This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Tucker Carlson started off 2024 by reigniting speculation that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was actually murdered, as opposed to the official narrative of suicide since the wealthy financier was discovered dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019.
Carlson released a brief video clip on New Year's Day showing Mark Epstein, Jeffrey's brother, attempting to see the prehospital care report, or PCR, from the city's fire department.
"The U.S. government claims Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a federal detention facility in Manhattan four and a half years ago, just before his trial. If that's true, why are there so few records available from that night?" Carlson wondered.
"Here's Mark Epstein trying to get a copy of one of the most basic documents of all, the prehospital care report, written by the EMS team that moved his brother's body out of the cell."
"But as of right now, you're telling me you can't find the PCR report," Mark Epstein says to a New York fire official in the video.
"Not for the 10th of August, 2019," the official responds. "It's not in the fire department database. I don't know why. If it's supposed to be there, we'll find out."
Carlson added, "We'll be interviewing Mark Epstein soon."
Since Jeffrey Epstein's body was found and an autopsy was performed, his brother has called the four-years-in-the-making Justice Department report on his death "blatant bullsh**," according to Business Insider.
"It doesn't make sense. Could you get that through your f***ing head? It doesn't make sense," Epstein said. "Pardon my language, but I got a lot of calls today and I've lost my patience for the people that listen to this sh** and don't ask the right questions."
In June of 2023, Business Insider reported:
Epstein's body was examined by Kristen Roman, a medical examiner for the city of New York. Mark Epstein hired Michael Baden, a famed forensic pathologist, to oversee the four-hour procedure.
They came away with different conclusions. Baden still had questions about how Epstein's body was found. He believed the ligatures on Epstein's neck and the pattern of broken bones were more consistent with homicide — not suicide by hanging with a bedsheet. Roman was inconclusive, though her boss later ruled the death a suicide while offering little additional explanation to the public.
The absence of information, and Epstein's connections with powerful people, bred theories that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell. Tuesday's 122-page report from the inspector general's office, which is statutorily protected from the political winds, was supposed to be the final word.
"There's a lot of really blatant bullshit things there," he said.
Michael Thomas, the guard who found Jeffrey Epstein dead, said the financier's body was "suspended from the top bunk in a near-seated position, with his buttocks approximately 1 inch to 1 inch and a half off the floor and his legs extended out straight on the floor," according to the report.
But the marks from the noose, fashioned from a torn orange bedsheet, were on the lower part of Epstein's neck.
Mark Epstein called that part of the report "a glaring fuck up." He told Insider that, if Jeffrey Epstein really died in that position, the noose would have ridden up the neck and looped up near his ears.
"The pictures I have from the autopsy showed that the noose mark was lower on his neck and it was more straight back as opposed to riding up in the back towards his ears," Mark Epstein said. "So he couldn't have been hanging that way, as they say, and leaving this mark on his neck."
"Also, if he was hanging from the way they said, that doesn't match up to where the broken bones are in his neck," he added.
Epstein theorized that the marks came from someone who punched or karate-chopped his brother in the neck.
"What most likely happened is that those marks are probably because he got either punched or a karate chop into the neck by whoever killed him," Epstein said. "Because that's a technique they use to incapacitate people that they're going to eliminate. That makes much more sense."
Epstein noted that the inspector general's office, in all its four years of working on the report, never asked Baden for an interview.
The report, however, notes that investigators spoke directly to Roman. She concluded that the hemorrhages, blood flow, and skin marks on Epstein's neck and face were more consistent with suicide than strangulation. She also noted there was "no evidence of defensive wounds" if Epstein had fought off an attacker.
"Epstein did not have any marks on his hands (no broken fingernails, no debris under the fingernails, no contusions to his knuckles) that would have evidenced a fight, and, other than an abrasion on his arm likely due to convulsing from hanging, no bruising on his body," the Justice Department report says.
In an interview Tuesday night with Insider, Baden – who estimated he's conducted over a thousand autopsies on deaths in New York state jails and prisons over the past five decades – maintained that Epstein's injuries were more consistent with homicide than suicide. He also said a "karate blow" could have been the cause of his death.
"The autopsy findings are much more suggestive of homicidal manual strangulation or compression of the neck with being stepped on, or with a shoe or a knee," he said. "Or a karate blow can cause three fractures in the neck."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A leading commentator from the Hoover Institution, Peter Berkowitz, is warning America that those who are the most virulent in their attempts to keep President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot – essentially they are trying to destroy him – are the ones helping in the "unraveling of the rule of law."
Berkowitz, the Tad and Dianne Taube senior fellow at the Hoover Institution was for several years the director of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department.
He explains at Real Clear Wire that the campaign against allowing voters to have even the opportunity of voting for Trump is being ratcheted to extreme levels.
In fact, Democrats and their specially chosen prosecutors have assembled a list of cases against Trump, including by now dozens and dozens of charges, often on what critics of the prosecutors say simply are flimsy, or fabricated, claims.
One, for example, wants him jailed for his opinions and statements about the 2020 election, the election that was skewed by at least two undue influences. One was Mark Zuckerberg's decision to hand out $400 million plus to officials who often used the money to recruit Democrat voters. The other was the FBI's decision to interfere by telling publications to suppress accurate, and damaging, reporting about the Bidens. A polling later showed that likely made Biden the winner in that race.
Their key talking points have been that Trump is an "insurrectionist" because a few hundred people rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he told them to protest peacefully, and their wild claims that electing Trump would end democracy in the constitutional republic that is America.
The characterization of Trump as an extreme threat is the problem, he pointed out.
"To insist that Donald Trump’s return to the White House is bound to bring dictatorship to America encourages the use of all means necessary to thwart his bid for the presidency. Flight 93 Election anti-Trumpers thereby facilitate the unraveling of the rule of law that they seek to avert," he explained.
The "Flight 93" reference comes from a book, he explained.
"On Sept. 5, 2016, The Claremont Review of Books’ website published 'The Flight 93 Election' under the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus. The high-brow polemic went viral a few days later when Rush Limbaugh read it aloud on his radio show. Author Michael Anton – who served on President Trump’s National Security Council and is now a fellow at Hillsdale College and the Claremont Institute – analogized the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to the one faced by passengers on the last of the four doomed commercial aircraft that had been hijacked by Al Qaeda terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. If Flight 93 passengers did nothing, they faced certain death. If they charged the cockpit, they might still die, but they gave themselves a fighting chance to seize control of the plane," he explained.
The analysis suggested Trump was articulating the correct positions on immigration, trade, war, and more during that campaign.
While pointing out that desperate times require desperate measures, Anton "did not call for lawlessness. But by maintaining that Clinton’s election would produce unmitigated catastrophe, he encouraged the notion that all bets were off if she prevailed at the ballot box," Berkowitz wrote.
But now, he said, "Today’s anti-Trumpers go Anton one better. Whereas he warned of the danger of progressive dictatorship a mere two months before the 2016 election, anti-Trumpers have been sounding the alarm continuously against Trumpian tyranny since 2016 and have picked up the pace this cycle."
He said at this point, "much of the elite media is marching in lockstep to alert the nation of its imminent peril. New York Times columnist Charles Blow argued in mid-December that the prospect of a Trump-led Republican Party taking power shows that 'our democracy hangs by a thread.' Talking heads on CNN and MSNBC have been affirming matter-of-factly that Trump will extinguish democracy."
Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who was fired by voters following her years-long war on Trump, claimed that America because it does not follow her anti-Trump agenda, is "sleepwalking into dictatorship."
Other leftists have made similar suggestions, including Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan, who claimed, "Once elected … Trump will prove unstoppable," Berkowitz explained.
Kagan's claims, Berkowitz noted, include that the DOJ would prosecute "the honorable and innocent," Trump would defy the Supreme Court, and a GOP Congress would do nothing.
Kagan lamented that Americans are approaching the 2024 election is if it was an ordinary election, not a "looming disaster."
Berkowitz pointed out that actually, "history provides scarce evidence of democracies deteriorating into dictatorships without the cooperation of the military, government bureaucracy, business world, media, and universities."
And those factors appear unlikely at best.
He continued that further, "Kagan offers not a word about the political forces that provoked voters to back Trump in 2015 and gave his candidacy new life in 2023. Trump tapped into festering resentments of progressive policy on trade, immigration, crime, and war, and progressive superciliousness on cultural issues. His supporters viewed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion investigation and the two Trump impeachments as elite weaponizations of federal law enforcement. The four criminal indictments brought against Trump – all between April 4 and Aug. 10, 2023, more than two years after he left office and just as the 2024 campaign ramped up – have reinforced his voters’ belief that progressive elites have ridden roughshod over the law to bring him down. The reckless decision by the Colorado Supreme Court last week to remove Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot on the grounds that he violated the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on those who have 'engaged in insurrection' serving as president – despite his having never been charged with insurrection – adds fuel to the fire."
Finally, Kagan advocates for throwing "everything you can" at someone like a Trump, and likened him to "a marauder" crashing into your home, the commentary said.
"Contrary to Kagan, it is hard not to fault those who have treated the laws of the land as if they were makeshift weapons to hurl at a house-invading marauder."
Berkowitz said, however, that speech is protected in America and there are procedures for determining whether conduct is unlawful.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A pioneer of the pro-family movement, Rev. Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association and American Family Radio, passed away Thursday, Dec. 28, in Tupelo, Miss., at age 85.
Wildmon, born in 1938, started out as a pastor, serving as a United Methodist minister for 13 years. However, as the AFA's website notes, in the late 1970s, troubled by the profanity and indecency he saw on television, Wildmon founded the Mississippi-based American Family Association – at first, from his kitchen table. A decade and a half later, in 1991, the AFA spun off American Family Radio, which currently has 1.5 to 2 two million listeners.
Wildmon's son and current AFA president, Tim Wildmon, said his father's many accomplishments in pursuit of preserving America's traditional, moral, family-oriented culture never went to his head. "Those were the visions that God gave him to start," said Tim, "and he was a servant of the Lord and he followed through with what the Lord gave him to do."
Others offered heartfelt remembrances of Wildmon and his lasting impact on America:
Pastor Bert Harper of "Exploring the Word" on American Family Radio, and who spent years on AFA's board of directors, told American Family News, "Brother Don Wildmon was a visionary. He could see down the road 10 years ahead of time."
Dr. Alex McFarland, Harper's co-host of "Exploring the Word," called Wildmon "an amazingly influential, wonderfully faithful" man of God, adding: "In the late 1970s, as our nation was beginning a moral and spiritual decline, God raised up some leaders who would ultimately change the world and our nation for the good. Certainly, one of the most prominent was the late Dr. Don Wildmon. … He set in motion an influence for the gospel that only God could measure. What a legacy he leaves, what an example for us all."
Ted Beahr, chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission and editor of Movieguide, said: "Don had an ability to not just target the exact right problem, but he also had ability to galvanize people."
Dr. James Dobson, founder of "Focus on the Family" and currently the host of "Family Talk," said the biggest driver of Wildmon's legacy would be his courage, telling AFN: "I think it would be his fearlessness in taking on big corporations and the powerful executives who scared everybody else."
Likewise, Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the huge First Baptist Dallas church, and who hosts a daily radio program on AFR, commented: "Don Wildmon was a true pioneer in encouraging pastors like myself and thousands of others to speak out on the great moral issues of the day. He will be sorely missed by a country that needs him more than ever right now. We pray for the Wildmon family, and wish them every encouragement from Heaven that they will see Don again in Heaven, with all of the rewards he deserves."
And AFA executive vice president Ed Vitagliano summarized the loss of Donald Wildmon this way:
"Bro. Don Wildmon was an extraordinary man and an extraordinary figure in American culture. Because of the humility of Brother Don, sometimes it is hard to gauge the impact he had – but his vision for a Christian community that was active in politics and culture was part of a movement we believe of the Holy Spirit in this country."
"It was not just Brother Don; it was Jerry Falwell and Dr. James Dobson and Phyllis Schlafly and others who understood the direction that this country was taking and knew that the Church had to speak up – that the Church could not censor itself and be paralyzed by a culture that wanted to intimidate the Christian community and make them silent.
"Brother Don's vision was huge in our culture, extremely influential, and because he and his wife, Lynda, raised strong children, strong in the Christian faith, who now have grandchildren who continue that legacy, AFA and AFR continue the vision and the passion of Brother Don to see this nation return to a place of faithfulness to God that we might be a nation once again whose God is the Lord."
"It is sad for those of us here at AFA and AFR. This really is like a family. This is a hard moment, a difficult moment for us, very sad, but we also believe in the resurrection and the power of God to take away – through the resurrection of Christ – the sting of death. We know Bro. Don is in Heaven with his Lord whom he served faithfully and with others in his family, others that he knows from that movement to get people involved in culture. We are happy for Brother Don and we do covet the prayers of our faithful listeners and supporters for the Wildmon family and for this ministry. We continue to ask them to pray for our nation and pray that God might send a revival and an awakening that will restore the biblical foundations of this country."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Lawyer Michael Cohen, who once represented Donald Trump and was part of the administration of Trump's corporate empire, later was jailed for campaign finance violations and fraud, as well as lying to congressional committees.
He's now out of prison and prosecutors in New York have schemed to use his testimony against Trump in their effort to find a conviction and keep Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot.
But Cohen's plan to rebuild his life has hit a bump. And it might affect his testimony.
It seems in filings in his own case, in which he's seeking an end to supervision for his own offenses, the judge found what apparently were AI-fabricated case citations.
According to a report published by RedState, "Cohen, the lawyer they're hoping to use against former President Donald Trump in the criminal case in Manhattan, was caught using AI for citations that he gave his attorney that were then used in a motion filed with a federal judge."
The report said Cohen explained it as a mistake because he "didn't understand how to use Google Bard, which generated the false citations."
Cohen told the court "he had not kept up with 'emerging trends (and related risks) in legal technology and did not realize that Google Bard was a generative text service that, like ChatGPT, could show citations and descriptions that looked real but actually were not,'" the report said.
Further, he didn't expect the lawyer representing him, David M. Schwartz, to "drop the cases into his submission wholesale without even confirming that they existed."
The situation began because the judge said he couldn't find three of the cases cited, and ordered Schwartz to produce them or explain how the fabrications were included in a court filing.
Schwartz told the judge he didn't check them because he thought they came from another lawyer working with Cohen.
"If I had believed that Mr. Cohen had found these cases, I would have researched them. It was my belief, however, that Mr. Cohen had sent me cases found by Ms. [Danya] Perry," Schwartz said.
Explained RedState, "Read that again. It's hilarious. He didn't check because he thought it was from Perry. But if he knew it was from Cohen, he would have checked. In other words, he wouldn't have trusted Cohen. Not exactly a helpful comment there, but now Schwartz is on the hook for all this mess."
The judge is requiring explanations by Jan. 3.
And, RedState noted, "The revelation could have serious implications for the Manhattan criminal case against Mr. Trump, in which Mr. Cohen is expected to serve as the star witness. The former president’s lawyers have long attacked Mr. Cohen as a serial fabulist; now, they will have a brand-new example."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chief of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, has confirmed the investigation into evidence to impeach Joe Biden is being expanded after his White House spokeswoman apparently confessed that he knew son Hunter Biden was planning a crime.
That crime would be refusing to comply with a House subpoena, which is in fact illegal but for which Hunter Biden has not yet been charged by his father's Department of Justice.
An announcement from Comer this week confirmed, "Official White House statement suggests President Biden had advanced knowledge about Hunter Biden’s plan to defy congressional subpoenas."
Under investigation by Comer's committee, as well as the Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is whether Joe Biden sought to influence or obstruct the committees’ proceedings by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son, Hunter Biden, from complying with the committees’ subpoenas for a deposition.
Comer reported a letter has been sent to White House Counsel Edward Siskel, in which he and Jordan are calling for the release of "all documents and communications sent or received by employees of the Executive Office of the President regarding Hunter Biden’s deposition."
"In light of an official statement from the White House that President Biden was aware in advance that his son, Hunter Biden, would knowingly defy two congressional subpoenas, we are compelled to examine as part of our impeachment inquiry whether the president engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress," Comer and Jordan explained. "Under the relevant section of the criminal code, it is unlawful to 'corruptly . . . endeavor[] to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any investigation or inquiry is being had by . . . any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress[.]' Likewise, any person who 'aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures' the commission of a crime is punishable as a principal of the crime."
While the committees had subpoenaed Hunter Biden to appear on December 13, he instead staged a news conference to brag about how he would not comply, an offense for which others have been punished.
Then later that day, when asked whether Joe Biden had watched Hunter Biden’s statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated Joe Biden was "certainly familiar with what his son was going to say," and that Joe Biden had advanced knowledge that his won would defy the subpoenas.
"The committees have accumulated substantial evidence that Hunter Biden’s business endeavors have improperly included his father, and the president has made false claims about his knowledge and involvement in these schemes. In fact, just days before Mr. Biden was scheduled to appear for his deposition, the president claimed he had not interacted with any of his son’s business partners. This is false. The president has met with, spoken to, and received money sourced from his son’s foreign business partners. In light of this evidence, the fact that the president had advanced awareness that Mr. Biden would defy the committees’ subpoenas raises a troubling new question that we must examine: whether the president corruptly sought to influence or obstruct the committees’ proceeding by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the committee’s subpoenas. Such conduct could constitute an impeachable offense," Comer and Jordan explained.
A report at PJMedia noted Jean-Pierre actually said, "Look, as you know, Hunter Biden is a private citizen. And so, I certainly would refer you to his representatives. Look, you know, the president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say. And I think what you saw was from the heart of his son."
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley called her out for that "breathtaking mistake."
"If this latest allegation is true, the president was speaking with his son about committing a potentially criminal act of contempt. Hunter was refusing to give testimony focused not on his own role but on his father's potential role in the alleged influence peddling. The House can pursue evidence on that conversation and how the president may have supported his son’s effort," Turley explained.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The American Center for Law and Justice, representing the Colorado Republican Party, already has delivered to the U.S. Supreme Court evidence of three big blunders committed by four Democrats on the Colorado Supreme Court, who claimed that they could ban President Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential primary ballot.
They made that ruling only last week based on their decision to abandon due process and consider that Trump was guilty of "insurrection" because of what rioters did at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In fact, he's not even been charged with any crime of "insurrection," and when Democrats in Congress made that claim, he was acquitted in the Senate.
The ACLJ said its petition for certiorari has been filed requesting the justices overturn the state court's "dangerously flawed twisting of the 14th Amendment."
"This is so much more than one primary in one state – this is the greatest election interference case in U.S. history and represents a grave attack on millions of Americans' fundamental right to vote," the legal team explained.
The lawyers explained the three blunders:
The legal team also asked for a hurry-up schedule, "due to the urgent nature of this case."
It said, "The drastic effects of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision on the 2024 primary election necessitate this Court’s immediate review, during this current term. The prompt hearing of this case is necessary to prevent the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision from having an irreparable effect on the electoral process."
The filing also automatically stopped the state court's ruling.
The ACLJ explained, "The Constitution, our system of democratic elections in our constitutional republic, the right of a party to designate its candidates of choice for its members, due process – and, ultimately, the voters’ right to choose who they vote for are all under assault.
"This is the most important case we have ever taken on. Because if we lose our right to vote, we lose our constitutional republic."
The Colorado court already had been known for its extravagantly flawed decisions, like when it condemned Christian baker Jack Phillips to be punished for not violating his faith by promoting the LGBT lifestyle choices.
The Supreme Court publicly rebuked the state, at that time, for its "hostility" to Christianity, and a similar rebuke is expected from the high court to the state in this case.
The ACLJ explained the politicized ruling from a weaponized Democrat court is "one of the biggest constitutional crises of modern history."
Critics of the Colorado decision point out that it's just part of the "lawfare" being waged by Democrats all across the country, apparently because of their fear of Trump himself.
They're also trying to pursue him on multiple criminal cases, which analysts have described as being on shaky foundations.
Their goal appears to be to keep voters from voting for him, a move that GOP members have described as itself being a threat to the constitutional republic that the U.S. is.
Multiple courts already have rejected the same "disqualified" claims that were endorsed by the all-Democrat Colorado court.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Legal commentator Jonathan Turley, who not only has testified before Congress as a constitutional expert but also has represented members in court, has unleashed a commentary blasting the Biden family's newest defense for the evidence that shows influence peddling – and the millions of dollars that brought to members.
"The question is whether Joe Biden knew about the influence peddling of his brothers and his son. If so, he actively assisted his family in acquiring millions to influence him on public policy or legislation. His family was effectively marketing timeshares in a senator, a vice president, and now a president," he wrote.
"Whether or not Biden delivered, the family business corrupted the functions of government by converting offices into types of commodities. That is the case regardless of whether or not they delivered. It is akin to an extortionist taking money without any intent to follow through on threats of disclosure or use of damaging material. Even in today’s willfully blind politics, every voter should be able to agree on two simple facts.
"First, influence peddling is corruption long opposed by the government and denounced by both parties.
"Second, if the president knew that his son and uncles were using him for influence peddling, Joe Biden is also corrupt."
Turley, the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at the George Washington University Law School, noted the "Biden family legal problems continue to mount."
He cited reports Joe Biden's brother James was caught on an FBI audiotape in a corruption investigation, while Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, is now also facing demands for unpaid taxes.
He noted James Biden is expected soon to testify before the House investigators looking into Biden family corruption, and that occasion may "solidify a new line of defense for the Bidens: that they are harmless grifters."
"After years of denying influence peddling with the help of an obligating media, even some Democrats are now admitting that Hunter and his uncles have been selling influence. Biden associates confirmed that Joe Biden was the brand that they were peddling to foreign clients, who paid millions to the family," he explained.
The James Biden affair illustrates the operations, he explained.
It happened during an investigation into lawyer Richard Scruggs, who later went to prison.
"Scruggs forked over $100,000 to James Biden when he was seeking to reinforce support for the massive tobacco legislation and Joe Biden was viewed as skeptical on what some viewed as a windfall for trial lawyers," Turley explained.
In fact, Scruggs admitted James Biden was "hired" because he was Joe Biden's brother.
When the tape was revealed, the Bidens immediately produced a "new defense. James Biden took the money but allegedly did nothing to land his brother."
In fact, Biden defenders now say the Bidens took money, but their help was "illusory."
"In other words, these corrupt figures wanted to buy influence and access, but they were just chumps fleeced by the Bidens," he wrote. "It is a curious defense that we are not corrupt because we just ripped off dupes who were corrupt people."
He said, however, the bottom line is that "influence peddling is a form of corruption."
He said the case will come down to "what the president knew about his family’s influence peddling and when he knew it."
"It is highly implausible that the president did not know about the influence peddling," he explained.
And he pointed out Joe Biden likely already likely has lost the fight, as "roughly 70 percent of voters (including 40 percent of Democrats) believes that President Biden acted illegally or unethically, or both."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
While most Republicans running for president are rallying to Donald Trump's defense after the Colorado Supreme Court kicked the former commander-in-chief off the ballot Tuesday, one GOP presidential candidate is wholeheartedly agreeing with the decision.
It was a 4 to 3 ruling in which the state's Supreme Court decided Trump should be disqualified under the 14th Amendment, which precludes candidates who engaged in an insurrection, a bogus reference to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.
"The factual finding that he supported insurrection will haunt his candidacy."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said: "The Left invokes 'democracy' to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse."
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley indicated: "The last thing we want is judges telling us who can and can't be on the ballot."
"I will beat him fair and square. We don't need to have judges making these decisions," she added. "We need voters to make these decisions."
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy hammered the ruling, and vowed to withdraw himself from the Colorado primary ballot, encouraging his fellow contenders to follow his action.
"This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado," Ramaswamy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
"Having tried every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in this election, the bipartisan Establishment is now deploying a new tactic to bar him from ever holding office again: the 14th Amendment."
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie noted he had not read the full ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court, but said during a town hall: "Donald Trump should not be prevented from being president by any court. He should be prevented from being president of the United States by the voters of this country."
Colorado's ruling is actually on hold through Jan. 4, as Trump's team is appealing it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state has until Jan. 5 to bring the matter to a conclusion, as Colorado is required to formalize its Republican primary candidates for the Super Tuesday ballot on March 5.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The parents of popular conservative influencer Jack Posobiec were "swatted" Saturday, just a day before Christmas Eve, with someone falsely telling authorities the commentator had shot his parents and was also threatening to shoot his own family.
Swatting is when someone makes a false report of an ongoing serious crime in order to elicit a response from law enforcement, such as the dispatch of a SWAT unit.
Posobiec, who is a senior editor at Human Events and host of a daily talk show on "Real America's Voice," provided some details on X, formerly Twitter.
"My parents were just Swatted," he began.
"Everyone is fine. Law enforcement is fully involved and tracking down the perpetrator.
"They told police that I had shot my parents and was threatening to shoot my family."
Later Saturday evening, Posobiec, who is Catholic, thanked people for their concern, and warned the perpetrators:
"Thanks to everyone who reached out this evening. I understand others are going through this as well tonight. Law enforcement is fully involved.
"Going after family members like this, at Christmas, is not going over well. Expect a response."
Other conservatives took note of Posobiec's plight, including U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who herself has been a victim of swatting on numerous occasions.
"I'm glad your family is safe," Greene told Posobiec.
"I've been swatted 7 times. It's extremely serious and they want you killed by police who think they are responding to something awful as you described."
"These people are evil. They need the joy of the birth of Christ and know him as their savior."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted: "I'm so sorry. Praying they find these people. The left and the uni party are terrible. Political persecution is real. So sorry, Jack."
Others following the event noted:
"The left wants us dead, and they're unrelenting in their pursuit. The 2024 election is a little over 10 months away. I can't imagine how much worse it’' going to get for major political pundits and influencers like you, Jack."
"Hope they're caught swiftly and brought to justice. It's no laughing matter and people have died from swatting."
"This is disgusting ... I hope they find whoever did this and charge them with Attempted murder ... They can't get to you directly so they're attempting to injure/murder your family to hurt you ... Anyone who Swats someone else should face Life in prison without parole."
"No coincidence it's right before Christmas. The terror is the point. So thankful to hear everyone is OK."
The swatting incident took place just one day after Mediaite published a hit piece about Posobiec and Timcast host Tim Pool, who in recent years has also been swatted.
Mediaite's headline was: POLL: Republicans don't know or trust far-right influencers like Jack Posobiec and Tim Pool."
The Post Millennial noted that story backfired, with its own report titled: "Never Back Down smear of Jack Posobiec and Tim Pool BACKFIRES, poll finds they reach 100M Americans."
Posobiec said of the poll: "NeverBackDown (window-lickers) is so triggered at me they ran a poll saying I have no influence. So little influence you're torching the little money you have left to raise my name ID. Thanks for the free rent!"
Tim Pool said, "The poll actually makes me feel famous. Who are they trying to convince that Jack and I have no influence? Total window licker move. These people are retarded."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joe Biden celebrated the 2023 Christmas holiday on Friday by issuing a blanket pardon – nationwide – for any American "arrested, prosecuted, or convicted on federal charges for marijuana use."
A report from the Washington Examiner explained Biden's proclamation "forgives U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents caught by law enforcement for possessing the drug and charged, going far beyond the sweeping actions he took last year for thousands of people convicted of possession."
In a statement, he pointed out that a year ago he granted pardons for "the offense of simply possession of marijuana."
This year his pardon excluded "individuals who were non-citizens not lawfully present in the United States at the time of their offense."
He said, "I am pardoning additional individuals who may continue to experience the unnecessary collateral consequences of a conviction for simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana. Therefore, acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who, on or before the date of this proclamation, committed or were convicted of the offense of simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana, regardless of whether they have been charged with or prosecuted for these offenses on or before the date of this proclamation…"
He said his intent is that the attorney general and appointees will "review all properly submitted applications for certificates of pardon and shall issue such certificates of pardon to eligible applicants in due course."
Biden declined to offer an assessment of how many people would be involved.
But he said it was all part of his goal for employment and housing.
"Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities," Biden said. "Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs."
Convictions under state laws were not affected by Biden's decision.