https://newsbusters.org/ en https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/04/03/washington-post-finds-hero-queer-kiddies-fired-tennessee-librarian The Washington Post thought it was a "national" story about what the Left calls "book bans." Reporter Daniel Wu began:  The top librarian in Rutherford County, Tennessee, was fired this week for refusing to move over 130 books with LGBTQ+ themes to the system’s adult section, capping months of tumult that made the suburban county the latest frontline in a national debate over access to books about queer and transgender people. The county board near Nashville voted 8-3 to fire library director Luanne James in a spirited meeting Monday in which supporters and detractors of James spoke on her stance to applause and jeers. “All I’m going to say is that I stand by my decision,” James said at the board meeting before her firing. “I will not change my mind.” Much of the audience at the board meeting broke into cheers and applause after her statement. Chants of “shame” were heard as board members voted to fire James. That refusal made James a "hero" to the Bluesky Brigade, and they're all raising funds to throw at her for her "courage."  Even that move of books to the adults section is conditional -- children can still access books in the adults section with parental approval. So if you're a liberal parent with a gender-bending child, the access remains. Wu was very generic about the content: The books flagged by the library board included children’s comics with transgender characters and books about trans activists, according to a list obtained by The Washington Post. Books were also flagged for containing “partially unclothed” people, “female empowerment discussions,” “social-justice concepts” and a “gay couple” among other topics, according to the list. Leif LeMahieu at the Daily Wire provided what Wu and the Post would not -- specifics on what books were moved. Books the board directed moved to the adult section included “The Gender Wheel,” “Who Are You? The Kids Guide to Gender Identity,” and “When Aidan Became A Brother” — a picture book about a gender-confused girl who started identifying as a boy. “Librarians should not be used as a filter for political agendas," James said. This can be a comical claim, since librarians are the ones who serve as the political and cultural filters for which books are placed on the shelves, and which books are excluded. So are "transphobic" books made available, like Abigail Shrier's Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters? Liberal reporters don't ask. They presume such "harmful" material is left out. Conservative opinion was barely included in this story. It was limited to little bites:  One commenter supporting the library board called James “evil” and said reclassifying the books was needed to “protect children.” Predictably, the left wasn't identified by ideology, and their lobbies are just "free expression advocates." Kasey Meehan, the Freedom to Read director at free-expression advocacy group PEN America, said James “really stood very principled for intellectual freedom, for ensuring young people have the right to see themselves, for ensuring access to LGBT+ books.” “[It’s] truly emblematic of both how censorship battles are showing up across the country in public schools and public libraries,” she added. “And also how people are risking jobs and their own financial security to hold the line.” The "Democracy Dies in Darkness" newspaper doesn't really want to feature a debate on so-called "book bans" when someone wants to criticize content selections at publicly funded libraries, any more than you can protest "Drag Queen Story Hours" they host. April 3rd, 2026 9:54 PM Tim Graham 294566 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-spinnato/2026/04/03/katy-tur-and-panel-want-trump-be-meaner-gulf-states-nicer During Wednesday’s Katy Tur Reports, the eponymous MS NOW host Katy Tur and her panel defended Europe amid President Trump’s attacks due to their lack of assistance in the Iran war. They instead wanted Trump to attack Gulf allies, like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, for not helping enough, even though they have pledged to do that exact thing, even though they do not have the same robust military power of some European countries. The discussion about the war in Iran got to the question of what will happen to the Strait of Hormuz. Tur posed a question about how the closure of Hormuz had and would affect our relationship with the Gulf countries and Israel. Rick Stengel, MS NOW political analyst and former Under Secretary of State for Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Obama Administration, had the first complaints of Trump’s words toward Europe and wanted them shifted to the Gulf: What's interesting and kind of frustrating about Trump attacking our allies for not being courageous enough to help open the strait is, what about our gulf allies who stand to actually benefit, to benefit or be hurt from this? They're the true free riders in the sense that they're not involved in helping keep the strait open. UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, they are right there. And they -   On Tuesday, MS NOW host Katy Tur and her panel defended Europe amid Presidents Trump’s attacks due to their lack of assistance in the Iran war. They instead wanted Trump to attack Gulf allies, like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, for not helping enough. pic.twitter.com/VRsdXlON9H — Nick (@nspin310) April 2, 2026   Stengel would be surprised to know that Middle Eastern countries, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have reportedly pushed for more operations in Iran. Even the UAE reportedly pledged to assist in opening straits. Their efforts had been stymied by the fact that their militaries were essentially glorified palace guards. Tur followed up and Stengel decided to bring up the old Qatar airplane story: TUR: So, you're saying he should be leaning on them more to participate? STENGEL: 100 percent. 100 percent. TUR: Why do you think he’s not?” STENGEL: I don't know because Qatar gave him an airplane. I don't really know why. I mean, I don't know why he's so resolute about attacking our allies, where we have so much in common. And not asking people who depend on us in the Middle East, who, who we give money to, who we do business with to help keep the strait open. It could also be as simple as the many in the Gulf have pledged to help open the strait, something that Stengel, the paid political analyst, and maybe even Tur seem not to know. Ashley Parker of The Atlantic implied Trump only likes the Middle East countries because they “have proven themselves far more willing to transact with him in sort of more crude brass tacks ways like, as Rick mentioned, the airplane from Qatar.” Max Boot, whose wife was charged for being an unregistered foreign agent, connected the situation back to Putin, and said he’s giving Putin a pass due to his "bizarre affection” for him. Tur ended by echoing her panelists' points about business deals with the Gulf to “make him rich that he can’t do to the same degree from other western democracies,” while she accused him of having a “man crush” on Putin. Or it might just be that, as former Rep. Peter Meijer tweeted from a quote in a Politico article, NATO had clearly not tried much to help the U.S. in its military and defense ambitions, and in some cases hindered, something the European lovers at MS NOW want omitted. The transcript is below. Click "expand": MS NOW’s Katy Tur Reports April 1, 2026 3:09:32 PM Eastern (...) KATY TUR: What would it do to our relationships, both in the region with UAE, Qatar, Israel even? And what would it also do to our relationship with our other allies who rely on the oil that comes out of that strait? RICK STENGEL: Yes. By the way, the Europeans used to buy most of their oil from Russia, but at our behest - we asked them to start boycotting Russian oil. They now buy most of their oil from us. We're the largest oil producer that goes to Europe.  What's interesting and kind of frustrating about Trump attacking our allies for not being courageous enough to help open the strait is, what about our gulf allies who stand to actually benefit, to benefit or be hurt from this? They're the true free riders in the sense that they're not involved in helping keep the strait open. UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, they are right there. And they -  TUR: So, you're saying he should be leaning on them more to participate? STENGEL: 100 percent. 100 percent. TUR: Why do you think he’s not? STENGEL: I don't know because Qatar gave him an airplane. I don't really know why. I mean, I don't know why he's so resolute about attacking our allies, where we have so much in common. And not asking people who depend on us in the Middle East, who, who we give money to, who we do business with to help keep the strait open. TUR: I think this is a good thing to linger on. Ashley, why is the president not harsher on Saudi Arabia, on Qatar, on the UAE, in the same way that he's so hard on France and the UK and all of our NATO allies? ASHLEY PARKER: It's a good question. I mean, I will say being harsh on NATO allies for President Trump in many ways is muscle memory. I can recall being on foreign trips with him showing up at NATO headquarters with true suspense of whether or not he was going to reaffirm Article Five or declare that he's withdrawing from the treaty.  He has long believed, even before he became president, that, as he would put it, America's getting ripped off, America is getting a bad deal. He views everything in transactional terms. I will say some of these countries in the Middle East have proven themselves far more willing to transact with him in sort of more crude brass tacks ways like, as Rick mentioned, the airplane from Qatar. TUR: Yeah. Max, you too on that. MAX BOOT: Yeah. No, it's baffling. And it's not just the fact that he's not calling on the gulf allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He's also not calling on our Asian allies, Japan and South Korea and others, which also rely on Persian gulf oil. And at the same time, he is giving Vladimir Putin a complete pass on the fact that Russia is reportedly providing drones and intelligence to Iran to help kill Americans.  Trump has not had one word to say about what Putin is doing, at the same time that he's excoriating our allies for not being helpful enough, Putin is going beyond being unhelpful. He's actively helping the other side, and Trump will not call him out. So, it's all baffling. And it really comes down to, you know, Trump's bizarre affection for Putin, which is one of the long standing -. TUR: The enduring questions. I wonder if it is just as simple as what Ashley and everybody has been laying out, you included. He thinks he can get money from Russia, he can get money from Saudi Arabia and get money from Qatar. He can get money from the UAE, he can do business deals with them that will make him richer that he can't do to the same degree from other western democracies.  Well, is that it? That he just believes that he's going to make money off of them? And that's why he's so nice to Vladimir Putin and is so obsequious and strange. Does he have a man crush? What is it? (...) April 3rd, 2026 6:35 PM Nicholas Spinnato 294552 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/04/03/two-illegal-aliens-get-sweetheart-plea-deal-murder-va Two illegal aliens in Fairfax County, Virginia pleaded guilty to murder and could be back out on the street in three years, thanks to a sweetheart deal given them by a progressive prosecutor known for going easy of criminals who illegally enter the U.S. “The reason why the two men will be serving five years behind bars for murder is that Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s office offered them a generous plea deal. And both men took it,” WJLA’s Nick Minock reported Thursday: “Descano’s Office offered Maldin Anibal Guzman and Wis Alonso Sorto-Portillo a plea deal which included a 25-year sentence. But they will only be required to serve five of those years, including credit for time served. Meaning the men will be out in 2029.” The two, if convicted via a trial, could have been sentenced to as much as 40 years in prison. As the sanctuary state’s Commonwealth’s attorney, Descano has made national headlines by going soft on illegal alien criminals, such as in the case of the murder of Stephanie Minter, who was stabbed to death at a bus. Minter’s suspected killer, Abdul Jalloh, is an illegal alien with a long criminal history who was free at the time of the murder because Descano’s office ignored warnings from other law enforcement officials not to release him because he posed a danger to the community. “Wherever possible, Steve will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences,” Descano’s website vows. Descano’s website even declares it “a perversion of justice” if a criminal who’s an illegal alien is deported, but a criminal who’s a U.S. citizen gets to stay in the country: “If two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of the values of Fairfax County.”   🚨WATCH: Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s office is responding after we reported his office gave a generous plea deal to two illegal immigrants who admitted to murdering a man and leaving his body in the woods. pic.twitter.com/5BsDvP0stY — Nick Minock (@NickMinock) April 3, 2026 What’s more, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid is notorious for not honoring any U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers - no matter how heinous the crime is – and frequently releases criminal illegal aliens back onto to the streets without giving any advance notice to ICE. “Sanctuaries are sanctuaries for criminals,” U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan, who lives in Virginia, told Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom Friday, blaming the state’s new governor, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, for abandoning her campaign promise to support moderate policies: “Elections have consequences. I live in Virginia. Spanberger took over and she’s move so far to the left she’s not even recognizable anymore.” Suspects in three of the four murder trials in Fairfax County so far this year are illegal aliens. In the other two cases, one illegal alien is accused of hacking a man to death with a machete and another is charged with beating his three-month old daughter to death. SWEETHEART DEALS: @BillMelugin_ reports on a progressive prosecutor in Fairfax County, Virginia who is facing backlash for plea deals that cut down sentences for two migrant murder suspects to just five-year terms. pic.twitter.com/w2B1Plcw5S — America's Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) April 3, 2026   April 3rd, 2026 4:15 PM Craig Bannister 294569 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/04/03/view-continues-smear-isabel-brown-encouraging-marriage-kids The View has refused to have conservative activist Isabel Brown on the show after they smeared her earlier in the week for encouraging women to get married and have kids, but they still had her name in their mouths. On Wednesday’s episode of their Behind the Table podcast, Sara Haines said Brown, through "willful or ignorance," "misconstrued" The View's attacks on her. She went on to falsely claim Brown had no empathy for women who couldn't get pregnant or find a husband even if they really wanted to. Haines and executive producer Brian Teta jumped right into the controversy they stirred up at the top of the podcast by conceding a little ground to Brown on the fact that no parent was ever truly ready to have a child: HAINES: The main gist of her message was, you know, if you have - if you know people or you know, women your life or kids, you know, tell them to have babies, even - TETA: If they're not ready. HAINES: Even before they can afford them and even when they're not ready for them. I actually kind of understood what she was trying to say with the not ready for them. I don't think you're ever really ready for them. TETA: Correct. “But my issue was with the greater message,” Haines followed up. “I love babies. I love being married. I love all those things. But there is so much pressure in this world on women to define themselves by if they're married, and two, if they have babies.”   The View has refused to have @theisabelb on the show after they smeared her, but they still have her name in their mouths. On their Behind the Table podcast, Sara Haines says Isabel Brown through "willful or ignorance" "misconstrued" The View's attack on her. She went on to… pic.twitter.com/YvZMaOZOb4 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 3, 2026   Haines then proceeded to get a little ageist by knocking Brown for being Gen Z and then suggesting she had more empathy: “She's young. So I don't know. Mine comes from a place of empathy. My take comes from a place of empathy and life lived. I am older than her.” At one point, Haines echoed her argument on the show proper that had a tinge of eugenics in it: We ask women all the time about marriage and kids and that is seems to be all their worth. We're living on a planet that has over 8 billion people. There was a time where we needed people to procreate and make tons of babies. We have plenty of babies. Haines was apparently aware of Brown’s X posts reacting to The View’s attacks on her. But instead of inviting her on to have a two-sided discussion, they preferred Haines make a strawman out of Brown’s rebuttals. She proceeded to falsely suggest Brown’s position was that even if a woman tried to get married/have kids and couldn’t, they were a lesser being for it: HAINES: She was talking about it happening during Holy Week and how anti-Christian. And one, I won't do that to someone because if you're really faithful and spiritual, you know that that's not my place to judge her on that. So, I was surprised that she would. But, I definitely think she misconstrued in whether that was willful or ignorance. TETA: Right. HAINES: She's missing my whole point, which is I know too many women that, for whatever reason, aren't married, don't have kids, and they matter. And they should be involved in government and policies and not everything revolves around whether a woman has a partner and whether a woman has a child.   I’d like to thank the women of @TheView for showing their truest, darkest colors today: they’re literally shrieking like demons at the thought of encouraging young women to have children. PS - "stupidest" isn't a real word. pic.twitter.com/H7s3baQl95 — Isabel Brown (@theisabelb) March 30, 2026   “Sometimes it's a full blown choice and sometimes it's just the way life turned out. And I would never want to dim someone's light and life by saying they matter less because of that,” Haines declared before they hypocritically pivoted to talking about co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin’s new baby boy. The View refused to host Brown because they openly refuse to have a strong committed conservative woman on the program, especially after Meghan McCain left. On a previous episode of their podcast, they admitted they didn’t want to have anyone on the show who could generate viral clips embarrassing their cast. Further, their refusal to speak to Brown was hypocritical because, on yet another podcast episode, they defended their pickiness with inviting conservatives by saying they only wanted to talk to the people they discussed on the show.     In one of her recent podcast episodes reviewing the fall out of The View’s smears, Brown said she reached out to go on the show, but their producers said they were booked up for weeks. They lied to her. According to 1Iota, the website to formally request tickets to see The View, as of the publication of this piece, there were no guests booked for April 27 and four different days with only one guest booked (they have had upwards of 3-4 during a single show). When NewsBusters pointed this out to Teta on X, he untagged himself from the post.   Hey @Brianteta, you guys have no guests slated for April 27. How about you guys have Isabel on to defend herself? You said on your podcast you guys only want to talk with the conservative figures the cast talk about during the Hot Topics segment. Why not now? https://t.co/h5bXkiTEty pic.twitter.com/K5iDmMEiXM — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 3, 2026   The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s Behind the Table April 1, 2026 00:18 BRIAN TETA: All right, let's dive right in with some hot topics. It's been an interesting week, I think. And on Monday, we had a conversation about something that happened at CPAC with a conservative influencer Isabel Brown. Not someone I was familiar with until seeing this video, but she had some kind of interesting things to say about motherhood in America in 2026. Tell me what you remember about this. SARA HAINES: The main gist of her message was, you know, if you have - if you know people or you know, women your life or kids, you know, tell them to have babies, even - TETA: If they're not ready. HAINES: Even before they can afford them and even when they're not ready for them. I actually kind of understood what she was trying to say with the not ready for them. I don't think you're ever really ready for them. TETA: Correct. HAINES: And I think she was also saying a lot of people say, I don't know if I can afford it. She was kind of making a catchy phrase, but my issue was with the greater message. I love babies. I love being married. I love all those things. But there is so much pressure in this world on women to define themselves by if they're married, and two, if they have babies. That is - and I would encourage - She's young. So I don't know. Mine comes from a place of empathy. My take comes from a place of empathy and life lived. I am older than her. TETA: Um hm. HAINES: Knowing so many women, having been single, like dating for years and not knowing if I was going to find my person to get married, they make it sound like this easy choice. Get married, have kids. There are so many amazing women I know that aren't meeting people. It's really hard to that you could get into the reasons why that's the case, but they're open to finding people and they're not. Having babies. Whole different can of worms. So many people I know, almost every person I know actually has struggled for some reason having babies, whether it was fertility. I'm friends with a lot of gay couples that have had to fight nontraditional, surrogates, all these things. We ask women all the time about marriage and kids and that is seems to be all their worth. We're living on a planet that has over 8 billion people. There was a time where we needed people to procreate and make tons of babies. We have plenty of babies. And if the point of feminism and women being equal was women having the choice, whether it was working in the home, or staying at home, or - And I don't even want to say staying at home because it's working in the home, working in the home, working out of the home, being married, not being married, having kids, not having kids. The beauty of progress and time is that we don't have to put that on people's shoulders. And yet I wouldn't change anything I've done. And what I'm saying is not to buck the trend, don't do it. It's more, you do what you can and what you want because you have a life beyond that. TETA: Well, it's not a surprising thing because this often happens, but conservative influencers like Isabel and others have kind of misconstrued what you guys were saying on the show. HAINES: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. TETA: What the point of it is. HAINES: I don't - I refuse to read it because right when I saw some of the headlines, I thought here we go again. You know. TETA: Yeah. HAINES: She was talking about it happening during Holy Week and how anti-Christian. And one, I won't do that to someone because if you're really faithful and spiritual, you know that that's not my place to judge her on that. So, I was surprised that she would. But, I definitely think she misconstrued in whether that was willful or ignorance. TETA: Right. HAINES: She's missing my whole point, which is I know too many women that, for whatever reason, aren't married, don't have kids, and they matter. And they should be involved in government and policies and not everything revolves around whether a woman has a partner and whether a woman has a child. And it's because I see those people and sometimes that's a painful place to be. Sometimes it's a full blown choice and sometimes it's just the way life turned out. And I would never want to dim someone's light and life by saying they matter less because of that. (…) April 3rd, 2026 2:47 PM Nicholas Fondacaro 294568 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/04/03/amanpour-parrots-regime-hacks-about-trumps-assault-2500-year-old PBS anchor Christiane Amanpour kicked off her Thursday show by suggesting remarks President Trump made in his Wednesday address on Iran have made ordinary Iranians angry at him. However, Amanpour provided no evidence for that, and it is likely she was just parroting various regime hacks she saw on X, which is otherwise banned for ordinary Iranians. Amanpour began by playing a clip of Trump, “American and Israeli bombs will continue pounding Iran. Here's President Trump as he sought to reassure Americans that he does, in fact, have a plan.” In the clip, Trump declared, “We are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast. We are getting close… Everybody is talking about it, and tonight I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion…We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”   PBS anchor Christiane Amanpour seems to take regime hacks on X as the voice of normal Iranians "So, there's no definition of finish the job and those Stone Age comments are blowing up in Trump's face. Iranians are about the verbal assault on their 2,500-year-old civilization." pic.twitter.com/PuxedbGXps — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 3, 2026   Amanpour was not a fan, “So, there's no definition of 'finish the job,' and those Stone Age comments are blowing up in Trump's face. Iranians are about the verbal assault on their 2,500-year-old civilization. The diaspora, shifting its support for the war, not to mention Trump’s first national address shared absolutely no light on how this war ends. Oil traders are clearly hoping for a plan for reopening the Strait of Hormuz; they didn't get one.” Unless Amanpour managed to somehow fly to Iran and back while also finding time to interview everyday Iranians in the span of one day while making time to host a TV show, there is no evidence that Trump has caused regime critics to rally to their clerical overlords. The Iranian embassy in South Africa, IRGC General Seyed Majid Moosavi, and former Foreign Minister/media darling Javad Zarif, however, all tweeted something similar to what Amanpour said. The regime’s embrace of Iran’s wider, pre-revolution civilizational history is also opportunistic because the Islamic Republic usually goes out of its way to distance itself from that history by trying to erase it. As a member of the diaspora herself, Amanpour should know this. However, the 47-year old regime can count on members of the American media—even members of the diaspora—to help parrot its talking points if it means they can dunk on Trump. Here is a transcript for the April 2 show: PBS Amanpour and Company 4/2/2026 CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program. I'm Christiane Amanpour in New York. American and Israeli bombs will continue pounding Iran. Here's President Trump as he sought to reassure Americans that he does, in fact, have a plan. DONALD TRUMP: We are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast. We are getting close. [Jump Cut] Everybody is talking about it, and tonight I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion. [Jump Cut] We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. AMANPOUR: So, there's no definition of “finish the job,” and those Stone Age comments are blowing up in Trump's face. Iranians are about the verbal assault on their 2,500-year-old civilization. The diaspora, shifting its support for the war, not to mention Trump’s first national address shared absolutely no light on how this war ends. Oil traders are clearly hoping for a plan for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, they didn't get one. April 3rd, 2026 12:50 PM Alex Christy 294565 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/steve-malzberg/2026/04/03/unusual-situation-pamela-brown-presses-chuck-schumer-cnns Early Thursday morning the Senate once again passed a bill by voice vote, that would fund most of DHS with the exception of ICE and much of Border Patrol, and they sent it to the House which will likely pass it, because reportedly, Republicans plan to use reconciliation to get all funding they want later, by bypassing Democrats. Even so, you would expect the left wing media to spin this as a win for their side, but that was not the case Thursday morning on CNN's The Situation Room. Co-Host Pamela Brown stepped out of character and played rough with her guest, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY): BROWN: This plan that just passed in the Senate does not include the reforms to immigration enforcement operations that Democrats had not only demanded, but even used as reasons to withhold their votes for DHS funding when all of this began more than a month ago. What did your party actually accomplish with this shutdown? Schumer then spewed the patented left wing talking points on the issue. SCHUMER: Well, first, let me say that the Republicans are hardly unified. (House Speaker) Johnson, for the second time, rejected a proposal made this morning by John Thune with unanimous consent support of all the Republicans to fund the DHS agencies like the Coast Guard, like FEMA, like CISA, which we need.  This is now clearly the Johnson shutdown. It's a Republican shutdown....So this shutdown is on their back. Their failure to want to reform DHS, sorry, to reform ICE, and Border Patrol.... Don't mask, cooperate with local authorities. American people want that. Everyone wants that, but a group of right wing Republicans who just like DHS, like ICE and CPB as it is, as much as we all abhor it and it's on them. Brown then not only corrected Schumer, but pressed him for not answering her question.  BROWN: Well, you have heard the new DHS secretary say that there will be reforms, particularly to warrants and in other areas. But just to follow up on my original question, look, ICE and CBP, they are funded, I mean, with billions of dollars from last year's budget bill for the next few years. So what did Democrats actually accomplish with this shutdown, where you saw many government employees really struggle? SCHUMER: Well, as, again, we were ready to fund the rest of DHS. It was the Republicans who blocked it over and over again. So that's on them. But, second, the bottom line is, what we have shown the American people is, we want obvious commonsense reforms to DHS to ICE and CBP, and the Republicans don't.  And Brown continued to surprise, going after another one of Schumer's claims.    BROWN: The bottom line is, Democrats are in the minority. You mentioned what the American people want. Overall, the American people are not happy with the Democratic Party. CNN's recent polling shows that a broad 74 percent of the public says Democrats in Congress have the wrong priorities. How do you respond to that as the Democratic leader in the Senate? SCHUMER: Look at just about all the elections, whether they were the elections in New Jersey and in Virginia, throughout the country. The American people are choosing Democrats over Republicans. And why? Because they know that the Republicans are the party of costs, high costs, people's costs are going way up, of chaos, not only chaos in the cities, but chaos in Iran.... So the American people are on our side on the major issues.  Once again, Brown was not happy that Schumer did not answer her question.  BROWN: And that is true in the recent elections. And it is true that the Iran war is unpopular broadly among the American people. And President Trump is unpopular broadly. But, overall, when you look at the polling about priorities, the American people are unhappy with what Democrats have been doing. And they indicate, these polls, that you have historically low performance ratings. What specifically can you be doing to bring these numbers up and reestablish trust within both your own party and with your constituents? Schumer insisted his party was strong and united. It was a good job by Brown, and the second time in a little over a week that Schumer has received a tough time, even if one could argue she's arguing from the AOC perspective, that he's not pleasing the leftist fringe.  Joe Scarborough also temporarily acted like a journalist on MS NOW's  Morning Joe on March 23rd, and Mika Brzezinski decided to toss Schumer a lifeline. April 3rd, 2026 12:25 PM Steve Malzberg 294559 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brad-wilmouth/2026/04/03/ms-now-sees-free-speech-victory-major-blow-lgbtq-rights On Tuesday afternoon, in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a Colorado law that bans conversion therapy for minors over their sexual orientation, MS NOW host Chris Jansing put on a negative spin, calling it "a major blow to LGBTQ rights." She could just as easily have called it a victory for free speech. At 12:22 p.m., she informed viewers: We've got some breaking news, a major blow to LGBTQ rights, and it's coming on Trans Visibility Day. In an 8 to 1 decision, the Supreme Court voted to essentially allow conversion therapy for kids, siding with a Christian therapist in Colorado. But their ruling could impact 20 other states with similar laws. Senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin then recounted that the majority ruling found that the law discriminated against the views of conversion therapists: The decision said, Chris, by a vote of 8 to 1, that when Colorado banned conversion therapy, they didn't just incidentally infringe on a particular therapist's right to offer talk therapy to her patients -- that essentially the Colorado law was not viewpoint-neutral -- that it told her that she could not, for example, offer conversion therapy or anything designed to affirm that a change in sexual orientation or in gender identity would be positive for someone, but allowed her, conversely, to sympathize with or support a patient undergoing a transition in either gender identity or sexual orientation, the court said. The two went on to discuss the dissenting opinion of liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Colorado wanted to restrict speech for harm reduction: "What the state of Colorado is trying to do is prevent harms, including suicidality, among people who are undergoing transitions either in their gender identity or in their sexual orientation." Earlier in the day, while Ana Cabrera was anchoring, legal affairs reporter Fallon Gallagher put a similar spin on the development. After spending much of the segment citing the free speech arguments of the majority, when it came to inserting her own opinion, she concluded: "This has national implications. More than 20 states have laws just like Colorado's on the books. And so this is a major blow to LGBTQ population across the nation." She also made sure to label supporters of conversion therapy as "conservative" but did not label opponents as liberal. Transcripts follow: MS NOW's Ana Cabrera Reports March 31, 2026 11:16 a.m. Eastern ANA CABRERA: We're continuing to follow breaking news out of the Supreme Court this morning -- an 8 to 1 decision and the court backing a challenge to Colorado's ban on LGBT conversion therapy, saying the law raises free speech concerns. MSNOW's Fallon Gallagher is back with us from outside the court. Fallon, an 8 to 1 decision. What did the justice(s) reveal about their thinking? FALLON GALLAGHER, MS NOW LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER: Yeah, this is one of those big cases that we have been waiting for a decision in. And the Supreme Court finding in an 8-1 decision that Colorado's law, which bans gender conversion talk therapy, violates the First Amendment on free speech grounds. Of course, siding with that conservative therapist who brought this challenge against the Colorado law. Like we said, this was an 8-1 decision with Gorsuch writing for the majority. And I want to read you just a portion of what he said because there's some really strong language about the First Amendment. He writes, "The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country. It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas and the best means for discovering truth." Now, Justice Kagan and Justice Sotomayor signed on for a concurring opinion, agreeing with the majority, but having a little bit of a nuance in their thought. And Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, of course, the lone dissenter here saying that this is more states have the authority to regulate conduct. And I want to read to you something that she wrote. She says, "The court's opinion misreads our precedents, is unprincipled and unworkable, and will eventually prove untenable for those who rely upon the long recognized responsibility of states to regulate the medical profession for the protection of public health." Of course, making that conduct regulation argument there. But Ana, this is a really big case. This has national implications. More than 20 states have laws just like Colorado's on the books. And so this is a major blow to LGBTQ population across the nation. Ana? (...) MS NOW's Chris Jansing Reports March 31, 2026 12:22 p.m. Eastern CHRIS JANSING: We've got some breaking news, a major blow to LGBTQ rights, and it's coming on Trans Visibility Day. In an 8 to 1 decision, the Supreme Court voted to essentially allow conversion therapy for kids, siding with a Christian therapist in Colorado. But their ruling could impact 20 other states with similar laws. MS NOW's Lisa Rubin is following this for us. Give us the inside. What exactly did this decision say? LISA RUBIN, SENIOR LEGAL REPORTER: The decision said, Chris, by a vote of 8 to 1, that when Colorado banned conversion therapy, they didn't just incidentally infringe on a particular therapist's right to offer talk therapy to her patients -- that essentially the Colorado law was not viewpoint neutral -- that it told her that she could not, for example, offer conversion therapy or anything designed to affirm that a change in sexual orientation or in gender identity would be positive for someone, but allowed her, conversely, to sympathize with or support a patient undergoing a transition in either gender identity or sexual orientation, the court said. That's not viewpoint neutral. That has nothing to do with the content or the subject matter of the speech writ large. But is telling her she cannot express a particular viewpoint and that just because the overall bill was aimed at conversion therapy and medical treatment doesn't mean that the speech part of it was merely incidental, that talk therapy, to the extent that it was prohibited by this bill, has to be allowed. JANSING: So the lone dissent came from Ketanji Brown Jackson. And I want to read part of what she wrote in her dissent.: "The court's opinion misreads our precedence, is unprincipled and unworkable, and will eventually prove untenable for those who rely upon the long recognized responsibility of states to regulate the medical profession for the protection of public health." Explain exactly what she is arguing when it comes to the impact this decision will have. RUBIN: Yeah, I mean, Ketanji Brown Jackson is fundamentally disagreeing with her eight colleagues, saying that where you have a collision between prohibited medical treatments or the setting of a standard of care, medically and free speech, that you have to understand the speech restrictions in the context that is offered here, she says. What the state of Colorado is trying to do is prevent harms, including suicidality, among people who are undergoing transitions either in their gender identity or in their sexual orientation. In that context, she says, the speech infringement here has to be understood as part of Colorado's right to set licensing and professional guidelines for people providing medical care, and therefore speech is not what's dominant here. Their right to set medical standards is. JANSING: Lisa Rubin, thank you for that. April 3rd, 2026 11:06 AM Brad Wilmouth 294551 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/ben-shapiro/2026/04/03/todays-nba-beliefs-can-be-firing-offense There are plenty of things an NBA player can do and still keep his job. League history is littered with examples: players involved in off-court scandals, arrests, and even allegations of serious violence. Time and again, teams and the league have found ways to look past behavior that, in most professions, would be career-ending. But there appears to be one line that cannot be crossed — especially during Holy Week. That line, it seems, is expressing a traditional religious belief. Enter Jaden Ivey. The former Purdue standout was the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft, a rising young guard who averaged 16 points and five assists as a rookie with the Detroit Pistons. By his third season, he was approaching 18 points per game before an injury derailed his momentum. Eventually, he landed with the Chicago Bulls. By all accounts, Ivey was a productive player still on the rise. Then came an Instagram video. In it, Ivey — now a newly converted Christian — criticized the NBA’s celebration of Pride Month. His comments reflected a conventional religious viewpoint: that pride, as celebrated in this context, conflicts with Christian teachings on sin. “They proclaim Pride Month,” Ivey said. “They say, ‘Come join us ... to celebrate unrighteousness.’” That was enough. The Bulls waived him, citing “conduct detrimental to the team.” The phrase raises an obvious question: What exactly was the conduct? Ivey did not skip practice. He did not clash with teammates. He did not violate the law. By his own account — and by the absence of any evidence to the contrary — he remained a good teammate and a committed player. His offense was speech. On Instagram Live, Ivey pushed back on the decision. “How is it conduct detrimental to the team? What did I do to the team?” he asked. It’s a fair question — and one the Bulls have not clearly answered.       Even head coach Billy Donovan offered only a muted response, emphasizing “certain standards” while declining to directly address Ivey’s comments. There was no forceful condemnation, no claim of locker room disruption — just a vague appeal to team values. Contrast that with other professional sports leagues. UFC president Dana White has repeatedly defended fighters’ rights to speak freely, even when he strongly disagrees with them. The principle is simple: Disagreement does not justify punishment. The NBA appears to be operating under a different standard. If Ivey had expressed support for Pride Month — or made a personal announcement aligning with it — it’s difficult to imagine a similar outcome. More than likely, he would have been celebrated. Instead, he was dismissed. This is what makes the situation so striking. The league has tolerated, and at times quietly managed, far more serious controversies. There was even a prolonged debate over whether to host an event tied to a strip club in Atlanta - an issue that required league intervention after weeks of public scrutiny. Yet a religious objection to Pride Month draws an immediate and decisive response. That disparity is hard to ignore. It also raises broader questions about the NBA’s relationship with its audience. Millions of fans — many of them religious — hold views similar to those Ivey expressed. They may not agree with the league’s messaging, but they have continued to watch, support and engage with the sport. Decisions like this risk sending a different message: that certain beliefs are not merely unpopular but unacceptable. For a league that seeks to expand its reach, that’s a curious strategy. Timing only adds to the tension. The incident unfolded during Holy Week, one of the most sacred periods on the Christian calendar — a moment when questions of faith and conviction are especially prominent. None of this requires agreement with Ivey’s views. Reasonable people can and do disagree on these issues. But there is a difference between disagreement and exclusion. If the standard for remaining in the NBA now includes alignment with specific cultural or ideological positions, then the league is entering new territory— one where speech, not conduct, becomes the deciding factor in a player’s career. Ivey may yet find another team willing to give him a second chance. But the larger issue will remain: In today’s NBA, it’s not just how you play the game that matters -- it’s what you’re allowed to say off the court. Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. April 3rd, 2026 11:01 AM Ben Shapiro 294564 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/04/03/snls-mamdani-impersonator-gushes-i-would-just-watch-him-smile CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed actor, comedian, and Saturday Night Live’s Zohran Mamdani impersonator Ramy Youssef to Thursday’s taping of The Late Show to discuss what it was like to play the New York City mayor on SNL. According to Youssef, the key to doing a good Mamdani impression is to smile at everything, something Colbert agreed with. Colbert began by asking, “You played Zohran Mamdani a couple of months ago, back on SNL. What's the trick? What's the trick? What's your hook, I should rather say? What’s your hook for a good Mamdani.” That cold open featured the mayoral debate between Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa and was fairly sympathetic to Mamdani. Certainly, the regular SNL cast, as well as the daily comedy shows, would consider themselves to be fans. As for Youssef, he replied, “Well, I would just watch him smile, no matter what he was saying. You know, no matter what was going on. Like, it was just everything, it could be the most serious thing, and he would have a smile and be incredibly serious and I thought, kind of, the way in and it was very fun.” Colbert echoed the idea, “Wow, even things that shouldn't make you smile. He smiles when he says them.”   Stephen Colbert asks stand-up comic Ramy Youssef that the key to playing Zohran Mamdani on SNL was and Yousef says "Well, I would just watch him smile, no matter what he was saying. You know, no matter what was going on. Like, it was just everything, it could be the most serious… pic.twitter.com/4Ia34xxu0g — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 3, 2026   Youssef added, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He’ll just, like, ‘ICE’—he’ll be like. ‘You're not allowed in the city.’ And he’s like, big beaming smile.” Colbert then wondered about Mamdani’s reaction, “Do you know if he saw it?” Yousseff reported that, “Yeah, he saw it. He saw it and he actually, like, we—he called me when I was still dressed as him, and he was really creeped out by it.” While Yousseff claims the key to portraying the radical Mamdani is to smile at everything, SNL’s James Austin Johnson, who plays President Trump, has claimed that his impression has gotten “super dark," and that is a good summary of how SNL styles its characters. One is the “we tease because we love” kind of humor, and the other is the kind that is meant to serve the show’s larger agenda. Here is a transcript for the April 2-taped show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 4/3/2026 12:26 AM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: You played Zohran Mamdani a couple of months ago, back on SNL RAMY YOUSSEF: Yeah. COLBERT: Nice job. YOUSSEF: Thank you. COLBER: What's the trick? What's the trick? What's your hook, I should rather say? What’s your hook for a good Mamdani YOUSSEF: Well, I would just watch him smile, no matter what he was saying. You know, no matter what was going on. Like, it was just everything, it could be the most serious thing, and he would have a smile and be incredibly serious and I thought, kind of, the way in and it was very fun. Yeah. COLBERT: Wow, even things that shouldn't make you smile. He smiles when he says them. YOUSSEF: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He’ll just, like, "ICE"—he’ll be like “You're not allowed in the city.” And he’s like, big beaming smile. COLBERT: Do you know if he saw it? YOUSSEF: Yeah, he saw it. He saw it and he actually, like, we—he called me when I was still dressed as him, and he was really creeped out by it. COLBERT: How’d he get your number? Did he call Scorsese?  April 3rd, 2026 9:41 AM Alex Christy 294563 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/04/03/march-job-growth-triples-expectations-unemployment-rate Job growth tripled expectations and the unemployment rate defied forecasts by declining in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday. Total seasonally-adjusted nonfarm payroll employment grew by 178,000 in March, surging back from February’s 133,000 decline – and crushing analysts’ expectations of an increase of 60,000. The unemployment rate, which was expected to remain unchanged, actually declined from 4.4% in February to 4.3% last month, as the number of unemployed people fell from 7,571,000 to 7,239,000. Unemployment rates declined broadly across major demographic groups (men, women, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic). In March, month-to-month job gains occurred in health care, and construction, as well as in transportation and warehousing, while federal government employment continued to decline: Health care: +76,000. Construction: +26,000. Transportation and warehousing: +21,000 jobs, reflecting a gain in couriers and messengers (+20,000). Social assistance: +14,000, primarily in individual and family services (+11,000). Federal government: -18,000. Financial services: -15,000. Employment in ambulatory health care services rose by 54,000, reflecting an increase of 35,000 in offices of physicians as workers returned from a strike. Employment also increased in hospitals (+15,000). Over the prior 12 months, health care had added an average of 29,000 jobs per month. Since reaching a peak in October 2024 under the Biden Administration, federal government employment has fallen by 355,000 (-11.8%). March’s federal government employment count includes federal employees on furlough during the partial government shutdown who were counted as employed because they worked or received (or will receive) pay for the pay period that included the 12th of the month. Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, such as mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, information, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality. Revisions for January (+34,000) and February (-41,000) lowered the combined job number for those two months by 7,000. April 3rd, 2026 9:30 AM Craig Bannister 294562 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/04/03/column-jim-acosta-whines-trump-winning-his-war-press Don’t look now, but FCC chairman Brendan Carr and Jim Acosta agree on something. Donald Trump is “winning” his effort to reshape the media landscape in his second term. Appearing on the “Power Lines” podcast with his fellow ardent leftists Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino, Acosta glumly proclaimed “I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that Donald Trump is winning in his, you know, quest to reshape the media in this country that he's cracked the code on how to hurt the press in the U.S.” Acosta recently testified at a Democrat pseudo-hearing before Sen. Adam Schiff, warning about how Larry and David Ellison had taken over CBS and are now planning to acquire CNN. He accused Trump of committing “an assault on our freedom of speech….taking us down the road of Putin and China to state-controlled media.” Darcy and Acosta both constantly paint the Ellisons as creating “MAGA-coded” media. It’s always bizarre to hear Jim Acosta warning of “partisan hacks” in TV news, and “propaganda networks,” like CNN and Acosta weren’t sounding like that for Barack Obama or against Donald Trump. Acosta told the podcasters “we don't need to have propaganda networks in the US. I mean, and by the way, there's already a propaganda network over at Fox. We don't, we don't need more of them.” On the 'Power Lines' podcast with Farcy Darcy, Jim Acosta claims the Ellisons could be creating a 'consolidated media giant' with great powers. They really think CBS is going to be a new Fox News, and CNN will follow. It doesn't seem to matter what CBS actually sounds like right… pic.twitter.com/BGAWVcyXGo — Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) April 3, 2026   Despite Acosta’s blathering about Trump’s “campaign to basically destroy the free press in the United States,” there is no shortage of negative coverage of Donald Trump across the elitist media landscape. Anyone watching CBS right now isn’t noticing much difference between them and ABC and NBC. The Big Three evening newscasts are still uber-negative about Trump, most recently about the war in Iran. In a few weeks, they’ll be hating something else he does. If you go back to Acosta’s CNN war on Trump in the first term, he constantly claimed Trump was endangering the lives of reporters by calling them “Fake News” and the “Enemy of the People.” Meanwhile, it couldn’t be imagined that the media might inspire attempts on Trump’s life by constantly suggesting he was a wannabe dictator, basically an American Hitler. Acosta and Team Darcy pretend that CBS, CNN, and The Washington Post are now under Trump’s thumb. Acosta insisted “the people” have figured this out, and “that's why a lot of people are turning away from the traditional broadcast networks. They're turning away from places like The Washington Post because they're seeing these oligarchs take over these news organizations and, you know, turn them into House organs for the Trump administration.” If Acosta believes his own rhetoric, it’s only because he’s not actually reading or watching the journalistic output. It’s more likely that he’s just trying to goad them into being as hyper-critical as he is. It’s not hard to accuse a media outlet of “going soft” when they label Trump a fascist a little less often, or commit so-called atrocities like granting half a minute to the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riot. It’s apparently appalling to conduct an interview with the president where he gets to speak for two sentences without being aggressively Accosted, CNN-style. This is the same attack dog who announced on CNN in 2009 that Obama’s first inaugural speech “may be more than the speech of his lifetime. Historians and speechwriters say it could be one for the ages.” In 2013 during the Obama inauguration parade he gushed that “I feel like I should pinch myself right now.” The partisan hack pretends he was just as tough on Obama. He was nothing of the sort.  April 3rd, 2026 5:56 AM Tim Graham 294558 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/04/02/omission-abc-nbc-silent-massive-california-hospice-fraud The Elitist Media’s evening newscasts have shown that they have a hard time reporting on counteragenda items that expose blue states to accusations of incompetence or malfeasance. News related to public assistance fraud is especially rare among the nightlies, as is demonstrated by the latest news out of California. Watch as the CBS Evening News is the sole evening newscast to report on the massive early morning raid carried out by the FBI in Covina, California:  WATCH: CBS Evening News is the only network evening newscast to report on the early morning FBI raid in California, after the discovery of massive hospice fraud. TONY DOKOUPIL: CBS News is first to report the arrest today of a married couple in Southern California accused of… pic.twitter.com/hSAWuv14Zx — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 3, 2026 CBS EVENING NEWS 4/2/25 6:42 PM TONY DOKOUPIL: CBS News is first to report the arrest today of a married couple in Southern California accused of ripping off Medicare for nearly $7.5 million through a series of fraudulent hospice claims. Over 700 hospices in Los Angeles County alone have red flags for fraud, according to our investigative team. In this particular case, the flags included a five year survival rate of 97%, high for what is supposed to be end of life care. The FBI says additional arrests are expected. To their credit, CBS has been working on the fraud story for quite some time. But this report is quite skinny for something that their peers aren’t even going to bother to carry. Additional details, per the California Post: The home of a husband and wife who own a Southern California hospice accused of committing $7 million in fraud was raided by FBI agents in conjunction with Health and Human Services early Thursday morning. The raid is one of several that took place as part of a massive federal effort to address widespread fraud in the state in coordination with Vice President JD Vance’s Fraud Taskforce — and the California Post was there. In dramatic fashion, the couple, Amelou Gill and Gladwin Gill, who operate St. Francis Palliative Care in Anaheim, were arrested at their home by an FBI SWAT team as authorities sawed through the metal front gates of their property and called with loudspeakers for them to come out. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was on the scene as well and said the couple created a hospice in their daughter’s name and bilked millions of dollars from taxpayers. You would think that having the head of CMS present at the raid might be an indicator of newsworthiness and seriousness. But no. And, of course, the CBS item made no mention of the raid’s relation to the anti-fraud effort spearheaded by Vice President JD Vance.  All of this notwithstanding, CBS’s 32 seconds on the raid are 32 seconds more than ABC and NBC combined. The Elitist Media’s insistence on pretending that government assistance fraud doesn’t exist is but one of many reasons why the American People have lost trust in the media.   April 2nd, 2026 11:57 PM Jorge Bonilla 294560 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/04/02/newsbusters-podcast-revealing-fact-checking-frauds-playbook On "International Fact Checking Day," we discuss how PolitiFact can't find any Democrats saying false things with Matthew Hoy, author of the new book Fact-Checking Frauds: How Fact-Checkers Distract, Deceive, and Distort Our Politics. What tactics do they use? There's obvious selection bias -- in targets, in fact claims, and in expert testimony. Managing Editor Curtis Houck joined the show to discuss how "fact checkers" are journalists and it shouldn't be seen as hostile to journalism or facts to criticize them and their tactics. Hoy worked for 15 years as a newspaper journalist, so he knows how the process works. What we've seen is liberal journalists using "fact checking" as another way of undermining conservatives and Republicans in their appeal to voters.  When PolitiFact couldn't find a single statement made by the Democrats anywhere that they would feel need to be described as "Mostly False" or in stronger terms, it suggests favoritism. It's one thing to believe that Donald Trump is uniquely troubling in his untruths and exaggerations. It's another to believe it's disreputable "false balance" to call out any falsehoods among Trump's opponents.  We've seen signs of decline among the "fact checkers." The Washington Post didn't replace their fact chieftain Glenn Kessler when he took a buyout. But their bias was glaringly obvious when Kessler compiled a database of more than 30,000 "false or misleading" statements from Trump, and then canceled any presidential database when Biden was elected.  CNN's Daniel Dale makes no attempt to avoid the impression that he's only been hired to fact-check Trump, and pretty much nothing else. That's certainly true when he appears on television for CNN. Snopes.com has a problem obsessing over satire, as if making jokes is the worst kind of misinformation.  Overall, these "fact checkers" have remarkable blind spots -- "Jim Crow 2.0" is considered fair comment about the Republicans. Calling Trump a "fascist" or a "dictator" is acceptable discourse, but if you call a Democrat a "socialist," that can be tagged as "Pants On Fire." Republicans can never claim the Democrats support abortion up until birth -- no restrictions are desirable -- but instead of proving their claim false (it's not), they claim that late-term abortions are "rare," as if that's a factual argument.  Enjoy the show below, or wherever you consumer your podcasts.  April 2nd, 2026 10:50 PM Tim Graham 294549 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/pj-gladnick/2026/04/02/politico-joins-democrat-angst-fest-over-being-locked-out-california It's the Great Fear that has been haunting California Democrats, and especially Politico, since they noticed the possibility last December that because of the Democrats splitting the votes among each other in the open gubernatorial primary in June. The two top candidates could end up being Republicans, thus locking Democrats out of the November general election. The angst over this possibility has only increased dramatically since then, with the latest poll results sending poor Politico over the edge to the extent they have completely dropped even the bare pretense of objectivity as they MindMeld with the Democrats in deep deep concern as you see with senior politics reporter Jeremy B. White furiously rubbing the worry beads on Wednesday in "Democrats risk a historic upset in California." White might have written his panic piece on April Fool's Day and the joke appears to be on the Democrats as illustrated by the subtitle: "How the party in America's bluest state could lock itself out of the governor’s race." The  nightmare scenario (for Democrats and You-Know-Who) was laid out by White: In a typical election, Democrats would be cruising. But this is not a typical year. After heavyweights like Sen. Alex Padilla and former Vice President Kamala Harris passed on the race to succeed Gavin Newsom, no Democrat has broken away from the scrum. Now, some polls show Republicans are in position to capture the top two spots — including a survey circulated by state party Chair Rusty Hicks, whose plea for lower-tier Democrats to drop out has been met with backlash and accusations of racism. “It’s completely dysfunctional,” said a former legislative leader granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. “It’s the weirdest combination.” The cause for the latest panic attack was most likely the most recent Evitarus poll, SPONSORED BY DEMOCRATS, that revealed these hilarious results as reported in the March 25 Palm Springs Desert Sun, "New California poll shows Hilton, Bianco leading as Democrats split." The EVITARUS poll released Tuesday, March 24, shows conservative commentator Steve Hilton leading with 16% of likely voters, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco just behind with 14%. Three Democratic candidates — Congressman Eric Swalwell, Congresswoman Katie Porter, and climate advocate Tom Steyer — trail behind, each capturing 10% of likely voters. The other five democratic candidates each hold 3% or less of likely voters. Yes, absolutely the worst of all worlds as far as both Democrats and Politico are concerned. And yet with the three top Democrats tied at exactly 10 points each behind the Republicans the political agony is made even funnier. White does his bit for damage control by hyping the candidacy of Mr. Fang Fang, aka Eric Swalwell, perhaps with the intent to help him break away from the rest of the Democrat pack and especially ahead of at least one of the Republican candidates now leading in the polls: In recent weeks, much of the political establishment has backed Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has picked up endorsements from Sen. Adam Schiff and two of California’s most prominent labor groups. A pro-Swalwell super PAC has piled up millions of dollars from medical interests and Uber, and a well-funded anti-Steyer effort launched late last month. Finally, Jeremy White entertains us with some amusing "Woe Is Us" shtick: California Democrats say they’ll clean up this mess. But in a governor’s race that has all the makings of a debacle, they’re digging themselves deeper. With a sprawling field threatening to split the vote and hand the governorship to a Republican, a late-hour effort failed to persuade longshot contenders to drop out. A preeminent labor group split its coveted endorsement four ways, elevating no one. And in the most recent upheaval, a televised debate was hastily canceled after an uproar from within the party that leaving out low-polling candidates of color would produce an all-white stage. ...“We know there’s this risk ahead — a 15 percent chance of calamity. It’s not a 15 percent chance of stubbing your toe, it’s a 15 percent chance of losing the governorship, losing the down-ballot races,” said Paul Mitchell, a leading Democratic data strategist in the state. Losing the governorship would rank among the biggest upsets in modern political history. For Democrats, who have held a monopoly on statewide office for a generation and outnumber Republicans two to one, it wouldn’t just mean ceding California’s role as a national leader in progressive policymaking. The lack of a top-of-the-ticket standard bearer could also suppress turnout and cost the party House seats, squandering Democrats’ victory last year in a hard-fought gerrymandering campaign. Exit Question: Will there be Californians in June who will vote for one of the GOP gubernatorial candidates just for the comedic entertainment value of watching a Conniption Fit For The Ages by the Democrats and Politico? April 2nd, 2026 5:00 PM P.J. Gladnick 294534 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2026/04/02/spoiler-alert-abc-news-was-not-fan-president-trumps-address-iran ABC’s Good Morning America had the sensibility Thursday to do the opposite of what they did Wednesday in leading with — and not burying — the NASA launch of Artemis II on a ten-day trip to slingshot around the moon, but that’s where the compliments cease as, like Wednesday, Thursday’s show had plenty of anti-Trump hate. This time, it concerned Trump’s address to the nation the night prior. Of course, co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos set the tone: “Want to turn now to President Trump’s first prime time address to the nation since launching the war against Iran, detailing military progress. The President promised to finish the job soon, but offered no new details on that end of conflict and threatened escalation.” Condescending White House correspondent Mary Bruce set the tone with the negative: [T]his speech left more questions than answers. More than a month into this war, the President argued why he feels this fight is necessary. He touted his military successes, even as Iran continued to strike while he was speaking. But the President offered no cut path forward to actually end this conflict.  She continued to pummel the President: “Overnight addressing the nation for the first time since launching this war with Iran, President Trump claiming the U.S. is on track to end the conflict soon, but offering no vision or timeline for what comes next.” ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ to offer a wholly negative, condescending story on President Trump’s primetime address, courtesy of former Clinton tool George Stephanopoulos and the Biden regime’s chief apple polisher, Mary Bruce pic.twitter.com/fBD0piYWC4 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 2, 2026 Literally every thought had to have a negative connotation, including simping for the Iranians (click “expand”): BRUCE: Five weeks into this war, the President still not making clear what conditions have to be met for this conflict to end. He says the operation is nearing completion, but is also vowing to continue attacking Iran and threatening their energy infrastructure if they don’t reach some kind of a deal. TRUMP: We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. BRUCE: The President rehashing why he started this campaign, saying Iran couldn’t have a nuclear weapon, despite claiming he obliterated their program in last year’s strikes. And, in an interview Wednesday, Trump said he’s not concerned about removing Iran’s remaining stockpile of enriched uranium, saying “that’s so far underground, I don’t care about that.” But that statement at odds with why the President says he went to war in the first place: to prevent Iran from being able to make a nuclear weapon.  International inspectors estimate Iran has nearly a thousand pounds of near-bomb grade uranium, deep underground at nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. last year. Bruce also sided with Europe: “[T]he President did not repeat his earlier warning that he could pull the U.S. out of NATO. The President is furious with our NATO allies for not supporting the war effort, even though, guys, he did not give them and he heads up.” And, because they hate the President so much, ABC brought Bruce back in the second hour to rehash many of these same points. In contrast, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today were far more ho-hum or indifferent to the speech. Taking NBC first, Saturday co-host Laura Jarrett kicked it off by saying Trump “[made] his case for what he says will be several more weeks of this war with Iran, but the lack of specifics rattled markets and oil prices as attacks continue to spread across the Middle East.” Senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez acknowledged the speech “many points that President had made recently” and provided “no specifics on how the crucial Strait of Hormuz will reopen,” but was the only network correspondent on Thursday to concede “a senior White House official tells me the President’s intended audience was the American people who are not following the war’s developments day-to-day.” Gutierrez’s piece largely gave space for Trump’s objectives to be laid out before including Iran’s latest ominous response. He was also the only person on the networks to pivot to Trump’s Easter lunch speech to allies and supporters, which was not supposed to have been made public (but the White House had inadvertently done) (click “expand”): GUTIERREZ: Overnight, global markets fell sharply rattled by the uncertainty, all of it coming amid rising gas prices here at home and growing skepticism over the conflict. Yesterday, in a speech to faith leaders at the White House, the President saying the federal government needs to focus on the militaries while discussing fraud and funding for domestic programs, which he says states should run. TRUMP: We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things, they can do it on a state basis. We can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection. GUTIERREZ: The White House posting then removing the speech, which was closed to the press. The remarks coming as the President is also pressuring Republicans to end the partial government shutdown while TSA officers are now getting paid, easing those long airport lines. Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker also had analysis: “[A]ccording to the President’s allies I’ve been speaking with, the President’s goal was to really lay out his rationale in the most fulsome way for the war in Iran to the American people, and to try to calm jitters from Wall Street to Main Street, even though that clearly hasn’t happened yet[.]” “[H]e did leave a lot of critical questions unanswered, including what his strategy is for exiting, whether he plans to put troops on the ground...and his critics say he didn’t show empathy for the higher prices Americans are dealing with,” she added in part. Over on CBS, Saturday co-host Kelly O’Grady had a similar phraseology as NBC’s Jarrett: [W]e’re going to start the news with President Trump’s late-night address to the American people. Now, in his nearly 20-minute speech he made his case for the war against Iran and said the U.S. military would, “finish the job soon.” But he didn’t say what that job is. After the speech, oil prices rose more than seven percent. The national average for a gallon of gas is now $4.08.  CBS senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang had the story and was more grim by declaring the speech came amid “sagging job approval numbers and soaring gas prices” and delivered no “new details about a time frame, a plan for winding down on what victory would look like.” That said, she relayed that “Trump delivered a full defense of the Iran war and promised Americans the end to the military operation is in sight, claiming the objectives are ‘nearing completion’” and “vowed to continue the U.S. bombing campaign even as he says negotiations are ongoing.” Jiang was the only network correspondent to point out that, amid Trump’s disgust with NATO countries for refusing to step up to help ensure safe passage for oil tankers on the Strait of Hormuz, “[t]he United Kingdom is hosting a virtual summit today with 35 countries to talk about reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but the prime minister has made clear they do not want to get tangled up in the conflict.” Chief correspondent Matt Gutman then brought in CBS News contributor and School of War podcast host Aaron MacLean for measured and welcomed analysis (click “expand”): [I]f you go back to the matrix of objectives that the President and others of his administration laid out at the start of the campaign a month ago, you can go it and give them grades. The Iranian navy — I think our military is doing pretty well. The Iranian military is largely at the bottom of the sea or has holes in the sides of its boats. The missile program has massively been degraded, but it’s here where you get slightly more moderate grades, right? They retain the capacity to harass their neighbors pretty significantly day to day as a big salvo fired at Israel and other countries just in the last 24 hours. President Trump spoke repeatedly about the nuclear program. Not a lot of action directly connected to the nuclear program thus far and it is unclear what the status of the goal will be going forward. And, of course, I think the biggest thing that’s on everyone’s minds and we just referred to it in that good report there is the Iranians have played the major card available to them which is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, is having a massive economic impact and at some point is going to have to be dealt with. (....) [T]here were a series of comments [about the Strait] through the speech. First, he basically said the Strait of Hormuz is not America’s problem because we don’t buy our oil from there which, while technically true, of course, there’s a global finite supply of the commodity. So, if there’s a lack of supply the price still goes up in America. I think they should in and take it and he said don’t worry, it is naturally going to open up which implies his objective remains a deal at which point the Iranians open it up or perhaps regime change where they no longer harass it. You can see — I think he’s aware of the difficulty of a military campaign to open the Strait. It’s been done before. The United States did it in the 1980s, but it’s potentially protracted as a military operation. The President promised the American people a four-to-six-week war. In the second hour, chief Washington analyst Robert Costa said the speech illustrated Trump “exerting executive power” and “leav[ing] a lot of options on the table” by, among other things, following recent predecessors in speaking to the public and Congress once the U.S. is in the midst of an armed conflict and not beforehand. To see the relevant network transcripts from April 2, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC). April 2nd, 2026 4:36 PM Curtis Houck 294556 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/04/02/immigration-health-care-fraud-found-among-50m-fraud Eight federal arrests were made in Los Angeles, California pertaining to $50 million of national health care fraud – including one case involving immigration law violations, the U.S. Justice Department reported Thursday. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California details the law enforcement sweep, which included the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in an announcement: “In coordination with the Vice President’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, eight defendants, including three nurses, a chiropractor, and a psychologist, have been arrested on federal charges that they schemed to defraud the nation’s health care system out of more than $50 million – including by running sham hospice care facilities that bilked Medicare by using people without terminal illnesses as beneficiaries.” Alleged crimes committed by those charged include: Using their own or their accomplices’ companies to submit millions of dollars of fraudulent hospice claims to Medicare. Billing Medicare for hospice services for beneficiaries who were not terminally ill. Scheming to defraud Medicare by paying illegal kickbacks for the referral of patients who were not dying to hospices. Operating fraudulent hospice care facilities – in one case, while the suspect was free on bond awaiting a hospice fraud trial. Committing wire fraud. Submitting false claims to Medicare for physician hospice services that were not provided to patients. Forging the signature of a physician on Medicare enrollment forms. Using a co-conspirator’s name and ID number to file fraudulent claims, in exchange for a portion of the proceeds. Some of the hospices had non-death discharge rates that were nearly five times higher than the national average, suggesting that many of those taken into care were not actually terminally-ill, as claimed. Additionally, money that was paid to provide patient care was actually used for personal expenses such as mortgage payments, car payments, international flights, restaurants, and personal bills. In the case of immigration health care fraud, Young Joo Ko, 59, of East Hollywood and a lawful permanent resident from South Korea, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging her with fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents. According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Ko engaged in a medical fraud scheme exploiting the green card application process by creating fraudulent immigration documents. Civil surgeons designated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and operating in the Los Angeles area did not examine green card applicants as required by law. Instead, Ko – for a fee – fraudulently prepared the required forms by presenting herself as a nurse or doctor and indicating false compliance with medical examination requirements necessary for immigration applicants to register permanent residence or adjust their immigration status, according to allegations. Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), IRS Criminal Investigation, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are investigating this matter.  April 2nd, 2026 4:08 PM Craig Bannister 294555 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/john-stossel/2026/04/02/you-dont-own-me-freedom-responsibility-and-lies-collectivism Politicians tax what we earn, regulate what we build and often decide what we can do with our bodies and our money. I like to think I own myself. But politicians increasingly act as if they do. “People should not have power over other people’s lives,” says Timothy Sandefur, author of the book “You Don’t Own Me.” In my latest video, Sandefur challenges the attitude that “freedom belongs to the government and it can parcel it out to us.” He starts with building permits. “A building permit really says, you’re not allowed to build on your own property until the government gives you permission. And you have to pay for that permission. The government has essentially confiscated your land and sells it back to you in exchange for more rights.” Such government control makes it harder to build anything. “The Empire State Building,” Sandefur reminds me, “was built in a single year. Now it’s unimaginable that you could accomplish a project like that, or even just the paperwork, within a year.” So vast sums of money are wasted. Take high-speed rail for example. Somehow, California has spent 16 years and $14 billion without laying down a single mile of high-speed track. “How much would Californians have done with that colossal amount of money?” Sandefur asks. Government forced me to get vaccinated, to pay into Social Security. If I want to buy a gun or get a hunting license, I must ask government’s permission. I even have to get bureaucrats’ permission to start a business braiding someone’s hair. “Two-thirds of businesses in America require some form of government permission slip for you to do your job,” complains Sandefur. “Everything from something as simple as barbering to something as complicated as engineering. If you want to earn a living, you first have to get permission. Often ... this is not only unconstitutional, but a violation of the fundamental principle that you have the right to pursue happiness.”      Sandefur’s state is trying to do something about it. “Arizona passed a universal licensing law that says that if you have an occupational license from another state and you move to Arizona, you will automatically get the equivalent license. Which only makes sense. You don’t forget how to be an architect when you move from California to Arizona.” Where regulation is heavy, Americans aren’t waiting for politicians to simplify things. They’re just leaving. U Haul records show people moving from blue states like California, New York and Illinois to freer states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina. It’s a good thing that we Americans are free to move. We vote with our feet. We’re not totally stuck with the rules local politicians impose. We libertarians like that. “Libertarianism expresses the idea that the individual is in charge of his or her own life and has the right to achieve happiness or suffer the pains of making wrong decisions,” says Sandefur. “I’m a libertarian because I believe that freedom is the natural state of all human beings.” “Seems right to me,” I reply, “Yet this is a tremendously unpopular political philosophy.” “Libertarianism hasn’t been sufficiently explained to people. They think libertarianism consists of doing whatever you feel like. ... The opposite is the case. A truly free society is one where people have to take a great deal of self-responsibility.” The core idea is simple: “You own yourself. Who else has a better right to own you or me? I’m the one who suffers if I make bad decisions. I’m the one who gets to enjoy the rewards if I make good decisions. So why should somebody else have this right to decide the direction of my own life?” “To protect me from myself if I’m making bad decisions?” I reply. “That’s always the excuse that’s given,” Sandefur says. “The kings never rode on top of the people because they wanted to, but because people were better off for being ridden upon.” Let’s not buy into that. “I don’t think government can ever really own you,” says Sandefur, “unless you let it.” Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Government Gone Wild: Exposing the Truth Behind the Headlines.” April 2nd, 2026 3:22 PM John Stossel 294554 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/04/02/view-don-lemon-suggests-trump-almost-had-him-disappeared Accused felon and disgraced former CNN host Don Lemon got emotional during an appearance on Thursday’s edition of The View while recalling his arrest by federal agents. The far-left activist pretending to be journalist nearly broke down in tears as he suggested President Trump almost had him disappeared that day… if not for one of the arresting FBI agents who delivering his bracelet to his husband. He also falsely suggested they didn’t have a warrant to arrest him. Completely downplaying the charges that Lemon was not acting as a journalist but rather as part of the far-left mob that broke into a St. Paul church and intentionally disrupted the service, The View cast and Lemon himself suggested he was “specifically being targeted by this administration.” “So, yeah, I think that I was targeted,” he agreed with his close friend, The View co-host, and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin. Lemon recounted that his bracelet (which Goldberg disclosed contained an expensive black diamond) was causing problems when the agents were getting the cuffs on him. Lemon began to choke up as he recalled how an FBI agent offered to bring it to his husband (pictured above). He then claimed no one would have known what happened to him if not for that: LEMON: He took it up and gave it to him and that was the only way that anybody know that I had been arrested. BEHAR: Look at how that makes you cry. GOLDBERG: Because no one would have known where he was. LEMON: Because I would have been - no one would have known where I was. HOSTIN: No one knew where he was and they took his cell phone. BEHAR: Poor guy. That's so wrong, what they did.   Lemon suggests he was almost disappeared by the federal agents who arrested him... as he's telling the story of how an agent returned his bracelet to his husband: LEMON: So, when they put the handcuffs on me, right, it kept getting caught. And I said and I was trying -- I was… pic.twitter.com/O1X76RE0j5 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 2, 2026   Lemon’s theatrics were ridiculous. While they were whining that authorities still had his phone as evidence, they likely gave it to him so he could call his lawyer once he was booked, who would have let people know and did. He specifically noted that he retained a lawyer long before he was arrested: “When I heard Todd Blanche and Pam Bondi and others talking about this, I got an attorney…” Earlier in the show, Lemon suggested that the agents arresting him didn’t have a proper warrant. Of course, the ignorant co-host lapped it right up: LEMON: I thought I was being mugged so I started -- I was jostling and pulling back. And they’re like, ‘we're federal agents. We're here to arrest you.’ I’m like, ‘For what, where is the warrant?’ So, we had a bit of a struggle because I wanted a warrant. They didn't have it. GOLDBERG: They didn’t have the warrant?! LEMON: They didn’t have it. GOLDBEGR: Oh! LEMON: So, they went outside to get an FBI agent and he brought a picture of a warrant on the phone. GOLDBERG: He brought a picture of a warrant?! LEMON: A picture of the warrant. According to Goldberg’s profound ignorance, agents showing a picture of a warrant was something new the Trump administration cooked up and any person with a picture could arrest anybody. “So, now you can go and arrest somebody and hold up a picture and say - so we can do the -- can we as normal people say, ‘Hey, I'm an FBI agent, here's my warrant, you're going to jail?’” she proclaimed.   Speaking with accused felon Don Lemon about his arrest by federal agents, Whoopi claims any American citizen can now just "hold up a picture" and "say, hey, I'm an FBI agent, here's my warrant, you're going to jail." pic.twitter.com/UBgk9R33CK — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 2, 2026   “Life-long progressive” co-host Whitney Cummings, who on a previous episode admitted all her doctors diagnosed her as “crazy,” claimed - without evidence - that what was presented to Lemon was a “ChatGPT-mocked-up warrant.” While Hostin was feigning surprise at them using a picture of the warrant, she knew perfectly well that federal law allowed for it. As noted by Cornell Law School, a physical warrant wasn’t needed: A warrant is executed by arresting the defendant. Upon arrest, an officer possessing the original or a duplicate original warrant must show it to the defendant. If the officer does not possess the warrant, the officer must inform the defendant of the warrant's existence and of the offense charged and, at the defendant's request, must show the original or a duplicate original warrant to the defendant as soon as possible. Lemon also whined that the arrest was “a waste of taxpayer dollars.” “I was going to say, the more expensive option and the more theatrical,” pretend independent co-host Sara Haines added.   Lemon and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin say perp walks are unnecessary and are only done " to send a message," "to harass," and call it "the n-word treatment." pic.twitter.com/L5ka2nQHUP — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 2, 2026   “It’s called a perp walk,” Hostin explained. “But as my friend who is also an attorney said that, ‘they gave you the N-word treatment,’” Lemon said. “Yes, yes, that is correct,” Hostin agreed. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View April 2, 2026 11:24:00 a.m. Eastern (…) WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So, you see these guys coming at you, you're thing, ‘who is that?’ DON LEMON: Whoopi, I didn't see them coming. GOLDBERG: You didn’t see them?! LEMON: I got on the elevator. You know, you turn and hit the button. And as I was hitting the button, someone grabbed me and I said, ‘oh, my god, I'm being mugged.’ GOLDBERG: Right! SUNNY HOSTIN: Oh! LEMON: I thought I was being mugged so I started -- I was jostling and pulling back. And they’re like, ‘we're federal agents. We're here to arrest you.’ I’m like, ‘For what, where is the warrant?’ So, we had a bit of a struggle because I wanted a warrant. They didn't have it. GOLDBERG: They didn’t have the warrant?! LEMON: They didn’t have it. GOLDBEGR: Oh! LEMON: So, they went outside to get an FBI agent and he brought a picture of a warrant on the phone. GOLDBERG: He brought a picture of a warrant?! LEMON: A picture of the warrant. HOSTIN: A picture? GOLDBERG: So, now you can go and arrest somebody and hold up a picture and say - so we can do the -- can we as normal people say, ‘Hey, I'm an FBI agent, here's my warrant, you're going to jail?’ HOSTIN: Wow. LEMON: It's very similar to what happened to some of the folks in Minneapolis and beyond, they had instead of you having a judicial warrant, they had - I forget what they call it. Another kind of warrant. GOLDBERG: A faux warrant. HOSTIN: Administrative warrant. LEMON: Administrative warrant. Thank you, Sunny. Leave it to - WHITNEY CUMMINGS: A ChatGPT-mocked-up warrant. LEMON: Mine was real apparently, but here's the thing. When I heard Todd Blanche and Pam Bondi and others talking about this, I got an attorney and my attorney emailed them and said, ‘Hey, if you guys are serious, let's do this right. He'll turn himself in.’ They call it self-report. GOLDBERG: They didn’t want to do that. LEMON: Didn't respond. I think they did it once. He did it once, maybe twice but did not respond and they sent, I don't know, 12, 15, maybe 20 agents. GOLDBERG: Right. LEMON: It's a waste of taxpayer dollars. SARA HAINES: I was going to say, the more expensive option and the more theatrical. LEMON: Well, all they had to do was ‘Hey, Mr. Lemon, turn yourself in.’ Okay, where do I go? What’s the address? I’ll be there in however many minutes. HOSTIN: And federal prosecutors do and the Justice Department does that to send a message and to intimidate, and to harass. And I’m - And it's unfortunate, my friend, that you went through that. LEMON: Thank you, thank you very much. And Sunny, I've been leaning on Sunny as counsel just as a friend. No legal stuff but just as a friend. But here's the thing, they do it because they want to embarrass people. Cause they did it with everyone. They want to embarrass you. They want to humiliate. HOSTIN: It’s called a perp walk. GOLDBERG: Yeah. LEMON: But as my friend who is also an attorney said that, ‘they gave you the N-word treatment.’ HOSTIN: Yes, yes, that is correct. (…) 11:37:12 a.m. Eastern LEMON: So, when they put the handcuffs on me, right, it kept getting caught. And I said and I was trying -- I was fiddling with it and the guy was like 'what, do you want me to take it off?' And I said, 'Yes, but are you sure you're going to do the right thing with it?' And there was an FBI agent that walked up to me and said, 'I will take care of it' and I said, 'give this to my husband, he is in room blah, blah, blah' and he took it up. [Gets choked up] JOY BEHAR: And gave it to him. CUMMINGS: Put it on eBay! BEHAR: That's nice. LEMON: He took it up and gave it to him and that was the only way that anybody know that I had been arrested. BEHAR: Look at how that makes you cry. GOLDBERG: Because no one would have known where he was. LEMON: Because I would have been - no one would have known where I was. HOSTIN: No one knew where he was and they took his cell phone. BEHAR: Poor guy. That's so wrong, what they did. GOLDBERG: Do they still have your cell phone? HOSTIN: Yes. LEMON: They still have my phone. So, if you're texting me, Pam Bondi's reading them. (…) April 2nd, 2026 2:51 PM Nicholas Fondacaro 294553 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/04/02/acosta-welch-devolve-anti-christian-and-anti-semitic-madness Former CNN anchor welcomed award-winning podcaster and fellow professional crazy person Jennifer Welch to his Wednesday YouTube show, and together they descended into madness. Acosta and Welch would attack various Republican Christians in the vilest of ways, comparing them to prostitutes and Iranian radicals. Meanwhile, Welch would also dive into anti-Semitism as she said it was obvious the Iran War started because three Jews—Trump negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—masterminded it. Before the conversation shifted to Iran, Acosta wanted to talk about Vice President JD Vance’s new book, “I guess, JD Vance announced that he's got this new book coming out. Did you see this? Talk about Christian signaling. Here it is right here. He's got a book coming out called Communion, as if his last book wasn't a fraud. Here comes a new one. He works for Donald Trump. Enough with this shit.” Welch began her reply by claiming, “I want to put this memo out. We have a job in this left-wing media ecosystem.”   Professional crazy person/award-winning podcaster Jennifer Welch tells fellow professional crazy person Jim Acosta, "He [JD Vance] is a shape-shifting chameleon. I think it is neck-to-neck. Who is this country's biggest prostitute? JD Vance or the first lady. And I can kind of go… pic.twitter.com/Ew0k5Z3M26 — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 2, 2026   While Welch was ranting, Acosta finally appeared to finally acknowledge he is part of the left-wing media as he appeared to mumble, "Yeah." As for Welch, she was proud that liberals have just made stuff up about Vance, “We need to muddy up his reputation as best we can. Everybody did a great job with the couch-fucking stuff. A+, no notes. This guy wants to be the heir apparent of MAGA. He's younger, he's darker, he's a lot more evil. He's a lot smarter than Trump. And he's a lot easier to corrupt, just as a lot more connected to—” After Acosta interrupted to make a point about Peter Theil, Welch continued, “And he's changed his name three times. He's changed his religion three times. A grown adult has changed his name three times and changed his religion three times. He is a shape-shifting chameleon. I think it is neck-to-neck. Who is this country's biggest prostitute? JD Vance or the first lady. And I can kind of go back and forth. But JD Vance is bought and paid for by these. There he is. There he is with his eyeliner at Turning Point.” Acosta then quipped, “He loves that eyeliner," as Welch rambled on, “Oh, he loves it. And so we really need to do a great job because what have you noticed how he is not really jumping in on this Iran stuff? He's really trying to distance himself from the Iran War so that he can run. And so our job is to make sure that we call out him for the hypocrite that he is, much like we just did the Noems." Speaking of Iran, Welch eventually turned to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, “And he's literally trying to link, like, God, please help us be more violent in this war. I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but he used the word ‘violence’ and killing, making sure every bullet finds its mark and all this crazy shit.” Acosta concurred, “Yes. And he told the story about this lady pilot who said, 'Please give us more bombs' and all this. I mean, you were absolutely right.” Despite her anti-Hegseth ramblings, Welch claimed Hegseth isn’t responsible for the war because that would be the fault of three Jews, “He’s such a narcissist, I mean, this guy, this guy is in a stage of religious psychosis. So, I think that he has nothing to do with this war. We all know Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, and Benjamin Netanyahu are the driving people behind this war. And he wants to be in charge. So, I think Stephen Miller and Trump have said, ‘Okay, you start the holy war aspect of it.’”   Later, Welch went full Jew-baiter, "We all know, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Benjamin Netanyahu are the driving people behind this war." She then returned to the GOP Christian bashing, "Moses Mike Johnson is every bit as fanatical as this guy [Pete Hegseth]. And these… pic.twitter.com/LbnGB9Kn33 — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 2, 2026   Welch further claimed, “And because that's all he's talking about is this deranged apocalyptic, holy war situation. And he's having a lot of problem[s] with troops because they're basically telling the troops, 'You need to get saved." They're like spiritually blackmailing the troops right now and telling them this is a holy war. I mean, just some really weird fanatical shit.” Moving on to Speaker Mike Johnson, Welch tried to tie him to the Iranians, “But this doesn't surprise me because the Speaker of the House, Moses Mike Johnson is every bit as fanatical as this guy. And these religious fanatics have the audacity to tell the world, ‘Oh, we're going to invade Iran because they're religious fanatics.’ And I'm like, ‘Hello, the call's coming from inside the house.’ I'm not saying that there isn't religious fanaticism in Iran. Of course, there is, but we have our own unique breed of it here.” Of course, religious fanaticism in Iran means thousands of dead regime critics while “religious fanaticism” in America still manages to allow Acosta and Welch to spread their hate on the internet. Here is a transcript for the April 1 show: The Jim Acosta Show 4/1/2026 JIM ACOSTA: And I mean, just today, I guess, JD Vance announced that he's got this new book coming out. Did you see this? Talk about Christian signaling— JENNIFER WELCH: Oh, for god’s sake. ACOSTA: Here it is right here. He's got a book coming out called Communion, as if his last book wasn't a fraud. Here comes a new one. He works for Donald Trump. Enough with this shit. WELCH: Well, here’s the thing about JD Vance and I just, I want to put this memo out. We have a job in this left-wing media ecosystem. ACOSTA: Yeah. WELCH: We need to muddy up his reputation as best we can. Everybody did a great job with the couch-fucking stuff. A+, no notes. This guy wants to be the heir apparent of MAGA. He's younger, he's darker, he's a lot more evil. He's a lot smarter than Trump. And he's a lot easier to corrupt, just as a lot more connected to— ACOSTA: A lot more connected to—yeah, and connected to the Peter Thiel people. I'm sorry. WELCH: And he's changed his name three times. He's changed his religion three times. A grown adult has changed his name three times and changed his religion three times. He is a shape-shifting chameleon. I think it is neck-to-neck. Who is this country's biggest prostitute? JD Vance or the first lady. And I can kind of go back and forth. But JD Vance is bought and paid for by these. There he is. There he is with his eyeliner at Turning Point. ACOSTA: He loves that eyeliner. WELCH: Oh, he loves it. And so we really need to do a great job because what have you noticed how he is not really jumping in on this Iran stuff? He's really trying to distance himself from the Iran War so that he can run. And so our job is to make sure that we call out him for the hypocrite that he is, much like we just did the Noems, which her political career is completely over, but it still doesn't make it any less delicious. Nor confirming that we knew these people were all full of shit. … WELCH: And he's literally trying to link, like, God, please help us be more violent in this war. I mean, I'm paraphrasing, but he used the word “violence” and killing, making sure every bullet finds its mark and all this crazy shit. ACOSTA: Yes. And he told the story about this lady pilot who said, “Please give us more bombs” and all this. I mean, you were absolutely right. I mean, they, here he is right here. Showing off— WELCH: He’s such a narcissist, I mean, this guy, this guy is in a stage of religious psychosis. So, I think that he has nothing to do with this war. We all know Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, and Benjamin Netanyahu are the driving people behind this war. And he wants to be in charge. So, I think Stephen Miller and Trump have said, “Okay, you start the holy war aspect of it.” And because that's all he's talking about is this deranged apocalyptic, holy war situation. And he's having a lot of problem with troops because they're basically telling the troops, “You need to get saved.” They're like spiritually blackmailing the troops right now and telling them this is a holy war. I mean, just some really weird fanatical shit. ACOSTA: Yeah. WELCH: But this doesn't surprise me because the Speaker of the House, Moses Mike Johnson is every bit as fanatical as this guy.  ACOSTA: Yeah. WELCH: And these religious fanatics have the audacity to tell the world, “Oh, we're going to invade Iran because they're religious fanatics.” And I'm like— ACOSTA: Yeah. WELCH: “Hello, the call’s coming from inside the house.” I'm not saying that there isn't religious fanaticism in Iran. Of course, there is— ACOSTA:  No, I mean— WELCH:  —but we have our own unique breed of it here. April 2nd, 2026 2:18 PM Alex Christy 294550 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2026/04/02/scarborough-us-strikes-iranian-oil-infrastructure-would-be-war On Tuesday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough blithely delivered his legal judgment on potential U.S. strikes against Iranian infrastructure, declaring: “that’s a war crime, by the way.” The remark came after a clip of NBC correspondent Garrett Haake pressing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on President Trump’s warning that Iran should make a deal or face overwhelming U.S. military force. HAAKE: “Why is the president threatening what would amount to potentially a war crime with the U.S. military?” LEAVITT: “...the United States Armed Forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination, and the president is not afraid to use them.” Co-host Mika Brzezinski framed the exchange as involving possible U.S. attacks on “civilian infrastructure.” Scarborough’s response was categorical: SCARBOROUGH: “That’s a war crime, by the way.” The self-described “simple country lawyer” rendered his verdict with unequivocal certainty. That kind of certainty disregards the actual legal standard. Under the Geneva Conventions, attacking infrastructure is not automatically a war crime if it serves a military purpose or qualifies as a dual-use target, subject to proportionality and necessity. Oil infrastructure, in particular, can directly fund and sustain a nation’s military operations—making it a classic dual-use target and a logical focus of wartime strategy. WATCH — Scarborough: U.S. Strikes on Iran Oil Sites Would Be ‘War Crime’ pic.twitter.com/O5OnrVm74t — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) March 31, 2026 Moreover, in the current conflict, the U.S. military has explicitly warned Iranian civilians in advance of potential strikes. U.S. Central Command urged civilians to “stay at home,” cautioning that areas tied to military operations could become legitimate targets. CENTCOM also warned civilians to avoid ports used by Iranian forces, noting such sites can lose protected status under international law. Israel has issued similar warnings. The Israel Defense Forces have alerted civilians to evacuate areas around military-industrial sites, including facilities tied to Iran’s nuclear program, ahead of potential strikes. That stands in stark contrast to World War II. The firebombing of Dresden killed an estimated 25,000 people, while the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 170,000 by the end of 1945, including tens of thousands killed instantly—without comparable advance warnings to civilian populations. But on Morning Joe, Scarborough reduced that complexity to a single, five-word verdict. Here's the transcript. MS NOW Morning Joe 3/31/26 6:00 am EDT GARRETT HAAKE: Why is the president threatening what would amount to potentially a war crime with the U.S. military? And how do you square that with the administration repeatedly saying that the U.S. does not target civilians?  KAROLINE LEAVITT: Look, the president has made it quite clear to the Iranian regime at this moment in time, as evidenced by the statement that you just read, that their best move is to make a deal, or else the United States armed forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination, and the president is not afraid to use them.  MIKA BRZEZINSKI: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, dodging a question yesterday about President Trump suggesting the United States could attack civilian infrastructure if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.  SCARBOROUGH: That's a war crime, by the way.  April 2nd, 2026 2:16 PM Mark Finkelstein 294517 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/steve-malzberg/2026/04/02/greg-gutfelds-thoughtful-question-jessica-tarlov-proves-quite If you have been tuned into the left wing media since the start of the war with Iran, you have heard a continuation of what you've been hearing for the last 10 years, Donald Trump is a liar, who is now lying about everything related to the conflict. He lied about why we went to war, the status of the war, he's even lying about conducting negotiations with Iran in an effort to end the war, say those who will repeat the accusations whether they know them to be true or not, which led to a revealing discussion Tuesday on Fox News's The Five. After playing a few examples of those left wing talking points, Panelist Greg Gutfeld nudged fellow panelist, liberal Jessica Tarlov with a good one. GUTFELD: I have a thoughtful question for a change to you. So I don't know what's true. So I try to fill the gaps between the facts, with hope and faith that this will work out, it will work out effectively. Because I have faith in this country, I have a faith in the President. I'm curious, because I don't think you believe you know everything either. You're like me. What do you fill your gaps with if you don't know the truth, what do you rely upon? And Tarlov said exactly what one might expect her to say. TARLOV: I rely upon reporters who have had long careers in foreign policy who are based in the region or have excellent sourcing in the region. Can't really talk to many Iranians at this point....But The New York Times, The Economist.  A sad admission, but Gutfeld wanted to dig deeper. GUTFELD: I would say that falls in the fact area. What about the things you don't know? When you come here, you sit down, how do you talk about something you don't know? TARLOV: I think that I admit that I don't know things and that I want to err on the side of optimism where there's opportunity to do that. But I also want to be clear-headed, based upon the things that I do know from the reporters who have experience in this and know better. So that's how I prepare to come here on a daily basis to address, loosely speaking, the same question every day.  She loves those reporters doesn't she? When Panelist Emily Compagno responded, the difference was startling. COMPAGNO: Well you didn't ask me but I'm going to take a stab at answering that question.... Because I was thinking about how, you know as these journalists and these talking heads are all saying that this President is lying. They know with certainty that everything out of his mouth is a lie. I think about to myself, what establishes veracity and credibility when you do trust someone? When you trust your spouse going out and your parents growing up in these things. It's what is demonstrated. And so I look at this President, his first term and this one. And I think about how he has demonstrated to me with every policy decision, every action, that he is prioritizing American interests. And he's doing it in a macro sense. Which means policy, which means judicial appointments, which means everything from voting approaching to trade negotiation and tariffs and everything. And the micro sense of protecting our soldiers. She then compared Trump to his  predecessors. COMPAGNO: And I think about in the Obama administration when he prosecuted journalists. And you contrast that with this President who gives ten off the cuff interviews a day at least. I think about the Biden administration that prosecuted soldiers for murder....I know too that I don't know anything, but what I fill the gaps in with is a faith that this President has my best interest in mind. Both in that macro and in that micro sense that he will with every decision, determine what is best for our country and for our soldiers. GUTFELD: Hmm, well said. The difference is striking and revealing. Tarlov's liberal mindset, is all about filling in the gaps by relying on "reporters", in other words, listening to what the media says, while Compagno thinks for herself, looking at what she does know, and analyzing it to come up with her own take on the issues. Speaks volumes.  April 2nd, 2026 1:56 PM Steve Malzberg 294528 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/sarah-butler/2026/04/02/cnn-sugar-trans-woman-ts-madison-does-talking-points-erasure-trans On Saturday morning, CNN’s First of All with Victor Blackwell featured a gushy talking-points interview with trans activist T.S. Madison. The two discussed the “erasure of trans people” and the potential impact of the Save America Act. Madison warned parents that they need to be “protecting” their kids from the “people making these laws.” The conversation began with Blackwell describing Madison as “one of the most visible trans Americans” in the entertainment industry. In response, Madison argued, “We're living in a climate right now where the erasure of trans people is, it seems, as it's been priority number one in this administration.” After mentioning the Time cover story in 2014 touting trans woman activist Laverne Cox,  Blackwell asked Madison: "You talked about the erasure. Talk about some of the things that I've heard from your team impacting you in this climate." Madison mentioned a bill against stalking and harassing people, because "the judicial system still works and that the protections for people in general, just human beings, it still works because what is -- what I've noticed in the social climate of the situation is I've been dehumanized because I'm trans and a large percentage of us are. Well, majority of trans people are being dehumanized."   T.S. Madison explains the "erasure" of trans individuals#cnn #tsmadison @victorblackwell #news pic.twitter.com/hlQw22RjDm — Sarah (@scbpoli) April 2, 2026   Blackwell then shifted the conversation to statistics released by the leftist Human Rights Campaign Foundation on "Trans Day of Remembrance," which highlighted data on violence against the trans community: "Since 2013, 70 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming victims of violence were people of color. 82 percent Transgender women, nearly 60 percent were black trans women, 71 percent of them shot to death. We don't talk enough, I think about the physical threat to not only trans people, but people of color. What do we need to know behind those numbers?" Madison responded, “We need to know that behind those numbers is that people are always trying to find some way to justify it.” Conservatives justify violence? Advocacy groups like the Human Rights Campaign link this violence to a lack of "acceptance" from conservatives. CNN isn't going to invite any conservatives on to disagree.  Then Blackwell emphasized that at the “center of the political conversation,” the Save America Act was expanded to “prohibiting transgender athletes from playing on sports teams aligned with their gender identity [and] banning already rare surgical procedures for trans youth.” Madison concluded by stressing the importance of people voting and noted, “the way that you garner votes is you fearmonger, especially from this regime.” Madison’s response to parents who ask, “How can we protect my kids from trans?” was, “No, you need to be protecting your kids from the people who are making these laws.” Click "Expand" to view the transcript: First of All With Victor Blackwell 3/28/2026  8:41:39-8:46:06 VICTOR BLACKWELL: You are one of the most visible trans Americans in movies, on television, podcasting. What is the value of a day of trans visibility in this moment? TS MADISON (ENTERTAINER AND ACTIVIST): People need to understand that your visibility is your activism. Your presence is your advocacy. Because we're living in a climate right now where the erasure of trans people is, it seems, as it's been priority number one in this administration. And so what I enjoy about being T.S. Madison is that not only do I advocate for visibility and my activism is rooted in you seeing me. I encourage others to not be afraid and to be, you know, exactly who you are and live out loud. How long do we know life is? BLACKWELL: Yes. Yes. MADISON: And it's no reason for us to be living in the shadows. BLACKWELL: It's been 12 years since your friend Laverne Cox was on Cover Time magazine. MADISON: Yes. That's my girl. BLACKWELL: Yeah. That cover the transgender tipping point and that was obviously a different climate in 2014. MADISON: It was. BLACKWELL: You talked about the erasure. Talk about some of the things that I've heard from your team impacting you in this climate. MADISON: Currently right now, you know, I'm going through a lot of situations in my own personal life and I'm doing my best now to fight back against that. I plan on trying to communicate around a bill that helps people like myself in stalking situations and harassment and cyberbullying and doxxing. And so, what I've learned through this situation that's going on in my personal life right now is that the judicial system still works and that the protections for people in general, just human beings, it still works because what is -- what I've noticed in the social climate of the situation is I've been dehumanized because I'm trans and a large percentage of us are. Well, majority of trans people are being dehumanized. And so because of that, people think that the law is not there to protect us because of what's going on in politics. BLACKWELL: Yes. MADISON: But the law still works for human beings and so my goal is to push for new sanctions and bills for the protection of trans people. BLACKWELL: Talking about protection and specifically on trans people of color, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, they published their latest numbers. This was on Trans Day of Remembrance end of last year. Tracking violence against the trans community. Since 2013, 70 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming victims of violence were people of color. 82 percent Transgender women, nearly 60 percent were black trans women, 71 percent of them shot to death. We don't talk enough, I think about the physical threat to not only trans people, but people of color. What do we need to know behind those numbers? MADISON: We need to know that behind those numbers is that people are always trying to find some way to justify it. And the reason why it's not talked about enough is because what I'm noticing from the social climate is everyone is always trying to blame the victim or find fault within the victim instead of listening to the people -- to the victim say, I'm a victim. BLACKWELL: At the center of the political conversation right now is the Save America Act. President Trump initially wanted this to be about voting and requiring passport or citizenship to register to vote, but then added trans legislation prohibiting transgender athletes from playing on sports teams aligned with their gender identity, banning already rare surgical procedures for trans youth. What do you make of that making its way to the center of the political conversation and to a voting bill? MADISON: Well, you have to understand that votes count and you need people to vote. And so the way that you garner votes is you fear monger, especially from this regime. Do you know how much I've watched people say, I don't agree with this, what the President is doing, and I don't agree with the policies of this, but that trans stuff, I can get with that. Like, I want to protect my kids. How can we protect my kids from trans? No, you need to be protecting your kids from the people that are making these laws. April 2nd, 2026 1:11 PM Sarah Butler 294544 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/04/02/sanctuary-freed-illegal-alien-witch-convicted-murder-el An illegal alien convicted of assaulting a homeless man with a machete in California (but set free by the state’s sanctuary policies) has been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be sent back to El Salvador – where he is convicted of murder. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security detailed the arrest of the MS-13 gang member in a X.com post Thursday: “SAN DIEGO: MS-13 gang member and murderer RELEASED from jail by California sanctuary politicians ARRESTED by @ICEgov. Criminal illegal alien, David Antonio Aviles Perez, has an international warrant for MURDER in El Salvador.” “His criminal history also includes an arrest in 2023 in California for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft. However, Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary policies allowed this gang member to be RELEASED back into California neighborhoods.” “Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary policies allowed this gang member to be released from jail after his arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft,” Department of Homeland Security Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement: “Releasing this gang member back into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk. Thanks to President Trump and Secretary Mullin, this murderer is off our streets and will soon be out of our country.” Perez is a reportedly a MS-13 executioner known as “the witch” who, in 2023, was arrested and convicted in Monterey, California for attacking a homeless man with a machete, only to be released back into the community. El Salvador issued the international warrant to take custody of Perez in order to make him serve a 20-year prison sentence for aggravated homicide in his home country. He will remain in ICE custody while his return to El Salvador is processed. April 2nd, 2026 12:31 PM Craig Bannister 294548 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2026/04/02/poll-what-was-worst-media-quote-week POLL: What was the worst media quote of the week? (Vote below)   Watch the worst quotes presented by @Schineman pic.twitter.com/8hL5VdI1U0 — Media Research Center (@theMRC) April 2, 2026   NOMINEES:    Sunny Hostin: It’s “Reckless” to Encourage People to Have “Children”  “I think it’s just really reckless to be suggesting that people should have children when you now know in this country there’s this affordability crisis and for a two-person household, a married household you need over $400,000 for childcare.”— Co-host Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, March 30.    Jim Acosta Laughing at “Very Funny” Protest Sign That Wishes Death on Donald Trump “These are some very colorful and clever signs here. It says, ‘OK, cholesterol, do your job.’ I think I know what that means. That’s very funny. It’s very clever.”— Former CNN correspondent laughing at anti-Trump signs at a No Kings rally in Washington DC as aired on The Jim Acosta Show podcast, March 28.     Don Lemon: “I Could Be President” and “I Could Definitely Run This Country Better Than Donald Trump” “Look, if I wanted to – I know people gonna think I’m crazy, this is gonna be the headline, and people are gonna laugh about it – I think I could be President of the United States. I could definitely run this country better than Donald Trump.”  — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon on Pod Save America, March 29.         Sponsored by James P. Jimirro April 2nd, 2026 11:32 AM Geoffrey Dickens 294547 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-spinnato/2026/04/02/ms-now-compares-trump-upenn-antisemitism-investigation At the end of Tuesday night’s The 11th Hour on MS NOW, fill-in host Catherine Rampell, with guest Mark Joseph Stern, a liberal court writer for Slate and a member of the BlueSky Brigade, compared a Trump administration investigation into alleged antisemitism at UPenn to the Holocaust. Why? Because the admin asked for names of Jewish students on campus as part of the investigation.  The segment was the last the late night news show aired after Stern just talked about the Birthright Citizenship Supreme Court case, where he suggested arguments supporting the Trump Executive Order were white supremacist in nature. Rampell then introduced a The New York Times story on the Trump administration’s ask of the names of Jewish employees at the University of Pennsylvania as part of an investigation into possible antisemitism and discrimination against Jews on the campus. This was part of a broader crackdown after the anti-Semitic activities seen on campuses in 2024. An AP wire story published by PBS said the ask from the government was “not unusual” according to a former federal official.    On Tuesday night, MS NOW's Catherine Rampell, guest hosting The 11th Hour, and Slate writer Mark Joseph Steyn compared the Trump Administration investigation of antisemitism at UPenn to the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/R4T9Y5Gp62 — Nick (@nspin310) April 1, 2026   Nevertheless, Rampell, the person who made sure to clarify she was “not a Democrat, I’m a journalist,” framed her question to Steyn in a way to compare the situation to lists and Holocaust: They say that they need this list to investigate anti-Semitism, to protect Jews. What can you tell us about this particular ruling? And if I may ask, I recall your writing a couple of years ago about how your grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. You know, lists and Jews, good thing historically? Bad thing historically? What do you make of this? Steyn agreed as he said Trump’s Birthright Citizenship executive order case has brought back the “old history” of the Nazi regime: Speaking of stateless people, my father and my grandfather actually arrived here as a stateless person because he was stripped of his citizenship in Poland, under laws pushed by the Nazi regime and occupying forces. Then, Steyn questioned if the investigation of antisemitism at UPenn was legitimate: Well, really, there's very little evidence that this is a legitimate investigation. It looks a lot more like harassment of Penn using Jewish employees and Jewish groups as conduits to get at university administrators who are deemed to be too woke by this government. And I think that this really does raise troubling first amendment issues. He ended with worry that a “list” of names of Jews will be handed over to the government with an attack on a completely unrelated Supreme Court ruling, presumably about Citizens United v. FEC. (...)The fact that the judge just wrote that off and said that this list of Jews could readily be turned over and in fact, had to be turned over, or else Penn could face sanctions. It seems tone deaf, it seems historically unwise, and it also seems to clash with First Amendment rights that the Supreme Court has been very willing to grant to those who are wealthy enough to want to purchase influence in elections anonymously. Since Mark Joseph Steyn had moved to be a member of the BlueSky Brigade, it's not surprising to hear him spew some old-fashioned Trump to Nazi comparisons. The transcript is below. Click "expand": MS NOW’s The 11th Hour with Staphanie Ruhle March 31, 2026 11:53:41 PM Eastern (...) CATHERINE RAMPELL: I want to ask you about another judicial decision that just came out today. A federal judge today approved the Trump administration's efforts to obtain a list of Jewish people on campus from the University of Pennsylvania.  They say that they need this list to investigate anti-semitism, to protect Jews. What can you tell us about this particular ruling? And if I may ask, I recall your writing a couple of years ago about how your grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. You know, lists and Jews, good thing historically? Bad thing historically? What do you make of this? MARK JOSEPH STERN: Yes, I think a bad thing, historically. My own family history certainly bears that out. Speaking of stateless people, my father and my grandfather actually arrived here as a stateless person because he was stripped of his citizenship in Poland, under laws pushed by the Nazi regime and occupying forces. So, this is not new history. It's just history that Trump is trying to bring back. It's a disappointing decision. The judge actually kind of criticized the university for raising this comparison to Nazi Germany and said, oh, it's nothing like that. We shouldn't be worried. The Trump administration is just trying to validly investigate anti-semitism on campus.  Well, really, there's very little evidence that this is a legitimate investigation. It looks a lot more like harassment of Penn using Jewish employees and Jewish groups as conduits to get at university administrators who are deemed to be too woke by this government. And I think that this really does raise troubling first amendment issues.  The Supreme Court has generally been very protective of anonymous speech and anonymous association. It has protected very wealthy groups' ability to donate large sums of money, millions of dollars to political causes, anonymously, concealing their names from lawmakers and from the public.  Here, it would seem that Jewish members of the Penn community should have at least the same right to be able to affiliate with other Jews anonymously, without having their names exposed to the federal government. The fact that the judge just wrote that off and said that this list of Jews could readily be turned over and in fact, had to be turned over, or else Penn could face sanctions. It seems tone deaf, it seems historically unwise, and it also seems to clash with First Amendment rights that the Supreme Court has been very willing to grant to those who are wealthy enough to want to purchase influence in elections anonymously. (...) April 2nd, 2026 10:26 AM Nicholas Spinnato 294541 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/04/02/meryl-streep-spreads-voter-suppression-conspiracies-colbert Actress Meryl Streep stopped by CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday to help spread the fictitious narrative that Republicans are trying to make voting impossible or, at least, more difficult for married women. At the end of their interview, Colbert opened up the floor for Streep to talk about whatever she wanted, “Is there anything that I did not ask you that you would like to touch upon, having to do with the world of entertainment or movies or the world in general?” Streep began her reply, “Oh, well. Yes. I hope that—the SAVE America Act, if that passes, all the married women that have changed their names are going to have to go to the registrar and prove that they are who they are. In other words, to your voting registrar, this is what I understand.”   Stephen Colbert concluded his interview with Meryl Streep by inviting her to talk about whatever she wants and she went for the voter suppression fearmongering, "the SAVE America Act, if that passes, all the married women that have changed their names are going to have to go to… pic.twitter.com/i9ax1nlBQu — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 2, 2026   She misunderstands. If married women who have changed their names are already registered to vote with their new name, they are good to go. If not, they can update their records with their states just as they have always done. Nevertheless, Streep continued fearmongering, “Otherwise when you get to the voting booth in November, you might be disqualified because your name on your birth certificate doesn't match your name on the voting rolls. So everybody has to get—” Amid booing from the audience, Streep concluded by turning her conspiracy theory into a get-out-the-vote campaign, “and this is such a pain in the neck because you have to go, but do it because otherwise you will be turned away, and I think that women need to be heard.” It is ironic that Streep expressed her voting conspiracy theories on April Fools’ Day 2026 because it was around April Fools’ 2025 when the news broke that Netflix was recruiting her to play Aslan—C.S. Lewis’s Christ supposal character—in its Chronicles of Narnia adaptation. Hopefully, April Fools’ Day 2027 will spare the world from more Meryl Streep foolishness. Here is a transcript for the April 1-taped show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 4/2/2026 12:51 AM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: Is there anything that I did not ask you that you would like to touch upon, having to do with the world of entertainment or movies or the world in general? MERYL STREEP: Oh, well. Yes. I hope that—the SAVE America Act, if that passes, all the married women that have changed their names are going to have to go to the registrar and prove that they are who they are. In other words, to your voting registrar, this is what I understand. Otherwise when you get to the voting booth in November, you might be disqualified because your name on your birth certificate doesn't match your name on the voting rolls. So everybody has to get—and this is such a pain in the neck because you have to go, but do it because otherwise you will be turned away, and I think that women need to be heard.  April 2nd, 2026 9:35 AM Alex Christy 294546 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/04/02/nbc-reporter-thinks-we-shouldnt-celebrate-artemis-ii-launch The launch of the Artemis II mission to the moon is a significant achievement for NASA, and for our country. Yet there are those within the Elitist Media who can’t resist the urge to deemphasize American exceptionalism. Watch as NBC’s Tom Costello urges viewers to be proud of the launch. Just “not as Americans.” WATCH: NBC's Tom Costello says we should "collectively" be proud of the Artemis II launch, "not as Americans, not as North Americans or as- but just as humans" TOM COSTELLO: I think it's important and relevant to take a moment and say wow, we should be collectively, not as… pic.twitter.com/z2FzIlV7Ck — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 1, 2026 NBC LAUNCH SPECIAL COVERAGE 4/1/26 5:44 PM TOM COSTELLO: I think it's important and relevant to take a moment and say wow, we should be collectively, not as Americans, not as North Americans or as- but just as humans, proud of the achievement here- that humans have been able to do this. And we're about to go even further than ever before. It's- it's exactly what they had hoped for, setting the stage to eventually put humans on the moon. The ability to fly eluded humans throughout the ages, until the Wright Brothers altered the course of history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Likewise, space flight and travel to the moon were distant dreams until they materialized. Returning to the moon is a complex endeavor, and while it is a human achievement, it is made possible through American ingenuity at NASA. Costello’s call to celebrate the launch as humans vis-a-vis Americans is particularly grating when viewed through this historical lens. Travel to the moon was made possible by America, as is a return to the moon. There is no need to suppress patriotic pride in this achievement. The world understands this, as does America. At the heart of the Elitist Media is an idea: that America is not exceptional, and her Founding not great. Costello, whether intentionally or not, exposed that idea to scrutiny. Meanwhile, Artemis II and her crew shattered that idea.   April 2nd, 2026 12:23 AM Jorge Bonilla 294545 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2026/04/01/nprs-totenberg-laments-free-speech-win-scotus-controversial By a surprising, landslide 8-1 majority vote, the Supreme Court tossed out on free-speech grounds Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy -- volunteer talk therapy designed to change a person's attraction to same-sex individuals, or to cure gender dysphoria. The single dissent came from the court’s most liberal justice. Yet of the 15 paragraphs that comprise the written story by National Public Radio’s legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg “Supreme Court opens door to controversial conversion therapy,” nine focused on the single dissent by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, compared to only five on the side of the overwhelming majority (the opening paragraph was labeled neutral). The on-air version that aired Tuesday on NPR’s flagship show All Things Considered tracked closely with the text version. Veteran Supreme Court correspondent Totenberg, hailed as the “Queen of Leaks,” (i.e. laundering opposition research from Democrats seeking to damage Republican Supreme Court picks) clearly picked a side: Siding with a Christian counselor in Colorado, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed out the state's law banning conversion therapy. The decision could well invalidate laws in some two dozen other states — laws that bar mental health therapists from practicing a version of talk therapy that seeks to change a teenager's sexual orientation or gender identity. Conversion therapy is generally defined as a treatment used to change a person's attraction to individuals of the same sex or to "cure" gender dysphoria. The therapy has been forcefully repudiated by every major medical organization in the country, on grounds that the therapy doesn't work and often leads to deep depression and suicidal thoughts and actions in minors. But on Tuesday the court delivered a major victory to therapist Kaley Chiles, who denies that her services are coercive and says clients come to her voluntarily. Chiles challenged the Colorado law, contending that it violated her First Amendment right of free speech by subjecting her to possible punishment for using talk therapy to help teenage minors struggling with their sexual orientation or gender dysphoria. Totenberg quoted Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser warning a ruling would open “the door to all sorts of discredited treatments,” then went even harder with a new quote from a far from objective source. "This decision, it's so hypocritical," said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for LGBTQ Rights. "I do not understand how the same Supreme Court can, with one breath, say it's fine for Tennessee to ban a type of medical care for transgender young people and on the other hand say it is not OK for Colorado to protect gay and transgender young people against a type of treatment that really no one could possibly defend." That said, the court was nearly unanimous in its decision. Justice Gorsuch, in his opinion for the court, noted that "the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country. It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely." After a follow-up from Minter, Totenberg devoted the remainder of her story to Justice Jackson’s dissent.. "No one directly disputes that Colorado has the power to regulate the medical treatments that state-licensed professionals provide to patients," she said, adding, "So, in my view, it cannot also be the case that Colorado's decision to restrict a dangerous therapy modality that, incidentally, involves provider speech is presumptively unconstitutional." But Totenberg skipped over Jackson’s double standards on state regulation of medicine. In United States v. Skrmetti, Jackson was on the losing side in a 6-3 decision. The majority upheld Tennessee’s restrictions on so-called gender-affirming medical care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Instead Jackson voted against Tennessee’s right to regulate gender-affirming treatment. So do states have the power to “regulate medical treatments,” or not? April 1st, 2026 10:43 PM Clay Waters 294537 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-spinnato/2026/04/01/morning-joes-lemire-implies-us-defeat-iran-without-ground On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, co-host Jonathan Lemire implied there might be an imminent invasion of Iran and Kharg Island. He also stated, in the same raised voice that set up a ‘question,’ an end of the war hostilities with Iran without fix of the Strait of Hormuz closure and Kharg Island would be a clear “defeat” that “simply isn’t adding up.” Lemire started with an opine on the reasoning for President Trump’s Address to the Nation on Wednesday night about the conflict in Iran. He first said it was a retroactive move to explain the war: Some of this is aides around him have said one thing you did poorly. They didn't sell the war to begin with, right? They didn't make the case to the American people or to our allies. So maybe, retroactively, this is his attempt to explain to us why we did this. He shifted to imply Trump could withdraw forces or escalate the situation, which just means nobody in the MS NOW or liberal media circle knew what he was going to do.   On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Jonathan Lemire implied there might be an imminent invasion of Iran and Kharg Island. He also stated an end of the hostilities with Iran without fix of the Strait of Hormuz closure and Kharg Island would be a “defeat” that “simply isn’t adding up.” pic.twitter.com/F82Z5O6o3n — Nick (@nspin310) April 1, 2026   Lemire eyed Kharg Island and implied a possible ground invasion announcement during the address because some military tracker accounts on Twitter say more military assets have moved in: And let's be clear, even as he's saying this war is about to be over, more military assets are arriving in the region as we speak. They are in place. And for the first time, if he were to give the okay for a ground operation, whether it be to Kharg Island or perhaps to try to find the uranium, now the assets are in place to do so. So, this isn't about talk anymore. He could give the green light to make this happen. And, Katty, that, of course, would be a marked escalation. And I think that, you know, there are people in Trump's orbit, in his inner circle, and certainly in the political operations who think this would be a terrible idea that the American people do not want to see boots on the ground. Lemire didn’t really have a clue what he’s talking about as, just earlier this week, he shared false information about Israel killing a new key negotiator, the Iranian Parliament Speaker.  He continued, with a raised voice, and insisted the War in Iran would end in “defeat” for the U.S. if Kharg Island wasn’t invaded and the Strait of Hormuz was not opened: That said, if  we leave and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, let's be clear that is a defeat for the United States. We've lost. And the economic pressure that is behind Trump wanting to ramp this war down. Well, that pressure would persist. So, a lot of this simply isn't adding up. Frequent Morning Joe guest Katty Kay agreed with the sentiment of Lemire’s statement of a Trump declaration of victory no matter what. But she also had some pushback to Lemire about the new weaknesses for Iran: Yeah. I mean, the president will obviously try to paint it as a win. He'll say we've decimated their missile production capacity, which is true. That really has been damaged and that Iran is weaker than it was before February the 28th when America went in. (...) It would be a fair assessment to guess Iran was much weaker and was in a losing position if a lot of their missiles, military, and clerical leadership had been obliterated. Lemire, of course, could not admit that. The transcript is below. Click "expand": MS NOW’s Morning Joe April 1, 2026 6:13:11 AM Eastern (...) JONATHAN LEMIRE: And, you know, the White House is playing close to the vest what we'll hear from the president tonight, nine o’clock. The networks have given him time to address the nation.  Some of this is aides around him have said one thing you did poorly. They didn't sell the war to begin with, right? They didn't make the case to the American people or to our allies. So maybe, retroactively, this is his attempt to explain to us why we did this.  It's also possible that he'll announce the beginning of some sort of withdrawal, some sort of escalation, or even both, because, as David Ignatius has been writing, he's been doing that where he sort of climbing down at the same time ramping up the strikes.  And let's be clear, even as he's saying this war is about to be over, more military assets are arriving in the region as we speak. They are in place. And for the first time, if he were to give the okay for a ground operation, whether it be to Kharg Island or perhaps to try to find the uranium, now the assets are in place to do so. So, this isn't about talk anymore. He could give the green light to make this happen. And, Katty, that, of course, would be a marked escalation. And I think that, you know, there are people in Trump's orbit, in his inner circle, and certainly in the political operations who think this would be a terrible idea that the American people do not want to see boots on the ground.  That said, if  we leave and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, let's be clear that is a defeat for the United States. We've lost. And the economic pressure that is behind Trump wanting to ramp this war down. Well, that pressure would persist. So, a lot of this simply isn't adding up. KATTY KAY: Yeah. I mean, the president will obviously try to paint it as a win. He'll say we've decimated their missile production capacity, which is true. That really has been damaged and that Iran is weaker than it was before February the 28th when America went in. But I think I've been trying to reach out to economists and experts and people around the world and in the UAE to find out what would happen if America pulled out. And it's pretty unclear. (...) April 1st, 2026 7:12 PM Nicholas Spinnato 294535 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2026/04/01/fair-point-cnn-cheers-claim-challenging-birthright-citizenship On Wednesday's CNN This Morning, substitute host Erica Hill teed up a one-sided discussion of the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship case—then openly endorsed a guest’s claim that legal challenges to the 14th Amendment are inherently racist. Hill introduced Shan Wu as a “defense attorney and former federal prosecutor”—leaving viewers unaware that he served as a prosecutor and adviser to Janet Reno in the Clinton Justice Department. Wu dismissed arguments advanced by John Eastman as “pretty unsound,” before escalating: SHAN WU: The very creation of the 14th Amendment was meant to combat racism. And really, implicitly, people who are challenging that clause are really espousing a racist viewpoint. It’s very hard to get around that… just because you have a legal argument doesn’t mean it’s not racist. Rather than challenge the sweeping accusation, like this argument couldn't apply to children of Caucasian foreigners, Hill endorsed it: "Fair point!" CNN Cheers Claim That Challenging Birthright Citizenship Is ‘Racist’ pic.twitter.com/cqK2AGviCa — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) April 1, 2026 That moment said it all: a CNN host affirming the claim that a constitutional argument—one currently before the Supreme Court—is not just wrong, but racist. The segment also leaned heavily on consequences over constitutional analysis. Wu warned that adopting the Trump administration’s position could affect “millions of babies and children” going forward. For Democrats, that’s not a throwaway line—it’s the point. If birthright citizenship remains automatic for those here illegally, the result is millions of U.S.-born children who become citizens by default. They have no time for arguments like Peter Schweizer is making, that China is using "birth tourism" to have babies become American citizens for their own ends in a long game. And that’s why this fight matters politically. The left isn’t focused on parsing constitutional text—they’re focused on the outcome. Millions of future citizens—and the political consequences that follow. Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 4/1/26 6:39 am EDT ERICA HILL: So when we look at what we will likely hear today in court, John Eastman, Trump ally, of course, who tried to devise the plan to help overturn the election in 2020, is the driving force behind this. This is part of what he has said about birthright citizenship.  JOHN EASTMAN: The 14th Amendment says you got to be born here. That's requirement one. But you got to be subject to the jurisdiction here as well and reside in a state. That means temporary visitors and certainly those who are here illegally are not covered by the automatic citizenship of the citizenship clause. And that was the way we understood it for about a century. And it kind of gradually beginning in the 1950s or 60s, we moved away from that position.  HILL: How sound is that argument?  SHAN WU: Pretty unsound. If you were to take his argument, for example, you could extrapolate that children of Confederate soldiers should not be citizens because they were not under the jurisdiction of the U.S.; they're challenging. So it really doesn't make much sense at all what he's saying. The plain meaning of the words are quite obvious.  The very creation of the 14th Amendment was meant to combat racism. And really, implicitly, people who are challenging that clause are really espousing a racist viewpoint. It's very hard to get around that no matter what sort of legal arguments you want to couch, just because you have a legal argument doesn't mean it's not racist.  HILL: Fair point! I was also struck by, in a preliminary state hearing, comments from Justice Sotomayor. So she said the administration's theory makes no sense, in her view, in a modern globalized context, noting it would lead to, quote, administrative chaos in every hospital in America.  How important is the potential burden on, whether it's hospitals or states or whatever it may be, records offices, How much does that come into play? How much do you expect we would hear about that in arguments?  WU: I think we'll hear a lot about that in arguments. I think you're going to hear even the conservative justices will be very concerned.  How would you implement this? You're creating a class of perhaps stateless children. Clearly couldn't be retroactive. That would be like completely out of control.  But going forward, potentially you're affecting millions of babies and children. And I think they'll really zero in on the administration. Nice theory, but how will this actually work?  April 1st, 2026 4:57 PM Mark Finkelstein 294531 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/04/01/levin-ruling-against-birthright-citizenship-should-be-slam It should be “a slam-dunk” for the Supreme Court to rule against birthright citizenship – if it rules based on the original meaning of the text of the U.S. Constitution and the history of the 14th Amendment – Constitutional Scholar and conservative commentator Mark Levin says. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara, a birthright citizenship case concerning whether anyone born on U.S. soil, such as the child of an illegal immigrant, has automatic U.S. citizenship. Levin discusses the case and the issue of birthright citizenship in a clip from his Liberty’s Voice podcast posted on social media Wednesday. “It’s a fraud,” Levin says of the concept of birthright citizenship, noting that it’s not in either the U.S. Constitution or any federal law: “It’s completely made up; it’s a fiction.” As an example, Levin cites tourists from other countries who give birth in the U.S.: “The country from which the tourist comes doesn’t recognize that child as an American citizen. They recognize them as, for example, a citizen of France or Britain and so forth. “So, how can it be that an illegal alien comes across the border, they have a child, and that child is automatically an American citizen? “Nobody, no court has ever ruled that. Nobody, nobody has ever passed legislation saying that. And, yet, that is the way it is treated.” Levin details how the history and original intent of the 14th Amendment also belie the case of those who cite it as justification for granting birthright citizenship. So, while the justices will be subjected to “different kinds of arguments that will be mostly political dressed up as legal or potentially constitutional,” ruling against birthright citizenship should be easy, Levin says: “Because, if this decision is made based on the text, that is the original meaning, the original meaning of ‘jurisdiction,’ if it’s based on the history surrounding the amendment, if it’s based on the history leading up to the amendment and that civil rights law, it’s a slam-dunk case against birthright citizenship.” “I’m hoping that birthright citizenship is ruled unconstitutional, but that might be a bridge too far for this particular court,” Levin says. “I’m hoping that at least they rule that it is not compelled by the Constitution.” Fear of threats – and of being criticized by leftist media like The New York Times – could end up influencing some of the justices, Levin cautions: “I think some of the justices, well, they don’t like being threatened. They don’t like people with bullhorns in front of their homes, as in the Dobbs decision. In other words, they don’t want history to write very negatively of them through The New York Times and the Left, which controls so many of our institutions. “It’s just easier to go along. So, I think for some of the justices, perhaps, perhaps that will be in the back of their minds, too.” “I think the court may look for an off-ramp. I don’t know what is. I hope they don’t find it,” Levin says: “I hope they rule straight-up that the Constitution does not compel this, that no federal law compels this.” “But, we’re about to find out,” Levin says. pic.twitter.com/Nh7cjD31Wu — Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) April 1, 2026 April 1st, 2026 4:47 PM Craig Bannister 294543 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2026/04/01/tds-abcs-gma-levels-seven-anti-trump-reports-previewing-nasa How much does ABC News hate Donald Trump and his administration? And how far will they go to show they don’t want viewers to care about anything except hating Trump? On the day of perhaps the most important moment in U.S. space history since 1972, Wednesday’s Good Morning America took over 15 minutes and seven anti-Trump team reports before it finally started covering in earnest the possible launch of NASA’s Artemis II on a flight around the moon. It began with co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos trying to scare Americans over Trump’s “massive statement” to The Telegraph in an interview posted just prior to the show that, for the umpteenth time, he’s mulling the idea of withdrawing the U.S. from NATO. Chief Washington correspondent and four-time anti-Trump author Jonathan Karl similarly huffed that Trump has the country mired in “a war that most Americans say they do not support” but has nonetheless “threatened a major escalation of U.S. attacks on Iran.” Here was the start of the 12 minutes and 36 seconds of Trump bashing Wednesday on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ before they actually covered the upcoming NASA launch (which they had only teased for a few seconds prior) George Stephanopoulos *really* wants you to be scared to… pic.twitter.com/q5693SnoZ3 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 1, 2026 On Trump’s latest prediction the war would end soon, Karl scoffed “many” of these statements have been uttered throughout the war, but “have come and gone without consequence” and thus prolonged “the pain of war” Americas have felt at the gas pump with gas “nearly $6 a gallon in California.” Of course, ABC would never explain why California gas is so expensive. The end of Karl’s segment was just as bad as he said Trump’s primetime address on Iran would happen “as a new Ipsos poll out this week shows 60 percent of Americans disapprove of U.S. military strikes on Iran, and that nearly two thirds of Americans want to see the U.S. — to — work to end the conflict quickly.” After Stephanopoulos wanted to dwell on the NATO comments, Karl and Stephanopoulos seemed a combination of befuddled and disgusted how calm Trump came off in a phone chat with Karl (click “expand”): The end of the Karl-Stephanopoulos chitchat was just as bad. Karl came off as disgusted that President Trump, in a phone interview with him yesterday, came off as “somebody who doesn’t have a concern in the world” and “extremely confidence” in taking on Iran pic.twitter.com/OuXswHihWM — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 1, 2026 KARL: Yeah. Look, I have to say one thing that struck me. I spoke to him for about 20 minutes, yet — in the middle of the day, in the middle of the work day, he seems like somebody who doesn’t have a concern in the world. He seems extremely confident that the war is going to be just fine, that Americans will turn around and support it. The prices will come back down. He spent a lot of time, George, talking not just about Iran, but about the ballroom that he is building, which was stopped yesterday, about the fact that his signature is going to be on the dollar bill, that they’re renaming the airport in Palm Beach. Even talking about plans for the library that his son Eric is working on in Florida. He really seemed like a man that was not troubled at all by what was going on. STEPHANOPOULOS: In the middle of the war. KARL: All in the middle of the war. STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah. Jon Karl, thanks very much. ROBERTS: That says a lot. Next, correspondent Matt Rivers delivered the ABC’s dose of negative nellies from the Middle East. .@MattRiversABC reports from Qatar with the latest on the war with Iran. pic.twitter.com/yIcNgw0gna — Good Morning America (@GMA) April 1, 2026 The focus then returned to the mainland and more Stephanopoulos pontificating: “And we’re going to get the latest now on President Trump’s attempts to interfere with the midterm elections, signing an executive order on mail-in voting. The critics are preparing to challenge in court, calling it unconstitutional.” “Interfere” in an election? The gall of these people never ceases to amaze. IRONY ALERT: ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and Mary Bruce argue President Trump’s executive order on voter integrity is a new chapter in “President Trump’s attempts to interfere with the midterm elections,” “sow distrust,” and “undermine confidence in the nation’s elections” pic.twitter.com/Q3bPGjOmIZ — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 1, 2026 Chief White House correspondent and Biden regime apple polisher Mary Bruce followed in Stephanopoulos’s footsteps by calling President Trump’s executive order to protect voter integrity “just the latest in a series of actions taken by the President to undermine confidence in the nation’s elections ahead of the midterms” through “false claims” about the electoral system. Bruce giddily proclaimed: “Election experts say the order is unconstitutional and not enforceable. Democrats labeling it illegal and a blatant, unconstitutional abuse of power. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying bluntly: ‘See you in court. You will lose.’ Top election officials in Oregon and Arizona — states that rely heavily on mail in voting — already vowing to sue.” She derided the subject of protecting the electoral system as ludicrous, arguing Trump “has increasingly sought to sow distrust in the nation’s elections” and “railed against mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it leads to ‘cheating,’ but cases of fraud involving mail-in ballots are extremely rare” Bruce threw in a mention of the SAVE America Act as well: “And for weeks, the President has been pushing for Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which would impose new restrictions on voting in mail-in ballots. But, George, that bill has no clear path forward.” Skipping past another Stephanopoulos-Bruce segment about a federal judge ruling against the President’s ballroom project, chief global affairs anchor Martha Raddatz joined the fray to knock Secretary of War Hegseth intervening in the bizarre incident with Kid Rock and an Apache helicopter crew: Secretary Pete Hegseth announced there will be "no punishment" for the pilots involved in the flyby of two Apache attack helicopters near Kid Rock's Nashville, Tennessee home. @MarthaRaddatz reports. pic.twitter.com/KiEEOC7vqs — Good Morning America (@GMA) April 1, 2026 Hegseth received a second negative report as correspondent Elizabeth Schulze gushed over House Oversight Committee Democrats looking to investigate him over a story in the Financial Times alleging, in her words, “a broker for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tried to make a multi-million dollar investment into a fund with defense stocks weeks before the Iran war.” Democratic lawmakers are launching an investigation after a Financial Times report claimed that a broker for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tried to invest in a fund holding defense stocks weeks before the Iran war. @eschulze reports. pic.twitter.com/DpJ7lIZt7s — Good Morning America (@GMA) April 1, 2026 The final Trump administration hit piece was perhaps the dumbest. “Going to turn now to a federal judge in Philadelphia allowing the Trump administration to collect information about Jewish people on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, over the objection of student and faculty groups,” co-host Robin Roberts began. You see, dear readers, the implication is the administration are the real anti-Semites! Before finally covering NASA, the final anti-Trump hit piece on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ was perhaps the dumbest one of all in which ABC argued it’s the Trump administration who are the REAL anti-Semites. Why? Because they’re seeking the names of U-Penn Jewish students so… pic.twitter.com/NietSevuOz — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 1, 2026 Chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky solemnly divulged a “judge in Philadelphia ordered the University of Pennsylvania to turn over a list of Jewish employees so the Trump administration can investigate claims of anti-Semitism,” but the school will appeal because doing so “evoked the tactics of Nazi Germany before the Holocaust.” “The judge calling that comparison unfortunate and inappropriate. And though he conceded the administration’s subpoena was ineptly worded, he ordered Penn to comply. The judge saying the administration had an understandable purpose to find out if Penn’s Jewish community experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism in the workplace,” he added. Katersky put his thumb on the scale with the declaration that doing so “raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns.” Unsurprisingly, Roberts agreed, saying “it does.” CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today didn’t have this problem of deciding on what the real top story is as they placed NASA on the front burner with multiple lead-off reports. To see the relevant ABC transcript from April 1, click here. April 1st, 2026 4:44 PM Curtis Houck 294542 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/04/01/crazy-view-co-host-suggests-trump-sending-child-soldiers ABC News program The View was scrapping the bottom of the barrel for guest co-hosts willing to come on and fill-in while Alyssa Farah Griffin was on maternity leave. So much so that they apparently had given up trying to get “conservative” and “Republican” women and settled on “life-long progressive” comedian Whitney Cummings. On Wednesday’s show, Cummings, who admitted earlier in the week that all her doctors say she’s literally “crazy,” suggested Trump was sending child soldiers to fight Iran and seemingly suggested that Trump was linked to “child slaves” from Jeffrey Epstein. Cummings’ comments came following a soundbite of President Trump trying to explain that the 14th Amendment was meant to allow the children of newly freed slaves to become citizens. Despite the fact that legal challenges to Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship had been working their way through the legal system for months, moderator Whoopi Goldberg suggested that the U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments for the case, which were happening as they spoke, were designed to be a distraction from the Epstein files: I think this is all to add to chaos, because he wrote that executive order, everybody pushed back on it and said, you can't do that. That will dismantle so much other stuff. So what is -- Is it just to keep the chaos going to keep us from talking about the Epstein files? It’s worth the reminder that Goldberg was named in the Epstein files regarding a request to borrow the convicted pedophile’s infamous private jet. Cummings followed up by suggesting that when she heard Trump talking about “child slaves” she thought he was talking about the Epstein files, and hinted that Trump was linked to the “child slaves” by citing how many times the files supposedly referred to him. She also falsely claimed he would be going to a hearing about the files: When he mentioned child slaves, I was like, ‘oh, is he talking about the Epstein files’ which he’s mentioned in in over half a million of them and there's still 2 million that need to come out. Also, he’s going to a hearing, Epstein hearing, he’s going to have to, you know, show up at that one.   On The View, "progressive" comedian Whitney Cummins, who admitted yesterday all her doctors have diagnosed her as "crazy," suggests Trump has "child slaves" he got from Epstein and claims he's sending child soldiers to fight Iran. pic.twitter.com/lfws4qrGB6 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 1, 2026   Keeping on the topic of children, Cummings then seemed to suggest that Trump was sending in children to invade Iran: You know, look, you know, to me the first thing I thought is like instead of focusing on these, you know, children that might be born in America, like how about the children who are already born here that you are sending to a senseless war. Let's maybe spend some time and energy on that. Now, she might argue she was talking about the soldiers as being someone’s kids, but every single one of America’s service members were adults. Adults who knew what they signed up for and knew what the possibilities were. Cummings also made the wild claim that when she visited London, random cab drivers tell her to tell American women to stop traveling to the U.K. to give birth: Also, you know, I was just in London. My brother lives there and my nieces and nephew. And every time I got in a cab, the cab drivers went, ‘can you tell your friends in America to stop coming over here pregnant and having babies here,’ because it is officially cheaper to fly to London, give birth in a hospital there, and then fly back than it is to give birth in America. So, how about focus on making it so that women can give birth here and not go broke. It’s also worth noting that earlier in the week, Cummings whined that all her “doctors and psychiatrists” had diagnosed her as “crazy” and seriously suggested it was evidence that they “hate women”: I think there's a lot of ways that um - you know - um, it's more insidious when men get older and still hate women in different ways. You know, whether it's doctors and psychiatrists are finding new ways to dismiss our symptoms to call us crazy, every time I go in to just talk about my feelings, I got diagnosed with ADD and OCD, and I don't have either. You're boring and I'm busy. I don't need to go on a medication because I have stuff to do.   "Progressive" comedian and guest co-host for The View Whitney Cummings claims all men hate women and says she's tired of doctors calling her "crazy." Joy Behar blames talk radio. pic.twitter.com/0grlLW0nGM — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 31, 2026   Sure. Whatever you say. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View April 1, 2026 11:04:09 a.m. Eastern (…) WHOOPI GOLDBERG: But my question is, why are you that - what are you - what is -- what - I - [Stops herself and takes a breath] [Laughter] I think this is all to add to chaos, because he wrote that executive order, everybody pushed back on it and said, you can't do that. That will dismantle so much other stuff. So what is -- Is it just to keep the chaos going to keep us from talking about the Epstein files? WHITNEY CUMMINGS: I was going to say, like look - GOLDBERG: From talking about all the other stuff that we keep bringing up. CUMMINGS: When he mentioned child slaves, I was like, ‘oh, is he talking about the Epstein files’ which he’s mentioned in in over half a million of them and there's still 2 million that need to come out. Also, he’s going to a hearing, Epstein hearing, he’s going to have to, you know, show up at that one. You know, look, you know, to me the first thing I thought is like instead of focusing on these, you know, children that might be born in America, like how about the children who are already born here that you are sending to a senseless war. Let's maybe spend some time and energy on that. [Applause] Also, you know, I was just in London. My brother lives there and my nieces and nephew. And every time I got in a cab, the cab drivers went, ‘can you tell your friends in America to stop coming over here pregnant and having babies here,’ because it is officially cheaper to fly to London, give birth in a hospital there, and then fly back than it is to give birth in America. So, how about focus on making it so that women can give birth here and not go broke. (…) April 1st, 2026 3:14 PM Nicholas Fondacaro 294540 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2026/04/01/cjr-blasts-cbss-dokoupil-leaks-disgust-over-working-all-americans Columbia Journalism Review provided its contribution Tuesday to the seemingly never-ending liberal, elite media pile-on against CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil. This time, it focused on Dokoupil with a nearly 4,000-word story filled with anonymous, petty smears, lame attempts at media analysis, and a general disgust with the stated promise of Dokoupil that he sees, values, and wants to work for all Americans. In other words, Dokoupil (and Weiss) have promised to build a newscast and network that believes Trump voters have value and should feel seen even though their peers find them detestable and icky. CJR staff writer Amos Barshad tipped his hand with the headline and subhead: “What’s Up with Tony? How Tony Dokoupil went from being a hair model to a print journalist to the anchor of CBS Evening News, guided by the principle ‘We love America.’” Barshad began with Dokoupil’s soft launch on January 3 and his interview with Secretary of War Hegseth as unacceptably soft because Dokoupil “did not question the legality of the [Venezuela] raid.” Translation? As we’ll see with his analysis of Dokoupil’s January 13 Trump interview, the implication is Dokoupil allowing people the left finds repugnant to talk is unforgivable. Barshad then ran through how Weiss came to run CBS News, the sale of The Free Press, Dokoupil’s brief monologue on social media liberal journalists mocked, and the CBS Evening News’s five guiding principles, including the one the left hate ever so much: “We love America.” Unsurprisingly, he heavily implied to viewers the only thing that got Dokoupil the top job (being a Jew) and offering disgust with how Dokoupil wasn’t run out of town for his now-infamous interview of a leftist sacred cow, Ta-Nehisi Coates (click “expand”): Dokoupil has other powers of apparent interest to Weiss. One is his familiarity with a subject about which she and the Ellisons care deeply: Israel. Dokoupil’s ex-wife and their two children live in Israel; the Ellisons have donated millions to the Israeli military, and Larry is reportedly close friends with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister; for Weiss, American Zionism is a signature. Before being promoted, Dokoupil was a cohost of CBS This Morning, for which he flew to Israel in October of 2023 to cover the country’s reaction to the Hamas-led attacks of that month and the military response. A year later, in October of 2024, he interviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates on This Morning and described his latest book, The Message—in which Coates characterizes Israel as an apartheid state—as something that “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” The segment catalyzed a significant response inside the network, resulting in a review of CBS reporting; Dokoupil’s coverage of Israel, including the Coates interview, raised repeated concerns about falling short of editorial standards, and he was summoned to a meeting with members of the CBS News standards and practices team and the in-house Race and Culture Unit. Then came the leaks and absurdist attempt at media analysis that, once again, could be boiled down to a virulent hatred for half of the country that Dokoupil and Weiss have advertised as being worth of hearing out instead of browbeaten into submission. Also, take notice of the leaks whining “cocky” Dokoupil’s criticism of legacy media is “talk[ing] shit”  (click “expand”): In the anchor seat, Dokoupil has since covered the war in Iran by opining that the “iron-fisted theocracy” of the Islamic Republic may be near its demise; when officials confirmed the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he said, “Even as Iran retaliates tonight, that era of repression may be ending.” Dokoupil has cited Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the percentage of arrestees with criminal histories, which “wildly distorted CBS News’ own reporting,” as Media Matters put it. Dokoupil covered the five-year anniversary of the deadly insurrection of January 6, 2021, by briefly noting that Trump “accused Democrats of failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol, while House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the president of, quote, ‘whitewashing’ it.” In an interview with Trump, Dokoupil pressed him on concerns from his base that his attention was “drifting” overseas but failed to push back on the president’s claim that he’d ended eight wars. Trump told him that if Kamala Harris had been elected, “you wouldn’t have this job.” During a commercial break in Dokoupil’s Venezuela raid interview, Hegseth said to someone off camera that he was sitting down with CBS for “my first mainstream press interview yet at Bari’s request and because CBS News did something right.” Some journalists at CBS are wincing. A staffer who was not authorized to speak described colleagues feeling irked by Dokoupil’s attempt to position himself to audiences as a critic of mainstream media’s way of doing things: “You are the media,” the staffer said. “Now you got a promotion and you’re gonna talk shit?” (....) Another CBS staffer..told me that Dokoupil has generally been perceived as “professional and smart, if a little cocky and looking to climb,” which is “not unusual for a correspondent.” Since Dokoupil took over as anchor, the staffer said, “people actually feel badly for him.” Tom Bettag...was a CBS News producer for more than twenty years. From speaking with friends who still work at CBS, Bettag has heard that Dokoupil is “smart,” a “hard worker,” and a “pleasure to work with.” Watching the broadcast, however, Bettag is less impressed—and blames Dokoupil for pulling punches in his interviews with Hegseth and Trump. The next portion consisted of Dokoupil’s early professional background, which some may or may not know was in print, specifically Newsweek, and NBCNews.com. Barshad tapped more leaks of colleagues from these stops. The Ringer editor-at-large Bryan Curtis said Dokoupil anchoring a major newscast “was not something that ever crossed my mind” and was unsurprised he’s “nod[ding] at Bari Weiss’s preferred politics,” but another anonymously said Dokoupil’s Evening News tenure “has been so baffling” that he’d forgo any sort of “integrity” to become “a mouthpiece for the state.” “The most charitable explanation I can think of is that he has a lot of admiration for the classic anchors. The uncharitable explanation is that he’s very ambitious,” the person added. Yet another anonymous former coworker huffed: “I am surprised that he is pretending to be, if not MAGA-aligned, then somehow sympathetic with that worldview. There was no hint of that whatsoever at NBC.” Scoffing at Dokoupil’s “admirable willingness to turn his life into copy” that included interviewing his mom for a January 27 closing segment about grandparenting, Barshad played the greatest hits that Oliver Darcy et al have been losing their noodle over from his first few weeks.  Hilariously, Barshad tucked in here a single sentence acknowledging “any given night of the show may look like any bit of generic network television news.” Once again, it sure seems like the so-called media reporters do not, in fact, consistently watch the people they’re writing about (click “expand”): This last instance quickly became an entry into the annals of coverage Dokoupil has generated about himself. (One representative social media comment from an Evening News viewer: “Jesus Christ this is a clown show.”) Other examples include the time he cheered Marco Rubio, the secretary of state: “Marco Rubio, we salute you,” he said. “You’re the ultimate Florida man.” The White House shared the clip on X. There was the time when he cried during an on-air interview with a local CBS affiliate in Miami while reminiscing about his childhood. When he argued on social media that he would be more transparent than Walter Cronkite. When he defended his height. Some of this is the stuff of an understandably awkward transition from morning show personality to nightly news anchor. And because his rise has come in the wake of Paramount’s takeover of CBS and Weiss’s arrival, Dokoupil is operating under unique scrutiny. In truth, any given night of the show may look like any bit of generic network television news. Some of his work, such as an interview with Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called border czar, has been well received. Even so, the collective impression does not appear to have won over audiences. Months into Dokoupil’s debut, CBS Evening News has averaged 4.3 million viewers a night..But recently, the weekly average fell below four million viewers[.] Granting the point that network evening news ratings are influenced by where each of their local affiliates stand versus competitors, Barshad pivoted to one last attempt at media analysis by looking at Dokoupil’s coverage from the Middle East in the early days of the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. Specifically, he zeroed in on Dokoupil’s sit-down with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and whined the CBS anchor didn’t pursue a slew of far-left narratives about Israel and the Middle East (click “expand”): But Dokoupil did not ask Herzog about the [power he has to] pardon [Netanyahu]. He did not ask about the tens of thousands of civilians the Israeli military has killed during its war in Gaza, or about the hundreds more civilians who have been killed so far in the strikes against Iran, or about the million people it has displaced in Lebanon since the latest round of air strikes. At one point, Herzog said that Israel has been “protecting Europe, protecting the free world, for quite some time.” Dokoupil accepted the statement without comment. A majority of Americans, according to polls, disapprove of the United States’ involvement in the military strikes against Iran...Public approval for this conflict is lower than the support for other recent American military action at this stage. Yet those views were not foregrounded in the Evening News coverage produced in the Middle East, and in general, there’s been a feeling that a connection to the public interest is not being made: Weiss “just keeps saying ‘America’ and ‘people,’” one of the CBS staffers told me. “But what people in America?” During the Herzog interview, Dokoupil made his closest approximation to an acknowledgment of that dynamic just before wrapping up....“What do you think this war does to the US-Israeli relationship going forward? And I ask because it’s not a popular war in America.” Herzog countered that Americans don’t understand the “intricacies” of the war and its potential to “bring real change in the Middle East for the future.” Dokoupil thanked him, and moved on. Dokoupil’s newscast and CBS writ large still have a long way to go. On many nights, their shows are indistinguishable from past anchors and sets of leadership. But here we see America’s most esteemed journalism arbiters telling the public that the mere promise to regain the trust of Americans who’ve abandoned legacy media is a bridge too far and thus must be condemned. April 1st, 2026 2:57 PM Curtis Houck 294539 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/04/01/don-lemon-thinks-he-could-be-president-racism-holding-him-back Former CNN anchor-turned podcaster-turned federal defendant Don Lemon joined MS NOW analyst and Pod Save America’s Alex Wagner on Sunday for a lengthy discussion that included Lemon confidently proclaiming he would make a good president. According to Lemon, the two biggest obstacles for him in getting elected are racism and the nonsensical idea that he’s an independent. Wagner wondered, “Do you think you might ever run for office?” and after a bit of silence, “Oh boy, that was a long pause, Don.”  Lemon claimed that “I hear that all the time” and claimed that, on one hand, he hears from the voices in his head, “First, I hear, 'I don't want to ruin my life. Why would I invite that sort of even more criticism and whatever?' I don't—why would I want to ruin my life with people digging into, you know, everything about me and campaign ads putting everything that I've ever said that’s deemed controversial.”   Before this, Lemon suggested he would have a hard time getting elected because he's not a white guy, "I'm not a white man and the rules are different for me. And so, just like the rules, I believe sadly, are different for women. They're different for Hillary Clinton, for Nikki… pic.twitter.com/tkKC6f4mN3 — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 1, 2026   On the other hand, Lemon claimed, “But I don't even think people would care about that.” After rattling off some things that President Trump has said in the past, Lemon got to his usual playing of the race card with a rather pathetic attempt to defend his comments about Nikki Haley that got him fired from CNN in the first place: But also, I'm not a white man, and the rules are different for me. And so, just like the rules, I believe sadly, are different for women. They're different for Hillary Clinton, for Nikki Haley, which was one of the reasons that I that, you know, what, that I, what I meant to say, they're different for Kamala Harris, they're different for Alex Wagner, and white men get away with way more than, you know, women or black people or any minority, and so I think the rules are different, but I don't know why would I invite that criticism.  Skipping straight to the highest office in the land, Lemon continued, “My mentors will say 'Why do you want to take a pay cut?' But it's not about money for me. So, do I ever think about it? Yes. Could it happen? Yeah, it could happen if the opportunity presented itself, the right opportunity presented itself. Look, if I wanted to, I know people are gonna think I'm crazy. This is gonna be the headline and people are gonna laugh about it. I think I could be president of the United States. I could definitely run this country better than Donald Trump.”  Wagner quipped, “A paper towel roll could, but yes, you, you would be a marked improvement.” Contrary to all evidence and reason, Lemon then claimed that the fact that he is an independent would also hurt him, “As an independent, though, there would be a hard time for me to run for anything because, you know, the way the system is set up, I'd have to choose a side. And so, you know, I probably would, I probably would have to become a Democrat.”   Don Lemon: "People are gonna think I’m crazy, this is gonna be the headline & people are going to laugh about it [but] I could be president of the United States ... I could come in & fix the bulk of their problems in lickety split in no time flat." pic.twitter.com/QM7B25ZL2t — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 1, 2026   He then tried to compare himself with Barack Obama, “And, yeah, so, you know, am I at that point now? No. And I know people are gonna say Don Lemon is crazy, but yeah, and that's, look. Why can't I think about running for office? Why can't I think about being President of the United States when, look at what we have. When anybody, did anybody think Barack Obama, as he says, this guy with a funny name, is from a mixed background. Did anybody ever think that he would become president, that he had that aspiration?” As if he wasn’t on enough of an ego trip, Lemon then claimed that he could turn around the journalism profession in an instant if only given the opportunity, “I don't have an aspiration to become president, but I do think that I could run this country a lot better than Donald Trump. You know what else I think that I could run better than most people? And I was, I actually talked about to my husband about that last night: a news organization. Because I was there, I've been in the game for so long, and I'm not interested in being, you know, the anchor out front. I could come in and fix the bulk of their problems in lickety split, in no time flat.” Essentially, Lemon spent several minutes trying to articulate that the reason that the world is so messed up is because he is not in charge of it and Americans. Here is a transcript for the March 29 show: Pod Save America 3/29/2026 ALEX WAGNER: Do you think you might ever run for office? [Silence] Oh boy, that was a long pause, Don DON LEMON. Ugh, I hear that all the time. WAGNER: Uh-huh. Yeah. And then what do you think of—what happens in your head when you hear it? LEMON: First, I hear, “I don't want to ruin my life. Why would I invite that sort of even more criticism and whatever?” I don't—why would I want to ruin my life with people digging into, you know, everything about me and campaign ads putting everything that I've ever said that’s deemed controversial. But I don't even think people would care about that. So— WAGNER: Donald Trump. LEMON: — I think they would—right. I've never said that I was going to grab anybody by the pussy, right? So— WAGNER: That doesn't surprise me, Don. LEMON: I've never said I've never said that a woman had blood coming out of her wherever. WAGNER: Yes. LEMON: But also, I'm not a white man, and the rules are different for me. And so, just like the rules, I believe sadly, are different for women. They're different for Hillary Clinton, for Nikki Haley, which was one of the reasons that I that, you know, what, that I, what I meant to say, they're different for Kamala Harris, they're different for Alex Wagner, and white men get away with way more than, you know, women or black people or any minority, and so I think the rules are different, but I don't know why would I invite that criticism and you know—the people who—my mentors will say “Why do you want to take a pay cut?” But it's not about money for me. So, do I ever think about it? Yes. Could it happen? Yeah, it could happen if the opportunity presented itself, the right opportunity presented itself. Look, if I wanted to, I know people are gonna think I'm crazy. This is gonna be the headline and people are gonna laugh about it. I think I could be president of the United States. I could definitely run this country better than Donald Trump. WAGNER: A paper towel roll could, but yes, you, you would be a marked improvement. LEMON: As an independent, though, there would be a hard time for me to run for anything because, you know, the way the system is set up, I'd have to choose a side. And so, you know, I probably would, I probably would have to become a Democrat. And, yeah, so, you know, am I at that point now? No. And I know people are gonna say Don Lemon is crazy, but yeah, and that's, look. Why can't I think about running for office? Why can't I think about being President of the United States when, look at what we have. When anybody, did anybody think Barack Obama, as he says, this guy with a funny name, is from a mixed background. Did anybody ever think that he would become president, that he had that aspiration? I don't have an aspiration to become president, but I do think that I could run this country a lot better than Donald Trump. You know what else I think that I could run better than most people? And I was, I actually talked about to my husband about that last night: a news organization. Because I was there, I've been in the game for so long, and I'm not interested in being, you know, the anchor out front. I could come in and fix the bulk of their problems in lickety split, in no time flat. WAGNER: Boom. LEMON: Boom. April 1st, 2026 2:37 PM Alex Christy 294538 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/heather-moon/2026/04/01/google-news-skips-indicted-dems-ethics-trial-spotlights Google News prioritized keeping The New York Times afloat over promoting stories exposing an alleged Democrat fraudster and congresswoman who set the modern record for bilking more from taxpayers than any other member of the House of Representatives in over 100 years. Google News, Apple News and other news aggregators represent to their users that the information delivered to their phones, computers and devices reliably reflects the news. Google, however, chose to suppress news about Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), who was indicted for allegedly stealing millions in taxpayer-funded FEMA grants. Instead, Google News helped its favorite media outlet, The Times, draw users to the Grey Lady’s popular and profitable games section. MRC President David Bozell reacted to Google’s apparent funding scheme to direct ad revenue to its ally, saying: “Most New York Times readers just jump to Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections. It seems clear to me that Google is trying to keep The Times financially solvent. For both Google and The Times, the phrase ‘All the News That’s Fit to Print’ is now more myth than mission.”   Dan Schneider, MRC Free Speech America’s vice president, echoed Bozell’s comments in response to Google: “Like the New York Times, Google has an agenda to radicalize the country and upend American values. So it is no surprise that it uses its trillions of dollars of assets to prop up the Times, its partner in crime. Google is basically the largest financier and ad agency for liberal media outlets around the world.” Among its top 20 daily morning headlines in the four days following Cherfilus-McCormick’s ethics hearing, Google promoted a puzzling story. The headline simply read “NYT Spelling Bee Hints for March 29, 2026.” The story linked to a page at The New York Times that promoted hints and tips for its daily Spelling Bee game. Games such as Spelling Bee and Wordle provide the leftist news outlet with more traffic than its actual news pages, and those games come with ad revenue that is helping keep the outlet afloat.  Google also ran eight headlines about the “No Kings” protests, including one insisting that the demonstrations did not go nearly far enough and should include more “confrontation in the future.”  The tech giant completely ignored any coverage of the House Ethics Panel trial of Cherfilus-McCormick, which ended with a broad, bipartisan consensus and a guilty verdict on 25 separate ethics charges. Google News kept the scandal out of its top 20 headlines for four days after the panel’s findings were announced — a total of 80 missed opportunities between March 27 and 30. In contrast, even Apple News and Microsoft’s MSN published stories about the Cherfilus-McCormick scandal.  While such proceedings are typically handled behind closed doors, the panel elected to televise all seven hours of the Cherfilus-McCormick trial. Cherfilus-McCormick is now facing a criminal trial on charges that she allegedly stole and laundered $5 million in FEMA relief funds through her own company, with a grand jury indictment claiming that a portion of the ill-gotten gains directly funded her successful congressional race. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has refused to resign from office, faces a maximum penalty of 53 years in prison if convicted. Rarely does a sitting member of Congress face a rebuke this damning from the House Ethics Committee while also facing a grand jury indictment. Historical records indicate that the last time a member of Congress was involved in allegedly stealing more was in 1870, shortly after the Civil War.    Methodology: On Mar. 27-30, 2026, MRC researchers examined the top 20 stories promoted on Google News each morning at approximately 8:30 AM EDT. Researchers analyzed the 80 headlines and reported on the results.   Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.     April 1st, 2026 2:11 PM Heather Moon 294536 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/04/01/zero-lies-so-far-2026-politifact-implies-democrats-never-mangle-fact PolitiFact was demoralized by the idea that Donald Trump was re-elected in 2024, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped rigging their “fact checking” apparatus against the Republicans. What’s truly amazing about the first quarter of 2026 is that the number of occasions they have rated Democrats as “Mostly False” or worse is at zero. A NewsBusters analysis of all the “Truth-O-Meter” ratings of elected or appointed officials from January 1 through March 31, 2025 found the Democrats drew 11 “fact checks” -- one “True” rating, six “Mostly True” ratings, and four “Half Trues.” By contrast, the Republicans were rated “Mostly False” or worse in 22 of 32 fact checks (69 percent). That’s zero “True” ratings, two “Mostly True,” eight “Half True,” four “Mostly False,” 15 “False,” and three “Pants on Fire” ratings (all three to Trump). Overall, the number of "Truth-o-Meter" fact checks is smaller than we've observed over the last several years. There’s a disparity in the number of fact checks of 32 to 11, or almost three to one, and the disparity in “False” warnings is 22 to 0. Trump now has 223 “Pants On Fire” flags, more than 19 percent of his 1,150 fact checks. He’s been on the False side on 894 of those 1,150 (77.7 percent). In this quarter, it was 13 out of 17 (76 percent). Trump hasn’t been on “True” side at all over the last 15 months. He drew one “Mostly True” after in October 2024, but for that election year, it was 68 to 1. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was just awarded a "True" rating for claiming Trump has dropped more bombs on more countries than any president in the modern era, which was defined as since 9/11. Since she began running for office in 2012, Elizabeth Warren has been found "Mostly False" or worse in only six of 39 fact checks (15 percent).  She's been "True" or "Mostly True" 22 times (or 56 percent). Warren's most relentless lie -- that she should qualify as Native American for claiming someone in her family said they had Cherokee ancestors -- was never ranked on the "Truth-O-Meter."  She's never been rated "Pants On Fire."    April 1st, 2026 1:00 PM Tim Graham 294532 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/steve-malzberg/2026/04/01/all-major-network-nightly-newscasts-skip-palm-sunday-murders This past Sunday was Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week for Christians around the world, a period that should be meaningful and joyous, but that was not the case in Nigeria, as dozens of Christians were reported to have been killed by gunmen, including in Gari Ya Waye community Angwan Rukuba, served by Nigeria’s Catholic Archdiocese of Jos. The targeting of Christians in Nigeria is not new or rare, prompting  President Trump to threaten military action last November, unless their government did more to protect the community, but still the latest attacks were ignored Monday by the network newscasts. The New York Times did report on the 12 deaths and multiple injuries in the mostly Christian city of Jos, while downplaying reports of a Christian genocide in Nigeria, which it's more than ABC's World News Tonight, The CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, PBS News Hour and Special Report With Bret Baier could manage on Monday, which was not one word about the killings combined. After all it was a busy news night. ABC's David Muir had to tell his viewers about the return of Celine Dion.   MUIR: Celine Dion announcing her comeback tonight. DION CLIP: I'm getting the chance to see you, to perform for you, once again, in Paris. MUIR: Looks amazing. Celine revealing a series of shows for September and October in Paris. Her first concert since being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022. Tonight Celine is saying this return is quote the best birthday gift of her life. Muir devoted 24 seconds to that breaking news. Over on NBC Tom Llamas gave 18 seconds to a kangaroo.  LLAMAS: And look at this. This is a heat sensing drone chasing after, that's a kangaroo down there, on the loose in Wisconsin. Chesney, the 16-month-old kangaroo, escaped from  a petting zoo and was on the lam for three days. Nobody knows where he was. He was eventually captured and  returned to the zoo in good health.  None of this should come as a surprise. In mid-November last year, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on the killing of Christians in Nigeria, and the major networks couldn't be bothered to cover it on their nightly newscasts. Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier did cover the hearing.  In fact, from the moment Trump made his declaration threatening action against Nigeria many on the left, including of course  the media, went on the attack against the President, for daring to care about innocent Christians being slaughtered for being Christians. The list includes MS NOW's Reverend Al Sharpton and his guest, Congresswoman Katherine Clark of Massachusetts -- the House Minority Whip. It also includes CNN's Abby Phillip, who  expressed her outrage over Trump's focus on the mass killings of Christians in Nigeria by Muslim terrorists, and also ripped his "race-based" policy of granting asylum to white South Africans, who have also been victims of violence in their country. A fair media, not one full of hatred for Christians, would look beyond their collective hatred of Trump and consider a report recently issued by the European Parliament which concluded, "Nigeria is currently the country most affected in the world by violence against Christians. Between 2019 and 2023, nearly 17,000 Christians were killed in targeted attacks because of their faith. In just the first seven months of 2025, more than 7,000 victims were reported, with around 7,800 kidnappings. Behind these figures lie destroyed families, razed villages and communities forced to flee." But at least you can now sleep easy knowing that the missing kangaroo is safe and sound, and you can start making plans to see Celine Dion in Paris.  April 1st, 2026 12:43 PM Steve Malzberg 294526 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/04/01/nevada-democrat-congresswoman-lee-drops-f-bombs-late-night Democrat Nevada Rep. Susie Lee’s late-night F-bomb laced anti-Trump tweet about the president’s upcoming Supreme Court appearance went viral Wednesday before being deleted – but, posts of screenshots and comments reacting to her vulgarity remain. “JUST IN: Nevada Democrat Congresswoman Susie Lee DELETES UNHINGED profanity-laced rant against President Trump going to SCOTUS,” Florida Voice News Chief Content Officer Eric Daugherty reported on X.com. “So f*cking f*cked up. I’ll pray they f*ck him to his face. Sorry, I say f*ck a lot these days,” Rep. Lee said in a 1:03 a.m. post, according to an unedited X.com screenshot shared by Daugherty. “Rep. Susie Lee is going viral after a strongly worded social media post reacting to reports that Trump will attend a Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship,” confirmed TalkRadio 77 WABC, posting a screenshot editing the F-word. Reaction to Lee’s vulgar attack on the president mostly claim that Rep. Lee was revealing her true character in the now-deleted post and declared the congresswoman “unhinged.” Another vulgar overnight post by Rep. Lee has yet to be deleted: “Want to hear some bullsh*t? Republicans cut your health care to pay for tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and corporations.” April 1st, 2026 10:39 AM Craig Bannister 294533 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/04/01/colbert-hypes-idea-god-doesnt-listen-hegseth As the Iran War continues, CBS’s Stephen Colbert hyped the idea on Tuesday that God is not listening to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Late Show host made his remarks while referencing recent comments from Pope Leo, but the historical and scriptural justification for their condemnation was highly selective. Colbert introduced a clip of Hegseth by lamenting, “our secretary of war crimes explained why it's okay to blow stuff up: 'Cause God likes it. 'Cause here he is last week at the Pentagon, praying.” The “secretary of war crimes” bit was made in reference to President Trump’s threats to hit Iranian electrical and desalination plants, both of which Iran has already hit. As it was, in the clip, Hegseth prayed, “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy… We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”   Stephen Colbert hypes the idea that God isn't listening to Pete Hegseth's prayers, " But our secretary of war crimes explained why it's okay to blow stuff up: 'Cause God likes it...I don't know what in the blue-eyed blonde baby Jesus Hegseth is talking about. Because that is not… pic.twitter.com/doFltZ4TTU — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 1, 2026   Amid booing from the audience, Colbert reacted, “Yes, boo all you want, we all remember the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said, ‘To him who strikes you on the one cheek, ask, 'Do you know where you are?" You're in the jungle, baby! You're gonna die!'" Moving on to the pope, Colbert brought out his Chicago accent and added, “I don't know what in the blue-eyed blonde baby Jesus Hegseth is talking about. Because that is not the Jesus I was raised with. And it's not the Jesus the pope was raised with either, because on Palm Sunday, Pope Leo responded. ‘Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood.’" Colbert wrapped up with a picture of Trump’s bruised hand, “Yeah. There it is. There it is. I've got to ask, 'Hands full of blood?' Who could that be? Oh, there you go. There it is.” At no point over the past month has anyone in the administration claimed this war is a Christian holy war. The fact that the U.S. is conducting operations alongside Israel and Iran is attacking other Muslim nations should be proof of that. Whether it was Pope Pius V at Lepanto, Jan III Sobieski of Poland before lifting the 1683 Siege of Vienna, Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, or Franklin Roosevelt during D-Day, leaders have frequently prayed to God asking for victory during history’s most critical moments. Still, the Bible says there is a time for peace and a time for war. The man who will soon be traveling to Middle-earth should know that. If Colbert wants to argue this is not a time for war, he should do that instead of trying to portray Christianity as a pacifist religion. Here is a transcript for the March 31 show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 3/31/2026 11:45 PM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: But our secretary of war crimes explained why it's okay to blow stuff up: 'Cause God likes it. 'Cause here he is last week at the Pentagon, praying. PETE HEGSETH [3/26/2026]: Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy. [jump cut] We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ. COLBERT: Yes, yes, no, no. Yes, boo all you want, we all remember the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said, "To him who strikes you on the one cheek, ask, 'Do you know where you are?' You're in the jungle, baby! You're gonna die!'" That's what Mitch used to do. I don't know what in the blue-eyed blonde baby Jesus Hegseth is talking about. Because that is not the Jesus I was raised with. And it's not the Jesus the pope was raised with either, because on Palm Sunday, Pope Leo responded. [Chicago accent] "Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood.’" Yeah. There it is. There it is. I've got to ask, "Hands full of blood?’ Who could that be? Oh, there you go. There it is. April 1st, 2026 10:05 AM Alex Christy 294530 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/04/01/column-elitist-public-tv-radio-defines-viewpoint-discrimination The newspapers routinely play Hide the Ideology when liberal judges are resisting President Trump. They’ll write “A federal judge” ruled against Trump, and not tell consumers that the judge is a liberal. Liberals are always painted as nonpartisans when they act like partisans. That’s the case with Obama-appointed judge (and former Clinton Justice Department attorney) Randolph Moss, who mysteriously found it was a violation of the First Amendment and “viewpoint discrimination” for Trump to push defunding of PBS and NPR in an executive order. “The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their ‘left-wing’ coverage of the news,” wrote the partisan judge. The First Amendment “does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type.” They loved this ruling at NPR. "Today’s ruling is a decisive affirmation of the rights of a free and independent press,” BLM-loving NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement. An “independent press” isn’t defined by taking government money. That makes you a dependent press. Then Maher unleashed her typical insincerity: "Public media exists to serve the public interest — that of Americans — not that of any political agenda or elected official.” Everyone listening to NPR knows that’s a pants-on-fire lie. NPR whistleblower Uri Berliner found in D.C. voter records that the NPR newsroom had 87 registered Democrats and no registered Republicans. PBS said in a statement that the judge’s ruling affirmed that Trump imposed “textbook unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and retaliation, in violation of longstanding First Amendment principles.” Where on Earth in the First Amendment is the part about how conservatives should have to support government-funded viewpoint discrimination and retaliation? PBS and NPR have been discriminating against conservatives and Republicans since the Nixon years.   That’s why the phrase “public broadcasting” is ludicrous. They have no interest in representing the entire public. They are broadcasting by the Left, for the Left. They’re like taxpayer-funded MS NOW. There’s no reason for taxpayers to support that. When we’ve studied guest counts, the tilt is obvious. In the first four months of Trump’s second term, we found the PBS News Hour guest count was 173 liberals to 41 conservatives – a ratio of 4.2 to 1. When elected officials and political appointees were removed from the count, the ideological tilt was 149-23, or 6.5 to 1. That’s actually much better than NPR’s ludicrously titled All Things Considered evening newscast. In the two months after Congress rescinded their funding – from July 19 to September 18, 2025 – the guest count was 53 liberals to three conservatives – and one of those three was opposed to Trump. That’s almost 18 to 1. Nobody at NPR believes in what they call “false balance.” They believe in rhetorically shoving conservatives to the ground and roughing them up. After all the bullying, they steal their lunch money. These people have the audacity to claim they’re on the wrong side of “viewpoint discrimination.” It’s the same way that liberals insist you can’t object to The View having a guest disparity of 128-2, or late-night comedians favoring liberal guests 99 percent of the time (as per our 2025 counts). At least these shows didn’t take conservative money and bash them over the head with it. Luckily, Congress rescinded the subsidies for PBS and NPR (for now), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting shut down their propaganda-backing shop. But as soon as Democrats get back control of Congress, they’ll start trying to subsidize it all over again. Why wouldn’t Democrats want to fund DNC Media? That’s why the entire “public broadcasting” concept is an enormous fraud. April 1st, 2026 5:43 AM Tim Graham 294527 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/04/01/omission-watch-network-newscasts-mostly-ignore-supreme-court There are several major stories swirling around the United States Supreme Court that have gone grossly undercovered or outright ignored by the Elitist Media. It’s as if the media didn’t want their viewers learning about an inconvenient ruling and a pivotal argument, both against major policy items for the left. First, there is the Supreme Court 8-1 opinion (with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson the sole dissenter) declaring that Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” likely violates constitutional free exercise protections. ABC World News Tonight was the sole network newscast to carry the story. Below is that report in its entirety, as aired on Tuesday, March 31st, 2026:   WATCH: @ABCWorldNews was the only broadcast network evening newscast to cover the Supreme Court 8-1 opinion (with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson the sole dissenter) declaring that Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” likely violates constitutional free exercise protections.… pic.twitter.com/MDZW7SYcBz — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 1, 2026 DAVID MUIR: Tonight, after the state of Colorado had banned conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors. Tonight, the Supreme Court now ruling against that ban. In an 8-1 decision, the justices saying the law likely violates a Christian therapist's free speech. More than half the states have in the U.S. have similar laws like Colorado had, restricting the practice saying it is ineffective and harmful to minors.  Despite it being a 22-second brief, Muir found the time to mourn the ban on conversion therapy, therefore mourning a Christian therapist’s ability to render the care they believe is appropriate. But at least Muir covered the Court opinion, which is far more than can be said for CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News. These other newscasts stuffed their time with stories about handcuffed women jumping out of patrol cars with the windows down, and the Indiana man who stole a beer truck and was arrested for DUI. Had the Court ruled the other way, I’m pretty sure the story would’ve been reported across the aisle had the ruling gone the other way. The networks also kept quiet about a major hearing on Wednesday, which will be attended in person by President Trump and will center on the 14th Amendment constitutionality of granting automatic U.S. citizenship to the children of illegal aliens, etc. Per NBC News: The Supreme Court agreed in December to hear the case after lower courts ruled against Trump's plan to end automatic birthright citizenship for almost anyone born in the U.S. The 14th Amendment has long been interpreted to protect birthright citizenship, as it states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The Trump administration is pushing back against the longtime interpretation of that clause. A reversion of the existing definition of birthright citizenship would help provide further legal justification for additional immigration restrictions, including increased deportations. Given the stakes of the hearing, which President Trump has indicated he will attend in person, it is odd that the network news wouldn’t at least give the story a brief. But as is often the case with stories such as these, they get buried. It is (D)ifferent, after all. April 1st, 2026 12:23 AM Jorge Bonilla 294529 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-spinnato/2026/03/31/cnn-priest-and-pamela-brown-attack-unqualified-hegseths-use During Monday’s episode of The Situation Room on CNN, co-host Pamela Brown and CNN religion commentator Father Edward Beck teamed up to attack War Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of Christian terms throughout his tenure, especially during the recent conflict in Iran. Fr. Beck called Hegseth “unqualified” and pushed Christians, especially Catholics, to rethink their alignment with Trump Administration policies pertaining to defense and immigration. Notably, Brown recently completed a documentary on “The Rise of Christian Nationalism,” which lost most of its attention base due to the Iran conflict.  The segment was in response to comments from Pope Leo XIV that called for the end of war and said God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.”    CNN religion commentator Fr. Edward Beck was dismayed at Sec. @PeteHegseth's use of religious language and said "Hegseth is praying for overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy at a Christian worship service." pic.twitter.com/CiGNJt7NPk — Nick (@nspin310) March 30, 2026   When asked about a compilation of Hegseth’s use of religious phrases, Fr. Beck -- who was Chris Cuomo's favorite priest in his CNN days -- showed his dismay and went in at Hegseth: Well, it's really significant because Pete Hegseth is praying for overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy at a Christian worship service. The priest and the host failed to explain that some of Hegseth's martial language comes directly from King David in the Psalms. There in the Bible is war and God preparing his chosen ones for battle. But this is CNN, so here comes the “Christian Nationalism”: So, I think one of the positions here is actually rooted in the New Testament. And the other one is Christian Nationalism, which in my opinion is a contradiction in terms. So, I think it's really very interesting that the two are pitted against each other, and the pope is kind of taking it on, you know, heads on. Brown, alike to her anti-Christian documentary, invoked the “critics” in another question to Fr. Beck: And the Pentagon has defended Secretary Hegseth invoking religion and his public statements by saying he is simply embracing his personal faith and the country's history as a Christian nation. That's what they say. But some critics argue that his language could divide what is supposed to be a secular military. What do you think, Father Beck?   On The Situation Room, CNN contributor Fr. Edward Beck also connected the crucifixion of Jesus to the Iran war. "...So, this is the worst possible moment for Christian to justify war. This is the week when the church commemorates a state sanctioned execution of an innocent man" pic.twitter.com/TI0wXQdoDO — Nick (@nspin310) March 30, 2026   The military is religiously neutral -- allowing religious freedom -- that doesn't mean it's "secular" in that no one should pray in the military or speak in religious terms. Fr. Beck connected the war back to the crucifixion of Christ, as if the U.S. should let itself be crucified in some sense by Iran?  Well, I think that this is Holy Week, right? So, this is the worst possible moment for Christian to justify war. This is the week when the church commemorates a state sanctioned execution of an innocent man. (...) So, in this very week, when Christians are reacting and reenacting Jesus entering Jerusalem nonviolently, like heading toward crucifixion rather than conquest, you have American political and military leaders invoking his name to justify airstrikes.   Fr. Beck also called Hegseth "unqualified" and questioned Catholics and Christians who support Trump Administration policies as people having "issues with trying to allow Christian scriptures to justify their positions." https://t.co/pJtINCLe71 pic.twitter.com/nuF7FcwVbW — Nick (@nspin310) March 30, 2026   Brown asked about the uniqueness of the first American pope’s involvement in politics. In response, Fr. Beck questioned if Christians and Catholics who support the “unqualified” defense secretary are truly following scripture. So, this is a real, I think, moment of conscience, not only for all Christians, especially for Catholics, because your pope is on one side of the question and unqualified defense secretary, I mean that's just not my opinion, that's the opinion of American generals, is on the other side.  So, I think Christians have to ask, in particular, Catholics, who do you align yourself with? Where do you stand? Do you accept the pope saying: Jesus is nonviolent? This war is immoral? Or do you look at people who really are having very difficult, I think, issues with trying to allow Christian Scriptures to justify their positions. It’s not like there is any violence in the Bible or anything. So we're supposed to accept this is a totally unbiased priest who gave his unbiased opinion on the unqualified defense secretary. Only on CNN. The transcript is below. Click "expand": CNN’s The Situation Room March 30, 2026 10:49:47 AM Eastern PAMELA BROWN: Happening now, Christians around the world are preparing for Easter this Holy Week, Pope Leo's first at the helm of the Catholic Church. The pope raised eyebrows yesterday during his Palm Sunday Mass when he rejected attempts to co-opt God as justification for war. Many are viewing those remarks from the first U.S. born pontiff as aimed at members of the Trump Administration. [Cuts to video] POPE LEO XIV: [Voice Translated to English] Brothers and sisters, this is our God, Jesus, prince of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. [Cuts back to live] BROWN: Joining us now to discuss is CNN religion contributor and Roman Catholic Priest, Father Edward Beck. Nice to have you on, Father Beck. How do you read those comments from the pope? FR. EDWARD BECK: Well, I think he's quoting scripture and not playing politics. I mean this is Isaiah chapter one, where the prophet is telling Israel with hands of blood that God turns away from their prayers because of their violence.  So, the pope is really standing in like a 2700th year old tradition of religious leaders telling the powerful that your piety is hollow if your hands are bloody. So people have, like, accused Pope Leo of meddling in politics. He's not, he's simply being steeped in the oldest job description, really, in the Hebrew prophetic tradition. BROWN: Let's play some sound from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has discussed religion and war in recent briefings and interviews, to give us some context around these comments from the pope. Let's watch. [Cuts to video compilation] SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH: Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans and break the teeth of the ungodly. By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish.  Blessed be the lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.  May the lord grant unyielding strength and refuge to our warriors. The Providence of our almighty God is there protecting those troops. And we're committed to this mission. [Cuts back to live] BROWN: So, talk about the significance of that language, especially when discussed in the context of this conflict with Iran. FR. BECK: Well, it's really significant because Pete Hegseth is praying for overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy at a Christian worship service.  I mean, the pope comes back with, what about gethsemane? I mean, Jesus rebukes the disciple who draws the sword. I mean, Jesus of the gospel refused the sword even to save his own life.  So, I think one of the positions here is actually rooted in the New Testament. And the other one is Christian Nationalism, which in my opinion is a contradiction in terms. So, I think it's really very interesting that the two are pitted against each other, and the pope is kind of taking it on, you know, heads on. BROWN: And the Pentagon has defended Secretary Hegseth invoking religion and his public statements by saying he is simply embracing his personal faith and the country's history as a Christian nation. That's what they say. But some critics argue that his language could divide what is supposed to be a secular military. What do you think, Father Beck? FR. BECK: Well, I think that this is holy week, right? So, this is the worst possible moment for Christian to justify war. This is the week when the church commemorates a state sanctioned execution of an innocent man. I mean, the pope said that Christians in the region may not even be able to celebrate Easter.  As you know, on Palm Sunday, just yesterday, a cardinal was blocked from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday.  So, in this very week, when Christians are reacting and reenacting Jesus entering Jerusalem nonviolently, like heading toward crucifixion rather than conquest, you have American political and military leaders invoking his name to justify airstrikes.  And so I just think it's really interesting that the first American pope is rebuking American power, military power. That's historic. It's never happened before. BROWN: Yeah. And he's doing it with that. And he's also been critical of the immigration crackdowns from this administration. Tell us more about just how unusual that is from a pope, let alone an American pope. FR. BECK: Well, it's unusual because first of all, this first American pontiff is telling the American government that their conduct is incompatible with the gospel. So, you have a pope who knows American politics. Knows the ethos of the people here. Maybe like roughly 20 percent, right, of the U.S. are American Catholics.  So, this is a real, I think, moment of conscience, not only for all Christians, especially for Catholics, because your pope is on one side of the question and unqualified defense secretary, I mean that's just not my opinion, that's the opinion of American generals, is on the other side.  So, I think Christians have to ask, in particular, Catholics, who do you align yourself with? Where do you stand? Do you accept the pope saying: Jesus is nonviolent? This war is immoral? Or do you look at people who really are having very difficult, I think, issues with trying to allow Christian scriptures to justify their positions. BROWN: All right. Father Beck, thank you for coming to offer your perspective. We appreciate it. (...) March 31st, 2026 9:18 PM Nicholas Spinnato 294507 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2026/03/31/editors-pick-michigan-dem-threatens-free-beacon-over-leaked The Washington Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman wrote Tuesday that far-left Michigan senatorial candidate — Democrat Abdul El-Sayed — threatened the Beacon with legal action after the conservative news outlet published a recording of El-Sayed saying he wouldn’t comment on the death of murderous Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei because “a lot of people in Dearborn...are sad” and thus would hurt his electoral prospects. Earth to Brian Stelter, Oliver Darcy, Scott Nover, Brian Steinberg, and the rest of the so-called media reporting class: Where are you on this act of media intimidation? Goodman explained the Free Beacon’s initial reporting from a day earlier: The Free Beacon broke the news on Monday that El-Sayed told staffers he wanted to avoid making a public statement about the assassination of Khamenei because “there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad” about the late Iranian dictator’s death. The story was based on audio from a private campaign strategy call obtained by the Free Beacon. In a statement “[n]early 12 hours after the story broke,” Goodman explained, “El-Sayed released a statement calling the Free Beacon a ‘rightwing news outlet’ that ‘may have illegally and unethically obtained’ the audio recording.” She added that the El-Sayed campaign laundered a statement through a D.C.-based lawyer to state “the ‘campaign is considering legal options against the individual’ who took the recording.” Notably, El-Sayed also said in the recording — which was of a campaign brainstorming session — said he would pivot from the Iran war to arguing it was a decision by the “pedophile president” to distract from the Epstein files. To see Goodman’s full story, click here. March 31st, 2026 5:55 PM Curtis Houck 294525 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/03/31/colorado-cant-ban-counselors-helping-minors-escape-lgbtq In an 8-1 opinion Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Colorado law violates the First Amendment by discriminating against the free speech rights of a Christian therapist who helps minors embrace their biological reality and heterosexual inclinations. In Chiles v. Salazar, Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian therapist, challenges a 2019 Colorado law banning conversion therapy helping clients under 18 who want to rid themselves of unwanted gender ideologies that reject biology. Chiles does not provide any type of physically-altering service. Instead, she counsels her clients in order help them achieve their psychological goals. As such, she is engaging in constitutionally-protected free speech, the court ruled: “Held: Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy, as applied to Ms. Chiles’s talk therapy, regulates speech based on viewpoint, and the lower courts erred by failing to apply sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny.” “When the government seeks not just to restrict speech based on its subject matter, but also seeks to dictate what particular ‘opinion or perspective’ individuals may express on that subject, ‘the violation of the First Amendment is all the more blatant,’” the court explained: “As applied to Ms. Chiles, Colorado’s law regulates the content of her speech and goes further to prescribe what views she may and may not express, discriminating on the basis of viewpoint. “The law permits her to express acceptance and support for clients exploring their identity or undergoing gender transition, §12–245–202(3.5)(b), but forbids her from saying anything that attempts to change a client’s ‘sexual orientation or gender identity,’ including efforts to change ‘behaviors,’ ‘gender expressions,’ or ‘romantic attraction[s],’ §12–245–202(3.5)(a).” In essence, the Colorado law favors expression of one viewpoint, but forbids another, by allowing therapists to affirm a minor's chosen gender identity or sexual orientation, while prohibiting them from helping minors who no longer want to defy biological norms. Chiles is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which cheered Tuesday’s ruling in a statement: “Counselors walking alongside these young people shouldn’t be limited to promoting state-approved goals like gender transition, which often leads to harmful drugs and surgeries. The Supreme Court’s ruling is a victory for counselors and, more importantly, kids and families everywhere.” “Kids deserve real help affirming that their bodies are not a mistake and that they are wonderfully made. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today is a significant win for free speech, common sense, and families desperate to help their children,” said ADF Chief Legal Counsel Jim Campbell, who argued before the court in October: “States cannot silence voluntary conversations that help young people seeking to grow comfortable with their bodies.” Tuesday’s Supreme Court’s ruling will help protect counselors threatened by similar laws in more than 20 states and over 100 localities across the country, freeing them to help struggling youth seeking professional guidance, ADF notes. March 31st, 2026 4:58 PM Craig Bannister 294524 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/03/31/tabloid-trash-daily-mail-skews-kirk-murder-facts-clicks-ad The U.K.-based tabloid Daily Mail put making quick ad revenue over presenting a complete factual understanding of the ballistic test results of the rifle allegedly used to kill conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Their article, long-windedly titled “Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did NOT match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims,” intentionally misrepresented what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were able to recover from Kirk’s body, proving fuel to nutjob conspiracy theorists. That deceptive headline was copied for the Daily Mail’s now viral X post.   Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did NOT match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims https://t.co/l70QXvGBrb — Daily Mail (@DailyMail) March 30, 2026   “The bullet that killed conservative commentator Charlie Kirk may not match the rifle used by suspected killer Tyler Robinson, a bombshell new court filing states,” wrote U.S. reporter Melissa G Koenig in her first paragraph, essentially making seem as though the ballistic markings left on the bullet did not match the rifle. Amid bombarding the reader with ads all over the page, the article noted, “the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 'was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr Robinson [sic].'” But what did that mean? The headline, X post, and first sentence of the article were intentionally worded to deceive the reader; to make it sound as though the bullet recovered from Kirk’s body didn’t match a test bullet fired from the recovered bolt-action rifle. Only later in the article did it note the ATF wasn’t able to recover enough intact material from Kirk’s body to identify markings left by the barrel. When a bullet is fired from a gun, the hard steel of the barrel leaves markings on the softer copper jacket that are fairly consistent bullet-to-bullet, basically becoming a finger print for the gun. Apparently, there was not enough left of the copper jacket to show that fingerprint. However, what Koenig wrote made it seem like a completely different gun was used in the assassination. Of course, she was citing the alleged killer’s defense team. At worse, the Daily Mail wanted to generate an inflammatory headline so they could get revenue from X engagements and so they could serve up an ungodly amount of ads to those who clicked to read more on their website. Their headline was no better than something the National Enquirer would cook up to get product sold in the checkout line in grocery stores. At best, it showed an ignorance of how ballistic testing and gun tracing worked. According to her author page, "Melissa is a senior breaking news reporter who joined Daily Mail in 2021. She covers a variety of topics including politics, business and entertainment. Prior to joining Daily Mail, Melissa worked for the Long Island Herald, where she earned Honorable Mention for Best Front Page and Second-place for In-Depth Reporting at the New York Press Association in 2020." The Daily Mail and Koenig’s framing of the ballistic test results were an example of the worst tendencies and instincts of British tabloid journalism. March 31st, 2026 4:15 PM Nicholas Fondacaro 294523 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/03/31/abc-news-just-learned-white-house-has-bunker-claims-trump ABC News was out of control with their dangerous conspiracy theories Tuesday morning. In an attempt to gaslight their viewers into thinking President Trump was preparing to do something horrific against America, they pretended that the White House didn’t already have a bunker underneath it. They blatantly claimed the one reportedly being built under the new ballroom was being designed for him to hold onto power and control the country after he would refuse to leave office. The bunker under the White House was decades old and there had been many advancements in construction, defensive, and other technologies since it was first completed. The demolition of the East Wing to make way for the ballroom and new office space for the first lady provided a great opportunity for the construction of an updated bunker. But, according to ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg, the White House didn’t need a bunker. She also screamed about how Trump was treating the White House like a personal property, despite the fact that the construction benefited future presidents: “Why are you building a bunker under the White House?! The White House doesn't -- it's not your building! You don't own the building! You can't just put stuff there! IT IS NOT YOUR HOUSE!”   Never offering criticism of the dystopian eye sore that is the Obama Library, Whoopi claims the proposed Trump library "looks like a giant penis." She also shouts that the White House doesn't need a bunker under it: "Why are you building a bunker under the White House? The White… pic.twitter.com/fphJgiOAvj — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 31, 2026   Proving once again how feeble her mind was, Goldberg equated the White House to generic “public property” and suggested Trump had “destroyed public property.” She also shouted that the construction couldn’t continue because she was personally disallowing it by speaking out, and whined that if she had destroyed public property, she would go to jail.  (Click “expand”): But it's not his! It doesn't matter what any the - It is not his house! It is owned by the federal government! Making it -- Making it public property. It's not personal property of the sitting president. Every president gets to live there while he's there. This is not his. It - it - I don't understand. You were saying why isn't anybody saying -- well, I'm saying you can't destroy -- this is public property! If I went out and destroyed public property, they would put me in jail!   Whoopi proclaims that no construction of any kind can be done at the White House because she personally is disallowing it. She equates the construction to "destroying public property" and claims that she would be put in jail for the same thing: "But it's not his! It doesn't… pic.twitter.com/WEK1P8mG9X — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 31, 2026   ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin said she found it “shocking” and “disconcerting” that a bunker was being constructed under the White House. Demonstrating that their minds really did live in a fantasyland, Hostin suggested the official government plan in an emergency was to transport all the country’s billionaires to the White House bunker. They even suggested it was like Hulu original series Paradise (which was owned by Disney, the show’s parent company): HOSTIN: Why is there a bunker? And all the billionaires now, if something bad happens, is the plan that all of them are going in the bunker? BEHAR: Of course! GOLDBERG: Didn't you see Paradise? HOSTIN: It’s just like Paradise!   ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin spews a conspiracy theory that the new bunker being built under the ballroom is meant to save billionaires if something happens. Whoopi claims that's where Trump will control the country from when he refuses to leave office. pic.twitter.com/b25nfYOd9D — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 31, 2026   Goldberg expanded off that nonsense and claimed the bunker was where Trump was going to try to control the country from when he would refuse to leave office after the 2028 elections: GOLDBERG: The message is to you all, he thinks he is going to be here! He thinks he's going to be here as president! HOSTIN: Why build a bunker? Despite the fact the existence of the bunker was leaked because of a lawsuit, progressive comedian and guest co-host Whitney Cummings (because they ran out of faux conservatives to serve up), suggested Trump was the one who leaked it and put future presidents’ lives at risk: CUMMINGS: By the time that one is done it will be the next president’s. So, he’s telling our enemies where the next president is going to be. And take a page out of Dwight Eisenhower's book he - Dwight Eisenhower's book he built the Greenbrier bunker in 1960, no one found out about it till 1992. That is how an adult comports national security issues. HOSTIN: Telegraphed it. It’s worth noting that later in the show, Cummings claimed that all men hate women and whined that all her doctors say she’s crazy.   "Progressive" comedian and guest co-host for The View Whitney Cummings claims all men hate women and says she's tired of doctors calling her "crazy." Joy Behar blames talk radio. pic.twitter.com/0grlLW0nGM — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 31, 2026   The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View March 31, 2026 11:05:25 a.m. Eastern (…) WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Look, there's so much crazy stuff going on, I mean, the fact that -- did you see the rendition of the library that he's building. SUNNY HOSTIN: Yes. Yes. JOY BEHAR: Yes. GOLDBERG: It's a giant -- it looks like a giant penis. [Laughter] BEHAR: Let me see that. GOLDBERG: It's just this giant thing and -- BEHAR: Ironic because he can't read as it is and yet he’s got this big library. GOLDBERG: This giant thing and it's, like, where are you putting that and why are you building a bunker under the White House?! The White House doesn't -- it's not your building! You don't own the building! You can't just put stuff there! IT IS NOT YOUR HOUSE! (…) 11:08:29 a.m. Eastern GOLDBERG: But it's not his! It doesn't matter what any the - It is not his house! It is owned by the federal government! Making it -- [Applause ] Making it public property. It's not personal property of the sitting president. Every president gets to live there while he's there. This is not his. It - it - I don't understand. You were saying why isn't anybody saying -- well, I'm saying you can't destroy -- this is public property! If I went out and destroyed public property, they would put me in jail! HOSTIN: Well, Congress isn't doing anything. BEHAR: They let him get away with everything. HOSTIN: Congress isn’t doing anything but you do have certain litigation. There are historic societies that, architectural societies that are suing him. What is shocking to me is the fact that underneath this - this - um BEHAR: Bunker. HOSTIN: No, underneath the ballroom is the military bunker. GOLDBERG Yes, that's what I'm talking about! HOSTIN: And that part is disconcerting because Trumps says stuff like, ‘I can't believe that people know about the bunker now, because of a stupid lawsuit.’ Why is there a bunker? And all the billionaires now, if something bad happens, is the plan that all of them are going in the bunker? BEHAR: Of course! GOLDBERG: Didn't you see Paradise? HOSTIN: It’s just like Paradise! [Crosstalk] WHITNEY CUMMINGS: By the time that one is done it will be the next president’s. So, he’s telling our enemies where the next president is going to be. And take a page out of Dwight Eisenhower's book he - Dwight Eisenhower's book he built the Greenbrier bunker in 1960, no one found out about it till 1992. That is how an adult comports national security issues. HOSTIN: Telegraphed it. [Crosstalk] GOLDBERG: The message is to you all, he thinks he is going to be here! He thinks he's going to be here as president! HOSTIN: Why build a bunker? CUMMINGS: Why pretend you’re going to have a ballroom with dancing? (…) March 31st, 2026 2:38 PM Nicholas Fondacaro 294522 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/free-speech/luis-cornelio/2026/03/31/special-report-big-four-news-apps-black-out-massive EXCLUSIVE: The growing hospice fraud scandal in California could soon derail the presidential ambitions of Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris, or at least it looks like that’s what Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo fear. The Big Four might also be protecting the Democrat candidates aiming to replace Newsom as governor in 2026.  The hospice fraud, potentially the largest in recent history, intensified in 2021 and reportedly cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, exposing the Newsom administration’s apparent failure to act or worse. The years-long fraud also raises questions about the inaction of other Democrats, including potential 2028 contenders like former Vice President Kamala Harris, who served as California’s top law enforcement official for seven years, and then as the nation’s second-highest office holder while the fraud spiked to record heights. But Newsom and Harris can breathe easy for now, as Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News kept damning hospice fraud stories out of their top 20 placements for nearly a month, a Media Research Center report found. Key Findings: The Big Four News Apps published zero hospice fraud stories from Feb. 25 through March 25 — that is a 29-day media blackout for the fraud scandal. The month-long blackout is difficult to explain on journalistic grounds, as outlets across the ideological spectrum covered developments tied to the fraud and the federal investigation. CBS News and independent journalist Nick Shirley led coverage of the scandal. CBS News called Los Angeles County “ground zero” for hospice fraud, yet Apple, Google, Microsoft’s MSN, and Yahoo still skipped the stories in their top slots. The Big Four News Apps published 68 other CBS News stories during the same period, making it one of the most widely featured outlets—an indication that the exclusion of its hospice fraud coverage was likely deliberate. Instead, these digital news gatekeepers prioritized trivial or partisan-friendly content from CBS News, leaving millions of Americans uninformed about the massive fraud unchecked by state officials.   How the Big Four News Apps Shield California Democrats While Fraud Mounts The Big Four News Apps — through human and algorithmic curation — control which news reaches hundreds of millions of Americans, often without their knowledge. For the Newsom-linked hospice scandal, Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News all chose to blackout coverage. The Newsom scandal centers on allegations that he ignored, or may have covered up, widespread hospice fraud in California. Reports suggest fraudsters overbilled Medicare and, in some cases, enrolled beneficiaries without their knowledge. State regulators were aware of the warnings for years but may have failed to take decisive action. Federal scrutiny on the hospice fraud comes as several Democrats seek the California governorship in 2026, including Xavier Becerra, who led the Biden-era Health Department and served as California attorney general, and Rep. Eric Swalwell, a longtime Democratic lawmaker. Meanwhile, both Newsom and Harris are unofficially jockeying for position in early 2028 Democratic primary polls Trump officials have warned that health care fraud in California could be far worse than anything seen in other states, with other investigators saying the fraudulent activity has persisted for years, affecting Medicare and Medicaid programs statewide. MRC reviewed the top 20 stories promoted by Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News from Feb. 25 to March 25, following the Trump administration’s announcement of a reinforced federal initiative to combat health care fraud. Tellingly, these digital gatekeepers kept coverage of the California fraud out of its top placements during the reviewed period. Across those 29 days, the Big Four News Apps had 2,320 available placements where they could have included coverage of the California fraud, particularly as stories about the scandal gained national attention.  The closest these tech giants came to covering the fraud was two stories focused on the federal crackdown in Minnesota that referenced California could become the next target for investigators. But even those reports — one from NPR and another from USA Today — did not address the California fraud directly and instead framed the anti-fraud efforts negatively. “The threats to Minnesota's Medicaid funds are unprecedented. Other states could be next,” read NPR’s headline, immediately casting the anti-fraud effort as dangerous.  Rather than examine the exploitation of taxpayer funds, NPR pivoted to worst-case scenarios, emphasizing speculative harm over documented misconduct. USA Today followed suit, reporting that responsibility for addressing fraud falls on the federal government, not the states — an obvious attempt to let Newsom off the hook for failure to properly monitor the state’s programs. Big Four News Apps Promote CBS, Just Not the Fraud Stories One outlet that broke from NPR and USA Today and did not downplay the hospice fraud scandal was CBS News, which published several bombshell reports highlighting how Los Angeles became “ground zero” for the scheme.  Independent journalist Nick Shirley also conducted groundbreaking investigative work, releasing a 40-minute video highlighting the massive surge in hospice enrollment, the alleged hospice workers owning luxury vehicles and empty offices, clear signs of fraud.  Shockingly, the Big Four News Apps ensured none of those CBS News or Shirley stories, nor any of the numerous follow-on stories from other news outlets, appeared in their top 20 placements despite the fraud hitting the political backyard long tied to these tech giants.  However, the selective erasure was limited to the hospice fraud stories, as CBS News remained comfortably among the most-promoted outlets across the digital news gatekeepers. An MRC review of the Big Four News Apps’ treatment of CBS News articles from Feb. 25 through March 25 found that the platforms collectively promoted 68 stories, broken down as follows: Apple News: 20 articles Google News: 23 articles MSN: 13 articles Yahoo News: 12 articles   To put that into perspective, National Review, Newsmax, Daily Caller, The Washington Free Beacon and even Weiss’s The Free Press had zero placements in this timeframe. The New York Post had just two placements, from Google News. Of the 68 CBS News stories published by the Big Four News Apps, some were trivial, even silly, posing no threat to Newsom or other Democrats implicated in the fraud scandal. Among them was a CBS News piece on Apple News about businesses struggling to set prices on goods due to the shortage of pennies. On Google News, readers saw a CBS News story about “moderate” snowfall in Massachusetts. MSN twice published a CBS News video featuring the executive caught on a viral Coldplay kiss cam with her boss. MSN first published that video on March 24 and again on March 25. On Yahoo News, readers were fed a CBS News story about a meteor causing a loud boom across Ohio’s skies, and another about former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema admitting to a romance with her former security guard. Yet while readers were fed a steady stream of soft or irrelevant content, a far more consequential story was nowhere to be found.  What Americans Reading the Big Four News Apps Missed On March 10, CBS News released a bombshell story detailing how hospice fraud had run rampant in Los Angeles, potentially resulting in millions of taxpayer dollars being exploited by criminal actors. With the headline, “We visited ‘ground zero’ for hospice fraud: Los Angeles, California,” the CBS story was atypical of the coverage the news outlet produces and hinted at what could become one of the largest Medicare hospice fraud scandals in years. The bombshell story noted that the fraud has been “acute” in California, as 742 of the 1,800 hospice centers in Los Angeles County trigger major red flags for fraud. For example, 500 of those hospice centers operate within a three-mile radius, including 137 along Van Nuys Boulevard alone, while 89 are registered to a single building.  Some of those hospice centers did not have working phone numbers, while 40 of them reportedly share key personnel. CBS News reported that the number of hospices in the Los Angeles area has increased by a whopping 1,500% since 2010. This is “more than six times the national average relative to its elderly population,” the outlet added. CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss described the investigation as “incredible,” garnering more than 40 million views on X and thousands of reactions from Republicans and other officials. In contrast, Newsom largely downplayed the accusations, repeatedly citing a 2021 hospice “moratorium” that resulted in some license revocations and other investigations. But the purported moratorium does not explain why hospice fraud remained rampant in the state or why other authorities failed to take decisive action. Reacting to the staggering concentration of potentially fraudulent operations in California, Dr. Mehmet Oz asked, “Los Angeles has ONE THIRD of all hospice centers in the ENTIRE COUNTRY. Is everyone dying in LA?” CBS News intensified its coverage of the hospice fraud in follow-up stories — none of which appeared in the Big Four News Apps’ top 20 placements during the reviewed period.  The omission tactic employed by the Big Four News Apps is a common practice identified by the MRC in previous studies. For example, if an event is damaging to the political left, it is unlikely to appear in the top 20 listings of these news aggregators. In November, MRC discovered that these news sites suppressed scandals involving Democrats running in the 2025 elections, all of whom ultimately won their races. Politicians who benefited from this tactic include former Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who is now New Jersey's governor; former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, now Virginia's governor; Zohran Mamdani, the current New York City mayor; and Jay Jones, the current Virginia attorney general. A separate study from December found that scandals involving Del. Stacey Plaskett, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and indicted Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick were also overlooked by these Big Tech aggregators. The anti-ICE riot inside Cities Church in Minneapolis — which led to federal grand jury indictments for several individuals — was also largely overlooked by the Big Four News Apps, along with the criminal indictment of former CNN anchor-turned-YouTuber Don Lemon. Methodology: From Feb. 25 through March 25, the Media Research Center examined the top 20 stories featured each day on the Big Four News Apps — Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN, and Yahoo News — at approximately 8:30 a.m. ET. MRC specifically searched for the terms “medi,” “Medicare,” “Medicaid,” “MediCal,” “fraud,” “Oz,” and “Newsom” to identify potential stories relevant to this special report. March 31st, 2026 1:00 PM Luis Cornelio 294520 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/03/31/only-31-support-birthright-citizenship-scheme-created Born of European colonialism, unpopular in the U.S and increasing abolished by other countries around the globe, so-called “birthright citizenship” will take center stage at the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, when arguments begin regarding an executive order banning the policy. Birthright citizenship grants immediate citizenship to a child born in the U.S., regardless of whether or not that child’s parents are illegal aliens – a practice banned by President Donald Trump in an executive order on his first day returning to the White House. As NPR explains, the policy of granting birthright citizenship was created by European colonists as a way of becoming the majority over natives in countries they controlled: “It has roots in colonialism, particularly in South America and Africa, when Western European countries needed more people for labor and to outnumber native populations in those places. “Many African countries abandoned the practice after gaining independence.” Other countries have followed suit in recent decades by abolishing birthright citizenship, including: Ireland The United Kingdom Australia New Zealand India Pakistan Today, the U.S. is one of only 36 countries that still grant birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens. NPR also notes the unpopularity of granting birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens (“undocumented immigrants”), as measured by a 2025 YouGov survey of U.S. adults. Less than a third (31%) said that the children of those who are in the country illegally should be given birthright citizenship. Only children of foreign diplomats (30%) and tourists (25%) in the U.S. scored lower. Even among Democrat citizens, barely half (53%) said children of illegal aliens should be deemed citizens, simply because they are born on U.S. soil. In contrast, just 29% of Independents and 13% of Republicans said they support this type of birthright citizenship. Trump’s executive order being challenged in the Supreme Court case Trump v. Barbara bans birthright citizenship for persons born in the U.S., if the child’s father is not legally in the country and either: The mother was unlawfully present in the U.S. when the child was born, or The mother was lawfully – but temporarily – present in the U.S. when the child was born, as is the case with student, work, and tourist visas. March 31st, 2026 12:54 PM Craig Bannister 294521 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/03/31/brennan-spins-us-military-success-proof-irans-strategic-genius John Brennan is a man who managed to become Director of the CIA and turn that into a national security analyst position on MS NOW, but based off what he told The Briefing host Jen Psaki on Friday, one can only wonder how he was able to do that. According to Brennan, the reason why Iran’s rate of missile fire decreased over 90 percent since day one of the war is not because of the success of the U.S. and Israeli militaries, but because the Iranian military is actually full of strategic geniuses. Psaki began by wondering what Brennan thought, “When you saw the news of them, the troops that have been impacted in Saudi Arabia, that they've been successful in hitting a number of bases, it seems.”   Man who somehow managed to become CIA director/MS NOW national security guy Jon Brennan tells Jen Psaki that Iran's declining missile fire rate is actually proof of strategic genius, "Well, I think, as John pointed out, I think the Iranians have been very strategic in terms of… pic.twitter.com/GOH0EpMgFt — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 31, 2026   If Baseball Team A beats Baseball Team B 20-2, Team B is not being successful just because they manage to score two runs, but Brennan seemed to think otherwise: Well, I think, as John pointed out, I think the Iranians have been very strategic in terms of husbanding some of their inventory of missiles, rockets, drones, and others so that they would wait until a lot of the air defense capabilities in the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, even in Israel, are going to be depleted as they overwhelm some of these air defenses and pointed out how many Patriot missiles have been expended. So again, I think the Iranians are being— That makes zero sense. There is no benefit for Iran to hold back because the number of interceptors expended is correlated to the number of missiles defended against not the number of days the war goes on. However, the number of days the war goes on is correlated to the number of missiles and missile launchers the U.S. and Israel are able to destroy before they are fired. Nevertheless, Psaki interrupted, “Let me pause you for a second, ‘cause I just want you to put in perspective how many they have used and how many we have used. Like, what does that, kind of, mean? As I just gave the numbers there.” Brennan was not done making nonsensical points, “Well, I think the number of strikes against Iran is up in the 16, 18,000 going after targets, the number of munitions that have been used by the U.S. military is just astronomical. And therefore, where are we getting those munitions from?” The U.S. has been so successful that we have long since shifted to using precision-guided gravity bombs instead of the costly standoff weapons Brennan was probably alluding to. Still, he continued, “We're getting them from our stockpiles, as well as from those munitions that we were sending to Ukraine or whatever else. But we need to have a certain amount of munitions and missiles and capabilities around the globe, including in the area of China and Taiwan. And so as we are continuing to draw down this inventory, it really does not allow us to provide the type of capabilities that we need in order to ensure that we're not just dealing with the current crisis, but also we are trying to make sure that our national security is not going to be threatened and at risk in other areas as well.” Speaking of Ukraine and drones, Ukraine is leveraging its anti-drone expertise to sign agreements with the Gulf states to help them defend against those cheap Iranian drones. Furthermore, much to Ukraine’s disappointment, we haven’t given them some of the weapons, like Tomahawk cruise missiles, that Brennan was surely referencing. In war, sometimes the enemy has moments of success, but a look at the whole picture shows that the U.S. and Israel have dominated the fighting, and it should not be hard for MS NOW to acknowledge that. Here is a transcript for the March 30 show: MS NOW The Briefing with Jen Psaki 3/27/2026 9:12 PM ET JEN PSAKI: What about you, Director Brennan? When you saw the news of them, the troops that have been impacted in Saudi Arabia, that they've been successful in hitting a number of bases, it seems. JOHN BRENNAN: Well, I think, as John pointed out, I think the Iranians have been very strategic in terms of husbanding some of their inventory of missiles, rockets, drones, and others so that they would wait until a lot of the air defense capabilities in the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, even in Israel, are going to be depleted as they overwhelm some of these air defenses and pointed out how many Patriot missiles have been expended. So again, I think the Iranians are being— PSAKI: Let me pause you for a second, ‘cause I just want you to put in perspective how many they have used and how many we have used. Like, what does that, kind of, mean? As I just gave the numbers there. BRENNAN: Well, I think the number of strikes against Iran is up in the 16, 18,000 going after targets, the number of munitions that have been used by the U.S. military is just astronomical. And therefore, where are we getting those munitions from? We're getting them from our stockpiles, as well as from those munitions that we were sending to Ukraine or whatever else. But we need to have a certain amount of munitions and missiles and capabilities around the globe, including in the area of China and Taiwan. And so as we are continuing to draw down this inventory, it really does not allow us to provide the type of capabilities that we need in order to ensure that we're not just dealing with the current crisis, but also we are trying to make sure that our national security is not going to be threatened and at risk in other areas as well. March 31st, 2026 12:40 PM Alex Christy 294519 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2026/03/31/nbcs-peter-alexander-unleashed-worst-ms-nows-new-anchor Over the weekend, it was reported that NBC’s chief White House correspondent and co-anchor of Saturday’s Today show, Peter Alexander, is headed over to MS NOW to be their chief national reporter and breaking news anchor. He will regularly anchor the 11am ET weekday slot.  The move will likely give Alexander a lot more airtime on the leftist MS NOW network. In other words, Alexander has been unleashed. If his stint at NBC is any indication, Alexander will be assaulting conservatives and protecting progressives.  From actually blaming President Donald Trump’s own “inflammatory rhetoric” for his second assassination attempt, to running interference on GOP criticism of former President Joe Biden, the following is just a sample of Alexander’s worst leftist outbursts (via the MRC archives):  The following montage of Alexander being a biased hack in his role as White House correspondent is from NewsBusters Media Editor Bill D’Agostino:    A montage by @Banned_Bill of incoming @MSNOWNews anchor Peter Alexander being a biased hack at White House press conferences. pic.twitter.com/JmPwPXei2d — Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) March 31, 2026   Blaming Trump’s “Inflammatory Rhetoric” After Second Assassination Attempt   FLASHBACK: Blaming Trump’s “Inflammatory Rhetoric” After Second Assassination Attempt — Correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, September 17, 2024. pic.twitter.com/UlPmEmZaPK — Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) March 31, 2026   “You’ll remember after a would-be assassin targeted him in July, Trump briefly called for unity, but after this week’s scare in a new interview overnight, Trump is blaming his political opponents, telling a Washington Post columnist, ‘I really believe that the rhetoric from the Democrats is making the bullets fly.’...Trump is not backing down from inflammatory rhetoric, telling Fox News that President Biden and Harris are ‘people that want to destroy our country. It’s called the enemy from within. They are the real threat,’ he said.”— Correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, September 17, 2024.   “No Evidence” President Biden Pushed Trump Prosecution, Despite Biden’s Former #3 DOJ Being On the Team “There is no evidence that he [President Joe Biden] had anything to do with this case. The Manhattan DA, as you know, began this investigation in 2018, before Joe Biden was even his party’s nominee….We’ve been hearing from Republicans and from Donald Trump claiming the Democrats are illegally weaponizing the Justice Department against Mr. Trump. Why is it appropriate for Donald Trump, then, to call for prosecuting his political opponents, including President Biden?”— Substitute host Peter Alexander to Rep. Byron Donalds on NBC’s Meet the Press, June 16, 2024. President Joe Biden’s #3 Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo was a part of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s prosecution team.   Alexander Applauds Biden’s “Mix of Energy, Humor, Combativeness” and Shots at GOP Critics, He Was “Feisty!”    FLASHBACK: Peter Alexander Applauds Biden’s “Mix of Energy, Humor, Combativeness” and Shots at GOP Critics, He Was “Feisty!”— Correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, March 8, 2024. pic.twitter.com/NPVaqijQkL — Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) March 31, 2026   “President Biden delivering a mix of energy, humor, combativeness as well as plenty of ad-libs directed at his Republican critics. From President Biden a feisty State of the Union address...relishing the back and forth with Republicans.”— Correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, March 8, 2024.   Hailing a “New Chapter” for NATO Under Biden, After Trump Called It Obsolete  Anchor Lester Holt: “Meeting with fellow NATO ministers in Brussels today, President Biden declaring the military alliance and its core foundation of mutual defense are ‘rock solid,’ as he works to nurture a relationship derided by President Trump when he was in office.”Correspondent Peter Alexander: “President Biden’s arrival here at NATO heralded by allies as a new chapter. Where former President Trump slammed the trans-Atlantic alliance as obsolete, Mr. Biden today touted the U.S.’s commitment to the group as a ‘sacred obligation.’”— NBC Nightly News, June 14, 2021.   “Angry”, “Combative,” Rule-Defying Trump Turned Debate Into “Debacle”  “This really was a debacle. If you were looking for a policy discussion to pick your president, this was not your night. President Trump erupting, barreling through his rival. Joe Biden mostly trying to avoid the fray, but this thing quickly deteriorated. A debate focused on the highest office in the land reaching a new low. From the very start, the debate devolving into interruptions and insults. A combative and angry President Trump repeatedly ignoring the rules, the facts, and often the moderator.”— Correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, September 30, 2020.   What’s With All the “Grim” “End of Days” Talk?  “Heading into this convention, the President and his allies promised four days of hope and optimism. But many of those speakers on night one painted a grim picture of the country if Donald Trump loses and warned that Joe Biden is, in effect, an existential threat….The opening night of the Republican convention, where the message was part praise....and part end of days....With a line-up of speakers, many delivering an apocalyptic portrait of America if Joe Biden wins the election.”— Correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, August 25, 2020.   President Painting “Dark Picture” of the Country “Back-to-back Independence Day weekend addresses where the President made no attempt to unify Americans. Instead, delivering an us-versus-them message, painting a dark picture of the country.”— White House correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, July 6, 2020.   Peter’s Premature Beto O’Rourke Hype   FLASHBACK: Peter’s Premature Beto O’Rourke Hype — Substitute host Peter Alexander on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, October 18, 2018. pic.twitter.com/CIYKWFl44c — Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) March 31, 2026   “A lot of people think this guy’s name, if he wins, they think he’s the nominee. If he loses, he may be the Democratic nominee.”— Substitute host Peter Alexander on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, October 18, 2018.   Blacks and Elderly “Losing Out” Under Trump “During the course of the campaign, President Trump said specifically to urban black voters, he says, what do you have to lose? It turns out what they have to lose is $6 billion that goes to many programs that benefit those communities. What do you say to those Americans who feel that promise wasn’t kept?”....In Austin, Texas today, one organization there that delivers meals to thousands of elderly says those citizens will no longer be able to be provided those meals. So, what do you say to Americans who are, ultimately, losing out, not on housing but on other things that are taken out of the budget?”— NBC correspondent Peter Alexander to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney during March 16, 2017 press conference.   Alexander Assaults Trump’s Cabinet Pick, Slams Sessions as Racist “Consider the fact that you had Eric Holder, the first African-American attorney general, then follow that up with Loretta Lynch. Eric Holder making civil rights a priority, tried to rebuild the civil rights division there. Now you’ll have Jeff Sessions....he referred to organizations like the NAACP and some other civil rights groups as being, quote, ‘un-American and Communist-inspired.’ Back then, an individual said that he said that the KKK was fine until he learned that they smoked pot.”— NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, November 18, 2016.   Alexander Dazzled by Democratic Sit-In on House Floor  “This was dramatic, like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Truly one of the most dramatic demonstrations on the House floor in modern American history.”— Correspondent Peter Alexander on NBC’s Today, June 23, 2016.   Cheering on Newspaper’s Vulgar Ted Cruz Bashing “It’s going to be a bruising next 12 days as these candidates get the New York tabloid treatment. They didn’t wait long, here it is, the pulse of the city right out of the gates right now from this morning’s Daily News, ‘Take the [pauses] Train, Ted!’ as you can see colorfully as only New York tabloids can do it.”— Reporter Peter Alexander on Daily News headline “Take the FU Train, Ted!” as aired on NBC’s Today, April 7, 2016.    Panic! Is Elena Kagan Liberal Enough? “Who is really most frustrated with the pick? It seems as many liberal groups are upset by this as are conservatives....On the left, she may not be liberal enough — that’s the complaint there. Some progressives say she’s too much of a blank slate to know how she stands on any issue.”—  Anchor Peter Alexander during the 10am ET hour of MSNBC Live, May 11, 2010. March 31st, 2026 12:15 PM Geoffrey Dickens 294511 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/catherine-mortensen/2026/03/31/david-bozell-slams-anti-american-coverage-iran-strike-and Media Research Center President David Bozell appeared Monday on Just the News, No Noise with hosts John Solomon and Amanda Head, delivering a sharp critique of how mainstream media has covered President Trump’s military actions against Iran and the recent “No Kings” protests. Bozell highlighted the Media Research Center’s analysis showing overwhelmingly negative and misleading coverage of the U.S. operation in Iran. He pointed out that President Trump, in a nine-minute address to the nation, clearly laid out three primary objectives: completely eradicating Iran’s nuclear capabilities, neutralizing their missile threat to neighboring countries, and supporting the Iranian people’s right to choose their own future. Despite the administration, including Vice President Vance, Secretary Rubio, and others, repeatedly emphasizing these goals, Bozell said the media has portrayed the president as directionless, lacking any coherent plan, and even suggested he is “negotiating” with Iran while Iranian officials deny it. “The coverage has been anti-American from the jump,” Bozell stated. He noted that this bias has extended to late-night comedy shows, where hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon have delivered humor that is “98% anti-American.” The leftist media gave more coverage to the 'No Kings' protest than to Sheridan Gorman. @DavidBozell @jsolomonReports @AmandaHead @JustTheNews pic.twitter.com/GtgFvueCi7 — Media Research Center (@theMRC) March 30, 2026 Bozell also criticized the media’s glowing coverage of the “No Kings” protests, describing the demonstrators as an odd mix of older homeowners worried about property values and “blue-haired, pink-haired psychos” marching through suburbs. He argued the press has treated the events as an organic, beautiful display of American democracy, giving them far more favorable attention than long-running pro-life marches like the March for Life. In stark contrast, Bozell referenced a recent MRC study showing that CNN and MSNBC have yet to air a single segment on the murder of Chicago college student Sheridan Gorman, allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant. While “No Kings” protests receive wall-to-wall coverage, stories highlighting the consequences of Democratic policies are often ignored or downplayed. The leftist media gave more coverage to the 'No Kings' protest than to Sheridan Gorman. @DavidBozell @jsolomonReports @AmandaHead @JustTheNews pic.twitter.com/GtgFvueCi7 — Media Research Center (@theMRC) March 30, 2026 “Thank you for the incredible work of the Media Research Center,” Solomon concluded. “We’re so much better because of it.”   March 31st, 2026 10:42 AM Catherine Mortensen 294516 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/03/31/rigorous-npr-devolves-video-podcasting-suckup-wes-moore-interview National “Public” Radio announced a formal move into video with a new video podcast called NPR Newsmakers. The NPR YouTube page has been doing plenty of these half-hour “deep dives” in recent months, most noticeably with Democrat politicians who are pondering a run for president in 2028. Inside Radio reported: Eric Marrapodi, VP for News Programming at NPR, says the show will feature the kind of rigorous journalism NPR is known for, putting questions to policy leaders, cultural figures, disruptors, and changemakers. “No soundbites. No clickbait,” he says. “Rigorous journalism”? That’s not what NPR usually does with Democrat pols. The debut of this series is Steve Inskeep interviewing Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. A chunk of that aired on Friday’s Morning Edition. The online headline was "Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a combat veteran, shares his thoughts on the war in Iran." Get a load of this weirdness on the Iran War and Trump -- which leads the "rigorous" NPR video!  INSKEEP: The president never did address the nation. MOORE: No. INSKEEP: Should he? MOORE: Yes. To be clear, and it's important for people to understand this, we are a nation at war right now. And I know it might not feel like it to many Americans. We are a nation at war. And we have not either been spoken to from the president of the United States, we have not been to -- asked to sacrifice anything as a country. We don't have a measurement of explanation as to what is going on. Fact check! NPR can’t seem to recall that the president put out an eight-minute video addressing the nation on February 28, the first day of the conflict. Inskeep then tossed a couple of questions to Moore about how he would have handled it differently, and naturally, he sounded just like Barack Obama -- how we needed to keep negotiating a nuclear deal, and pay no attention to how that’s been working out. There were no questions about Maryland issues, or Democrat party problems, not even "Maryland man" Kilmar Abrego-Garcia. Instead, Inskeep the incessant Obama shoe-polisher turned into Obama Mode, all about racial break-throughs: INSKEEP: Governor Wes Moore was talking in a reception room outside his office. The room is decorated with portraits of his predecessors. Unlike Moore, all the men in the portraits are white. He won office in 2022. MOORE at victory party: What an amazing night and what an improbable journey. (CHEERING) INSKEEP: He was a kid from Baltimore who lost his father young. He became a Rhodes scholar, a writer, a soldier and CEO of a foundation that fights poverty. His mother, too, once took a job with a foundation. Was her experience with that part of the reason you did the Robin Hood Foundation? MOORE: You know, it's funny. I think her experiences were part of the reason why I was hesitant. INSKEEP: He says he's skeptical of charities and insisted that his should change its practices. MOORE: Philanthropy, for many places, is almost like philanthropy for philanthropists. Like, they give away money because it makes them feel better. INSKEEP: The Trump administration has attacked nonprofits, casting them as secretly partisan. Moore says charities should be more political, campaigning for better government policy.  As for Moore's own politics, he says he's focused on winning a second term as governor this fall while his party tries to capture Congress. Democrats have the advantage. But let's be real. How could your party still screw this up? “Secretly partisan”?? Is George Soros keeping a secret? This was the toughest question on Friday's show, "could you guys screw it up?" March 31st, 2026 10:40 AM Tim Graham 294510 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2026/03/31/colbert-yes-we-can-stop-fascism-defecating-trump-balloon The latest chapter in late night comedy’s degeneration into liberal group cathartic therapy was written on Monday as CBS’s Stephen Colbert led The Late Show audience in a “Yes, we can” chant after hyping a balloon at a No Kings rally that featured President Trump defecating fire on the Constitution and wondering if such things could help prevent the rise of fascism in America. During his ode to No Kings, Colbert hyped some of the signs, “There were protest signs and they were just great. ‘They came for Minnesota and we said, 'Ope, no, you don't.'’ ‘Does this ass make my country look small?’ ‘No faux king way,’ ‘The Turd Reich,’ and, ‘Jimmy Kimmel has higher ratings than you.’ I like that one. I really like that one.”   Stephen Colbert hypes some No Kings protestors including "Perhaps the most impressive of it all was this inflatable Trump pooping directly onto the constitution. That is spectacular craftsmanship. Above all else. Whoever made that should be proud. 'Cause one day, their grandchild… pic.twitter.com/2xLe33ypNl — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 31, 2026   Colbert would reveal that the Kimmel one was actually just a graphic his team made of Kimmel sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez holding a sign. Meanwhile, "The Turd Reich" sign not only featured President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, U.K. Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Nazi uniforms—which is one of the hallmarks of anti-Semitism—but also lumped them in with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Still, Colbert rolled on, “People also wore some fun costumes, like there were rally frogs and this anti-Trump Chewbacca. Of course, Chewie was just channeling the revolutionary words of Patrick Henry, ‘Give me liberty or give me aaarrrrllggghhh!’ But perhaps—is that how you spell it?” Moving on to his favorite, Colbert declared, “Perhaps the most impressive of it all was this inflatable Trump pooping directly onto the Constitution. That is spectacular craftsmanship. Above all else. Whoever made that should be proud. 'Cause one day, their grandchild will ask them how they resisted the rise of American fascism, and they can proudly say, ‘Well, Tyler. Your grandma and I worked round the clock with a team of fellow patriots to answer the essential question of democracy: Can we make an angry balloon that looks like it's pooping fire? Yes, you can.’” Colbert tried to move on, but his audience wouldn’t let him, “One reason so many people showed—yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!” He then stood silently for a brief moment while the audience chanted, “Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!” Colbert quipped, “I think that's what Obama meant, right?” To call the Trump-fire-defecating balloon childish would be an insult to children. Colbert, his audience, and the protestors may think they are clowning on a fascist with a fragile ego, but they are really simply outing themselves as profoundly unserious people. When the history of the Trump presidency is written, nobody will write that democracy was saved because of that balloon. Here is a transcript for the March 30 show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 3/30/2026 11:40 PM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: There were protest signs and they were just great. "They came for Minnesota and we said 'Ope, no, ya don't.'" “Does this ass make my country look small?" "No faux king way," "The Turd Reich," and, "Jimmy Kimmel has higher ratings than you." I like that one. I really like that one. Can we see who was carrying that sign? I knew it. People also wore some fun costumes, like there were rally frogs and this anti-Trump Chewbacca. Of course, Chewie was just channeling the revolutionary words of Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me aaarrrrllggghhh!" But perhaps—is that how you spell it? Perhaps the most impressive of it all was this inflatable Trump pooping directly onto the Constitution. That is spectacular craftsmanship. Above all else. Whoever made that should be proud. 'Cause one day, their grandchild will ask them how they resisted the rise of American fascism, and they can proudly say, "Well, Tyler. Your grandma and I worked round the clock with a team of fellow patriots to answer the essential question of democracy: Can we make an angry balloon that looks like it's pooping fire? Yes, you can.” One reason so many people showed—yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can! COLBERT: I think that's what Obama meant, right? March 31st, 2026 9:30 AM Alex Christy 294515 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2026/03/31/orlando-sentinel-again-sympathizes-sex-offender-front-page The notoriously liberal Orlando Sentinel needs to find some better heroes to star in their sob stories on supposedly unfair migrant deportations under the Trump Administration. The front page of Monday’s paper featured a story reported by Natalia Jaramillo, “A Mix of Hope, Dread -- Cubans in Central Florida feel a change is coming, but concerns about deportations also rise.”   Readers were primed to sympathize for the story's main subject, the native Cuban man on the front page, Julio Varona, who fled Cuba’s communist regime as a teenager but is now set for deportation. Varona, an opponent of the island’s communist government, filed onto a makeshift raft alongside a handful of others in the 1990s, risking his life and sailing across the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to reinvent his life in Florida.  And readers might have been sympathetic -- until they reached paragraph 15, if they got that far: Last month the Department of Homeland Security announced 170 Cubans with criminal records had been sent back, marking the first deportations of the year to an island that historically has rejected such deportees. As the situation has evolved, though, the island has become more open to their return. Varona will likely be on one of those flights next month. In 2000, he was sentenced to 10 years of probation for sexual battery of a minor, but the judge withheld adjudication, meaning he was not formally convicted. He had pleaded not guilty at the time and maintains his innocence now, but in 2001 an immigration judge ordered his removal. He was released from ICE custody a few months later and checked in with the agency annually, but was never deported in part because Cuba would not take him. Finally in December, following his regular check-in with ICE in Orlando, Varona left the office with an ankle monitor tracking his movement and was told to prepare for deportation in April. Indeed, Varona is a convicted sexual offender under Florida law who for some reason was not jailed. Amazingly, the Sentinel also hailed a convicted rapist in another front-page deportation story on November 19, “Sanford grandfather to remain in ICE custody -- Retired optician faces deportation for criminal past.” In that case, the reporter waited seven paragraphs before unleashing the other side of the story: "Several years after the deportation order, he was convicted of rape, in 1972.” The Sentinel clearly finds these stories of imminent deportation to be sympathetic. But are a pair of convicted sex offenders really the best examples the paper could find? March 31st, 2026 7:32 AM Clay Waters 294508 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/03/30/thisis-cnn-now-conducting-pr-fidel-castros-nepo-grandbaby In a new low, the once-vaunted Cable News Network is now reduced to running crisis communications for the nepo grandbabies of Latin American communist dictators. A recent interview of Fidel Castro’s grandson demonstrates the rot at CNN. Watch and try not to gag as CNN’s man in Havana, Patrick Oppmann, unironically asks Sandro Castro why the Cuban people hate his family so much: THIS...IS CNN- now conducting public relations for Fidel Castro's surviving relatives. When asked why so many people hate the Castro family, Fidel's grandson says "it's complicated." Perhaps the expropriations and executions and summary imprisonments had something to do with it.… pic.twitter.com/SuYp3xHTnu — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 31, 2026 PATRICK OPPMANN: Cuba's leaders reject attempts to blame them for the crisis. And Sandro Castro says officials have questioned him about his often surreal and critical postings. As well, Cuban exiles regularly attack him online, he says.  Why do you think there are people, though, that hate the Castro family so much? SANDRO CASTRO: It’s complicated. Many Cubans would have liked to have been capitalist. I think the majority of Cubans want to be capitalist, not communist. That has created differences, a hatred which is not productive.  Oppmann heard that and offered no pushback whatsoever. To be clear, it is true that Cubans would have preferred capitalism to 67 years of murderous communism. And that is precisely why so many on the island and beyond hate the Castro family- specifically, Fidel and Raul. To be clear, the reasons that so many hate the Castros are the imprisonments, expropriations, and public summary executions. This, in addition to the constant spying, the military adventurism all over the globe, and the constant repression of Cuban citizens for doing in private what Fidel’s grandson did on CNN- criticizing the regime. The entirety of the interview flowed like this, a transparent piece of communicational rehab for the Castro family ahead of a potential deal with the United States. Young Sandro is simply trying to get ahead of the coming change by expressing support for whatever changes to the system President Trump may introduce, and Oppmann is all too happy to oblige. This shameful interview proves that, like many of the classic buildings in Old Havana, CNN is in crumbling decay. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN’s The Briefing with Jim Sciuto on Monday, March 30th, 2026: JIM SCIUTTO: More from Cuba now, where CNN's Patrick Oppmann sat down with the influencer grandson of Fidel Castro, of course, the man who led the island for almost five decades. In an exclusive interview, the two discussed his political differences with his grandfather and his support of Donald Trump's economic policies. PATRICK OPPMAN: In this social media satire video, Donald Trump arrives in Cuba to buy the island. While this Trump is a fake, he's dealing with a real member of the Castro family. Fidel Castro's grandson Sandro Castro, an influencer and nightclub impresario who says he has no interest in politics. The very public face of an otherwise still mysterious family that has held power in Cuba for nearly seven decades. At an interview in his apartment in Havana, Sandro Castro says he is a sign of the changing times on the communist-run island.  And what would your grandfather, Fidel Castro, say? That you're more capitalist than communist? SANDRO CASTRO (IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES): My grandfather was a person who had his principles like everyone else. But he also respected others’ opinions. That’s my way of thinking. OPPMANN: But all the capitalists had to leave Cuba. CASTRO: There are many people in Cuba that think in a capitalistic way. There are many people who want to have capitalism with sovereignty. OPPMANN: When we arrived for the interview, the neighborhood Castro lives in is in a blackout. A near-constant condition these days with the U.S. oil blockade, and power plants breaking down. Sandro Castro's apartment is lit by an electric generator, but from his balcony, the surrounding houses are in near-total darkness. He shows me his on- bedroom bachelor pad, how he lacks paint for the wall, how his fridge is nearly empty except for the Cuban beer he's always drinking. I point out that the appliance is a foreign brand that most Cubans could never hope to afford. His famous last name, Sandro Castro, wants people to know, doesn't come with any special treatment in a Cuba on the edge of economic collapse. CASTRO: We have to fight, as we say in Cuba. It’s tough, so tough. OPPMAN: Even for a Castro- (SPANISH) It’s tough, even for a Castro? CASTRO: Very tough. Very tough because you suffer through thousands of problems, IN a day, there might not be electricity, no water. Goods don’t arrive. It’s so hard, really hard. OPPMANN: But being a Castro must help you. CASTRO: My name is my name. I am proud of my name, logically.But I don’t see this help you are talking about. I’m one more citizen. OPPMAN: Cuba faces unprecedented U.S. pressure to open politically and economically. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American, has been reaching out to Cuban officials, including members of the Castro family.  In one of his videos. Sandro Castro pretends to receive a call from Rubio, who he then hangs up on. Rubio has said Cuba needs new leadership, and that could include Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel stepping down. Despite Fidel and Raul Castro's support for Diaz-Canel over many years, Sandro Castro says he is no fan.  Do you think President Diaz-Canel is doing a good job? CASTRO: I would not say he is doing a good job. For me, he is not doing a good job. There are a lot of things he should have been doing for a while now and today that is hurting our lives.  OPPMANN: Cuba's leaders reject attempts to blame them for the crisis. And Sandro Castro says officials have questioned him about his often surreal and critical postings. As well, Cuban exiles regularly attack him online, he says.  Why do you think there are people, though, that hate the Castro family so much? CASTRO: It’s complicated. Many Cubans would have liked to have been capitalist. I think the majority of Cubans want to be capitalist, not communist. That has created differences, a hatred which is not productive.  OPPMANN: Sandro Castro says he supports Trump's calls to open the economy, if not his threats against the island. At the end of his video, he takes the U.S. leader on a tour of Havana. Hope from at least one member of the Castro family that a historic deal with the U.S., an opening on the island are possible. Patrick Oppmann, CNN Havana.   March 30th, 2026 11:55 PM Jorge Bonilla 294514 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/03/30/omission-roundup-nets-silent-cherfilus-scandal-trump-admin-suing The Elitist Media network newscasts continue to suppress from their viewers those stories which run counter to their agenda. Tonight’s newscasts saw not one, but two major omissions. First: the networks continue their collective blackout of the ethics scandal engulfing U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL). Last week, the House Ethics Committee found Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of 25 ethics violations. Not a single newscast among ABC, CBS, or NBC covered the Ethics Committee's hearing, or its subsequent finding.  Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted in federal court in November of 2025. Here again, the coverage was minimal. The only report on this matter to air on any one of the broadcast network newscasts aired on NBC Nightly News: 25 seconds on the indictment itself and nothing since. IT'S (D)IFFERENT: Rep. Sheila Cherfilus McCormick is set to face a public Ethics Committee hearing, and yet the sole network newscast report on her charges aired last November. Compare the lack of coverage viz nature of the charges to that of George Santos. A clear double… pic.twitter.com/RJOjshVjcK — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 26, 2026 TOM LLAMAS: Also tonight, a congressman is facing calls to resign after she was charged with stealing FEMA funds. Democratic Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges she stole more than $5 million dollars of taxpayer money meant for disaster relief. She denied the charges, calling them intimidation tactics, and said she won’t resign. The Cherfilus-McCormick extended to the Elitist Media’s Sunday shows, which also refused to cover the scandal. The network news also refused to cover the Department of Justice suing Minnesota over its transgender athlete policy which, to be clear, allows boys to compete in girls’s sports- which is in clear violation of federal law. Per CBS News: In the lawsuit filed Monday, the Justice Department alleges the state Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League are violating Title IX, a federal law against sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money. "The Trump Administration does not tolerate flawed state policies that ignore biological reality and unfairly undermine girls on the playing field," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. League officials said they do not comment on threatened or pending lawsuits. The administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and has threatened the federal funding of some universities over transgender athletes, including San Jose State in California and the University of Pennsylvania. The network news breathlessly reported every Biden-era lawsuit against red states seeking to ban boys from competing in girls’ sports, framing them as a defense of trans youth. It was (D)ifferent back then. Now that the show is on the other foot, the networks appear to not be as interested in covering brazen corruption scandals and lawsuits pertaining to “trans student rights.” Such are the double standards.   March 30th, 2026 9:55 PM Jorge Bonilla 294512 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-spinnato/2026/03/30/ms-now-host-forced-walk-back-lies-about-israel-killing-iran On Monday’s Morning Joe, the MS NOW program’s co-host Jonathan Lemire claimed the Israeli military killed the Iranian Parliament Speaker, who had emerged as the apparent key negotiator and possible new leader in Iran according to the White House. Around 10 minutes after his statement, host Joe Scarborough asked Lemire to clarify his comments, to which he clarified the report of the Speaker's death may be untrue and shifted his tone to mention that the Parliament Speaker may have no power anyway, a flip from his original smug comments on negotiations. A focus of the premier liberal morning talk program was on how a war with Iran would end through negotiations. David Ignatius, a columnist at The Washington Post, discussed many diplomatic options, but called the president "overoptimistic."   Only 15 minutes into Monday's Morning Joe, MS NOW's Jonathan Lemire falsely claimed the Israelis killed the Iranian Parliament Speaker, a figure who has risen as an apparent negotiator with the US. Lemire framed it as a rebuke to White House claims of negotiations with Iran. pic.twitter.com/mjQM7mEh75 — Nick (@nspin310) March 30, 2026   Lemire, a former Politico reporter, in an attempt to display negotiations may have taken place, quickly stated: The White House had floated that the parliament's speaker there may be the person who could lead the Iranian side of these negotiations. Well, reportedly, the Israeli military killed him over the weekend. With no citation or anything, Lemire just decided to throw out such a big claim that was really not reported anywhere, except for a little post by frequent Morning Joe guest Richard Haass and a post from a random pro-Israel twitter account. Lemire may need to learn to become more media literate. Around 10 minutes after Lemire’s comments, Scarborough tried to get Lemire to do a little fact check: Hey, John Lemire, I got quite a few questions coming in to my phone after you mentioned that the parliamentary speaker may have been killed over the weekend by Iran. Tell us about your reporting.   Joe Scarborough asked Lemire to fact-check his own earlier comments, to which he blamed on the fog of war. Unsurprisingly, Lemire shifted his original comments to now say that the Iranian Parliament Speaker is apparently alive, but actually does not have any negotiation power. https://t.co/IkDwXeUOJo pic.twitter.com/Wo38M2s8Sx — Nick (@nspin310) March 30, 2026   Lemire walked back his comments, with an attempt to distance himself while he placed blame for his false share of information on the fog of war:  Yeah, so it’s a mixed - I said reportedly killed. An Israeli news site has said that he was hit by an airstrike and killed. There's some confusion now, whether that's true or not, it points to the two things. The first of all, the fog of war. We all know the former President of Iran was reportedly killed in the first days of the strike. Turns out he's not. He's alive. So, it's unclear whether this person is still with us or not. Unsurprisingly, Lemire shifted his original comments to now say that since the Iranian Parliament Speaker was apparently alive, he actually did not have any negotiation power: “It's also unclear whether he'd be actually empowered to have any authority to have negotiations. The White House had propped him up a few days ago. We will see if that’s the case.” In his continued attempt to save face, Lemire placed blame on all Israeli actions and a “growing divide” between the US:  But also, Joe and Mika, we should - it's a reminder that a growing concern among some observers of this war is the divide and perhaps growing divide between Israeli war aims and U.S. war aims. So, that's something we need to watch as well. And it's unclear when any real diplomacy would begin. Oh, so the US and Israelis weren't on the same page because of a fake strike on an Iranian figure that did not happen? From the seeming ruin of negotiations to there being no real negotiations since the Iranian Speaker had no real power, the real time flip in opinion from Lemire was fascinating but unsurprising.  The transcript is below. Click "expand": MS NOW’s Morning Joe March 30, 2026 6:14:59 AM Eastern (...) DAVID INGATIUS: These diplomatic options may increase as other countries lean hard into trying to get cooperation from Pakistan, from Iran. We may end up with a different situation in a few days. But right now, Joe, I think the president is being overoptimistic. JONATHAN LEMIRE: The White House had floated that the parliament's speaker there may be the person who could lead the Iranian side of these negotiations. Well, reportedly, the Israeli military killed him over the weekend. (...) 6:24:30 AM Eastern JOE SCARBOROUGH : Hey, John Lemire, I got quite a few questions coming in to my phone after you mentioned that the parliamentary speaker may have been killed over the weekend by Iran. Tell us about your reporting. LEMIRE: Yeah, so it’s a mixed - I said reportedly killed. An Israeli news site has said that he was hit by an airstrike and killed. There's some confusion now, whether that's true or not, it points to the two things. The first of all, the fog of war. We all know the former President of Iran was reportedly killed in the first days of the strike. Turns out he's not. He's alive. So, it's unclear whether this person is still with us or not. It's also unclear whether he'd be actually empowered to have any authority to have negotiations. The White House had propped him up a few days ago. We will see if that’s the case.  But also, Joe and Mika, we should - it's a reminder that a growing concern among some observers of this war is the divide and perhaps growing divide between Israeli war aims and U.S. war aims. So, that's something we need to watch as well. And it's unclear when any real diplomacy would begin. SCARBOROUGH : I mean, the expansion of the war in Lebanon, it just continues. And again, it adds to any potential blowback that we're going to see in the years to come. Just continues to add to the blowback that all of us, not Israel, all of us could be facing in the years to come.  (...) March 30th, 2026 9:52 PM Nicholas Spinnato 294500 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/03/30/newsbusters-podcast-no-kings-collides-democrat-crackdowns The elitist media celebrated another "massive" and "historic" set of "No Kings" protests on the Left, but they can't seem to remember the Democrats cracking down on conservative "disinformation," from COVID to climate to the Biden scandals. You're supposed to forget the Democrats' "Disinformation Governance Board" and Nina Jankowicz -- if you ever warned about that at all.  MRC Free Speech America vice president Dan Schneider and FSA staff writer Tom Olohan joined the show to discuss social media and the "kings" of content moderation.  The new free-speech victory in the Missouri v. Biden case was ignored by the press. Last week, Senator and former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced on X that “We just won Missouri v. Biden,” a case he brought against the Biden administration for brazenly colluding with Big Tech to censor speech. The courts resolved the case with a 10-year consent decree that will restrict the Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency from threatening and coercing Big Tech Companies to censor users.  That was not a story, but on Thursday, all the national newspapers made a front-page story out of a California jury verdict that found Meta (Instagram/Facebook) and Google's YouTube liable for deliberately designing addictive platforms that harmed young users. The TV networks were all over this, too. It’s funny that the networks weren’t as interested when Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council was pointing fingers at TV networks in prime time, like an orgy scene on a CBS show Without A Trace in 2004. While MRC underlined the 57 Biden censorship initiatives, the Left held “No Kings” rallies in a reported 3,000 cities because somehow Trump is a king, destroying the First Amendment. Never mind that the Left never stops talking about what a tyrant he is. The protesters demanded Trump be removed from office immediately, and never mind that Trump was elected with a majority of the popular vote.  Speaking of alleged authoritarianism, FCC chairman Brendan Carr announced at CPAC said President Trump is winning the war on the fake news media, like defunding PBS and NPR, and a bunch of annoying journalists ended up on Substack. People like David Folkenflik and Brian Stelter think Carr shouldn't be so aligned with the president. They don't mind if Democrat-appointed FCC chairs act like Democrats. That's all good. You can see the media can be depressed about its powers. But we who monitor the media daily wouldn’t say the content has changed much at all.  Hundreds gathered in Yorktown Heights, New York to remember the life of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, who was shot by an illegal alien near Loyola University in Chicago. We still can’t get more than a few seconds of coverage of this. FSA found Apple News, Google News, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo News did not promote a single article about Gorman in the top 20 of their morning editions between March 20 and 25. The apps did have 29 articles about other deaths or murders, however. Absorb all the details below, or listen to the audio here.  March 30th, 2026 8:20 PM Tim Graham 294504 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2026/03/30/her-life-worth-nothing-cnn-ms-now-have-not-aired-single-report While ABC, CBS, and NBC have shown scant interest — just three minutes and 43 seconds — on their lead morning and evening shows in covering University of Loyola Chicago student Sheridan Gorman’s brutal March 19 murder, CNN and MS NOW have been even less interested in reporting on the murder allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien from Venezuela as neither has dedicated a single on-air story to this crime. While there hasn’t been a single news report or dedicated segment to Gorman and the case, she has been either directly or indirectly mentioned 11 times on CNN and once on MS NOW in live remarks from the White House or Capitol Hill, or statements by Republican guests. In other words, Gorman’s name has not once been uttered by a host, reporter, or even paid network contributor. Media Research Center analysts searched CNN’s transcripts page, Nexis, and Snapstream closed captioning searches from the evening of March 19 (specifically 8:00 p.m. Eastern, the first full hour after news broke of the suspect’s identity) through March 30, looking for mentions Sheridan Gorman (including separate searches for her first name, last name, and both), Chicago, and Loyola. As of this story’s publication, these searches spanned 186 possible hours of news programming on CNN and 151 hours on MS NOW. The only time MS NOW viewers might have been inclined to research for Gorman’s case came Friday afternoon when it carried remarks from Speaker Mike Johnson about Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding: In the last several days, we have recent examples of dangerous criminals in this country killing innocent Americans. We had an 18-year-old college student in Chicago, a young lady, who was shot in the back by a dangerous criminal who had been released in that sanctuary city and first, released at the border under Joe Biden. They opened the border wide for four years. That was it. Three sentences in a press conference that, if they had known Gorman’s case would be mentioned, they might not have carried it. Over on CNN, they too aired that Johnson press conference, along with March 25 and 30 White House press briefings in which Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Gorman by name, a March 26 White House cabinet meeting where President Trump alluded to Gorman three times, and a March 27 when Trump cited Gorman when speaking to reporters after landing in Miami. Thankfully, two CNN guests had the courage last week to bring up Gorman during segments about the partial government shutdown over DHS. First, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY) paid tribute to Gorman last Wednesday on The Arena when host Kasie Hunt asked him about the state of funding negotiations (click “expand”): Well, let me show you the consequences of lax immigration enforcement. A 18-year-old girl in my district, Sheridan Gorman, was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant that was allowed to enter into the country during Joe Biden’s administration, captured at the border released. He was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, released. And he went and brutally murdered an 18-year-old innocent girl. And Hakeem Jeffries yesterday couldn’t even be bothered to say whether or not that type of individual who is arrested for murder, who is in the country illegally, should be deported. So, this is what the Democrats are fighting back against, Kasie. They don’t want immigration enforcement. They don’t want ICE to be able to do their jobs. That individual never should have been in this country. And the reason we passed the Laken Riley Act was specifically because you have cases where people are arrested for things like shoplifting and local jurisdictions are not cooperating with immigration enforcement. And so. innocent Americans are being killed in the streets. And so, yes, there is a debate to be had on immigration enforcement. There is a debate to be had on sanctuary jurisdiction policies that the Democrats have continually supported. The second instance was on the March 27/28 edition of CNN’s The Story Is when former Trump campaign deputy communications director Caroline Sunshine invoked Gorman on four separate occasions while debating far-left influencer and podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen about the DHS shutdown. When Cohen brought up the deaths of far-left Minneapolis protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Sunshine said she was “glad you bring up killing people on the streets” as a segue to asking: “So, what would you say to the family of Sheridan Gorman who was killed last week by an illegal immigrant who entered our country in 2023 and had a detainer out and an arrest warrant that wasn’t fulfilled?” “What would you say to her family as to why it’s okay to not fund ICE? Whose job it would be to make sure that, one, he was never here, and two, we’ve gotten rid of him? What would you say to her family,” she added. Cohen wouldn’t engage, only to say he’s “sad for anybody who passes away or who is tragically killed,” but pivoted back to ICE “slaughtering people in the streets.” The second time came when Cohen claimed President Trump has “leverag[ing] Americans’ pain” at airports to ensure passage of the SAVE America Act that Sunshine again jumped in (click “expand”): SUNSHINE: But on the fact of leveraging pain, let’s talk about the pain again of Sheridan Gorman, who just last week in our country. I just want everybody to picture this. She is an 18-year-old woman who is out watching the Northern Lights with her friends, taking selfies, thinking about what she is going to post on social media, and instantly a bullet rings out, hits her head. She is killed instantly by an illegal immigrant who should have never been here in the first place. Again, came in 2023. ICE’s whole job is to get people like that out of our country. It is not morally defensible to defend a nation that allows criminals like that to stay in our country. That’s not morally — COHEN: But — but ICE is funded. Notice how, on both occasions, host Elex Michaelson didn’t engage on Sunshine’s argument about the need to fund immigration enforcement. That said, Michaelson briefly asked Cohen — who had just dismissed Gorman’s murder as “fear porn” — to address one tangential point Sunshine raised: “But don’t you agree that ICE is itself important, and the idea of taking out criminal illegal aliens that have convicted of other crimes is a good thing?” Cohen only said “the idea of immigration enforcement is important” because “ICE, as it stands right now, is beyond repair” and “fundamentally broken.” Sunshine clapped back amid some Cohen stammering: “Who’s supposed to save Sheridan Gorman? It’s a good thing that we allowed her killer to stay in our country? Is it a good thing that she is dead? You want to talk about exploiting pain? Is it a good thing that she is dead? Yes or no? She would not be dead if an illegal immigrant had not been in our country.” The last time was towards the end of their lengthy tussle, starting with Sunshine wondering: “And what about the pain of Sheridan Gorman’s family again?” With over 300 hours of news programming since news broke about the suspect, CNN and MS NOW have had more than enough time to muster even a single news report about the suspect’s arrest or his first court hearing. Thus, their decision to remain silent has been more than just bias, but a choice to suppress an inconvenient narrative surrounding the very agency at the center of this latest shutdown. March 30th, 2026 5:10 PM Curtis Houck 294509 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2026/03/30/view-attacks-conservative-woman-telling-women-marry-have During a time when ABC’s The View was going through their rolodex of their pre-approved “conservative” and “Republican” women since their main faker, Alyssa Farah Griffin was out on maternity leave, the old crones lashed out during Monday’s episode because an actual young conservative woman was telling women to get married and have kids. “I don't even know how to explain this story but I'm going to tell you what happened,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg declared. “The Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, wrapped up this weekend and conservative activist Isabel Brown had a message for her fellow Gen Z women who reportedly are the least likely group in America to get married and have kids.” They then played this cherry-picked soundbite of Daily Wire podcaster Isabel Brown from a CPAC panel discussion: If you're not encouraging your children to grow up and have the courage to get married and have kids, more kids than they can afford before they think they're ready, it is high time to start. It is these choices like deleting our dating apps and quitting birth control pills and saying I do at the altar that ultimately trickle down into the political policies that we will see save our country. Goldberg, who had one kid, put on her white-girl-mocking voice (think ditzy valley girl accent) and lashed out at Brown with accusations hinting she was some kind of hypocrite because of what other people had said in the past about welfare queens. “Okay. I just want to say, years ago they used to come after women of color and accuse women of color of doing this very thing. And that's why they continued to cut all these programs and erase all these things,” she chided. Goldberg rage inexplicable rage at Brown quickly grew until she was just screaming “what” at the top of her lungs: "And now, had I known that it turns out we are all just one group of women, we're just one group -- I mean, WHAT?! Because what is she -- WHAT THE -- WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?!"   The View has MELTDOWN over conservative woman Isabel Brown at CPAC telling women to get married and have more kids. They claim the right wants welfare queens and falsely claims feminism "was not about bucking the trend of staying at home of loving tradition: ISABEL BROWN: If… pic.twitter.com/SCKhdyL7Ze — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 30, 2026   With Goldberg losing her mind, pretend independent co-host Sara Haines had to step in to take over. Haines then proceeded to engage in revisionist history of feminism telling women not to marry and have kids: So, my ultimate beef with this is that it wraps a woman's worth up in her ovaries in a way that for too long has happened. The whole women's movement was not about bucking the trend of staying at home or loving tradition. It was giving women a choice to do what they wanted. And that's what this is too. Marriage, children. It's a choice. Haines also took on the anti-life position of whining about there being too many people on the planet and having a family was “the stupidest, most old fashion thing.” “The world has over 8 billion people! We no longer need to force people to procreate and pump out babies!” she shouted. It’s worth noting that Haines was both married and had multiple kids. Childless fake Republican Ana Navarro tried to apply the usual liberal trope response to pro-lifers, suggesting someone was trying to control “my uterus”: But also where is the call to responsibility for the men who make -- who help make these children? Right? I don't know why it's always people lecturing women what they have to do or not to do. Bottom line, if you're not paying my bills, you don't get to tell me what I do with my uterus. With two collage-age kids of her own, co-host Sunny Hostin proclaimed having kids in this day and age was “reckless.” She then went on to shriek about how most families were too poor to have kids (unlike her) because parents supposedly needed to make $400,000 a year to take care of a child. Navarro was skeptical (Click “expand”): HOSTIN: I think it’s just really reckless to be suggesting that people should have more children when you now know in this country there's this affordability crisis and for a two-person household, a married household you need over $400,000 for childcare. Over $400,000. Most people don't make over $400,000. So, she's advocating for people to be born into poverty, people not being able to feed those children, people not being able to educate those children, and people not being able to house those children at the same time when this government is cutting all of the services that would allow people to have families and big families. [Crosstalk] NAVARRO: $400,000 over the lifetime of a child or what? HOSTIN: No. No. NAVARRO: A year?! HOSTIN: A year. It’s an annual income exceeding $400,000 to afford childcare. NAVARRO: Okay, that’s got to be in New York. HOSTIN: No. It's all over the country. According to LendingTree analysis. Of course, Hostin was misrepresenting that LendingTree analysis.   Sunny Hostin, who has 2 kids, says It's "reckless" to have any kids at all in Trump's America. Whoopi gets BIG BAD. pic.twitter.com/Mbyy60pXPe — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 30, 2026   That analysis was for one child but for a family with two kids. “Under federal guidelines, child care is considered affordable when it accounts for no more than 7% of household income. With average annual costs for care of an infant and a 4-year-old reaching $28,190, a family would need to earn $402,708 a year to stay within that benchmark. However, typical two-child households earn just $145,656, falling far short of what affordability standards suggest,” they wrote. “And perhaps Isabel, you want to talk to some of those red states about some of their laws about women because they're not really encouraging women to do anything except flee from them,” Goldberg sniped as she was going to a commercial break. Interestingly, LendingTree had more information. Most of the top 10 “states with the biggest discrepancies between average incomes, amount needed to afford child care” were blue states. The full top 10 list included: Hawaii, Nebraska, Montana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Vermont. The states with the “smallest discrepancies” were all red states. Goldberg and the latest purported conservative filling in for Farah Griffin, Whitney Cummings mocked Brown for telling woman to have more kids when she only had one at the time. Cummings also suggested that Brown’s husband was abusive and suggested Brown needed to turn to LegalZoom for help with a divorce. The View could have had Brown on the program to discuss her point of view in person, but the show refuses to invite Republicans not critical of the party or leadership. “I’d like to thank the women of @TheView for showing their truest, darkest colors today: they’re literally shrieking like demons at the thought of encouraging young women to have children,” Brown responded to their criticism in a thread on X. “They want you to hate happy, healthy, fulfilled young people with kids. Even more disturbingly, they want you to hate babies so much that you never want them in the first place.”   They want you to hate happy, healthy, fulfilled young people with kids. Even more disturbingly, they want you to hate babies so much that you never want them in the first place. Their response to my encouragement for Gen Z women to get married and have kids? "You're telling… pic.twitter.com/1EJ6h6Pbia — Isabel Brown (@theisabelb) March 30, 2026   It’s worth noting that last year, The View ghouls decried President Trump’s plan to increase America’s birth rate and literally applauded rising abortion rates. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View March 30, 2026 11:17:02 a.m. Eastern WHOOPI GOLDBERG: All right. Welcome back. I don't even know how to explain this story but I'm going to tell you what happened. The Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, wrapped up this weekend and conservative activist Isabel Brown had a message for her fellow Gen Z women who reportedly are the least likely group in America to get married and have kids. But I want you to see this. [Cuts to video] ISABEL BROWN: If you're not encouraging your children to grow up and have the courage to get married and have kids, more kids than they can afford before they think they're ready, it is high time to start. It is these choices like deleting our dating apps and quitting birth control pills and saying I do at the altar that ultimately trickle down into the political policies that we will see save our country. [Cuts back to live] GOLDBERG: [In a mocking voice] Okay. I just want to say, years ago they used to come after women of color and accuse women of color of doing this very thing. And that's why they continued to cut all these programs and erase all these things. SUNNY HOSTIN: Child care programs. GOLDBERG: Name it. Name it. And now, had I known that it turns out we are all just one group of women, we're just one group -- I mean, WHAT?! Because what is she -- WHAT THE -- WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?! SARA HAINES: So, my ultimate beef with this is that it wraps a woman's worth up in her ovaries in a way that for too long has happened. The whole women's movement was not about bucking the trend of staying at home or loving tradition. It was giving women a choice to do what they wanted. And that's what this is too. Marriage, children. It's a choice. And by the way -- GOLDBERG: But be responsible for God's sakes. HAINES: No, but be responsible. But the other thing is they act like people are sitting around just saying, 'yeah, no, I'm good.' Most women I know -- and some don't. But most women wanted to have children. They don't have them for other reasons. Most women I know if they had a great candidate or partner might want to be married. Maybe they don't. The fact we keep putting this on women, that their only worth in society, politics, policy is if they produce a baby or have a husband is the stupidest, most old-fashioned thing! We have come too far! The world has over 8 billion people! We no longer need to force people to procreate and pump out babies! We have arrived here! Women now and girls now have a choice! Let them do that! ANA NAVARRO: But also where is the call to responsibility for the men who make -- who help make these children? Right? I don't know why it's always people lecturing women what they have to do or not to do. Bottom line, if you're not paying my bills, you don't get to tell me what I do with my uterus. WHITNEY CUMMINGS: I do feel like she doesn't even realize how goofy her point was because she said we need to teach our kids to have the courage to get married. If your marriage requires courage I have a lot of questions about your husband. We need to tell this woman about Legal Zoom and how easy it is to get out of it. NAVARRO: Do remember these are the same people who support Donald Trump. That does take courage. CUMMINGS: I gave our girl Isabel a little Google. She has a baby, she has a one year-old. Of course, she thinks everyone should have a lot of kids. She has a 1-year-old that sleeps all day. I also was thinking I'm going to have a bunch more kids. Wait till your kid is up and walking and you spend most of your day trying to get its shoes on. You're probably going to rethink how many kids you have. (…) 11:21:06 a.m. Eastern HOSTIN: I think it’s just really - GOLDBERG: Reckless. HOSTIN: - reckless to be suggesting that people should have more children when you now know in this country there's this affordability crisis and for a two-person household, a married household you need over $400,000 for childcare. Over $400,000. Most people don't make over $400,000. So, she's advocating for people to be born into poverty, people not being able to feed those children, people not being able to educate those children, and people not being able to house those children at the same time when this government is cutting all of the services that would allow people to have families and big families. [Crosstalk] NAVARRO: $400,000 over the lifetime of a child or what? HOSTIN: No. No. NAVARRO: A year?! HOSTIN: A year. It’s an annual income exceeding $400,000 to afford childcare. NAVARRO: Okay, that’s got to be in New York. HOSTIN: No. It's all over the country. According to LendingTree analysis. And finally, this woman makes $10,000 per speaking engagement, between $5,000 and $10,000 per speaking engagement. Maybe she can afford to do it but most people cannot. GOLDBERG: But listen to what she's encouraging. She's saying don't have any thought about what you're doing. Yes, be thoughtful before you have a kid! HOSTIN: Correct. GOLDBERG: You should be thoughtful before you have a kid! [Applause] And perhaps Isabel, you want to talk to some of those red states about some of their laws about women because they're not really encouraging women to do anything except flee from them. You're saying -- you're telling people to have as many babies as they want to. Again, I'm going to send you back into the past and I want you to look and see how people were treated. And then I want you to say you know what? Maybe this isn't the smartest idea because I only have one child. I don't have to deal with anything. Because I've got somebody who watches the kid because I noticed the kid wasn't on the thing with her! It’s just - don’t - Look, if y'all are Gen Z, you know this ain't the one. This ain’t the one. Okay? We'll be right back. March 30th, 2026 4:02 PM Nicholas Fondacaro 294506 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/dawn-slusher/2026/03/30/cynthia-nixons-no-kings-meltdown-another-out-touch-celebrity Liberal activist/actress Cynthia Nixon apparently has a lot of time on her hands since the cancellation of HBO Max’s Sex and the City reboot which she starred in. When she’s not out on boats claiming abortion is “great,” she can be found virtue signaling in aimless protests such as Saturday’s “No Kings” gathering in New York City. Leave it to an obsolete Hollywood actress to lecture America about supposed “kings” while cosplaying as a revolutionary in New York City. Nixon showed up at the laughably named rally and promptly unloaded on Donie O'Sullivan at CNN about how she believes the entire planet is “horrified” that Trump is president of the United States: Millionaire liberal activist/actress Cynthia Nixon tells CNN at #NoKings rally she thinks the whole world agrees w/ her views- proving how out of touch Hollywood is with everday Americans who fairly elected Trump into office. pic.twitter.com/C9GNtlZsU8 — Dawn Slusher (@BlondeBlogger) March 30, 2026 NIXON: I think it’s really important for us to show up. I think it’s important for us to show up in New York, I think it’s important for us to show up across the country in big cities and small towns. And I think it’s important for people to show up across the world. I think that I think that the rest of the world looks at us and is so horrified by what’s happening and can’t believe that we’ve elected this man and that we’re going along with it, and we have to show out, as we’re doing today, in record numbers, to say, this is not okay with us. Who is “us”? Speak for yourself, Nixon. Of course, a millionaire celebrity who lives in a liberal bubble would think the entire world believes as she does. She’s a prime example of Hollywood elites being out of touch with common, hardworking, everyday Americans. You know, the ones who fairly elected Trump as president via democratic process rather than him being a bloodline heir to a throne like a king. The “no kings” chants make as much sense as the left’s Chicken Little cries of “threat to democracy” and “the Constitution is in danger!” Spare us. Record numbers? In deep-blue Manhattan? Sure, Cynthia. The rest of the country handed Trump a comeback victory precisely because they were horrified by the open borders, inflation, and cultural insanity her crowd inflicted on them for four years. This is the same Cynthia Nixon who got demolished when she ran for New York governor in 2018, by the way. Yet here she is again, virtue signaling at a protest that reeks of sour grapes. Nixon’s brand of coastal elitism is exactly why Trump won twice. While she frets about supposed international feelings, working families are watching grocery bills drop, the border finally secured, and America no longer apologizing for existing. The world she claims is “horrified” includes plenty of leaders who quietly respect strength over the weakness her party peddled. Also, does Nixon’s “rest of the world” include Venezuelans or Iranians? The people who live in or fled Iran and Venezuela because of oppression aren’t “horrified” by Trump- they’re grateful. They’ve been dancing in the streets and thanking Trump by the millions for his efforts to secure their freedom. Venezuela is now free of dictator Nicolás Maduro, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was eliminated while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been hammered. But Nixon is out ironically protesting the man who made it all happen by claiming he’s the dictatorial king. #MakeItMakeSense As usual, facts don’t matter when your entire worldview comes from Manhattan dinner parties and And Just Like That residuals. Sorry, Miranda Hobbes. The American people didn’t elect a king. They elected a president who promised to put them first. Your rally may have felt important in that little progressive bubble, but it doesn’t mesh with reality. At all. March 30th, 2026 3:58 PM Dawn Slusher 294501 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/03/30/no-kings-protestor-black-people-dont-need-participate “I confronted a No Kings protestor on the lack of diversity at the protest, she told me she's here because black people can't be,” Podcaster Nate Friedman explains, introducing video of an interview he conducted at Saturday’s “No King’s Day” protest in New York. “It seems like there’s a lack of diversity here today, that it’s mostly people like you and I,” Friedman tells a White female protestor at the event, prompting her to claim that Black people – and only Black people – would be arrested at the rally: “This is not, this is not, it is not for Black people, for people of color to get out on the street. They’re at risk when they do that. If anybody’s going to get arrested here, it’s going to be a Black person.” “It is not safe for them and they don’t need to participate,” the White protestor added, claiming that “We need to walk in their name.” It’s also a racist scheme to require voters to show identification, the woman, who says she “voted Democrat in the womb, claimed: “It’s 100% a tactic to control the population and prevent people from voting so that the gerrymandering can work so that white voters can vote in White Christian males.” “I would slit my throat” if forced to vote for one of two Republicans, J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio, the woman declared. “Yeah,” the protestor confirmed when asked if she was serious. I confronted a No Kings protestor on the lack of diversity at the protest, she told me she's here because black people can't be. pic.twitter.com/z1wNtAxe64 — Nate Friedman (@NateFriedman97) March 28, 2026 “Medical care in this country is racist,” too, the self-professed retired doctor claims in the full half-hour version of Friedman’s coverage of the protest posted on his YouTube account. March 30th, 2026 3:22 PM Craig Bannister 294505 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/geoffrey-dickens/2026/03/30/poll-results-worst-media-quote-week-winner It’s time to find out who had the Worst Media Quote of the Week. This interactive series is where you — our loyal NewsBusters visitors and MRC supporters — get to vote on which leftist journalist or celebrity had the worst media quote of the week.   Much appreciation to all who voted last week via NewsBusters and the MRC’s various social media sites (Facebook, Instagram and X.com).   The results of the Worst Media Quote of the Week are in and the winner is… Charlamagne! The co-host of The Breakfast Club won with a 46 percent of the vote. Charlamagne Tha God took first place for declaring that when President Donald Trump dies: “people are going to treat it like Mardi Gras!” ABC late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel came in second place with 44 percent. Finishing last was ABC’s The View co-host Sunny Hostin at 10 percent.  Check out the following clip (via the MRC Video team) to see the nominees in action:     Watch the Worst Quotes here! pic.twitter.com/pILnmwhe5S — Media Research Center (@theMRC) March 26, 2026     WINNER (46 percent of the vote)   Charlamagne: When Trump Dies, “People Are Going to Treat It Like Mardi Gras!” “You’re, you know, going to go down as the worst president of all time because you don’t give a damn about democracy, ok? Wiping your ass with the Constitution, and on pace to lead this country into the worst financial crisis of all time. But you are also – ok – putting yourself into a position that when you pass, people are going to treat it like Mardi Gras in New Orleans!” — Charlamagne Tha God on The Breakfast Club, March 23.   SECOND PLACE (44 percent of the vote)   Elitist Jimmy Kimmel: Sen. Markwayne Mullin Unqualified to Be DHS Secretary Because He Used to Be a Plumber “Trump’s got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne ‘Chuck Mike Bruce Dave’ Melon — Mullin. Maybe Melon’s better. He’s the now former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. Well it worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?” — Host Jimmy Kimmel on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, March 24.   THIRD PLACE (10 percent of the vote)   Sunny Hostin: Sen. Markwayne Mullin Shouldn’t Be In Charge of “Lawless Band of Masked Bandits” at ICE Because He Was an MMA Fighter  “This man [Senator Markwayne Mullin] had been in Congress, and so he had governmental experience. He was also a talk show host. He was a construction worker. He was also a professional MMA fighter. And a plumber. I just don’t think that even with his government experience, someone with that sort of fighter mentality, who has been so aggressive, should be heading a lawless band of masked bandits!”— Co-host Sunny Hostin on ABC’s The View, March 19.   Thanks again to all who participated!    Sponsored by James P. Jimirro March 30th, 2026 2:33 PM Geoffrey Dickens 294502 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/cnsnews/craig-bannister/2026/03/30/brit-hume-shares-priceless-video-interview-clueless-no “Priceless,” Fox News Channel Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume declared Monday, sharing a viral video post of an interview with an apparent “No Kings Day” protester from Saturday. In the video posted on X.com by Damani Felder on @TheDamaniFelder (a verified account with more than 313,000 followers), a purported No Kings Day protester either can’t, or won’t, answer the simplest questions about why – or what – she’s protesting. After dodging the interviewer’s multiple requests for specifics, the protester tries, and fails, to come up with a single reason she’s protesting – then, simply dismisses the entire interview as inappropriate: Q: “So, what brings you out today?” A: “No Kings Day.” Q: “And why, specifically, are you out supporting No Kings Day?” A: “I think protest is important.” Q: “Why are you protesting?” A: “How much time do you have?” Q: “A couple minutes. And, what’s the main reason you are out here protesting President Trump?” A: “It is a lot of the decisions that are being made.” Q: “Is there any decision, in particular, you disagree with?” A: “Okay. So, I would start with…well, I don’t even think it’s appropriate for me to have this interview.”   Priceless. https://t.co/dPsl01GcXb — Brit Hume (@brithume) March 30, 2026   In an earlier post, Hume shared video of No Kings Day protesters waving communist flags, from a post noting that those who are protesting “no kings” appear to support having communist dictators. March 30th, 2026 1:05 PM Craig Bannister 294503 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2026/03/30/ny-times-relays-anti-trump-conspiracy-kookery-and-44-photos-no Sunday’s New York Times featured favorable stories on the worldwide “No Kings” rallies, which lumped together various leftist grievances, be they anti-Trump, or anti-ICE, or anti-Iran War in nature. The front-page story by Jeremy Peters, “Will Primal Scream of ‘No Kings’ Echo in Voting Booths?” The coverage implied "We hope so." Peters penned the soppy line: “Demonstrators were steadfast in their opposition to the Trump administration. There was also evidence of community in a shared purpose.” But the most overwhelmingly biased story was the online “A Show of Defiance Across the Nation,” featuring lovingly curated photos from “No Kings” rallies. A total of 17 journalists (including lead journalist Ernesto Londono) produced 1,200 words of text, accompanied by a staggering 44 photographs. Londono gushed: In big cities and small towns across the world, protesters gathered for rallies against President Trump and his policies and actions, with the self-stated goal of fighting dictatorship. Demonstrators, including elected officials and community leaders, chanted defiant messages and carried homemade signs that condemned the war in Iran, threats against voting rights and the White House’s mass deportation push, among other topics. Organized by a coalition of activist groups under the banner “No Kings,” it was the third such countrywide protest in the past 10 months. One of the largest rallies took place outside the Minnesota Capitol, where the singer Bruce Springsteen performed “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote to protest the immigration crackdown that led to the fatal shootings of two American citizens by federal agents in January. “They picked the wrong city,” Mr. Springsteen told a crowd of thousands, adding that “these invasions of American cities will not stand.” …. Organizers expected the demonstrations in the United States to draw both small groups and crowds of hundreds of thousands, featuring regular people and global superstars speaking out against what they see as overreach by the Trump administration in areas including health care, the environment and war. Similar demonstrations, focused on denouncing conservative policies, are planned for around the world. In a statement Thursday, a White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, called the protests “Trump derangement therapy sessions.” The story promised “a selection of scenes,” and indeed there were photos from Omaha, Austin, Chicago, etc., as well as London and Paris, often accompanied by radical anti-Trump statements, which all went unchallenged. Like many silver-haired protesters gathered at Auditorium Shores, a riverside park in Austin, Texas, Gilbert Martinez, a 93-year-old Korean War veteran, sees Mr. Trump as reckless and rebellious. And that’s not aligned with the values Mr. Martinez has spent his life preaching. He called the attack on Iran a “diversion.” “That idiot is going to cause a lot of good military people to lose their lives,” he said. The Times let this D.C. protester accuse U.S. forces of targeting a school in Iran. Eileen McHugh, 59, traveled an hour from her Republican-leaning town in Westchester County to protest at Columbus Circle. “The whole Republican Party has blood on their hands,” Ms. McHugh said. “Bombing boats in Venezuela and schools in Iran is murder.” This one was truly ridiculous: Deana Fredericks, 65, was among a group of women wearing outfits inspired by “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a show drawn from the Margaret Atwood novel that depicts a totalitarian society in which women are treated as property. “We’re concerned about women’s rights, but it’s also gone beyond that,” she said, citing the Iran war and voting rights. The irony of protesters wearing oppressive “Handmaid” outfits in defense of an Iranian theocracy that literally requires women to cover themselves was evidently lost both on the women cosplaying oppression, and their allies at the Times. March 30th, 2026 1:05 PM Clay Waters 294499 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2026/03/30/cnn-analyst-trumps-peace-plan-telling-iran-agree-or-stick On Monday’s CNN This Morning, the network cast President Trump less as the Commander-in-Chief than as a common street criminal. Global affairs analyst Kim Dozier -- who was a longtime overseas reporter for CBS News -- likened Trump’s negotiating posture toward Iran to an armed robbery, suggesting the U.S. was telling Tehran: agree to Washington’s demands, “or else this is a stick-up.” Discussing the gap between competing U.S. and Iranian proposals, Dozier brushed aside diplomacy as little more than window dressing. “The fact of the matter is the 15-point plan that the U.S. has put forward versus Iran's five-point plan are so far apart that it would take weeks, if not months, to bring them together. It feels more like the U.S. is saying, agree to these 15 points or else this is a stick-up.” In Dozier’s telling, Trump isn’t engaging in hard-nosed negotiation; he’s cast as an armed thug. Substitute host Erica Hill followed with a different head-scratcher. Surveying potential military options, she warned: “There are multiple options being presented to [Trump.] All of them have significant risk for U.S. casualties, and frankly, none of them have a guarantee of success.” A “guarantee of success?” In war? CNN—Trump Tells Iran: Agree To My Plan 'Or This Is a Stick-up' pic.twitter.com/DYfuFZCyq4 — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) March 30, 2026 Even the most meticulously planned military operation in history—D-Day—came with no such guarantee. In fact, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower had drafted a statement taking full responsibility in the event the invasion failed. But on CNN, anything short of guaranteed victory is apparently grounds for inaction. So in a single segment, CNN cast Trump as both an armed robber, and a commander faulted for lacking the one thing no military operation has ever had: a guarantee of success. Here's the transcript. CNN This Morning 3/30/26 6:04 am EDT ERICA HILL: Also with me here, CNN Global Affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Kim, as we look at all of these pieces now falling into place, you have the additional troops arriving in the region. You also have the Houthi rebels, right, as Paula was just mentioning, sort of joining the fight in some ways. Is everything in place for a ground invasion?  KIM DOZIER: Certainly looks that way. It feels like the peace talks are an afterthought. The fact of the matter is the 15-point plan that the U.S. has put forward versus Iran's five-point plan are so far apart that it would take weeks, if not months, to bring them together. It feels more like the U.S. is saying, agree to these 15 points or else this is a stick up.  . . .  When President Trump gives the kind of interview he just gave to the FT, it looks like he's ticking through the options. Do I take Kharg Island? There was also a report overnight that he's considering sending the troops in to seize the nuclear material.  HILL: Which is which is fascinating too, because that is not, right, at least from the way that I understand it, this is not sending troops in, we grab it like a movie, right? I think people think of you grab it and you run out. I mean, this is a highly specialized, would be a highly specialized mission. It's also not that quick. DOZIER: Yeah this this would not be a raid. This would be, basically, a mining operation under fire. And the nuclear material is thought to be buried at two different locations. One near Esfahan within reach of a bunch of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units and one near Tehran.  So you'd have to bring in earth-moving equipment, specialized teams, and then ground troops to surround them to protect them.  So, possibly, that's why we're seeing so many thousands of troops sent to the area, but there's also the possibility that President Trump hasn't decided what to do yet.  HILL: Well, and we, and as we were reporting, of course, at the end of last week, there are multiple options being presented to him.  All of them have significant risk for U.S. casualties, and frankly, none of them have a guarantee of success.  March 30th, 2026 11:52 AM Mark Finkelstein 294497 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/dawn-slusher/2026/03/30/ice-agents-heroic-act-saves-toddler-airport-counters-dems While Democrats screeched that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at airports were just “sitting around doing nothing” and that they might “brutalize or kill” travelers, one of those same “untrained” officers just saved a one-year-old boy’s life. And it’s the second time in recent weeks an ICE agent has saved a child. On March 25, a toddler stopped breathing in the TSA PreCheck line at JFK airport. For nearly two minutes the family panicked as the child turned blue and went limp. An ICE agent assisting TSA operations heard the father’s cries for help, rushed over, took the boy, and performed the Heimlich maneuver until breathing resumed: At JFK Airport, as travelers waited in hours-long lines, an infant became unresponsive and stopped breathing. The panic of the child’s family and nearby passengers were heard by an ICE agent stationed at a checkpoint. This heroic officer immediately sprang into action—rushing… pic.twitter.com/JOJaFSEIZK — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 26, 2026 Thanks to the ICE agent’s quick and heroic actions, the child recovered fully. “If our agent had not been there and stepped up, this would have been a tragic outcome,” said Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a press release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “Despite the endless smears and lies told about them by sanctuary politicians and the media, our ICE officers show up every day to protect the Homeland and their fellow Americans.” This is the second child ICE officers have saved in recent weeks as off-duty ICE agents in Plymouth, Minnesota rescued a 4-year-old boy who was found unresponsive in a hotel pool. If liberal politicians had their way, that child at JFK might not be with us today as ICE never would have been allowed in any airport in the first place. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pushed back against Trump’s plans to send ICE agents to assist at overcrowded airports during the current, ongoing Democrat shutdown stating, “The last thing the American people need is for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports across the country, potentially to brutalize or to kill them.” Overreact much? He also claimed Trump is paying ICE to “stand around and do nothing.” He wasn’t the only liberal complaining: -Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted Trump’s decision to deploy ICE agents to airports would “backfire” and lead to “trouble,” and claimed agents are being paid to, “just stand around.” -Rep. Dan Goldman, D-NY, tried to assert agents were being sent to “terrorize our airports.” -Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, ranted during a House hearing that ICE should, “get the hell out of the airports,” and said they’re, “doing nothing and getting paid.” They should all be required to repeat those remarks to the parents of the child who was saved at JFK. None of these rantings have aged well considering that, in addition to that child being alive and well today, things have gone much more smoothly at airports nationwide. DHS shared a video on X showing ICE agents smiling, waving, directing passengers, and moving lines faster: This is the side of @ICEgov that the media won’t show you. pic.twitter.com/OrlHMoJ2nx — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 27, 2026 Travelers are thrilled. No chaos. No “brutality.” Just competence and gratitude. The exact opposite of the panic the left predicted. This is what happens when conservatives put good people in charge. Problems get solved and lives are saved, yet the ICE agents doing the hard work get demonized by the left anyway. The next time a Democrat calls ICE “untrained thugs,” remember the toddler at JFK who almost paid the price for that lie. March 30th, 2026 11:35 AM Dawn Slusher 294498 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/catherine-mortensen/2026/03/30/todays-highlights-what-mrcs-media-watchdogs-are-saying MRC Watchdogs churn out breaking news on a daily basis. Don't miss Today's Highlights, where you can keep up with the top MRC content, whether it's the latest study on media bias, a glaring omission from the elitist media, or how the Big Tech companies are serving up the same leftist spin as the media.  Top Stories: Zero Lies! So Far in 2026, PolitiFact Implies the Democrats NEVER Mangle a Fact 'Fair Point!' CNN Cheers Claim That Challenging Birthright Citizenship Is ‘Racist’ Don Lemon Thinks He Could Be President, But Racism Is Holding Him Back Google News Skips Indicted Dem’s Ethics Trial, Spotlights NYT Spelling Bee Instead   Zero Lies! So Far in 2026, PolitiFact Implies the Democrats NEVER Mangle a Fact PolitiFact claims zero Democratic lies in 2026  In the first quarter, all 11 Democratic statements checked were rated True, Mostly True, or Half True, with zero rated Mostly False or worse. Heavy bias against Republicans  PolitiFact rated 32 Republican statements, with 22 (69%) called Mostly False, False, or Pants on Fire, nearly a 3-to-1 disparity in checks and a complete shutout for Democrats on negative ratings. Fact-checking double standard exposed  While Democrats like Elizabeth Warren get gentle treatment (and even “True” ratings on questionable claims), PolitiFact implies Democrats never mangle facts, revealing clear partisan skew in their “Truth-O-Meter.”   'Fair Point!' CNN Cheers Claim That Challenging Birthright Citizenship Is ‘Racist’ CNN cheers the “racist” smear: On CNN This Morning, host Erica Hill quickly agreed (“Fair point!”) when guest Shan Wu claimed that challenging birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment is racist, with zero pushback or constitutional discussion. Prioritizing politics over the Constitution: The segment dismissed John Eastman’s argument (that “subject to the jurisdiction” excludes illegal immigrants and temporary visitors) as unsound, while focusing only on alarmist outcomes like “millions of babies” affected , ignoring the original meaning and history of the 14th Amendment. “Racist” label shuts down debate: CNN let Wu argue that even a valid legal challenge can still be racist, revealing the network’s real goal: protecting automatic citizenship for children of illegal immigrants rather than honestly debating the law.   Don Lemon Thinks He Could Be President, But Racism Is Holding Him Back Don Lemon believes he could be President and claims he would run the country “a lot better” than Donald Trump. Lemon blames racism for holding him back  saying “I’m not a white man and the rules are different for me,” while comparing himself to women and minorities who face tougher standards. Lemon’s massive ego on display  He boasted he could fix news organizations “in no time flat” and suggested his path to the White House is blocked mainly by race rather than his own record or appeal.   Google News Skips Indicted Dem’s Ethics Trial, Spotlights NYT Spelling Bee Instead Google News buried a major Democrat scandal: It completely ignored Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s (D-FL) House Ethics trial, where she was found guilty on 25 ethics charges for allegedly stealing millions in FEMA relief funds. Google prioritized NYT games over real news: While skipping the Cherfilus-McCormick story for four straight days (80 missed headline opportunities), Google News prominently featured “NYT Spelling Bee Hints” to drive traffic and ad revenue to The New York Times. Clear bias in action: Google News promoted multiple stories about “No Kings” protests while hiding a historic corruption case involving a Democratic congresswoman, the largest taxpayer theft by a House member in over 150 years.   March 30th, 2026 12:01 AM Catherine Mortensen 293155 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2026/03/29/pbss-silly-science-weather-just-gets-worse-and-worse-every-year Thursday’s PBS News Hour segment on “extreme weather events” turned out even more bluntly unscientific than the channel’s usual apocalyptic environmental “Tipping Point” fare, with reporter Ali Rogin’s “climate change” screed equating temporary weather patterns with dangerous climate change -- at least when the show and its climate guest cherry-pick the hottest spots on the map. Never mind the extreme cold North America suffered in late January 2026, or Cuba’s first freeze on record in early February, events ignored by the News Hour earlier this year. Now it’s all about the heat dome, due to “fossil fuel pollution.” (From the network that also complains about rising gas prices.) Anchor John Yang warned of “a massive heat dome….spreading across much of the United States, with temperatures reaching historic highs” before handing off to Ali Rogin for the latest alarmist entry in the News Hour's “Tipping Point” series on "climate change." Ali Rogin: John, this heat is not just notable for nearly unprecedented early spring temperatures, but also for the amount of ground it's covering. Temperatures have been 20 to 40 degrees above normal in the Great Plains, and it's been moving east. Some cities are already seeing record-breaking streaks, and the heat is expected to last into early April. That's because a high-pressure system is acting like a lid, trapping hot air underneath and allowing temperatures to rise day by day. The Southwest registered triple digits, with temperatures reaching 101 degrees in New Mexico. Kansas also set a march record with 102 degrees twice in four days. For more on what we can expect in the coming days, I'm joined by Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist at Climate Central….. Her guest, Bernadette Woods Placky, admitted to "some cold stretches" at the start of the year, "But since the beginning of the year, 85 percent of our records have been warm or hot records, and only 15 percent have been cold records…" Rogin: So you mentioned we're seeing record heat, record cold, but why is it that we are seeing more record hot weather than cold? Placky was exceedingly confident in her analysis. Placky: Well, that's because of climate change. Now, one is the weather pattern. It's extraordinary for this time of year. It looks more like a weather pattern we'd see in July. But that weather pattern alone, combined with the additional fossil fuel pollution we put into our atmosphere, is why we're breaking records to this level…. PBS’s expert finally noticed cold weather (“rare snow in Alabama”). Any weather anomaly is a sign of “extreme weather” and dangerous “climate change,” making the label unfalsifiable. Journalist Rogin made the lazy knee-jerk claim that the weather just keeps getting worse every year, ignoring for one thing the lack of hurricane landfalls in the United States in 2025, usual dire predictions notwithstanding. Rogin: The weather just seems to get worse and worse every year, but it's not just extreme heat. It's also things like flooding in Hawaii, rare snow in Alabama, shifting temperatures in the Northeast. What else can we expect in terms of extreme weather for the rest of this year? A transcript is available, click “Expand.” PBS News Hour 3/26/26 7:25:29 p.m. (ET) JOHN YANG: A massive heat dome has been spreading across much of the United States, with temperatures reaching historic highs, but it`s not an isolated spike. In recent weeks, the country has grappled with a series of extreme weather events. Ali Rogin more for our periodic series Tipping Point. ALI ROGIN: John, this heat is not just notable for nearly unprecedented early spring temperatures, but also for the amount of ground it`s covering. Temperatures have been 20 to 40 degrees above normal in the Great Plains, and it`s been moving east. Some cities are already seeing record-breaking streaks, and the heat is expected to last into early April. That`s because a high-pressure system is acting like a lid, trapping hot air underneath and allowing temperatures to rise day by day. The Southwest registered triple digits, with temperatures reaching 101 degrees in New Mexico. Kansas also set a march record with 102 degrees twice in four days. For more on what we can expect in the coming days, I`m joined by Bernadette Woods Placky, chief meteorologist at Climate Central. Bernadette, thank you so much for being here. How unusual is it for us to see this type of heat in March, and has this ever happened before? BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY, Climate Central: This is wildly unusual. And, no, it has not happened to this level before. I do think people are used to seeing temperatures spike 100 degrees in Phoenix and Las Vegas, but that`s usually May, June, July. It`s not in March. ALI ROGIN: And how far has this heat spread in the country so far, and what can we expect in the coming days? BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Sure, so there`s a lot of ways to put together these numbers, and, any way you look at them, they are breaking records like we have never seen before. One is, we broke an all-time temperature record for March for the country. We also have had multiple states break their all-time March temperature record. We have seen hundreds of records a day happen over this past week. And when you break down the balance of record highs to record lows, we took it back all the way to the beginning of the year, because, remember, there were some cold stretches. But since the beginning of the year, 85 percent of our records have been warm or hot records, and only 15 percent have been cold records. So there`s a lot of coverage in that early season cold. It`s nothing compared to what we`re experiencing right now. ALI ROGIN: So you mentioned we`re seeing record heat, record cold, but why is it that we are seeing more record hot weather than cold? BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Well, that`s because of climate change. Now, one is the weather pattern. It`s extraordinary for this time of year. It looks more like a weather pattern we`d see in July. But that weather pattern alone, combined with the additional fossil fuel pollution we put into our atmosphere, is why we`re breaking records to this level. And one way you can look at that, right, is, we understand the greenhouse effect. This is science that goes back to the 1800s that really isn`t challenged. And we can measure those greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and we know we`re putting more of those into our atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas. So when you thicken that blanket around our atmosphere, it traps more heat. The most obvious and direct way that we experience that extra warming on our planet is through extra hot days. ALI ROGIN: And, now, we have been experiencing these heat domes. For the last 10 years, they have been on the rise. What makes them different, though, from just other types of early spring warm weather? BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Well, we have had heat domes before. We have had them this time of year before. But what happens underneath those, when you add those extra greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, it allows our temperatures to go to levels we have never experienced. So that`s the big difference right now, is that every time we`re using the word unprecedented or record, and it feels like it`s getting a little old to some people, but it`s happening that frequently right now that we`re pushing record highs to this level. ALI ROGIN: This hot weather is also having implications for things like snowpack and water resources out West. How is this going to affect communities not just in the present, but in the months to come? BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: This is a really important part of this conversation, because the West as a whole has been really low on its amount of snow this year. And you got to remember that`s water. That`s water for the warmer months. That`s how we water our plants and our crops. That`s also our water resources. So, on April 1, this is a really big day out West, where we take these measurements across many different areas in the mountains and get an assessment of where that snowpack is for the year as we head into these warmer months. We are so low. We`re at record lows. And it really varies from state to state. But it`s not only that it`s record low. This March heat has forced melting earlier than usual. So we`re not going to have that water in the same ways at the times that we need it. And then that really ups our risk for wildfire. ALI ROGIN: The weather just seems to get worse and worse every year, but it`s not just extreme heat. It`s also things like flooding in Hawaii, rare snow in Alabama, shifting temperatures in the Northeast. What else can we expect in terms of extreme weather for the rest of this year? BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Well, it`s interesting to look at this as a full pattern. One thing we do know is that we are shifting into what`s called an El Nino year. And there have been discussions of this in the past, and people have followed along. But what happens during El Nino years is, we get this extra boost of heat in the water that translates into our atmosphere, and it usually pushes our temperatures overall for the planet higher. So that is one thing. And then that shifts our weather patterns a little bit more. But what we also know is that, when you add more heat to this atmosphere, it`s like a boiling pot of water, right? And so things get more turbulent. And when we have more rain events, when they do actually trigger, there`s more precipitation for them to come down. And when we get these heat events, it pushes to higher levels. And that`s what we`re experiencing right now. And that will continue. ALI ROGIN: In the 40 seconds we have left, I want to ask you about these floods in Hawaii that seem to be really unusual. What can you attribute that to? BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Well, one way we have looked at that is the water temperatures. These are islands. And the storms are coming off of the water. And the water around the islands right now is higher than usual. And there is a climate change fingerprint in that also. And we can look at that through what we call attribution science, and we can tease out that role of climate change in those water temperatures. So it`s adding more fuel and more moisture for these storms. It`s adding an extra little boost to the already wet pattern that was setting up. ALI ROGIN: Bernadette Woods Placky with Climate Central, thank you so much for joining us. BERNADETTE WOODS PLACKY: Thanks for having me. March 29th, 2026 10:28 PM Clay Waters 294494 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/03/29/weirdo-liberal-boomers-scott-jennings-clowns-no-kings-rallies The Elitist Media Sunday Shows did their part to elevate and promote the astroturfed “No Kings” rallies throughout the country as some sort of organic expression of discontent against the current state of affairs. Only one of those shows featured any sort of conservative pushback against this premise. Watch as Scott Jennings joins CNN’s State of the Union panel and brutally mocks the protests while exposing the truth about them: WATCH: @ScottJenningsKY absolutely CLOWNS the astroturfed "No Kings" rallies and rightly notes that they are funded by "weirdo liberal boomers" (see Singham, Neville). JAKE TAPPER: Last word? SCOTT JENNINGS: These- these No Kings rallies actually look pretty representative to… pic.twitter.com/UDseKTaVuP — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 29, 2026 JAKE TAPPER: Last word? SCOTT JENNINGS: These- these No Kings rallies actually look pretty representative to me of the Democratic coalition. I saw people flying the hammer and sickle in New York City. I saw Hezbollah flags. I saw Hamas flags. I saw Palestinian flags. I saw trans signs. I see weirdo liberal boomers out there. This is pretty representative of the Democratic coalition. And that's who funds it as well, by the way. And so I think -- I think -- I think -- I think if, if America looks at this and says, what do the two parties stand for, they got it at the No Kings rallies. (CROSSTALK) ASHLEY ALLISON: No, I think if you knew Americans were out there, you were out there, Republicans are saying... JENNINGS: You like hammer and sickle? You like hammer and sickle flags? ALLISON: That's- that’s not what that No Kings stood for.  JENNINGS: They had a bunch of them. ALLISON: And you know that. JENNINGS: They come from somewhere out there. ALLISON: And that is… No, Scott. No. NANCY MACE: A lot of commie flags out there. TAPPER: Thanks- thank you, one and all. Appreciate- I should have ended it on your nice note. (LAUGHTER) Jennings broke through the usual fluffery to describe what was at the heart of the No Kings protests, and to remind the American public that this event is little more than CCP-adjacent astroturf. Per Fox News: But Fox News Digital has also identified key participation by a network of radical socialist and communist organizations funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American tech tycoon and avowed communist living in China. Over nearly a decade, Singham has financed a constellation of activist institutions that promote revolutionary socialist politics and frequently collaborate in protest campaigns, including the People’s Forum in New York, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition and CodePink, whose co-founder Jodie Evans is married to Singham. These groups work closely with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. They are all sending members to the protests and one group said they plan to bring a message of "revolution" to the protests. When you dig a little deeper you find that these are the same groups that backed last week’s Cuba flotilla. Flotilla attendees stayed at a five-star hotel in Havana, which for a time was the only place in Cuba with reliable power amid endless blackouts. The flotilla ended with leftist influencers making hungry Cuban children dance for snacks. The same people that shout “no kings” in the United States went to Cuba to worship Fidel Castro and to rejoice in his works- notwithstanding the misery they have created for everyday Cubans. This is the truth about these “No Kings” protests that the media do not want you to see. Credit to Scott for making the most of his time and opportunity in order to expose these protests for the astroturf they truly are. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN State of the Union on Sunday, March 29th, 2026: JAKE TAPPER: Ashley, did you go out? Did you participate in a No Kings rally yesterday? ASHLEY ALLISON: Tangentially, but not... TAPPER: Tangentially? ALLISON: Yes. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: OK. Well, here's some -- demonstrators nationwide, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, turned out for the No Kings protest. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't express how much I hate Donald Trump, and I think that he's just ruining our country. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He cares nothing about America. He cares nothing about the American people. He cares nothing about the people of the world. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: So, the front page of "The New York Times" today: "Will primal scream of No Kings echo in the voting booth?" And I think that's the question for your party right now. Does this actually mean anything? ALLISON: Wow. Look, if you remember after... TAPPER: It's not my work. ALLISON: I know, I know, I know. The reason why I said tangentially is also because there were events throughout the entire weekend. I did some stuff on Friday. There's a couple things today that I will be most likely participating in. But, look, if you remember, after the 2024 election, everybody was like, where's the resistance? Nobody's taking to the streets. Democrats are like, they're defeated. They feel exhausted. They know they are not like the way of the American people. And I think people like myself said, well, when you lose, it's right to take a step back and say, is marching the only thing that is going to get people to rally around you? We saw first Hands Off a year ago. Then we saw No Kings around the president's birthday. And now we see this. And I think what the important -- I don't know if this will ring in the voting booths. I know that some of the policies the Republicans are passing is what might actually be the thing that makes Americans not support them in the midterms. But what a protest like this shows is that there are so many people at home being like, I don't like this. And they think they're by themselves sometimes saying that. And when you have millions of people peacefully go out, rock stars, Bruce Springsteen, Jane Fonda, all these folks coming out and saying, we don't like it either, we're not in isolation, it shows a unifying force that could be powerful. TAPPER: Did you go to a No Kings rally? SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM: I did. I went to six. And I will tell you, there's so much excitement. There's so much energy. SCOTT JENNINGS: Six? SUBRAMANYAM: Yes. JENNINGS: That's a lot of free speech for a country with a king. (CROSSTALK)  SUBRAMANYAM: You should come. I will get you a T-shirt. You should come. JENNINGS: That's a lot of free speech for a country with a king. SUBRAMANYAM: That's a lot of free speech. And I will tell you, there's so much excitement and there's so much energy. We didn't have that a couple of years ago. And there's also people -- I met someone who was a Republican actually at the rally, who is -- because of the Iran war, he said he will never vote for a Republican now because of what's going on. TAPPER: Do you worry that the Iran... NANCY MACE: I did not go to a No Kings rally. SUBRAMANYAM: You didn't? Oh... (CROSSTALK) SUBRAMANYAM: We will invite you next time. (CROSSTALK) TAPPER: Do you worry that the Iran war is going to help Democrats? MACE: Well, I come from a military family. I come from a military district. I worry about the impact of war on our troops and our sons and daughters that we're sending into war. They deserve an answer to, how does this end? I don't make decisions, obviously, based on what elections look like. I don't think any of us should. This is something I take -- that has such deep gravity and a seriousness. I think it is insulting to equate it to elections. I just -- this is serious. We want to take out terrorists. We want to take out Iran's nukes. We want to make sure they don't have uranium. And we want to do it with the lowest impact on American soldiers, our sons and daughters from Hampton, South Carolina, Bamberg, small towns across the country, the poorest of all Americans, those are the ones that we're sending into war. JAKE TAPPER: Last word? SCOTT JENNINGS: These- these No Kings rallies actually look pretty representative to me of the Democratic coalition. I saw people flying the hammer and sickle in New York City. I saw Hezbollah flags. I saw Hamas flags. I saw Palestinian flags. I saw trans signs. I see weirdo liberal boomers out there. This is pretty representative of the Democratic coalition. And that's who funds it as well, by the way. And so I think -- I think -- I think -- I think if, if America looks at this and says, what do the two parties stand for, they got it at the No Kings rallies. (CROSSTALK) ASHLEY ALLISON: No, I think if you knew Americans were out there, you were out there, Republicans are saying... JENNINGS: You like hammer and sickle? You like hammer and sickle flags? ALLISON: That's- that’s not what that No Kings stood for.  JENNINGS: They had a bunch of them. ALLISON: And you know that. JENNINGS: They come from somewhere out there. ALLISON: And that is… No, Scott. No. NANCY MACE: A lot of commie flags out there. TAPPER: Thanks- thank you, one and all. Appreciate- I should have ended it on your nice note. (LAUGHTER)   March 29th, 2026 7:07 PM Jorge Bonilla 294496 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2026/03/29/ms-nows-no-kings-cringe-reel-reporter-jacob-soboroff-drags Saturday's edition of MS NOW’s The Weekend: Primetime turned its “No Kings” protest coverage into a cringe reel. It began with a narrative setup that immediately collapsed. Ayman Mohyeldin teed up his co-host Antonia Hylton to describe Trump voters who had supposedly turned against him and joined the protests. Problem: Hylton hadn’t actually found any. ANTONIA HYLTON: “Today, I didn’t specifically talk to anyone in the crowd who had voted for Trump in the past…” So much for that narrative. But the real spectacle came live from Los Angeles, where correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s man-on-the-street routine quickly went off the rails. It was "incredible," it may be "historic." Let's guess few people remember the last one of these, despite all the elitist media boosterism.  Soboroff began by literally grabbing a woman by the arm and pulling her into the camera frame—only to learn she was a federal employee who didn’t want to be identified. SOBOROFF: Come here. Come here. Come on! Come here! Come here! . . . What’s your name? PROTESTER: I work for the federal government. SOBOROFF: Oh… well… stand this way… Sorry to pull you in there like that. Yes—he actually had to apologize for physically dragging a protester into the shot. Moments later, Soboroff tried stopping another passerby: SOBOROFF: Is this your first protest? MAN: I’m not trying to. SOBOROFF: He doesn’t want to… [nervous laugh] Another swing and a miss. WATCH: MS NOW Reporter Drags No Kings Protester Into Shot pic.twitter.com/rNqUnR285P — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) March 29, 2026 Soboroff also had the odd habit of introducing himself to protesters, as if networking at a cocktail party rather than covering a live protest. SOBOROFF: What's your name? PROTESTER: Farah Abdullahi. SOBOROFF: It’s really nice to meet you. I’m Jacob. The reaction: visible confusion. But Soboroff ran into a professional: LinkedIn matches Abdullahi as a Lead Organizer for Service Employees International Union, Local 2015. And just in case viewers hadn’t noticed the overexposure, Soboroff himself did—apologizing to the hosts for monopolizing airtime: “I know you have a show to do…” No kidding. Between the nonexistent ex-Trump voters, the arm-grabbing, the on-air apologies, and the awkward meet-and-greets, MS NOW’s big “nationwide protest” showcase landed less like a historic moment—and more like a chaotic, self-parodying mess. Here's the transcript. MS NOW The Weekend: Primetime 3/28/26 6:08 pm EDT AYMAN MOHYELDIN: I wanted to get your thoughts on the diversity of the crowd, politically speaking. You know, we mentioned that there are protests taking place in 3,000 different areas or cities across this country.  But we've also been speaking to a lot of people who at one point supported Trump and now feel somewhat betrayed by him, whether it's about the Iran war or farmers and people who are being hurt by the tariff policies that he's enacted.  I'm wondering if you came across people who may have voted for Trump, supported Trump, but felt the need to be out here now because they did not anticipate his overreach in any of these areas or some of the bad policies that he's enacted.  ANTONIA HYLTON: Today, I didn't specifically talk to anyone in the crowd who had voted for Trump in the past. But at the last one back in October, I did have those conversations.  . . .  JACOB SOBOROFF: An incredible day where we're waiting to see if the numbers will be as historic as they have been time after time here.  And I continue just to meet the guys.  Come over here. I was just, come here. Come here. Come here. Come on! Come here! Come here! I just want to see you from behind the camera [pulls her by the arm into the shot.] What's your name? Come over here. Stay right next to me.  PROTESTER: I work for the federal government.  SOBOROFF: Oh, well, then stand this way or whatever. She gave up the info. You are incredible. It's incredible to be out here with you. Thank you so much for talking to me.  Nice to meet you. Sorry to pull you in there like that.  PROTESTER II: We have three branches of government equal in power to check each other, and there's none of that right now, and that's so disgusting.  SOBOROFF: I hear that over and over again. It feels like authoritarianism. It feels like There are no checks and balances in this country. What's your name? Eve? Really nice to meet you. I'm Jacob. Have a good time. Be safe out here today.  . . .  All right. Thank you. Let's keep going just a little bit because I know, guys, you've got a show to do. But it's too important not to hear from people out on the streets.  [Stops man walking through crowd] Is this your first protest?  MAN: I'm not trying to.  SOBOROFF: He doesn't want to [nervous laughter.] . . .  [To protester sitting on the ground] Are you taking a little breather on the floor?  PROTESTER III: A little bit. Just for a second.  SOBOROFF: It's hot out there. What's your name?  PROTESTER III: Farah Abdullahi.  SOBOROFF: It's really nice to meet you. I'm Jacob. Thanks so much. [Protester seems befuddled by Soboroff's gesture.] March 29th, 2026 3:40 PM Mark Finkelstein 294492 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jorge-bonilla/2026/03/29/omission-sunday-shows-mostly-ignore-dem-congresswomans-ethics The Elitist Media continue to circle their wagons around embattled Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), providing near-zero coverage of the latest episode in this ongoing saga. The omission campaign has now extended to the Sunday political affairs shows which, with one exception, a throwaway segment on CBS’s Face the Nation. If you had Margaret Brennan being the sole Sunday host to ask an elected Democrat about l’affaire Cherfilus-McCormick, kindly make your way to the cashier’s window and collect your winnings. Watch the exchange below: The Sunday shows joined their network evening news counterparts in completely burying the House Ethics Committee finding Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) guilty of 25 ethics violations. The sole mention- a throwaway question to Jim Himes on CBS's Face the Nation. MARGARET… pic.twitter.com/o2qgpz8UGK — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 29, 2026 MARGARET BRENNAN: Before I let you go, Democrats have been making corruption a theme in their campaign against the President and to win back control of the house. Your fellow Democrat, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida has been found guilty on 25 ethics charges related to stealing millions of dollars in COVID relief money. Should she resign? Should she be expelled? JIM HIMES: You know, if she doesn't resign, there will be a vote in the House, and you know, people will find reasons to support the congresswoman, just as Republicans found reasons to support George Santos-- BRENNAN: Should she resign?  HIMES: --at a time when we're at war, when gas prices are too high, that shouldn't happen. So I would hope that my colleague might avoid that outcome by choosing to resign. But it is also very important that both parties be consistent in punishing ethical lapses inside their own teams. BRENNAN: Okay, you hope she resigns. Thank you, Congressman, for all your insights today. We have to leave it there. We'll be right back. On the one hand: Brennan’s question is a significant improvement from the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mention the scandal drew on CBS Saturday Morning. On the other, this was a “before you go” question- a throwaway at the end of an interview that was mostly about the ongoing DHS shutdown and the military operation in Iran. No other Sunday show dared mention the Cherfilus-McCormick matter to their Democrat guests or discuss it in their Beltway panels. In the case of ABC’s This Week, host Jon Karl mentioned Florida’s special elections in their panel discussion within the context of the upcoming midterms- but not Cherfilus-McCormick. This story simply does not fit within that narrative, or any other. We continue to be reminded that were it not for double standards, there would be none at all when it comes to the Elitist Media. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, March 29th, 2026: MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Jim Himes, who joins us from Greenwich, Connecticut. Good morning to you.  JIM HIMES: Good morning, Margaret. BRENNAN: So you just heard the border czar, the White House representative here, make his argument. Politically speaking, though. I mean, the shutdown was intended by Democrats to try to constrain ICE and how it had been acting. But practically speaking, ICE is already funded. In fact, it's one of the few DHS entities where people are getting paid because they had so much funding from the President's last bill, and now their portfolio is expanding because they're in American airports across the country. So what did Democrats get out of this standoff? HIMES: Yeah, well, Margaret, the standoff is not done yet, right? The President is illegally paying, apparently, TSA agents. You had the Senate, as you pointed out, with Mr. Honan- Homan, pass a bipartisan bill unanimously in the United States Senate to say, look, let's fund everybody else, and let's deal with this thorny issue about ICE. And then you had the Republican House say, hell no, we're not doing that. And by the way, mock their own Republican leaders in the Senate. So look what- this thing is still very much live for one very simple reason. We can talk about House, Senate, changing law, for one very simple reason, which is that the vast majority of Americans look at the way ICE behaved with the murder of two American citizens, with the constant knocking down of doors of American citizens without warrants, people dressed like they are, you know, airlifting into Fallujah to do the legitimate work of going after illegal aliens in this country, and they say that is not okay, and that's our position. Our position is very simply, we want ICE to act like the police force that they are, and that fight is not won yet. And look, I'm sorry it got tied up. I'm sorry that the Republicans on one side of the Capitol said this was a good idea, and on the other side of the Capitol. They called it a joke, but we're ready to negotiate around something that is not a radical demand. We just want ICE to act like proper police officers. BRENNAN: So in the meantime, the president's redirecting existing funding to pay TSA agents. You said he was illegally paying them. You believe that he is violating the law in this interpretation that the White House says they have?  HIMES: Well, it's not that I believe it, it's that I know it, right? I mean, if there's one power that Congress has, it is the power of the purse. Now this president has, of course, consistently and universally said that he in fact has that power-- BRENNAN: --So they shouldn't be paid? HIMES: --but any American that went through fourth grade civics- no, they should be paid. This- they should have never been held hostage. And we had a deal come out unanimously from the Senate, that if it had passed right now, they would be getting paid, and we wouldn't be talking about the constitutional power of the purse. But Mike Johnson, leader of the House of Representatives, said hell no to what his Republicans in the Senate said yes to.  BRENNAN: So there were three Democrats, though, who got on board with Speaker Johnson the House version of this bill, even without any new accountability measures in it, Congresswoman Glusenkamp Perez says she did so because she thinks it's wrong not to pay people for their work, and Democrats had set unattainable goals. She says since the White House was agreeing to things like body cameras- doesn't she have a point here that there is, as she put it, 'ideological purity' that's getting in the way of working people? HIMES: So this is not a question of ideological purity. And I agree with Marie on one point, which is the people shouldn't be held hostage. And we can come back to that. But this is not extreme demands by any stretch of the imagination. Again, we're asking that guys not dress like Navy SEALs when they go into Minneapolis. We're asking that they wear badges the way every other police officer does, that they have warrants when they break down doors.  BRENNAN: And some of those things have been agreed to-- HIMES: This is not ideological purity. This is basic adherence to the law- yeah, well, okay, so it's all agreed to, let's pass the law which codifies it. Because you know what, we don't trust the president when he says, okay, no masks any more than we trust him when he says, oh, well, now I'm negotiating with the Iranians when he's not, right? So if this is so easy, fine, let's codify it into law. But they're not, you know- they're not willing to do that. Now, where Maria's right, and this is important, we have gotten too used to using shutdowns as a mechanism of getting what we want legislatively. And what that implies is that people like TSA agents or folks that work in the federal government for the Department of Agriculture or- don't get paid when one party throws a tantrum, right? Now, in this case, I happen to believe that the American people- you know are with the Democratic Party and saying you don't get to act like ICE acted in Minneapolis, but we do need to get away from legislating through shutdown that is not consonant with the great country that we are. BRENNAN: Well, and they just want their airports and basic government to work. But on the point you raised, you said that the President's not really negotiating with Iran is that because you haven't been briefed as a member of Congress on the diplomacy. Or you think he's flat out lying? HIMES: I think he's flat out lying last Sunday, when he was told- and by the way, we're in exactly the same position today, you know, oil prices now $112 a barrel. And you know futures in the stock market down 2%. Last Sunday, he realized, oh my God, I've got a financial cataclysm on Monday. So he just made it up that they're in negotiations with the Iranians. Look underneath that statement, the Iranians have now realized that they have the reins. They are controlling the Strait of Hormuz. Gasoline prices are up more than $1 a gallon, and so the Iranians realize, holy smokes, we've got a lot of leverage here.  BRENNAN: In Islamabad today, there are a number of mediators who are in contact with the United States saying they're talking about Iran. But neither the United States nor Iran are at that table at this moment in time. But further on, the Iran point, I know you care about what's happening in Ukraine. Notably, President Zelensky of Ukraine has been in the Gulf in these past few days, and he said yesterday that Russia is providing satellite imagery to Iran, and that imagery consists of U.S. military bases. He also said Russia is giving signals intelligence and electronic intelligence to Iran. Do you know of evidence that Russia is actively helping Iran in its war against the United States?  HIMES: Well, I have to be a little careful about this Margaret, because I do review the intelligence, and I obviously can't speak about things that are classified, but boy, I would sure not argue with President Zelensky on that point. And I would ask the American people to think about what do you think Putin is doing right now? Over four years, we have been, rightly, in my estimation, helping the Ukrainians exact a terrible toll on the Russians. So what do you think is happening? Meanwhile, as you know, we are letting the Iranians, so now the Iranians are getting billions of dollars sell their oil to the Chinese so that they can buy drones from the Russians. We're letting the Russians sell oil so that they can get dollars to attack the Ukrainians and use those dollars to attack- to help attack our troops. I mean, you just couldn't make this stuff up in a Hollywood script. BRENNAN: Well, Secretary Rubio was asked about the degree of aid Russia is giving to Iran, and he minimized it. He says it's not making a difference on the battlefield. I know the French, I know the British have said that Russia and Iran are helping each other on drones here. When you heard Secretary Rubio's statement, what did you think he meant? HIMES: I think it is very much in Marco Rubio's interest as one of the chief cheerleaders of this war that the American people are now coming to realize is a catastrophe, another quagmire for Marco Rubio to say things like, oh, they're not making a difference. Well, I don't agree with Marco Rubio on that point. You know, the Russians have capabilities, things like using basic satellite technology, which you can do commercially, by the way, to find our aircraft carriers. Our military bases in the region, Margaret, right now are supposedly uninhabitable. Why do you think that is? BRENNAN: Before I let you go, Democrats have been making corruption a theme in their campaign against the President and to win back control of the house. Your fellow Democrat, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida has been found guilty on 25 ethics charges related to stealing millions of dollars in COVID relief money. Should she resign? Should she be expelled? HIMES: You know, if she doesn't resign, there will be a vote in the House, and you know, people will find reasons to support the congresswoman, just as Republicans found reasons to support George Santos-- BRENNAN: Should she resign?  HIMES: --at a time when we're at war, when gas prices are too high, that shouldn't happen. So I would hope that my colleague might avoid that outcome by choosing to resign. But it is also very important that both parties be consistent in punishing ethical lapses inside their own teams. BRENNAN: Okay, you hope she resigns. Thank you, Congressman, for all your insights today. We have to leave it there. We'll be right back.   March 29th, 2026 3:27 PM Jorge Bonilla 294495 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2026/03/29/fcc-chairman-brendan-carr-cpac-trumps-winning-against-fake-news While they celebrate the leftist "No Kings" protests this weekend, the Left is monitoring the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas. Mediaite was alarmed by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's comments about how "President Trump is taking on the fake news media, and President Trump is winning." Leftists are horrified that the supposed "independent agency" is aligning itself with the president -- as if that's never happened at the FCC. But Democrat FCC chairs are only a soothing presence for the DNC Media. FCC Chair: Trump is winning. Look at the results—PBS and NPR defunded. Joy Reid, Sleepy-Eyed Chuck Todd, Jim Acosta, John Dickerson are gone. Colbert is leaving. CBS is under new ownership, and soon enough CNN will have new ownership as well. pic.twitter.com/8kdrG5T3GP — Acyn (@Acyn) March 27, 2026 Carr explained Trump's actions: “When he ran for office, he ran directly at the fake news media. So many other politicians and Americans simply gave way to the legacy national media. They let the legacy media set the narrative, and President Trump smashed the façade. He said, ‘You don’t get to decide what we say, what we think, how we’re gonna vote inside the voting booth.’ President Trump took on the fake news media, and President Trump is winning.” The elitist media are used to setting the agenda for both parties, and Republicans have traditionally sought to roll with the punches the media were throwing. Trump hasn't allowed the press to set the agenda, especially in the second term.  Carr continued: “Look at the results so far. PBS — defunded. NPR — defunded. Joy Reid — gone from MSNBC. Sleepy-eyed Chuck Todd — gone. Jim Acosta — gone. John Dickerson — gone. Colbert is leaving. CBS is under new ownership, and soon enough, CNN is gonna have new ownership as well.” Cheers could be heard. Oracle founder Larry Ellison and his son David acquired CBS, and are now in the process of getting CNN, too.  “So, we’re not at the point yet where we’re raising the ‘mission accomplished’ flag, but President Trump is taking on the fake news media, and President Trump is winning,” Carr concluded. This is definitely a dramatic list of changes, but for anyone like us who monitors media content every day, there hasn't been a noticeable evolution in the nature of the "news." It's still hyper-negative in its approach to Trump, even if some vocal hosts and reporters ended up on Substack. CBS News isn't "MAGA-coded," no matter what the Daily Beast says. Defunding PBS and NPR was certainly a victory -- so that conservatives and Republicans aren't funding their opposition media. But their programs are still incessantly left-tilted. It's certainly premature to declare a victory, but it's also true that the leftists feel quite demoralized about the trends in media, which they like to portray as creeping authoritarianism. They pose as the saviors of democracy, and when they lose, so does democracy. They want Democrats to retake control of Congress, and then they'll feel like they have their mojo again. March 29th, 2026 1:29 PM Tim Graham 294493 https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/brad-wilmouth/2026/03/29/fox-news-covers-murder-illegal-alien-chicago-allowed-biden Over the past week, Fox News has given daily updates on the case of an 18-year-old woman, Sheridan Gorman, who was murdered on March 19 in Chicago by an illegal alien who was allowed to enter the U.S. under the Joe Biden administration. Furthermore, while MS NOW and CNN have ignored the story, Fox also reported that, in spite of being arrested in Chicago for shoplifting, he was never turned over to ICE for deportation or even arrested when he failed to show up in court. Fox has been covering the case since the killing first happened on Thursday, March 19, and, on Sunday, first informed viewers that the alleged perpetrator is an illegal alien, Jose Medina-Medina, who is from Venezuela. For example, on Monday's Fox & Friends, reporter Todd Piro related: Police arresting 25-year-old Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina in connection to the shooting of 18-year-old college student Sheridan Gorman. Now the Venezuelan migrant has been officially charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, and multiple counts of felony aggravated assault. Now, the Department of Homeland Security saying Medina-Medina had been arrested twice before in 2023, but was released back into the United States under former President Joe Biden. Later on The Story, Fox host Martha MacCallum recounted: Venezuelan migrant Jose Medina, the Department of Homeland Security says in May of 2023 he was apprehended by the Border Patrol and released into the United States. Shortly after that, he was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, but he still got to stay in the country, and he was released on bond -- and then, surprise, surprise, he never showed up for his court appearance. She then noted that the murder happened in the same area where Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) went for a walk in September and made a big deal about claiming that it was safe even though he was walking in the early morning rather than at night. Here's MacCallum: "...and it is the same lake front that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker touted as very safe and said everyone's making too big of a deal out of crime in Chicago back in September." Later in the day, Fox host Laura Ingraham also played clips of Governor Pritzker claiming the area was safe. On Tuesday's The Faulkner Focus, reporter Garrett Tenney informed viewers that facial recognition technology had helped crack the case as he recalled the poor timing by some Democrats in the legislature of trying to bar the use of such technology in spite of its usefulness. And by Thursday, Fox was reporting that Governor Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson finally commented on the case, leading to Gorman's family issuing a statement criticizing the lame reactions by the two Democrats. On America's Newsroom, co-host Dana Perino related: And this story, the family of Sheridan Gorman -- the college student who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant -- issuing a new statement. They're taking aim at Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson over their responses to Sheridan's murder. After noting that neither Democrat had contacted the Gorman family, reporter Garrett Tenney recalled: Now, the Gorman family is responding, saying this about Governor Pritzker: "We appreciate that he has now, five days after our daughter Sheridan's murder, that he has finally spoken publicly about Sheridan. But Sheridan's death cannot be reduced to a general 'tragedy,' nor can it be explained away by broad references to failures somewhere else. Sheridan was a daughter, a sister, and a young woman whose life was taken in a way that should never have been possible. This was not abstract. It was preventable." Tenney went on to read the family's statement directed at Mayor Johnson, and noted that the Democratic mayor this week went ahead with plans to introduce a new snow plow provocatively named with an anti-ICE slogan -- "ABOLISH ICE" -- which was the winner of a local contest.   Transcripts follow: Fox's Special Report with Bret Baier March 19, 2026 6:11 p.m. Eastern JOHN ROBERTS: Fox 32 in Chicago as a Loyola University student is fatally shot early this morning. Police say the woman was walking with friends when a masked suspect started shooting in their direction. Police have not announced any arrests. (...) Fox & Friends March 23, 2026 6:16 a.m. Eastern AINSLEY EARHARDT: An illegal Venezuelan migrant is due in court this morning facing charges for the murder of this Loyola University student. BRIAN KILMEADE: So Todd Piro has more details. Todd? TODD PIRO: Good morning to all three of you. Police arresting 25-year-old Venezuelan national Jose Medina-Medina in connection to the shooting of 18-year-old college student Sheridan Gorman. Now the Venezuelan migrant has been officially charged with first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, and multiple counts of felony aggravated assault. Now, the Department of Homeland Security saying Medina-Medina had been arrested twice before in 2023, but was released back into the United States under former President Joe Biden. The family of Gorman saying in a statement, quote: "We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime. When systems fail -- whether through release decisions, lack of coordination or unwillingness to act, the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent." (...) The Story with Martha MacCallum March 23, 2026 3:52 p.m. Eastern MARTHA MacCALLUM: Venezuelan migrant Jose Medina, the Department of Homeland Security says in May of 2023 he was apprehended by the Border Patrol and released into the United States. Shortly after that, he was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, but he still got to stay in the country, and he was released on bond -- and then, surprise, surprise, he never showed up for his court appearance. This is an old and very tragic story when it comes to this young woman and her grieving family. This is Sheridan Gorman -- 18 years. She was a freshman at Loyola in Chicago starting her whole life -- her college career out for a walk with friends by the lake -- and it is the same lake front that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker touted as very safe and said everyone's making too big of a deal out of crime in Chicago back in September. GOVERNOR JB PRITZKER (D-IL), dated September 24: Here on the South Side, early morning, lots of runners coming by on the Lakefront path -- Lakefront Trail, absolutely gorgeous... (...) The Ingraham Angle March 23, 2026 PRITZGER: Here I am on the path of the lakefront at 6 a.m. on a Monday, and we got a lot of people running, having a great time. Doesn't feel like a hell hole here. LAURA INGRAHAM: Well, tell that to the family of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman... (...) The Faulkner Focus March 24, 2026 11:03 a.m. GARRETT TENNEY: This man has been on police's radar now for years. Jose Medina had a judge issue an arrest warrant for -- more than two and a half years ago after he stole $132 worth of merchandise from a Macy's store in downtown Chicago. He got released on bail and then never showed up to court again. At the time, he was living in one of the city's migrant shelters, receiving housing, clothes, food and medical care all on the taxpayers' dime. (...) TENNEY: Police were able to use surveillance video to track 25-year-old -- this 25-year-old Venezuelan from this pier where he allegedly killed Sheridan Gorman just a few blocks away to his apartment. And from there, they were able to use facial recognition software to positively identify the Venezuelan national. Despite that, today, the Illinois lawmaker representing the same area is pushing a bill to ban the use of that kind of facial recognition software by police. Democratic Chicago alderman Raymond Lopez says bills like this send a clear message to criminals that they can get away with anything, including murder. RAYMOND LOPEZ, CHICAGO ALDERMAN: What the hell is wrong with these people when this happens? How can you with a straight face look your constituents in the eye and say, "This is the perfect time for me to outlaw the use of cameras and biometric technology even though I know it helped solve this murder?" (...) America's Newsroom March 26, 2026 9:06 a.m. DANA PERINO: And this story, the family of Sheridan Gorman -- the college student who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant -- issuing a new statement. They're taking aim at Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson over their responses to Sheridan's murder. So Garrett Tenney has the latest from Chicago. Hi, Garrett. GARRETT TENNEY: Yeah, Dana, good morning to you. Sheridan Gorman was killed one week ago today, and still neither Mayor Brandon Johnson nor Governor JB Pritzker have reached out to her family. It took them both days to even acknowledge her death allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant. And when they finally did, both men tried to shift the blame from their own sanctuary policies to President Trump. Now, the Gorman family is responding, saying this about Governor Pritzker: "We appreciate that he has now, five days after our daughter Sheridan's murder, that he has finally spoken publicly about Sheridan. But Sheridan's death cannot be reduced to a general 'tragedy,' nor can it be explained away by broad references to failures somewhere else. Sheridan was a daughter, a sister, and a young woman whose life was taken in a way that should never have been possible. This was not abstract. It was preventable." The family also had some strong words for Mayor Johnson who's facing a lot of criticism, including from some folks in the crowd yesterday for unveiling the city's new snow plow named "ABOLISH ICE" less than a week after Sheridan's murder. MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON (D-CHICAGO): I want to take this moment to reiterate that Chicago does not want ICE on our streets, in our airports, nor in our city. Chicago believes in abolishing ICE. March 29th, 2026 11:45 AM Brad Wilmouth 294490