Commentary Culture Investigations

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not say whether or not an illegal immigrant charged with murdering Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman should be deported if convicted.
The post WATCH: Jeffries Declines to Say if Illegal Alien Accused of Killing Sheridan Gorman Should Be Deported appeared first on Breitbart.

In the latest edition of CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, host Margaret Brennen spent her interviews with U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as opportunities to drive a wedge between the U.S. and international organizations, like NATO and the United Nations. 

In her first interview of the show, Brennan talked to Waltz about Iran and the U.S.’s wish that other allies step up to help the U.S.’s military endeavor.

Ambassador Waltz pointed out the Iranians’ indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Middle East, especially the futuristic infrastructure in oil-rich Middle East countries like the U.A.E., Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

 

CBS’s Margaret Brennan, in her normal combative tone, spent a good amount of time on a Face the Nation interview with @USAmbUN Mike Waltz asking questions focused on a fear of potential US war crimes. pic.twitter.com/GL1nca0Ae6
— Nick (@nspin310) March 23, 2026
 

After Waltz said, “it should petrify every American that you could potentially have a nuclear Middle East awash in weapons,” Brennan started to get into her normal combative mode versus Republicans:

BRENNAN: Well, they are not enriching. They weren’t enriching leading up to this. This is what U.S. officials have testified to. But just on this point about what the president–

WALTZ: Well they couldn’t enrich because of Operation Midnight Hammer that obliterated their ability to enrich. They had every intent to continue.

BRENNAN: They do have a nuclear power plant, Bushehr. It’s actually their largest energy plant. It’s a civilian site.

It should be noted that the Iranian Deputy FM literally confirmed statements from WItkoff that they had enough nuclear material for “10.2 bombs.”

Brennan’s angle to her questioning was clear after she brought up reports of U.S. and Israeli joint attacks on infrastructure in Iran, including power plants:

Okay, but – but in this case, in that clarification, the reason I am asking you is when the president says he is going to bomb energy infrastructure, civilian energy infrastructure, is he going to bomb a nuclear power plant, or is that off the table.

Now comes the clamoring for worry about international law:

How do you ensure that this doesn’t constitute a war crime, which the UN Secretary General said an attack on energy infrastructure could be. How do you make sure this is not mass punishment for innocent civilians?

Waltz gave a response that referred to the regime’s slaughter of Iranian protestors and how those people cannot get nuclear weapons.

Brennan went straight back to war crimes:

No one is endorsing that but how do you make sure this doesn’t hurt –

(…)

Okay, well, you know that in many of these places, water desalination is linked into that energy infrastructure, civilian infrastructure. This is why it is a question of it being a war crime.

She doesn’t really care about war crimes or anything, its just her normal demeanor against conservatives and the Trump administration.

Later on, Brennan clearly attempted to create a divide between NATO’s Rutte and the Trump Administration:

“Well, I’m sure the president appreciates your praise, but he has been very frustrated, and made that clear this week with NATO and the European allies. He called NATO quote “a paper tiger without the US.” He said they complain about high oil prices when they forced to pay but they don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz. Easy for them cowards. We will remember.”

 

Brennan also set out to attempt to drive a wedge between NATO and the US, while @SecGenNATO was having non of it, as the ‘Trump whisperer’ praised Trump. pic.twitter.com/bArhNMVpvF
— Nick (@nspin310) March 23, 2026
 

Rutte responded and said there are plans being formulated to help the U.S. and open the Strait of Hormuz

Brennan continued to push Rutte on Trump and NATO, and Rutte praised Trump:

What I know is that we always come together. It was under President Trump’s leadership that we had the extremely successful Summit in the Hague where we agreed to spend 5% of our GDPs on defense, and therefore equalizing for the first time since Eisenhower. 

So this is quite some time – some time back in history, equalizing what the Europeans are spending and what Americans are spending, not only because it is fair that we all spend the same, and this was a wish from Trump 45 and now is Trump 47 he got this done, but also because we need it, because of the Russian threat and our other adversaries.

It seems Brennan’s attempt to split the NATO General from Trump did not work. The exaggerated wedge between the US and NATO makes little sense with knowledge of Rutte’s tight relationship with Trump that brought NATO’s defense spending higher after “experts” warned of a looming collapse of US relations.

Just like a lot of things that were seemingly feared, we’re all still in wait for the split of NATO.

The transcript is below. Click “expand”:

CBS’s Face the Nation

March 22, 2026

10:35:30 AM Eastern

(…)

AMBASSADOR MIKE WALTZ (US Ambassador to UN): And the president has been clear too. He’s going to continue to pound Iran’s capabilities, its missile, its naval and its drone capability. Margaret, we have to take a step back. We have seen what it’s doing now in terms of attacking ports, airports, civilian infrastructure, hotels, resorts, and what it is trying to do to global energy supplies. 

One can only imagine if it had a nuclear umbrella. One could only imagine if Iran achieved its aim to test. Then you have Saudi Arabia wanting a nuclear program, then perhaps the UAE, Turkey or others. And when people ask why this matters to our security here at home, it should petrify every American that you could potentially have a nuclear Middle East awash in weapons.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they are not enriching. They weren’t enriching leading up to this. This is what U.S. officials have testified to. But just on this point about what the president–

WALTZ: Well they couldn’t enrich because of Operation Midnight Hammer that obliterated their ability to enrich. They had every intent to continue.

BRENNAN: They do have a nuclear power plant, Bushehr. It’s actually their largest energy plant. It’s a civilian site.

WALTZ: It is actually not their largest energy plant. It is about one, about one gigawatt. They have larger ones that are gas, fired outside of Tehran. But just case in point, yeah.

BRENNAN: Okay, but – but in this case, in that clarification, the reason I am asking you is when the president says he is going to bomb energy infrastructure, civilian energy infrastructure, is he going to bomb a nuclear power plant, or is that off the table.

WALTZ: Well, I would never take anything off the table for the president, certainly not on national television. However, there are larger plants. There is one outside of Tehran. There are others outside of other cities that are gas fired, thermal powered. I think the important point here is to understand the IRGC, a declared terrorist organization, not only by us – 

BRENNAN: Yeah, in Europe too. 

WALTZ: – but in a number of European countries, controls a huge swath of Iran’s critical infrastructure, their economy and certainly many of their governing institutions. And so to the extent we are degrading their military capability and their defense industrial base, all options should be on the table, and the president has made that very clear.

BRENNAN: How do you ensure that this doesn’t constitute a war crime, which the UN Secretary General said an attack on energy infrastructure could be. How do you make sure this is not mass punishment for innocent civilians?

WALTZ: Well, I think you know, I would encourage and will encourage the Secretary General to point out the twenty to thirty thousand Iranians that the regime massacred at scale, the civilian infrastructure that they are attacking –

BRENNAN: – No one is endorsing that but how do you make sure this doesn’t hurt-

WALTZ: – And when you, but when have a regime that has its grips on so much critical infrastructure, that is using it to further not only the repression of its own people, to attack its neighbors, and in contravention of UN sanctions, to march towards a nuclear weapon, then that makes those legitimate targets.

BRENNAN: Okay, well, you know that in many of these places, water desalination is linked into that energy infrastructure, civilian infrastructure. This is why it is a question of it being a war crime.

WALTZ: I have no doubt that the president, the Pentagon, their team will ensure that what they target is geared towards the military infrastructure of Iran. But I have to tell you, they deliberately blend, have a long history, everything from hiding weapons under schools and hospitals to using power plants and other critical infrastructure to not only power their military but their civilian, and they deliberately blend in contravention of international law.

(…)

10:46:00 AM Eastern

BRENNAN: Well, I’m sure the president appreciates your praise, but he has been very frustrated, and made that clear this week with NATO and the European allies. He called NATO quote “a paper tiger without the US.” He said they complain about high oil prices when they forced to pay but they don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz. Easy for them cowards. We will remember.

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: I’ve been in several conversations this week with the president, and the good news is that, look, we had the U.S. for weeks planning for Epic Fury and for reasons of security and safety, they could not share with European allies and allies around the world and partner countries what they were doing, because that would have jeopardized the effect of the first – first attack –

BRENNAN: – Or it would have allowed you to plan

RUTTE: So it is only logical that European countries needed a couple of weeks to come together. But at this moment, the good news is this, that since Thursday, 22 countries, most of them NATO, but also Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, the UAE, have come together to basically answer three questions, what do we need? When do we need it? And where do we need it? These three questions are now worked through to answer the president’s call, to make sure that we secure the free sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.

(…)

10:49:09 AM Eastern

BRENNAN: The president continues to frame this as sort of like a quid pro quo, and he’s also mentioned Ukraine in the same context, saying, I help Europe with Ukraine. Why aren’t they helping me? Are you worried that this is going to hurt NATO’s goals elsewhere?

RUTTE: What I know is that we always come together. It was under President Trump’s leadership that we had the extremely successful Summit in the Hague where we agreed to spend 5% of our GDPs on defense, and therefore equalizing for the first time since Eisenhower. 

So this is quite some time – some time back in history, equalizing what the Europeans are spending and what Americans are spending, not only because it is fair that we all spend the same, and this was a wish from Trump 45 and now is Trump 47 he got this done, but also because we need it, because of the Russian threat and our other adversaries. 

Then on Ukraine, it is again the U.S. providing critical intelligence support and weapons flow, working together with Europeans to secure Ukraine’s fight against the Russians, making sure they have what they need. And now with Iran, I’m absolutely convinced, and I understand the president’s frustration that it takes some time, but again, I also ask for some understanding, because nations had to prepare for this, not knowing and for good reasons about the initial attack on Iran, but now coming together to make sure that we can be able to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

They’re relatively confident that the military can destroy things, but they’re skeptical that destroying things alone leads to an improved political settlement.

A landmark settlement delivered a blow to the censorship industrial complex that silenced Americans during the COVID era.Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) announced Tuesday that Missouri had reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. government in its Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, which accused the Biden administration of violating Americans’ First Amendment rights by directing social media companies to censor speech challenging the government’s COVID messaging.’For every working Missouri family tired of being silenced by their own government: this victory is yours.’Schmitt filed the lawsuit against the Biden administration while serving as Missouri attorney general, before securing his Senate seat.The agreement included a 10-year Consent Decree that enforces a narrow permanent injunction on the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The injunction prevents them from threatening social media companies with any form of punishment if those companies fail to remove or suppress content that contains protected speech. However, this ban applies only to posts made on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube by the specific plaintiffs in the case, including Missouri and Louisiana government officials and agencies acting in their official capacity. It does not extend to other social media networks or content posted by the general public.”The Parties also agree that government, politicians, media, academics, or anyone else applying labels such as ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ or ‘malinformation’ to speech does not render it constitutionally unprotected,” the agreement reads.The court must first approve this settlement agreement.RELATED: BlazeTV’s ‘The Coverup’ exposes how the censorship industrial complex silenced Americans during COVID Eric Schmitt. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images”We just won Missouri v. Biden,” Schmitt wrote in a post on X. “As Missouri’s Attorney General, I sued the Biden regime for brazenly colluding with Big Tech to silence Missouri families — censoring the truth about COVID, the Hunter Biden laptop, the open border, and the 2020 election. They tried to turn Facebook, X, YouTube, and the rest into their private speech police, labeling dissent ‘misinformation’ while they pushed their narrative on the American people.”Schmitt called the Consent Decree the “first real, operational restraint on the federal censorship machine.”He explained that it “directly binds the Surgeon General, the CDC, and CISA: no more threats of legal, regulatory, or economic punishment. No more coercion. No more unilateral direction or veto of platform decisions to remove, suppress, deplatform, or algorithmically bury protected speech.””For every working Missouri family tired of being silenced by their own government: this victory is yours. The heartland fought back, and the heartland delivered,” Schmitt concluded.RELATED: ‘Karma is a b***h’: Trump taps epidemiologist targeted by Biden admin and censored online to run NIH Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesBenjamin Weingarten, a senior contributor at the Federalist, addressed the victory’s narrow application.”This decree is limited to the plaintiffs, but as precedent, and practically, its impact may prove orders of magnitude more powerful in protecting disfavored speech,” Weingarten wrote, calling it “a momentous blow for the First Amendment.”National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, who had to withdraw as a plaintiff in the case after being appointed by the Trump administration, called the settlement “a huge win for all Americans.””Huzzah! The consent decree in Missouri v. Biden is a historic victory for free speech in the US. Though I had to switch to the government side in the case after I became NIH director, I’ve never been more pleased by ‘losing’ in my life,” he wrote.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

As the conflict with Iran stretches into the fourth week and shows little sign of stopping, the United States has reportedly submitted a peace plan to the Iranians. However, the plan has hardly been well-received by the Iranians, whose spokesperson even mocked the United States’ latest actions. The United States reportedly proposed a 15-point peace plan on Tuesday for the Iranians to consider. ‘Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?’The New York Post, citing a report from Israel’s Channel 12, gave an outline of the proposed plan. The plan contains 15 points, most of which intend to further proscribe Iran’s nuclear capabilities and its projection of power through proxies in the region. It also demands that the Strait of Hormuz remains open. The United States and its allies would in return offer assurances to Iran in the rebuilding of the country after peace is agreed to.RELATED: ‘TOTAL RESOLUTION’: Trump orders temporary suspension amid Iran peace talks Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Photo by HELMUT FOHRINGER/various sources/AFP via Getty Images.However, an Iranian spokesperson mocked the United States’ latest offer to negotiate, saying Iran is unwilling to reach an agreement after being fooled by the current administration’s past offers of diplomacy.According to the Post, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari said on a video shared by the state-run Fars News Agency, “Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever.” “The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could. Don’t dress up your defeat as an agreement. Your era of empty promises has come to an end,” Zolfaghari said.Zolfaghari reportedly went on, asking, “Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?”Wednesday morning, Axios reported that Iran has officially rejected the 15-point peace proposal, citing Iran’s English-language Press TV.An Iranian official reportedly told Press TV that the Iranians see the proposal “as a ploy,” calling the terms “excessive.” The official added that the war would only end “on Tehran’s own terms and timeline.” Axios, citing Press TV’s report, noted that Iran provided a counterproposal that consists of five conditions: Complete halting of attacks and assassinations by the U.S. and Israel;The establishment of mechanisms to ensure the war doesn’t resume;Compensation for the damages caused during the war;Halting all U.S. and Israeli attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq; andReceiving international recognition and guarantees for Iran’s authority over the Strait of Hormuz.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

First Lady Melania Trump made history on Wednesday as she strutted through the halls of the East Room of the White House alongside a robot.
The post Fashion Notes: Melania Trump Struts Alongside Robot in Dolce & Gabbana appeared first on Breitbart.

What do tariffs, covert military operations, and criticizing journalists have in common? They’re all things that the press have accused President Trump of using to distract them, and the public, from the Jeffrey Epstein saga.

Since the release of the first batch of Epstein-related files in late 2025, hardly a thing has happened in American politics that some member of the press hasn’t deemed a Trump-engineered “distraction” from Epstein. Below are just some examples of this increasingly absurd trend:

TRUMP: *Does a thing he campaigned on since 2016*
MEDIA: Ha! A feeble attempt to distract from Epstein.pic.twitter.com/pao98DF1Qt
— Bill D’Agostino (@Banned_Bill) March 25, 2026

In addition to the examples shown above, here are some other stupid things journalists have dubbed “distractions” from Epstein:

In July of 2025, CNN anchor Laura Coates narrated a wild, conspiratorial segment about Trump’s recent social media posts. Her theory was that everything the President had said online about non-Epstein-related topics in the previous 48 hours was meant to be an elaborate distraction, including:

Weighing in on the plea deal for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students.
An AI-generated video poking fun at former President Obama (a routine hobby of Trump’s).
Sharing a video of witness testimony at a recent Senate hearing.
Posting an amateurish video compilation of people doing stunts and tricks.
Perhaps nothing Coates mentioned seems out of the ordinary to anyone familiar with the president’s Truth Social habits. But maybe that’s why none of us are being paid big money by CNN to find the secret patterns in the Trump’s boomerposting.

In August of 2025, then-MSNBC (and current MS NOW) host Chris Hayes asserted that the Department of Justice had launched an investigation into John Bolton to sidetrack the public. Months later, Hayes would complain that the myriad photos of Bill Clinton on Epstein’s island that were included in a subsequent document dump were meant to be a distraction from discredited allegations against Trump. 

That complaint about the Clinton photos inadvertently revealed something about the media’s rationale with regards to the Epstein files. To rabidly anti-Trump journalists like Chris Hayes, the only imaginable reason to treat Epstein as a story was to damage Trump. Thus, all other evidence implicating anyone who wasn’t Donald Trump was worthless. It wasn’t newsworthy. It was a “distraction.”

Hayes’s colleague, Ali Velshi, had a similar mask-off moment in August of 2025 while guest hosting The Last Word. In addition to echoing Hayes’s suspicion about the Bolton investigation, Velshi he sneered that the newly-released audio interview of convicted Epstein conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was the second of two distractions created by the Trump administration.

The worst of the bunch was daytime MS NOW host Chris Jansing, who ran this thought by her panel hours before the 2026 State of the Union Address:

The headline in The Times today is that the President would like to use this address tonight as a “reset.” Is that his focus, if he’s resetting, is that his focus, and an acknowledgement that he needs a reset given the polls — or might it be something that he wants to say to distract from these Epstein questions?

This absurd framing presupposed that any time Trump spent during the State of the Union address talking about anything other than Epstein (such as, for example, the state of the union) was automatically a “distraction.” 

There’s no fixing this. If Trump broke the media’s brains, clearly the Epstein files melted whatever was left.

A special-education teacher in Washington state is accused of raping a 10-year-old student at an elementary school, according to court documents.The Spokane Police Department said in a statement that a principal alerted officers that a “family member of a student had disclosed to them statements the child made regarding possible sex acts with an adult female teacher.”‘We are additionally concerned for community safety based on the level of sophistication and planning involved in perpetrating these sexual assaults.’Around 3:30 p.m. Feb. 12, officers responded to the reports of child sex crimes.”When officers arrived and took the initial report, they obtained statements and evidence to believe these allegations were founded,” the police news release stated. “SPD’s Special Victims Unit was called and took over the investigation.”Police said investigators “worked tirelessly over the past month to obtain evidence and solidify the investigation.”Officers arrested 32-year-old Mahayla Benavides on March 12, and she was charged with rape of a child in the first degree and child molestation in the first degree.On March 17, Benavides pleaded not guilty to the charges.Washington law defines rape of a child in the first degree when a person has “sexual intercourse with another who is less than 12 years old, and the perpetrator is at least 24 months older than the victim.”Child molestation in the first degree is when a person “has, or knowingly causes another person under the age of 18 to have, sexual contact with another who is less than 12 years old, and the perpetrator is at least 36 months older than the victim,” according to Washington law.Benavides’ bond was set at $500,000, according to jail records.RELATED: Marriage meltdown: Mom-of-two teacher busted for alleged child molestation of student; reportedly loses custody of kids KXLY-TV reported that Spokane Police Department officers interviewed Benavides at her home in February and administered a cheek swab.Police said Benavides didn’t want to answer officers’ questions, but KXLY said she “performed a ‘Google search’ for a lawyer.”KXLY added that “police also collected evidence from the classroom at Stevens Elementary School, which detectives say included a bean bag chair that tested positive for a bodily fluid.”Citing court records, KXLY reported that the student told investigators the alleged sexual abuse occurred almost every day — “sometimes as much as five times per day.”The boy informed investigators that the alleged child abuse often happened in a “time-out room,” but Benavides would occasionally touch him sexually in the classroom when other young students were present, according to documents filed in Spokane County Superior Court.According to the affidavit, Benavides pressured the minor to remain silent and said that disclosing the relationship could result in legal trouble or the loss of her job.The student told investigators that Benavides recorded sexually explicit videos of herself and then showed them to him at school, KXLY reported.KXLY reported, “In one of the videos, she uses the child’s name.”Police also found videos of Benavides appearing to perform a sexual act with the student in the classroom, according to the affidavit.The school district provided police with videos from “the classrooms in question,” KXLY said.Police said they seized items from the special-education teacher and the student, according to the affidavit.Prosecutors said Benavides’ actions were “highly predatory, and we are additionally concerned for community safety based on the level of sophistication and planning involved in perpetrating these sexual assaults,” KREM-TV reported.According to KXLY, prosecutors noted that the special-ed teacher was able to “keep her actions hidden for a long period of time.”Spokane Public Schools told KREM, “It’s vital that we allow SPD to conduct its investigation, and SPS will continue to follow our policies as we take the next steps pending the outcome.”Sweetser Law Office, which is representing the alleged victim’s family, said in a statement, “Parents entrust schools with their children every day. That trust exists because families believe their children will be safe in the care of the adults responsible for them. Every child deserves that safety.”The Spokane Police Department said Spokane School District 81 “acted quickly once this information was brought to their attention, promptly separating Benavides from the child and further school access, and calling police.”The Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment. Benavides is scheduled to appear in court May 11, according to KREM.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A survey found that 87 percent of battleground voters remain highly concerned about the prospect of America having to import agricultural inputs from China. The 2026 Farm Bill aims to address this major concern.
The post Exclusive Poll: 87 Percent of Battleground Voters Concerned About Agriculture Inputs from China appeared first on Breitbart.

Lee Smith, Tablet