a a biography of
Donald Trump disguised from Donald
Trump's perspective, of course,
disguised as a court complaint. Now, I
do commend the judge for throwing it
out, but the attorneys who filed it
should have been sanctioned. Um, and I
was disappointed that that didn't happen
because the judge in his order
dismissing it essentially made the case
for sanctions. It was a frivolous,
legally baseless, factually baseless
complaint and the attorneys who filed it
should have known better. The judge said
all
those attorneys have great future
prospects for Trump.
Um,
department high officials and then
federal judgeships for being his monkey.
A milove and Todd Blanch. I want to um
say something about um um the fi the
suit against the New York Times which
was about um the birthday book the
Epstein birthday book and uh reporting
on Trump's salacious contribution to it.
Um, and the one thing, uh, now Glenn
Maxwell was interviewed by Todd Blanch,
deputy attorney general, and then moved
to a, uh, club fed in, uh, as a reward.
Um, and she lied her head head off about
many, many things, but interestingly,
she didn't lie she didn't lie her head
off about the birthday book. She didn't
bring that up. Maybe, you know, if they
bring her back with Todd Blanch, she can
lie about that. But um you know it's
just an interesting footnote to me. Um
the um
but uh they have a a a whole
plan for attacking the press and Brendan
Carr, if we can come back to him, is
very much in the center of this, isn't
he? He's sort of the uh chief officer.
Can I just ask just to clarify for our
for our viewers exactly who Brendan Carr
is and what is his background? Who is
he? We know he's a thug, but what where
does he come from?
Yeah. And why does he think the way he
thinks?
Yeah.
Well, he doesn't. He's being
disingenuous. If you two years ago when
he wasn't the chair of the FCC, that's
his position now. He is the chair of the
Federal Communications Commission.
Before that, he was an FCC commissioner.
Before that, he was a communications
lawyer. At some point he was always
conservative, but he was a serious
person. He wasn't this MAGA stoogge that
he's become who wears Trump's bust as a
lapel pin. That's a new development. If
you go back a couple of years, he was
adamant that the FCC has no power to
regulate content. He was an advocate for
the First Amendment. He was on the
record saying that many times. Political
satire is an important form of
expression that the government shouldn't
interfere with. That's Brendan Carr.
That's what Brendan Carr actually
thinks. What he's saying now isn't what
he thinks. It's just he's a he's become
a
Was he involved in Project 2025?
He did, I believe, author the chapter of
Project 2025 that deals with the FCC.
And I believe the other day someone
pointed that out on social media and he
posted um a meme intended to confirm
that he is essentially going through the
project 2025 um checklist. But Brendan
Carr, I don't know what his endgame is
here. He was, as I said, at some point a
relatively serious person who has taken
this kind of heel turn as this absolute
stoogge. And as Ted Cruz says, I I find
myself agreeing with Ted Cruz these
days. odd, kind of odd, but um he is
he's behaving him like a mafioso, as
Cruz said, straight out of um Good
Fellas. And you know, that's the reason
we're coming after him with these bar
complaints. He is someone who
historically has been
a a serious lawyer and who still wants
to be regarded as a serious lawyer. He
attempts to justify his absurd actions
within the confines of the law. He still
wants respect in the legal profession
and he shouldn't have it. He shouldn't
be able after he's done serving in this
administration to cash in with a gig as
a partner at some big law firm where he
exploits all the connections he's made
stooging for Donald Trump. Um he should
not be allowed to practice law. As we
said in in in in the complaint and as
you referenced earlier, either he is
malicious or he's incompetent. That's
how we set up the incompetence claim. We
think he knows better. If he doesn't
know better though, he is incompetent to
practice law. Well, um, with that, um,
uh, we want to thank Seth Stern of the
Freedom of the Press Foundation and note
that, um, uh, they have filed a
supplementary disciplinary complaint
against Brendan Carr before the uh, DC
Court of Appeals about his uh, recent
actions involved in the ABC News um,
Jimmy Kimmel case. Um, and we want to
thank him again for appearing on the
court of history. He is a true friend of
the court here. Um, and on behalf of
Sean Menz and myself, the court of
history is now adjourned. Can't get your
fill of legal AF? Me neither. That's why
we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every
time we mention something in a hottake,
whether it's a court filing or a oral
argument, come over to the Substack.
You'll find the court filing and the
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[Music]

[admin]

Trump's Crackdown on Anti-War Activists (w/ CODEPINK's Medea Benjamin)
by Chris Hedges and Medea Benjamin
The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel
Sep 24, 2025

Trump's threatening to bring RICO charges against CODEPINK for their nonviolent, anti-war activism is only a symptom of the administration's broader attack on freedom of speech and dissent.

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 07: U.S. President Donald Trump takes a question from a member of the media during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump is meeting with Netanyahu to discuss ongoing efforts to release Israeli hostages from Gaza and newly imposed U.S. tariffs. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)



Transcript

Earlier this month, activists from the nonviolent anti-war group Code Pink confronted Donald Trump and his cabinet,
including J. D. Vance, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegsith at a Washington DC
restaurant. They shouted, "Free DC, free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our
time." Trump angrily ordered his security to quote get them out of here.
Trump issued threats later against the activists. He claimed one of the activists was a quote paid agitator.
Instead, he is looking into having US Attorney General Pam Bondi bring RICO
charges against the protesters quote because they should be put in jail. End quote. What they are doing, he said, to
this country is really subversive. RICO charges or charges under the Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act were originally designed to combat organized crime. The campaign against
dissident or those whom Trump refers to as quote unquote the radical left has
intensified since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, elevated immediately after
his death to the status of a martyr. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch told
CNN the Justice Department may investigate groups that have protested Trump, also referencing the protesters
who interrupted the dinner. Is it again sheer happen stance that individuals
show up at a restaurant where the president is trying to enjoy dinner in Washington in a costume with vile words
and vile anger? She said on CNN, "Does it mean it's just completely random that
they showed up? Maybe, maybe. But to the extent that it's part of an organized
effort to inflict harm and terror and damage to the United States, there's
potential potential investigations. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, told Axios in an email,
quote, "Left-win organ left-wing organizations have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against the law,
enforcement officers, and coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop
points for weapons and riot materials, and more. The Trump administration will get to the bottom of this vast network,
inciting violence in American communities," she went on. This effort will target those committing criminal
acts and hold them accountable. Joining me to discuss the drive to silence all disscent is the activist and code pink
co-founder media Benjamin. Media, who has protested with Code Pink against
wars, whether waged by Democratic or Republican political leaders, was
arrested inside the US capital a few days ago when she asked Representative
Daryl Isa about Israel's attack on Qatar. Isa refused to answer. His staff
attempted to seize her phone and called police. She was charged with quote impeding a congressperson.
As a veteran anti-war activist, we're now talking decades.
How does this moment compare with other moments of resistance?
Well, thank you for having me on, Chris. It's always good to be on with you. Um, this moment is a very dark moment, a
very scary moment. Uh we've certainly had moments in my lifetime where uh
people that went up against administrations uh were uh charged with all kinds of
ridiculous uh lawsuits and during the Iraq war we received a lot of threats as
code pink when it was US soldiers who were fighting and dying there. Uh but
this is a much more wholesale attack on uh free speech much more than I have
seen before. Well, we've also and it's not hypothetical.
So we have seen uh a series of measures I mean law firms for instance that
defended uh people who were critical of Trump or Trump opponents. Uh of course
the assault on universities. uh the purging of comedians such as Coar
and Kimmel. Um it it there's an a kind of institutional dismantling that uh
perhaps is unlike anything we've seen since I don't know maybe the 1960s with
the rise of the anti-war movement. We certainly haven't seen this level of attack on us says Code Pink. Uh and
we're part of a much larger constellation of organizations that have been the victim of lawfare with all
kinds of ridiculous lawsuits against us. In the case of Code Pink, uh that we are
somehow connected to Hamas, which is crazy, but it uh it takes a lot of time
and resources to uh fight these lawsuits. And then we've had a series of
members of Congress and high level members of Congress like Tom Cotton who is the head of the Senate Intelligence
Committee say before a hearing of all of the heads of the intelligence
communities uh in the country that Code Pink was funded by the Chinese Communist
Party. Uh we've had uh the head of the judiciary committee, Senator Grassley,
say that the FBI and the Department of Justice should investigate us for
violations of FAR, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, uh as if we were some
foreign agent. We've been accused of being foreign agents of Iran, of being foreign agents of China. Um, we've had
members of Congress say that we should be barred from coming into Congress. Uh,
we have had members of Congress, one of my favorite was the, uh, in the Natural Resources Committee, uh, a letter that
included as proof that we were representing the Chinese government was that we wanted the Pentagon to have to
measure its carbon emissions. And who but the Chinese government would want to see that happen? So all kinds of attacks
and uh as I said we are one of many many organizations and it's harassment it's
uh sapping of our time and energy and it certainly does uh make people feel very
nervous about standing up to this administration. But I must say, Chris,
that we have found more and more volunteers coming us with us in Congress
as we go around every single day trying to get our members of Congress to represent us and not Israel.
I want to ask about Antifa. So, uh, Trump, uh, sent out on Truth Social that
he was declaring Antifa to be a terrorist organization. Antifa is an
amorphous group with no hierarchy or real organizational
structure. But it uh and then of course in the same breath he's talking about
going after uh funders uh of groups that he doesn't like like George Soros. Did
you see that declaration uh that Antifa was a terrorist group as a way
essentially to uh tar all resistance groups by tying them I mean however
absurdly to Antifa? I mean I read that quote from uh Blanch which talked about
stockpiling weapons and I mean just complete fantasy but I just wondered what your reaction was to declaring
Antifa a terrorist organization. Well, luckily I was able to read your column very quickly after
and I felt uh very much reassured in my own thinking because over the years I
too have been uh the uh victim of attacks by groups related to Antifa like
the the black block. Uh in fact I got a pie in my face one time that might sound
funny but it felt very aggressive and I was followed around as I toured the
country on a book tour. uh by people who said that I was a um I think they called
it a a uh part of the uh NGO industrial complex that was trying to destroy the
revolution. So like you, I have had my run-ins with groups like Antifa and uh
yet when I see that that kind of uh um
designation to a group as you well know that is so amorphous uh it is the
beginnings of saying if you can go after this group and nobody stands up then you can go after the next one and the next
one. What I really have been heartened by is seeing how the reaction has been
in the UK to the designation of Palestine Action as a proscribed group
as they call it there. Here I guess it would be a terrorist group. And it has really been heartening to see the
hundreds and hundreds of people who have been arrested uh in standing up to
Palestine action and showing the how ridiculous the state is when it arrests
people in their 80s, people who are blind, professors uh merely for wearing
a shirt that says I oppose genocide, I support Palestine action. So I think we
have to be ready in the US to do that kind of collective support uh in uh as
this administration takes swipes at group after group person after person um
whether it's Makmoud Khalil and we see the tremendous support that he has gotten uh or groups that we might not
like. Let's before we talk about your arrest, let's talk a little bit about what
Codepink does. I love your confrontations. I don't actually do them myself. I let you do them and then I
watch them. Um, but uh, talk about Codepink's tactics, what you do. You
call people out in committee hearings. You, uh, and I don't know how many
committee hearings you've been dragged out of. But let's talk about what you do, what CodePink does, and why you do
it. And then perhaps we can talk about your recent arrest. Well, first let me say the things that people don't see
because it's more behind the scenes and that is all the chapters that we have across the United States that are doing
work both on boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns uh that are doing work to try to uh stop bad laws from
being uh passed in their state level or their city level or get good ones passed
calling for an end to weapon sales uh or putting pressure on their local officials. as well as their
representative in Congress. And those of us who are in DC and go around week
after week inside Congress were also doing that kind of uh daytoday
uh le uh less visible work of going to offices. Remember, there's 435 members
of the House and 100 in the Senate. That's a lot of offices that we visit on a regular basis, including all of the
Republican offices because we're just waiting for the dyke to break there and for it not to just be Marjgery Taylor
Green and Tom Massie and the Republicans, but for a new flood of Republicans who start seeing the the
light in terms of where their base is. So, we go around from office to office and what we have been focusing on lately
is this piece of legislation called Block the Bombs because it's a specific bill that allows us to focus on one
member of Congress after another and pressure them both in their constituency and in DC to sign on to that. And we've
been doing that methodically so that now there are 50 members of Congress who've signed on to that. And every week we get
a few more uh and we do a similar kind of thing in the Senate. Now what you see
is when I go and and bird dog or other members of Code Pink uh what we call bird dogging uh members of the uh the
House and the Senate as they're walking through the halls or in the hearings or
when they're coming in or out of a hearing or when they're walking outside over to the Capitol. That's our time for
one-on-one with them. And if they're people that we like, we don't video them. We talk to them. We have good
conversations and we say, "What else can we do to stop this genocide, to get the food in, to stop the slaughter?" Uh and
when there are people we know that uh continue to support sending weapons to
Israel, continue to say things like there is no starvation in Gaza, which is
something that we hear quite often, or the only reason that food is not getting in is because Hamas steals it all. Uh
then we record those and we put them out for everyone to see. And I think it's
been quite revoly to people not only in this country but in other places because
as I've traveled around in other countries, they said, "Wow, I didn't know how undemocratic your country was
until I started seeing those videos and seeing how these members of Congress don't represent the people. They just
represent their donors, whether it's the Apac donors or the weapons industry, uh,
and certainly don't re represent what's in the national security interest even of the United States, much less uh,
showing that they have some heart for the people who are suffering so much in Gaza. So, that's really been a a very
important thing, I think, that we've gotten out to show people exactly who some of these members of Congress are.
Well, you call out their hypocrisy. Uh there was a video of you at a it was
some kind of Republican Christian convention where you asked people the simple question, will you pray for the
children of Gaza? And they ran from you as if you had leprosy and then of course
dragged you out. Uh yes. I often go to these Christian gatherings and say, "Let's hold hands
together and pray for the children of Gaza." And when I say, "Let's hold hands and pray," they take my hand. and
they're ready to pray and then I when I say for the children of Gotha they're like oh no we can't possibly do that. So
yes calling out their hypocrisy in so many different ways and also when we put
out the videos we often put a tag of how much money they are getting from Apac
because that's important for people to know as well. you've been uh you know a
staunch foe of Apac that's uh consumed a lot of
your time and energy when Apac meets you've I've attended some you've held kind of rival uh gatherings talk a
little bit about the Apac uh lobby its power in the genocide
it's funny Chris because if you remember in past years Apac used to have these
enormous conference ences with like 10,000 people would come and they'd take
over the whole convention center and uh the members of Congress and the
administration they would fight with each other over who would get top billing. They all wanted to be seen and
heard there and that has changed tremendously. I mean since October 7th
uh they and uh and the the genocide um many of them are embarrassed to be seen
at these Apac gatherings. Uh they the Apac gatherings are a lot smaller. Um
the what's uh really interesting to me, Chris, is that we're now seeing people
who are not necessarily progressive Democrats, very middle of the road. uh
two of them from North Carolina, Valerie Fuche and Deborah Ross recently coming out and saying publicly they wouldn't
take money from Apac uh as well as Kevin McCarthy from uh Kentucky who said he
wouldn't take money from Apac. So I'm not saying Apac is not a tremendous force and has so skewed the policies of
our government. But I'm saying that there are starting to be cracks and that there are members of Congress who are
starting to be embarrassed by their uh affiliation with Apac. Embarrassed uh
that the public knows how much money they've taken from Apac. And Chris, I think it's important for your viewers to
understand it's not just the money that Apac gives to them. It really is the
fear they have of being targeted by Apac because, you know, when we put out these
videos and show the amounts of money, sometimes it's a huge amount of money. You know, some have taken a million
dollars over the course of their career, but some have only gotten about $30,000 and yet they tow the AP pack line. Maybe
because they're Christian Zionists and they have some misguided belief that God told them to support Israel. Um, but
oftentimes it's because they don't want to be on Apac's hit list. We have seen
through the years, not just the recent uh way that Apac has taken out Corey
Bush and Jamal Bowman, but it goes back and it goes back even to Jewish members
of Congress like Andy Lean who is taken out by Apac. So, they want to keep their
heads down. They don't want to be targeted by Apac. But yet uh as more and
more constituents are confronting their members of Congress in the town halls and their uh local offices uh we are
seeing more members saying that they don't want to be affiliated or seen as
Apac puppets. Can you juxtapose and you've been outspoken about this uh the proxy war in
Ukraine and what's happening in Gaza and the US response?
Well, it was so interesting in the during the war in Ukraine how we were
pushing members of Congress to come out and call for negotiations. And you probably recall, Chris, the 18 members
of Congress, the progressive Democrats who soon after the war began came out
with that letter that said, "Thank you, uh, Biden for all the money that you're
giving to Ukraine and we've got to support Ukraine in this war." Uh, but negotiations might be a good thing. And
they were so pillaried by their own uh by their own Democrats, by the higherups
in the party that within 24 hours they withdrew that letter. And ever since
then, they don't talk about it. And so it's only been the Republicans who have
said, "Why are we fueling a foreign war when the American people don't want
that?" And I mentioned Marjorie Taylor Green. That's how we first began a relationship with her because she was so
outspoken about that. And um so we see that there are still members of the
Republican party who say we don't want to keep spending our money on foreign
wars, but when they say foreign wars, they're talking about Ukraine. They're not talking about Israel. And when we
use the same logic to say, well, what about Israel? and you call yourselves America first, but are you America first
when you are allocating all of this money to Israel that could be used here in America and they don't want to hear
that. But that's why I say the dyke is about to break because as you well know, Chris, there are so many influencers in
the Republican party um who have changed their position on Israel that I am just
waiting to see some more consistency among the Republicans when they say we don't want to fuel foreign wars. They're
not just talking about Ukraine. Let's talk about your arrest. Um, was
that the first time that you were uh attempting to converse with a member
of Congress? I think you were in the just in the hallway, right? That was that the first time that you were
arrested for that activity? Yes, we've been arrested many times in the hearings and we know when we speak
up in the hearings that we're at risk of arrest. Uh and there are many groups
that come to the capital that stage beautiful acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. We've seen Jewish voice
for peace. We've seen Christians for a ceasefire. Wonderful actions that the Menanites have done and they know they
will be arrested. Uh but in this case, I was doing what I do on a regular basis,
which is walk down the halls. I find a member of Congress and I run after them and ask them will they comment on some
issue of the day. This was the day after the Israelis had attacked the Hamas
negotiators in Qatar. And I thought it was important. You know, there are journalists all over Congress who are
constantly putting their microphones in the faces of members of Congress. I wasn't even near him. I was following
behind him or aside uh him. And I asked him what he thought of Israel's attack
on Qatar. And he was so nasty. and went into his office and I just gently
touched the door opening a public place in the office. I mean anybody can walk into his office and he immediately told
his staff person to grab my phone and he said that I was uh violating the law by
entering his office. First I wasn't in his office and second it's no violation to enter a congressperson's office.
Well, I just thought I said you're out of your mind and you're nasty and if you touch me it's an assault. And I went
away thinking, "What a nasty guy." And then about 15 minutes later, these uh
not very nice police officers came up and said that Daryl Isa had lodged a
complaint against me and wanted me arrested. I showed them the video and they looked at the video and they said,
"There's nothing there. You didn't do anything wrong." And so I was there for a long time while they were debating
whether to let me go, which I thought would happen, uh or to arrest me. But it turns out the inspector general got
involved. Uh ISA wouldn't drop it and so he had me arrested and I have to go back
to court on October 9th. And I think this is part of an attempt by members of
Congress to give me a stayaway order, which means a judge in the interim
between your case coming up and being adjudicated, they can tell you you can't go back into Congress. And given that
there are members of Congress like this uh very right-wing woman Anna Palina Luna who has asked the speaker to keep
Code Pink out of Congress. I think this is part of uh that activity. I am hoping
that um the judge will see how ridiculous it is and will drop the case
but you never know. Let's talk about Trump and Rico and his statements in the Oval Office about Code
Pink. And a woman in many cases, women. You can see they're professional agitators.
I had one the other night. I had four the other night all in one group. Total phonies. I started to scream when I got
into a restaurant. Oh, you know, something with Palestine. I said, well, I'm doing a great job for
peace in the Middle East. I should get lots of awards for that, right? with the Abraham Accords and everything else, but
a woman just stood up and started screaming and she got booed out of the place, too. The people, there were a lot
of people in the restaurant. I went there to show how safe and it was safe. I mean, the woman is just a mouthpiece
all she was. She was a paid she was a paid agitator and you have a lot of them. And I've asked Pam to look into
that in terms of RICO bringing RICO cases against criminal RICO because they should be put in jail. what they're
doing to this country is really subversive. Uh yes, there were a a group of code
pink women for women who had uh gone into a restaurant where Trump ended up
having dinner and they were able to be very close to him and uh shouted out uh
their opposition to US troops, the the the National Guard troops in Washington
DC as well as the occupation of Palestine. and they were um told to
leave and they were escorted out and it was all very civil actually. Uh and then
after that we hear him talking about these horrible people, you know, he calls these leftists lunatics and uh
maybe they should be arrested for RICO. I mean, I think that's just him uh mouththing off just like he said Soros
should be arrested and everybody should be arrested. um because really it was just a prime example of the use of our
first amendment rights. And why is that activity important? Uh
you know confronting figures in power which is uh of course one of the primary
activities of code pink. Code pink since our founding and it's over 20 years now we've confronted every
single president in power. We've confronted the vice presidents. We've confronted the secretaries of state um
just like we confront the members of Congress in Congress because we think they need to hear from us and so often
they isolate themselves. Uh they have press conference but oftentimes it's very selective who gets to ask a
question and how they're asked. Um we think that they need to be uh they need
to be confronted when they are doing horrible things like making wars and every single one of our presidents has
made war. uh whether it's Bush during the terrible invasion of Iraq or it was
Obama when we confronted him about the use of drones for uh killing anybody he
wanted to anywhere he wanted to and the continuation of holding people in Guantanamo. Uh it's up to us and I feel
that it's a duty of citizens to confront our officials when they are doing such
horrible things, war, torture, extra extrajudicial killings. We have to speak
up. Do you think that direct confrontation has an effect on power? I think it does. I remember when I
confronted uh Barack Obama and it was actually kind of a conversation that we
were having and they were trying to arrest me and I remember saying to the uh officers, "Shh, you better not arrest
me. I'm having a conversation with the president." Which gave me more time. Uh and we had a back and forth. And when I
was finally dragged out, he said, uh, the the issues that that woman brings
up, it's funny you said young young woman because I'm 10 years older than him, uh, are are issues that are worth
listening to. And those were the issues of how can we be holding people in Guantanamo that never had a trial, that
never were convicted of anything. How can we be killing US citizens like Abdul
Rakman al- Awaki, a 16-year-old US citizen killed by US drone strike? And
also um about the uh the US um
involvement in war that we shouldn't be in. So, uh I think yes, um that was an
example where uh we did have a real conversation and we see how those kinds
of interactions uh those kinds of interruptions of power
also inspire other people. And it might not inspire them to do that kind of
direct confrontation of somebody like a president, but it does inspire them to directly confront their member of
Congress. And I don't know if you saw during the August recess, Chris, all the different people who confronted their
members of Congress at the town hall meetings. It was just beautiful to see. And so I think those direct
confrontations do have an impact. But I can't see Trump or Steven Miller
or J. D. Vance having a conversation with you. Well, you never know. I think you have
to try it. I mean, we have had conversations with Marco Rubio when he was a senator. Uh, and yes, sometimes
it's just yelling back and forth. Um, but I think we need to, uh, try to have
whether it's a conversation or whether it's a what we call strategic interruption. We have to keep doing
that. And that's part of defending our right to free speech. You know, uh, better than anyone, Chris, how it's
being assaulted in so many different ways. But if we don't keep using it and keep pushing it, um, we will definitely
see it taken away. Where do you see us going, especially after the kind of deification of Charlie
Kirk as a martyr? I mean, I listen to the rally in Arizona. Um, I mean,
especially Miller, it was kind of fullon fascism. Where are we headed? What do you see coming?
I see that we're in for a very very dangerous times. I think this administration is using everything that
it has uh including the courts uh to uh take away our basic rights. I think uh
whether it's going after immigrants uh the uh way that ICE is just acting like
Gestapos on our streets and kidnapping our neighbors. I live in Washington DC
and it pains me when I walk out of my house around the block and I see armed
National Guard in my community. It is horrific. And uh then to see the way
that our um free speech rights are being violated on a daily basis. uh the way
the police have cracked down so much on the poor university students who were the moral center of this movement
against genocide and have been uh so harassed and intimidated. Um we see it
on all sides and uh the way that our universities are so attacked. You know, this is basic core issues that we will
be dealing with for decades to come when they take away our right to study certain issues or they impose the way
that even in uh in our elementary and high schools um we are allowed to talk
about things like what is a genocide and is it only a genocide when it relates to
something that um the uh uh the uh Jewish community wants us to talk about.
Um, this is this is stuff that's going to take decades to unravel, but I think it's cyclical. I think it will um we've
got to hold on to our seats and go through a very very hellish uh period ahead. Uh, but we're going to come out
on the other side. Let's talk about the weaponization of anti-semitism that of course was used by
the Trump administration to go after the universities which capitulated and from the beginning uh acknowledged I think
with no basis in fact that these campuses had a problem with anti-semitism. I have taught at
Colombia. I went to Harvard. I've taught at Princeton. That the idea not not that anti-semitism doesn't exist, but the
idea that these institutions fumented anti-semitism was uh nuts. Uh and uh and
then of course the demonization of uh undocumented workers or migrants to
justify uh this explosion of uh ICE uh
and the building of detention centers. And now of course uh the idea that there
was an organized group uh responsible for the assassination
of Charlie Kirk which is called the radical left. I mean, all of these
things are completely fictitious, but they've been used very effectively
uh to uh you know, close the iron doors to shut down what's left of our very
anemic open society. Yes. And I see that it is um also
happening so much on the local and statewide levels. I see that the last
week there were about 250 members of uh locally elected officials
who were in Israel during a time of a genocide and they were being indoctrinated so that they would go home
and reinforce or impose new legislation against boycott divestment and sanctions
that they would impose new restrictions on what can be taught in the schools. Um
this has seeped into so many areas of our lives um that uh it is uh uh very
hard to see how we can move forward uh as the the news keeps tightening. On the
other hand, uh when I am in Congress, you know, I I I've seen 14 hearings
already on anti-semitism and so many of them are just ridiculous.
as you say, you know, somebody had a poster in their room that offended
somebody or, you know, things that are like, "I'm sorry." You know, you could have just asked somebody to apologize
for a comment that they made and it would be over. Um, but instead they're making it out like this is more
important than the genocide that is actually going on. And it of course is a distraction from the genocide that's
going on. And um I uh my one of my hopes is that um the
younger generation is not falling into this trap. That the younger generation
is a generation that is opposed to US policy in Israel. Um that they have
during things like the encampments. I mean you saw Chris the beauty of these encampments when they were Muslims and
Jewish students praying together and uh it was like a vision of the society we
want to see in the future. Well, these students are not going to let go of that. You know, that's going to be with
them uh as they move forward. And uh so there are uh there's a new generation of
young people. We see it when we go into Congress and you see these Congress people that hold on to their uh vision
of Israel that they're going to keep giving our money to and the staff people nodding in support of us when we go in
or running after us in the hallways to say thank you for coming in. We're working hard to try to change our boss's
mind. Um there is a huge generational gap and that generational gap is what
will save us. Well, you see it with mom Donnie. Absolutely. I mean, how beautiful is
that? I mean, I'm in New York City right now and it just feels so good being here
knowing that he will be the next mayor. I'm pretty sure he will be the next mayor and that will change things and it
has already changed things. You see people around the country who are now excited about running for office who
know exactly how they should portray themselves as they went for office because he's such a wonderful role model
of that. So yes, that is that is so hopeful. Although not endorsed by Schumer or
Jeff. Uh and I just want to close by having you reflect a little bit on the
Democratic Party. I mean in many ways the Democratic Party transformed itself into the war party. Uh but talk a little
bit about the Democratic Party and whether you believe it's uh reformable from within.
It's pathetic. It's disgusting. It was disgusting under Biden. It's disgusting under Trump when you'd think now would
be the time for them to be the party of opposition and really be out there. Um, it's irredeemable. Uh, you and I have
been supporters of third parties for a long time. Both worked on Ralph Nater's campaign. uh been uh always uh trying to
get a strong third party going because I don't see uh any way that the Democratic
party can lead us into the kind of future we want. On the other hand, uh as
we are trying to build and look for leaders of a new uh third party, we have
to uh move and support those Democrats who are trying to change the party from
within. I support groups like Progressive Democrats of America. I support the progressive democrats like
Rashida Talib and uh Delia Ramirez and Ilhan Omar. And you know there are a
number of good ones. Uh so we work with what we have but we build for something much better in the future.
Great. Thanks media. Uh and I want to thank uh Diego and Victor uh Thomas
Sophia and Max who produce the show. You can find me at chrisedges.substack.com.
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