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Erasing Little Italy Is About More Than a Map #Political

2026-07-15T17:31:48.149-07:00

https://ift.tt/t1ZKpWA

New York City has long been celebrated as a city of immigrant neighborhoods. Little Italy, Chinatown, Harlem, Washington Heights, Brighton Beach - these communities tell the story of generations of newcomers who helped build America’s largest city while gradually becoming part of it.

That history makes one omission from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recently released map of immigrant communities particularly striking.

Little Italy wasn’t there.

Instead, the map highlighted a series of neighborhoods identified as “Little Pakistan,” “Little Senegal,” “Little Yemen” and even “Little Palestine.” City Hall defended the project by saying it was never intended to identify religious enclaves but rather neighborhoods with substantial foreign-born populations from around the world.

That explanation raises an obvious question: If the goal was to recognize immigrant communities, how does one leave out perhaps the most iconic immigrant neighborhood in New York City?

Little Italy is more than a tourist destination. It represents one of the defining chapters in the city’s history - a reminder of the millions of Italian immigrants who arrived in America, endured discrimination, built businesses and eventually became woven into the fabric of American life. Omitting it while highlighting far newer and, in some cases, unofficial neighborhood designations sends a message, whether intended or not, about which immigrant stories deserve recognition.

The omission also fits a broader pattern.

During the protests of 2020, Mamdani posted a photograph of himself making an obscene gesture toward a statue of Christopher Columbus, accompanied by the caption, “Take it down.” Columbus has become a lightning rod in America’s culture wars, but for many Italian Americans, his monuments represent more than one historical figure. They symbolize a community that fought for acceptance in a country where Italians were once treated as outsiders.

Seen through that lens, leaving Little Italy off the map appears less like an oversight than another step in distancing the city from parts of its own heritage.

Questions about Mamdani’s priorities extend beyond symbolism.

According to reporting by City Journal, New York City’s Office for International Affairs recently scheduled a meeting between Commissioner Ana Maria Archila and Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. The meeting was reportedly canceled after intervention from higher authorities, and the State Department reminded city officials that foreign policy is conducted by the federal government, not municipal governments.

The same reporting also alleged that staff within the mayor’s international affairs office were instructed to “prioritize diplomatic engagement” with governments viewed as politically aligned with the administration. Among the examples cited were efforts to engage officials connected to Iran and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, as well as participation in conferences hosted by the Party of European Socialists.

Whether one agrees with those priorities or not, they raise legitimate questions about the role a city government should play on the international stage. New York has every reason to maintain relationships with foreign governments and international institutions, particularly as host to the United Nations. But conducting diplomacy based primarily on ideological affinity rather than municipal interests risks blurring the line between city governance and foreign policy.

Supporters dismiss these concerns by arguing that a mayor’s authority is limited. They contend that campaign rhetoric often exceeds what any municipal executive can realistically accomplish.

History, however, offers plenty of examples of political leaders using local offices to reshape institutions, influence public culture, and redirect investment long before they gain broader power.

Indeed, some investors have already expressed concern about New York’s political direction. If businesses and property owners begin viewing the city as increasingly hostile to investment or economic growth, those perceptions alone can influence where capital flows.

Ultimately, the controversy over Little Italy is not simply about a map. It reflects competing visions of what New York represents.

One vision sees the city as the culmination of generations of immigrants who arrived from around the world and gradually forged a common American identity. The other places greater emphasis on preserving distinct identities and highlighting newer communities while giving less attention to older ones that have largely assimilated.

A map tells a story about what matters, what deserves recognition, and what belongs in a city’s collective memory. When one of New York’s most historic immigrant neighborhoods disappears from that story, people are right to ask why. Whether intentional or accidental, erasing Little Italy from the city’s official narrative risks erasing part of New York’s own history. And if history is any guide, today’s symbolic omissions often foreshadow tomorrow’s political priorities.

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.

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NYT’s Mara Gay Labels Trump Officials 'White Supremacists' Over ICE #Political

2026-07-15T04:31:51.030-07:00

https://www.newsbusters.orgMorning Joe-6_11_14 am-2026-07-14.jpg

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, the MS NOW’s morning talk program led with the news of an ICE-involved shooting death in Maine. Frequent guest and The New York Times opinion writer Mara Gay used the shooting discussion to label “many” Trump officials as “white supremacists” before she related the shooting to the removal of Temporary Protected Status and “anti-democratic behavior.”

Gay continued the Scarborough-led conversation of the Maine shooting, similar to last Friday when he screamed at ICE funding and “Don’t Tread on Me” license plates.

She started by saying she was not a Maine resident nor an immigrant, but she was a “proud American.” Gay then stated, “This administration has made every single American complicit in these deaths.”

Scarborough then connected back to ICE funding and related the situation back to moderate Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins. He remarked about Collins and other Republicans: “They’ve sat back and let this happen.”

Frequent Morning Joe guest and New York Times Opinion Writer Mara Gay labeled some Trump Administration officials as "white supremacists" who "don't care" about the politics after ICE-involved shootings. She continued, "They're cruel, and this is what they want." pic.twitter.com/h3JvExJiJE
— Nick (@nspin310) July 14, 2026

Gay labeled some officials in the Trump administration, who she called hardliners, as “white supremacists.”

"But the other thing here is the hardliners in this administration. They don't care about the politics because many of them are white supremacists and they don't care,” she continued. ”They're cruel, and this is what they want.

The writer then connected the ICE shooting to the removal of TPS status of Haitian and Syrians in the US, after the Supreme Court ruled DHS could remove temporary statuses.

She wondered: “Why is this administration doing something that is so obviously bad politics in addition to cruel and un-American?”

In close of her white supremacist accusation, she implied immigration policies were part of “all the anti-democratic behavior from this White House.”

CNN This Morning's Audie Cornish also talked about the Maine shooting and asked if ICE has acted differently or if the shootings revealed "a little bit of a standing operating procedure here." pic.twitter.com/NVktc4O5Rb
— Nick (@nspin310) July 14, 2026

CNN This Morning also covered the shooting in Maine, and host Audie Cornish asked if the recent shootings revealed “a little bit of a standing operating procedure” of ICE.

Instead of true talk on the shooting in Maine, Gay took the opportunity to opine about democracy and white supremacy, which was not surprising due to her history of comments on Morning Joe, as previously documented by NewsBusters.

The white supremacy claim had little to no relation to the shooting issue at hand, and her comments were more about her own views on immigrants, especially those in the country illegally.

Paired with Cornish’s allegation of ICE shooting as “standing operating procedure” of ICE, the morning cable news shows' reaction to the events in Maine showcased the renewed build-up of immigration enforcement-dominated news coverage in the lead-up to the midterms.

The transcript is below. Click "expand"

MS NOW’s Morning Joe
July 14, 2026
6:10:41 AM Eastern
(..)
MARA GAY: Right. And I just want to say, you know, I don't live in Maine. I'm not an immigrant, but I'm a proud American. And this administration has made every single American complicit in these deaths. This is happening with our taxpayer dollars that could be going to schools, to health care.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Because of what -
GAY: Because -
SCARBOROUGH: - Susan Maine and Republicans are doing.
GAY: That’s right.
SCARBOROUGH: They’ve sat back and let this happen.
GAY: But the other thing here is the hardliners in this administration. They don't care about the politics because many of them are white supremacists and they don't care. They're cruel, and this is what they want.
This is the same administration that removed protections for Haitians, for Syrians. At the same time, it's allowing more Afrikaners only, white South Africans only, in. So, this is all one of a piece. And when we ask ourselves, why is this administration doing something that is so obviously bad politics in addition to cruel and un-American?
I think we need to really look carefully at all the anti-democratic behavior from this White House, because this is not a popular policy. So why would someone pursue a popular policy in a midterm year?
(...)

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New Lineup of MS NOW Shows Aren't Catching On, They're Falling Off! #Political

2026-07-14T15:31:50.657-07:00

https://ift.tt/ZUO1pEK

MSNBC became MS NOW, and while they try to take comfort in routinely spanking CNN, they perennially lose in the ratings to the Fox News Channel. Their strongest stars are Rachel Maddow (only on Monday nights) and Nicolle Wallace in the late afternoon.

Recently, they shook up the lineup with new shows, and these new shows aren’t catching on. New Nielsen numbers show they're falling off, in some cases with double-digit declines:

-- Money, Power & Politics with Stephanie Ruhle airs weekdays from 9 to 11 a.m.) has averaged 710,000 total viewers, a 6 percent decline compared to the 9 a.m.-11 a.m. year-to-date timeslot prior to the lineup change. Among the 25-54 demographic, the program is down 16 percent, averaging 68,000 viewers.

-- On the Line with Alicia Menendez (weekdays from noon to 2 p.m.) has averaged 602,000 total viewers, a 5 percent decrease compared to the YTD timeslot prior to the programming remix. Among the 25-54 set, it is down 15 percent, averaging 56,000 viewers.

-- The Moment with Katy Tur (weekdays from 2 to 4 p.m.) has averaged 718,000 total viewers, a 5 percent decrease compared to the YTD timeslot prior to the programming changes. Among those aged 25-54, it is down 15 percent, averaging 60,000 viewers.

It isn't better at night.

-- The Weeknight with hosts Symone Sanders, Michael Steele, and now Luke Russert replacing Menendez, airs weeknights from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. It's averaging 1 million total viewers, down 9 percent compared to the YTD timeslot prior to the big changes. Among the 25-54 segment, it is down 27 percent, averaging 93,000 viewers.

-- The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi (weekdays from 11 p.m. to midnight and is averaging 753,000 total viewers, down 6 percent compared to the YTD timeslot prior to the programming changes. Among the viewers who are 25-54, it is down 12 percent, averaging 86,000 viewers.

Some ratings news is mixed. Morning Joe now airs from 6 to 9 a.m., dropping the fourth hour at 10. The program has averaged 772,000 total viewers, an increase of 2 percent compared to the 6 a.m.-9 a.m. YTD timeslot prior to the lineup change. But among the 25-54 contingent, it is down 14 opercent, averaging 72,000 viewers.

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'The Atlantic' Host: Trump Played Politics on Graham 'Before the Body's Even Cold' #Political

2026-07-14T03:31:42.480-07:00

https://ift.tt/DWPitUX

As a member of the Group Chat on Monday's edition of CNN This Morning , Adam Harris, a podcast host at the adamantly anti-Trump The Atlantic , couldn't resist injecting politics — and doing so in remarkably tasteless fashion — into the discussion of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's death and legacy.

Harris began by recalling the "very sort of vicious campaign" of 2016, when Graham was running for president and trading barbs with Trump. The language was so harsh, Harris said, that if he used such language in a Group Chat, "I'm not necessarily coming back to the group chat after that."

Moments later, the conversation turned to Trump's warm words for Graham. Trump had noted that the senator was "full of vim and vigor" and pushing hard for the Save America Act right up to the end. CNN host Audie Cornish pointed out: "I noticed the president still managed to mention his chief priority right now, the priority that is inadvertently holding up almost everything else."

Harris pounced at that opportunity:

"You know, it's interesting that the president mentioned him as, you know, a great politician. Because he [Trump] immediately starts playing politics as, Lindsey Graham -- before the body's even cold, necessarily, right?"

Harris's comment may not have been vicious, but, without a doubt, it was utterly tasteless.

We'll have to see whether, on that basis, he's barred from the Group Chat.

Then again, it's precisely that kind of tasteless attack on Trump that might score Harris future CNN appearances.

CNN This Morning
7/13/26
6:02 am EDT

AUDIE CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Eleanor Mueller, White House economy policy reporter at Semafor, Elena Schneider, national political reporter at Notus, and Adam Harris, co-host of Radio Atlantic. Thank you guys for being with me here on this Monday morning.

And I have to say, I think it was a surprise and shock to everybody, because Lindsey Graham had very much been on the road. We're going to talk about his foreign policy approach in, later in the show.

But first, I wanna talk about him as reflecting the arc of the Republican Party itself, going from anti-Trump to bear-hug Trump.

Adam, can you talk about sort of how you were thinking about his legacy this morning?

ADAM HARRIS: Yeah. You know, I, I, I -- when you think about the 2016 campaign, it was a very, sort of vicious campaign in terms of, of the language that they were, that they were using to describe each other --

CORNISH: When Graham was running for president --

HARRIS: -- for president, and, and he's, he's calling President Trump all sorts of names, things that, that, you know, if, if we're in a group chat, I'm not, I'm not necessarily coming back to the group chat after that.

CORNISH: Yeah, exactly.

. . .

Lastly, I wanna talk about the the president remembering him. Here was Trump on Sunday, talking to CNN, about what he'd like to see happen next, and his words for the late senator.
[
DONALD TRUMP: He was pushing very, very hard, you probably know, he wanted to do the Save America Act, and he was talking about that. He was full of vim and vigor.

He was tired. He said, "I'm tired, because it's a long trip."

But other than that, he was, he was fine.

CORNISH: I noticed the president still managed to mention his chief priority right now, the priority that is inadvertently holding up almost everything else.

HARRIS: You know, it's interesting that, that the president mentioned him as, you know, a great politician. Because [Trump] immediately starts playing politics as, as soon as, as, Lindsey Graham is -- before the body's even cold, necessarily, right?

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'Young Washington' Outperforms as Liberal Critics Seethe with Anti-Patriotic Rage #Political

2026-07-13T14:31:51.648-07:00

https://bit.ly/4fcnj5r

Hollywood and the MSM assume Americans share their narrow liberal worldview, then act stunned when conservatives like Trump win elections. The box office tells the same story. Critics boost woke flops like Supergirl and sneer at hits like Young Washington, while audiences show up for the latter and the former loses billions.

Produced by Angel Studios, Young Washington focuses on the early life of America's first president:

[embedded content]

Liberal critics are in full anti-patriotism meltdown over the movie, but it keeps doing what the founding father did best- persevering against its foes. In The Wrap, William Bibbiani sneered that the film is "jingoistic" and downplays Washington's slaves:

George Washington is motivated, we learn, by the inequities of his birth. It’s a cruel injustice that he isn’t allowed to go to school or join the British military, just because he wasn’t born with privilege. So he fights to right these wrongs, which would be inspiring were it not for the fact that, by the film’s own admission, he owns ten slaves. And it sure is telling that not only are Washington’s slaves never depicted on-screen, but when they are briefly acknowledged in dialogue — once — they’re described as recipients of his family’s charity.

Washington inherited slaves as a teenager in a world where slavery had existed for millennia across Africa, the Ottomans, and the Americas. But he changed. He restricted the slave trade and freed his slaves in his will, more than most contemporaries did.

The Wrap also raged over a scene depicting a Native leader calling Washington mystically protected after he miraculously survives battle:

And when George Washington is told, point blank, that the Indigenous Peoples of America think he was chosen by the gods to be their land’s savior, you’ll be forgiven for yelling curse words at the screen, or even for throwing up. (Well, I’ll forgive you. The ushers at your local theater may feel differently.)

As for Native Americans, conquest, migration, and divide-and-conquer shaped history long before Europeans arrived, and tribes warred among themselves, too.

Variety was another vocal critic, portraying the film as grade-school "great-man" propaganda:

“Young Washington” is like one of those great-man biographies you read in grade school. Released by Angel Studios for the Fourth of July, the movie is intended as a bit of likably square, neo-traditional, right-wing-adjacent counterprogramming. But say this much for it: In its life-of-an-American-plaster-saint way, Jon Erwin’s coming-of-age military adventure film doesn’t make being George Washington look easier than it was…

“Young Washington” is just competent enough to create that crisp tug of schoolkid patriotism the books we read as children provided. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you’re not an adult confusing feel-good heroism with the lessons of history.

Nothing wrong with that as long as you’re not an adult who wants to erase the good in America’s history just because flaws existed. The left’s fixation on past mistakes is just an attempt to delegitimize our republic. Who’s a threat to democracy again?

The Chicago Tribune dismissed Young Washington as faith-based fluff:

“Young Washington” is produced and distributed by Angel Studios, the faith-based movie studio that churns out films based on true stories that either feature freak accidents, strange illnesses, or more recently, unique stories from the past in which faith in God is a factor. Apparently, our nation’s founding also falls under this umbrella…

Wait… “Apparently” God was a factor in our nation’s founding? Have modern history books been tampered with to the degree that even this basic, indisputable fact is no longer recognized?

The review went on to demand more “nuanced” stories for middle schoolers (code for tearing down the Founders) and labeled the film “propaganda”:

Audiences, including the middle school social studies students, deserve better and more nuanced stories about this country and the values it was built upon…

But what else can you expect from “Young Washington”? It’s propaganda in the form of a history lesson in the shape of a summer blockbuster. If only it were even slightly entertaining — maybe they’ll tackle that in the inevitable sequel.

The values it was built on? You mean Christian values? Yes, students should definitely be taught more about that. The Chicago Tribune shockingly awarded Young Washington only 1.5 out of 4 stars. Yet audiences strongly disagree, as proven with a tremendous 92% viewer score on Rotten Tomatoes, an impressive A from CinemaScore, excellent reviews on IMDb, and $33 million in box-office revenues in its first ten days

Even younger generations are enjoying it as these students demonstrated with chants of “Washington” after viewing it:

Students ERUPT into chants of "Washington!" after watching "Young Washington" at Mount Vernon. pic.twitter.com/xD1SlP10Qv
— Ocean Rasso (@OceanRasso) July 12, 2026

Actor Chris Pratt raved with enthusiastic praise, as well:

Celebrate America’s 250th birthday at the box office!!! There’s a lot of great choices this weekend. But considering it’s July 4 weekend I humbly suggest “Young, Washington.” I was actually blown away. The movie is incredible. Like Braveheart for Americans. Jon Erwin crushed it.… pic.twitter.com/dl1a3Uy39o
— Chris Pratt (@prattprattpratt) July 3, 2026

Critics may wish we’d all feel shame for our country, but Americans are clearly showing their patriotism and love of the grit, bravery, liberty and self-rule that created this great nation. Young Washington is a rousing summer flick reminding us why America remains history's greatest experiment.

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FACTS LAST: Jake Tapper Lets Rosie O'Donnell Say Trump's a Fascist Criminal About to Expire #Political

2026-07-13T01:31:34.444-07:00

https://bit.ly/4pkx0Ds

CNN host Jake Tapper took a loud stand that he wouldn’t allow any 2020 election deniers on his programs. But apparently, 2024 election deniers are totally cool. On his show The Lead on Friday, he performed a puffball interview with Rosie O’Donnell, who claims Trump didn’t win the 2024 election. Worse yet, Tapper egged her on as she insisted Trump is dramatic cognitive decline.

The closest he came to the 2024 election followed her expressions of horror when Trump got the GOP nomination. He noted "because ahead of your one woman show, 'Common Knowledge,' which opens off Broadway for a limited run starting July 22nd, it is a personal story about your move to Dublin, Ireland, with your youngest child. What has that move been like? Do you have any regrets about leaving, or was it clearly the right decision?"

Tapper, who poses as the Facts First hero, pretended the long-running Rosie-Donald feud is somehow a one-way street. He began the segment: “In our Pop Culture Lead, Donald Trump being nasty about Rosie O'Donnell is not a new thing. It goes back quite a ways. And their animosity has been thrust back into the spotlight because not just of that moment during the summer of 2015 and the Republican debates, but more than a decade later, President Trump is still attacking the comedian, actress and former talk show host.”

And he bizarrely tried to claim Rosie’s just being quiet in Ireland, which even Rosie wasn't accepting:

CNN star Jake Tapper proclaimed he wouldn't have any election deniers on his programs, but he broke that promise by fawning over 2024 election denier Rosie O'Donnell on Friday. He didn't ask her about that, but he bizarrely suggested Trump's "obsessed" with her and "nasty" toward… pic.twitter.com/YBhigM45iF
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 12, 2026

TAPPER: Why is he still so fixated on you? You're being quiet in Ireland?

O'DONNELL: Well, I'm not being all that quiet on social media.

TAPPER: Right.

O'DONNELL: You know, I'm standing up for the --

TAPPER: Fair enough.

O'DONNELL: -- country that I love so much, and I'm calling him out at every turn where his blatant criminal behavior in the White House needs to be addressed.

No "fact check" on the "blatant criminal" stuff. Then came Dr. Rosie claiming Trump's going to die before 2028:

TAPPER: When you posted about leaving the U.S. you said you might return when, "it's safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America." Does that mean that when Trump leaves office, presumably January 2029, you'll come back or it depends on who wants the election in 2028?

O'DONNELL: Yes. Well, I don't think, Jake, that he is going to survive that long. All the medical doctors that you can get accurate opinions of what's happening to him because his demise is visible and apparent to everyone who is not willfully blind. I mean, he called Zelenskyy, Putin. He makes the kind of mistakes that you would forgive at Thanksgiving dinner, but you would never let Grandpa cut the turkey because it might be dangerous. He doesn't know what he's saying.

The man who arrived awfully late on the Biden-decline train piled on:

TAPPER: Don't forget he referred to the Islamic Republic of Japan, I think as well.

O'DONNELL: Correct. I mean, we can sit here and name them. There are so many obvious understanding of his dementia and how it's taking over. And I know there are millions of Americans who have lived through parents and loved ones going through exactly what he's going through.

And Tapper just played along as rabid Rosie claimed fascism has arrived in America: "It is an emergency. It's not like fascism might come here. Fascism has already arrived." Then he did the promo again:

TAPPER: So the one woman show is "Common Knowledge." Starts July 22nd off Broadway. And then later in the summer you're also going to be substitute hosting on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Rosie O'Donnell, so great having you. Thank you so much.

O'DONNELL: And thank you, Jake. I appreciate it.

Is this The Drew Barrymore Show? Or is this what the CNN audience wants, complete unchallenged Trump Derangement? Leftist celebrities get to act as political experts, but no one challenges their wildest claims. CNN "fact checker" Daniel Dale isn't going to be "nasty" with Rosie.

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Morning Joe Screams at ICE, Alleges Houston Shooting Conspiracy #Political

2026-07-12T12:31:45.697-07:00

https://bit.ly/44Y2gi3

After an ICE-involved shooting in Houston, Friday’s Morning Joe returned to the issue of immigration and deportation in coverage that harkened back to the Minneapolis unrest earlier this year.

Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski opened the show with talk of ICE, as Scarborough yelled at people who use “Don’t Tread On Me” license plates in Florida amid immigrant enforcement, and screamed about funding for ICE while Brzezinski helped his rant along the way.

Amid the ICE Houston shooting discussion, MS NOW contributor Eugene Robinson called agents “stormtroopers.” He then made a connection back to America 250 celebrations as he remarked: “It's incomprehensible that this takes place in the United States of America, which just celebrated 250 years of freedom, but seems to really want to go back on that now.”

On Friday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough screamed at ICE after an ICE-involved shooting death in Houston and insinuated there was a cover-up.
Reminder: Scarborough has previously labeled ICE as "Secret Police" and compared them to the KKK. pic.twitter.com/L8gXnUyhQv
— Nick (@nspin310) July 10, 2026

Scarborough followed Robinson with an obsessive dislike for those who have “Don’t Tread on Me” license plates in Florida amid immigration enforcement:

Where are all these hedge fund guys in their Maseratis that have “Don't Tread On Me” like license plates in the state of Florida? Where -- don't tread on me? What are you talking about?

(...)

Like, isn't the time to say ‘Don't Tread on Me’ when Americans and other people who have been here for 30, 35 years are getting gunned down in the streets by federal troops?

Brzezinski interjected and called the ICE-involved Houston shooting a “crime,” before she complained about the use of the term “Criminal illegal alien.”

Scarborough then told, seemingly, those who support immigration enforcement, to read the Constitution: “You should really, like, read the Constitution. You should read. But I know you don't want to. I know, it hurts your head to do that.”

In the same segment on ICE, Scarborough was obsessed with Florida's "Don't Tread on Me" license plates and told conservatives, "You should really, like, read the Constitution. You should read. But I know you don't want to. I know, it hurts your head to do that." https://t.co/AcXAT2to7u pic.twitter.com/d8m76X3tEF
— Nick (@nspin310) July 10, 2026

Scarborough continued with comparisons of the Houston shooting to Minneapolis and returned to his newfound obsession with “Don’t Tread on Me” license plates before his voice began to rise as he complained about ICE’s funding and body cam footage:

I thought we had seen the end of this. I thought we were going to have body cam footage. I thought with all of the money, of all of the billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars shoved down ICE’s throats. I thought we had enough money that body cam footage on every ICE agent out there for the next time, and it's fair to say, as an American, the next time they killed somebody!

The married Scarborough and Brzezinski then screamed back and forth about the Houston shooting, as they claimed there was “No body cam footage,” “no body,” and “no witnesses” in some sort of ICE conspiracy:

SCARBOROUGH: Well, that next time has come. And there's no body footage,

BRZEZINSKI: Body cam footage.

SCARBOROUGH: No body cam footage. And I want to know!

BRZEZINSKI: No body!

SCARBOROUGH: And no body!

BRZEZINSKI: No evidence. And no witnesses!

SCARBOROUGH: No evidence!

BRZEZINSKI: They have to deport?

Scarborough closed, as Brzezinski seemed to briefly move away from him due to his yelling, and warned, “And I'm sorry, but I don't think we've moved anywhere from Minneapolis!”

After months of war coverage and obsessions on items like the reflecting pool, the Morning Joe crew may have found their new hit for the summer in a callback to their attacks on ICE, whom hosts and guests on the show have previously labeled as “paramilitary” and “secret police.”

The transcript is below. Click "expand":

MS NOW’s Morning Joe

July 10, 2026

6:19:52 AM Eastern

(...)

EUGENE ROBINSON: So, you know, it's, it's infuriating to see people gunned down in our streets in this way. I just hope that, soon, like in five minutes, there has to be some federal judge who's going to order that witnesses and evidence be preserved, at least kept in the United States, until this is properly investigated, let alone adjudicated, because you cannot believe a single word ICE says, just not a single word, including ‘a’ and ‘the.’

It's completely - they just lie. They lie. And. And do we accept this? As Sam Stein said, you know, it's just another Friday, right?

We accept stormtroopers seizing and - not just seizing, but killing people in the streets of one of our major cities for no reason. The wrong person. It's incomprehensible that this takes place in the United States of America, which just celebrated 250 years of freedom, but seems to really want to go back on that now.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Where are all these hedge fund guys in their Maseratis that have “Don't Tread On Me” like license plates in the state of Florida? Where - don't tread on me? What are you talking about? Don't tread on like - don't don't borrow our driver. Is that what you mean, or don't, don't tax me at 34 or 38 percent instead of - like, what do you mean they don't tread on me? Like, isn't the time to say don't tread on me when Americans and other people who have been here for 30, 35 years are getting gunned down in the streets by federal troops?

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And if I could just add for those-

SCARBOROUGH: With masks, usually?

BRZEZINSKI: - who are taking time to understand: If you're a migrant, if you're documented, if you're undocumented, if you're gunned down in the streets of America, it's still wrong, and it's still a crime.

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.

BRZEZINSKI: Okay? There's no difference. There’s no difference. It’s important to understand.

SCARBOROUGH: I know you don't want to read. I know that reading sometimes makes the tips of your teeth hurt, but you should read what Antonin Scalia, the conservative legal guide, said about this. He said the United States Constitution doesn't just apply to U.S. Citizens. The United States Constitution applies to anybody that is in the United States of America and applies to Americans anywhere they are across the globe. So, if you're sitting there thinking, “well, it's okay to just gun down somebody in the streets of Houston.”

BRZEZINSKI: They like to call them ‘Criminal Illegal Aliens’ to make them sound extremely -

SCARBOROUGH: You should really, like, read the Constitution. You should read. But I know you don't want to. I know, it hurts your head to do that.

But, Jonathan Lemire, they're gunning down people in the streets of America. They gunned down U.S. citizens in the streets of Minneapolis, gunning down a father and a guy who has been in America for over 30 years. Doing all of this, despite the fact that you and I both know that a couple of months ago, after Minneapolis, Trump was like, “No mas. No mas.” To borrow the immortal words of Roberto Duran, like, let's stop this.

And remember, they went to the Republicans and said, “Stop using the term mass deportation.” They understood it was a political loser. We heard about Stephen Miller being pushed to the side, because these quotas that were leading to these killings, that were leading to this abuse of American citizens on the street. “Don't tread on me.” Federal agents treading on the rights of Americans, First Amendment rights of Americans to peacefully protest.

The White House, I thought, had had enough. I thought they were turning a page. I thought we had seen the end of this. I thought we were going to have body cam footage. I thought with all of the money, of all of the billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars shoved down ICE’s throats. I thought we had enough money that body cam footage on every ICE agent out there for the next time, and it's fair to say, as an American, the next time they killed somebody!

Well, that next time has come. And there's no body footage,

BRZEZINSKI: Body cam footage.

SCARBOROUGH: No body cam footage. And I want to know!

BRZEZINSKI: No body!

SCARBOROUGH: And no body!

BRZEZINSKI: No evidence. And no witnesses!?

SCARBOROUGH: No evidence!

BRZEZINSKI: They have to deport?

SCARBOROUGH: They're trying to deport people that were witnesses there. And I'm sorry, but I don't think we've moved anywhere from Minneapolis! I think we're back in the same spot that made the White House freak out months ago! So what's going on inside the white house, and why do they keep doing this?

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Soboroff Hypes LGBTQ Celebs Calling Flag 'A Violent Symbol Of Prejeduice' #Political

2026-07-11T23:31:30.192-07:00

https://bit.ly/44lXuLh

MS NOW’s Connect host Jacob Soboroff rewound the clock on Saturday to promote a short documentary called Reclaim the Flag that was released a year ago that featured several LGBTQ celebrities—some of whom were definitely more famous than others—talking about their views of the flag. Soboroff sat down with producer Alexis Bittar to discuss the film and play several soundbites that included claims to the flag as having “blood on it” and being a “violent symbol of prejudice and hate” and beliefs that people who fly the flag would kill them if they had the opportunity.

Soboroff kicked off the segment by declaring, “It is every country’s greatest and most visual and most recognized symbol. It is its flag. America's flag with the stars and stripes has been a symbol of freedom and unity and love of country since 1777. But over the years, our love for this country has been tested, especially for those who feel their own identity doesn't seem to love them back.”

Jacob Soboroff promotes a nearly one-year old documentary againt LGBTQ people and the flag "But over the years, our love for this country has been tested, especially for those who feel their own identity doesn't seem to love them back."
After some clips, including of actress… pic.twitter.com/KbxyQnTHN1
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 11, 2026

He then hyped “The short documentary Reclaim the Flag, produced by Oscar winner Bruce Cohen and directed by jewelry designer and filmmaker Alexis Bittar, explores this through the lens of the LGBTQ community. It features well-known members of the community dissecting their own relationship with our country’s flag.”

The first montage showed actress Lena Waithe and actor Jim Parsons:

WAITHE: Depending on how the United States feels about you will depend on how you feel about the flag. [jump cut] If you feel like your people have been killed, wronged, been able to be seen as less than human under the flag, you're going to be triggered by it, but yet still be born under it.

PARSONS: I think that it's a very radical idea in today's climate to imagine going off, for a lot of people to die, for the unity of this country. How are we united? How are we united? What are we united about?

WAITHE: The American flag has blood on it. And it's drenched in it. I think that we can accept that or act as if it isn't true, and we can't change what we don't face.

Soboroff then returned to add, “This film doesn't end with a clear resolution, and that is the point. Some cautiously think about embracing the flag for the first time ever, or for the first time in a while, and others acknowledge the irony of being an American while also being marginalized by parts of their own country, and all seem to argue that something has got to give in order to take the flag back as a symbol of inclusivity.”

Not every clip Soboroff showed was as outrageous as Waithe and Parsons, but he was clearly excited to show the ones that were. Later, during his sit-down with Bittar, he introduced another clip, “You know, what's crazy is that, correct me if I'm wrong, but Trump's name doesn't actually come up in the film, right?... but he does—I mean, he certainly looms over it, I think. And the moment that we live in is very palpable. I want to play another portion of the association that so many people in the LGBTQ community have with this flag and, and how it relates to the symbol of unity. Let's watch this.

Later, Soboroff claims Trump "certainly looms over it, I think. And the moment that we live in is very palpable. I want to play another portion of, of the association that so many people in the LGBTQ community have with this flag and, and how it relates to the symbol of unity.… pic.twitter.com/9cKgBs05iZ
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 11, 2026

The clip package featured more flag bashing:

MARC JACOBS [fashion designer]: Why, when I see an American flag, do I think of, like, MAGA and right-wing? And why do I feel like it's a violent symbol of prejudice and hatred.

CHRIS KLEMENS [comedian]: I see someone hanging an American flag and I'm like, ‘You would hit me with a car if you had the opportunity.’

MATT BERNSTEIN [content creator/make-up artist]: If I'm, you know, if I'm on Grindr, right? And I see an American flag emoji in someone's bio. I think that is a Republican.

HUNTER CRENSHW [reality TV personality]: It's a negative thing to be, to see. And I and, you know, I've definitely had my fair share of talking [bleep] about it. But at the end of the day, there's something back here that still has a reverence.

Soboroff reacted by wondering, “I saw that you said around the time that you were making this film and sitting with the people that are in it that some people are even nervous to talk about the country. Why do you think that is?”

Bittar hinted that Trump had something to do with it, “We shot this in April of last year, and it was at a time when the government was really coming down on colleges, on institutions, about talking about America. So, I think everyone feels this kind of ominous threat of not wanting to be on the record or wanting attention to them, saying anything that's controversial about America. So it was difficult, actually, getting 50 people. We cast it in three weeks, so we had to get 50 people in three weeks to go on air and talk about it.”

As it turns out, none of the people in the film ever faced any repercussions from the government. In a properly functioning media, Soboroff would have wondered if that undermined all the America-bashing, but that is not what MS NOW exists for.

Here is a transcript for the July 11 show:

MS NOW Connect with Jacob Soboroff

7/11/2026

12:46 PM ET

JACOB SOBOROFF: It is every country’s greatest and most visual and most recognized symbol. It is its flag. America's flag with the stars and stripes has been a symbol of freedom and unity and love of country since 1777. But over the years, our love for this country has been tested, especially for those who feel their own identity doesn't seem to love them back.

The short documentary Reclaim the Flag, produced by Oscar winner Bruce Cohen and directed by jewelry designer and filmmaker Alexis Bittar, explores this through the lens of the LGBTQ community. It features well known members of the community dissecting their own relationship with our country’s flag.

LENA WAITHE: Depending on how the United States feels about you will depend on how you feel about the flag. [jump cut] If you feel like your people have been killed, wronged, been able to be seen as less than human under the flag, you're going to be triggered by it, but yet still be born under it.

JIM PARSONS: I think that it's a very radical idea in today's climate to imagine going off, for a lot of people to die, for the unity of this country. How are we united? How are we united? What are we united about?

WAITHE: The American flag has blood on it. And it's drenched in it. I think that we can accept that or act as if it isn't true, and we can't change what we don't face.

SOBOROFF: This film doesn't end with a clear resolution, and that is the point. Some cautiously think about embracing the flag for the first time ever, or for the first time in a while, and others acknowledge the irony of being an American while also being marginalized by parts of their own country, and all seem to argue that something has got to give in order to take the flag back as a symbol of inclusivity.

…

SOBOROFF: You know, what's crazy is that, correct me if I'm wrong, but Trump's name doesn't actually come up in the film, right?

ALEXIS BITTAR: Yeah.

SOBOROFF: Yeah. And, but he does—I mean, he certainly looms over it, I think. And the moment that we live in is very palpable. I want to play another portion of the association that so many people in the LGBTQ community have with this flag and, and how it relates to the symbol of unity. Let's watch this.

MARC JACOBS: Why, when I see an American flag, do I think of, like, MAGA and right-wing? And why do I feel like it's a violent symbol of prejudice and hatred.

CHRIS KLEMENS: I see someone hanging an American flag and I'm like, “You would hit me with a car if you had the opportunity.”

MATT BERNSTEIN: If I'm, you know, if I'm on Grindr, right? And I see an American flag emoji in someone's bio. I think that is a Republican.

HUNTER CRENSHW: It's a negative thing to be, to see. And I and, you know, I've definitely had my fair share of talking [bleep] about it. But at the end of the day, there's something back here that still has a reverence.

SOBOROFF: I saw that you said around the time that you were making this film and sitting with the people that are in it that some people are even nervous to talk about the country. Why do you think that is?

BITTAR: We shot this in April of last year, and it was at a time when the government was really coming down on colleges, on institutions, about talking about America. So, I think everyone feels this kind of ominous threat of not wanting to be on the record or wanting attention to them, saying anything that's controversial about America. So it was difficult, actually, getting 50 people. We cast it in three weeks, so we had to get 50 people—

SOBOROFF: Wow.

BITTAR: —in three weeks to go on air and talk about it.

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PBS Soft-Pedals Radical Michigan Dem Abdul El-Sayed, Just a Waterskiing 'Normal Guy' #Political

2026-07-11T10:31:49.017-07:00

https://bit.ly/3SWfadQ

After Monday’s PBS News Hour dealt with breaking news about the red-flag festooned Democrat Graham Platner suspending his campaign for U.S. Senate in Maine (he would later drop out), guests Tamara Keith of NPR and Carrie Dann representing the Cook Political Report in place of Cook’s usual News Hour representative Amy Walter, who was out for the week.

Dann, who previously reported from D.C. for NBC News, proved more partisan than Walter, chirpily optimistic on the prospects of radical Abdul el-Sayed, who’s running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

Dann answered Nawaz’s question about what the race revealed “about the direction of the Democratic Party” by pushing El-Sayed as a normal guy with “progressive ideas.”

No one on the panel got into the devilish details of El-Sayed’s “progressive ideas,” like his deleted tweets calling for defunding the police and his documented hostility toward Israel, or lies about his potential Republican campaign opponent that even the notoriously slanted “fact-checkers” at PolitiFact managed to notice. Also, El-Sayed had been endorsed by popular left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, a hateful radical who has argued that America deserved 9/11.

The segment ended with a cheap shot at Trump unrelated to partisan politics, a viral photo taken on the DC Metro.

While Keith answered neutrally, Dann dredged up the white supremacy rally in Charlottesville (the details of which have recently been contested after revelations about funding from the scaremongering Southern Poverty Law Center). Dann wondered why the photograph non-story wasn’t a bigger actual story, and blamed Trump for pushing U.S. politics far to the right.

PBS News Hour

7/6/26

7:36:50 p.m. (ET)

Amna Nawaz: Let's start with this late breaking news now happening in Maine.

Carrie, we were already seeing some Democrats start to come out and call for Platner to step down and step out of the race. What do you think is going to happen here?

Carrie Dann: Well, look, I have never seen a candidate make a video like that saying, I'm going to assess the situation, move forward, and go on to say, actually, I'm going to stick this one out. It looks like this is trending towards him making the decision to drop out.

Now, the timing is really important here. If this story had broken after 5:00 next Monday, Democrats would have been stuck with Graham Platner on the ballot. As it stands, he has a week to drop out, and then, if he chooses to, the party can choose another candidate within the next two weeks.

Who they choose, if he is to drop out, is going to be really crucial here. I think, if you're Democrats, you want to pick the most generic Democrat you possibly can for that seat. Now, the Maine governor's race just took place. There are candidates who ran statewide there, as well as other candidates who ran for Senate, who are probably raising their hands to maybe want to be that candidate on the ballot.

Susan Collins remains very vulnerable. This could end up being the best news Democrats could have had if they are able to replace him with a candidate who can be competitive against her. However, that person is going to have to raise a lot of money and a lot of name I.D. really darn fast.

Amna Nawaz: Tam, how are you looking at this?

Tamara Keith, National Public Radio: Yes, I mean, Platner took that primary by storm. He got voters very excited about him and his progressive policies. And then there's just been this drip, drip, drip of controversies, scandals, red flags leading up to this point, where we have seen Democrats start to separate themselves from him, including people who were early to endorse him.

Ro Khanna, who is a progressive Democrat and congressman, has said, ugh, that's a little bit too far. So has Ruben Gallego, a senator. And more are coming. This is -- this is just one of those things where it becomes insurmountable.

And, as Carrie said, he said that he's taking time to reflect on the best path forward. That is not what you say if you're fighting and staying in.

Amna Nawaz: Meanwhile, I know you're also tracking another big race in Michigan. This is the Democratic Senate primary race, a big moment this weekend when one of the candidates, Mallory McMorrow, decided to drop out.

The race is now down to two people. There's a centrist candidate in Haley Stevens, and a progressive candidate in Abdul El-Sayed.

Tam, as you know, this is a state that Trump narrowly won in 2024 after flipping it in 2016. So the Dem winner here will likely face Republican Mike Rogers. What do you take away from all of this?

Tamara Keith: Yes, I think that what we are watching with this race and have been watching, and now it'll become an even sort of clearer example of this, is, where is the heart of the Democratic Party? What do Democratic primary voters want, not just in very blue places like Denver and New York City, but also in a purple state like Michigan?

And what you had was this progressive lane and you had the more conventional Democratic standard lane, whatever you want to call it. And Mallory McMorrow was competing with Congresswoman Stevens in that more mainstream, mainline Democratic lane.

And McMorrow -- I talked to someone who has worked with her. McMorrow just couldn't compete. Stevens had a ton of money, a ton of backing from the Democratic establishment, and McMorrow couldn't get her name I.D. out there.

I will note she has not endorsed. She has not thrown her support behind either of them. And I think that there's a real question of where her supporters go, because, certainly, some of the people who told pollsters they were supporting her, they wanted change. They just wanted a different flavor of change.

Amna Nawaz: Yes.

Tamara Keith: And I think that trying to figure out this -- how to capture the energy that a lot of Democratic and, frankly, Republican voters have for change, I think is a theme that we're seeing in all of these races.

Amna Nawaz: Well, this is the question we ask over and over again, Carrie. Does this race tell us anything about the direction of the Democratic Party?

Carrie Dann: I think it certainly will.

And I think Abdul El-Sayed -- I do think Michigan Democratic voters are thinking about electability as part of their calculation here. El-Sayed makes the argument: I can remake the electorate. I am -- with progressive ideas, with the backing of somebody like Bernie Sanders, I can mobilize young progressives. I can mobilize disaffected Trump voters who liked Trump because they were voting for change.

He represents certainly bold change. I think it's interesting that McMorrow was not able to get that momentum, because she was sort of this Goldilocks candidate. If you're thinking about electability and you also want bold change in somebody who says, hey, I'm going to tell Chuck Schumer that I don't support him, she would have been that candidate, but she just simply couldn't compete.

El-Sayed, on the other hand, seems to have the momentum. He's being outspent on the airwaves by Haley Stevens by 17-1. So the support that he is getting is really from the grassroots movement that he has been able to build and also I think from being a talented candidate. Policy aside, he communicates -- I think he looks and sounds like a normal person and is calling for change.

And I think that's what a lot of voters want in their politicians. He does these great -- he does these advertisements where he's waterskiing.

Carrie Dann: I mean, he looks like a normal guy. People -- that may be appealing to people.

Amna Nawaz: Before I let you both go, I need to kind of look back at this weekend's 250th celebrations and a bit of a split screen I know you have both been mulling over as well, because we saw the president speak, as he often does, sort of marrying historical narratives with political grievances in his remarks.

And then we also saw these marches that caught a lot of attention, which was members of this white nationalist group the Patriot Front marching through the streets of Washington, D.C., chanting "Reclaim America. "

I know a lot of people saw this photo that went viral of a Black woman on a train surrounded by these people. This was taken by photographer Cheney Orr.

Tam, what does all of this say to you about America at 250?

Tamara Keith: Yes, America in 2026 is still a very complicated country that doesn't have just one red, white, and blue narrative, but it has a lot of competing ideas, and the idea that it is still working towards being a more perfect union.

Amna Nawaz: Carrie?

Carrie Dann: And when you talk about that video of this white supremacist group, I think it just is a reminder of how much the Overton window has moved on this.

Recall the Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally, how horrifying that was for Americans, because they were so unused to people being so brazen about those views. Now, this happened on a very busy weekend otherwise. But still it was sort of a tertiary story, and I think that just shows you how much the country has changed over this period of time of Donald Trump's presidency.

Amna Nawaz: Complicated, as you say, but hopefully on her way to a more perfect union.

Carrie Dann, Tamara Keith, great to see you both. Thank you.

Tamara Keith: You're welcome.

Carrie Dann: Thank you.

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Republicans Call on Dem Governors to Stop Climate-Agenda Gas Tax Hikes #Political

2026-07-10T21:31:51.769-07:00

https://bit.ly/4h8s3LL

Republican lawmakers in Washington and California have written to their states' Democrat governors, urging them to protect their citizens from increased gas taxes.

Washington state Republican senators sent a letter to Democrat Governor Bob Ferguson requesting that he call a special legislative session to pause two climate initiatives, arguing that they increase gas prices by as much as 60 cents a gallon.

In the letter sent Tuesday, nine Republican state senators allege that two climate programs, the cap-and-trade carbon tax and the “so called” low-carbon fuel standard, have resulted in a 60-cent per gallon price increase in the state:

“Governor, we believe the Democratic cap-and-trade carbon tax is adding around $0.55 to the cost of every gallon of gas. The so called low-carbon fuel standard program is now adding another $0.05, for a total carbon-tax impact of $0.60/gal on Washingtonian’s gas costs.”

These Republicans are not alone in calling out the effects of climate policies on gas affordability.

A few weeks ago, anticipating California’s scheduled gas tax increase, California’s Republican Congressional delegation asked Democrat Governor Newsom to suspend that increase. In their letter, Republicans allege a total surcharge of $1.15 a gallon due to California’s climate policies.

State and local taxes, along with regulatory programs such as the LCFS, Cap and-Trade, and the State Underground Storage Tank Program, are significant contributors to these elevated costs, collectively adding approximately $1.15 per gallon, or roughly 20 percent of the total price.

The Washington letter, while not calling for a pause to the state’s general gas tax, comes amid the first installment of a perpetual annual two percent increase in the state’s gas tax.

Last year, Governor Ferguson signed SB 5801, a law mandating a two percent yearly increase in the state’s gas tax, to begin July 1, 2026, without a scheduled end date. On July 1, Washington’s gas tax rose from 55.4 to 56.5 cents per gallon in accordance with it.

At the time, Republican State Representative Ed Orcutt offered an amendment to remove that part of the bill, though it was voted down in Committee by a voice vote.

In that hearing, Orcutt voiced the public’s opposition to the bill:

“[T]ime and time again, people have said ‘no we don’t want an automatic inflator in there, we want the legislature to come back and make the case, make the arguments each time they wish to raise this, so that the public has a chance to weigh in.’”

Gas prices in Washington have become so onerous that many drivers in Eastern Washington are resorting to filling their tanks in Idaho, recording great savings.

Roughly one in four bus drivers from Spokane's East Valley School District travel across the border into Idaho to fill up on diesel, according to that district’s interim transportation director, Michelle Monzingo, as reported in The Chronicle. According to reporting from the same source, one bus saved around $100 on a 55-gallon fill-up by going across the border.

AAA data Friday puts Idaho’s diesel price at $4.669 a gallon, while recording Washington’s at $5.681 per gallon. A 100-gallon tank would therefore take an additional $120 to fill up in Washington, compared to Idaho.

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Chieng: Only Susan Collins Would've Voted For Graham Platner After Latest Allegations #Political

2026-07-10T08:31:40.440-07:00

https://bit.ly/3T9DWHq

According to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show host-of-the-week Ronny Chieng, Graham Platner had to end his Senate campaign after being credibly accused of rape and sexual assault because nobody would vote for him except the woman who would have been his opponent: Sen. Susan Collins. In order to make such a claim, Chieng simply assumed the evidence against Planter is as strong as the evidence against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was, but that is simply not true.

After playing a part of Platner’s announcement video where he insisted that withdrawing from the race does not mean he is admitting the allegations against him are true, Chieng retorted, “Okay, I mean, it is a little suspicious. It's like being at a party where the toilet's overflowing and all of a sudden, I'm like, ‘Okay, everyone, I have to leave immediately. No one read into this, please!’"

Ronny Chieng claims Graham Platner had to drop out because "the only person in Maine who might still vote for him is Susan Collins" as he put up a picture of Collins next to Brett Kavanaugh pic.twitter.com/s0GMqW1Y1w
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 10, 2026

Moving on to Collins, Chieng added, “Obviously, Platner had to drop out once there was credible sexual assault allegations. I mean, at that point, the only person in Maine who might still vote for him is Susan Collins.”

As Chieng was talking, The Daily Show’s graphics team put a picture of Collins side-by-side with a picture of Kavanaugh, but Chieng never elaborated. Instead, he moved on to mocking those who recruited Platner, “The question is, how could this happen? How could the people in Maine have picked this guy to run in the first place?”

Chieng probably chose not to elaborate because the evidence against Platner is overwhelming, but the evidence against Kavanaugh was much weaker. Platner had multiple accusers with multiple people verifying their version of events from something that happened relatively recently. Christine Blasey Ford, on the other hand, could not even get her friends to verify her story from the 80s. Kavanaugh does not have the history of fetishizing rape that Platner does that points to a wide personal problem.

For a long time, Democratic Party hacks tried to defend their support for Platner by claiming the GOP’s defense of people like Kavanaugh means morality does not matter in politics anymore, only power does, but the difference between Platner and Kavanaugh is night and day, and The Daily Show cannot rewrite history.

Here is a transcript for the July 9 show:

Comedy Central The Daily Show

7/9/2026

11:03 PM ET

RONNY CHIENG: Okay, I mean, it is a little suspicious. It's like being at a party where the toilet's overflowing and all of a sudden, I'm like, "Okay, everyone, I have to leave immediately. No one read into this, please!" Obviously, Platner had to drop out once there was credible sexual assault allegations. I mean, at that point, the only person in Maine who might still vote for him is Susan Collins. The question is, how could this happen? How could the people in Maine have picked this guy to run in the first place?

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CIA Director Who Burned Navy Vet to CNN Worked for the Network for Years #Political

2026-07-09T19:31:38.505-07:00

https://bit.ly/4gq63Md

As NewsBusters reported, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was hassling Navy veteran Zachary Young as he tried to get a book published about his successful defamation trial against CNN, even demanding he delete everything to do with his manuscript. While the CIA never cited what exactly it objected to, it seems as though the Agency was more interested in protecting themselves from embarrassment. A NewsBusters investigation has uncovered that the CIA public affairs director who improperly burned him to CNN had actually worked for the network.

In his letter to the CIA’s Publications Review Board, Young noted how then-Public Affairs Director Tammy Kupperman Thorp improperly outed his affiliation with the agency to then-CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt as he was working on the defamatory report on Young (bold added to highlight):

The trial record also establishes that my prior CIA affiliation was not merely incidentally mentioned by a private individual or inadvertently disclosed by an unauthorized outsider. It was confirmed through the Agency’s official press function. The documentary record, admitted as a trial exhibit and broadcast nationally, shows CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt formally tasking the Agency’s Office of Public Affairs on October 29, 2021, stating: “FYI I asked Tammy if they can look into the other guy’s claim that he’s CIA.” This was not a casual conversation. It was a directed request to the Agency’s official press office to look into whether a named individual was connected to the CIA. Marquardt testified under oath at trial that Tammy Kupperman Thorp, who served as the CIA’s Director of Public Affairs from 2021 to 2025, confirmed my Agency background and described the practice as a “steer,” which he defined on the record as the Agency’s established method of informally confirming information to credentialed journalists. This testimony is further corroborated by Marquardt’s contemporaneous written communications stating that the Director of Public Affairs “just basically told me that dude was former CIA.” These communications were entered as exhibits and displayed during the televised proceedings. The disclosure of my identity was accordingly the result of an official Public Affairs response to a media inquiry, provided by the Agency official responsible for press relations, and later confirmed through sworn testimony and contemporaneous communications in open court.

A NewsBusters investigation into Thorp examined her public (as of publication) LinkedIn profile and found that she had worked for CNN as a “supervising producer” on matters of “justice, transportation, [and] regulation.” She was at CNN from January 2017 to January 2020.

According to her, her duties entailed: “Led CNN’s coverage of the US Justice Department, FBI, Homeland Security, Supreme Court, and immigration policy. Edited television scripts and digital stories, authored digital content.”

In a little over a year, Thorp bounced from CNN to a PR firm to director of media relations at military contractor BAE Systems before landing in the CIA as their director of public affairs.

Interestingly, she started at the Agency in May 2021, just months before the fall of Afghanistan, Young’s efforts to help rescue nearly two dozen women and baby, and CNN’s maliciously defamatory report about him. She was only on the job a few months before burning Young to her former employer, who she worked for just a year prior.

Even more interestingly, Thorp’s time at the Agency ended in February 2025. Young won his trial against CNN in January 2025.

Thorp’s page for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance boasts of her use of the revolving door to shift between the media and governmental positions:

Tammy Kupperman Thorp is an award-winning journalist and public affairs practitioner with more than 30 years of experience in public affairs, media, and national security, most recently serving as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of Public Affairs. Just before joining CIA, Tammy directed media relations for BAE Systems, Inc. From 2017 to 2020, she led CNN’s coverage of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, focusing on issues including the Mueller investigation, immigration, and the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices.

On June 17, 2026, Thorp appeared on The Readiness Edge with Dr. Jennifer Posa, one of her friends and colleagues from her time at the Agency. As she ironically described the appearance on her LinkedIn activities page, she was there “to talk about the importance of teamwork.” She also beamed about working at CNN in the interview.

[embedded content]

In a statement to NewsBusters, Young expressed suspicion of the CIA’s relationship with CNN given Thorp’s close ties:

I've wondered about the relationship between CNN and the CIA for a while now. I can't tell you what to make of it, only what I've seen with my own eyes. Tammy Thorp spent years at CNN before becoming the CIA's official spokesperson, the person who speaks for the Agency to the media. In that official capacity, she's the one who confirmed my background to a CNN reporter. I'm not going to pretend I have the full picture. But having lived through this, it's hard not to wonder.

Politically, Thorp is a liberal. According to OpenSecrets, her only personal political donation was to President Obama’s reelection in 2012 to the tune of $750. She was working for the National Counterterrorism Center as a managing editor at the time. Her husband Frank Thorp is the Democratic alderman of Ward 8 of the Annapolis City Council in Maryland.

She also started her media career at NBC News.

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BRUTAL: MS NOW’s Catherine Rampell DESTROYS Platner Campaign Suspension Video #Political

2026-07-09T06:31:36.400-07:00

https://bit.ly/4vjSul6

After considerable deliberation subsequent to new scandalous revelations, Maine’s Democrat Senate nominee Graham Platner has decided to suspend his campaign. His lengthy announcement video triggered a wide range of reactions, including harsh condemnation on what many would consider to be a friendly outlet.

Watch as MS NOW’s Catherine Rampell, sitting in for Chris Hayes, absolutely nukes Platner after running his suspension video:

BRUTAL: Watch as MS NOW's Catherine Rampell buries Graham Platner over his campaign suspension video
GRAHAM PLATNER: From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank all of you. And keep fighting. We're gonna win someday.
CATHERINE RAMPELL: Well, that was Graham Platner officially… pic.twitter.com/KGIRE4jcAt
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 9, 2026

MS NOW ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES

7/8/26

8:23 PM

GRAHAM PLATNER: From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank all of you. And keep fighting. We're gonna win someday.

CATHERINE RAMPELL: Well, that was Graham Platner officially announcing that he is dropping off of the ballot for Maine Senate or for, excuse me, for federal Senate from Maine- but taking zero responsibility for any of the scandals and more troubling things in his past that have destroyed that campaign, instead blaming, let's see, corporate media, the political establishment, lots of hate for the political establishment, saying that “We banded together. We did it the way we were told we were supposed to make change, and we won. And now they are not going to let us have it.”

So lots of finger-pointing and blame and not taking any responsibility. Note that whoever he conceives of as the political establishment, you do have many of his once allies, including Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, also calling for him to drop out- people who believe many of the same policy ideas believe in many of the same policy ideas that Graham Platner himself says that he was taken down for. He also said during that ten-minute video that “All we were asking for was healthcare, was to end the genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities instead of waging war overseas. We were asking for a fair system. We are asking for an end to the corruption.” So, lots of allegations that he was being taken out by nefarious forces that are forcing him to suspend his campaign rather than the drip, drip, drip of scandal after scandal that has dogged his campaign and that have littered the last few months with red flags.

Rampell is right. Herr Oystergruppenführer devoted a lot of time to blaming his woes on many external factors- whether it was “the system”, the women who were victimized by his multiple aggressions, or Israel. As Rampell rightly notes, Platner never took personal responsibility for his behaviors and for the impacts of his failure to disclose them.

It is interesting that Platner blamed “the media” for his woes. If anything, the media coddled him and put him in a protective cocoon. His Totenkopf tattoo should have been a disqualifier but the Elitist Media looked the other way. In fact, the tattoo wasn’t mentioned until the message board scandal broke. And when The New York Times published the accounts of former girlfriends, the focus and scrutiny shifted away from Platner and to the conservative ex.

Rather than scrutinizing and vetting Platner, the media coddled him and hid his glaring defects from public view. His failure is also their failure.

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Double Standard: ABC Completely IGNORES New Allegations From Platner Ex Fifield #Political

2026-07-08T16:31:38.331-07:00

https://bit.ly/4vdFAoJ

Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, flagship ABC newscasts World News Tonight and Good Morning America refused to mention new disturbing allegations from Graham Platner ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield, who shared new instances of verbal abuse and said he repeatedly had unprotected sex without her consent. Instead, ABC chose to only continue emphasizing the rape allegations from Jenny Racicot, another ex-girlfriend of the Maine Democrat candidate.

GMA spent three minutes on Platner, but couldn’t find a single second to mention Fifield. Perhaps it’s because Fifield is a conservative and Racicot a progressive? Perhaps, considering ABC seemed particularly concerned about the fallout for it’d imperil the Democrats’ chances in Maine.

Co-host Michael Strahan huffed in a tease about an “exit strategy” to influence “the scramble to replace him” “as his campaign collapses.”

“We’re going to go now to the growing pressure on Democrat Graham Platner to drop out of the Maine Senate race after a woman accused him of sexual assault. Platner is being urged to step aside in a critical race for Democrats, hoping to take control of the Senate,” he later said in cuing up D.C.-based correspondent Jay O’Brien.

BIAS BY OMISSION: Wednesday’s ‘Good Morning America’ spent three minutes on Graham Platner, but not one second on the new allegations @LyndseyFifield spoke about with CNN and The Washington Post pic.twitter.com/PALdlH7sql
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 8, 2026

O’Brien relayed that while Platner “is still in the race....his campaign now confirming it’s discussed a possible exit strategy with Democratic leaders in that state and that already leading to a clash” about the future of “a race that could decide control of Congress.”

Notice O’Brien’s almost singular focus on process, not how awful of a human being Platner is (click “expand”):

O’BRIEN: Maine Democrat Graham Platner’s campaign collapsing around him, setting off a scramble to try to replace him on the ballot after an allegation of sexual assault by an ex-girlfriend, which he denies.

RACICOT [on CNN’s The Lead, 07/06/26]: I looked at him, and I remember this very specific look in his eyes, and I could smell alcohol, and I was, like, this is different.

O’BRIEN: And this morning, several state Democrats now jockeying to take Platner’s place and challenge Maine’s longtime GOP senator, Susan Collins. Under Maine law, Platner has just five days to drop out to be removed from the ballot. State Democrats would then have two weeks to select a new candidate, but there’s no exact roadmap for how that process would go overnight. The executive director of the Democratic Party of Maine saying Platner team has reached out, accusing them of trying to dictate the next steps.

MAINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DEVIN MURPHY-ANDERSON: Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. [SCREEN WIPE] We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee.

O’BRIEN: Platner campaign confirms they have reached out to the party, but denied trying to influence what comes next, saying in a statement, “while Graham [Platner] wouldn’t want to be part of the process, he would want to make sure the voters and volunteers make this decision, not the political establishment.”

O’Brien also focused on the fact that, following Racicot’s interviews, “Democrats are abandoning the embattled candidate” with “more than 20 senators calling on him to drop out,” including socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and “progressive voices like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani[.]”

Later, O’Brien framed the necessity of Platner getting out: “A sense of the stakes here. Any possible path for Democrats taking back the Senate almost certainly runs through Maine. Susan Collins is the only Republican senator this year defending a seat in a state that Donald Trump lost in 2024.”

While both their Tuesday evening shows skipped Fifield, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today were able to acknowledge Fifield’s existence in their reports.

On NBC, co-host Craig Melvin opened the segment by saying Platner was “facing new calls to drop out” following “a new accusation of non-consensual sexual conduct.”

Chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles lamented, “[t]his situation really has become a waiting game for Democrats in Maine” with Platner holding the cards, leaving them “paralyzed and unable to move forward in what may be the most important race on the Senate map.”

Only then did Nobles bring up Fifield’s graphic allegations (click “expand”):

NOBLES: A new bombshell rocking the critical Senate race in Maine that could determine control of Congress. Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee, Graham Platner, is facing mounting pressure this morning from top Democrats to end his campaign. It comes as another woman stepped forward overnight with new allegations of non-consensual sexual conduct. Platner’s ex-girlfriend, Lindsey Fifield, telling The Washington Post that he repeatedly removed protection without consent during sex, saying: “He would do it in a sneaky way. He wouldn’t tell me.” Platner’s campaign calling the accusation “categorically false and politically motivated.” Fifield previously accused Platner of aggressive physical conduct, especially when he was drinking, which he also denied. Fifield telling CNN Platner later apologized to her for his behavior.

LYNDSEY FIFIELD [on CNN’s The Lead, 07/07/26]: I’m hoping more people will come forward, at least saying he was known for being very rough with people. I mean, like, he apologized sober the next day on many of these occasions.

NOBLES: This after another former romantic partner of Platner’s, Jenny Racicot, accused him of rape, saying he forced himself on her five years ago.

JAKE TAPPER [on CNN’s The Lead, 07/06/26]: Did Graham Platner rape you?

RACICOT [on CNN’s The Lead, 07/06/26]: By definition, yes, absolutely.

NOBLES: Platner denies her allegations, too. A source familiar with Platner’s thinking tells NBC News he’s still undecided about whether to step down in the race against GOP incumbent Susan Collins.

Towards the end of the piece, he found two man-on-the-street voters with an elderly male voter stating emphatically Platner had to go while an elderly white woman argued Mainers should stick with Platner because “we have to go with what we have” to defeat Collins.

CBS Mornings fill-in co-host and former Today newsreader Natalie Morales described the state of the race as “Platner fac[ing] new sexual misconduct allegations and a wall of opposition now from fellow Democrats” who believe he’s “ interfering with the process of choosing a replacement.”

Congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns said from Maine the race was “getting messy” with “[t]he Platner campaign say[ing] that they reached out to the Maine Democratic Party to try and understand what the process to replace him might look like and they insisted that voters, not party leaders, should decide who that is.”

“All of this as we’re learning new details from one of his accusers. Graham Platner is still holding on in Maine’s U.S. Senate race despite mounting allegations of sexual and physical abuse, and growing calls for him to step aside,” she added.

In contrast, the @CBSMornings piece from @CHueyBurns did mention Fifield as well as the fact that, just last month, major progressives were still on board with Platner such as Bernie Sanders (despite all that was known at the time) pic.twitter.com/BEvS3iaEkN
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 8, 2026

This segued into Huey-Burns summarizing the new claims from Fifield (click “expand”):

FIFIELD [on CNN’s The Lead, 07/07/26]: It terrifies me to think of him having any type of power politically because what is he going to do with the testimony in his office.

HUEY-BURNS: Lyndsey Fifield, who says she dated Platner more than a decade ago, told The Washington Post he had repeatedly removed condoms without their consent while the two had sex. She had previously told The New York Times Platner had gotten rough with him and spoke about it with CNN Tuesday.

FIFIELD [on CNN’s The Lead, 07/07/26]: It was domestic abuse.

HUEY-BURNS: All of this comes after another woman came forward to Politico, accusing Platner of rape. Platner has categorically denied both women’s allegations.

But what made CBS’s package the strongest was Huey-Burns pointing out next that, just over a month ago, Sanders was still on board:

HUEY-BURNS: He has now lost nearly all of his big-name supporters, like Senator Bernie Sanders who just a month ago had this to say.

SANDERS [on 06/01/26]: Graham Platner is playing an extraordinarily strong campaign.

HUEY-BURNS: Now, Sanders is joining the chorus of Democrats urging Platner to step aside. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who had preferred more moderate candidate Governor Janet Mills in the primary, blamed progressives.

Only then did Huey-Burns say this hullabaloo has led “some Democratic voters here” to worry “about whether the party still has a chance to flip the seat held by long-time Republican incumbent Susan Collins.”

To see the relevant transcripts from July 8, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).

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'Due Process': Brzezinski Combatively Questions Details of Platner Rape Allegation #Political

2026-07-08T03:31:32.203-07:00

https://bit.ly/4bxwU5A

After the new sexual assault allegations against Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner, Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski showed some skepticism about the allegations and continuously asked for “evidence” in a pretty combative interview with Politico reporter Adam Wren, whose outlet published the claims. Brzezinski also showed concern over Platner’s “due process” as he faced the allegations.

Platner had appeared on Morning Joe many times during his campaign, including a love-fest interview in May where Joe Scarborough constantly smiled at Platner. During an interview from June, Scarborough asked Platner about his “so-called scandals.”

Instead of direct questions on the details of the story, Brzezinski focused her questioning of Wren with skepticism over details in the story.

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski seemed somewhat skeptical of the sexual assault claims against Graham Platner and combatively questioned Politico reporter Adam Wren for “corroborating pieces of evidence” against Platner. pic.twitter.com/YPbwxP5isR
— Nick (@nspin310) July 7, 2026

In her opening question, she asked, “There's not a police report, correct? Correct me if I'm wrong. There's not a legal case playing out here for due process to see itself through. So, my question to you, given the very high standards Politico has before they write something like this and publish it, what aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable?”

Wren admitted there was no police report but noted evidence of message exchanges between the accuser and her therapist about Platner and said: “We found ultimately the number of corroborating pieces of evidence to support her story in a way that we could report it.”

Brzezinski pushed Wren further and focused on “consent,” and asked if there were “Any conversations with Graham Platner at the time of it where she said, because apparently, as part of this story, she says she even confirmed to him that this was not consent. Do you have that? What do you have that actually connects this literally, Graham Platner, to raping this victim?”

Wren said there were DMs, as Brzezinski injected and asked if they were “able to see those DMs,” as Wren explained she tried to recover them but couldn’t. She continued: “Did you actually physically see them? Did she produce them for you?”

To note, the Politico report alleged Platner entered accuser Jenny Racicot’s home, “uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. “

To close Morning Joe's interview with Politico’s Adam Wren, Brzezinski questioned the “decision to publish” the Platner allegations and continued to question the story’s evidence along with its timing:
“What ties this together and gives you the evidence to bring this story to… pic.twitter.com/6HerDWh7HI
— Nick (@nspin310) July 7, 2026

At the close of the interview with Wren, Brzezinski continued her skeptical questioning and asked what made Politico decide to publish the story:

What is the actual - is there evidence between her and him, evidence of a crime? Because he's being accused of rape. So, what put this over the edge?

(...)

What's the through line? What ties this together and gives you the evidence to bring this story to the point of publishable?

Wren continued his defense and said, in part, “Politico stands by our reporting (...).”

Continuing her skepticism, Mika Brzezinski asked NH Senator Jeanne Shaheen for her thoughts on Platner and asked if she was “at all concerned about the timing of this accusation in terms of just fairness in politics and due process?” pic.twitter.com/aUhMCMdNKo
— Nick (@nspin310) July 7, 2026

In a later interview with Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Brzezinski also showed concern over “an accusation made in the media, not in the court of law” and Platner’s “due process”:

And are you at all concerned about the timing of this accusation in terms of just fairness in politics and due process?

Brzezinski had a history of defending Democratic politicians with combative remarks amid liberal media reports during controversies, as she defended then-President Biden after his disastrous debate in 2024 in a Biden call-in interview on Morning Joe in the aftermath.

Clearly, in situations of Democratic controversies, she plays full defense, even with such horrible claims as those against Platner.

With Joe Scarborough’s absence from Tuesday’s show, viewers will have to wait to see his reaction to the news, especially after he compared himself to Platner just under two months ago.

The transcript is below. Click "expand":

MS NOW’s Morning Joe

July 7, 2026

6:09:19 AM Eastern

(...)

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Adam, I want to get right to the questions about this. The questions surrounding this on both sides of this debate. There's not a police report, correct? Correct me if I'm wrong. And there's not a legal case playing out here for due process to see itself through. So my question to you, given the very high standards Politico has before they write something like this and publish it, what aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable?

ADAM WREN: Yeah, you're correct here, Mika. There is no police report in this case. We spent a lot of time talking to Jenny, you know, asking her for corroborating evidence. She shared that she had confided into a number of people, including her therapist, and almost real time. And we reviewed email exchanges between she and her therapist, referring to what she called the sexual assault and her therapist sort of acknowledging that this is this had happened to her.

We talked to people who she confided in in the months after this happened. We asked her why she didn't file a police report. And she described sort of the insular nature of where she lives and her corner of Maine that she shares with Graham Platner. And she, you know, debated sort of how to handle this. And we found ultimately the number of corroborating pieces of evidence to support her story in a way that we could report it.

BRZEZINSKI: So, what are some of those corroborating pieces of evidence? So you've got conversations with her therapist and people who she confided in. Any conversations with Graham Platner at the time of it where she said, because apparently, as part of this story, she says she even confirmed to him that this was not consent. Do you have that? What do you have that actually connects this literally, Graham Platner, to raping this victim?

WREN: Yeah. She reached out to him the day after via Instagram and essentially, you know, told him that, you know, she didn't want to hear from again. She told him that morning as well. And, you know, we looked at messages that she had sent to others in the months after this happened through social media-

BRZEZINSKI: But you were able to see those DMs?

WREN: She tried to recover those DMs. We did not - we were not able to review those DMs, but she described them to us. We also, long before he was a public - before he was a political candidate, we saw her essentially explain to others that he was, quote, in her words, “consensually careless,” end quote. And -

BRZEZINSKI: Right, but do you - were you able to see the interactions between Graham Platner and this alleged victim? Did you actually physically see them? Did she produce them for you?

WREN: She attempted to uncover them. She - but was unable to.

BRZEZINSKI: Willie?

WILLIE GEIST: So, let's talk a little bit, Adam, about some of the timing of this. Some people have pointed out it's a week out from the date the Democrats now have to scramble and potentially find a new candidate. If Platner does indeed drop out, as he's expected to. We'll talk more about his support in the Democratic Party nationally at the state level has collapsed after these revelations. She was, Jenny, in that New York Times piece. She appeared in the piece a few weeks ago. So what's your sense of why she decided she wanted to go into more detail with you at this point?

WREN: Yeah, Willie, she was frustrated with how that article landed. She told us she was frustrated with another woman that she knows who was quoted in that piece, how she how her story was received. She felt there was a lot of negative polarization around that, that anecdote that she was written off just because she was a Republican. And, you know, she wanted Maine voters to have sort of the full story here. And, you know, she sort of relayed all of this to us.

(...)

6:16:43 AM Eastern

BRZEZINSKI: So, Adam, in closing, obviously this is a huge political bombshell story, a story that might, probably will lead to the end of Graham Platner’s campaign. And I'm just - I'm going back to the decision to publish, and I'm curious what concrete evidence. You have conversations with therapists, conversations with friends. But what took this story beyond Graham Platner saying this was consensual, Jenny Racicot saying this was not consensual?

What took it over the edge and had you and your editors decide to publish, of course, kind of an earthquake in Democratic politics? What was the piece of evidence or pieces of evidence that made you sure of this story?

WREN: Yeah. I mean, long before he was a political candidate, long before much of the country knew his name, Jenny, in her telling, had confided in a number of people. We saw screenshots that she shared of messages relaying this account to others. We viewed an email response from her therapist to her acknowledging that they had talked about –

BRZEZINSKI: Those are the things I said, but those aren't - What is the actual - is there evidence between her and him, evidence of a crime? Because he's being accused of rape. So, what put this over the edge.

WREN: Yeah, I mean -

BRZEZINSKI: Because he says he didn't and he has people on his side who say he didn't. She says he did. And there are people, but none - There's - I'm trying - What's the through line? What ties this together and gives you the evidence to bring this story to the point of publishable?

WREN: Yeah. You know, we interviewed her, you know, three separate times. Her story stayed consistent across those times. You know, we talked to people who she had spoken with contemporaneously about these attacks, and all of those stories lined up and checked out. And ultimately, you know, Politico stands by our reporting and we talked to, you know, people who corroborated her story, largely.

(...)

6:20:39 AM Eastern

BRZEZINSKI: Willie, this is - Obviously, Graham Platner has been really dogged with different stories along the way, and there are a lot of analysts who are now saying, “Why did it take so long?” At the same time, this is an incredible moment in time to come forward, and some are questioning that as well.

The tim-ing.

(...)

7:13:21 AM Eastern

BRZEZINSKI:. But I would like to ask you to weigh in on this latest news that broke in the past 24 hours, senator, and that's the accusation of rape made against Senate candidate Graham Platner.

To be clear, an accusation made in the media, not in the court of law. What is your take on what should happen? Should he step down due to this accusation?

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): Well, good morning. And yes, I think he should step down. It's time, and the sooner the better.

BRZEZINSKI: Have you been moved by this latest accusation, or all along, have you been concerned about this candidate?

SEN. SHAHEEN: There are a number of issues that have surfaced with respect to Mr. Platner, and I think taken together, it means that the Democrats need to look for another candidate.

BRZEZINSKI: And are you at all concerned about the timing of this accusation in terms of just fairness in politics and due process? And do you feel that an accusation should take down a candidate, or is there a bigger picture that you're talking about here, Senator?

SEN. SHAHEEN: Well, again, I think if you take the issues broadly, it's more than just this one accusation, although certainly it sounds very serious. So, again, I think for the good of the seat, for the good of the Democratic Party, Mr. Platner should get out of the race.

(...)

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Hey CNN: Time to Redo Your Man-in-the-Street Interviews on Platner! #Political

2026-07-07T14:31:49.379-07:00

https://bit.ly/3QIo12d

As we noted back on June 7th, out of hundreds of thousands of Maine Democrats, CNN, in its man-in-the-street clips, couldn't find a single one who wouldn't vote for scandal-plagued Graham Platner.

"Party loyalty über alles," as we noted. Voters held their noses, called the stories "foibles" or "none of anybody else's business," and planned to vote for him anyway. One woman, even after accusing Platner of lying about his Nazi tattoo, still said, "I'm gonna vote for him, yeah."

Fast-forward exactly one month: a fresh sexual assault allegation drops (which Platner denies), and suddenly top Democrats (Khanna, Gallego, Schumer, Maine party) are stampeding for the exits, urging him to drop out.

Hey, CNN—time for a follow-up Maine man-in-the-street! Revisit Bonnie Depp, "Zoo Cain," Sandra Braden, and the others who were ready to "hold their noses." What do they say today? Maybe you should have looked a little harder last month—you surely could have found at least one savvy Down Easter who saw the writing on Platner's wall!

On today's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish played the whataboutism card. She aired a clip of Rep. Debbie Dingell falsely claiming Trump had been "convicted" of sexual assault, and saying that the Platner situation is, as a result, "very complicated." Cornish summarized the pivot sympathetically: "It feels like you're hearing someone say, 'It's mainly complicated for us, but not with Republicans.'"

Even CNN's Aaron Blake, hardly a conservative partisan, subtly walked back Dingell's misrepresentation, noting Trump had been held "civilly liable" for sexual abuse. They don't need another defamation lawsuit.

CNN found far-left streamer Hasan Piker ("HasanAbi") respectable enough to air a clip of him denouncing Platner as "irredeemable" and "curtains." Why platform Piker? He's notorious for despicable statements such as:

Panelist Karen Finney claimed she was "one of the people who said, no, I wouldn't have voted for him."

Republican strategist Doug Heye offered an interesting personal take. Saying that Platner's downfall was "predicted by folks like myself" who know Platner, Heye mentioned that from 2010-2015, when he and friends would enter a certain DC bar, if Platner was bartending, they'd consider going somewhere else. "Because he would corner you, or he would corner somebody else, with a lot of weird stuff."

Heye added that when earlier accuser Lyndsey Fifield spoke out, Democrats attacked her credibility because of Republican connections—"Sheldon Whitehouse owes her an apology."

What a difference an allegation by a Democrat — not a Republican like Fifield — makes for CNN!

John Fetterman has weighed in as well, calling on Bernie Sanders to apologize for backing a "predator."

One month ago: CNN’s man-in-the-street found unified “hold your nose” support for Platner. Today: Even its own panel won’t defend him, and Democrats are bailing en masse. Funny how that works.

Here's the transcript.

CNN This Morning
7/7/26
6:00 am EDT

GRAHAM PLATNER: We are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.

AUDIE CORNISH: But is it curtains for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner? He is taking a step back to reflect. The Democrats are jumping ship.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. We're gonna start with the pressure mounting on Graham Platner after new accusations emerged Monday. A woman he dated coming forward saying that he raped her while he was heavily intoxicated. This allegation stems from an event nine— about five years ago, and they are accusations Platner denies.

PLATNER: I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false.

CORNISH: Democratic support all but collapsing, several key leaders have called for him to drop out, others rescinding their endorsement. Is it too little, too late to salvage the Democrats' chances in Maine?

HASAN PIKER: That is curtains. In hindsight, yeah, I mean, he had, he had a lot of red flags, red flags that I also pointed to. This is beyond red flags though, this is, is irredeemable.

CORNISH: So today in the group chat, we've got Aaron Blake, CNN's senior political reporter, Doug Heye, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director, and Karen Finney, CNN political commentator and former senior advisor for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. You guys, welcome back. Thanks for being here after Independence Day.

For those of you who were smart enough to not pay attention to the news over the weekend, I wanna play for you, sound from the victim, the person making allegations, so that you can understand the context of what we are saying. Our own Jake Tapper sat down with her, and here's a portion of that conversation.

JAKE TAPPER: Just to underline the point, you're not coming forward because you have any political motivation.

JENNY RACICOT: No, not at all. That was actually one of the huge reasons that I didn't come forward and, and still struggled, like that was a huge moral conflict to, to feel like --

TAPPER: Because you'd like a Democrat to be in the Senate.

RACICOT: Yeah, I like the things that he speaks about. They're important. They're important to people, and I'm one of those people.

TAPPER: But at the end of the day, you feel he's not being honest.

RACICOT: He's not being honest, no.

CORNISH: Okay, Aaron, I want to start with you, because I think a lot of Democrats have been waiting to push send on their draft post saying, "Please drop out."

AARON BLAKE: It happened pretty quickly last night. I think we, we saw the kind of culmination of all these controversies coming to a head, and they, they decided this was the moment that they wanted to cut bait. And I think they'd been kinda getting there for a while, but, but this became the moment.

I think it's difficult to see how he continues in this race. Certainly, when you see a candidate come forward and say, "I'm going to reflect on my candidacy," it's very rare for that person to then come back and say, I'm just gonna try to stick it out for a little while.

CORNISH: But you know what, that was a weird statement, right? It's like he comes out with a video that doesn't say I'm dropping out, it doesn't say I'm staying in, it might as well have said, I'm waiting to see if y'all are gonna back me on this, and in the meantime, I'll wait quietly.

KAREN FINNEY: But that's exactly what it means, right? It means I'm buying myself time to get with my advisors and figure out can I get out gracefully. Especially given how quickly, because, let's be honest, since the last allegations came forward, there were a lot of concerns in the Democratic party. He said once again, like he told Manu Raju the first time, nothing else, no more to see here. Obviously, he came to Washington and reassured people.

CORNISH: And to be clear, she did come forward and she noted that, you know, people sort of glossed over the allegations I raised because one of the other accusers had Republican connections.

DOUG HEYE: Yeah, Lindsey Ficula was named. Sheldon Whitehouse owes her an apology. And frankly, this wasn't predictable, it was predicted. And it was predicted by folks like myself who know Graham Platner.

He used to be a bartender at the Tune Inn, a few blocks from here, and you'd walk in, this is 2010 through 2015, you'd walk in and you'd say, "Oh, that guy's working again," and you'd say, "Do we wanna go somewhere else or not?" Because he would corner you, or he would corner somebody else, with a lot of weird stuff. And so when the accusations started coming, myself and other people said, "There will be more."

CORNISH: Wait, around women? Or I wanna understand what you are claiming here.

HEYE: All of it. All of it. And so when Lindsey Ficula spoke out and was attacked by Democrats: you can't believe her because she's a Republican. I thought the message was, we believe women. Turns out that's not always the case. Now this is deemed as credible? Frankly, this was predicted, it was predictable. He was a terrible candidate, he always was, and this is an own goal by Democrats.

CORNISH: This is one more person who's being called on to apologize, okay? And this comes from John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. On Monday, he told Fox News this.

JOHN FETTERMAN: I would really call on Bernie Sanders to apologize for pushing this kind of predator more than anyone he helped him elect, and now apologize to the victims, especially the woman that she claimed that he raped her. So I don't know why you wanna keep pushing these kinds of people. maybe he should consider, set a few out, and stop pushing these kind of communists.

CORNISH: Does Bernie Sanders need to be involved in this?

FINNEY: I mean, he certainly should apologize and acknowledge that he was wrong.

But I, I want to make sure we don't miss something here, because yes, he has been a flawed candidate, all of those things, but the people of Maine did vote for him. And part of, I mean, whether you're Republican or Democrat, part of what had created the challenge was, is the national party really gonna tell voters of Maine, "No, that guy, he can't be your person."

Now it is, it is a position where people can say, we're gonna pull our support, and the Maine Democratic Party has pulled their support, and they're gonna have to decide. There's a process by which they can decide how they would replace him on the ticket. And so, I mean, that's the, the challenge. Many of us said, I was one of the people who said, no, I wouldn't have voted for him, but --

CORNISH: Can I play for you something, another thing Democrats argue though, which I think is pretty specific, pretty consistent, which is, well, look, in, in Trump, we got a real problem with women--and so maybe we shouldn't care about this so much.

Here's Debbie Dingell of Michigan.

DEBBIE DINGELL: I will always, be concerned about domestic violence allegations, sexual assault allegations.

But I'm also, we got a man in the White House that's a predator, has been convicted of sexual assault, and people's lives are being impacted by this every single day.

So it's a very complicated situation, and it is ultimately up to the people of Maine, who I suspect he is going to talk to and listen to.

CORNISH: It feels like you're hearing someone say, "It's, it's mainly complicated for us, but not with Republicans." Meaning, when it comes to Trump, you know, something needs to be done, someone needs to step in. It's not, "Well, the voters decided," but for Democrats, it's, "Well, voters have to do it now." I mean, it's not as bad as having a predator in the White House, that kind of language.

BLAKE: Yeah, I think that's emblematic of why Democrats held out for as long as they did with Graham Plattner. They're kind of wondering why, why the rules of gravity apply to their candidates, but not to the guy in the White House. But we have seen when Republicans have put up flawed candidates for, for Senate, voters have rebuked those candidates. You know, Herschel Walker didn't do very well in Georgia. There's been a series of Senate candidates, especially who haven't done well in, in, in recent years. So I think there, there is an argument for, you know, why does Trump skate on this stuff? Why does he get past being held civilly liable for sexual abuse, but this doesn't necessarily transfer to other candidates, and that's both Democrats and Republicans.

FINNEY: I think that was part of the question that, or when this first came, these allegations first came out or questions came out, wait a second, does this mean have the standards changed because of Trump?

And look, Graham Platner came out initially, and he had his rationale about being now a changed man. Again, the voters of Maine seemed to accept that. But then, I think when we got to a place where we're talking about violence, people, you know, that's it.

CORNISH: I think one problem for Democrats is they have struggled in the post-Me Too era to understand where their own line is --

FINNEY: I think the country has struggled.

CORNISH: --and to understand, but Democrats made it a defining issue for a time, and now that it is not, they don't know where their line is. You're saying violence, and I think that's a great one, but I don't think it's clear, as you go into these races. We're gonna talk about who might step into the breach in Maine.

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Illegal Alien with Long Rap Sheet Arrested for Rape, Kidnapping in Va. Sanctuary #Political

2026-07-07T14:31:48.145-07:00

https://bit.ly/4eYb2Bq

“Under Governor Abigail Spanberger, Virginia has become a hotbed of illegal alien crime,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned Tuesday, reporting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has requested that one of the Democrat governor’s sanctuary counties not release an illegal alien arrested on rape and kidnapping charges.

On June 30, Juan Arevalo Mendez, a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, was arrested and charged with the September 2025 forcible rape and kidnapping of an adult with intent to sexually assault in Fairfax County, Virginia.

ICE has filed a detainer request asking sanctuary politicians in Fairfax County, Virginia to not release the criminal illegal alien from jail, so that he may be taken into federal custody and deported.

Mendez, who has already been deported twice, has a long list of prior convictions dating back to 1998, including:

Assault.
Aggravated assault – weapon.
Strongarm aggravated assault – non-family.
Aggravated assault with a gun – non-family.
Drug possession.
Destruction of property.
Illegal re-entry into the U.S.
Obstructing justice.
Making a false report.

Additionally, the illegal alien has prior arrests for identity theft, drug possession, and larceny.

In a statement, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis implored Virginia’s sanctuary politicians to allow ICE to take Mendez into custody in order to “end his crime spree” in the state:

“DHS is calling on Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians in Fairfax County to commit to not releasing this dangerous criminal from jail, and to instead turn him over to ICE custody so that we can remove him from our nation and end his crime spree in our country.”

“Virginia sanctuary politicians need to stop playing Russian roulette with American lives and work with ICE law enforcement to keep criminals out of our communities,” Bis added.

Gov. Spanberger and Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano have been under fire for refusing to cooperate with ICE and releasing notorious criminal illegal aliens who went on to commit additional violent crimes.

Commonwealth Attorney Descano and Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid have been under investigation by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee for their county’s “refusal to cooperate” with federal immigration officials and “prioritization of illegal and criminal aliens over American citizens.”

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Sunny Hostin Doubles Down Support for Platner Despite Sexual Assault Allegation #Political

2026-07-07T14:31:47.052-07:00

https://bit.ly/4vmW8Ll

ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin must have been listening to so Taylor Swift before Tuesday’s episode of The View, since she proclaimed, “I’m the problem” as she doubled down on supporting Maine’s Democratic Party Nazi Graham Platner. When directly pressured on if she still would vote for him after new sexual assault allegations, Hostin refused to walk away from her previous dedication to him as a Senate candidate.

After spending most of their A-block squawking about moderator Whoopi Goldberg getting stuck in Sicily because of an erupting Mt. Etna, they relegated the breaking Platner news to after their first commercial break.

First to speak, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin recalled how many on the left and in the media dismissed the accusations of her friend and earlier Platner accuser because she was a Republican. On cue, co-hosts Joy Behar and Hostin roundly dismissed her again:

FARAH GRIFFIN: And, there was another accuser who came out who I've known for over 15 years, who accused him of what I would characterize as domestic violence when they had dated, and that wasn't enough. And many dismissed her claims because she had worked for Republicans in the past and they didn't take them seriously. Domestic violence should be an absolute no-

BEHAR: All of that is true, but I don't want to hear from the Epstein protector party, okay?

HOSTIN: Yeah.

Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin dismiss the domestic violence and sexual assault accusations against Graham Platner because one of his accusers is a Republican. The audience claps:
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: And, there was another accuser who came out who I've known for over 15 years,… pic.twitter.com/WrKNHZ1wK7
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 7, 2026

Knowing full well that Hostin had previously called for Maine Democrats to hold their nose and vote for Platner, co-host Sara Haines condemned such people. Hostin responded by announcing herself proudly:

HAINES: It is the disgusting time in politics where we decide what we're willing to morally accept based on the jersey you're wearing. And if you were one of those people that was willing to plug your nose, you're the problem.

HOSTIN: Well then, I'm the problem! Because I was one of those people and I said it, if I lived in Maine I would have, you know, plugged my nose and would have voted for him anyway.

"Well then, I'm the problem!"
Sunny Hostin doubles down on her support for Platner despite the sexual assault allegations and plays whataboutism:
SARA HAINES: It is the disgusting time in politics where we decide what we're willing to morally accept based on the jersey you're… pic.twitter.com/lO6c3cl1Wv
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 7, 2026

Hostin proceeded to justify her position with her hyperbolic rhetoric about America being in an “existential crisis” and scoffing at Republicans for thinking they had the moral high ground:

I think we are in a time of existential crisis in this country and I think Republicans fall in line. They don't fall in love. Democrats want to fall in love and not fall in line. You know, the Republican Party, the bar is so very low, I can't believe, I cannot believe that they want to try to assume the moral high ground on the Republican Party.

Nearly a month ago, on June 10, Hostin called on Maine Democrats to abandon the moral high ground and vote for Platner:

It's time for Democrats to stop that nonsense, put emotions on the side, let's be strategic, let's get some power, let’s take over the Senate and let’s take over the House and let's right the ship! Let's get our country back!

I am sorry, I am someone that believes in character, I am someone that believes that morals matter. But because of the state of this country, I would -- if I lived in Maine I would hold my nose and I would vote for Platner! I would!

Admitting it's all for power, Sunny Hostin on her and Democrats having moral standards: "That is over at this point. That is over. (...) It's time for Democrats to stop that nonsense." pic.twitter.com/H6KgLAvPwE
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 10, 2026

Fast forward to Tuesday, and Hostin refused to retract that full-throated support for Platner when pushed on it:

FARAH GRIFFIN: You'd be comfortable still voting for Graham Platner if you lived in Maine?

HOSTIN: They [Republicans] do not get to take the moral high ground.

Hostin made it clear that it was all about taking control of the Senate and making sure Democrats got power.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

ABC’s The View
July 7, 2026
11:15:18 a.m. Eastern

(...)

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: These are damning allegations, they are credible. They are corroborated, they are horrific.

JOY BEHAR: Yes.

FARAH GRIFFIN: This woman is incredibly brave for coming forward. But my issue is this: Graham Platner should drop out but I thought he should have dropped out at the Nazi tattoo. I think he should have dropped out at defaming Purple Heart recipients -

BEHAR: Right.

FARAH GRIFFIN: - and a fallen Navy SEAL. Homophobic slurs. Bigoted posts in the past. Even previously slandering sexual assault victims.

And, there was another accuser who came out who I've known for over 15 years, who accused him of what I would characterize as domestic violence when they had dated, and that wasn't enough. And many dismissed her claims because she had worked for Republicans in the past and they didn't take them seriously. Domestic violence should be an absolute no

BEHAR: All of that is true, but I don't want to hear from the Epstein protector party, okay?

SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah.

[Applause]

(...)

11:16:29 a.m. Eastern

SARA HAINES: It is the disgusting time in politics where we decide what we're willing to morally accept based on the jersey you're wearing. And if you were one of those people that was willing to plug your nose, you're the problem.

HOSTIN: Well then, I'm the problem! Because I was one of those people and I said it, if I lived in Maine I would have, you know, plugged my nose and would have voted for him anyway.

I think we are in a time of existential crisis in this country and I think Republicans fall in line. They don't fall in love. Democrats want to fall in love and not fall in line. You know, the Republican Party, the bar is so very low, I can't believe, I cannot believe that they want to try to assume the moral high ground on the Republican Party.

I mean, you know, you can miss me with all of that especially when you have Pete Hegseth who was confirmed by the Senate in 2025 as the head -- as a cabinet member, as the defense secretary when he had one drinking allegation. His sister-in-law, his sister-in-law submitted a sworn affidavit describing his drinking problem. And in order to get confirmed he pledged he wouldn't drink on the job.

Number two, he had a tattoo controversy. Not one, but two tattoo controversies, one was a Deus Vult tattoo, which is used by white nationalist groups. Two, he had - has a Jerusalem Cross tattoo which has been interpreted as an extremist symbol.

And finally, in 2017 a woman claimed he had sexually assaulted her after a conference. She reported that assault immediately, she had a sexual assault examination, and in 2020 and he says it was a consensual encounter. And in to 2020 he paid her $50,000 to settle the claim yet, yet.

FARAH GRIFFIN: Why not condemn them all? Because I condemn them all.

HOSTIN: Yet -yet. Well, but the Republicans didn't do that.

[Crosstalk]

HOSTIN: The Republicans confirmed him and he is the -

[Crosstalk]

FARAH GRIFFIN: Well, I'm a Republican right here condemning anyone who's been credibly accused of sexual abuse, they shouldn't be -

HOSTIN: I'm talking about the Republican Party as a whole. They are the Epstein file protection party and -

FARAH GRIFFIN: You'd be comfortable still voting for Graham Platner if you lived in Maine?

HOSTIN: They do not get to take the moral high ground.

(...)

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Conservative Bestselling Book Banned From Amazon, Reinstated After Backlash #Political

2026-07-06T20:31:55.331-07:00

https://bit.ly/4aZ3ugL

The left loves to crow about how conservatives ban books, equating the removal of gay pornography from elementary school libraries to the Nazi book burnings of the 1930s. But one look at their real-life practices, and you’ll see that the liberals are the real book banners of our time. Amazon, run by notably left-of-center executives, has a history of banning books that they don’t want the public to have easy access to. The latest of these books was Mark Dice’s bestseller, The War on Conservatives, which was recently banned from the site but then restored after the company received backlash.

In his YouTube video discussing the ban, Dice, an independent media analyst, explained that the book “wasn't just banned. It was dumped down the memory hole, preventing [him] from listing copies, preventing anybody who read the book from listing used copies for sale on the Amazon marketplace, deleting the thousands of five-star ratings, the hundreds of written reviews, making it as if the book just never even existed.”

[embedded content]

Dice’s book details how “Conservatives are under attack on numerous different fronts by a well-funded, highly organized Marxist movement. The war is being waged in the public schools and universities, in corporate America, the media, and in the streets.”

From that description, it’s hard to see how Amazon could ban the book, which had thousands of five-star reviews and reached number four on the overall bestseller list, on the grounds that “the content might result in a disappointing customer experience,” which was all the justification that Amazon’s Executive Customer Relations Department gave in response to Dice’s appeal.

Dice then reached out to conservative news outlet The Daily Caller, who asked Amazon for comment. Shortly thereafter, The War on Conservatives was restored to the site.

“This title was removed in error and is now available for sale,” Amazon’s spokesperson told The Caller.

In a statement to NewsBusters, Dice said, “I think the book came to the attention of someone at Amazon who was personally and ideologically opposed to its content. Between the title, the cover art, and the arguments presented in the book, they decided it shouldn't be allowed on the platform and decided to ban it.”

Adding: “When Amazon first banned the book, I assumed it had to be some kind of mistake that would be corrected through the normal appeals process. But when they rejected my initial appeal, it became obvious this wasn't simply an automated error or the result of a bot mistakenly flagging the book.”

It wasn’t just new copies. “It wasn't just delisted. They banned the book. They deleted the listing with several thousand five-star ratings and hundreds of written reviews, and even deleted the used copies that third-party sellers had listed for sale,” he explained.

Dice was very direct with his thoughts about Amazon’s excuse: “Amazon's claim that the book was removed because of an "error" is beyond ridiculous. Quite frankly, they’re full of shit.”

We in the conservative movement have seen this song and dance before from big companies like Amazon and Google, who continuously try to repress and silence our voices on the public stage.

Amazon infamously banned the 1973 French dystopian novel The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail, about Indian migrants moving to France and destabilizing Western society. They also banned Ryan T. Anderson’s 2025 book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. In both cases, and also in Dice’s, Amazon quickly caved and restored the books after public backlash.

Amazon very rarely delists books promoting a leftist agenda. If they did, you could imagine the outcry that would come from the liberals and their media. They would do what they’re currently trying with CBS and Bari Weiss, attacking a company for supposedly repressing their views.

So, the next time the left accuses the right of banning books and attacking free speech, just remember which side celebrated shooting a man in the neck just for engaging in civil debate.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

Mark Dice YouTube, "Amazon Banned My Book!"
7/1/26
0:00 - 4:04

MARK DICE: Well, my book, The War on Conservatives, which came out in November 2023 and immediately broke into the Amazon Top 10 Bestseller list, reaching number four, was banned by the book giant two weeks ago. Stay tuned and I'll explain why.

I'm just going public with it now. It wasn't just banned. It was dumped down the memory hole, preventing me from listing copies, preventing anybody who read the book from listing used copies for sale on the Amazon marketplace, deleting the thousands of five-star ratings, the hundreds of written reviews, making it as if the book just never even existed. Luckily, the listing and all that information was saved in the internet archive, the Wayback Machine.

And so I came up with a four-stage plan to try to help Amazon do what was right and stop censoring my book. And so phase one was just appealing the ban.

They sent me an email and they said, "We recently reviewed your book and we found it violates our content policy."

And so I wrote a very detailed, very friendly and professional appeal, which they then denied. And so then I found the CEO's email address which is public. And so I sent another, second appeal to him that was then forwarded to the Amazon executive review team and they then later emailed me, said that they conducted their own review and they were upholding the ban.

The only explanation they gave was a ridiculous lie saying that it might be causing a ‘disappointing customer experience.’

So then I moved on to phase two and started reaching out to my contacts in the media.

And big shout out to The Daily Caller which wrote this great article, ‘Amazon Delists Conservative YouTuber's Book Over Potentially ‘Disappointing Customer Experience,’ Then Claims Error,’ and goes into the details.

Now, I'm going to leave this article linked up in the description and in the comments below. Copy and paste this article and tweet it to all of the big news outlets in the media and the conservative media, all the big podcasters, all the big YouTubers because apparently none of the conservative media outlets other than the Daily Caller care about little old me, because they were the only one, at least so far, that published this story.

It wasn't until this journalist reached out to Amazon's PR team or their media relations department asking for a quote and an explanation of why they're banning another book, another bestseller, that they miraculously discovered that they had just made a mistake.

It was just a little error because, well, they knew that it was about to turn into a big news story.

Just like when they banned The Camp of the Saints, I think it was about a month ago when the book came back into print in English. They banned that. That's a novel from the '70s in France about how a bunch of migrants - million migrants or so, travel to France and ruin the culture there. So that's offensive. That's xenophobic. That got dumped down the memory hole, too.

But then after social media and some media outcry, they just miraculously realized they made a mistake and reinstated it.

And of course, the liberal media was very upset once that book came back into print. The Atlantic complained that 'The Return of MAGA’s Favorite Forbidden Book' is just absolutely terrible.

And then they banned When Harry Became Sally back in 2021. That made some headlines. Even Ted Cruz started tweeting about it. It's a book that's critical of the gender bending agenda. And then, miraculously, last year, they reinstated it after the media pressure had died down. And then they issued a statement saying that they had re-evaluated it. They, you know, once construed it as 'hate speech.'

So probably what happened is some executive at Amazon probably realized that one of their children came down with the woke mind virus and then realized 'You know what? Maybe we should actually allow books on the world's biggest bookstore to actually discuss these issues.'

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POLL RESULTS: Worst Media Quote of the Week Winner! #Political

2026-07-06T11:31:53.092-07:00

https://bit.ly/3SGXYZP

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, X, and Truth Social).

The results of the Worst Media Quote of the Week are in and the winner is…

Joy Behar!

The co-host of ABC’s The View won in a close contest with 39 percent of the vote! Behar took first place for absurdly stating that basic government services like garbage men taking out the trash and firefighting were “socialism.” MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell finished a close second place with 38 percent. MS NOW contributor Eddie Glaude finished last with 23 percent.

Check out the following clip (via the MRC Video team) to see the nominees in action:

Watch @Schineman present the Worst Quotes from @Lawrence, @esglaude, and @JoyVBehar pic.twitter.com/PcdMxJNxT0
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) July 2, 2026

WINNER (39 percent of the vote)

Joy Behar Thinks Every Public Service, Including Picking Up the Trash, is “Socialism”

“If I fall down, I want an ambulance. If my house is on fire, bring your hose. You know what I mean?...I’m not scared of the term. I think they’re scared of the term in this country! But Social Security is a democratic socialism. Partly unemployment insurance is. The people who pick up your garbage, the people who take the fire out of your house. All of these are democratic socialism.”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, June 24.

SECOND PLACE (38 percent of the vote)

“Donald” Is Now the New “Adolf” of Baby Names

“Well, Donald Trump has scored his lowest job approval rating yet in a Reuters poll at 34 percent. And we have what could be another measure of Donald Trump’s unpopularity and disapproval: baby names. Donald is the new Adolf. The baby name Donald has hit its lowest point in popularity in American history….Adolf dropped rather dramatically in popularity after Adolf Hitler executed six million Jewish people in death camps while he was losing World War II before he took his own life.”
— Host Lawrence O’Donnell on MS NOW’s The Last Word, June 23.

THIRD PLACE (23 percent of the vote)

Eddie Glaude on America’s 250th Birthday: I Have Not “Found Joy” in Singing the Star Spangled Banner

Co-host Mike Barnicle: “But my question to you is, do you see optimism at the end of this July 4th rainbow?”
Contributor Eddie Glaude: “No, no Mike, I don’t. And it comes about, I think that, that orientation follows from, from my own formation. I don’t think I’ve ever teared up around patriotism. I don’t ever think I found joy in singing the Star Spangled Banner.”
— MS NOW’s Morning Joe, June 30.

Thanks again to all who participated!

Sponsored by James P. Jimirro

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On PBS, Brooks RIPS DSA 'Authoritarians,' Capehart Says the Trend Is 'Not a Thing' #Political

2026-07-05T23:31:45.226-07:00

https://bit.ly/4vNmoiZ

On Friday's PBS News Hour, pundit David Brooks struck a true centrist pose, denouncing Trump's "authoritarian power grabs," and then turning around and trashing the ascendant "authoritarian wing" of the Democratic Socialists of America, insisting the Democrats need to reject the left-wing authoritarians. In reply, Jonathan Capehart claimed this trend of DSA victories is not yet "a thing," and that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is doing just fine.

They began with the end of the Supreme Court term, where Brooks celebrated the court taking steps to curb the so-called Trump authoritarianism. Brooks claimed the DSA victories in Democrat primaries are like the Tea Party wins in 2010, as if Rep. Dave Brat could somehow be compared to a pro-Hamas Marxist.

ON PBS @NewsHour, David Brooks sounded like a centrist and underlined that the DSA "has been hijacked and taken over by an authoritarian wing, which supported Hamas in October 7, who supports Cuba, who supports China, who supports Maduro's Venezuela, who supports pretty much… pic.twitter.com/67ci6Ha1k9
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 5, 2026

DAVID BROOKS: It's been compared, I think, accurately, to when Dave Brat beat Eric Cantor in the Republican primary, and you saw a bunch of people said, these -- my party, screw them. We're going to tear it all down. And in that case, and I think, in this case, Democrats are -- they're just looking around through the most furious candidate because they're furious at what's happened. And so they're doing that. And I understand the fury.

My problem is, the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, should not be where you go. The Democratic Socialist Party was started in the 1980s by Michael Harrington, a very wonderful guy, a serious intellectual, and he wanted the DSA to move us toward Denmark, a perfectly good political position.

Over the last five years, that party has been hijacked and taken over by an authoritarian wing, which supported Hamas in October 7, who supports Cuba, who supports China, who supports Maduro's Venezuela, who supports pretty much every left-wing authoritarian regime in the country.

So I understand wanting to register a protest against Washington. But are the Democrats really going to take a position that we're going to become left-wing authoritarians, just as the Republicans become right-wing authoritarians?

And the final thing to be said is, the Democratic Party became great not by fighting the right, but by fighting the left. It was Hubert Humphrey in 1946 who pushed the communists out of the Democratic Farmer -- the DFL, the Democratic Farmer Labor Party [in Minnesota]. It was [AFL-CIO leader] George Meany who pushed the communists out of the labor movement, basically.

And they defined who they were by pushing against the right, but also by pushing against the left. And we're going to see if the Democratic mainstream has the guts, the conviction, or even the clarity of thought to push against what's happening. And we will see.

Capehart was opposed to pushing a panic button on the DSA, and admitted the defeated Democrats were not moderates, although he tried to claim Brad Lander is a "mainstream Democrat."

Jonathan Capehart won't panic about the DSA wins: "I'm not going to fall into the Democratic trap of, oh, my God, the Democratic Socialists are taking over the country when we're talking about, one, wins in deep blue seats in congressional districts, two, when we're talking about… pic.twitter.com/hXcPs4Kjcx
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 5, 2026

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I'm not going to fall into the Democratic trap of, oh, my God, the Democratic socialists are taking over the country when we're talking about, one, wins in deep-blue seats in congressional districts, two, when we're talking about what really to me is the big trend here is that the establishment, the incumbents are being thrown out.

And folks are angry. They're angry because of affordability. They're angry because the president is robbing the nation blind. They're angry because it doesn't seem like it any of these elected officials are doing anything to hold the president accountable for what's happened.

I mean, Diana DeGette is no conservative. She was a progressive. Congressman Dan Goldman, not big capital-P progressive, but he was left of center. Brad Lander, who -- another person who beat Dan Goldman, he's no socialist. He's basically like a mainstream Democrat in New York City.

And so, to my mind, I think we need to pay attention to what voters are saying. If they're choosing the Democratic Socialist candidate, then Democrats need to pay attention to, well, why did they choose the DSA candidate and not someone who's a little closer to the center?

Could it be that their message on the economy, their message on what they're going to do is resonating? And, quite honestly Mayor Mamdani, who has put his weight behind a lot of these candidates, the thing he has going for him is, New York City is doing fine.

A lot of people predicted that, oh, you put you elect a Socialist, and then the city will go to pot. And instead, it's -- I'm not going to say it's the opposite, but the dire predictions haven't proven true. And so I think it there's still time to look at other races to see whether the DSA is actually a thing, and a thing in the way that the Tea Party had become for Republicans in the way-back.

Notice Capehart isn't denying the DSA favors dictators and terrorists, he's just saying hey, that's not "actually a thing" that they're taking over the party.

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O'Donnell Slams 'Counterfeit Air Force One,' Teddy Roosevelt Would Be ‘Horrified' #Political

2026-07-05T09:31:42.189-07:00

https://bit.ly/4vibSyR

President Donald Trump just redecorated the Boeing jet gifted to him by the Qatari Emir, and the liberal media did what it always does - throw a tantrum about it. On Wednesday’s episode of MS NOW’s The Last Word, host Lawrence O’Donnell and his squinty eyes glared through the camera and proclaimed "Donald Trump flaunted the single biggest piece of corruption in American history. Donald Trump showed off the largest object to ever be corruptly sought and accepted by an American politician."

“The saying, ‘When you’ve got it, flaunt it,’ was never meant as advice for politicians,” O’Donnell began his rant over Trump, who he’s so obsessed with that he probably dreams about him.

Where was his outrage when Jill Biden received an 18-carat gold and diamond necklace, also from the Emir of Qatar? That's (D)ifferent.

“The country will never get to fly on that plane,” O’Donnell lamented, like he thinks that any American can just walk onto Air Force One and fly wherever they want. Then, he connected Trump and dictators again: “Donald Trump said today that he went to a foreign dictator and asked him for a plane.”

In the clip of Trump that O’Donnell used as backup for these claims, Trump himself said that he asked to borrow the jet “for a period of time” while the other Boeing 747 planes were under construction. O'Donnell claimed the president "has two perfectly capable and functioning 747's," but they're over 35 years old and increasingly obsolete and expensive to maintain. But O’Donnell simply couldn’t entertain any rational claims for a new plane:

Donald Trump wanted one [plane] that he could take home with him. And so the scheme that a Democratic Congress must find a way to prevent is for Donald Trump to take that 747 with him as part of his so-called Presidential Library, and then use it to fly wherever he wants to go after his time in office.

It's an unprecedented arrangement, but it's not some national emergency that Democrats "must find a way to prevent" it. O'Donnell's rant

President Trump used it for the first time this past week to fly to the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library dedication in North Dakota, which O’Donnell of course used as another avenue of attack:

Teddy Roosevelt would be horrified by Donald Trump's mode of transportation today. Teddy Roosevelt would have immediately urged the impeachment of a president who solicited a gift from anyone, especially a foreign dictator.

On the contrary, Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to fly on an airplane in October of 1910. He also received many gifts from people O’Donnell would probably classify as “foreign dictators,” including the warmongering Emperor of Ethiopia and the rulers of Russia and Japan.

“'Offensive and contemptible.' That is exactly what Teddy Roosevelt surely would have said about the 'screaming vulgarity of the foolish, spread-eagled orator' flying on a counterfeit Air Force One today,” O’Donnell added.

Either O’Donnell was being intentionally obtuse or intentionally obfuscating the facts; there’s nothing “counterfeit” about the plane. Any fixed-wing aircraft carrying the President of the United States IS Air Force One.

The left hates Trump so much that they can’t stand to see anything good happening for him, even as he represents them and all other Americans on the world stage. Instead, they’ll drag him down and pray that his new plane crashes and burns, along with the country at large.

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

MS NOW's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
7/1/26
10:01:53
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL: The saying, 'When you've got it, flaunt it' was never meant as advice for politicians.
But today, Donald Trump flaunted the single biggest piece of corruption in American history. Donald Trump showed off the largest object to ever be corruptly sought and accepted by an American politician.

[Cut to video]
DONALD TRUMP: The head of Boeing said this is considered the best 747 they've ever built.

And I went to Qatar. I said, 'I'd like to use it for a period of time because the other ones, as you know, are under construction.' They'll be here in two years. And because, you know, the plane is 35 years old. So I said I'd like to use it.

And the Emir, Tamim, who's a great gentleman, he said, 'No, no, I'd like to make a contribution to the country.'

[Cut back to live]
O'DONNELL: The country isn't going to use that 400 million dollar gift that the Emir gave to Donald Trump. The plan is for Donald Trump to be the only person who ever uses that plane. That is the corrupt plan for that plane.

The United States of America already has two perfectly capable and functioning 747's in service right now as Air Force One. And the federal government has ordered two more Boeing 747's to replace those two versions of Air Force One that are currently operating.

But Donald Trump wanted one that he could take home with him.

And so the scheme that a Democratic Congress must find a way to prevent is for Donald Trump to take that 747 with him as part of his so-called presidential library, and then use it to fly wherever he wants to go after his time in office.

The country will never get to fly on that plane, but the country actually ended up having to pay for that plane, hundreds of millions of dollars, at least, to outfit it as a workable version of Air Force One.

(...)

10:05:10 p.m.

O'DONNELL: And suddenly, for the first time in world history, a President of the United States was given an airplane from another country.

Donald Trump said today that he went to a foreign dictator and asked him for a plane. And he used that plane for the first time today to fly to a dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
Now, it might seem a little late to just now be dedicating a presidential library to someone who was president more than 100 years ago. But presidential libraries are actually a relatively new thing in presidential history, beginning with President Herbert Hoover, who left office on Inauguration day in 1933.

Teddy Roosevelt was a rich New York Republican like Donald Trump, who served as president from 1901 to 1909.

In a first for presidential library dedication speeches, Donald Trump today did not quote the President, who was being commemorated. Because the problem for Donald Trump today, in quoting Teddy Roosevelt, is Teddy Roosevelt saying things like 'No man can be a good citizen who is not a good husband and a good father who is not honest in his dealings with other men and women, faithful to his friends, and fearless in the presence of his foes who has not got a sound heart, a sound mind, and a sound body.'

Teddy Roosevelt would be horrified by Donald Trump's mode of transportation today. Teddy Roosevelt would have immediately urged the impeachment of a president who solicited a gift from anyone, especially a foreign dictator.

And Teddy Roosevelt would have despised the small-mindedness of Donald Trump because it was Teddy Roosevelt who said, 'The screaming vulgarity of the foolish spread-eagle orator who is continually yelling defiance at Europe, praising everything American, good and bad, and resenting the introduction of any reform because it has previously been tried successfully abroad, is offensive and contemptible to the last degree.'

'Offensive and contemptible.' That is exactly what Teddy Roosevelt surely would have said about the 'screaming vulgarity of the foolish, spread-eagled orator' flying on a counterfeit Air Force One today.

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CNN's Hunt Presses Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed On Israel, Deleted Tweets on Police #Political

2026-07-04T20:31:40.991-07:00

https://bit.ly/3SLzoa7

TheDemocratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan has a trio of candidates on the ballot, including radical left-winger Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. Thursday afternoon, El-Sayed was a guest on CNN's The Arena, where Host Kasie Hunt, treated him like a Republican, repeatedly raising issues that made El-Sayed uncomfortable, and pressing him when he didn't answer the question asked. It was very unusual.

Hunt began by asking if he can win a general election in the purple state of Michigan should he win the primary, noting some party leaders are concerned about that. When he stressed he'd support "Medicare for All" (nationalized health care) as a Senator, Hunt fired back, "The reality is there's no way Medicare for All passes Congress if Democrats don't control the Senate. And if you don't win that Senate seat in Michigan, it's very hard to see how Democrats win the Senate at all."

Hunt then moved on to El-Sayed's criticism of President Trump, noting that he won Michigan in 2024, "Is there anything that he's done in this second term in office that you can identify as being good for the country?" Wow. This from a woman who routinely criticizes the President.

Hunt then turned her attention to comments he has made about women and his opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and played an ad attacking him for it. Rather than address its contents, and Hunt's question of whether he regrets things he's said about women, his response was to point out who he says paid for the ad, UDP, an AIPAC super PAC. This led to Hunt to the topic of Israel, and she continued to press her guest.

HUNT: Do you believe Israel has a right to exist?

EL-SAYED: It's interesting because nobody's ever asked me whether or not I believe Palestine has a right to exist.... Israel exists.

HUNT: You say it exists, but does it have a right to?

EL-SAYED: I didn't say that. I just said the question of Israel's existence is not a question. I'm not I'm not going to play this gotcha game about whether or not it has a right to exist.

HUNT: You're not going to play the gotcha game, but you're not going to say you think Israel has a right to exist.

EL-SAYED: The question about whether or not Israel has a right to exist is actually quite secondary to whether or not they have a right to our tax dollars. And people don't ask that question in good faith.

Then Hunt pressed him on his deleted tweets which called for defunding police, which really hit a nerve.

Hunt asked: "I also wanted to ask you about some of the tweets that you deleted, as you were in the course of this race, just before, around this question of defunding the police, this is also something likely to come up in a general election should you win this primary. Do you stand by what you had previously said that that police, in support of defunding the police, or do you believe police should be funded? She later asked, "Why did you delete the tweets"?

El-Sayed shot back: "I deleted all the tweets because I didn't want them to be taken out of context, like this, o that you could distract from the actual conversation that Michiganders really want to have."

Then more pressing from Hunt.

HUNT: I think the question is just if you're leading, would you fight to defund the police or would you not?

EL-SAYED: I've already told you what I did. Judge me by my work....And I think this debate about 2020 and the ways that tweets are going to play are really nice on CNN, if you want to get clicks.

HUNT: So voters shouldn't look at the fact that you deleted the tweets as evidence that you no longer were for the things that you said then?

After more back and forth Hunt concluded with, "I understand, but you deleted the tweets, right? That's what I'm asking you. I'm asking you about an action that you took, okay."

And after asking if Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has endorsed El-Sayed, will be campaigning with him, she asked him about one of his earliest supporters Hasan Piker, who has said America deserved 9/11: "You also, of course, have campaigned alongside Hasan Piker. Do you believe that the statements that he has made about September 11th are accurate?"

An impressive display by Hunt, but why? Maybe she too believes that if El-Sayed wins the primary, he and the Democrats will lose the Michigan Senate seat they currently hold.

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Liberal 'News' Site Mocks How 'GOP Reboots the Red Scare' Over the DSA Primary Wins #Political

2026-07-04T07:31:47.877-07:00

https://bit.ly/4wu1LIw

Brett T. at Twitchy chronicled how the tweeters mocked the liberals at Axios for warning: “GOP reboots the Red Scare as young Democrats embrace socialism.” They don't want to spend any time identifying the actual communist sympathies displayed by the Democratic Socialists of America candidates winning primaries.

The use of the term “Red Scare” always implied falsehood, that there were no actual communists to be exposed. Warning about the dangers of the Soviet Union was for kooks, and so was worry about communist spies in the United States (they were real). Today, you're supposed to ignore communists winning seats in Congress, as in CNN gumshoe Andrew Kaczynski's report that incoming congresswoman Darializa Avila Chevalier was tweeting communist content in 2020:

Archived posts and retweets during this timeframe included a recommendation that Karl Marx’s Capital was an “essential must-read,” a complaint that public libraries did not carry enough Marxist literature by Lenin and other revolutionary writers, and a retweet from a Communist-identifying account lamenting that bookstore “banned books” displays did not include The Complete Works of J. V. Stalin.

Graham Platner identified as a communist in a 2020 Reddit post, but he gets a syrupy cover story in Time magazine, must like Zohran Mamdani did. But who needs to present evidence? Axios implied communism's on the ash heap of history (so pay no attention to say, China or Cuba or North Korea):

70 years after the Red Scare and 35 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, President Trump and Republicans are trying to re-introduce a national fear of "godless communists" ahead of the critical midterms.

Why it matters: A wave of resounding victories by Democratic Socialists has the GOP trotting out a message that last worked when most of those candidates weren't even born.

It's too soon to know if the message is working — but Trump and Republican strategists see an opening with voters old enough to remember Soviet-era nuclear drills and spy dramas.

So the right-wingers are still channeling Tom Clancy novels, those crazy kooks. Then came the "reality check"!

Reality check: Democratic socialism is not communism. New York's Zohran Mamdani and Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George both call for expanded government programs, Axios' Josephine Walker writes.

"Any attempt to smear us as 'extremists' falls flat when so many Americans are struggling with the rising cost of housing, homelessness, unaffordable healthcare, and underfunded schools," a DSA spokesperson told Axios in a statement.

Mamdani spoke of "seizing the means of production," which certainly sounds like Karl Marx copy. Axios presented DSA statements as "news" like helpful press aides.

PS: Axios also wants you to believe that establishment Democrats are "centrists," not liberals, with this piece:

House Dem centrists plot Mamdani Caucus counterattack

Moderate House Democrats are warning they're prepared for "war" if incoming progressives and democratic socialists try to hijack the House floor to secure ideological concessions.

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Wow: ‘CBS Mornings’ Gives Glowing Profile to Christian Music Star Brandon Lake #Political

2026-07-03T19:31:42.028-07:00

https://bit.ly/3QWCFmf

If CBS News wants to be a news organization that represents all Americans, profiles such as one that closed Tuesday’s CBS Mornings with chief legal and national correspondent Jan Crawford being given nearly five minutes to air a profile of Christian music star Brandon Lake with unapologetic mentions of God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers gave it top billing in two teases, informing viewers that “Brandon Lake is one of the biggest stars in faith-based music” and he’s “the mega popular artist who’s redefining Christian music.”

Later, here was how Duthiers cued up Crawford’s piece following a soundbite from a performance of his new hit, The Author.

WATCH: Before the final day of Supreme Court opinions, Tuesday's 'CBS Mornings' ended with an incredible profile by the great @JanCBS Crawford of Christian music sensation @BrandonLake.
God and Jesus proclaimed on national TV in a positive light -- something we need more of! pic.twitter.com/6Qr2E4HBHE
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 2, 2026

Notice how it was both straightforward and didn’t seek to sugarcoat or tear down Christianity:

That is Brandon Lake’s song The Author from his new live concert album, King of Hearts in the Room. Lake is one of the biggest names in Christian music. The six-time Grammy winner has collaborated with artists like Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson. Jan Crawford caught up with him on tour in San Antonio. She learned how a preacher’s kid is finding new fans.

The piece started with Lake saying his career “isn’t just about entertainment,” but “an encounter” where “people’s lives are changed” and “walking out better than they came in.”

Crawford finally came in, asking: “Would you say that music is, in a way, your ministry?”

“I feel like music is what God has called me to, the gift that He’s given me, and that’s how I’m able to share this message and reach people,” Lake replied.

With a clip of Lake singing another hit King of Hearts, Crawford said Lake’s “message of hope and redemption and praise...is helping redefine Christian music” through “more than four billion streams and sold-out arenas for shows he calls a joy bomb, bringing people of all ages and ethnicities closer to Jesus.”

Lake praised his parents (including his father, a pastor) for having “made [singing] fun, and I think what church is supposed to really be about, and that’s community and sharing in everything that you have.”

Following discussion of how Lake went as far as having last names tattooed on a thigh to fund his first record a decade ago, Crawford shared Lake was mentally struggling in his initial waves of success before realizing he “leaned on God, and his friends, and family” (click “expand”):

CRAWFORD: The hits on Billboard’s Hot Christian Song Chart came quick, six number one songs.

[LAKE SINGING GRAVES INTO GARDENS]

CRAWFORD: But as his career was skyrocketing, Lake found himself mentally at the bottom.

LAKE: When I didn’t have the next song write, invite, or I didn’t have the next song I was excited about, or the next show, I started to panic, but I was too prideful to tell my wife what I was experiencing. So, I was having some weird thoughts, dark thoughts, like this is not who I am, and I’m on the mountain top right now, my dreams are coming true, and it’s just crazy. I guess, I’d say a lot of people’s lowest moments come from a low moment, and mine came from a high moment.

[LAKE SINGING HELP!]

CRAWFORD: He says he leaned on God and friends and family, finding balance on his farm in South Carolina with his wife and three sons[.]

Crawford added that “he saw how everyone struggles, and you can see that compassion in his music, and his community is continuing to grow” with many of his “high moments involve collaborations” with names such as Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, and Lainey Wilson.

Questioned why he’s expanded his music to include more duets, Lake aptly said that while “the songs are cool,” the real message is “God loves collabs” when His people come together.

Johnson spared a moment to tell Crawford that, from his perspective, Lake’s career has “not only help[ed] shape people’s lives,” but collaborations with country music stars have “help[ed] him kind of segue into the country music realm.”

Speaking of segues, this went into Crawford’s final question to Lake about what he would like his music to mean to non-Believers (click “expand”):

CRAWFORD [TO LAKE]: There are people out there that they would never consider them religious or even believers.

LAKE: Right.

CRAWFORD: Like, what would you say your music offers them?

LAKE: The best thing I can do is offer my story, what God has done in my life, and allow God to do the rest. Like I’m not out here trying to, like, you know, beat people with a Bible, and you know, fire and brimstone. Like, I don’t think that’s effective. I think my songs are offerings, and they’re open doors.

[LAKE SINGING THAT’S WHO I PRAISE]

Back live, Duthiers remarked he “love[d] the fact that you know he says that his music is an open door to everybody” and “being honest” while co-host Nate Burleson said it was “beautiful” in sharing “that everybody struggles.” Filling in as co-host, Inside Edition’s Eva Pilgrim concurred that he would be so “honest” that “at the height [of his career], he didn’t feel great.”

Along with an increased focus on stories such as welfare fraud and having balance in segments such as one Duthiers had Thursday with Gen Zers, CBS now has more than a few examples to build a roadmap to an outlet that respects all Americans.

To see the relevant CBS transcript from June 30, click here.

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