Commentary Culture Investigations

They may be waging a losing fight against the DSA’s ascension, but theirs is a venerable mission nevertheless.

The ideas animating the Declaration and Wealth of Nations have profoundly shaped America and the modern world.

Presumptive Democratic congresswoman and Zohran Mamdani-backed socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, is dating Mamdani’s chief legal counsel, 48-year-old Ramzi Kassem, who is best known for defending al Qaeda terrorists, including a “close associate” of Osama bin Laden.
Chevalier confirmed the relationship in a statement shared with City & State.
“Ramzi Kassem and I met outside an ICE detention facility, both working to free someone unjustly held,” she said. “Over the years, as we collaborated on different projects, our professional acquaintance became a friendship, which grew into a romantic relationship. I’m deeply grateful for such a loving, supportive partner – he’s been a refuge these past few years.”
City & State reported that the couple became official in 2023, when Kassem helped Chevalier, a City University of New York graduate student, with her research paper “analyzing the racism and Islamophobia of a Customs & Border Protection anti-terror unit.”
Mamdani tapped Kassem, who teaches at CUNY’s law school, to serve as his chief counsel in January. Before that, Kassem represented a slew of al Qaeda terrorists, including Ahmed al-Darbi, who was convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, and several other Guantanamo Bay detainees, most notably Shaker Aamer, a “close associate of Osama bin Laden” who fought in the 2001 Battle of Tora Bora, where U.S. forces stormed an al Qaeda complex in Afghanistan where bin Laden was hiding.
Both Kassem and Chevalier were deeply involved in anti-Israel campus activism while students at Columbia University.
Kassem, who attended Columbia College before moving on to Columbia Law School on a fellowship funded by Paul Soros, lobbied to rename a sandwich called the “Israeli wrap” in the student dining hall, claiming the terminology was offensive to Muslims. Chevalier cofounded Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the notoriously militant campus group that openly supports “armed resistance” by Hamas and posted a statement declaring “Death to America” after the United States launched the war against Iran. Kassem defended the Syrian-born Columbia graduate student and CUAD organizer Mahmoud Khalil after the Trump administration revoked his green card.
The relationship is an indicator that the insurgent Democratic Socialists of America are embracing the tactics of establishment figures in the Democratic Party, using romantic relationships to climb the political ladder.
Chevalier started dating Kassem well before launching her congressional campaign, placing her closer to Mamdani and better positioning her to receive his endorsement. Indeed, a Mamdani spokeswoman told City & State that the New York City mayor “has been aware of their relationship for some time” and discussed Chevalier’s campaign with Kassem before endorsing her. It’s aligned with the political moves of Kamala Harris, who dated California Democratic kingmaker Willie Brown before launching her first political campaign for San Francisco district attorney.
The post Darializa Avila Chevalier Dating Mamdani Lawyer Who Repped Al Qaeda Terrorists, Including ‘Close Associate’ of Bin Laden appeared first on .

Monthly job growth remained above its 12-month average in June, but softened enough to ease concerns that the Federal Reserve might increase interest rates, the Commerce Department’s latest employment report shows.

Seasonally-adjusted total nonfarm payroll employment added 57,000 jobs, short of analysts’ expectations, but higher than the 36,000 average monthly job growth over the prior 12 months, according to the report. And, even with downward revisions to the numbers for April and May, the U.S. economy has added an average of 111,000 jobs over the last three months.

Meanwhile, the nation’s unemployment rate dipped from 4.3% in May to 4.2% last month, defying analysts’ predictions that it would be unchanged. While the U.S. unemployment rate has remained in a narrow rate in recent months, June’s rate is still the lowest for any month since June of 2025.

What’s more, the nation’s unemployment has been 4.5% or lower in every month since October of 2021 – the longest unbroken streak of monthly rates that low since the late 1960’s.

In June, employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, social assistance, and health care. The number of jobs in leisure and hospitality fell over the month.

By sector, notable changes in employment from May to June include:

Professional and Business Services: +36,000 – 172,000 jobs added since a recent low in October 2025.
Social Assistance: +25,000 – higher than its average growth of 16,000 over the prior 12 months.
Health Care: +22,000.
Leisure and Hospitality: -61,000 in June, reflecting weaker than usual seasonal hiring.
Employment showed little or no change over the month in other major industries, including government.

“U.S. Hiring Continues at a Steady but Slower Pace,” The New York Times reported in an article presenting analysis of Thursday’s jobs report by several of the publication’s economic, business and financial reporters.

“Employment figures for June showed the American economy continues to stride past obstacles including the inflationary pressures of the war with Iran,” Economics Reporter Talmon Joseph Smith wrote, observing that “economic durability may be the emerging norm.”

“The report is still basically consistent with the idea that the labor market has firmed after last year’s wobbles,” Chief Economics Correspondent Ben Casselman observed, noting that wage gains were “solid” in June.

“Manufacturing continues to look like it’s stabilizing after shedding jobs in 2024 and 2025,” Business Reporter Sydney Ember wrote, citing the sector’s addition of 3,000 jobs in June.

The boldness of American zeal is something to be championed at home and missed abroad, no matter what Europeans say about it.

MRC Free Speech America Vice President, Dan Schneider, joined Rob Schmitt Tonight on Newsmax on Tuesday evening to discuss why the Media Research Center decided to petition the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block the renewal of ABC-Owned Broadcast Licenses. 

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is reviewing eight of ABC’s broadcasting licenses, accusing it of running a “campaign of misinformation,” and is investigating whether ABC’s The View should be required to offer equal airtime to guests of the opposing political party. 

Schneider explains why ABC must lose its licenses: “If you’re in broadcast, then you are required by law to provide equal time to opponents and to serve the public interest. And that does not mean just the anti-Trump segment of the public, but the whole public. If ABC does not want to comply with the law, then it can go to cable. It can do streaming, it can have print, but it cannot continue to take our government-issued broadband licenses.”

Free access to the public airwaves comes with an obligation to serve the public interest.
If ABC does not want to comply with the law, then it can go to cable or streaming. It cannot continue to take our government-issued broadband licenses.@Schneider_DC @SchmittNYC @NEWSMAX pic.twitter.com/xTk5A8U92T
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) July 1, 2026
He quotes Joy Behar from The View: “‘As long as Republicans are in power in the majority, there will never be accountability. You have to vote for Democrats.’” Quotes such as this simply do not serve the public interest; they serve, as Schneider puts it, the “anti-Trump segment of the public.” 

Broadcast TV comes with rules because it is a privilege to use those airwaves, not a right.
ABC should be serving the public interest, not campaigning for Democrats. @Schneider_DC @SchmittNYC @NEWSMAX pic.twitter.com/vO2McTA8gf
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) July 1, 2026
Schneider concluded by stating that if Behar were on MS NOW or another cable provider, she could make biased statements like these, but broadcast TV has specific regulations, and if these regulations are broken, they must be held accountable.

Watch the full segment below:

 

Melat Kiros is the most recent Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed candidate to win her primary election.

MS NOW’s Ali Velshi likes to think of himself as the type of journalist who speaks “truth to power” and cares more about facts than being neutral, but on Wednesday, The 11th Hour host welcomed podcaster V Spehar to unveil MS NOW’s newest conspiracy theory: that people will use the Supreme Court’s ruling that greenlit state bans on males competing in girls’ sports to ban actual girls.

Velshi led Spehar with an interesting claim, “Meanwhile, he’s still trying to get his voter suppression act done. And the Republicans are still struggling with trans sports.”

 

MS NOW’s Ali Velshi fancies himself as the kind of journalist who speaks “truth to tpower” and values facts more than neutrality, so he brought on podcaster and tin foil hatter V Spehar to attack the GOP after the Supreme Court’s trans sports ruling, “Can I just be at a game and… pic.twitter.com/I8XJZRi55D
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) July 2, 2026
 

Republicans are not “struggling with trans sports.” The public is overwhelmingly on their side. Nevertheless, Spehar proclaimed, “They are struggling with the trans sports, and they’re writing legislation that is hurting their children more. The most recent piece of legislation that just got, sort of, decided between the Supreme Court was this idea that states are allowed now to discriminate against trans kids who want to play in girls’ sports.”

The reason why this issue has become important is because athletes who have previously competed as males have switched to the female competitions, but Spehar made it seem like nobody could possibly know who is transgender and who is just an athletically gifted female:

Now, that’s going to affect maybe 12 or 15 kids who are trans across the nation that want to play girls’ sports. It’s going to affect millions of little girls who play sports, because one of the things that the GOP similarly refuses to agree with Democrats on is if there’s going to be a ban on trans sports, then there ought to be a ban on genital exams, because who gets to decide who’s trans? Can I just be at a game and watching a girl excel and go, ‘Well, she’s playing too good.’ She must be trans. Let’s check her out.’

The exact number of males who are now prohibited from playing girls’ sports does not matter. It takes just one to corrupt the results.

However, Spehar continued, “And in 23 states, GOP has voted no, ‘We don’t want to ban genital exams. We want that to be on the table for us going forward.’ So, I just think we’ve reached a place of madness, Ali, like this is a crazy madness. Where the escalated investment in Trump’s priorities, things like trans sports bans, while he’s not prioritizing housing, have made us just absolutely lose our minds and lose focus on what is reality, what is humanity, and what are we even doing.”

Both the West Virginia and Idaho laws the Court upheld allow for alternatives to genital exams, such as testosterone production and genetics, but in both states, a female athlete would only need to prove her sex if contested, which, again, would be extremely unlikely if she had always competed with other females.

Here is a transcript for the July 1 show:

MS NOW The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi

7/1/2026

11:11 PM ET

ALI VELSHI: Meanwhile, he’s still trying to get his voter suppression act done. And the Republicans are still struggling with trans sports.

V SPEHAR: They are struggling with the trans sports, and they’re writing legislation that is hurting their children more. The most recent piece of legislation that just got, sort of, decided between the Supreme Court was this idea that states are allowed now to discriminate against trans kids who want to play in girls’ sports. Now, that’s going to affect maybe 12 or 15 kids—

VELSHI: Yes.

SPEHAR: —who are trans across the nation that want to play girls’ sports. It’s going to affect millions of little girls who play sports, because one of the things that the GOP similarly refuses to agree with Democrats on is if there’s going to be a ban on trans sports, then there ought to be a ban on genital exams, because who gets to decide who’s trans?

Can I just be at a game and watching a girl excel and go, “Well, she’s playing too good.” She must be trans. Let’s check her out.” And in 23 states, GOP has voted no, “We don’t want to ban genital exams. We want that to be on the table for us going forward.”

So, I just think we’ve reached a place of madness, Ali, like this is a crazy madness. Where the escalated investment in Trump’s priorities, things like trans sports bans, while he’s not prioritizing housing, have made us just absolutely lose our minds and lose focus on what is reality, what is humanity, and what are we even doing.

This Independence Day weekend most Americans will be celebrating the freedoms and values that made this country so great. However, there are some in the Hollywood Left who would probably prefer to be partying, anywhere other than the USA. 

For a class of people who owe their wealth and fame to the American way of life, it’s sad to see so many celebrities turning their back on their own country. 

Over the years, the Media Research Center has caught celebrities attacking American symbols, traditions and blaming it for the world’s problems. The following is a countdown of the Hollywood Elite’s 16 Worst Anti-American Outbursts (as culled from the MRC’s archives):

 

16. Harvey Weinstein: America Is “Embarrassing”

 

 

“This is the only country in the world where we don’t have health care. Countries embarrass us around the world. And this is the only country in the world where we don’t have a gun law. I watched you, you know, talk about that. You know, quite frankly, it’s embarrassing. Obama is not embarrassing. The country is embarrassing.”— Movie producer Harvey Weinstein on CNN’s Piers Morgan Live, November 15, 2013.

 

15. Larry David on UFC Fight on White House Lawn: I Was Embarrassed to Be An American

“It [UFC 250 fight on White House lawn] was a travesty. What else can you say about it? It was embarrassing. I was embarrassed to be an American.”— Comedian Larry David in a red carpet interview given to Variety, June 23. 

 

14. If Americans Were Actually “Good,” They’d Drive Smaller Cars and Not Kill Iraqis for Oil

Larry King: “We [Americans] try to do good, don’t we? I mean, we’re basically good.”Bill Maher: “No. Not for the rest of the world….Iraqis, I think, feel that if we drove smaller cars, maybe we wouldn’t have to kill them for their oil.”— Exchange on CNN’s Larry King Live, November 1, 2002.

 

13. Madonna Ponders Blowing Up the White House

 

 

“Yes, I am angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House. But I know that this won’t change anything.”— Singer Madonna at the Women’s March as aired on C-SPAN, January 21, 2017.  

 

12. Whoopi Goldberg: It’s Worse to Be Black in America Than Live in Iran

 

FLASHBACK:
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin: “I think it’s very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is in Iran.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “Not if you’re black!”
— ABC’s The View, June 18, 2025. pic.twitter.com/xPxZMB1X8D
— Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) July 1, 2026
 

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin: “I think it’s very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is in Iran.”Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “Not if you’re black!”— ABC’s The View, June 18, 2025.

 

11. America Already “Worst Abusers,” But “Twisted” Trump Has Made Us Worse 

“We are already among the worst abusers of Human Rights on this earth. And we are inches away from being investigated by The Hague for our newly formed Fascist ways. All ths in the 510 days of his twisted regime.”— June 18, 2018 tweet by actor Ron Perlman.

 

10. Robert De Niro: How Can You “Love Our Country” Now?

 

Robert De Niro, speaking at the Resistance™ counterprogramming event, admitting he chokes on expressions of love for America.
“I choke on that phrase, “we all love our country.” Because our country isn’t so lovable right now. In the current climate, declaring love for our… pic.twitter.com/Df285ZOycx
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 25, 2026
 

“Tragically, we’re now in a country of by and for a handful of dishonest, greedy, and cruel authoritarians. So – love our country? Let me ask you: Can you love a country where our neighbors are shot down in the streets by masked government thugs? Can you love a country that denies healthcare for tens of millions of our fellow citizens? Can you love a country that ends contributions to sick and starving people around the world, causing hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, many of them innocent children?…The bottom line is that I feel betrayed by my country.”— Actor Robert De Niro at Defiance.org’s “State of the Swamp” event, February 24, 2026.

 

9. American Flag Represents Racism and “Genocide”

“It’s the same flag that flew over slavery and the genocide of the Native American population, the napalming of the Vietnamese children, the destruction of Afghanistan’s civilian hospitals and it’s on the uniform of every police officer who’s killed an innocent African-American person. It’s also a flag that’s in the courtroom of every judge who’s let those cops go free.”— Musician Tom Morello on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, September 29, 2017.

 

8. Time to Replace Old Glory 

“The Confederate battle flag, which was crafted as a symbol of opposition to the abolishment of slavery, is just recently tired. We don’t see it much anymore. However, on [January] 6th, when the stormers rained on the nation’s most precious hut, waving Old Glory — the memo was received: the American flag is its replacement….Like the Confederate, it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect. It no longer represents democracy and freedom. It no longer represents ALL of us. It’s not fair to be forced to honor it.”— Singer Macy Gray in a June 17, 2021 column for MarketWatch.

 

7. National Anthem Is “Tough to Take”  

 

 

Co-host Sara Haines: “To Representative Crenshaw, who says, you know, this is the basic thing of an Olympian, to represent the country, Gwen Berry is representing the country. She’s questioning an American anthem that maybe doesn’t represent all people in the country.”Co-host Whoopi Goldberg: “In the upcoming days, we’ll play you the American anthem and let you see what you think of it. Because there’s some stuff in there that makes it a little bit tough to take.”— Discussion about Olympian Gwen Barry protesting the National Anthem, ABC’s The View, June 29, 2021.

 

6. National Anthem is a Scam “To Get Boys and Girls to Go Kill People”

 

 

“We’re North Korea and we need to stand at a pledge of allegiance as war machines fly overhead for military recruiting videos….This anthem thing is a scam. This is not actually part of football. This was invented in 2009 from the government paying the NFL to market military recruitment, to get more people to go off and fight wars to die. This has nothing to do with NFL or the American pastime or tradition. This is to get boys and girls to go fly overseas and go kill people.”— Actor Jesse Williams on MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts, September 24, 2017.

 

5. The United States of AmeriKKKa 

“The so-called American cradle of democracy, that’s bullshit. The United States of America was built on the genocide of native people and slavery. That is the fabric of the United States of America. As my Brooklyn brother Jay-Z would say, facts.”— Film director Spike Lee discussing his new film BlacKkKlansman at the Cannes Film Festival, May 14, 2018 as reported by Vulture.

 

4. Singer’s Anti-American Remix of the National Anthem

“Oh say can you see by the blood in the streets / That this place doesn’t smile on you colored child / Whose blood built this land with sweat and their hands / But we’ll die in this place and your memory erased / Oh say, does this truth hold any weight / This is not the land of the free, but the home of the slaves!”— Singer Jill Scott re-writing the lyrics to the National Anthem when she performed it at the Essence Festival, June 30, 2023.

 

Everyone please rise for the only National Anthem we will be recognizing from this day forward.
Jill Scott, we thank you! #ESSENCEFest pic.twitter.com/WrYrP1nhTc
— ESSENCE (@Essence) July 5, 2023
 

3. No More Pretending to “Support the Troops”

“Stop saying, ‘I support the troops.’ I don’t. I used to….But at some point all individuals must answer for their actions, and now that we know our military leaders do things that have nothing to do with defending our lives, why would anyone sign up for this rogue organization?”— Leftwing filmmaker Michael Moore announcing his New Year’s resolutions in a December 31, 2012 article published by the Huffington Post.

 

2. Americans Are the Real “Terrorists”

 

FLASHBACK: “I just want to say something: 655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?…If you were in Iraq, and the other country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?”
—… pic.twitter.com/2QPaVvmJyn
— Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) July 1, 2026
 

“I just want to say something: 655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?…If you were in Iraq, and the other country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?”— Co-host Rosie O’Donnell on ABC’s The View, May 17, 2007.

 

1. “We Have Been the Cowards” 

 

FLASHBACK: “We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away, that’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, not cowardly.”
— Bill Maher on ABC’s Politically Incorrect, September 17, 2001. pic.twitter.com/rVahmAsvva
— Geoffrey Dickens (@GCDickens) July 1, 2026
 

“We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away, that’s cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, not cowardly.”— Bill Maher on ABC’s Politically Incorrect, September 17, 2001.

No, a ‘unitary executive’ doesn’t mean that the next Democratic president will be a dictator.