Failed presidential candidate Cory Booker made a bid for the history books with a marathon speech denouncing President Trump on the Senate floor.
The New Jersey Democrat's remarks set a new record, eclipsing the one set by Strom Thurmond of South Carolina almost 70 years ago.
Booker began speaking at 7 p.m. ET on Monday and went on for 25 hours and five minutes, eclipsing the historic filibuster delivered by Thurmond, then a southern Democrat, against the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
While Booker's speech resembled a filibuster, it technically wasn't one because he was not blocking a piece of legislation. It was instead a cry of protest from liberal America after months of shambolic opposition to President Trump's second-term agenda.
“These are not normal times in our nation,” Booker said as he began the speech Monday evening. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”
The speech was dismissed by some as the latest example of Booker's tendency to engage in theatrics. During Trump's first term, Booker faced mockery for likening himself to Kirk Douglas in Spartacus while opposing Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.
This time, Booker was channeling Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as the Democratic senator talked - and talked - and talked about Trump and his supposed threat to democracy.
At moments in the speech, Booker got small breaks from his fellow Democratic senators, who asked him questions.
Booker couched his dramatic remarks in civil rights rhetoric, invoking the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. He made a direct link between his speech and the efforts of the segregationist Thurmond to block civil rights legislation with a filibuster that went on for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
Finally, Booker ended his speech with some scatological humor.
“Do I look that bad? Alright, I want to go a little bit past this, and then I’m going to deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling," he said.
After months of wandering the political wilderness, Democrats hailed Booker's speech as an invigorating jolt. Some have even predicted that Booker, who failed to make a splash in the 2020 presidential cycle, has positioned himself at the head of the pack for the 2028 Democratic primaries.
There is a broad consensus that Democrats have lost touch with the cultural mainstream, and the party is bereft of clear leadership, presenting an ambitious politician like Booker with an opportunity.
Has Booker's "Spartacus" moment arrived at last? While Americans might respect Booker's stamina, it's going to take more than some symbolism and feel-good speeches to get Democrats out of the jam they're in.
Ultimately, the public respects action over rhetoric, which may help explain why Trump is more popular than Democrats. Even his critics would have to admit that he is getting things done, even if they do not like what that entails.
A small plane crashed into a suburban home in Minnesota, causing a fiery explosion that resulted in at least one death.
The house was totally destroyed, but the lives of the people inside were spared. The couple that owns the property in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota spoke to the media after surviving the harrowing ordeal.
The plane had departed from Des Moines and was headed for Minneapolis when something went terribly wrong around 12:20 p.m on Saturday.
Kenneth Tobacman was inside his kitchen when suddenly he heard a terrifying noise.
“All of a sudden there's a big boom,” Tobacman told Good Morning America. “The lights went out, and I saw a flash,” he continued. “Sparks or something or a little bit of smoke. I thought, 'What the hell?’”
In less than a minute, the whole house was "engulfed in flames," neighbor Sean Riddler said.
“I'd say I made it to the house in about 30 seconds from impact,” said Riddler on GMA. “It was already on fire. In probably another 30 to 45 seconds, the entire house was completely engulfed in flames.”
Luckily, Tobacman's wife, Mary Butler, was outside walking their dog when the plane hit.
“If she hadn't been, I probably could not have rescued her or the dog,” Tobacman said. “It happened that quickly. It's really fortunate that she was out when the plane hit.”
In an interview with NBC affiliate KARE, Butler said she was "blocks away" when she heard the impact. Her husband had escaped the house through the kitchen doorway - the door itself was already gone when he bolted out, he told her.
The couple lived in the home for 15 years, said Butler, adding they are currently living out of a hotel. While the couple and their dog made it out, their cat did not survive, Butler said.
It's unclear how many people have died. But no one on the ground was hurt, and authorities believe only one person, the pilot, was on board the plane.
The Socata TBM 700 was registered to a bank executive for U.S. Bank, Terry Dolan. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has yet to identify the pilot.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and friends, and anyone who may have been affected by yesterday's tragic incident," a spokesperson for U.S. Bank said. "We are grateful that there were not any injuries to residents of the home that was impacted by the crash, and we thank all the first responders who have provided service."
Five years after Prince Harry left his royal duties for a new life in America, his isolation from the British royal family is only growing.
As reported by The Sun, Harry has cut off one of his closest allies, cousin Princess Eugenie, as the "forlorn" and "paranoid" prince shuts himself up in his California mansion - and his wife Meghan Markle pursues a career as an independent lifestyle influencer.
"He misses his family terribly, but no one is speaking to him any more," a source said. "He just wants to go for a beer with the guys, but his only friends are just the husbands of Meghan’s friends.”
Since leaving their royal duties in 2020, Harry and Meghan have struggled to find their professional footing as they move from one media venture to the next. The couple's efforts have been poorly received by the public, notwithstanding the commercial success of some projects like their Netflix debut, and especially Harry's memoir, Spare, which became the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time despite criticism of the author for oversharing.
With critics seeing the couple as cashing in on the royal brand, the couple's bitter criticism of the British monarchy has only fueled the controversy, and tensions with Harry's family.
After getting snubbed by his cancer-stricken father during a visit to Britain last year, Harry reportedly did not learn about King Charles' latest hospital stay until the rest of the world found out Thursday night. The Sun said Harry was kept out of the dark so as to not cause alarm while he was 5,000 miles away.
Harry had remained close with Princess Eugenie after "Meghxit," even buying an investment property in Portugal near Eugenie and her husband Jack's.
But the friendship "soured" after Harry's cousin was photographed with Piers Morgan, a regular critic of Harry and Meghan.
“A dim view was taken of this, as Piers has clashed with Meghan and Harry in the past," a source said. "Eugenie has been supportive of Harry and Meghan for years and was right there at the beginning of their relationship — but it has now soured.”
In another painful twist, Harry has recently been forced out of the African charity he founded to honor his late mother, Princess Diana, with the organization accusing him of "racism" and bullying.
The Sun's sources said Harry seldom leaves his mansion in Montecito and has not spoken with his family in "years."
"First he was a spare to William, now he’s increasingly looking like a spare to Meghan — and it’s not a great look,” a source told The Sun.
President Donald Trump's picks to lead his administration are hitting home runs every single day, and FBI Director Kash Patel is at the top of the batting order with his success rate.
According to reports, DOJ documents were released this week detailing an impressive drug ring bust that unfolded in Lubbock, Texas recently, which included getting a staggering 20 alleged methamphetamine and fentanyl traffickers, who had suspected ties to Mexican drug cartels, off of U.S. streets.
Patel had celebrated the massive drug ring bust earlier in the week on social media.
The numerous arrests was the result of a nearly two-year investigation into the drug ring, according to DOJ documents.
Over the weekend, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham announced the bust and provided details of who was arrested and what charges they're facing.
The press release noted:
The arrests were the result of a two-year long investigation that began March 2023, during which law enforcement seized more than 43 kilograms of methamphetamine, 285.4 grams of fentanyl (approximately 1,902 pills), 335.5 grams of cocaine, 2,296.7 grams of marijuana, and six firearms.
Fifteen of those arrested for their alleged involvement appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Lubbock, Texas.
#FBIDallas and @DEADALLASDiv along with our local, state, and federal partners in the Lubbock area, arrested more than 20 individuals on March 26 that were part of a drug trafficking ring. pic.twitter.com/chc78BKoKF
— FBI Dallas (@FBIDallas) March 28, 2025
The DOJ report named those who were arrested, and nearly all of them were charged with drug trafficking charges, among other criminal offenses.
The Justice Department noted:
The arrest were part of a joint collaboration between FBI’s Dallas Field Office – Lubbock Resident Agency, the Texas DPS, the DEA’s Dallas Field Office – Lubbock Resident Office, the Caprock High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the Lubbock Police Department, the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Anti-Gang Center, the Levelland Police Department and the Hockley County Sheriff’s Office.
Director Patel celebrated the bust earlier in the week on his X account.
"BREAKING: Tonight I can report yet another successful operation from our brave field agents and regional partners in our ongoing mission to break the drug Cartels. Earlier today, our teams executed a takedown and arrested 22 members of a narcotics trafficking ring in Lubbock, Texas — one who we believe to be working with the Mexican Cartels. Our @FBIDallas team did incredible work, partnering with Texas LEO, @DEAHQ, and others. These are the operations that mean safer streets for American families. And we are just getting started," Patel wrote.
"Send them to GITMO!" one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "I am liking these updates from FBI operations. Shows the FBI is working to keep America safe."
President Joe Biden and his administration messed up a lot of things during their time in the White House, and the Department of Veterans Affairs was one of those mistakes.
According to JustTheNews, a "dramatic" attempt by President Biden to bail out the VA last year was caused by "bureaucratic bungling," according to a bombshell report released by an internal government watchdog.
The screw-up that nearly wrecked the important government agency was caused after Congress appropriated money that the agency didn't need.
The money, which was granted in the form of emergency requests near the end of Biden's term, was left unspent thanks to bureaucratic red tap and errors, the report noted.
The inspector general published the eye-raising report last week, detailing how the VA was on the brink of monetary crisis because of the situation allowed by the Biden administration.
The outlet noted:
The Biden administration faced several self-inflicted accounting problems at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on the eve of the new admin, leading to emergency spending requests, one of which exceeded actual needs and raising the ire of Congress.
It was also noted that "a $2.9 billion supplemental request went unused because the agency failed to account for 'prior-year recoveries' in its budget planning.
Had those shortcomings been discovered in time, as they should have been, the VA would likely not have experienced the crisis it was subject to under the Biden administration.
"Had the realized prior-year recoveries been included in the calculations throughout the year, the monthly funding status reports would have shown a reduced risk of a shortfall by the end of the fiscal year," the IG concluded in its report.
JustTheNews added:
House Republicans passed a supplemental funding bill to meet the agency’s request, but required the then-VA Secretary Denis McDonough to review the agency’s accounting practices to prevent unprojected shortfalls from recurring.
The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs was presumably stunned to learn that the agency did not need the funds, as it was admitted to the committee by the VA in a hearing on the topic.
VA Secretary Doug Collins described the situation as a type of "extortion" right before the government was on the verge of shutdown, and promised that under his leadership, that won't happen.
"It's just a very, a department that is so bureaucratically bogged down that it has trouble doing its main mission, and that is taking care of veterans, and that's why we're actually working very hard to streamline processes, to get better help in place, and to have budgets and numbers that we can be accurate," Collins said.
Hopefully, the Trump administration will get the VA situation under control and ultimately make it more accessible and a better tool for our much-deserving veterans.
President Trump put his national security adviser Mike Waltz on the spot, blaming him for the Signal leak that has led to criticism of the president's national security team.
"It was Mike, I guess. I don’t know, I always thought it was Mike," Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Still, Trump maintained that the controversy over the leaked chats is a "witch hunt" and he offered no indication he wants Waltz to resign.
Trump's latest comments mark a shift in tone after he fulsomely defended Waltz and blamed a staffer for the situation. Waltz has taken responsibility for accidentally adding a liberal journalist to a Signal chat about military strikes in Yemen.
The chat group included Waltz, Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other top officials. Also included was Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the anti-Trump magazine The Atlantic.
Democrats have demanded that Waltz and Hegseth resign, but Trump and his top allies have said the criticism of the leak is overblown, pointing to the success of the mission against Houthi rebels.
“How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do — look, look, it’s all a witch hunt,” Trump said Wednesday.
The leak has placed Waltz's relationship with Goldberg under scrutiny. Golberg has played a significant role in spreading anti-Trump narratives, such as the sticky claim that Trump called soldiers "suckers and losers," which continued to dog Trump in 2024, four years after Goldberg first shared it.
A photo that resurfaced this week shows Waltz and Goldberg at the same event at the French Embassy in 2021. But Waltz has said he never met Goldberg, suggesting the "loser" journalist somehow broke into the chat.
“I know him by his horrible reputation, and he really is the bottom scum of journalists. And I know him in the sense that he hates the president, but I don’t text him. He wasn’t on my phone. And we’re going to figure out how this happened," Waltz told Fox News' Laura Ingraham.
According to reports, Trump is angry that Waltz had Goldberg in his phone, but the president is reluctant to fire Waltz and hand a victory to The Atlantic, which publishes articles attacking the president on a daily basis.
Trump defended Waltz as a "very good man" and called Goldberg a "total sleazebag" when asked about the Signal leak Tuesday.
The private information of National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and other top national security officials is available online, as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over leaked Signal messages.
The German outlet Der Spiegel identified e-mails, phone numbers, and some passwords belonging to national security adviser Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Some of the data was commercially available, while other information was leaked by hackers online.
The administration's critics say the private data could be leveraged by counterintelligence operatives to spy on the White House, which has been engulfed in controversy after a journalist was inadvertently included in a sensitive conversation about a military strike in Yemen.
The Trump administration has said the situation is being blown out of proportion, with Trump calling it a "witch hunt."
Using commercially available data, Der Spiegel tracked down an email address that was active until a few days ago, and a phone number that was associated with a recently deleted WhatsApp account. The WhatsApp account had a profile picture of Hegseth with his shirt off. The email address was also found, along with its password, in databases containing hacked user data.
Similarly, Der Spiegel got Waltz's phone and e-mail, and some passwords, linking the information with his Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Signal accounts.
Gabbard's information was more closely guarded, but her leaked email address was reportedly obtained through WikiLeaks and Reddit.
A spokesperson for Waltz told the outlet that his passwords and accounts were changed before he entered Congress in 2019. A spokesperson for Gabbard similarly said that she has updated her passwords several times since her personal data was compromised 10 years ago.
Der Spiegel sent messages to the Signal and WhatsApp accounts associated with Gabbard and Walz, and they were apparently delivered.
The outlet conceded that it is not clear if the Signal accounts are the same ones that were used in the chat about strikes in Yemen.
Separately, WIRED reported that Waltz's friend list on the mobile payment app Venmo was publicly available.
The account, which has since been made private, listed several journalists and government officials, including Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Waltz has taken responsibility for the leak of the administration's communications over Signal. Democrats have called on Waltz and Hegseth to resign.
Trump, after defending Waltz, appeared to shift tone on Wednesday as he blamed him for the leak.
"It was Mike, I guess. I don’t know, I always thought it was Mike," Trump said, adding the scandal is a "witch hunt."
If you want a sense of how desperate and lost Democrats have become, look no further than Maxine Waters' (D-Ca.) latest rant against President Trump.
While protesting against DOGE over the weekend, Waters made the bizarre suggestion that the president should deport his own wife, Melania.
Waters suggested that the First Lady somehow benefited from the practice of automatic birthright citizenship that her husband is currently targeting.
Trump's wife is a naturalized citizen who was born in Slovenia, so Waters' point is totally off, to put it mildly.
Melania Trump became a U.S. citizen in 2006. She later sponsored her parents for citizenship, and they were naturalized in 2018.
Although Melania entered the U.S. through the legal process, that hasn't stopped Trump's critics on the left from sometimes invoking her immigrant background to attack his policies against illegal immigration.
"When he [Trump] talks about birthright, and he's going to undo the fact that the Constitution allows those who are born here, even if the parents are undocumented, they have a right to stay in America," Waters said.
"If he wants to start looking so closely to find those who were born here and their parents were undocumented, maybe he ought to first look at Melania."
"We don't know whether or not her parents were documented. And maybe we better just take a look," she added.
The Trump administration has argued that the Fourteenth Amendment was never meant to grant automatic citizenship to the children of illegal aliens.
The relevant section of the Amendment states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
Critics of the current practice, including the Trump administration, argue that the key phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" excludes those who fall under the jurisdiction of a foreign power, such as illegal aliens.
Trump signed an executive order to terminate birthright citizenship on his first day back in the White House. Last week, Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the consequential legal battle.
Waters is a notorious for her inflammatory attacks on Trump. She infamously encouraged mobs of people to harass his staff during his first presidential term as Democrats whipped up a furor over his border policies.
Trump, at the time, called her a "low IQ person."
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be eliminated, echoing a pledge from President Trump to close the disaster relief agency. Noem shared the plans during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday, Breitbart reported.
FEMA has faced questions about competence, political bias, and the use of tax resources to help illegal aliens. The agency fired three more employees this month who were tied to a previously publicized incident of discrimination against pro-Trump hurricane victims in Florida.
President Trump has criticized FEMA repeatedly as ineffective and wasteful, and he has called on individual states to play a larger role in responding to disasters.
“FEMA has been a very big disappointment. They cost a tremendous amount of money. It's very bureaucratic, and it's very slow. Other than that, we're very happy with them,” Trump said in North Carolina in January.
Echoing Trump, Noem has endorsed ending FEMA "the way it exists today."
The DHS last month reclaimed $80 million in FEMA money that was given to New York City to house immigrants during Biden's border crisis.
Noem said FEMA was sending money to a high-end hotel used by the Tren De Aragua gang, which has become a target of Trump's immigration crackdown. Four FEMA employees were also fired for circumventing leadership to make the payments.
I have clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels.
FEMA was funding the Roosevelt Hotel that serves as a Tren de Aragua base of operations and was used to house Laken Riley’s killer.
Mark my words: there will not be a…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) February 12, 2025
FEMA cannot be abolished without an act of Congress, but Trump is moving ahead with overhauling the agency by executive order.
Both Trump and Noem have said the federal government should continue to provide resources, but that FEMA should have a smaller role in responding to disasters.
During an interview in February, Noem said FEMA is "picking and choosing winners."
“I would say, yes, get rid of FEMA the way it exists today," Noem said in February. "We still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters, like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California but you need to let the local officials make the decisions on how that is deployed, so it can be deployed much quicker. And we don’t need this bureaucracy that’s picking and choosing winners," Noem said.
In the meantime, Trump is scrutinizing FEMA's activities, ordering a review of all disaster aid programs that "indirectly or incidentally aid illegal aliens."
Elon Musk is under fresh scrutiny over a leaked video of the Tesla CEO performing an unusual party trick for President Trump's guests.
In the short video, an intensely focused Musk can be seen silently balancing his silverware on the tips of his fingers at an exclusive Mar-A-Lago event. Musk's behavior led to criticism online with some calling it childish or odd.
Musk appears to be seated with Shivon Zillis, the mother of four of his kids, as Trump engages in a conversation nearby.
Musk, meanwhile, is completely zoned in on playing with his fork and spoon. He chimed in on X to confirm what he was up to.
"A fork and two spoons balanced on the tip of my finger," he wrote.
The Tesla CEO's eccentric behavior has received publicity on numerous occasions and has caused some headaches for Trump - including an incident where Musk was accused of making a Nazi salute on the day of Trump's inauguration.
Despite their very different personalities, Trump and Musk have been working as a tag team on a historic effort to slash the size of government, making Musk a top target in the U.S. political scene. The world's wealthiest man is at the center of Democratic talking points about "oligarchy" as the party struggles to find its way out of a post-election slump.
The viral clip of Musk's balancing act led to more criticism, with some labeling it "weird" and others seeing it as evidence of his eccentric "genius."
"I also did that kind of thing when I was 5," one user wrote.
"He probably thinks this makes him look like an engineer," another wrote.
On a more serious note, Musk has been on the receiving end of a violent political backlash. The Justice Department has declared recent arson and vandalism incidents against Tesla as acts of domestic terror.
With many of Musk's critics speculating about his drug use, Musk has admitted to taking ketamine, a potent hallucinogen, to control feelings of depression.
"If you use too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done. I have a lot of work, I’m typically putting in 16-hour days," Musk told Don Lemon in an interview.
"So I don’t really have a situation where I can be not mentally acute for an extended period of time.”
Despite working sixteen-hour days, Musk clearly still knows how to have fun.