Hank Berrien

Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered a chilling account to lawmakers on Tuesday on the threats she has faced after the infamous Dobbs leak.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing a firestorm of criticism after appearing to wave away New York City's climbing rape numbers by pointing to a legal technicality.

President Trump was mid-discussion about Iran on Fox News this week when he suddenly slammed the brakes on himself before revealing something about former President Barack Obama.

A shareholder revolt against The New York Times is gaining serious legal muscle, with a growing bloc of law firms now threatening to drag the paper

A Canadian national learned the hard way that political rage can carry a hefty price tag — including a possible one-way ticket out of the country.

A shareholder revolt against The New York Times is gaining serious legal muscle, with a growing bloc of law firms now threatening to drag the paper of record into court unless it hands over internal records probing whether its board has been asleep at the wheel while the newsroom churns out coverage slanted against Israel.On Tuesday, the National Center for Public Policy Research, backed by the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) and two heavyweight firms, fired off a fresh demand letter giving Times brass until July 21 to cough up board materials or face a lawsuit in Manhattan’s Supreme Court, The Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday.“The inclusion of two new prominent law firms — Grant & Eisenhofer and Schall, Brown & Schwartz — on NJAC’s campaign suggests that the Times may face difficulty dismissing their fresh concerns, which extend past mere anti-Israel bias to now encompass velvet-gloved reporting on two high-profile, anti-Israel Democrats,” the Free Beacon noted.This is round two. The coalition first came knocking in May, furious over a widely panned Nicholas Kristof column that accused Israeli forces of using dogs to sexually assault Palestinian detainees — allegations that leaned heavily on sources tied to Hamas and that the paper’s own executive editor later admitted his newsroom “probably wouldn’t have” run “that exact piece.”Now the group says things have only gotten worse. Its new target: the Times’ soft-touch June investigation into Senate candidate Graham Platner, who was accused by ex-girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield of a horrifying pattern of abuse. The paper said it couldn’t corroborate her account — even though, Fifield says, she handed reporters witnesses, screenshots, diary entries, and more. Platner’s campaign didn’t implode until a second woman, this time a Democrat, told POLITICO he’d raped her.The lawyers argue the Times gave shifting, contradictory explanations for its reporting standards — telling one outlet the story met “our standards,” and another that it only included facts that were confirmable — and say that inconsistency alone justifies letting shareholders peek behind the curtain.“Stockholder seeks to investigate whether the Board is engaging in any form of oversight to ensure that the New York Times remains a news reporting agency worth anything to its stockholders, rather than becoming viewed by the public as a simple propaganda arm that selects its articles and reporting in a way that ignores truth in favor of pushing false narratives,” the letter states.The letter also revives an ugly side-by-side: a March story that framed New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman’s wife as courting controversy over pro-Israel social media likes, versus a far gentler piece days later about democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, who’d liked posts celebrating the October 7 massacre. Critics say the paper bent over backward to protect one and pounce on the other.Beyond the Israel-related complaints, the filing dredges up the Times’ long history of humiliating corrections — from the Wen Ho Lee spying debacle to the “Caliphate” podcast hoax to a wildly inflated child COVID hospitalization figure — arguing it all points to a board that looks away until public embarrassment forces its hand.The Times, for its part, isn’t budging, with a spokeswoman dismissing the campaign, saying, “As we told the National Jewish Advocacy Center and National Center for Public Policy Research in response to an earlier demand letter, while positioned under corporate law, it is a clear attempt to chill First Amendment-protected journalism.”But the shareholders insist this isn’t about politics or the First Amendment — it’s about whether the people overseeing America’s most influential newspaper are actually doing their jobs. If the Times doesn’t blink by July 21, the fight moves to a courtroom.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sounded a fiery alarm on Capitol Hill Tuesday, warning that the United States is facing an existential showdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sounded a fiery alarm on Capitol Hill Tuesday, warning that the United States is facing an existential showdown against a radical, Godless Marxist threat — and it’s happening right on our doorstep.“The barbarians are in the gate,” Johnson declared during a tense press conference, giving a blunt, high-stakes wake-up call to the American public.He continued, “There’s a small number of times in the history of America where the actual experiment in self-governance was on the ballot. The idea that we would preserve a constitutional republic: One nation under God, a government of, by, and for the people. All that is in question right now. For the first time, really in my lifetime, this is a real question the American people have to decide in November, in a midterm election for Congress and Senate. It’s not something that we would have projected. I hoped and prayed it would never come to this, but here we are. The barbarians are in the gate.”The Louisiana Republican and constitutional law attorney argued that the upcoming November midterms are no longer just a standard political squabble over tax brackets or government regulations. Instead, he said, the nation is locked in a “philosophical war” to save the soul of the country from a Left-wing nightmare.Invoking the ghost of Ronald Reagan, Johnson reminded the room that freedom is always just “one generation away from extinction.” But while the Gipper fought the Soviet Union on distant shores during the Cold War, Johnson warned that the radical socialist agenda has breached the domestic perimeter.Pointing to the “In God We Trust” motto inscribed in the House chamber — originally put there in 1962 as a direct rebuke to Soviet communism — Johnson slammed the radical Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for trying to tear down America’s foundations.According to Johnson, the DSA’s terrifying, real-life platform includes:Packing the Supreme Court and abolishing the Senate to create a Marxist-run legislature.Abolishing all borders and granting mass amnesty to everyone, including dangerous criminals and terrorists.Emptying the prisons and completely defunding the police.“This is not a game,” he warned. “Everybody needs to understand: These crazy little mini-Mamdanis, who are popping up all around the country, they are a danger to you and your family. This is not a game.”He continued: “We are here as the Republican Party to stand on the founding principles of the greatest nation in the history of the world. It is our duty to do that. And we’re doing it on behalf of all of you, even the journalists who don’t agree with our policies all the time. You’d better agree on these principles because that’s what keeps you free. … This is essential for your well-being, and your family. This is not a game. This is not our father’s Democrat Party. We’re not arguing over marginal tax rates anymore. We’re arguing over whether or not freedom is going to survive. And that’s why we’re so serious about this.”Though he calls himself a “happy warrior,” Johnson made it clear that the time for pleasantries is over.“Our rights come from our creator, God. They do not come from the government,” he said. “The communists believe the opposite. They believe that the government, the state, is God. The state is the one that gives you all your rights. And you know what? The state can also take those rights away. And that’s exactly what happens. It’s inevitable. Communism and this philosophy has led to the murder of tens of millions of innocent people in the 20th century alone. It is a nightmare. It is a trail to certain death.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) successful fundraising going into the midterm elections has handed House Republicans a massive war chest to

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) successful fundraising going into the midterm elections has handed House Republicans a massive war chest to fight back against radical leftist policies — but they are still staring down a brutal historical buzzsaw.The Louisiana Republican just announced a powerhouse second-quarter haul of $19.1 million, surging his hard-dollar total for the year past $53 million. Over the course of this election cycle, the speaker has raked in a jaw-dropping $135 million. It is a historic, record-shattering high-water mark for any Republican leader in congressional history. And that’s to say nothing of the hundreds of millions more sitting in his endorsed Super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund.Since taking the gavel over two and a half years ago, Johnson has generated a mind-boggling $200 million-plus to protect the thin line of defense holding the House.“While Democrats lunge further into disarray and to the far-left, House Republicans are united, well-funded, and on offense to win the midterms,” Johnson said, drawing a stark line between Republican common sense and the Democrats’ “embrace of crazy and Communism.”He is putting his money where his mouth is, distributing $80 million across the party, including $38 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee, $21 million to protect battle-tested incumbents, and $3.9 million to fire up red-wave challengers.Despite Johnson’s historic financial muscle, the GOP is up against a deeply entrenched Washington landscape.The battlefield math is incredibly tight. Republicans hold a narrow 218–212 majority with four vacancies, meaning Democrats only need to claw back a few net seats to reclaim the speaker’s gavel and resume their far-Left agenda.History is also a major hurdle. The party holding the White House has lost House seats in 90% of midterms since 1946. Liberal forecasters and mathematical models are already gleefully predicting a standard “referendum” backlash that could cost the incumbent party roughly 28 seats.Compounding the challenge is a wave of early exits from Capitol Hill.Congress is experiencing a near-record exodus, with 68 lawmakers calling it quits — the second-highest number since 1992. Crucially, the departures are lopsided: 36 House Republicans are stepping down compared to just 22 Democrats. This breaks the previous single-party retirement record set by the GOP back in 2018, right before a punishing midterm cycle. Defending these newly opened seats without the advantage of an active incumbent is a statistically steeper climb.With recent generic congressional polls showing Democrats clinging to a 2-to-6 point edge in surveys from Echelon, YouGov, and Morning Consult, the stakes couldn’t be higher.Mike Johnson has successfully built an unprecedented financial fortress. The real test this November is whether that historic mountain of green can permanently break the iron law of midterm history.