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“I was the chief of staff of the Gambino crime family.”That’s how Lewis Kasman describes his role at the side of legendary Mafia boss John Gotti.Kasman spent years with Gotti and the Gambino crime family and is now peeling back some of the secrets and revealing what that life was like at the top of the American Mafia.”I had a big toy chest in my attic in my house in Woodbury filled with millions of dollars in it,” he says, in amounts varying from $6 to $10 million, depending on the month, saying the Gambino family earned more than $100 million a year.EX-COLOMBO CRIME FAMILY CAPO REVEALS HOW GAS TAX SCHEME RAKED IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WEEKLY”I loved it. I loved it all. I loved the power…to have the boss’s ear, and I had unfettered access. It was amazing.”Kasman, who is now 68 years old, opens up about his friendship and working with Gotti for a Fox Nation exclusive documentary, “Gotti’s Guy,” which can be seen on the Fox Nation streaming site and Fox One.Throughout the late 1980s and early ’90s, as Gotti reigned over the underworld, Kasman was right there, in the inner circle. He was a familiar fixture accompanying the Don, the made men and Gotti’s lawyers. He was routinely referred to as “Gotti’s adopted son” by the news media and frequently interviewed and quoted defending Gotti during his various trials.In the Fox Nation program, Kasman describes how he grew up as “a Jewish kid on Long Island,” who went to sleep-away camp and had a bar mitzvah, to being the trusted sidekick and sounding board to the most infamous Mafia Don since Al Capone.”We had a brotherhood me and him,” says Lewis. “I had no agenda and he had no agendas. He just wanted my friendship and my voice to speak for him when he didn’t want to speak or couldn’t speak, because of his position.”Lewis says Gotti needed someone like him, an objective sounding board outside the circle of mobsters, who was loyal, direct and had no ax to grind.FORMER NY DETECTIVE MOONLIGHTED AS BONANNO CRIME FAMILY SOLDIER, HELPED FUEL MINI-MOB WAR, FEDS ALLEGE”I could go in places where John didn’t want to go, and I could talk to Skippers (Capos) the way John didn’t want to. As a boss, you have to carry yourself a certain way. He would never go and ask for anything. That was not John Gotti’s way.””I never crossed the line. See, I knew my boundaries. I had the most boundaries that anyone in life could have with John Gotti, and I knew my place. He trusted me and I trusted him.””He was a man’s man,” he says. “I used to say, Grandpa, you’re a legend in life. You’re gonna be a legend when you pass, but you’re a legend in reality. You are legendary now. I used to walk around the garment center, guys in trucks would honking their air horns. How’s the boss? How’s the chief? Wherever you would go, they loved this guy.” “He was a superstar, an A-lister celebrity. The crowds, the people, the pictures. It became surreal.”WATCH: FORMER MAFIA INSIDER REFLECTS ON JOHN GOTTI’S COURTROOM VICTORIES:But with time, Kasman reassessed his life and his role. He says back then, in his 20s and 30s, he had put aside his moral issues and ignored any ethical concerns about hobnobbing with Mafia murderers but now sees the error of his ways.”When I look back, you could disappear at any time,” he says. “He was the Mafia, and he was a killer, and he was a tough guy. Tough guy. Very tough guy.”‘MIND CHESS,’ NOT THREATS, CONVINCED REAL-LIFE SOPRANOS MOBSTER TO COOPERATE: RETIRED FBI AGENT”I did not lie to myself. I knew who he was, and I knew what he was capable of. But I wasn’t in fear of him. I respected him for who he was and the kind of Boss he was of that family. And if he was my father, my natural father, I couldn’t have loved him more.”During one of Gotti’s trials, his flamboyant lawyer Bruce Culter, called Kasman “one of the finest young men I know,” and said “he has a great friendship and business relationship with John Gotti.”But the Gotti family has had other names for their former friend.John A. Gotti, Gotti’s son, wrote scathingly about Kasman in his bestselling book “Shadow of My Father.”  He branded Kasman “traitorous scum,” a “turncoat,” who became “the adopted confidential informant of the FBI,” who is a “perjurer, thief and traitor” who turned on his father… and the Gotti family, by slipping false information to the Feds.After the elder Gotti died, Kasman got in trouble with the law and he became a confidential informant for the FBI, taping conversations with mobsters and at one time it turned out, Mr. Gotti’s wife as she recovered from a stroke.FIREFIGHTER PARAMEDIC LED SECRET LIFE AS MAFIA HITMAN BEFORE FAMILY FELL APART: SON”What infuriated me about Kasman,” Gotti’s son wrote, was “that he had recorded my mother on a visit with her, shortly after her stroke. She was recovering from brain surgery, and had been sedated. As directed by the FBI, are there no limits to what these low lives will do at the behest of their government masters? No.”Kasman admits he was directed by the FBI to secretly tape the younger Gotti, but says he wound up inadvertently wearing the wire on the visit to his mother. “It was a mistake,” he now says and deeply regrets it.In 1996, Kasman served six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to lying to a grand jury investigating the Gambino crime family. In 2010, Kasman again pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to time served for obstruction of justice and money laundering. Gotti’s eldest daughter Angela was quoted as calling him “a piece of s—,” saying “somebody’s got all my father’s money. He was the one holding it.”Kasman now resides in Florida and leads a quiet life away from the streets of the city that were once Gotti’s turf.As for missing those halcyon days and the intense public interest surrounding Gotti, he is now wistful.”I don’t miss it,” he says. “I miss him.” “Gotti’s Guy” is now streaming on Fox Nation. Also, watch the second season of “Stories of the American Mafia” on Fox Nation.

SANTA MONICA, CA — A business leader and former city council candidate is reacting to Spencer Pratt’s surge in the Los Angeles mayoral race by pointing to crime, the recent wildfires, and the inhospitable business climate as the reason why voters are discontent with the status quo. “I think a lot of people are concerned about what’s happening, they really don’t know how to fix this, and I think the crime, the homelessness, the addiction, all the above behaviors of what’s happened in our city as politicians that are causing this, I think a lot people are seeing that,” John Putnam, the president of Putnam Brands & Putnam Accessory Group, told Fox News Digital.”And I think Spencer’s actually bringing the light in a real way. He’s pretty basic with his delivery of his issues and I think that’s resonating a lot. Even if you don’t want to vote for him, you’re listening, though and I think that’s resonating with a lot of people.”Putnam, a former candidate for Santa Monica City Council in 2024, told Fox News Digital that even though his town of Santa Monica doesn’t vote for LA mayor, the winner’s platform will have a “trickle down” effect all across the county.SPENCER PRATT ENTERS LA MAYOR RACE, ACCUSES CURRENT LEADERSHIP OF ‘CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE’ OVER FIRE RESPONSE”California’s got a big issue, but the city, especially where we live, Santa Monica is a byproduct of what’s happened in Los Angeles and across the world,” Putnam said. “In Santa Monica alone, we’re a people driven economy. 80% of our revenue comes from outside this city. We need revenue being generated from people that are coming here to visit.”Putnam’s company, which he has run for 40 years, is based near downtown Los Angeles and he told Fox News Digital that it’s clear when you drive around the city that the business climate is being significantly handcuffed by crime, homelessness, high taxes, and other factors. “It costs so much to operate a business here,” Putnam said. “Out of 250 cities that were surveyed a few years ago, Santa Monica came in number one of being the most expensive place to do business and that’s because of all the regulation, all the other aspects.RESIDENTS IN EXCLUSIVE ENCLAVE DEMAND DEM MAYOR ACT ON CRIME SURGE”But on top of that, if you can’t create an inviting environment and a safe environment and a clean environment, there’s no hope. I mean, the bottom line, there is zero hope in that arrangement. So we have to do something quickly and the pain is there. We just as voters, hopefully will determine what we have to do to change that.”Crime has been a highly talked-about issue in the mayoral race between Pratt, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, and progressive Councilwoman Nithya Raman. Putnam says that over the past few years, crime has gotten worse overall, despite statistics that say specific violent crimes are down. “There’s all sorts of stats, it’s worse, everyone’s trying to sugar coat it in different ways, but the stats are out there, they’re saying crime is down, I think violent crime is down across the country, but all this petty stuff is happening,” Putnam said.SPENCER PRATT ANNOUNCES LA MAYOR RUN ON ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF PALISADES FIRE THAT DESTROYED HIS HOME “It’s come in all neighborhoods. I mean you know it’s down in the south side of Los Angeles, east. It’s everywhere. You know even here in Santa Monica, we’re definitely being victims of this behavior of crime, and the drug addiction that’s running rampant in our city that’s causing this kind of criminal activity doesn’t really satisfy anyone. It doesn’t protect us. It doesn’t make us feel safe and it doesn’t help our community just to grow.”Roughly a year and a half ago, the Los Angeles area was devastated by wildfires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades that killed 31 people. The Palisades fire crept within a few miles of Putnam’s home in Santa Monica and destroyed more than 6,000 structures, including Pratt’s home.Putnam told Fox News Digital that the fires, and criticism of Bass’s preparedness and response, is “definitely a point of every conversation” with Los Angeles residents as only a handful of homes have been rebuilt. “People are feeling left out, they’re not feeling like they’re being helped,” Putnam said. “I mean, their whole town, Altadena and Palisades were just destroyed. Beyond that, you had nail salons, you have all these hair salons, you had restaurants, these people are homeless from their businesses, their income and they aren’t getting the love and the attention they deserve, we need to come together and help those people.””That’s what’s frustrating. I think people are angry, but also just really concerned. And I think this is really, Spencer’s really done a good job of bringing that out and letting people know this is not acceptable and we have a choice here.”Pratt will face off in the mayoral primary on Tuesday night against Bass and progressive city council member Nithya Raman in an election where the top two candidates will move on to the November general election; however, if a candidate receives 50% of the vote, they become the next mayor outright.

Many shoppers routinely open a carton of eggs at the grocery store to check for cracks before buying them. But what if an egg cracks later in the car, or while being transferred to the refrigerator at home — is it still safe to eat?”The short answer is no. Cracked eggs should be discarded,” said Bill Marler, a food safety advocate and attorney based in Washington state.”Cracked eggs allow Salmonella to enter and grow inside the egg,” he told Fox News Digital. “The risk is significant. Cracked eggs are more likely to test positive for Salmonella than those with intact shells, even if the intact shells were dirty with feces.”‘I’M A HEART SURGEON, HERE’S WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT EGGS, YOUR HEART AND YOUR HEALTH’The size of the egg’s crack and how long it’s been there matter, according to Donald Schaffner, professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Jersey.”If the crack is small, and it happened recently, the possibility of any bacterial spoilage would be small,” Schaffner told Fox News Digital. “If the crack is bigger, or it happened a long time ago, the possibility that bacteria have entered the egg and begun to spoil would be larger.””The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends discarding cracked or dirty eggs entirely,” Marler added.Fully cooking an egg should eliminate any Salmonella risk, Schaffner said. Using newly cracked eggs in dishes that will be fully cooked is one option, he said. In his home, he’ll sometimes fully cook the eggs and feed them to his dogs.CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES”There is a small possibility that other pathogenic bacteria, besides Salmonella, might get inside the egg and start to grow,” he said. “Some of these bacteria make heat-stable toxins that would not be destroyed by cooking, but I think this is a very unlikely possibility.”Eggs are one of the leading sources of the roughly 1.35 million Salmonella infections the CDC estimates occur annually, according to Darin Detweiler, a food safety policy expert and professor at Northeastern University College of Professional Studies.Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea and stomach cramps and typically goes away on its own, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Immunocompromised people, children, pregnant women and the elderly are at a greater risk of serious complications, Food & Wine reported.”Salmonella can sometimes infect a laying hen’s reproductive tract,” Detweiler told Fox News Digital. “When that occurs, the bacteria may be deposited inside the egg before the shell is formed. As a result, even an egg with a clean, intact shell can potentially contain Salmonella.”CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTERFor this reason, some countries, including many European Union nations, have adopted widespread vaccination programs targeting Salmonella in poultry flocks, he said.Even when an egg is contaminated before the shell forms, the overall risk to consumers remains relatively low, Detweiler and Schaffner said.”The Salmonella are likely in the white of the egg,” Schaffner said. “Egg whites naturally contain preservatives that stop bacteria from growing. However, the egg white is separated from the egg yolk by a membrane. If this membrane breaks down, bacteria can move from the white to the yolk. The yolk contains none of these natural preservatives, and so the bacteria are able to grow in the yolk.”Schaffner added, “The good news is that it takes a while for this membrane to break down, and it breaks down more slowly under refrigeration conditions. This is part of the reason why we recommend that people refrigerate eggs.”TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZThe risk of cross-contamination on hands, surfaces and other foods is real, Marler said. “When in doubt, throw it out” is the safest approach, he said.”Clean, separate, cook and chill” are the four basic practices for preventing food poisoning, Schaffner said.

LAS VEGAS — The FBI has been discussing bringing new tech tools into the Nancy Guthrie investigation, sources told Fox News Digital over the weekend.They declined to elaborate.Morgan Wright, the CEO and founder of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, said he believes the tools are likely focused on one of three areas Monday.”The solution to this case is going to be, I think, something technical, something that they come up with — new ways of analyzing data,” he told Fox News Digital. “I’m looking at the video, the video forensics, signals analysis, blockchain kind of stuff.”FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON XVideo forensics could include technology that enhances publicly known or unknown video to help identify either the suspect or his vehicle. Signal analysis could include cell-site or ad-tech data analysis. And the blockchain could expose whoever was behind the ransom and extortion attempts, whether they were legitimate or not.”If I’m going to put it into three buckets, I’d say it’s going to come out of one of those three buckets,” Wright, the editor and host of the “Crime: Reconstructed” Substack and podcast, added.SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTERInvestigative genetic genealogy could still provide a major breakthrough, he said, but that’s not new tech.NANCY GUTHRIE’S FRONT DOOR BLOOD EVIDENCE POINTS TO ‘SINGLE ABDUCTOR’: FORMER FBI PROFILERHe said he believes the publicly known evidence shows there was only one kidnapper involved, in part because only one person appears on video, and no one has come forward to claim the reward of over $1.2 million.SEND US A TIP HERE”I don’t know that there’s anything else to indicate a second person,” he said.That’s likely why the suspect was seen struggling to obscure the camera and eventually took it with him, he added. Not to hide his face, which was already covered, but to mask the suspect vehicle.LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST”The blood trail stops at the edge of the driveway,” he said. “So we know there was a car.”The investigation, which kicked off four months ago Monday after Guthrie’s suspected abduction from her home in Tucson, has already involved the use of state-of-the-art Bluetooth detection deployed over the neighborhood in a helicopter and the groundbreaking recovery of Nest doorbell camera video.LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUBThe Bluetooth “sniffer” was flown around the area in the hope that it could pick up signs from Guthrie’s pacemaker device.She did not have a cloud subscription for her cameras, and the physical device itself was missing before police arrived to investigate her disappearance. But the FBI and Google teamed up to recover images that show a masked man on her doorstep on the night of her abduction as well as several weeks earlier.The Guthrie family is urging anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. There is a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that breaks the case.Anonymous tips can also be sent to Tucson’s Crime Stoppers affiliate, 88-Crime, at 1-520-882-7463.

A Democratic candidate waging a high-stakes bid for one of the most competitive congressional districts in the country touted connections to a group pushing to keep laxer restrictions around commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) for undocumented immigrants.Rebecca Cooke, running in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District to unseat incumbent Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisc., highlighted an endorsement from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).”I’m honored to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the hard-working men and women of AFSCME.,” Cooke wrote.Cooke’s alignment with AFSCME continues Democrats’ pushback against crackdowns on proof of citizenship status in certain industries.TRUMP-BACKED VAN ORDEN PROJECTED TO DEFEAT DEM CHALLENGER IN COMPETITIVE WISCONSIN DISTRICTCooke did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.Over the past year, the Department of Homeland Security has highlighted several instances where Americans were killed by illegal aliens who acquired CDLs.In one such case, Dawood Hussain, a Pakistani native, was charged in April with vehicular homicide after driving a commercial truck down the wrong way of a highway, killing a U.S. citizen in a collision.”Illegal aliens should not be operating 80,000-pound tractor-trailers on American roads,” USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said of the incident.TRUCKER SLAPPED WITH CHARGES IN FATAL DRIVING INCIDENT PREVIOUSLY IMMIGRATED TO US ILLEGALLY: SOURCE”This tragedy, like many others, was completely preventable. Under President Trump’s leadership, USCIS remains committed to safeguarding our communities by helping to ensure dangerous illegal aliens are removed from our country, as well as supporting the president’s call for even tougher measures to prevent future truck tragedies.”As states and federal lawmakers evaluate rules surrounding CDLs, AFSCME has pushed back, arguing that the standards should remain open to encourage job maximization — even for illegal immigrants.The group published a toolkit, instructing businesses on how to circumvent restrictions on CDLs to illegal aliens.Additionally, the group has sued the Trump administration for imposing federal requirements through the Department of Transportation that would require states to secure proof of lawful immigration status.Cooke’s alignment with AFSCME is especially noteworthy in Wisconsin, a state with a trucking workforce.CALIFORNIA TO REVOKE 17,000 COMMERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSES GIVEN TO IMMIGRANTS AMID TRUMP ADMIN PRESSUREOver 186,600 residents of Wisconsin are employed in the trucking industry, according to the Wisconsin Motor Carrier Association — a figure accounting for roughly 1 in every 14 jobs in the state.Cooke last lost a congressional election to Van Orden, 51.3% to 48.6%, in 2024.

Tesla Posts Strong Registration Growth Across Europe In May

Tesla showed signs of regaining momentum in Europe during May, posting strong registration growth across several major markets, according to Reuters. New registrations climbed to 1,750 vehicles in Denmark (+136%), 1,690 in Spain (+113%), and 858 in Sweden (+71%), based on data released by local industry groups.

Reuters writes that the trend extended across the region. Norway recorded 3,345 Tesla registrations, up 29% from a year earlier, while France saw registrations rise to 5,446 vehicles—more than seven times last year’s level.

The gains come as demand for electrified vehicles continues to strengthen across Europe. Battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and hybrid vehicles represented more than two-thirds of all new registrations in April, with total electrified vehicle registrations increasing roughly 21%, according to ACEA.

Industry observers note that Tesla is benefiting from the overall expansion of the EV market, particularly in Scandinavia, while countries such as Spain are beginning to catch up in adoption. Consumer incentives, emissions-focused policies, and elevated fuel prices are also helping accelerate the shift toward electric mobility.

The recent improvement follows a difficult period for Tesla in Europe. The company lost a significant share of the regional market in 2025 as competition intensified—especially from Chinese manufacturers—while a limited refresh cycle and controversy surrounding CEO Elon Musk also weighed on demand. Registration figures from Germany and the UK, Europe’s largest auto markets, are still to come.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 06/02/2026 – 05:45

As New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill blamed out-of-state agitators for unrest outside Newark’s Delaney Hall detention facility, critics pointed to the limited police presence around the site in the days leading up to the clashes.During Fox News Digital’s time on scene at Delaney Hall through Thursday of last week, there were few, if any, visits by marked New Jersey State Police vehicles — an agency under Sherrill’s control. Likewise, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka’s hands-off sanctuary city policies were evident in the scarcity of Newark police cruisers around the facility.Nonetheless, on Saturday, Sherrill said five of six people arrested Friday were from Pennsylvania and New York – the latter just a few miles from the protest.That was not enough for critics, as the leading Republican seeking to challenge Delaney Hall critic Sen. Cory Booker in November called out Sherrill for trying to take credit for fixing a problem that should not have existed to begin with.WATCH: POLICE ABSENT FROM DELANEY HALL CHAOS AS AGITATORS BLOCK ICE VEHICLES AND AGENTS USE PEPPER SPRAY”Governor Sherrill, you are an arsonist complaining about the fire you helped start. Delaney Hall is under siege,” investigative journalist Alex Zdan said of the Democrat in a statement.Zdan, who lists border security and better oversight of Big Pharma as his top issues, is considered the front-runner in Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary to take on Booker — who notably preceded Baraka as mayor.”Our brave state troopers are in harm’s way, and all you can do is complain to the media about outside agitators? Who asked them to go there, Governor?” Zdan went on.”Who was told it was a moral duty to descend on Delaney Hall and assault our brave ICE agents and troopers? You, Andy Kim, and Cory Booker. This is your mess. Own it. Restore order now.”The Department of Justice announced charges against a 27-year-old accused of shouting epithets at ICE personnel and threatening to murder an officer and his family after allegedly obtaining the officer’s identity, telling him he “ha[d] your face.”Nicholas Matthew Scelfo appears to have ties to both New Jersey and New York. The FBI said agents raided his Morristown home, while a DOJ charging document described him as being “of Brooklyn.”FBI ARRESTS PROTESTER WHO THREATENED TO KILL ICE OFFICER’S FAMILY AT NJ DETENTION CENTER PROTEST, BLANCHE SAYSHomeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark Special Agent in Charge Spiros Karabinas said the incident was not an example of protected protest, as “calling for murder of a federal law enforcement officer and his family is not speech safeguarded by the Constitution; it is a grave criminal offense that will not be tolerated.”As Fox News Digital departed Delaney Hall on Thursday night, the first visible pair of New Jersey State Police cruisers appeared in the area — one conducting a checkpoint near Roanoke Avenue under the Pulaski Skyway and the other near New Jersey Transit’s Ironbound bus garage, which lies just south of Delaney Hall on then-agitator-ridden Doremus Avenue.By the weekend, however, Sherrill’s police were out in force with riot gear, including mounted officers among their ranks. A video shared on social media Monday showed one man approaching officers outside the Ironbound garage and taking a seat on the curb while mouthing off to police, who let him vent for a moment before quickly detaining him and pulling him behind the line of riot-shielded officers.Outside agitators were, however, among those who converged nightly on Delaney Hall, as one young man videotaped by Fox News Digital screaming at ICE was later interviewed by an independent news outlet and at one point recounted experiences “in Minnesota” — an apparent reference to similar riotous displays there.New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport has suggested most agitators had been peaceful until now while condemning a group wearing gas masks and helmets that “deliberately refused to comply with orders” and put the public “at risk.”However, in another statement over the weekend, she characterized the group as “overwhelmingly peaceful protesters who have been shining a light on the troubling conditions at Delaney Hall.””We will continue to protect the constitutional right to peaceably protest, and we denounce any violent conduct that interferes with peaceful protesting,” Davenport said.Efforts to reach Baraka and Essex County Sheriff Amir Jones prior to state police arrival were unsuccessful.Sherrill’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that as of Monday, the perimeter around the center is “fully closed” and that federal authorities will continue to prosecute suspects who obstruct proceedings, as ICE had to repeatedly rebuff angry agitators who leaped into action every time a federal vehicle or transport van appeared on Doremus Avenue.

Democrats have a tiger by the tail.Democratic Socialists are bringing money and energy to their party, but also a growing crop of anti-American, anti-capitalist and often antisemitic candidates who scorn our country’s traditions and values. These challengers may ride today’s wave of anti-Trump sentiment, concern about AI and anger about high prices, and win in solidly Democrat areas, like Manhattan, but long term they will become an embarrassment. AOC and her Democratic Socialist colleagues are not going to breach the Oval Office anytime soon.Establishment Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer know this, but are scared to death of taking on the likes of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, for fear of being primaried by Leftist candidates and run out of office. Consequently, they have left the door open and unguarded, welcoming the upstarts. Shame on them.MORNING GLORY: DEMS’ BERNIE-BACKED OYSTER FARMER HANDS SUSAN COLLINS A MASSIVE 2026 ADVANTAGEDemocrats believe they have an excellent chance to take back control of Congress in the fall midterm elections. The war in Iran is not popular, gasoline prices are hovering at $4 per gallon, and the President’s approval ratings have declined. The stage is set for a Democrat win.But, as the far left invades their party, incumbent Democrat legislators are being pushed aside by increasingly bizarre and offensive candidates like Darializa Avila Chevalier, who in recent years denounced former President Joe Biden as a “rapist” and “war criminal” and on social media proclaimed the U.S. a “f**king disgrace.” Chevalier, who for good measure also posted “f**k Kamala Harris” and has attacked leftists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, has a shot at ousting long-time Democrat stalwart Adriano Espaillat who represents New York’s 13th Congressional district.Chevalier has a deplorable history of racist remarks, is in favor of closing all prisons, legalizing all drugs and ending U.S. military support for Israel.No one would be taking this person seriously but for her endorsement by Zohran Mamdani. New York’s Democratic Socialist Mayor shocked his party’s establishment by giving his support to Chevalier, thus undermining a five-term congressman who is head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The seat is safe, rated “Solid D” by the Cook report, but a win by Chevalier would further boost Mamdani’s power and lessen moderate Democrats’ tenuous control of the party.Chevalier is not the only far-left candidate making headlines. As the midterm looms, Democrats eager to take control of the senate are pinning hopes on the likes of Graham Platner to defeat Republican Susan Collins in Maine, Abdul El-Sayed to fill an open seat in Michigan and James Talerico who is running against Texas AG Ken Paxton for Republican John Cornyn’s seat in the Lone Star state.Platner and Talerico have had to scrub embarrassing social media histories in frantic efforts to reinvent themselves. In this internet era, your past is thankfully hard to erase, and rightly so. Disavowing something you said five years ago just because it now complicates your campaign isn’t persuasive.Platner has not only had to pretend he no longer believes vulgar posts from a now-deleted Reddit account about his appetite for masturbation, that make light of sexual assaults and other sexual topics, but has also tried to explain away a Nazi-themed tattoo on his chest. Most recently, it has come to light that his wife alerted his campaign early on about sexually explicit texts Platner sent to several women that she had discovered on the oyster farmer’s phone. He also has an account on a private messaging app called Kik that some claim is often used for sexual hook-ups.Like Platner, Texas state representative James Talerico is feverishly reinventing himself. In 2022, Talerico ran what he then described as a “non-meat” campaign, telling an audience concerned with animal welfare that climate change considerations were driving him to reduce his consumption of meat. Now, running to represent a major cattle-ranching state, and after being derided as “Tofu Talerico” by opponent Ken Paxton, the candidate declares himself a red-blooded steak lover.Talerico is also battling early comments that “God is non-binary,” and that there are six sexes, just the kinds of goofy nonsense that GOP opponents can capitalize on. Moreover, he has embraced the canard that white people are essentially racist, which is unlikely to play well in the Lone Star state.In Michigan, one of the front-runners in the Democratic Primary to fill Gary Peter’s seat is progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left proponent of Medicare-for-all who wants to abolish ICE and who made headlines recently by recounting a story showcasing what critics say are serious anger management issues. El-Sayed, admitted to smashing a fifth of vodka on the floor of a liquor store in Detroit because the proprietor commented on the length of his beard, something with religious connotations among his fellow Muslims.Establishment Democrats must be horrified at the turn their party is taking. Adding to their woes, Jill Biden is hitting the airwaves trying to drum up interest in her new book. The former First Lady is doing interviews about her White House years, reminding the country of the essential lie of the Biden era, perpetuated by her and by Democrat officials, that Joe Biden was fit to serve another four years.Meanwhile, the Democrat National Committee is at war with itself, wrangling over, among other things, an incomplete and sloppy “autopsy” about how they lost in 2024. They don’t need an autopsy, they just need to listen to the few sane voices in their party which have decried Democrats’ support of biological men competing in women’s sports, defunding the police, open borders and other unpopular issues.In addition, at some point, they will have to freeze out the radical extremists who are hijacking their party and actively working against the best interest of the United States. The voters will not stand for it.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM LIZ PEEK

The next four months are anniversary heavy.Before the fireworks of the 250th Fourth of July begin, try with family and friends to agree on what we are celebrating, and try as well to articulate why and how we defend what our country has long been committed to on paper and for 250 years in actual and expanding practice.While the Semiquincentennial is upon us in a month, we are also only three months and an handful of days away from the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda on the United States.The great and the awful anniversaries are connected by that which the first proclaimed and which the second attempted to end: freedom.TRUMP LAUNCHES MASSIVE ‘FREEDOM 250’ PUSH TO IGNITE AMERICA’S 250TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONThe Declaration asserted the existence of “rights” of individuals that exist before any government — no matter its form — comes into being:”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”The great day of the fourth is, from beginning to end, about love of our country because our country defends our individual rights, rights inherent in the way we are formed by God and nature. While there are several ways to enumerate our natural rights, the founders of the country thought them all sufficiently important to risk everything to declare and fight for those rights. That is the core of what we celebrating next month: our freedoms.FOR 2026, YOU SHOULD MAKE A RESOLUTION TO KNOW THE REVOLUTIONWe ought also to spend part of this celebration in reflecting on admiration for the courage of the not just those who voted “yes” on the Declaration and who would actually sign their names to it on August 2, 1776. They did the voting and the signing in the face of overwhelming odds against their success as the American colonists were choosing war with the mighty British Empire. As Justice Neil Gorsuch’s recent book for children and young adults — Heroes of 1776 — made clear, the sacrifices and suffering of our founding families were extreme and their deprivations bitter during the long war that followed.(A celebration of the day of the actual signing of the Declaration will be held on August 2 at Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial on the shores of Lake Erie, adjacent to the town of Put-In-Bay, Ohio. There is no more appropriate place as it was there that the Revolution announced on the 4th of July in 1776 and sealed on the 2nd was actually made enduring with the defeat of the squadron of British ships by the American Navy that effectively turned the second war with Great Britain — the War of 1812 — in America’s favor.)That first of America’s long wars ran from April 19, 1775 in Lexington and Concord where the first shots were fired until September 3, 1783 when King George’s representatives signed the Treaty of Paris recognizing the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation. The second war with Britain begun formally in 1812 followed decades of tensions between our country and its motherland. Real peace with the United Kingdom was not achieved until February, 17 1815 when the Treaty of Ghent was ratified by the United States Senate, and what was effectively 40 years of conflict with Great Britain came to a close, and the rights of Americans secured from foreign entities even as the long work of perfecting them for all Americans would take up more than another 150 years and encompass a vast Civil War and our entry into two world wars as well as numerous Amendments to the Constitution and federal laws to make the example of a free people more perfect.JONATHAN TURLEY: AOC’S WAR ON BILLIONAIRES TWISTS AMERICA’S BIRTH INTO A SOCIALIST MYTHThe Declaration became a touchstone of “the West,” with more than half of the 192 countries now represented at the United Nations having a founding document that can be called a “Declaration of Independence.” The origins of the Declaration reach far back in history, to both “Jerusalem and Athens,” to Ancient Israel and Ancient Greece. One could even argue that Ancient Persia has a hand in forming “the West” as it was Cyrus the Great who repatriated the Jews to Jerusalem and his son-in-law Darius who endorsed the rebuilding of their Temple there. Without the return of the Jews from their exile the West could not have developed as it did.The Declaration perfected the mission statement of “The West,” the long work of drafting of which can be understood to have begun with England’s Magna Carta, sealed by King John of England at Runnymede on 15 June 1215. The United States Constitution, when ratified in 1789, and amended to add the Bill of Rights soon thereafter, established the Republic that has successfully protected the rights demanded by the Declaration in theory, but only made real for all citizens only after a vast Civil War and decades of amendment and legislation.The American Republic remains the model of successful governance through the rule of law protected by the separation of the powers of government both vertically between the state and federal governments and horizontally within those governments that divide legislative, executive and judicial branches into equal branches of those federal and state governments.The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of an official religion in the United States while also protecting the “free exercise” of all faiths or none.One of the motivating hatreds of fanatics for America — like those who attacked in 25 years ago in September and those we are fighting today in Iran and its proxies — is that Americans refuse to declare one religion to be the “true” religion. All faiths or none at all are protected here. This refusal to establish a national faith — whether religious or secular — is the source of the hatred held for us by many of our enemies.Defining the extent of “the West” is difficult. America sets the standard for individual liberty, but many countries aspire to reach that level of ordered liberty. The West should be understood as any country in which the expansion of liberty and literacy is ongoing and where the rule of law controls life, not the rule of one or a few powerful people. If personal freedoms and literacy are on the rise in a country, that nation is either a part of or aspiring to join “the West.”Many nations around the world have “established” religions, including Israel and all of its neighbors. (The Pew Research Center counts 80 counties that either have an official religion or favor one or more religious groups over others.) That a country has an “established religion” doesn’t exclude it from “The West.” Any nation that protects religious minorities in the exercise of their faith and the right of citizens to speak freely is clearly part of “the West.”Many counties are on the path towards classically liberal ideals. As our own journey took almost two centuries to complete even in theory (with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act or 1965) so too other nations in the world are on their own paths towards joining wholly with “the West.”America’s 250 years of independence is the standard by which other republics are measured. The enemies of the “American system” are many and varied but they share in common a hatred of pluralism, of freedom of speech and belief, press and assembly, and ultimately self-government.AFTER EPIC FURY: HOW TO DEFEND AMERICA’S SECURITY AND VALUES IN A DANGEROUS WORLDWhen America celebrates this summer, our friends around the world will applaud our progress and our role as the deliverer of the world from its would-be totalitarian rulers in the 20th century, and as the great protector of freedom of the seas and enemy of absolutism in all of its forms in the 21st.When we celebrate on the 4th of July and the 2nd of August, we ought to keep in mind that only a few weeks later we will mourn the awful anniversary of the worst attack on America by foreigners in history. Absolutist fanatics drove the terrible events of 9/11. The fanaticism which led to the equal of the darkest of days in modern times insisted on exclusive claims of truth, claims that could not compete with those fundamental structures of the West which allow free peoples the rights of conscience.Totalitarians can be secular or sectarian. What they always must be, however, is absolutist in their truth claims, and oppressive of anyone or country that asserts freedom of thought.Which is why we ought to see both the “hot war” with Iran and its proxies, as well as the relatively new Cold War 2.0 with the People’s Republic of China and its allies, as part of the never-ending struggle of free peoples against those who would subjugate them. Ukraine and Israel are our allies in fact and usually in name because they embrace the fundamental commitment to the individual’s freedom. Their enemies are our enemies because their enemies want to snuff out the freedom the peoples of those country enjoy. Though their modern “foundings” are more than a century younger than ours, they have embraced the right path and are heading in the right direction. They are part of the West as is, for example, the United Arab Emirates and increasingly other countries in the Middle East and across the Pacific which are gradually modernizing their understanding of the rights of their peoples and the crucial need for the rule of law.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONWe all ought to hope that 50 years hence on our tricentennial the great people of Iran and other counties throughout the Middle East have joined the Abraham Accords, and that our commitment to freedom of the individual has spread throughout our hemisphere.We ought also to hope that the police state that is the People’s Republic of China has evolved to a government that lifts their people up and protects their freedoms rather than persecuting them for trying to exercise their natural rights Americans have long recognized and fought and died for.This brace of anniversaries should remind every American that ours is a unique and enduring commitment to human liberty and that many in the world fear such ordered liberty and always will. But if the framers could endure on-and-off battles with the planet’s greatest power for 40 years beginning in 1775, every generation ought to know they have it within themselves to carry on that commitment to the country’s first principles.Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM HUGH HEWITT

Republicans head into the 2026 midterms with a rare advantage: a concrete record of accomplishments to run on powered by President Donald Trump’s second-term successes.Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has proposed a practical midterm strategy reminiscent of his 1994 “Contract with America” that urges Republicans to run hard on their winning record.That record includes such wins as the Working Families Tax Cut, which has already brought positive effects to the economy. The “Big Beautiful Bill” extended the 2017 tax cuts, ended taxes on tips and overtime, ended taxes on Social Security for most seniors, expanded the child tax credits and childcare tax credits. It also permitted businesses to write off major investments, made permanent a 20% small-business tax deduction, loosened restrictions on oil and gas lease sales, expanded Workforce Pell grants, provided investment accounts for children and expanded access to zero-deductible telehealth.Remarkably, not a single Democrat voted in favor of this powerhouse legislation.TRUMP TOUTS POTENTIAL 20% TAX REFUNDS FROM ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’Republicans should be shouting these accomplishments from the rooftops.Compare that to the Democrats, whose much-delayed, much-hyped, then much-feared “autopsy” of what went wrong in 2024 finally hit the press. Sadly, it left out any fruitful evaluation of the real reasons for their loss — the failed policies of the Biden administration and the promises of then-Vice President Kamala Harris to enact even worse ones.In fact, Democrats only seem willing to double down on their crazy ideas, moving further away from the American mainstream to embrace their activist base. Their candidates oppose law enforcement and border security. Their candidates care more about biological men pretending to be women than real women. They field a candidate who had a Nazi SS tattoo, and another who called for the imprisonment of “American Zionists” and spouted other antisemitic phrases.DEM REP DENIES THAT GRAHAM PLATNER’S TATTOO IS ‘DISQUALIFYING,’ SAYS CANDIDATE ‘TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT’Democrat candidates care more about illegal aliens than American citizens, epitomized by the fact that not a single Democrat stood during the president’s State of the Union address when asked if they support American citizens over illegal immigrants. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries thinks continued racial division is the way to go, asking athletes to withdraw or boycott Southern universities, even though the best options for them might be universities like Alabama, Georgia or Auburn.Harris — maybe the closest thing to a party leader they’ve got — isn’t doing the Democrats any favors either. Her recent call for a “no bad idea brainstorm” focused on nothing but unconstitutional pipe dreams.Harris and other prominent Democrats openly push to fundamentally rewrite the rules of American democracy. If they had their druthers, they’d abolish the Electoral College, create multi-member congressional districts and immediately pack the Supreme Court. These positions are no longer fringe; they are the mainstream of today’s Democratic Party.REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: DEMOCRATS SAY THEY CAN STILL FLIP THE HOUSE DESPITE GOP REDISTRICTING GAINS IN THE SOUTHMarc Elias, the Democrats’ redistricting strategist, has gone so far to as to imply that the entire state government of Virginia should be thrown out and reconstituted after the Virginia Democrats’ redistricting referendum was deemed unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court. Talk about a sore loser.The Democrats simply will not learn from their mistakes. Still, Republicans aren’t guaranteed a midterm victory and, despite the proven success of their agenda, there’s more work to be done to convince voters that Trump and Republicans are the team unlocking prosperity for Americans.For example, though inflation has largely been tamed by the Trump administration, it’s still nagging enough to mention. High gas prices also remain a tangible pain point for many voters. Republicans should make the case that their energy policies have already generated over $4 billion in new lease revenues and domestic energy production. These policies — as well as a smart resolution to the Iran war — are the surest path to lasting relief at the pump.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONAnother “must do” for Republicans is to ensure the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement’s successes are getting through to moms. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has made significant progress getting America on the path to better health. Under his leadership, artificial food dyes known to contain carcinogens have been eliminated.Vaccines are being reexamined for true efficacy and requirements are being relaxed to give families more choices for their children. The “Eat Real Food” campaign encourages families to move away from the ultra-processed foods filled with unpronounceable, unhealthy chemicals and toward real, nourishing whole foods.Women care about their families’ health and are seeing positive changes on grocery store shelves and in the doctor’s office, and it’s President Trump and Republicans who’ve empowered the Make America Healthy Again transformation. In 2026, the issue of health should be just as important on the campaign trail as the economy.The midterms, like the 2024 election, will pit normal people with normal ideas against crazy. The 2026 map is receptive to Republican ideas, and Republicans have a popular and winning record. Now they need to become their own best cheerleaders and make sure every voter knows it.