Commentary Culture Investigations

His hand may not be stayed for long, however.

Media Research Center (MRC) President David Bozell joined The Sean Spicer Show Friday evening to break down the latest attempt by the liberal media’s self-appointed paper of record to play the victim.Bozell took direct aim at The New York Times over its recent piece, “How Trump Is Wielding Power to Stifle Speech.” The report pushed a sweeping narrative that speech advocates are terrified of growing government censorship and attacks on “press freedom.” The story featured input from MRC Vice President Dan Schneider, who pushed back against the paper’s claims, but as Bozell pointed out, the Times completely ignored the real threat to free expression. “President Trump makes himself more available to the press than any president in recent memory by a country mile. Is that stifling freedom of speech?”MRC’s @DavidBozell with the @seanspicershow pic.twitter.com/GRf6fEyhES— Media Research Center (@theMRC) September 18, 2026″You look at what they’re claiming versus what they actually do,” Bozell noted. While Manhattan elites wring their hands over conservative pushback, Bozell set the record straight on where the real censorship apparatus lies: legacy newsrooms and Big Tech platforms acting in tandem to suppress dissent and control the narrative.The discussion then turned to The New York Times’ 175th anniversary and its plans to examine its history. As the paper touts its supposed commitment to transparency and promises a comprehensive examination of its past, Bozell and Spicer pointed to a long record of journalistic failures, partisan cover-ups and significant blind spots.”They love to talk about transparency and all this First Amendment stuff,” Spicer observed. “I do wonder how many of their scandals… they’re really going to bring up.”Apple News & CNN’s contract expired and CNN’s website traffic fell down below Fox News for the first time.The legacy press is losing its grip on the narrative and that’s why the NYT wrote their hit piece on Trump.MRC’s @DavidBozell on the @seanspicershow pic.twitter.com/Kt0jxyDjH8— Media Research Center (@theMRC) September 18, 2026  Bozell agreed, emphasizing that the legacy press’ sudden panic isn’t about protecting constitutional rights, but about protecting their dying monopoly on information as voters look for real answers ahead of the midterms.”Americans only know what they are told,” Bozell explained, pointing to how the mainstream press works overtime to gatekeep news entry points and shield the public from conservative perspectives.As the midterm elections approach, media accountability remains critical. As Bozell and the MRC have consistently documented, examining the elitist media’s biases, double standards and journalistic failures is essential to holding these newsrooms accountable.Watch the full segment here:

CBS/SnapStream

In week two of the so-called “revamped” 60 Minutes, after the show’s big exclusive interview with Patrick Clancy, the second story of Sunday’s new episode focused on AI data centers, specifically backlash against them in Texas. In her story, correspondent Norah O’Donnell focused partially on Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbot while also diving into the 2026 gubernatorial election as she painted Democrat nominee for Texas governor, Gina Hinojosa, in a positive light compared to Abbott, even playing an anti-Abbott advertisement.O’Donnell’s introduction framed data centers as a key issue in the midterms. She began, “America, and the world, are in the midst of one of the most profound technological revolutions in human history, with artificial intelligence poised to transform nearly every aspect of how we live and work.” She then continued with a connection to the 2026 midterms: In her introduction, Norah O’Donnell framed the data center debate around the midterms: “They are the factories of the AI age, vast industrial warehouses, packed with powerful computer chips consuming enormous amounts of electricity. With more than 3,000 of them across the… pic.twitter.com/XWYyebIiUY— Nick (@nspin310) September 21, 2026 Behind this seemingly invisible revolution is something very physical: data centers. They are the factories of the AI age, vast industrial warehouses, packed with powerful computer chips consuming enormous amounts of electricity. With more than 3,000 of them across the country, and another 1,500 proposed, data centers are now one of the top issues in the midterm elections. So we went to Texas, where everything is bigger, including the development of data centers, to understand the backlash happening nationwide.The piece began with an interview with Jazmin Villegas, an anti-data center activist. O’Donnell described Villegas as a “mother of five and Marine veteran” who “felt called back to duty.” Villegas responded and said her Marine enlistment led her to her current anti-data center activism.: Ma’am, just because I’m not in uniform doesn’t mean that my service to this country has ended. I stand strongly behind my oath that I took when I enlisted to, you know, protect and defend this Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Week two of the “revamped” ’60 Minutes’ returned to old, familiar roots as Sunday’s episode went after Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott in a story on data centers by correspondent Norah O’Donnell. Previously, the show had slammed Abbott over his border security policies… pic.twitter.com/bUgtVit0ye— Nick (@nspin310) September 21, 2026 After O’Donnell detailed town hall meetings where AI has become a centerpiece of discussion, she turned to politics to specifically slam Gov. Greg Abbott on the issue amid his re-election campaign. O’Donnell exclaimed, “In Texas, attracting big tech was the goal of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott,” before a clip played of Abbot at a previous event with Google over construction of data centers.She then turned to paint his Democratic opponent, Hinojosa, in a positive light: “The Democrat running against him in November, Gina Hinojosa, has made data centers a key issue in her campaign and is calling for a temporary moratorium.”An ad from Hinojosa then played, which said: “Who authorized that? Greg Abbott. Abbott took 20 million in campaign donations from data center executives and companies.”O’Donnell later said, “Governor Abbott has changed his tune,” before playing a new clip of Abbott which showed concerns over data centers “in our neighborhoods.” She then stated, “In August, he paused approval of new data centers that would draw from the state’s power grid until they complete an audit.”In more election framing, O’Donnell interviewed a self-described “lifelong conservative Republican and asked, “Are you thinking about voting differently?”The voter then stated, “And so this time around, I’ve made the decision that I’m not going to vote red or blue; I’m going to vote for the candidate that is willing to speak up, and put up, and do something to help us with this issue.”Again, besides the big get of an interview with Patrick Clancy, 60 Minutes proved once again to have not changed, as it once again bashed Abbott, as it did in multiple border security-related stories over the past few years. In 2022, then-correspondent Anderson Cooper bashed Abbott for sending illegal immigrants on buses to blue cities. Also, in 2024, now-fired correspondent Cecilia Vega, in an interview on Abbott’s border security policies amid the Biden-era border crisis, asked: “Do you believe that Texas has the right to secede?”As even CNN’s Brian Stelter stated last week, 60 Minutes is still 60 Minutes.The transcript is below. Click “expand”:CBS’s 60 MinutesSeptember 21, 20267:22:32 PM Eastern(…)NORAH O’DONNELL: America, and the world, are in the midst of one of the most profound technological revolutions in human history, with artificial intelligence poised to transform nearly every aspect of how we live and work. Behind this seemingly invisible revolution is something very physical: data centers. They are the factories of the AI age, vast industrial warehouses, packed with powerful computer chips consuming enormous amounts of electricity. With more than 3,000 of them across the country, and another 1,500 proposed, data centers are now one of the top issues in the midterm elections. So we went to Texas, where everything is bigger, including the development of data centers, to understand the backlash happening nationwide.[Cuts to news package]O’DONNELL: All this agricultural land will look like what?JAZMIN VILLEGAS: It’ll be nothing but data center buildings, concrete.O’DONNELL: This is just part of it?VILLEGAS: Yes. This is just one little bit, as far as you can see.O’DONNELL: Jazmin Villegas lives on this quiet farm just outside Dallas, Texas. When she learned that a data center campus almost three times the size of this one a few miles away would be built next door, this mother of five and Marine veteran felt called back to duty.[To Villegas] How did you become the go-to person at the center of this fight against the data centers?VILLEGAS: Ma’am, just because I’m not in uniform doesn’t mean that my service to this country has ended. I stand strongly behind my oath that I took when I enlisted to, you know, protect and defend this Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.O’DONNELL: And you believe the data centers are an enemy?VILLEGAS: We’re not sure. That’s the thing. It might not be an enemy, per s. But how do I know that these chemicals or this pollution, water, air, noise, isn’t going to affect my community, isn’t going to affect me?O’DONNELL: In town halls and on social media, data centers have become vessels for other worries and fears: of rising prices, the power of the tech elite, congestion and crowding, and a dawning AI era that threatens livelihoods and futures.(…)7:28:40 PM EasternO’DONNELL: In Texas, attracting big tech was the goal of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.GOV. GREG ABBOTT [At previous event]: Texas will be the centerpiece for AI data centers for Google in the entire world.O’DONNELL: The Democrat running against him in November, Gina Hinojosa, has made data centers a key issue in her campaign and is calling for a temporary moratorium.GINA HINOJOSA (D) AD: Who authorized that? Greg Abbott. Abbott took 20 million in campaign donations from data center executives and companies.O’DONNELL: Governor Abbott has changed his tune.ABBOTT: Pushing back against these AI data centers that are trying to build in our neighborhoods.O’DONNELL: In August, he paused approval of new data centers that would draw from the state’s power grid until they complete an audit.DAVE LOWE: You know I worry about the traffic, the congestion, the– the noise. I worry about the environmental impacts and the impacts it has on– on where I live.O’DONNELL: Dave Lowe lives right by the proposed data center in Red Oak – and told us he’s a lifelong conservative Republican.[To Lowe] Are you thinking about voting differently?LOWE: This is the first time in my adult life where there’s been an issue that’s come up that I feel like is going to directly impact me. And so this time around, I’ve made the decision that I’m not going to vote red or blue; I’m going to vote for the candidate that is willing to speak up, and put up, and do something to help us with this issue.O’DONNELL: Opposition to data centers is one of the rare issues uniting Americans across the political divide. More than 60% of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats all agree they don’t want a data center where they live.(…)

Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes (D.) privately coordinated with a far-left group that has called to abolish ICE and defund police as she opposed a border security measure backed by more than 60 percent of the state’s voters, records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.
A lobbyist representing Living United for Change in Arizona, better known as LUCHA, emailed Mayes’s office on May 6, 2024, to warn that state Republicans intended to unveil the Secure the Border Act, a bill inspired by GOP lawmakers in Texas that requires immigration status verification for certain public benefits and allows state and local law enforcement to arrest immigrants suspected of entering Arizona illegally. “Lucha is asking if AG Mayes would oppose [the bill] and come out with a statement against these efforts, as this policy and policies like them are not a sincere effort to address the humanitarian crisis at the border,” the lobbyist wrote in an email obtained via public records request and shared with the Free Beacon. “It is going to be tough to defeat this, but public pressure like this helps make it possible.”

Three days later, after Republicans in the state legislature voted to advance the bill, Mayes applied that pressure, releasing a statement that called the bill “a political distraction that will sow seeds of bias and fear without fixing the issues it claims to address.”
Mayes’s office stayed in contact with LUCHA as the measure advanced through the legislative process, records show. In June 2024, LUCHA’s then-political director, Chris Gilfillan, reached out to Mayes’s communications director, Richie Taylor, to request a call on “how AG Mayes is thinking about” the Secure the Border Act, “especially from a prosecutorial perspective.”
“I think there’s a really strong narrative that she could seize, but also understand it could/would be inherently political,” Gilfillan wrote. Taylor responded to say he was “happy to chat” and provided his phone number. Three months later, in September 2024, Gilfillan reached out to Taylor again to request that Mayes sign on to “a Democratic AG letter circulating” that criticized Texas’s immigration policies, according to the records. Taylor said his team would be “on the lookout” before confirming shortly thereafter that Mayes “signed onto this letter.”

The communications indicate that Mayes’s office maintained a tight relationship with a far-left group that has called to abolish both ICE and Customs and Border Protection even as Mayes presented herself as a border security advocate.
In her statement opposing the Secure the Border Act, Mayes said she had “been extremely vocal about our federal government’s blatant failure to secure Arizona’s border” but had concerns about the bill’s “unintended consequences.” Two years later, Mayes is campaigning as “a partner to law enforcement” who “has locked up drug cartel members” and “seized more than 27 million deadly fentanyl pills off our streets.”
LUCHA, by contrast, said “We must Abolish ICE & Abolish CBP” as early as 2018 and played a central role in the movement to defund police in Arizona. In June 2020, the group held a rally outside of the Phoenix City Council Chambers as the body voted on the city’s annual budget. “Phoenix has one of the deadliest police forces in the country and their violence has been on full display during the past week of protesting,” LUCHA wrote in a Facebook post. “The police budget should be going to programs and services that will create healthy communities. The police do not protect or serve us. We need to show up tomorrow to demand that city council defund police.”

Arizona Republicans passed the Secure the Border Act as a legislatively referred statute, a type of measure that is sent to voters as a statewide ballot measure rather than to the governor for a signature or veto. It then became known as Proposition 314, which passed with roughly 62 percent of the vote in November 2024. LUCHA has led unsuccessful lawsuits challenging the law’s constitutionality.
Neither Mayes’s office nor LUCHA responded to requests for comment.
The news comes as Mayes is embroiled in a tight reelection campaign against Republican opponent Warren Petersen, the president of the Arizona Senate. She holds a 6-point lead over Petersen, though more than 30 percent of voters remain undecided, according to a recent Noble Predictive Insights poll. Mayes’s campaign has called the contest “one of the closest races in the country.”
Mayes, who won her 2022 campaign by just 280 votes, has sparked controversy for her more recent remarks on ICE. In January, she suggested that Arizonans could be permitted to shoot masked ICE agents under the state’s Stand Your Ground law.
“It’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks,” she said in an interview with 12News. “And we have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.” Asked if she was “telling folks, ‘You have license, if you are threatened, to shoot a peace officer,'” Mayes responded, “Well, no, but, again, if you’re being attacked by someone who is not identified as a peace officer, how do you know?”
The Arizona Police Association condemned the “reckless comments.”
“Words from elected officials matter. It only takes one unstable individual to interpret such commentary as permission or encouragement to use deadly force against police officers,” the association said in a statement. “As Arizona’s chief law enforcement officer, the Attorney General has a responsibility to de-escalate, not inflame. We find these remarks reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous to the safety of all law enforcement professionals in the state.”
Two days later, Mayes released a videotaped statement attempting to clean up her comments. She blamed the controversy on “right-wing media” and expressed her “support and appreciation” for Arizona law enforcement.
The post Arizona AG Coordinated With Far-Left ‘Abolish ICE’ and ‘Defund Police’ Group While Opposing Border Security Measure, Records Show appeared first on .

Democrats have picked up Trump’s populist baton. All of a sudden, it’s not a dirty word anymore.

Mia Cathell, Washington Examiner A preeminent Islamic council has authorized followers of Islam to flood Muslim and anti-Israel candidates with financial support through Islamic almsgiving.

Will Freeman, The Atlantic A reformist president weighs the pressure to move fast against the imperative to restore institutions his people can trust.

Tom Perkins, The Guardian Environmental Protection Agency asked firm to choose rules it wanted for dicamba, then put the choices in a proposed federal rule

Zakrzewski & Ovide, WaPo President Donald Trump’s sprawling family business empire has become increasingly intertwined with the boom in artificial intelligence, at the same time that he has…