Trump to Pull Stefanik UN Ambassador Nomination to Protect Republican House Majority

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /

President Donald Trump is pulling the nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be United Nations ambassador.

The move is designed to protect House Republicans’ slim majority, the president said.

“With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,” the president said on Truth Social. “The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day.”

Others can do a good job in the position, so Stefanik “will stay in Congress, rejoin the House Leadership Team, and continue to fight for our amazing American People,” according to Trump.

“Speaker [Mike] Johnson is thrilled! I look forward to the day when Elise is able to join my Administration in the future,” he said. “She is absolutely FANTASTIC. Thank you Elise!”

While Stefanik would likely have had no trouble getting the necessary votes for confirmation, Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House with 218 seats while Democrats hold 213 seats. There are currently four vacant seats. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, was expected to slow-walk the special election to replace Stefanik.

Stefanik’s nomination was expected to move forward on April 2, the day after the Florida special elections, Axios reported last week. She would have been the last of Trump’s Cabinet to get confirmed.

Stefanik is the second of Trump’s Cabinet picks to have their nominations withdrawn, following Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal in November after it became clear he did not have the votes to be confirmed.

This is a breaking news story and it may be updated.

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Watch Our Live Inauguration Day Coverage - The Daily Signal

Watch Our Live Inauguration Day Coverage

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko /

The Daily Signal’s Tony Kinnett will be doing live coverage today from Washington, D.C. Catch his show, which you can watch right here, starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and concluding half an hour after the inauguration. Stay tuned to get smart commentary from guests, including Scott Rasmussen and Kurt Schlichter, and watch the inauguration itself.

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American Tea Parties, Greek Yogurt Parties - The Daily Signal

American Tea Parties, Greek Yogurt Parties

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad /

When it comes to crushing debts, unsustainable entitlements and ballooning deficits, Americans and Europeans are all in the same sinking boat. Where they part ways is in their response to the looming crisis.

Faced with out-of-control government spending and the prospect of a bleak economic future, Americans from across the country have rallied under the banner of the Tea Party and sent a clear message to Washington: Enough! In a vigorous manifestation of that greatest of all checks on government—the “vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America”—citizens began a grassroots wave of orderly protests that have since only grown in number and promise to keep the pressure on Washington to pull its financial act together.

Meanwhile in Greece, proposed austerity measures to avert bankruptcy have left the country paralyzed by strikes and riots. Last week in Athens, Greek police fired teargas at protesters who responded by throwing stones and yogurt. This week, the country is being hit with blackouts as the main power company goes on strike. Violent protests have sadly become the norm whenever European governments attempt to tackle their financial woes. Their citizens, coddled by the nanny-state and its promises of cradle-to-grave no-hassle living, do not take well to being told it’s time to face the music.

Cynics will say that Americans aren’t hurling stones and yogurt because the government has yet to touch their benefits, and that when it does, things will get ugly here too. Perhaps. But there are reasons to believe that Americans, who by and large still view themselves as free citizens of a republic rather than dependent wards of the welfare state, will have the fortitude to accept whatever painful cuts are necessary. And thanks to the efforts of the Tea Party, these cuts, when they do occur, will not be as drastic as they would have been had the people sat by in torpor until the crisis hit.

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Greece Unveils Ambitious Modernization of Its Armed Forces - The Daily Signal

Greece Unveils Ambitious Modernization of Its Armed Forces

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver /

On April 2, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in parliament that the country will invest €25 billion as part of a 12-year defense strategy in the “most drastic transformation in the history of the country’s armed forces.”  

Greece has decided to enhance its high-tech warfare technologies, including an overhaul centered on a new anti-aircraft defense system called “Achilles Shield.”

Defense Minister Nikos Dendias stated that Greece aims to reduce reliance on conventional fleets and shift to a high-tech, networked strategy focused on mobile, AI-powered missile systems, drone technologies, and advanced command units. 

The Greece—Turkey dispute 

One of the most significant internal threats among NATO member states is the long-standing territorial dispute between Greece and Turkey. The two countries continue to disagree over maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean Sea and territorial claims in the Aegean Sea. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, territorial waters may extend up to 12 nautical miles, while exclusive economic zones can extend up to 200 nautical miles.  

Currently, both Greece and Turkey enforce territorial waters up to six nautical miles. However, Greece argues that it is entitled to extend its territorial waters to the full 12 nautical miles, a claim that Turkey strongly opposes. Tensions are further heightened by Turkey’s exploration for oil and gas in contested waters, as well as its obstruction of an electricity cable project intended to link the power grids of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel. 

These overlapping claims have led to increased hostility and occasional military standoffs between the two neighboring NATO members, resulting in a significant military buildup in the Aegean Sea. These conflicts have also strained Turkey’s relations with the United States, particularly after the country was removed from the F-35 fighter jet purchasing program in 2019 following its purchase of the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system.  

Achilles’ Shield 

The Achilles’ Shield is the most significant initiative within Greece’s rearmament program and is expected to be operational by 2027. It consists of a multilayered air defense system designed to counter a wide range of threats, including aircraft, ballistic, cruise missiles, UAVs, naval platforms, and submarine-based threats. Athens is currently negotiating with Israel to acquire the €2.8 billion defensive dome system and is increasingly strengthening its relationship with Israel amid rising tensions with Turkey.  

Although Israel remains the leading contender, Greece has also initiated consultations with other NATO member states to explore complementary or alternative systems for both the Achilles’ Shield and the broader air defense overhaul. These efforts represent a decisive investment in strategic autonomy, reduce reliance on outdated systems, and will significantly bolster the defense of NATO’s eastern flank. 

Among the few planning to boost defense spending 

Dendias emphasized that this modernization effort represents a “complete shift” in the country’s defense approach. Currently, only five NATO member states—including the United States, Greece, Poland, Estonia, and Latvia—allocate more than 3.0% of their gross domestic product to defense. While an increasing number of members are reaching the 2.0% defense spending guideline agreed upon at the 2014 NATO Wales Summit, not all have done so.  

In response to evolving security challenges, President Donald Trump has called on NATO allies to raise their defense spending to 5.0% of GDP, an even more ambitious target than during his previous term.  

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Trump Administration Will Provide Illegal Immigrant Farm Workers Pathway for Reentry ‘Soon,’ Brooke Rollins Says - The Daily Signal

Trump Administration Will Provide Illegal Immigrant Farm Workers Pathway for Reentry ‘Soon,’ Brooke Rollins Says

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /

The Trump administration may “soon” institute a plan for illegal immigrant farm workers to leave the country then return legally to work, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said Monday. 

“The president at his Cabinet meeting, the one about a week and a half ago, brought that up, and he really fully understands and realizes that our dairy producers, our row croppers, our citrus producers, they have to have labor to be able to feed America, and food security, and America is national security, so it’s incredibly encouraging,” Rollins told The Daily Signal. “He realizes that, but at the same time realizing that you have to secure the border, you’ve got to have an immigration system in place that makes sense for America and puts America first.”

“So I believe it will be soon,” she added, “but we’re working through all the details.”

Rollins hopes deals will be “struck pretty quickly” with foreign countries facing Trump administration tariffs so bailouts to farmers will be unnecessary. 

“The economy has already begun to realign around putting America first, so that’s the goal,” Rollins said. “But if the assistance is needed, similar to what [former Agriculture] Secretary [Sonny] Perdue and President Trump did in the first term, we’re already getting ready for that.”

“So if we need to move quickly, we can,” Rollins continued, “but we just won’t know a number, because we just don’t know what the potential economic consequences could be until really harvest comes, which will be later this summer.”

Rollins does not think tariffs will affect egg prices significantly, though she said it will depend on how quickly the deals are struck and how many eggs the U.S. brings in from other countries.

“Most of our eggs are produced here in America,” she said. “The ones that we’ve begun to import to bring the prices down, that was just a short-term fix, and the egg layers are coming back online.”

The Department of Agriculture’s five-point plan to lower egg prices “seems to be working,” Rollins said.

The plan includes bringing more hens in to repopulate flocks; removing red tape to help the industry grow; considering temporary egg imports; testing vaccines that protect chickens; and helping farmers prevent the bird flu.

Rollins enjoyed interacting with egg farmers on Monday who donated 30,000 eggs to the annual  White House Easter Egg Roll, she said.

“We have so many egg farmers who are there who are sort of showing the world that their trade and how they feed the world and how important eggs are to a good, nutritious diet,” she told The Daily Signal.

“So we’re going to keep fighting for all of our farmers and all of our ranchers and all of our egg producers,” Rollins continued. “We’re going to bring up, hopefully, an impressive level of prosperity to rural America, where all our farmers and ranchers reside.”

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Five Tons of Sewage a Day: Why Lee Zeldin Is Traveling to San Diego for Earth Day - The Daily Signal

Five Tons of Sewage a Day: Why Lee Zeldin Is Traveling to San Diego for Earth Day

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil /

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is flying out to San Diego Tuesday to address a “public health and environmental crisis” regarding sewage on the U.S.-Mexico border on Earth Day.

“There is nowhere more important for me to be tomorrow than on the border in California, dealing with this very important public health and environmental crisis,” Zeldin told reporters at a Monday morning news conference ahead of his flight.

“For decades, there has been raw sewage that’s been traveling across the border and Americans are very concerned with regard to beach closures, degradation of the Tijuana River Valley, concerns with public air, health quality,” Zeldin noted. “It’s been going on for too long, and we have to urgently and deliberately pursue and implement a solution that permanently ends this.”

Earlier this month, Mexico completed its San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant, which treats approximately 18 million gallons of sewage per day, the Coronado Times reported. The U.S. is rehabilitating and expanding its treatment plant, the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, in a project that launched last fall and is projected to take five years to complete.

The International Boundary and Water Commission reported on April 9 that Mexico would start releasing five million gallons a day of sewage into the Tijuana River for the next five days as authorities repair a critical junction box that forms part of the International Collector project.

That flow partly abated a few days later, but many beaches in Coronado, the coastal city next to San Diego, remained closed as of Saturday.

During a Coronado City Council meeting last week, Mayor John Duncan said the crisis has reached a “critical turning point of awareness” with the Trump administration.

Zeldin told reporters that he will meet with Mexico’s environmental secretary, and he will host a news conference with Navy SEALs, who have gotten sick due to the contamination. He will also visit a local wastewater treatment facility, meet with businesses and elected officials, and take a helicopter tour of the border.

In December, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, touted President Joe Biden signing a bill allocating $250 million for the wastewater project.

When asked about that funding, Zeldin mentioned another source of funding—the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement that President Donald Trump signed in November 2018 and which went into force in July 2020.

The EPA head said Mexico had failed to obligate $88 million for projects on the Mexican side, under the USMCA.

Tensions between the U.S. and Mexico have increased since Trump imposed tariffs on America’s southern neighbor, citing Mexico’s trade surplus with the U.S. and the border crisis.

Trump recently threatened to impose additional tariffs on Mexico for failing to send Texas water under the terms of a 1944 treaty.

“Mexico owes Texas 1.3 million acre-feet of water under the 1944 Water Treaty, but Mexico is unfortunately violating their Treaty obligation,” the president posted on Truth Social earlier this month. “This is very unfair, and it is hurting South Texas Farmers very badly.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged that Mexico had not met its commitments under the treaty, citing drought conditions. She said Mexican officials sent a proposal to the U.S. in order to work out a solution.

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Trump Scores a Key Win Against the Immigration Industrial Complex - The Daily Signal

Trump Scores a Key Win Against the Immigration Industrial Complex

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil /

Did you know that your tax dollars funded the housing and transportation of illegal aliens across the country? President Donald Trump has moved to stop this phenomenon, and his efforts recently met with an important success.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that it would not renew agreements with the federal government relating to children’s services and refugee support.

As I wrote in my book, “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government,” the USCCB formed one arm of the Immigration Industrial Complex, the network of NGOs receiving federal funds to move illegal aliens across the country.

Some of this work may be noble—it involved finding homes for unaccompanied alien children and those freed from human trafficking—but it also abetted the border crisis, on an industrial scale.

The Immigration Industrial Complex

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted in an April 2022 memorandum that his plan for “border security” involved “bolstering the capacity of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to receive noncitizens after they have been processed by [Customs and Border Protection] and are awaiting the results of their immigration removal proceedings.”

The Biden administration released millions of illegal aliens on parole, giving them court dates to adjudicate their immigration status, but these aliens routinely miss their court dates and move to live elsewhere in the country.

In 2022, The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center teamed up with the Oversight Project to track where illegal aliens move. They traced cell phones detected at federal immigration facilities, finding that these devices moved across the country.

Illegal aliens in facilities maintained by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, for example, moved to 433 out of America’s 435 congressional districts.

As a reminder, at least 9 million illegal aliens entered the United States under President Joe Biden. Only 11 U.S. states have populations greater than 9 million, and even left-leaning “sanctuary city” mayors lamented their inability to deal with the influx of illegal aliens.  

Many faith-based NGOs that launched to help legal immigrants in previous eras of U.S. history revamped their efforts in recent years, helping immigrants apparently regardless of legal status. These Immigration Industrial Complex groups likely would not exist without federal funding.

Global Refuge, formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, for example, received $180 million in government grants, more than seven times what it received in “all other contributions” ($25 million), in 2022. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants reported receiving the vast majority of its revenue ($117.4 million of $121.7 million) through government grants in 2020.

Chapters of Catholic Charities received at least $1.13 billion under Biden through the Refugee and Entrant Assistance State/Replacement Designee Administered Programs grant from the Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services, for example. Catholic Charities USA received $1.4 billion of its $4.7 billion in revenue from government support in 2022—more than the $1 billion it received in private donations.

The Trump Freeze

The Trump administration froze tens of millions of dollars in grants in order to conduct a program integrity review. This seems eminently reasonable. While Americans of faith like myself may support programs that care for the less fortunate—particularly legal immigrants and refugees— we should not be forced to pay for these charitable programs with our tax dollars, much less have our tax dollars spent to help relocate illegal aliens across the country.

The administration should ensure that these programs do not abet the immigration crisis and incentivize more illegals to enter the country.

Predictably, however, the Immigration Industrial Complex responded with lawsuits.

USCCB sued the State Department in March to challenge the freeze on around $65 million in federal funding for refugee services. The Biden administration had provided the USCCB with $100 million annually, and the funding covered more than 95% of the bishops’ spending on those programs.

The State Department canceled two multimillion-dollar refugee resettlement contracts with USCCB last month, directing the bishops to “stop all work on these program[s] and not incur any new costs.”

Only in this context did the USCCB finally announce the end of its work with the federal government.

“Today, the USCCB makes the heartbreaking announcement that we will not be renewing existing cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support,” the bishops said. “This difficult decision follows the suspension by the government of our cooperative agreements to resettle refugees.”

In other words, the USCCB is claiming to take a pro-active action, but the announcement actually represents the USCCB’s recognition of reality—the administration had already made the determinative steps.

‘Rigorous Screening’

Notably, USCCB claimed, “All participants in these programs were welcomed by the U.S. government to come to the United States and underwent rigorous screening before their arrival.”

The Biden administration “welcomed” many immigrants outside the legal channels established by Congress, particularly through the program that imported people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The Biden administration chartered planes for these aliens and granted them parole to remain in the country, a protection the Trump administration will remove later this month.  

Lora Ries, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, contested the vetting claim.

“The Biden administration demonstrated repeatedly that aliens and sponsors were not adequately vetted, whether that was Afghan evacuees, sponsors for unaccompanied children, sponsors for parolees, or others,” she told The Daily Signal.

“Lack of vetting was the reason for multiple Inspector General reports and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services pause of one of its parole programs,” Ries added.

A Critical Admission

Bill Canny, the executive director of USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services program, told EWTN News that the program cannot continue without federal funding.

“You can’t replace the generosity of the [United States] taxpayer and how they help either needy people overseas or needy people domestically,” Canny told EWTN. “You can’t replace that, in this case, some $200 million a year, which it would have been this year. So we can’t replace it with private [money].”

Perhaps USCCB should create a new program that can be funded with private donations, to address the real human concerns that justified the original program. In that case, not only would the program be directed to the people who most need it, but it would also be able to survive without federal strings attached.

USCCB was fulfilling a few important charitable functions, but its old program formed part of a noxious Immigration Industrial Complex. I pray that it can establish a new program dedicated to helping legal refugees and human trafficking victims, without abetting the border crisis.

Americans of faith in general—and Catholics, in particular—are a generous people. Let’s allow them to fund charity with their own dollars, not by using the power of the state to force them to fork over the cash.

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EPA Administrator Confronts New York Times Reporter for Claiming He Had ‘No Evidence’ of Waste, Fraud, Abuse - The Daily Signal

EPA Administrator Confronts New York Times Reporter for Claiming He Had ‘No Evidence’ of Waste, Fraud, Abuse

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil /

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin confronted a New York Times reporter during a press conference Monday for claiming that he presented “no evidence” to back up his claims of waste, fraud, and abuse from the previous Biden administration.

“I have a duty to make sure that we don’t light on fire billions of dollars of tax dollars,” Zeldin said. “And I’m not going to stand before any member of the media and get bullied into lighting billions of dollars on fire.”

Zeldin hosted the news conference Monday morning at the EPA headquarters, announcing his forthcoming Earth Day trip to San Diego to investigate the crisis of Mexico pouring five million gallons of wastewater daily into the Tijuana River.

At the end of the conference, Zeldin mentioned the media bias against his claims of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Biden EPA.

The waste and self-dealing

He mentioned a video unearthed by Project Veritas in December 2024 in which a Biden administration political appointee at EPA said that bureaucrats were rushing to get billions of dollars out the door like “throwing gold bars off the Titanic.” Zeldin pledged to Congress that he would investigate the matter.

“As we overturn different rocks and we find more evidence of waste and abuse, there are some members of the media who have dug in further into saying that there’s no evidence,” he said. “Every time a new piece of evidence comes out, there’s some in the media saying even with more conviction that there’s no evidence.”

Zeldin mentioned “self-dealing and conflicts of interest, unqualified recipients and reduced oversight” in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion fund administered through CitiBank as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The EPA under Biden managed the fund and rushed $20 billion to eight nonprofit groups after Trump won the 2024 election.

Zeldin has repeatedly flagged examples of alleged corruption involving the fund.

As the Free Press reported, the reduction fund allocated $6.9 billion to the Climate United fund, a coalition of three nonprofits that joined together in June 2023. Climate United’s CEO, Beth Bafford, served in the Obama administration as a special assistant in the Office of Management and Budget. Climate United’s chief strategy officer, Phil Aroneau, served as a “strategic advisor” to the Department of Energy in the last two years of the Biden administration.

The reduction fund allocated $5 billion to the Coalition for Green Capital, even though its total expenditures in 2023 only rose to $2.42 million. Jahi Wise, who joined Biden’s Climate Policy office in 2021 and oversaw the reduction fund, previously served as a policy director at the coalition. The coalition’s CEO, Richard Kauffman, has donated more than $600,000 to Democrats since 2020. Kauffman previously served as senior adviser to in the Department of Energy under Obama and served as then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “energy czar.” Cecilia Martinez, a member of the coalition’s board, previously served as the senior director of environmental justice at the White House Council on Environmental Quality under Biden.

The fund also allocated $2 billion to Power Forward Communities, an entity comprised of five nonprofits including Rewiring America. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams joined Rewiring America as special counsel in March 2023.

After listing many of these names, Zeldin mentioned that EPA officials amended the account control agreement for the fund on Jan. 13, a week before Trump took office.

“They were amending it to reduce EPA oversight,” he said.

‘No evidence?’

The administrator noted that many news stories have claimed he presented “no evidence” to back up his claims.

While Zeldin had run out of time allotted for the conference, he posed a question for the reporters present. He dared them to justify reporting that there was “no evidence.”

“If anyone can defend, please, just like, how is that zero evidence?” he asked. He noted that The Washington Post and The New York Times have written that there is no evidence.

“And now we are all together. I’m glad that we are,” he said. “It’s April 21st, 2025. Why should any story get written that says no evidence?”

Lisa Friedman, a New York Times reporter focused on climate change, raised her hand and asked, “Where has a judge said that this is a problem?”

“Lisa, if The New York Times is going to write that there is no evidence…”

Friedman responded, “We’ve written that judges have not found.”

Zeldin quoted her words from an April 2 story on the issue.

“Over the last few months, Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has made explosive—you know this because you wrote it—has made explosive accusations against the Biden administration, accusing it of ‘insane’ malfeasance in its handling of $20 billion in climate grants,” he read. “Now, as a legal battle ensues over those funds, many of Mr. Zeldin’s claims remain unsupported, and some are flat-out false.”

“Why wouldn’t you write that there is any evidence?” he asked.

Friedman responded, “Could you point us to where a judge has found that there’s waste?”

Zeldin refused to let her off the hook.

“It’s not that easy for you, Lisa,” he said. “See, because you guys are writing stories. These are your words. These aren’t the judge’s words.”

“If you continue to write these stories that say that there is no evidence, even though I can stand before you right now and just go through the list, how do you square that?” Zeldin asked.

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Abrego Garcia: The Dem-Left’s Inexplicable Nominee for ‘Maryland Dad’ of the Year - The Daily Signal

Abrego Garcia: The Dem-Left’s Inexplicable Nominee for ‘Maryland Dad’ of the Year

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Deroy Murdock /

Democrats and their leftist media allies treat “Maryland dad” Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia like a devoted member of a PTA chapter in College Park. When he’s not driving his kids to Little League games in Chevy Chase, the fake news would have you believe, he takes them to Annapolis to deepen their appreciation for the Navy’s heroic contribution to American history.

Even if Abrego Garcia did these things, the non-paternal activities of this “Maryland dad” merit his deportation and permanent banishment from America.

The mere fact that a man has children does not automatically place a halo over his head. If so, Joseph Goebbels would be remembered as a “Berlin dad,” rather than as the Third Reich’s minister of propaganda and public enlightenment. While Abrego Garcia is no war criminal, he is no soccer coach, either.

Despite Democrats’ relentless hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing to the contrary—not least Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., sharing margaritas with him in El Salvador on Thursday—Abrego Garcia is a reprehensible man.

First, he is an illegal alien. Abrego Garcia broke into America with neither permission nor papers. How do we know this? He said so.

According to a March 28, 2019, Prince George’s County, Maryland, Police Department gang field interview sheet, “Abrego Garcia is a citizen and national of El Salvador. Abrego Garcia claimed to have walked across the desert for many days entering illegally into the United States near McAllen, Texas, on or about March 25, 2012,” during the Obama-Biden regime.

Kilmer-Abrego-Garcia-DocumentsDownload

The moment Abrego Garcia’s toe touched American soil, he violated U.S. Code 8 § 1325—improper entry by alien. As such, this illegal alien invaded this country and has zero right to be here. America owes Abrego Garcia nothing more than a swift boot in the backside. That’s what he got when President Donald Trump deported him to El Salvador, whence he came.

Even worse, Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13. This lethal Salvadoran street gang has earned a reputation not just for killing its victims; it is fond of signaling its barbarity by chopping its prey into pieces.

“Abrego Garcia was validated as a member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) Gang … a transnational criminal street gang,” the interview sheet states. “This information was provided by [redacted], who has provided truthful accurate information in the past.”

This document aside, Abrego Garcia’s MS-13 membership is not some mega-MAGA hallucination. Thanks to the due process that he received (Democrat lies notwithstanding), two federal jurists concur.

“The Respondent was arrested in the company of other ranking gang members and was confirmed to be a ranking member of the MS-13 gang by a proven and reliable source,” a federal immigration court in Baltimore ruled on April 29, 2019. “ … the evidence shows that he is a verified member of MS-13,” the bond memorandum continues. “Although the Court is reluctant to give evidentiary weight to the Respondent’s clothing as an indication of gang affiliation, the fact that a ‘past, proven and reliable source of information’ verified the Respondent’s gang membership, rank, and gang name is sufficient to support that the Respondent is a gang member, and the Respondent has failed to present evidence to rebut that assertion.”

This immigration court denied Abrego Garcia bond. He appealed. The Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals ruled on Dec. 19, 2019: “We adopt and affirm the Immigration Judge’s danger ruling,” the appeals board concluded. It added, “ … the immigration judge appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation against the respondent … .” Thus: “The appeal is dismissed.”

Meanwhile, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, Abrego Garcia’s spouse, defends him today. However, she previously hid from his apparent serial wife-beating. She received two protective orders against him, dated Aug. 3, 2020 and June 6, 2021. Cause? “Domestic Violence.”

Vasquez Sura’s petition for protection/peace order, filed May 5, 2021, in Prince George’s County, Maryland, states:

Worst of all, Abrego Garcia is a terrorist. He is a member of MS-13. On Feb. 20, the State Department designated MS-13 a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). Ergo, as an FTO member, Abrego is a terrorist.

“The media would love for you to believe that this is a media darling, that he is just a Maryland father,” said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of Homeland Security. “Osama bin Laden was also a father, and yet, he was not a good guy, and they actually are both terrorists.”

“The gang that he is a senior member of, with tattoos and duds to prove it, has the motto ‘Kill, Rape, Control,’ and that is what they do. When he wasn’t roughing up his girlfriend, he led a group of other demented thugs who rape and traffic girls, terrorize families in the community, shoot and hack suspected rivals for sport, and lure young boys into their life of violence,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies with the Center for Immigration Studies, told me.

Chris Van Hollen and the other Democrats complaining about his removal should have to sit in a room for as long as it takes to hear the families of every one of their victims describe what happened to their loved ones.

But none of this sways the Democrat-Left, whose love of illegal aliens is unconditional and infinite.

“We got to keep fighting this,” veteran Democrat campaign strategist James Carville declared. “I think this is worthy of being at the top agenda of things that we’re going to fight over is to get this guy back home” 

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an innocent man and the father of three,” claimed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “He must be brought home immediately.”

Van Hollen wrote via X: “Today we met with the family of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland dad wrongly deported by Trump. The pain they’re feeling is unimaginable.”

Van Hollen did not feel the pain of the family of Rachel Morin, the Maryland mom of five whom Salvadoran illegal alien Victor Martinez-Hernandez raped, brutalized, and murdered. Patty Morin, Rachel’s mother, on Wednesday told the White House press corps, in bloodcurdling detail, how this killer slaughtered her daughter.

A Maryland jury deliberated for just 46 minutes before convicting Martinez-Hernandez on every count he faced:

Among other evil acts, Martinez-Hernandez dragged Morin 150 feet from a running trail to a quieter spot in a park. He then smashed Morin’s head and face with a rock at least 20 times before throwing her against a wall and raping her, while she was barely alive, if that.

Since Martinez-Hernandez was convicted on April 14, Patty Morin’s April 16 statement at the White House was both gripping and timely. Regardless, CNN and MSNBC did not carry this grieving mother’s excruciating account live. (Fox News Channel did, of course.)

Patty Morin has spoken and met with President Donald Trump, who has comforted her. She never has heard from Van Hollen, her own senator.

“Why does this illegal immigrant have more rights than my daughter, Rachel Morin, did?” Patty Morin wondered in the White House Press Gallery. “You represent me as the U.S. senator from Maryland, and you have barely even acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured because of another illegal immigrant,” Morin expressed to Van Hollen from the podium. “Why are you using my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen?”

This epitomizes today’s Democratic Party, their leftist street muscle, and dinosaur-media comrades: They race to the rescue when deadly illegal aliens are in trouble, but do not give a damn about American citizens who get killed, thanks to the same illegals whom they love like “Maryland dads.”

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

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Who Is on the Shortlist To Be the Next Pope? - The Daily Signal

Who Is on the Shortlist To Be the Next Pope?

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Deroy Murdock / Bradley Devlin /

With the passing of Pope Francis early Easter Monday morning, the Catholic Church enters a period of mourning while the College of Cardinals, guided by the Holy Spirit, prepares to choose the next Bishop of Rome.

First, however, the Church will bury and mourn their holy father. When Francis reviewed his funeral rites in 2024, he opted for a public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica with more simple elements than previous popes.

Rather than have his body elevated on a pedestal, for example, the pope’s body will remain on the ground during the viewing period. The College of Cardinals will decide exactly when the visitation will begin, which will kick off with a large procession into the basilica.

In a similar way, Francis has chosen to be buried in a single coffin made of wood and zinc, rather than the usual three nested coffins of elm (or oak), zinc, and cypress respectively. After public viewing, the coffin will be closed the night before the funeral with a reading of Francis’ “rogito,” or “deed,” which details the deceased pope’s life and papacy and will be buried with the pope. 

The funeral is expected to take place within 4 to 6 days. The College of Cardinals, led by its dean, Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, will preside over the funeral. Francis will be laid to rest not in St. Peter’s Basilica but in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of his favorite places for prayer. 

The funeral will begin the “Novendiale,” a period of nine days of mourning for the deceased pope during which special requiem Masses will be said for the repose of Francis’ soul.

In about two weeks’ time, Re will summon the College of Cardinals for a conclave where a new pope will be chosen. 

The conclave will gather in the Sistine Chapel where they will discuss and vote by secret ballot. Only cardinals under 80 are eligible to vote, and a two-thirds majority is required to elect the next pope. The cardinals will remain in the isolation of conclave until someone carries two-thirds of the voting members.

After each round of voting, the ballots are burned with an additive that turns the smoke black or white—black meaning the conclave remains undecided, white meaning a new pope has been chosen.

The white smoke puts an end to the interregnum or sede vacante (“the seat being vacant”) period.

Who the conclave produces as the next pope is anyone’s guess. Some cardinals, by virtue of their station and works, have been identified as papabili, which means “pope-worthy,” as Francis’ health declined.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin has served as the Vatican secretariat of state since the pope tapped him for the post in 2013. The 70-year-old Italian has spent more than four decades in ambassadorial roles for the Catholic Church.

Some have put another Italian, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on the shortlist. The 59-year-old prelate has served in Jerusalem for over 30 years and was made a cardinal just prior to the Hamas-Israel war breaking out in 2023. Throughout the war, Pizzaballa has offered himself in exchange of hostages and documented and condemned attacks on ancient Christian communities.

Cardinal Peter Erdo, the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary since 2003, has also been floated as Pope Francis’ replacement. When Pope John Paul II made Erdo a cardinal in 2003, the Budapest-born priest was the youngest member of the College of Cardinals until the appointment of Reinhard Marx in 2010. Today, Erdo is 72 years old.

If Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle emerges from conclave as Francis’ successor, Tagle would be a pope of many firsts. Tagle, the head of the Vatican’s evangelization office and former Archbishop of Manila, would be the first Asian pope and first pope fully fluent in English. It’s not an outside chance, either, as many Vatican observers believe Tagle is the frontrunner.

In the coming weeks, western observers will be tempted to shoehorn the election of a new pope into pre-existing right-left political dynamics. While tension does exist between elements of the church considered ‘right’ and ‘left,’ the debate will likely be animated by how the Church responds to post-modernity. The College of Cardinals must decide whether or not to continue the Pope Francis model of high activity and engagement, which sometimes leads to a sense of volatility, or a movement towards a re-emphasis of the fundamentals of the faith and its tradition.

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Pope Francis Dies at 88 - The Daily Signal

Pope Francis Dies at 88

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Deroy Murdock / Bradley Devlin / Tyler O'Neil /

Pope Francis passed away in the early hours of Easter Monday. He was 88.

The pope had met with Vice President JD Vance the day before.

“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the church, said in an announcement Monday. “At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father.”

The pope had been admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital on Friday, Feb. 14, after suffering bronchitis for several days. The doctors diagnosed him with bilateral pneumonia on Feb. 18. Francis had returned to his Vatican residence after 38 days in the hospital before passing Monday, Vatican News reported.

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning, “Rest in Peace Pope Francis! May God Bless him and all who loved him!”

Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis became the first Jesuit pontiff and the first pontiff from Latin America, having served as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The College of Cardinals elected him on March 13, 2013, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

Francis adopted a less formal style than his predecessors, living outside the official papal residence and presenting himself as a reformer.

Vance had met with the pope Sunday, and commented on his passing Monday morning.

“I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis,” the vice president, a Catholic convert, wrote in a post on X. “My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him.”

“I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill,” Vance added.

While Vance has not always seen eye to eye with the pontiff, he praised a sermon Francis gave in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID,” the vice president wrote. “It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul.”

Francis’ early-COVID sermon discussed Jesus’ rebuke to his disciples in Mark 4. In that passage, the disciples had become fearful on a boat amid a storm, and they woke Jesus in a panic that they might die. Jesus rebuked them, saying, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” Jesus then miraculously calmed the storm.

Former President Joe Biden, a Catholic, praised Francis as “the People’s Pope – a light of faith, hope, and love.” in a lengthy statement posted to X.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts shared how the pontiff taught the faithful to live with “mercy and joy.”

With reverence, The Heritage Foundation mourns the death of Pope Francis. He was a simple man who reminded the Catholic Church to live with mercy and joy, and we remember his pontificate with gratitude and prayer.

Pope Francis’ death coincides with a season called Eastertide, in which Catholics recall that our Resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, walked with his disciples. Let us unite in prayer that Pope Francis may also walk with the Resurrected Jesus Christ today.

Eternal rest grant unto Pope Francis, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama also released a statement after news broke of the pope’s passing. “Pope Francis was the rare leader who made us want to be better people,” the Obamas’ statement read. “In his humility and his gestures at once simple and profound — embracing the sick, ministering to the homeless, washing the feet of young prisoners — he shook us out of our complacency and reminded us that we are all bound by moral obligations to God and one another.”

“Today, Michelle and I mourn with everyone around the world — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — who drew strength and inspiration from the Pope’s example. May we continue to heed his call to ‘never remain on the sidelines of this march of living hope,'” the Obamas concluded.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that “Pope Francis will long be remembered for his outreach to those on the margins of the Church and of society.”

“He renewed for us the mission to bring the Gospel out to the ends of the earth and offer divine mercy to all. He has also taken advantage of the present Jubilee to call us to a profound hope: one that is not an empty or naïve hope, but one grounded in the promise of Almighty God to be with us always,” added Broglio, referring to the Catholic Catholic currently celebrating a Jubilee year with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.”

Bishop Robert Barron, who heads the the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, urged “everyone to pray for the repose of [Pope Francis’] soul,” a traditional Catholic practice for the dead.

“He was a man of simplicity, compassion, and deep concern for those on the margins of our society. Let us thank God for the life and ministry of Pope Francis and let us pray for the Cardinals who will soon gather to choose his successor,” added Barron.

Pope Francis’ passing begins the process of the College of Cardinals selecting a new pope. The process may take a long or short time, depending on the cardinals’ decision.

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Climate Myths - The Daily Signal

Climate Myths

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Deroy Murdock / Bradley Devlin / Tyler O'Neil / John Stossel /

I guess United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres didn’t think his hyping global warming risks brought him enough attention, so now he says, “The era of global boiling has arrived!”

Global boiling?

Give me a break.

Yes, the climate is warming.

We can deal with that.

What annoys me is politicians, activists and media pushing hysterical myths.

Myth 1: The Arctic will soon be ice-free.

It “could already be ice-free by the summer of 2030!” shrieks a DW report.

“‘Doomsday Glacier‘ is melting faster than scientists thought,” adds the BBC. “Earth’s biggest cities are at risk!”

Nonsense.

“It’s not happening at nearly the catastrophic pace that they claim,” says Heartland Institute fellow Linnea Lueken in my new video.

But the media show dramatic images of melting and missing ice.

“No ice! There’s all these walruses laying out on a stony beach. … It’s because it’s the summertime! In the winter, it all comes right back!”

As far as ice disappearing in winter, too, “Compared to the amount of ice that’s in the Arctic,” says Lueken, it “is like a grain of sand … so minuscule compared to the amount of ice that’s there, it doesn’t even show up on a trend chart when you plot it.”

But zealots push hysteria.

In 2009, Al Gore, while collecting a Nobel prize, said there was “a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap … during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years!”

In just five to seven years! Oh, no!

Wait … seven years have passed. In fact, 16 years passed. The ice cap has plenty of ice, even in summer. Yet nobody calls him on it.

“They absolutely should be calling him on it,” says Lueken.

Myth 2: Polar bears are going extinct.

Polar bears look cute, so environmental groups use them in ads to sucker you into donating money.

But Polar bear populations have increased!

In the 1960s, 17,000-19,000 was the highest of three scientific estimates of polar bear population. Today, there are about 26,000 polar bears.

Yet the Environmental Defense Fund collected almost a quarter-billion dollars from gullible donors running ads that say: “Your support can help Environmental Defense Fund save the polar bears!”

The Environmental Defense Fund hasn’t agreed to my interview requests. I understand why. I would call their advertising sleazy.

“Absolutely,” agrees Lueken, “the data is right there. It’s not hard to find out that polar bears are fine.”

OK, maybe polar bears aren’t going extinct, but we might starve!

That’s Myth 3.

MSNBC shrieks, “Climate change could create a massive global food shortage.”

President Barack Obama said, “Our changing climate is already making it more difficult to produce food!”

“There is no claim less true,” sighs Lueken. “Food production has skyrocketed.”

She’s right, and the data is there for everyone to see. Agriculture output sets record highs year after year.

In fact, the extra carbon dioxide in greenhouse gasses probably increases food production.

“We inject CO2 into greenhouses for a reason,” Lueken points out. “It helps to fertilize plants for faster and better growth.”

As the climate has warmed, the world experienced the biggest drop in hunger and malnutrition ever.

Still, when food prices rise, media idiots still blame climate change.

The New York Times claimed “devastation that climate change had wrought” caused a rise in coffee prices.

But global coffee production has increased by 82% since the 1990s.

The Times’ story focused on a brief decline in coffee production in Honduras. But since the ’90s, coffee production there rose more than 200%.

“They never apologize,” I note. “They never say, ‘Oh, we got this wrong.’”

“No,” replies Lueken. “Even if they did have a retraction, the damage is already done.”

Alarmist media and environmental groups never apologize.

When doom doesn’t happen, they just move on to the next scare.

I’ll cover four more myths about climate change next week.

COPYRIGHT 2025 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

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

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Defunding NPR and PBS Through Rescissions is a Good Start - The Daily Signal

Defunding NPR and PBS Through Rescissions is a Good Start

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Katrina Trinko / David Azerrad / Sarah Kuehberger / Wilson Beaver / Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Tyler O'Neil / Deroy Murdock / Bradley Devlin / Tyler O'Neil / John Stossel / Mike Gonzalez /

President Donald Trump plans to ask Congress to rescind the funds it appropriated for public broadcasting, which is a good start in defunding NPR and PBS. The legislative branch must do that and then move to dissolve the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Rescission deals with the immediate. It applies instant pain to the public broadcasters because Congress would claw back money that it has already decided to appropriate. In this particular case, the administration is preparing to ask Congress to rescind $1.1 billion, according to published reports.

That would be around two years’ worth of appropriations, affecting fiscal years 2026 and 2027, as Congress “forward-funds” the Corporation for Public Broadcasting two years in advance. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting automatically got $535 million—the same as it got last year—in the last continuing resolution that Congress passed in March.

The rescission package will also include $8.3 billion in cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Once the administration submits the request, which it hasn’t done yet, Congress has 45 days to approve or reject the request. Sources have said the administration feels it has the votes to pass the package.

The New York Post reported Monday that Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought drafted a memo outlining the cuts. Vought explained that public broadcasters will lose their funding because of their “lengthy history of anti-conservative bias.” I haven’t seen the memo, but I have been reliably told that the report and Vought’s description of public media’s leftist bias are accurate. 

As I testified to the House’s Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on March 26, NPR and PBS have refused to observe the simple code of decency that dictates that when taxpayers of all persuasions are coerced to pay for you, you owe them impartiality.

“NPR, PBS, and the other state broadcasters have, however, simply refused to abide by this simple code,” I told Congress. “They have been coddled by allies in Congress into feeling immune to it. They have shown scorn for conservative views on a consistent basis and have done so safely in the knowledge that their friends in Congress, of both parties, will save their bacon year in and year out. And indeed, this has so far always been the case since they were created.”

I and 20 other Republicans also sent Trump a joint letter requesting the rescission package. Other signatories came from high-profile conservative organizations, such as the Media Research Center, which organized the effort, the Claremont Institute, the American Principles Project, the Heartland Institute, and the Conservative Partnership Institute.

In it, we told the president that we had heard that a rescission package was coming and urged him “to include the complete defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its affiliates, PBS and NPR.”

“NPR’s and PBS’s demonstrable, documented bias further erodes the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s credibility. NPR’s audience overwhelmingly identifies as liberal, reinforcing the reality that public broadcasting is not a neutral service but a taxpayer-funded ideological platform. Americans should not be forced to finance a network that caters to one side of the political spectrum,” we added.

A copy of the letter was also sent to Vought.

What makes us think that there is a chance this time that NPR and PBS can be defunded, given that every Republican president since Lyndon B. Johnson created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting tried and failed?

Things are different now for many reasons, one being that Trump and Elon Musk are busy dismantling the permanent bureaucracy, and NPR and PBS, as state broadcasters, are the emitters of the views of this Acela Corridor.

Both men also believe PBS and NPR do not deserve one more penny of taxpayer money.

But ultimately, two things may have sealed the public broadcasters’ fate, and they have to do with NPR. The first was an essay by an NPR whistleblower, Uri Berliner, which was published in the Free Press on April 4, 2024. Berliner, a 25-year NPR veteran, exposed the rot inside the organization.

Berliner revealed that NPR’s audience has become completely lopsided, at only 11% Republican; that at the NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., there are 87 registered Democrats and zero Republicans; and that in every story, from the Russia collusion hoax to Hunter Biden’s laptop to the origins of COVID-19, NPR took the far-left side and ignored the conservative perspective.

Then, there was the appointment of Katherine Maher as NPR CEO and president just about a year ago. As people dug through her social media posts, they found out she was so woke that wags such as Chris Rufo riffed that she was produced by artificial intelligence.

Maher sees the First Amendment as “the No. 1 challenge” to censoring news she disagrees with (“disinformation” is how she would refer to it). She also said, “Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.”

As for Trump, Maher has called him a “deranged, racist sociopath.”

Maher could be the reason why this time is different, and the rescission may just open the floodgates.

Originally published by Washington Examiner.

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