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Fmr. CBP Chief Clem to Newsmax: Salazar Ad Is 'Pandering'

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla.

Retired Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem

 Retired Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem told Newsmax's "The Count" that an immigration ad by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., amounted to pandering, and said he hoped it "blows up in her face."

Salazar, a three-term House member first elected in 2020, released the ad Thursday, telling Trump directly that "some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far," according to Time.

"In July, 50% of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record," she said in the ad, Florida Phoenix reported.

 

Separately, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border in July were 94% lower than the Biden administration's monthly average and 96% below the December 2023 peak.

The agencies said the figures marked 15 consecutive months without the release of a single apprehended migrant into the U.S. interior.

Speaking Saturday, Clem called border security "an enduring mission" and said officials "continue to need to put the foot on the gas."

Reflecting on the numbers, he said President Donald Trump had accomplished in "one month" what his predecessor could not manage "in 19 months," crediting the shift to a White House willing to "trust the men and women" doing the job at the border.

 

"We absolutely have seen that it can be sustained," Clem said, adding that "we are no longer tolerating catch and release."

Clem then criticized Salazar's ad. "Well, it was a terrible ad, and it is pandering," he said, arguing that the congresswoman conflated enforcement against lawbreakers with immigration overall.

Trump, he said, is targeting people "in violation of the U.S. immigration codes and U.S. Laws," and he dismissed Salazar's message as "a bunch of nonsense that is just pandering."

"I hate losing slots in Congress, but my gosh, that was terrible," Clem added.

Asked whether the border numbers would help Republicans keep their House majority in November, Clem said: "Midterms are always going to be, you know, tricky."

The Cook Political Report rates Salazar's seat "Likely Republican" as she faces Democrat Eliott Rodriguez in November.

Credit:  https://www.newsmax.com/politics/

 

Minnesota's Anti-Ice Fraud Fund Was Just 'Shut Down.' The Reason Couldn't Be More Ironic.

Minnesota may have once been the land of a thousand lakes. Now it's the land of a thousand fraud cases.

A $2 million "anti-ICE" fraud fund that was intended to help those who were "harmed" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers enforcing the law was recently frozen because of — you guessed it — fraud.

The Hennepin County Small Business Recovery Fund was established to provide grants of between $3,000 and $10,000 to brick-and-mortar businesses suffering financial hardship because of Operation Metro Surge, according to the county's own guidelines.

The county received roughly 300 applications. Only 82 ultimately received grants totaling about $500,000, while more than 200 applications were flagged for potential fraud.

And we're not talking about somebody forgetting to attach the right paperwork. Officials reportedly encountered applications containing false information, businesses that couldn't be found during site visits, and suspiciously similar language that appeared to have been generated by artificial intelligence and copied across applications.

We wouldn't be surprised if a "Quality Learing Center" was trying to get paid.

At some point, county officials apparently decided they'd seen enough. "Then at a certain point we're like, 'OK, we're getting declining results on that,'" Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde said. "And so we said it's time to stop the program. So we just stopped processing at that point."

That's one way of putting it. Lunde was considerably more pointed when discussing what the attempted fraud said about the environment in Minnesota.

"The fact that people, after all this fraud, felt that they could apply and get away with it, I think it's a problem because clearly there's no fear out there," he said.

That's the part that should make Minnesota taxpayers' ears perk up. The state has spent years dealing with major fraud cases involving taxpayer-funded programs. The most notorious is Feeding Our Future, the sprawling federal child-nutrition fraud case in which prosecutors alleged approximately $250 million was stolen through bogus meal claims.

Gov. Tim Walz has acknowledged Minnesota's fraud problem and said it is his "responsibility to fix it," while arguing speciously that Republicans have exaggerated or politicized the scandals. He has also pushed back on President Trump targeting Minnesota's Somali community, saying an entire community shouldn't be blamed for crimes committed by individuals.

Fair enough. The entire state can be guilty. The point is to shut it down, not to encourage it further.

Hennepin County has supplied an almost painfully ironic addition to the story. This particular program was created because county officials said businesses were suffering under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The county's guidelines specifically cited declining customers, temporary closures and workforce disruptions caused by Operation Metro Surge.

Then people started trying to defraud the government assistance program. More than 200 applications were reportedly flagged out of roughly 300 received.

And perhaps the most Minnesota-in-2026 detail of all? Some of the questionable applications were apparently generated with AI.

Instead, it became another Minnesota program dealing with rampant fraud. At least this time, officials pulled the plug before the entire $2 million walked out the door.

But the political fallout isn't going away. As my colleague Teri Christoph recently noted, the Minnesota senate race is tightening. One of the reasons is the endless fraud. Somebody's got to put a stop to it.

Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote. It's common sense, yet Democrats are spreading lies about the impact of such a measure.

Credit:  https://redstate.com/

 

Bill Maher Won't Let Jessica Tarlov Get Away With Claim Dems Are Not All That Crazy

I guess the point of Jessica Tarlov on Fox is supposed to be "balance." 

But she's so out of balance and out of reality most of the time; she's not actually doing a good job on behalf of the Democrats. Although, to be fair, it would be hard to do a good job for them when their positions are so awful. 

Tarlov appeared on Bill Maher's Real Time show on Friday. Christopher Rufo was another panel guest. Tarlov tried to sell Maher on the idea that the Democrats were "less crazy" than the Republicans. That made Bill Maher almost fall off his chair, laughing in astonishment at such an assertion, as our sister site Twitchy reported.

"Have you seen the Democratic...," he can't even finish; he's laughing so much.  He asked her if she was being sarcastic, if she really thought the Democrats were less crazy.

"Maybe not inside," she admitted, but arguing they were when they "go out and give a speech, talking about the economy and corruption..."

Now that's gold - her admitting, yes, they are crazy on the inside, no matter what they are saying on the outside. They should run that in ads on a loop. But she's obviously not living in reality there. 

Rufo interrupted Tarlov, "They're wearing Carhartts and pretending to be less crazy. That's what's happening." That had the audience laughing their heads off. 

Maher then dunked all over Tarlov's hot take: "They're communists who think the Islamists are the good guys. Are you kidding? Less crazy?" Is she not following the Democratic Socialists of America, Maher asks her.

Tarlov then notes she has to "see them every day" because she "works at Fox News." Yes, because at least Fox is doing some coverage of the DSA, while the liberal media is basically glossing over the threat that they pose and/or ignoring the issue. 

 

Maher says the DSA folks are doubling down on the crazy. He's certainly right on that. He's wrong, though, to say this election is not about them. It most certainly is. The more you let them in the door, the more they flood in, and the more radical the Democrats become.

Democrats can talk about "affordability" and pretend they care about people. But everything was worse under them; why would anyone believe that they can do better? Inflation went up over 9 percent under Joe Biden. Gas prices went higher than they are now.

Well, that backfired.

Jessica Tarlov really thought she could convince Bill Maher Democrats are less crazy than Republicans.

Maher thought she was kidding. "Oh, you're being sarcastic."

His reaction was priceless when he realized she wasn't.

Remember, Democrats are the party of open borders, communist candidates, Islamist apologists, and men in women's sports.

When you've lost Bill Maher on this, you know you've lost America.

If Democrats win the midterms, it will be because of the war and the economy.

"Less crazy" will have nothing to do with it.

If the Democrats can't even convince Maher here that they're sane, what do they think the normal people in the center are going to think of them? They're not enamored of any of this Democrat craziness. 

That's definitely going to be fun. 

Credit:  https://redstate.com/

 

Shut Up and Don’t Even Sing, Just Get Off the Damn Stage

The last time I remember thinking about Macklemore, the 43-year-old d****e-pencil mustachioed Eminem wannabe, was when he won a Grammy more than 10 years ago. Not because of his music –I don’t care for crap music – but because he was always giving acceptance speeches about gay people and against Jews, so the leftist media loved him for it.

Then the time came for him to make another hit record and, as happens with most everyone in music except a very few, he discovered he was more of a gimmick than a talent – the Dubai chocolate of white-guy rap.

He quickly faded away because that’s what flashes in the pan do.

Ed Sheeran is not a flash in the pan. He’s not my style either, though he’s closer to my taste than the snowflake because Ed has musical talent and can write a clever lyric, but he has proven himself to have staying power and to create a lot of music over time that people like. Good acts change, not with the times but with the soundtrack of times themselves. The Beatles never made the same album twice, let alone the same single. They innovated and grew. Sheeran did too. Macklemore did not.

When someone in Ed Sheeran’s camp asked Macklemore to join him as one of his opening acts on a North American tour, it should have been met with joy and relief – Macklemore was spared the county fair circuit and would be exposed to a massive audience that either never knew he existed or had forgotten. Either option would mean sales and streams of his music; a little mailbox money that hasn’t been cluttering up his bank account for a while.

You’d think he’d be grateful for that. You would be wrong.

Rather than do the job for which he was contracted, Macklemore saw an opportunity to attack Jews and America and defend terrorists and communists. People who did not pay to see one of nearly a half a dozen opening acts were suddenly being lectured by a dumb bigot who used to be somebody.

Turns out, audiences don’t go to concerts for upside-down morality lectures.

Rather than be grateful for the opportunity to play for an audience that was not his, Macklemore took a dump on stage in front of them and proclaimed anyone who did not appreciate his BM to be a monster.

If it were his audience, fine – he can dump all over them. They’re there for him, and him being a Cro-Magnon moron with a 50 IQ is expected. But I promise you, no one paid Ed Sheeran prices to see ANY of the opening acts, even Billie Eilish’s brother/creepy love interest/whatever the hell he is.

It was the ultimate disrespect for Sheeran, who was giving them all access to audiences they otherwise could not pull together to save their lives.

It didn’t matter; they hate Jews, capitalism, the United States and whatever else is trendy among the Democratic Socialists of America. They are all a cancer on society, and they’re all on their way back to the coffeehouses and anonymity they crawled out from under.

Other opening bands quit in “solidarity” with Adolf Macklemore, forfeiting the biggest break they’re ever going to see. It’s funny, because I bet they all thought it would lead to something for them. But the left rallies around people only for the moment they are useful, then they dump them and move on. Remember Bob Vylan? Few Americans do, but they're the latest never-was band to shoot themselves in the foot for antisemitism and treating Palestinians like pets.

Their US tour was canceled, and they are less than the Pet Rock did in cultural significance.

We’re only a few years away from some left-wing singer setting themselves on fire on stage to protest whatever these incapable-of-thinking drones are told should matter more to them than anything else, and I’m here for it.

If these people want to commit career suicide, great; if they want to commit more than that, I support their ability to do so. Just do it to your own audience, not one someone else earned through hard work and talent.

If people like Macklemore want to strap on an explosive Arafat doily and take out their own stage, I’d support that. My problem comes in when they inflict themselves on others – the “murder/suicide” people who should reverse the order, whether it’s career or otherwise.

It’s not censorship to face consequences for your actions; it’s called adulthood. Censorship is when government silences you and throws you in prison. Consequences are the direct results of your own actions. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot, a bigot…or a Democrat. But I repeat myself.

Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, D.C., and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and is the author of the book Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and the host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on X at @DerekAHunter.

 

Liberal Outlets Are Lashing Out About Trump's Press Crackdown

Members of the liberal media are lashing out at President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke press access from some of the worst offenders in the world of lying for political gain.

Yesterday, Trump announced that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico would no longer be given special access to the White House, saying that the outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” and indicated that additional outlets would have their access revoked in the coming days.

Apparently thinking that Trump had bluffed about their access being revoked, White House correspondents for CNN and MS Now attempted to gain access to the premises on Saturday morning, only to discover that Trump wasn’t joking.

Now, CNN and MS Now are attempting to claim that special access to the White House is a First Amendment right, and have announced that they intend to “take any and all steps necessary to defend” that right, but seemingly did not consider committing to accurately reporting as a solution to the slight.

Credit:  https://townhall.com/

 

DOJ finds the federal restriction on 18-20-year-olds buying firearms unconstitutional

The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Office of Legal Counsel has determined that prohibiting licensed dealers from selling handguns to law-abiding adults ages 18 to 20 is unlawful under the U.S. Constitution.

On Friday, the office released a nearly 50-page opinion explaining that federal statutes 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) do not comply with the Second Amendment based on the Supreme Court’s rulings in cases such as District of Columbia v. Heller, New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen and Wolford v. Lopez

The Office of Legal Counsel argued that “the people” protected by the Second Amendment includes the 18-to-20 age range.

“Eighteen-year-olds may vote, serve on juries, be drafted, and face adult criminal penalties, including capital punishment,” said Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. “The Constitution protects the people’s right to keep and bear arms. The Department of Justice may not constitutionally seek to impose criminal penalties on dealers who sell handguns to law-abiding adults who, in nearly every other relevant respect, are members of the political community.” 

“The Office of Legal Counsel found no Founding era history or tradition of precluding legal adults from purchasing firearms to protect public safety,” the DOJ stated in a press release. “To the contrary, at the Founding, militia statutes overwhelmingly required service beginning at 18 and required enrollees to furnish their own arms.”

Kris Brown, president of Brady: United Against Gun Violence, pushed back against the opinion, arguing that young adults possessing firearms pose a heightened threat to the public.

“While the DOJ legal opinion does not change the law itself, it merely reflects the erroneous views of the Trump administration. The decision not to enforce the law will make it easier for young adults — a community at higher risk for gun violence — to obtain firearms,” she wrote.

The Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun rights group challenging the restriction in a lawsuit, told Axios that the “federal government cannot justify denying [18- to 20-year-olds] access to handguns based solely on age.”

The group said it agrees with the new opinion, but wants the DOJ to do more, like apply the rationale to the purchasing of ammunition, which is also restricted for adults under 21 under the statute.

“We conclude that a bar against young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty purchasing commonly used firearms falls squarely ‘within the plain text of the Second Amendment,’” the opinion reads.

Credit:  https://www.oann.com/

 

California's Homeless Funds Hijacked for Lavish Lifestyles

 

Federal prosecutors have ripped the veil off a brazen scheme in Los Angeles where millions meant to house the homeless were allegedly siphoned into private luxury and real-estate projects. Authorities say defendants funneled at least $12 million in federal and state homelessness aid into shell companies, nightclubs, luxury trips, and other personal ventures — a betrayal of taxpayers and the most vulnerable Californians.

At the center of the scandal is Michael Young, founder of the Culver City nonprofit Home At Last, who prosecutors allege misused more than $7.5 million to bankroll a nightclub, commercial property, and an opulent lifestyle while billing the public for housing services. This is not petty theft — this is organized, years-long sham contracting and self-dealing that turned public compassion into private profiteering.

Federal filings also name Donye Mitchell and Lakiya Malone in related schemes, with Malone accused of taking six-figure bribes to place “ghost” participants into housing programs and Mitchell charged with spending grant money on personal expenses. A fourth nonprofit director has already admitted guilt and agreed to forfeit ill-gotten gains, underscoring how deep and coordinated this corruption appears to be.

 

This is the rotten fruit of a one-party, no-accountability culture in California where big bureaucracies hand out massive sums with little oversight and expect taxpayers to just trust them. Instead of transparency and audits, taxpayers got shell companies, PlayStation charges, and a nightclub paid for with funds meant to shelter homeless families — and the people in Sacramento who run the system must be held to account.

Make no mistake: this isn’t just about a few bad actors — it’s about systemic failure under Democratic management that tolerates waste and shields insiders. Conservative Americans who believe in law and order demand swift prosecutions, full restitution, and immediate reforms: aggressive audits of every contract, criminal referrals where warranted, and an end to the easy money pipelines that let grifters feast on compassion.

Gavin Newsom and other state leaders owe the public answers about how these programs were administered, who signed off on the contracts, and what steps will be taken to get stolen funds back into real housing. The taxpayers who write the checks and the homeless Californians who deserve help are tired of headlines about squandered billions; it’s time for accountability, not press releases.

Credit:  https://patriotpowerednetwork.com/

 

Israel's Fight Against Terror: The Truth the Media Won't Tell You

 

The brutal reality behind the headlines began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched a surprise campaign of murder and abduction that left roughly 1,200 Israelis dead and more than 250 taken hostage—an atrocity that must never be softened or forgotten by a decent people. Americans deserve to understand that this war did not start in a vacuum; it began with a deliberate act of terror aimed at civilians and families.

The footage from that day and the grisly images since have shown the raw cruelty of Hamas, from massacres at a music festival to the systematic use of civilians as shields, proving there is nothing noble about the enemy we face. Israel’s determination to root out terror from Gaza is not only understandable but necessary to prevent future slaughter of innocents.

But make no mistake: the information battlefield has been weaponized, and the mainstream media’s rush to narrative has been exploited by bad actors on both sides. Multiple respected fact-checkers have demonstrated that some viral clips circulated as proof of staged atrocities were actually behind-the-scenes film footage or old videos, which means Americans must be skeptical of sensational claims until they are properly verified.

At the same time, the humanitarian toll in Gaza is undeniable and tragic — collapsing buildings, children among the dead, and a population enduring terrible hardship nearly a year after a ceasefire that never fully healed the wounds. Conservatives who prize human life should condemn unnecessary suffering while also demanding accountability from Hamas for embedding terror within civilian areas and using their own people as shields.

The proper American response is clear: stand with our ally, supply the defensive capability Israel needs, and insist on a strategy that protects civilians while eliminating terror. Congress and successive administrations have recognized that reality with emergency security assistance and replenishment of Israel’s defenses; abandoning that support would be a reckless concession to chaos.

Global forums and some international voices rush to condemn Israel while often ignoring the bloodbath that provoked its actions, but moral clarity matters more than empty moralizing. If Washington yields to international pressure that excuses terrorism or forces unconditional capitulation, we will only invite more attacks and greater instability across the region.

Patriotic Americans should demand honesty from our media, firmness from our leaders, and compassion for all innocent victims—while refusing to let terrorists dictate the terms of the argument. We will back a policy that protects liberty, supports our ally, and holds Hamas responsible for the carnage they brought upon both peoples.

Credit:  https://patriotpowerednetwork.com/

 

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