Collins is demanding that Ossoff return $7,000 he received from the Epstein-linked billionaire or else drop his relentless attacks on Republicans as “representing the ‘Epstein class.'”

Earlier this year, Ossoff issued a statement, saying, “We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. … This is the Epstein class ruling our country. They are the elites they pretend to hate.”

Ossoff’s Ties and Hypocrisy

Ossoff’s actions come amid claims he has made on the campaign trail about protecting children and “exposing human trafficking.”

In a video on Fox News, Collins said, “We demand that Jon Ossoff refund that money to Reid Hoffman and … condemn Reid Hoffman. …We’re demanding that Reid Hoffman, one of Epstein’s friends, stop funding his campaign. It’s that simple.”

“But yet you still take [the money], and then you turn around and you go out there like a hypocrite, and you talk about President [Donald] Trump and the Epstein Files, when in fact you are tied to it.”

In addition to his direct $7,000 donation to the Ossoff campaign, Hoffman has also given $1 million to New Engagement PAC, a political action committee linked to Ossoff. Collins says the entire connection with Hoffman reeks of hypocrisy.

Josh McKoon, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, commented on Ossoff’s actions, telling the Daily Signal, “We shouldn’t expect anything less from Jon Ossoff. He attacks Republicans while taking the maximum legal donation from billionaire Reid Hoffman, who has acknowledged visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s island.”

Ossoff’s Out-of-State Donations

Another area for concern is Ossoff’s accusations against wealthy elites, as well as his criticism of other politicians who receive corporate money or “billionaire money.”

Many donations to Ossoff’s campaign come from out-of-state donors, including from wealthy Californians who have donated about $7.35 million. By comparison, the senator has received about $6.86 million from Georgia residents.

In addition to the donations he has received, Ossoff’s campaign has invested roughly half a million dollars in California and a quarter of a million dollars in New York, Newsweek reported.

Next Steps for Ossoff and Voters

According to McKoon, the connection with Hoffman is too problematic for Ossoff to ignore.

“Ossoff has a simple choice: return Hoffman’s money or explain why his own billionaire donor gets a pass from the ‘Epstein class’ he attacks. Georgians deserve consistency, not one set of rules for Republicans and another for him,” McKoon said, adding that the choice is “simple.”

Stewart Bragg, general consultant at JLK Political Strategies, said the politics of the matter really boils down to “whether Ossoff applies the same standard to his own donors that he applies to his political opponents.”

“Georgians want leaders focused on getting things done, not constantly trading political attacks and accusations,” Bragg told the Daily Signal.

“They’re dealing with the cost of living, health care, jobs and putting food on the table. … It’s time to stop the political sideshow and put the focus back where it belongs: on Georgia and the people who call it home.”

The Ossoff campaign did not respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

That number is about to get lower as employees at Penske Truck Leasing in Richmond are officially free from the unwanted “representation” of Teamsters Local 592 union officials, after the National Labor Relations Board certified a vote of Penske workers to “decertify” Teamsters union bosses.

The decertification effort was spearheaded by Penske employee Jordan Cutrell, who received free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys during the decertification process.

Virginia is one of 26 states that still have “right to work” laws on their books. These safeguard workers by making union membership and dues payment strictly voluntary. But that position has fallen under attack as recently as the last General Assembly session.

While passing minimum wage hikes, compensation reforms, paid family leave, and employment regulations on hiring, state Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, tried but failed to repeal the right-to-work law. The Senate did not take it up before the session’s deadline, effectively killing it for now.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger is on record saying that she opposes a full repeal but has said reforms may be necessary in the future. She has not been forthcoming on what those might be when asked on multiple occasions, preferring to leave it that she is “open to suggestions.”

The issue arose here in Virginia because federal law grants union officials the power to impose their exclusive “representation” on every employee in a work unit, including those who never voted for, joined, or supported the union.

Other Penske Truck Leasing employees who have successfully removed unwanted union bosses from their facilities include workers in Dallas, Texas; Bloomington, Indiana; Eagan and Roseville, Minnesota; Nashville, Tennessee; and Swedesboro, New Jersey.

National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix sat down with me (full interview linked below) and said, “Labor law is written in favor of union officials, going back to the 1930s, when at that point in time, you could be forced to formally join a private organization and pay dues to that organization as a condition of getting or keeping a job in America. And believe it or not, those federal laws are still on the books. But there is an exception, and that is states being able to pass what are known as right-to-work laws.”

So, if you are reading about the National Right to Work Foundation for the first time, you might think it is just a “union-buster.” Not so. Mix told me, “I believe there was a place for unions. There is a place for unions and there will be a place for unions, but there’s no place for force. When you add the compulsion and the force on top of the power that unions have, it makes them completely unaccountable.”

Believe it or not, Michigan was, ever so briefly, a right-to-work state, too. Ratified in 2024, within a year it was repealed.

So, why is the percentage of American union membership at record lows? Mix had a thought: “I think employers recognize more and more that taking care of their employees is probably priority No. 1 to a successful business.”

He added a name you might have heard of: “Sam Walton started out running a five and dime in a little Arkansas town and has probably made more millionaires in America among employees and associates, not just other investors, but people that actually work there.”

He added that he saw it early on: “I was servicing them during college, during a summer job that I had. And Walmart, Walmart stores were my customers. And every time I went in there, there was somebody that was happy. I walk into the employee room and the stock prices on the wall, and everyone’s participating.”

When economic historians talk about “American Exceptionalism,” they point to how the U.S. workforce was more productive than any country in the world because the worker got to choose who they worked with.

Sounds like a winning idea.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Smith, appointed in 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Donald Trump, expanded his investigation into members of Congress who communicated with then-first-term President Trump over his disputes regarding the results of the 2020 election.

Investigators gained access to the phone records of more than a dozen Republican lawmakers.

“During the Biden-Harris DOJ’s investigation of the 2020 election, codenamed Arctic Frost, and the subsequent special counsel investigation, investigators unconstitutionally subpoenaed phone records for over a dozen Republican members of Congress and obtained gag orders to prevent the Members from knowing that the Biden-Harris Administration had obtained these records,” the report stated.

The report adds that the Biden DOJ “violated the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.”

The report says, “Federal courts interpret the Speech or Debate Clause to place an ‘absolute’ bar on compelled disclosure of a member’s ‘legislative material.’”

The report notes that Smith privately told Garland that members of Congress “likely have a valid Speech or Debate privilege immunizing them from compelled testimony.” However, Garland gave his “blessing” for Smith to pursue the records.

“At best, these prosecutors ignored key legislative protections enshrined in the Constitution to guarantee that Members of Congress may freely deliberate on the questions of public policy,” the report states. “At worst—which seems likely in context with the other abuses of Special Counsel Smith’s office—these prosecutors weaponized their law-enforcement authority to violate a key constitutional provision to gather reams of information about their Administration’s political adversaries.”

The report continues: “The evidence available to the Committee shows that Special Counsel Smith’s team barely considered the constitutional protections surrounding this material—and to the extent that it did, it concluded that its subpoenas might be unconstitutional. Yet, Special Counsel Smith’s team forged ahead and issued the subpoenas.”

In July, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Congressional Records Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., aimed at protecting the separation of powers in the Constitution and ending the weaponized surveillance of members of Congress.

The Daily Signal reached out to the law firm of Heaphy, Smith, Harbach & Windom, where Smith is a partner, for comment. No one responded by publication time.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. 

About a month ago, I talked about the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I made the argument for why the United States did that, used those devastating weapons. Not that I was happy about it, of course, but we all were commemorating the date. 

In reaction to that and to a column I wrote to the same effect, Tucker Carlson recently said that I had called the dropping of the atomic bombs “glorious.” I will just take a little parenthetical here and say if he can produce the quote where I said glorious, I will pay him a thousand dollars, or better yet, maybe he can have a wager. I will say I never used the word glorious. He says I did. If he wants to back that up with a thousand-dollar bet, I’ll be happy to do it, and I’m not a wealthy person by any means. 

What I said was that we dropped the bomb for three reasons, and the reasons were not those that the paleo right is alleging or the Left. We did not do it because we wanted to impress the Soviets. They got the bomb four years later, almost to the week. And they were in the process of assembling the information from espionage when we used the bomb. We knew they were going to get the bomb. 

Nor did we do it to justify the expense of the Manhattan Project, nor did we do it because we don’t like so-called Asian people. We did it because we had just suffered 50,000 casualties on Okinawa, and we did not want to repeat that on the Japanese mainland, where there were up to 20 million militia, impressed civilians, and army personnel and 7,000 or 8,000 kamikazes. 

And if you do the math of the defenders on Okinawa versus the losses of 50,000 dead, wounded, and missing and apply that to Japan, we may have lost, as planners had feared, 1 million. One million. 

That was why we tried to use the bomb. 

In addition, other people pointed out that the Japanese were killing somewhere between 15,000 and above Chinese, Asians in general, and Pacific Islanders per day. 

Of all the armies and militaries in World War II, as far as those who killed the most of their enemies and suffered the least doing it, the fewest, it was Japan. 

So we did that to save American lives, to save Allied Asian lives, and to save Japanese lives. There would’ve been 2 million or 3 million Japanese killed. 

Another thing to remember is the atomic bombs, contrary to what Tucker Carlson said, were not the most devastating weapons in World War II, nor are they necessarily even today. They have the potential to be, but so does AI, so do enhanced gain-of-function viruses. There’s a lot of ways, unfortunately, that people die through the use of dangerous weapons. 

The point I’m making is in World War II, the incendiary napalm attacks on the Japanese cities killed far more than the two bombs. 

And more importantly, with the acquisition of Okinawa and the end of World War II in Europe, Curtis LeMay was trying to shorten the war by increasing his bomber fleet with new bombers from the American factories, B-29s, and assembling a massive armada of, say, 6,000 or 7,000 bombers, both in the Marianas and the much shorter distance from Okinawa with B-17s and British Lancasters, as I said. 

The point is it would have been an inferno had those two bombs not been used to preclude further death and to shorten the war. 

I don’t know why Tucker Carlson does this. He also said Donald Trump is considering using nuclear weapons. Donald Trump has said one thing continuously. He does not want to use nuclear weapons. He does not only not want to use nuclear weapons, he wants to have the major powers who own them and possess them agree to downgrade their arsenals. 

But he’s very worried about the Chinese. He’s very worried about North Korea. He’s very worried about Iran. He’s very worried about Russia. He’s very worried, as I said earlier, about China. 

So it’s not so much the possession of a nuclear weapon. We’re not worried about Britain, and we’re not worried about France because these are democratic countries. We’re worried about those countries under dictatorships. 

And Donald Trump is trying to both deter them with a preeminent American arsenal, but also, once that preeminence is established, to downgrade the use of them by limiting the size of our arsenals. Build up to build down. If that sounds ironic, it is. 

Finally, Tucker Carlson has done a lot of strange things since he left Fox News that are out of the ordinary. One of them is this emphasis on World War II. 

He brought on the podcaster and blogger Darryl Cooper, said he was one of the most renowned writers on World War II. Of course, he’s never written a single published article or book. Not that that’s necessarily requisite, but he has said things that were demonstrably untrue that gained the approval of Tucker Carlson. 

He said that Winston Churchill was the greatest terrorist of World War II. That’s not true. Winston Churchill was alone of all the Allied powers, alone from the fall of France in May 1940 to June 22, 1941, when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union. There were no other allies, and his country was the only country that went to war on the principle of the integrity of another country. 

It wasn’t attacked. It was in response to the German attack on Poland. It was the only country that fought from the first day of the war to the last. And as I said, had Churchill not been able to withstand all of Nazi Europe and Italy and Japan, there wouldn’t have been a chance to save the democracies in World War II. 

The idea that you would even say that, that you would defend, as Mr. Cooper does, the Axis powers that all started the war, were all fascist autocracies, and you would favor them or try to rationalize them over the conduct of Great Britain or the United States, the only two consensual systems in the entire war among the major powers, is absolutely insane. 

In conclusion, I’ll just finish. I don’t know what has come over Tucker Carlson. I was on his show a great deal of the time for years, and he made eloquent arguments that I didn’t always agree with, but they were rational. 

He was worried about radical Islam. He recently all but endorsed Abdul El-Sayed over Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate in the Michigan Senate race. He had not remarked in an anti-Semitic fashion about Israel. 

Recently, he had a guest on, and I mentioned that, who essentially said to Tucker, with his nodding approval, that there was no real purpose or value to algebra, an ancient mathematical contribution that involved Arabs, Persians, Greeks, Jews, and Egyptians. 

And without alphabetic use in a mathematical equation denoting variables or uncertainties and having such formulas, you can’t conduct higher math or higher physics, even though the guest said he didn’t need it, and Tucker said it was kind of superfluous, and the guest also said that it was sort of a trick of the Jews on the goyim. 

All of this is absurd and it’s shocking, but I want to just finish by clearing the record. If Tucker says that I was glorifying or I used the word that the use of these horrible weapons was glorious rather than necessary to save lives, I challenge him to produce that quote. 

And if he can’t produce that quote, I suggest he apologize. 

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Federal lobbying disclosures show that labor unions, LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, pro-abortion groups, and left-leaning advocacy organizations lobbied against the SAVE America Act during the second quarter of 2026. The legislation stalled in Congress this year.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights organized a coalition letter against the legislation. The letter claims that the SAVE America Act is “not necessary to secure American elections” but instead would “do nothing more than exclude eligible voters” and “make voting harder.”

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the bill’s sponsor, told the Daily Signal that the groups oppose the bill because “they know that allowing illegal aliens to vote in our elections gives Democrats the best shot at reclaiming power.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, suggested that the opposition boils down to an effort to help Democrats win illegitimately.

“Why would a large coalition of leftwing groups, all of which support Democrats and are supported by Democrats—sometimes using your tax dollars—be so worried at the prospect of stopping illegal non-citizen voting in American elections? To ask the question is to answer it,” he told the Daily Signal in a written statement Wednesday.

The White House also criticized the coalition.

“Every American should be asking why the radical Left and Democrats are fighting against the SAVE America Act, which includes commonsense election integrity measures, like Voter ID, that are strongly supported by the vast majority of Americans,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told the Daily Signal. “This legislation would make sure Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections. President [Donald] Trump has been clear and he is absolutely right: we fix this now, or we lose our country.”

The SAVE America Act would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration in federal elections. Opponents claim the requirements are too onerous and that few noncitizens vote illegally.

Only one of the coalition members the Daily Signal approached for comment responded.

Akilah Watkins, president of Independent Sector, said that her organization opposes the bill because it would “undermine the ability of nonprofits to engage in nonpartisan voter education and voter registration.”

Parker Thayer, an investigative researcher at the Capital Research Center and author of a report on the groups warning about “voter suppression,” countered this narrative.

“The same groups opposing the SAVE America Act whipped up a frenzy over Georgia’s election integrity bill, lost in court, and then voter turnout actually increased across the board,” Thayer told the Daily Signal. He said the groups oppose the SAVE America Act “because commonsense election integrity legislation makes the industrial scale ballot chasing and ‘nonpartisan’ voter registration operations that Democrats rely upon much harder, and more expensive, to operate.”

“When the AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood, the SPLC, and MoveOn.org all link arms to fight a bill, that tells you everything you need to know about who benefits from the status quo,” Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., told the Daily Signal. “These groups are the radical Left’s political machine.”

Traditional leftist advocacy and election-focused organizations were among the 26 that lobbied against the bill, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the American Library Association, Common Cause, the National Council of Jewish Women, MoveOn.org Civic Action, the Young Women’s Christian Association, Democracy 21, the ACLU, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Yet lobbying also came from the LGBTQ+ group Human Rights Campaign, the climate group League of Conservation Voters, the abortion group Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and the seniors’ advocacy group National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice.

The coalition included some of America’s largest labor unions: the AFL-CIO; the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; the American Federation of Teachers; Communications Workers of America; the National Education Association; and National Nurses United.

Three organizations lobbied for the legislation: the Federation on American Immigration Reform, Heritage Action for America, and the Pressler Persistence.

Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called the coalition’s opposition revealing.

“Democrats allowed millions of illegal aliens into the country, and now we’ve seen case after case of noncitizens registering to vote and voting in American elections,” Jordan told the Daily Signal. “Everyone knows why these left-wing activist groups don’t support the SAVE America Act and voter ID.”

Recent restraint, however, should not be mistaken for a strategic shift.

If past patterns hold, Beijing’s respite after months of high military activity levels around Taiwan will soon return. With a series of high-level summits and public attention focused on it, Beijing may be using near-term diplomacy to preserve leverage later.

Heritage Foundation scholars have been tracking Chinese military activity around Taiwan and evolving tactics since 2021. In late July, Heritage published an opinion piece warning of increasing Chinese activity later this year. With Xi’s upcoming visit to the White House happening on Sept. 24, the question is: What is China’s next move?

The Past as a Reference for the Future

While overall activity in the Taiwan Strait is much lower than in previous years, several activity spikes have occurred since the July article.      

In the four days leading up to Aug. 1, the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese armed forces (PLA Day), People’s Liberation Army Air Force activity climbed from one sortie to twenty-seven sorties a day. This closely follows past trends in which the eve of People’s Liberation Army Day saw spikes in Chinese air force and navy activity, along with sorties crossing the median line.  

A week later, Taiwan conducted its yearly Han Kuang live-fire military exercises from Aug. 5 through Aug. 14. It was the 42nd iteration of this exercise, designed to test the island’s readiness for a potential People’s Liberation Army invasion. Observed Chinese army activity showed Chinese air force sorties rising above 20 in the initial stage, easing briefly, and then increasing again to above-average levels during the closing stages.

Another spike in activity occurred between Aug. 18 and 19, with 20 Chinese air force sorties, including 15 that crossed the median line. This activity by the People’s Liberation Army may be in response to an Aug. 18 incident between the coast guards of China and Taiwan in the restricted waters around Taiwan’s Dongsha Island.

From Sept. 16 through Sept. 19, reports showed a substantial increase in Chinese army sorties, averaging more than twenty per day during that period. This was likely a response to Taiwan conducting missile, drone, HIMARS, and other military tests as part of a China-focused anti-invasion drill. This comes amid recent U.S.-Philippine cooperation on integrating BrahMos anti-ship missiles, drone targeting networks, and coastal defense operations in northern Luzon.

Recent tensions in the South China Sea have continued despite the reduced military activity around Taiwan. After Philippine Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro Jr. criticized China’s South China Sea claims, Beijing accused Manila of “stirring up trouble.” That exchange followed a July incident in which the Philippine military accused China’s coast guard of injuring a Filipino sailor at a South China Sea shoal.

While spikes in People’s Liberation Army activity show that China remains active, analysis shows that overall Chinese air force and navy activity in the strait remains historically low. Compared to a year ago this week, the 10-day average of Chinese air force activity is down by almost 40%. While spikes of activity are still occurring, these spikes are down from previous highs, and the data shows a broad decrease in overall Chinese army activity.

What Could Be Causing the Decrease?

The decline in People’s Liberation Army activity is likely the result of several factors. Improving U.S.-China relations ahead of the Sept. 24 Trump-Xi meeting has likely contributed, as ongoing discussions over trade and tariffs have encouraged dialogue over escalation. At the same time, shifting regional tensions and evolving tactical decisions may be drawing attention away from the Taiwan Strait.

For instance, earlier this year Japan and the Philippines launched negotiations to delimit their overlapping maritime boundaries east of Taiwan. China strongly opposed the talks and responded by launching coast guard and maritime law-enforcement patrols into waters east of Taiwan and the Philippine Sea.

According to an August report by Allen Zhang of Heritage’s Asian Studies Center, Beijing is also increasingly relying on research vessels operating under civilian scientific missions to collect data on underwater terrain, cables, and other militarily strategic features around Taiwan.

China has also sought to strengthen military ties with countries including Indonesia and Russia. Recent exercises between the People’s Liberation Army and Indonesian warships conducted east of Taiwan demonstrate China’s desire to display military force while strengthening partnerships with other Asian nations.

Likewise, China conducted the Joint Sea-2026 naval exercise with Russia near Qingdao, after which participating forces reportedly carried out joint Pacific patrols. This activity suggests Beijing is using combined exercises to signal that pressure around Taiwan is part of a broader Indo-Pacific strategy.

China is not the only country reducing its presence in the Taiwan Strait. In a separate piece by Zhang, he warns that U.S. naval transits through the Strait have declined by 50% during Trump’s second term compared to his first. He argues that a reduced American presence could create the perception in Beijing that U.S. commitment is weakening.

Looking Forward

If the Trump-Xi summit produces positive outcomes, People Liberation’s Army activity could stabilize or decline further as both countries seek areas of cooperation and attempt to manage tensions in the South and East China seas. This may prove an overly rosy possibility given years of antagonism at sea. Conversely, a less favorable outcome could contribute to renewed friction between China and the United States, potentially leading Beijing to increase military pressure around Taiwan and drive PLA activity toward levels seen in previous years.

With a wide range of issues expected to be discussed, including artificial intelligence, trade, and regional security, it remains unclear what specific agreements or understandings may emerge regarding Taiwan. While Beijing is unlikely to soften its position on the Taiwan question, it may seek to use the issue of its reduced military presence as leverage in negotiations to secure broader guarantees or concessions from Washington.

Lower Activity Does Not Equal Lower Risk

The upcoming summit may be shaping Beijing’s timing more than its intentions. If Chinese leaders believe restraint strengthens their diplomatic hand, the Chinese navy and air force activity may remain relatively subdued around Taiwan but increase elsewhere, as seen in the Philippine Sea this year. If the summit disappoints Beijing, the Taiwan Strait could once again become a convenient arena for signaling resolve and displeasure with the U.S.

All told, Beijing tends to celebrate significant anniversary dates with military demonstrations. Looking to the future, two dates are important to keep in mind: Oct. 1 (China’s founding day) and Oct. 10 (Taiwan’s National Day). Both have historically coincided with spikes in People’s Liberation Army activity. For instance, in 2024, 153 sorties were flown on Oct. 14 in direct response to remarks made just a few days earlier by President William Lai Ching-te on Taiwan’s National Day.

“When the president asked me to do this job a year ago, he said election integrity is a priority. The top priority is winning the election, but we also consider it a win to protect the vote,” Gruters told the Daily Signal in an exclusive interview.

“We want to secure our elections far beyond Election Day,” said Gruters, also a Florida state senator.

Gruters also said he recently talked to President Donald Trump about the fate of the SAVE America Act, a voter ID proposal that passed the House. Gruters says the bill “probably” wouldn’t get past the Democrat filibuster in the Senate before the November election.

The RNC established its election integrity program for the 2024 election, which included a presidential race, and surpassed its all-time litigation record for a single year.

The number of lawsuits is up from the 2024 cycle, when the RNC filed 175 election security lawsuits at the federal, state, and local levels. For the 2026 election cycle, the RNC filed more than 200 cases.

The most significant is likely the case of Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota, which is going to the Supreme Court in December. The question in the case is whether Arizona can require proof of citizenship for voter registration. The high court will also decide whether the state can remove the names of noncitizens, dead people, and other ineligible people from the voter registration rolls.

Lawsuits include pending litigation in eight states where overseas residents who never lived in the state are allowed to vote there, as well as major wins regarding election procedures in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. The RNC has had 34 courtroom victories and most cases are pending.

Beyond the courtroom, the RNC signed up 16,971 volunteers to work at polling sites nationally. That’s up from 11,917 at the same point in the 2024 presidential cycle, a 42% increase.

Gruters cited the three election integrity priorities for the RNC as voter ID, securing mail-in ballots, and requiring proof of citizenship.

The SAVE America Act would require photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register to vote.

“I spoke with the president two nights ago about the specific senators that were keeping this from happening. Democrats are united in their efforts to prevent this from moving forward because they are united in their efforts to lie, steal, and cheat for victory,” Gruters said.

“It’s probably not going to happen now,” he said of passing the legislation. “We probably won’t see it happen until after November, when we have new senators.”

For their part, Democrats insist they are ready on the legal front.

“Democrats are fighting in courtrooms around the country, and federal elections will be free and fair this November because Democrats have defeated President Trump and Republicans’ attacks on the sacred right to vote,” DNC Litigation Director Dan Freeman told the Daily Signal in a statement.

“While Republicans continue to file lawsuits destined for dismissal and issue empty threats about poll watchers and election monitors, Democrats are ensuring Americans can make their voices heard and hold President Trump accountable at the polls this November,” Freeman continued.

Gruters said the GOP merely wants to prevent illegal votes from being cast that will cancel legal votes, and that Republicans have long been reactive instead of proactive on election integrity.

The RNC expanded recruitment into Maryland, Colorado, New Mexico, Kentucky, Alaska, and Ohio as part of a multimillion-dollar election integrity program, with directors deployed in 22 states.

Before coming to the RNC, Gruters had been the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, and prior to that, the chairman of the Republican Party of Sarasota County.

“Being a chairman is about blocking and tackling, but also about protecting the vote,” he said. “We are being aggressive. We are going to use the hammer whenever we can.”

“I had a meeting with the [National Security Council] yesterday, and they have reassured me that this is a top priority for the U.S. government and will be on the agenda for the summit with [Chinese leader] Xi [Jinping],” she said.

 “Resolving the wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens is always a top priority for the president,” a senior U.S. official told the Daily Signal.

Min Zin, a husband and father of one, traveled to China for an academic conference on June 3. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs now claims he is a danger to “national security.” The U.S. State Department has designated his detention as wrongful.

Sylvia Zin believes President Donald Trump is the only one who can bring her husband to safety. Xi arrives Wednesday night for the first visit by a Chinese leader to the U.S. in more than a decade.

“President Trump has brought home over 100 Americans in his office,” Zin said, “and I am hoping that my husband is the next one.”

Zin helped her husband pack the night before and expected that this trip would be like his many others to China.

“He goes on these types of trips all the time,” she said. “Particularly to China, he was there in October of 2025, and there was no problem. It was just the usual kind of trip that he takes every other month.”

The trip felt so routine that Zin left the house to drop their daughter off at school before her husband woke up.

“Usually, he will call me after he gets seated in an airplane,” she said. “And this time he said, ‘I’m seated,’ and he texted me. And I said, ‘I’m in the shopping mall. Do you want me to go to the car so we can talk?’ And he’s like, ‘No, no, it’s OK. It’s only a couple hours flight. I’ll just call you when I land,’ and so I didn’t even take the time to go talk to him.”

He texted his wife when he landed in China. She hasn’t heard from him since.

“We called the immigration [office]. We called the airport. We called the luggage [office] to see what happened,” she said, “and we determined that there is something wrong. And so I called the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou on the morning of June 4 to report him missing, and I heard back from them on June 5 that they have been informed that he has been detained.”

Min Zin has been kept in an undisclosed location. All his wife knows is that he is in a small room with no windows and that he has developed knee pain and lost weight. He is interrogated for four to six hours a day.

No one knows why Zin has been detained. His research, which largely focuses on Myanmar, is open source, and everything is available on his website.

“I don’t know what it is about his work that they’re not happy with,” Sylvia Zin said. “It is a very big unknown for us.”

 Michael Lucci, founder of State Armor, said China negotiates by capturing hostages before U.S. summits.

“This is just how the Chinese Communist Party negotiates,” Lucci told the Daily Signal. “They grab a bunch of American hostages so that we have to ask for them back in the next summit.”

Sylvia and Min Zin have been together for 23 years. She said she knew she wanted to marry him because he always makes her laugh.

“Any hardship that we go through, he will make it light, and he will make it bearable,” she said. “And I think that’s a really good quality for us to face anything that that’s going to come our way.”

Their 14-year-old daughter is old enough to understand how serious it is to be designated a “national security threat” by China, and she is worried about her father.

“She is old enough to understand what endangering national security means, and how that will change our family, and this is the first time where I’m doing the job of both mom and dad,” she said. “So it’s been very difficult for both of us.” 

When asked what her message is to Trump, Sylvia Zin said, “Please bring my husband Min Zin’s name to President Xi.”

“Please work to bring him home,” she said. “President Trump is the only one who can do it, and we are praying and counting on him to bring my husband home.”

On Tuesday, Center for Christian Virtue President Aaron Baer was joined by other Ohio leaders who addressed the tragic incident.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, was similarly outraged and penned a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche that same day calling for action.

The incident took place in late 2024, when Abbas was in a relationship with the victim, Jona Affholder, after separating from his wife.

When Affholder informed Abbas on Dec. 7, 2024, that she was pregnant, he told her to get an abortion, though she did not want one.

The next day, Abbas acquired pills from an out-of-state telemedicine abortion provider and used his estranged wife’s information to do so, using his own credit card, email address, and delivery address. Three days later, the drugs arrived.

On Dec. 18, when Affholder was staying the night, she woke up to Abbas on top of her as he held her down and forced a crushed powder into her mouth, which was absorbed into her bloodstream through her gums. While she fought her way to the kitchen and called 911, Abbas took her phone and hung up.

Affholder was documented by the hospital as an “assault victim” and had a diagnosis of vaginal bleeding. She lost the baby.

Abbas was sentenced on Sept. 11. The surgeon pleaded no contest in May to four felony charges, including disrupting public services, unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, identity fraud, and deception to obtain a dangerous drug.

On Tuesday, Baer and others gathered in Toledo to express their outrage over the six-month sentence.

“So, we have to ask ourselves, how did this happen? How did a life get taken, a woman get abused … and the predator only got six months in prison?” Baer asked. He went on to blame the Biden administration’s relaxing of standards for acquiring the pill in December 2021, especially as it pertains to acquiring pills online.

The Food and Drug Administration stopped requiring that abortion drugs be dispensed to mothers in person, which allowed them to receive such drugs through telehealth appointments and by mail.

“Predators like Abbas can steal an identity, order the pills, drug a woman, and take a life. So I tell you, where was her choice in this whole process? Where’s the voice of that unborn child? That’s why we stand here today to fight for the unborn life and fight for Ohio’s women,” Baer continued.

That theme was expressed by speakers throughout the press conference, including Dave Yost, Ohio’s former attorney general who now works with Alliance Defending Freedom.

“Whatever you feel about the abortion issue, whether you feel it’s a right or not, you should be appalled. My friends on the left should be appalled by the assault that happened on this woman,” Yost said about Abbas.

“This was a forcible administration [of the drug]. He used his superior size to push this into her body. I can think of no other fact patterns where there wouldn’t be nearly universal outrage. It is act of violence, and I concur that first, the federal government needs to reimpose the commonsense Obama-era restriction for safety of women, and secondly, the Ohio General Assembly needs to act.”

Moreno was similarly dissatisfied by the sentence, as his letter made clear.

“Unsurprisingly, reckless Biden-era mail-in abortion policies are responsible for this hell-on-earth tragedy,” Moreno wrote early on.

“Without ever setting foot inside a pharmacy, Mr. Abbas procured the mail-order abortion drugs fraudulently using his estranged wife’s name. It is hard for me to imagine a wickedness more significant than this,” Moreno later wrote. “What makes this even worse is that Mr. Hassan Abbas was only sentenced to six months of jail time and two years of probation.”

Yost also highlighted how regulations were stronger during President Donald Trump’s first term and also under former President Barack Obama’s administration.

“This would not have happened because of the legal structure,” Yost said. “During the Obama administration, and actually from the time of its approval, Mifepristone required a three-visit regimen.”

Pro-lifers, including ADF, have tried for years to get the matter of the abortion pill dealt with before the U.S. Supreme Court. The unanimous decision in 2024 of FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine found that the pro-life doctors in the case did not have standing. There’s a new effort, however, with Louisiana v. FDA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit heard oral arguments earlier this month.

“As a matter of public policy, I encourage you to act quickly to conclude the Louisiana v. FDA case, such that the in-person dispensing in a medical setting requirement is reinstated as the FDA continues its critical safety review of the drugs,” Moreno urged Blanche.

For all of his frustration toward the Biden administration, the senator expressed hope in the Trump administration’s DOJ.

“I applaud the historic work the United States Department of Justice has done to unveil the damage the Biden Administration caused, including the weaponization of federal law against pro-life Americans. However, the work is far from done. I look forward to working together to protect mothers and babies from the real threats of evil that exist, such as what tragically Ms. Affholder endured,” Moreno concluded.

The Center for Christian Virtue has a campaign urging people to reach out to the DOJ on the matter.

The Daily Signal reached out to the Department of Justice about the letter but did not hear back in time for publication.

Furthering the need for action, speakers during Tuesday’s press conference highlighted stories of other forced abortions via the pill across the state and country.

State Rep. Josh Williams warned that “this light sentence that was given to this man is only going to destroy the voice and kill in this community,” and he echoed other speakers, including calling for the Ohio Legislature to ban the mailing of abortion pills.

Talarico, a Democrat who is in a highly contested race against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton for the Texas U.S. Senate seat, has said that the Rev. Jim Rigby, the pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, was one of “the biggest influences on [him] as a Christian, as a human being.” 

Talarico is a part-time Presbyterian seminarian who has had a tainted career in the Texas Legislature for being against religious initiatives, including keeping the Bible out of schools. He has also used Scripture to justify abortion and voted against legislation to prohibit minors from accessing gender transitioning procedures and treatments using public funds.

However, Blaze News exclusively obtained hidden-camera footage that reveals what Talarico’s spiritual mentor, Rigby, thinks of evangelical Christians. 

A video from Aug. 30 shows a person off-camera asking Rigby, “What’s wrong with evangelical Christians?” Rigby responded to the question, allegedly saying that evangelical Christians are “just not that smart.” 

“My guess is that they’re people who are just not that smart, in like, abstract thinking, which is where a lot of the liberal stuff and the principles of human rights and all that stuff comes up—it’s like they just, it doesn’t show up on their radar.” 

But Rigby didn’t stop there. He further complained about evangelicals’ beliefs in hell, angels, and demons, telling the individual that those beliefs are irrational. 

“The church is a huge part of the problem—teaching people from the cradle that things are true because you believe them,” Rigby said in the video. “A belief in hell shuts everything down, because when you think that you could be tortured for all eternity, and you believe in demons and angels and stuff like this, you can’t stay rational for long.” 

Rigby added that if “supernatural beings are affecting things, good logic wouldn’t make any sense.” 

The undercover video is not the only instance in which Rigby has made controversial statements. Talarico’s mentor has also made headlines for calling for a “true jihad” at a pro-Palestine rally and has stated that he rejects the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

“You see, God loves us very much, but mindless obedience is VERY important to God, so God decided to barbecue us eternally for the mistakes of our ancestors,” Rigby wrote on Facebook. “But God has a son named Jesus who asked God to abuse him instead. And so God killed Jesus in our place. And we call this story, the ‘good news.’ All that matters is that we admit that we are worthless trash, but that Jesus likes us anyway. Oh, and we have to LITERALLY believe Jesus’ corpse got up.”  

In an Easter post, Rigby also wrote that he doesn’t “believe Christianity is the only way, or even the best way for many people.” 

“If we Christians are ‘chosen,’ it is to be of service to everyone else. I don’t believe in magic. I don’t believe the miracle stories of scripture were intended to describe the magical powers of supernatural beings. I believe miracle stories were originally a whimsical teaching device used by wise rabbis to reveal and illumine the miraculous nature of our everyday experiences,” he wrote. 

Although Rigby has been supportive of Talarico and his campaign messaging, he has posted that he does not speak for Talarico and that “he owes no one an explanation” for his comments.

Current polling shows that Talarico has a one-point advantage over Paxton as voters prepare to vote in the upcoming midterm election.

On Tuesday, the committee held a hearing that included the testimony of Pastor Ezra Jin, who spent 200 days in a Chinese prison for running a non-state-sponsored church. Jin was released after President Donald Trump met with Xi in Beijing in May and raised the issue. But others, like Nelson Wells Jr. and Dawn Michelle Hunt, remain imprisoned in China. Tuesday’s hearing included testimony from family members of Wells and Hunt

In an interview with the Daily Signal, Smith said that he’s optimistic about the call’s success, describing Rubio as a “humanitarian at heart” who will prioritize the issue of imprisoned worshippers when speaking with Trump ahead of Thursday’s summit.

“He’s very successful, he’s a humanitarian at heart, he’ll see why this is so important,” Smith stated.

Smith now sees this call as the best opportunity to alert Trump about the detention of other pastors and Americans imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party ahead of the president’s Thursday meeting with the Chinese leader.

Smith added that he will tell the secretary to prioritize “these issues” during the summit.

“How many times do you [the United States] get to talk to Xi Jinping like this?” Smith added.

Smith continued, adding that if the president were to raise the issue of those wrongfully detained by the Chinese government, Xi might actually follow through.

“He’s in charge of that country. He could do it tomorrow and tell the other Communist Party officials to get back in line,” the chairman continued. “He could make this happen, and Trump can help him to make an offer.”

The State Department did not respond to the Daily Signal’s inquiry on whether the call will occur.

Steve Yates, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Signal that Trump has proven successful in negotiating the release of Chinese prisoners and should continue to do so.

“I support the effort. President Trump has proven able to get tough cases released from other parts of the world, contrary to what most of his critics will grant, and far more effectively than most of his predecessors,” Yates told the Daily Signal.

“He also succeeded in getting Pastor Jin released after the May summit. So why not continue with this meaningful effort?” Yates added.

The senior research fellow continued, stating that if both leaders, especially Jinping, want to highlight strong diplomatic relations and their commitment to a humanitarian cause, they should proceed with the release of such prisoners.

“While not an American citizen, I think the Jimmy Lai case is the strongest prospect for a humanitarian release and would send the strongest signal that the personal relationship between the two leaders matters more than summitry and economic negotiations,” Yates concluded.

Andrew Harding, a policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, added in a statement to the Daily Signal that by the president advocating for the release of the prisoners during his meeting with the Chinese leader, it could produce “tangible outcomes” and determine “whether China follows through on concrete actions.”

“Securing the release of wrongfully detained Americans, including cases such as Min Zin, or persecuted Christians, would be a low-cost step China could take to signal that it is serious about stabilizing the bilateral relationship,” Harding continued. “It would also serve as a test of whether Beijing is willing to back its calls for more stable U.S.-China relations with meaningful actions rather than rhetoric.”

The newest entry, and a consequential one, came last week. President Donald Trump nominated Cissie Graham Lynch, granddaughter of Billy Graham, to serve as ambassador at large for international religious freedom, and named Catholic Bishop Robert Barron, evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, and former Domestic Policy Council Director Joe Grogan to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Together, these appointments give USCIRF its full nine-member bipartisan complement. 

These appointments are in a category of their own. Domestic wins, however hard-fought, operate inside a system with backstops. Abroad, there is often no comparable guarantee. A Christian in Nigeria, a house-church pastor in China, a Catholic priest in Nicaragua—these people of faith do not get to appeal to courts that will hear their cases fairly, and the stakes are sometimes simply survival. The domestic list of achievements is long because our system mostly works, however imperfectly, the way it’s supposed to. But in many other countries, it has either stopped working or has never worked at all. 

That distinction is also why these appointments do not just concern people of faith. Protecting religious freedom, the capacity to hold and live out a conviction free of coercion, is a defense of what makes a person a person. 

The Commission on International Religious Freedom’s nine seats are split by law: three presidential appointees, three chosen by Senate leadership, three by House leadership. This division is a reminder that America’s first freedom must always be insulated from partisanship or power plays. A look at leadership in recent years confirms this. Sam Brownback, who served as ambassador during Trump’s first term, was a Catholic convert who championed Uyghur Muslims, Nigerian Christians, Baha’is in Iran, and persecuted believers of every faith. Rashad Hussain served as the first Muslim ambassador under President Joe Biden; David Saperstein, the first rabbi to hold the post, served under President Barack Obama. The latest nomination and appointments promise to continue this tradition. 

Graham Lynch is not simply from a famous family. She spent over a decade with Samaritan’s Purse. That work put her on the ground in disaster zones and conflict areas, giving her a practitioner’s sense of what persecution and deprivation actually look like.  

Brunson has also known captivity. He spent two years in a Turkish prison on fabricated charges.  

For his part, Barron has watched crises unfold in real time and used his media platform Word on Fire to advocate for the persecuted in Nigeria, where thousands of Christians have been murdered by jihadist militias, a toll severe enough that the administration designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern and ordered strikes against the IS-linked terrorists responsible. 

Since his release, Brunson has become a tireless advocate for other prisoners of conscience, partnering with groups like Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs to minister to persecuted Christians across the Muslim world and recounting his ordeal in his book God’s Hostage.

Grogan offers a seasoned hand for turning the findings of a report into real policy action. 

As director of the Domestic Policy Council, he helped steer through the Office of Management and Budget’s review of the 2019 Department of Health and Human Services rule enforcing federal conscience-protection laws for health care workers, exactly the kind of follow-through the Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recommendations will need.

From Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua to Xi Jinping’s China, the states cracking down on churches are the same ones cracking down on the press, on assembly, on dissent of every kind.

Congress created the Commission on International Religious Freedom in 1998 because it recognized that persecution of religion is often the leading indicator of what a regime will do to every other human right within its reach, and that American engagement on it has real stabilizing value in regions that would otherwise export instability, extremism, and refugees back toward us. 

The nation will publicly express its gratitude to the commission later this fall. On Nov. 19, the Religious Freedom Institute will honor two of the office’s founding architects, former Reps. Frank Wolf and Chris Smith, with its Defender of Religious Freedom Award at Washington National Cathedral.

Wolf wrote the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 that created both the ambassador’s post and the Commission on International Religious Freedom; Smith authored the 2016 amendments (named after Wolf) that strengthened it. That two of the men who built this apparatus are being celebrated says something about how far the country has come in institutionalizing the defense of religious freedom and the protection of the persecuted, and how much work remains to make sure that apparatus continues for generations to come. 

Filling these posts reaffirms American leadership on a question that is more urgent, not less, in an age when the tools for finding and punishing religious believers are powerful, and when the price of getting it wrong is measured in lives. That’s worth celebrating, whether or not you’ve ever set foot in a church. 

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the committee, claimed that America does not care about men competing in women’s sports and diverted his opening statement to his own agenda, then left. The other nine Democrat members on the committee did not show up.

According to polling, over 70% of Americans disagree with biological men competing in women’s sports, and over 60% favor laws that would require transgender athletes to compete on teams that match their biological sex instead of their gender identity.

“Women should not again be asked to cede their opportunities just to make men comfortable,” Chairman Chuck Grassley said in his opening remarks.

Grassley continued, claiming it is not a coincidence that as soon as women’s sports started receiving the recognition they deserve, men attempted to come in and take away their opportunities.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., clarified that the issue of men competing in women’s sports is not about gender dysphoria, but about protecting women’s rights, and the witnesses agreed.

Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., pointed to the countless times Republicans have raised this issue in Congress while Democrats either do not show up or vote “no.” Federal lawmakers have voted to pass legislation three times this Congress. “Not one Democrat voted to protect women’s sports,” Moody said.

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 is one of nearly 700 pieces of House-passed legislation awaiting a vote in the Senate. It was introduced and passed in the House in January 2025, in the first 14 days of the session. Although final passage would require only a simple majority, the bill would first need to overcome the Senate filibuster, requiring some support from Democrats.

While American athletes await federal legislation, President Donald Trump and state legislatures have taken action.

In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order banning men from competing in women’s sports, using Title IX compliance to implement it. This June, the Supreme Court sided with states, ruling that it is within their authority to pass laws banning men from competing in women’s sports. Now, 27 states have laws that determine eligibility based on biological sex.

Kim Jones, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports and the mother of daughters who were forced to compete against male athletes, appeared as a witness.

At the hearing, Jones raised issues with some state laws and regulations that allow birth certificates to be used as proof of sex. She argued that birth certificates are easy to change and edits can be made within a day. She asked that new laws be written to require DNA testing, and specifically SRY gene testing, which detects the presence of the Y chromosome and can easily be used to verify biological sex.

The Heaton Park attack was the first deadly antisemitic terror incident in Britain since 1984, carried out by an Islamic State supporter. The anniversary was marked by armed police outside synagogues across Manchester, underlining the ongoing threat.

For Orthodox Jews visibly walking to synagogue, the message from the heavy police presence was clear: You are a target. The national terror threat level remains severe, and Jewish communities increasingly feel under siege on their holiest days.

Why the Hatred Runs So Deep

Antisemitism is one of the oldest hatreds, with deep historical and religious roots. In 627, in Medina, the violent conflict between Muhammad and the Jewish tribes, which ended in mass executions of the Jews, set a pattern of hostility repeated for centuries in many societies, including modern Britain.

Hamas is in the same position; in its 1988 charter, it references a well-known hadith attributed to Muhammad, which says that, in the last days, even the stones and trees will cry out, “O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me—come and kill him.”

The document prepared at the time when Hamas was founded declares that the struggle against the Jews is both great and serious, and that the only solution to the Palestinian question lies in jihad. The Oct. 7 massacre was no exception; it was the embodiment of that ideology.

That is why this hatred is so hard to deal with: It isn’t a matter of policy, but rather a hostility rooted in Islam for over 1,400 years, which has now been spread all over the world—from Gaza to Golders Green, from Manchester to Manhattan.

The Demographic Squeeze

In Britain, the pressure is not merely ideological but also demographic. The Jewish population in England and Wales is about 270,000, less than 0.5% of the total population. The Muslim population has reached nearly 4 million, which is over 6%, and in London, Muslims make up 15% of the population.

In traditional Jewish areas such as Golders Green and Stamford Hill, the two communities now live next to one another, and the balance is changing. The streets that once had Orthodox Jews walking about in full faith are becoming less Jewish and more Muslim.

Being visibly Jewish now means standing out—and, increasingly, facing danger. In 2025, the Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents—an all-time high, with every month exceeding 200 cases.

Why Jews Need Their Own Police

This is why British Jews rely on the Community Security Trust, a volunteer force that guards synagogues and events. The government funds it because state protection is insufficient. Hatzola, a Jewish ambulance service, was also formed because emergency services were too slow to respond.

Manchester to Manhattan

The threat is not unique to Britain.

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has taken stances that many see as hostile to the Jewish community, including discarding the city’s definition of antisemitism and refusing to oppose anti-Israel protests.

The issue facing New York’s Jewish community—the largest Jewish community outside of Israel—is whether Manhattan’s future will resemble Manchester’s.

If a mayor’s beliefs are based on an ideology that, for 14 centuries, has regarded the rejection of its prophet by Jews as a capital offense, then the protection surrounding the synagogue ceases to be a problem belonging to Britain and becomes one for the United States.

The Security Gap: CST Versus CSI

The difference between British and American cities lies more in the response than in the threat itself.

In Britain, the Community Security Trust provides a complete security service. It provides guards, conducts patrols, maintains an incident database, and stations officers outside synagogues. It functions as the community’s private police force because the state is unable to protect the Jews.

In New York, the Community Security Initiative focuses on intelligence and training rather than direct physical protection. Shomrim and other volunteer patrols fill the gap, while Hatzalah provides emergency services for Orthodox neighborhoods.

The initiative is sophisticated; in 2024 it identified 221 threats to life. However, it is an intelligence network and not an operational force. It can detect threats but does not stop an attacker.

The Militia Question

This raises the question: Should American Jews consider forming their own armed security, as the law allows, to ensure their safety?

The legal basis exists because the Second Amendment begins with the words “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,” and the Supreme Court has recognized an individual right to keep and bear arms; American Jews therefore have a constitutionally protected right to arm themselves, whereas British Jews do not.

Since political leaders have been giving Jewish safety a low priority, American Jewish communities should think again about depending entirely on the state for their protection.

The stones and the trees are still calling for the killing of Jews. The question is: How many Muslims are ready to carry out this command from Muhammad?

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

“He [Trump] has taught me so much,” Leavitt said, “especially in my role as his press secretary.”

The biggest piece of advice Trump gave Leavitt was about resilience: “As bad as the news may feel in that moment, it will go away, and they’ll be on to the next thing or the next person.”

Much of her job, Leavitt said, was addressing and combating the daily fake news stories the legacy media would publish and bringing attention to what they intentionally did not publish.

“The bias of omission is the most dangerous,” Leavitt said. “The president would sign amazing executive orders or give great speeches that they don’t even cover.”

A recent example of this occurred when ABC, NBC, and CNN only offered digital coverage and fact-checks instead of a live feed during Trump’s July speech on election security, something Leavitt said is extremely rare across broadcast history.

“They believe they are arbiters of the truth and doing the country a great service,” Leavitt said, “but they are clearly slanted and biased against the president.”

Leavitt further recalled how Trump confronted the institutional and media bias against him during his 2024 New York criminal trial.

“He shaped the narrative himself,” Leavitt said. “He may have lost in the court of law because of a crooked judge and jury, but he won in the court of public opinion because he won reelection.”

Working at the White House, Leavitt said she became close to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

“They became like family,” Leavitt said. “We hang out with them, we go to dinner with them, and go to birthday parties with them. There was such camaraderie in the team.”

Whenever Cabinet members couldn’t provide the answers, Leavitt said she was able to take advantage of Trump’s open-door policy.

“He is a great boss, truthfully,” Leavitt said. “He is very uplifting to the people who work for him, and he likes to see people succeed.”

Leavitt resigned as press secretary in late August to spend more time with her family and raise both her 2-year-old and 4-month-old.

“Motherhood is the best job I’ve ever had,” Leavitt said. “I’ve been blessed with so many professional opportunities thus far, I’m excited for what the future holds. We’ll see what God has in store.”

Representatives from the U.S. government and some of the 43 participating nations will be in attendance.

The Geneva Consensus Declaration “seeks to expand health and thriving for women and protect the sovereign right of nations to support health, life, and family through national policy and legislation.” 

The U.S. assumed the position of secretariat in June, replacing Hungary.

The declaration was established under the first Trump administration with the U.S. as secretariat, but the Biden administration left the coalition of pro-life countries. The U.S. rejoined after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, and the departments of Health and Human Services and State jointly lead the administration’s effort with the HHS Office of Global Affairs housing the secretariat.

Bethany Kozma, director of HHS’ Office of Global Affairs, will give a speech outlining the next chapter of the declaration following the United States’ assumption of the secretariat from Hungary. HHS Senior Adviser Natalie Dodson will discuss the administration’s efforts to advance the declaration’s principles domestically.

“We have countries from different regions of the world, with different histories, cultures, and perspectives,” Kozma will say, according to remarks obtained by the Daily Signal.

“But we have chosen to come together because there are some things we fundamentally agree on,” she continues. “Life is worthy of protection. Women and girls deserve the opportunity to achieve optimal health throughout their lives. The family is the natural and fundamental unit of society. And sovereign nations have the right to make decisions consistent with their own laws, policies, and values.”

Kozma will thank Hungary for its leadership, and say the U.S. now has the responsibility to build on it.

“World leaders are gathered here in New York this week, and enormous attention will be paid to what happens inside the United Nations. But again, I would ask people to look across the street. Because something important is happening here, too,” her prepared remarks say. “Countries are choosing to stand together.”

“We do not have to agree on everything. We do not have to have identical cultures, identical laws, or identical policies. But we can stand together on the principles we do share.”

Kozma will invite other countries who are not members to join the declaration. The latest countries to join were Argentina and the Dominican Republic.

“There is a place for you in this coalition,” she said. “The United States is proud to be back, and we are honored to serve as the Secretariat.”

Dodson will draw a contrast between the Biden and Trump administrations’ understandings of women, according to her prepared remarks.

“In sharp contrast to the Biden Administration, which failed to muster a comprehensible explanation for what a woman is, the Trump Administration recognizes the unique importance of women and mothers and their critical role in society,” her prepared remarks say. “Without women and mothers, the pillars of the GCD could not stand.”

HHS has acted on the declaration by ending aborted fetal tissue research, instituting conscience protections from abortion, and rejecting physician-assisted suicide, she will say.

“By safeguarding religious freedom, conscience protections, and parental rights, the Trump Administration supports families and parents who seek to raise their children without undue political interference,” her remarks say.

“What began as a small group of nations in 2020 has now grown to over 40, and we look forward to welcoming many more partners as we strive to protect women, children, and families,” Dodson will conclude.

Created in 1872, Pirelli is one of the world’s largest tire makers, creating products and services for automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles. It has been the “Global Tire Partner of the Formula 1 World Championship” since 2011 and is well known for its advanced technologies, manufacturing, and desire to deliver results from advanced ideas.

While the company was founded in Italy, it expanded into the Peach State in 2002, setting its American headquarters in Rome, Georgia. It currently employs 234 Georgians through its manufacturing and headquarters operations in the state.

“Pirelli was one of the early companies to help build Georgia’s automotive supply chain, and more than two decades later, they are continuing to believe in Georgia and invest in their future here,” Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson said of the economic news.

In a press release, Kemp commented on the value that Pirelli brings to the Peach State, saying, “For over two decades, Pirelli has been a valued presence in our state, and I’m thankful that our efforts to grow this partnership are paying off with even more jobs for hardworking Georgians.”

“This historic investment will expand Pirelli’s footprint with roughly five times more positions than they currently employ across the region, and we wish them continued success here in the No. 1 state for business,” the governor continued.

Located at 100 Pirelli Drive in Rome, the tire company plans to enlarge its footprint in two stages: the first involves adding the newest robotics equipment, and the second is expanding its traditional manufacturing process, “which will require more hiring.”

Claudio Zanardo, CEO of Pirelli North America, commented on its U.S. operations, saying, “The U.S. is one of Pirelli’s most important markets and offers significant opportunities for growth.”

“The expansion of our Rome facility strengthens our ‘local for local’ strategy, increasing our manufacturing capacity in the U.S. while introducing the latest-generation technologies, such as the Cyber Tyre, and advanced robotics. This investment will allow us to better serve the needs of the local market, create new jobs, and further strengthen Pirelli’s presence in North America.”

Pirelli plans to start the majority of its hiring in 2029. The facility is expected to be completely operational in 2033.

Before the vote, Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., told the Daily Signal that the plea offer provides an opportunity for “transparency” and to give the American people “the truth,” given that the unnamed former assistant would provide testimony to the committee regarding her involvement in destroying public records in order to protect former top officials of the National Institutes of Health.

“I think everybody should be for transparency, whether a Republican or a Democrat. We’d like his assistant to testify about who gave her the orders to destroy records, how many records were destroyed, and over what period of time she destroyed records for Anthony Fauci,” Paul told the Daily Signal. “And I think that’s the least anybody could expect.”

“If she’s taking orders from above, it’s the person who gave the orders that, you know, needs to be either reprimanded or chastised, or, you know, found guilty by history, and we’re trying to get to the truth, and that’s why we’re offering this assistant immunity,” Paul continued.

During the committee’s business meeting, however, Hassan, the only Democrat present, said she opposed the effort to offer the assistant the deal because she “does not have enough information” on the matter, despite having received all of the information made available to the committee’s Republicans, Paul confirmed.

Paul added that he had each Democrat on the committee sign a document stating that they had received information about the offer, the assistant, and the committee’s doubts about the COVID-19 pandemic and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Fauci, hinting that the Democrats’ obstruction could have been purely political.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, echoed the chairman’s claim and spoke out against what Republicans described as the Democrats’ obstruction of the effort to hear the assistant’s testimony and avoid any criminal charges against her.

“Eight of us are saying let’s talk, and Democrats are sitting here like middle schoolers saying no, we don’t,” Moreno said, adding that Democrats are “acting like petulant middle school children.”

The resolution to offer the assistant the deal needed two-thirds of the vote to pass. The vote ultimately failed after all seven committee Democrats voted against it, with the other six Democrats on the committee voting no by proxy.

After the hearing, Paul stated that his effort to offer the assistant immunity from possible criminal prosecution in exchange for testimony is not over, adding that he “will personally be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to pursue this.”

The U.S. isn’t short on diesel but is a major global exporter, producing 5.3 million barrels of distillates a day, only about 3.5 million of which are sold domestically. Today’s high prices reflect a global shortage caused by domestic refinery closures and foreign conflicts. In addition to shortages from the Iran war, Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have knocked out a large portion of global diesel production. 

Removing American production from the global market would have little positive impact at home but would risk shortages abroad, hamper global supply chains, and drive up prices paid by Americans for countless imported products. It would also endanger the imported oil supplies on which the U.S. depends. 

Much of the crude oil pumped in America isn’t refined here but is exported and refined elsewhere. Meanwhile, the U.S. import millions of barrels per day because most American refineries are optimized to handle types of crude oil that are different from what’s primarily pumped domestically. 

In short, we import oil, refine it, and then sell the products—including diesel—back to foreigners. But if we refuse to sell them the very product of the crude oil they sold us, they lose the primary incentive to sell us their crude in the first place. If other nations stopped exporting crude to America, domestic refineries would run short on oil and diesel supplies would plummet. 

Geography is also a major problem. Most of America’s refining capacity is concentrated on the Gulf Coast, far from major urban markets in the Northeast and West Coast. Recent refinery disruptions in the Midwest have also increased the need to move fuel there, but an export ban doesn’t conjure the infrastructure to facilitate this. 

At best, diesel prices would drop temporarily along the Gulf with little impact elsewhere because of logistical hurdles. Those obstacles were precisely why the Trump administration has granted waivers this year to the Jones Act, a law that restricts domestic waterborne shipping between American ports, making it unnecessarily expensive to transport fuel from Gulf Coast refineries to consumers in the Northeast and West Coast markets. 

Even with those waivers, the U.S. markets for petroleum and petroleum products remain globally interconnected and complex. That also means an export ban on diesel is unfeasible because of how easy it would be to bypass. 

Refineries can stop short of producing diesel, leaving it mixed with small quantities of other liquid distillates like gasoline, and sell that cocktail for export, leaving the last steps of the refining process to be done overseas. 

Then there’s heating oil, which is essentially identical to diesel fuel. What stops a refinery from exporting virtually the same product but under a different name? The only way to prevent the export ban from being bypassed is to make it so broad that it captures many other refined products as well, exacerbating the problem. 

Additionally, refiners that are currently optimized to produce as much diesel as possible can switch to other products like jet fuel and send that overseas while foreign refineries do the opposite and ramp up diesel production. That’d reduce the amount of diesel available here at home, minimizing any positive impact on prices.  

But there’s a limit as refineries cannot produce unlimited quantities of one petroleum product independently of every other. Domestic refineries have been running at or near capacity for most of this year and even if they switch to produce as little diesel as possible per barrel of oil, production will still exceed domestic demand, which means they’ll need to refine less oil as diesel stockpiles balloon. 

That, in turn, will cause other petroleum products like gasoline to run short, pushing up prices. 

An export ban would also weaken the incentives necessary to expand supply. Refiners invest to increase capacity when they can sell their products to willing buyers. Blocking foreign markets would chill that investment and introduce new political risk. Who knows when such a ban will end? America’s previous ban on oil exports lasted 40 years. 

That was when Washington tried to manage energy scarcity in the 1970s with price controls, allocation rules, and export restrictions—all of which failed to create more energy. Instead, it distorted incentives, contributed to shortages, and prevented American producers from expanding supply. After those restrictions were lifted, U.S. energy production boomed. 

America became an energy leader and the world’s diesel backstop through investment, innovation, and improving access to markets. Export controls delayed that ascent and reimposing them signals that the government may block market opportunities whenever prices become politically inconvenient. That’s a path to energy dependence, not dominance. 

The fastest and most reliable way to bring down domestic fuel prices is a cessation of hostilities in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Beyond that, policymakers should remove barriers that prevent producers, refiners, and fuel distributors from responding to high prices. 

That means accelerating permits for oil and gas development, making federal leasing predictable, allowing new pipelines and refining infrastructure to move forward, and eliminating regulations that divert investment away from reliable and affordable fuels. 

Temporary and immediate relief could also be provided by federal and state lawmakers cutting waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption from their respective budgets and using the savings to offset a suspension of gasoline and diesel taxes. Unlike an export ban, tax relief would lower the price paid by consumers without negatively impacting supply chains. 

America spent years becoming the world’s go-to for diesel, but an export ban signals that we’re no longer reliable. Instead of another government restriction, the answer is more freedom to produce, refine, transport, and sell American energy. 

Republicans have a net favorability rating 8 points higher than Democrats, according to the latest NBC News poll. The GOP is viewed favorably by 36% and unfavorably by 49%, while Democrats fare even worse at 29% favorable and 50% unfavorable.

With pollsters predicting trouble for President Donald Trump’s party, the poll raises an obvious question: Why aren’t Democrats benefiting more from voter dissatisfaction?

Jeff Horwitt, a Democrat pollster whose firm Hart Research Associates helped conduct the NBC News survey, acknowledged that the Democratic Party “remains in a terrible position as a brand nationally.”

Here’s why:

• The far-left Democratic Socialists of America, which has dominated news coverage this election cycle, has a favorability rating of 22%.
• DSA policies are unpopular. Half of voters would be less likely to support a candidate who embraces a socialist agenda.
• Republicans maintain a decisive advantage over Democrats on three key issues: border security, immigration, and crime.

On the campaign trail, Democrat candidates in states from Michigan, Texas, and Minnesota are increasingly being forced to defend or distance themselves from their past far-left positions as Republicans highlight their records.

There’s also another factor that could be at play, not just with the NBC News survey but in polling more broadly.

Potential Republican Momentum

After weeks of consistently bad numbers for the GOP, Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson expects Republicans to begin seeing better news in the weeks ahead.

>>> VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: A MIDTERM ELECTIONS UPDATE

“Most polls tend to exaggerate the strength of a Democratic candidate for most of the race,” Hanson explained in his latest Daily Signal video. “As the race gets down to the Election Day deadline, many of the pollsters will be more realistic so that they can save their reputations after the balloting is conducted.”

Hanson said Republicans believe “very slowly there’s a turnaround, and the momentum may be going their way.”

Affordability Problem Isn’t Going Away

That doesn’t mean Republicans should rest on their laurels.

The economy remains the No. 1 concern among voters, and they are split on which party would do a better job: 38% favor Republicans vs. 39% for Democrats.

After four disastrous years of Joe Biden’s presidency, with inflation hitting levels not seen in 40 years, Republicans campaigned on the cost of living in 2024. Voters put Trump back in charge, and the GOP swiftly passed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” to boost economic growth.

>>> ONLY HALF OF TRADITIONAL REPUBLICANS ARE EXCITED TO VOTE. THAT’S THE BALLGAME.

While that should be working to the GOP’s advantage, instead they’re facing voter frustration over stubbornly high gas and diesel prices, which have made groceries and other basic necessities more expensive.

It’s one reason conservatives urged Congress to pass a third reconciliation bill—to show voters they were serious about addressing affordability.

“Besides gas prices, there’s a lot of good news,” Hanson said, pointing to low poverty, strong income growth, and a record stock market as issues Republicans should emphasize during the campaign’s final weeks.

Can Republicans Defy Midterm History?

Still, history is not on Trump’s side. Hanson frequently reminds us that the incumbent president’s party has a track record of losing U.S. House seats in 39 of the last 41 midterm elections. The two exceptions came in 1998 during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and in 2002 as President George W. Bush conducted the war on terror.

This time, it’s a different war that’s causing anxiety among Republicans. More than 60% of voters think the Iran war wasn’t worth fighting, and only 24% of voters say they would be more likely to support a candidate who backs the war.

Democrats even hold a 4-point edge over the GOP on which party would do a better job of managing the Iran war. That’s close to the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, but not exactly an endorsement.

With less than six weeks remaining before Election Day, both parties face a familiar challenge: motivating their own base while persuading the few remaining undecided voters that they offer a better path forward.

The NBC News poll was conducted by GOP-aligned Public Opinion Strategies and Democrat-aligned firm Hart Research Associates.