Former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira will spend 15 behind bars and three years on supervised release for leaking highly classified military documents, the New York Post reported. The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to six charges under the Espionage Act for sharing the documents and other information on Discord.
Teixeira was convicted in March of retaining and transmitting national defense information that endangered national security. The information he shared embarrassed the White House as he contradicted the official narrative about the Ukraine war.
The young man's attorneys attempted to argue that his autism and ADHD diagnoses, which came after his arrest, warranted a lighter sentence. "Jack is still essentially a child – at the very least, a ‘youthful offender’ – who has his whole life in front of him," a memo from the attorneys to Boston federal court Judge Indira Talwani said.
The lawyers also claimed that he did not want to "harm the United States" but wanted to "educate his friends about world events" with classified information. "To Jack, the Ukraine war was his generation’s World War II or Iraq, and he needed someone to share the experience with."
As the New York Times reported at the time, Teixeira began sharing documents on a Discord chat room he designated as "Thug Shaker Central" just 48 hours after Russia invaded Ukraine. "Saw a pentagon report saying that ⅓rd of the force is being used to invade," he wrote.
When another user expressed skepticism, Teixeira bragged that he had "a little more than open source info" to back him up. "Perks of being in a USAF intel unit," he cited the United States Air Force.
Then, on March 27, 2022, Teixeira shared that Russia would retreat from Kyiv based on information he "found on an NSA site," suggesting he also could access National Security Agency data as well. "Some 'big' news," Teixeira bragged.
"There may be a planned withdrawal of the troops west of Kiev, as in all of them." The information checked out to be true as two days later, Russia announced it was to do just that.
Other information Teixeira is said to have shared includes casualty data that contradicted the Pentagon's official narrative as well as Russia's military strategy. All of this endangered lives and compromised the war efforts.
The Post noted that the defense's plea for clemency was mostly unheeded because of the nature of the betrayal. Teixeira's job as a cyber transport systems specialist with such high-level clearance meant he was entrusted with national security secrets.
"As both a member of the United States Armed Forces and a clearance holder, the defendant took an oath to defend the United States and to protect its secrets — secrets that are vital to US national security and the physical safety of Americans serving overseas. Teixeira violated his oath, almost every day, for over a year," prosecutors argued.
Prosecutors believe Teixeira posted information from Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, using clearance he received from working on information technology systems for the Air Force. "The harm the defendant caused to the national security from his disclosures of national defense information is extraordinary," prosecutors noted.
"By posting intelligence products on the social media platform Discord to feed his own ego and impress his anonymous friends, Teixeira caused exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States. The scope of his betrayal is breathtaking," they argued.
This young man may have done untold damage to America's interests abroad while also undermining the credibility of officials in the U.S. Although it is sad to lock someone away as a young adult, the gravity of Teixeira's crimes certainly warrants it.
Barron Trump, the 18-year-old son of President-elect Donald Trump, is not officially on any social media but has one account linked to his name, The Palm Beach Post reported. This tracks with the way his mother, Melania Trump, has sought to keep Barron shielded from the public eye.
Curiosity about Barron reached an all-time high with the reelection of his father. Search engines were flooded with questions about Barron and the rumors surrounding him after the Nov. 5 election results confirmed that his father would retake the White House.
However, Barron seems content with remaining as private as can be, which is unusual considering his age. So far, Barron's only social media presence comes from his mother's posts on her X account with his name tagged, including a photo the former first lady posted of her son voting for his father.
Voted for the first time - for his dad! #18yearsold #presidentialelection #proud pic.twitter.com/kTzMFNn1AS
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) November 6, 2024
Melania Trump has kept posts about Barron to very general or mundane subject matter. When her son was younger, Melania Trump would post photos of him with other family members, playing golf at one of Donald Trump's courses, or on the beach.
Between 2012 and 2015, she periodically tagged the X account @barrontrump, which only followed her account and had no posts, bio, or photos directly listed. The account was created in August 2012 when Barron was just 6 years old.
Not much changed as Donald Trump transitioned from a real estate mogul and reality TV star into a powerful president. In fact, Melania Trump seemed more intent than ever to protect her son from public scrutiny.
According to People, Melania has stuck by Barron as he headed to New York University in September. "Melania will keep her hand on Barron’s future just as much going forward as she has throughout his early and current school years," a source told the news outlet.
"He is her world. She is proud of him, and she is the primary decision maker on Barron and his future."
Even during the most recent campaign, Barron only dipped his toe in the political waters on behalf of his father. The youngest Trump child turned down an opportunity to speak at the Republican National Convention in August.
However, Barron took a more active role behind the scenes this time, and his influence apparently paid off. According to Time's election postmortem, Donald Trump prevailed because he circumvented traditional media outlets in favor of podcasts.
When Republican consultant Alex Bruesewitz came to the former president with "a list of podcasts" to go on, Donald Trump deferred to his son's judgment. When Brueseqitz approached him, Donald Trump suggested he run the names by his son.
"Call Barron and see what he thinks and let me know," Donald Trump told Bruesewitz. Trump also sat for interviews with Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Logan Paul in the campaign's final days, shoring up the young male vote that pushed Donald Trump over the finish line.
Barron seems to be following his mother's wish for him to remain as private as can be. However, he also appears poised to be part of his father's administration in a less visible but just as integral role.
X owner Elon Musk posted on the platform on Sunday that he was endorsing Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) to become Senate majority leader, taking over for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Republicans take the majority in January.
Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader! https://t.co/lpT34yHTKk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2024
The post was a response to a post from Scott aimed at President-elect Donald Trump that said, "100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible."
Trump had posted,
Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner. Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY! Additionally, no Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. THANK YOU!
Others who have expressed interest in the top position in the Senate include Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD).
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have all said they will support Scott for the majority leader position.
Independent journalist Tucker Carlson pointed out in another X post that of the current contenders, only Scott actually supports Trump. Carlson said the other two "hate" Trump and want to get in the way of his agenda.
He further blamed McConnell for sabotaging the process by holding the leadership elections early.
The election will be by secret ballot, which is another sticking point.
The last thing McConnell wants is to see Trump succeed.
If not for his advancing age (82) and the fact that he's noticeably slowing down, he would no doubt hold onto leadership as long as he possibly could just to thwart Trump.
McConnell has ruled with an iron fist for the better part of a decade, controlling not only the legislative agenda but who gets fundraising help from the Senate fundraising committee.
Without the cooperation of the majority leader, Trump will not be able to advance his agenda nearly as well.
The House will probably also have a Republican majority, which should give Trump at least two years to pass legislation unhindered by much other than the filibuster.
Though Kamala Harris' loss in Tuesday's presidential election unleashed a firestorm of hyperbolic outrage on the left, there is at least one prominent Democrat who seems to be taking a much calmer approach to the outcome.
Amid uncontrolled wailing and gnashing of teeth from liberals everywhere, President Joe Biden turned the “not my president” theme on its head, declaring his commitment to a peaceful transition of power to President-elect Donald Trump, as the BBC reports.
In an address to the nation delivered last week from the Rose Garden, Biden pledged to facilitate a smooth changeover to the incoming Trump administration and offered some insights on the nature of the electoral process.
“We accept the choice the country made,” Biden declared, adding, “You can't love your country only when you win.”
The president praised the United States and its democracy as “the greatest experiment in self-government in the world” and noted that “the will of the people always prevails.”
Biden's message stood as a bit of a contrast from that of many disgruntled liberals who have described Trump's ascent as the end of democracy as Americans have known it, some of whom have also blamed the president's late exit from his re-election campaign as a key reason for Harris' defeat.
Though a key theme of the Harris campaign was the assertion that Trump is a fascist, harbors Nazi-type sympathies, and threatens the very principles on which the country was founded, even some Harris allies are now calling that premise into question at the same time that Biden has called for unity.
Popular urban radio host Charlamagne tha God, certainly no fan of Trump's, took to the airwaves after the election to ponder just how much of that heated rhetoric was genuine and how much was craven posturing, as the Daily Mail reports.
Despite his own apparent support of Harris, Charlamagne asked his co-hosts -- and by extension, his audience -- “Do y'all find it strange that now he's won, they're not calling him a threat to democracy, they're not calling him a fascist?”
He continued, “It just makes you wonder how much of it did they really believe?”
The radio host's comments drew backlash from at least one X user who mused, “No backbone, no independent thought. What Charlamagne is trying to say is that he feels dumb for falling in line with rhetoric that was obviously not true, yet he takes zero accountability for refusing to think for himself.”
Judging from the onslaught of online meltdowns posted by liberals declaring Trump's election to be a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions, Biden's contention that now is the time for acceptance and unity has not yet won the day among Harris' loyalists.
Nevertheless, Biden is -- at least outwardly -- moving forward in the direction he urged for his countrymen, preparing to host Trump at the White House on Wednesday for a traditional, post-election chat, as the Associated Press reports.
Though Trump's return for a second term in office may not be the political outcome Biden preferred, it is not at all implausible to think that he feels a sense of vindication after being unceremoniously ousted by his party in favor of Harris mere months ago, with this week's outreach to the incoming president perhaps a manifestation of that sentiment.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blames President Joe Biden for staying in the race too long, Fox News reported. The California Democrat believes Election Day would have gone differently if there had been a choice during the primary.
Biden was clearly suffering from dementia during the campaign, but the Democratic Party kept propping him up until they couldn't any longer. Then, Biden's lousy debate performance against former President Donald Trump forced their hand.
The president stepped down from his reelection campaign on July 21, leaving no time to pick a replacement. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, which Pelosi thinks was a mistake.
Pelosi said as much to Lulu Garcia-Navarro for the New York Times podcast, "The Interview." During the conversation, she admitted that Biden wrecked his party's chances at keeping the White House.
Pelosi blamed Biden for leaving Democrats with Harris as their nominee. "Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race," Pelosi told Garcia-Navarro.
"The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary. And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in [a primary] and been stronger going forward," Pelosi claimed.
"But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen," Pelosi pointed out.
"We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time," Pelosi explained of Harris' recent loss to Trump.
"If it had been much earlier, it would have been different," she added. It was obvious that Harris was a terrible candidate because she had been a supremely unpopular vice president, but Democrats were only able to admit that after the election.
In August, Pelosi claimed that after Harris took over as the nominee, it happened that way because nobody else wanted the position. "Many of us who were concerned about the election wanted to have an open process," Pelosi claimed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal at the time.
"It was an open process, anyone could have gotten in. [Harris] had the endorsement of the president, and she, politically astutely, took advantage of it and shut down — not shut down, but won the nomination," Pelosi went on.
"But anybody else could have gotten in," Pelosi added. Once they were stuck with Harris, Democrats tried to remake the vice president into a viable candidate.
They rebranded her as "brat," leaning heavily into the youth demographic with a marketing campaign to make her seem fresh and full of joy. Unfortunately, Harris was still the same awkward, unlikeable, vapid candidate underneath, and voters could see that.
Pelosi is correct that the Democratic Party made a grave mistake in installing Harris as the replacement for Biden. They lost their chance at the White House because they ran roughshod over their voters.
Democratic Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman are engaging in election denial in the aftermath of Tuesday's election, Breitbart reported. They have refused to accept that GOP U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick is the winner despite no clear path to victory for Casey.
The Keystone State is still counting the last of its ballots. However, the Associated Press called the race for the Republican candidate after it became apparent that McCormick was the clear winner, even with the votes left to count.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Casey promised he wouldn't concede the race. Citing more than 100,000 outstanding ballots in the state, Casey has remained steadfast in waiting until each is counted.
I have dedicated my life to making sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard, whether on the floor of the Senate or in a free and fair election. It has been made clear there are more than 100,000 votes still to be counted. Pennsylvania is where our democratic process was born. We…
— Bob Casey Jr. (@Bob_Casey) November 8, 2024
Casey's post expressed his commitment to waiting for the final count despite the obvious futility of it. "I have dedicated my life to making sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard, whether on the floor of the Senate or in a free and fair election," Casey began in his post on Friday.
"It has been made clear there are more than 100,000 votes still to be counted. Pennsylvania is where our democratic process was born," Casey pointed out.
"We must allow that process to play out and ensure that every vote that is eligible to be counted will be counted. That is what Pennsylvania deserves," he claimed.
Fetterman, the other senator for Pennsylvania, also took to X to object to the Associated Press's call for McCormick in the race. "We still have tens of thousands of votes to be counted across the Commonwealth. @AP_Politics shouldn’t make a call in this race until every Pennsylvanian has their vote counted," Fetterman wrote.
We still have tens of thousands of votes to be counted across the Commonwealth.@AP_Politics shouldn’t make a call in this race until every Pennsylvanian has their vote counted.
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) November 7, 2024
While Fetterman is backing Casey's decision not to concede, The Hill reported that the first-term senator mocked former President Donald Trump for so-called election denial last Sunday. Trump expressed concern amid reports of election fraud in Pennsylvania.
Fetterman took to CNN's State of the Union with Dana Bash to mock Trump for this stance. "It’s the same s— that he played in ‘20, and that didn’t go anywhere," Fetterman said.
"It’s the same thing that he tried in 2020 and, you know, we had … absolutely a secure election. And now, there was voter fraud in Pennsylvania, and it was a handful of Republicans, and they had, they had their dead moms voting for Trump," Fetterman claimed.
"And I’d like to remind everybody that they were all caught and they were prosecuted," Fetterman added. Now, he's stumping for Casey's effort to delay declaring McCormick the winner despite his previous objections to such a stance.
It's amazing to watch these people lose their minds over vote counts after mocking Trump for having the same reservations. Casey and Fetterman have to accept the results of the election they have already claimed is completely fair, or they will show themselves to be the hypocrites they are.
President-elect Donald Trump stunned Democrats by notching a victory in a Texas border county that is 97% Hispanic, the New York Post reported. This bucked the conventional wisdom that his tough stance on illegal immigration would be a hindrance.
Trump made history on Tuesday after he flipped Starr County with 57% of the vote against Vice President Kamala Harris. No Republican has pulled off that feat in 128 years.
In fact, Starr County was previously considered the longest-held Democratic county in the nation. This time, Trump earned the majority of the county's votes out of a population of approximately 66,000.
This comes after the county voted 79% for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and 52% for President Joe Biden. As the numbers continue to pour in, Trump may take more counties Clinton and Biden previously won in the southern part of the Lone Star State, including Webb County, Hidalgo County, and Cameron County.
While leftists cobbled together different minorities and aggrieved groups to the exclusion of everyone else, Trump cast a wide net among ordinary Americans. It was a successful strategy, including with Latino voters.
According to The Hill, exit polls showed that Trump closed the gap among Latino voters against Harris. In 2020, Hispanic voters broke heavily for Biden, with 65% support for the Democrat compared to just 32% for Trump.
This time, Vice President Harris only received 52% support to Trump's 46% of the vote. However, when broken down by gender, Trump triumphed with Latino men by 12 points over his Democratic rival.
This was particularly significant as Biden won over Latino men by 23 points in 2020, meaning Trump enjoyed a 35-point swing in his favor. Danielle Alvarez, a senior Trump campaign adviser, touted his "historic support from Hispanic voters" due to his focus on "bringing down costs, restoring the economy, restoring American prosperity, securing the border, and safety at home and abroad."
Alvarez believes this message appealed to all voters for Trump to pull out a decisive victory. "As President Trump said in his victory speech, now it is time to get to work and deliver for the American people," Alvarez added.
According to the conventional wisdom pushed by the left, Trump wasn't supposed to do well with these voters. After all, a little more than a week before Election Day, a comedian at his Madison Square Garden rally made an off-color joke about Latinos and Puerto Rico.
Trump denounced comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, stating, "I don't know who he is," Fox News reported. The left attempted to turn it into an attack, but Trump used it as an opportunity to tout his record.
"When the hurricanes came, I rebuilt. I helped them rebuild their electrical system. I helped them rebuild dams and everything else. That place was hit by so many hurricanes. It's almost like hurricane alley," Trump said of the 2017 devastation on the island.
"I've never seen anything like it. And Puerto Ricans love me because I was the president that stood up for them more than any president. I've had great relationships with Hispanics, but I've had [a] really great relationship with Puerto Rico and people from Puerto Rico," Trump said.
Democrats believe that voting blocs are monolithic and care about whatever the left tells them to care about. Trump treated Latino and Hispanic voters like other ordinary Americans who want peace and prosperity for them and their families and proved it worked.
Maine GOP state senator Eric Brakey has resigned and moved to New Hampshire, where he cast his ballot in Tuesday's election, WGME-TV reported. Brakey chose not to run for reelection and previously said he wanted to start a libertarian organization there.
Last November, Brakey announced that he would not seek reelection for his seat as he would be moving to The Granite State. On Tuesday, he stunned his Democratic opponents when he finally made that happen.
Brakey posted an announcement to social media on Election Day. "I just resigned my seat in the Maine State Senate, completing my move to the state of New Hampshire and I’m now walking to the polls to go register to vote and cast my ballot," Brakey wrote.
Brakey's statement shared his accomplishments and explained the reasons for his resignation, which was "effective immediately" on Tuesday. "This decision comes after much reflection and necessitated by my relocation to the State of New Hampshire," Brakey wrote.
"During my three terms in the Maine State Senate, it has been my profound honor to represent my constituents in Auburn, New Gloucester, Poland, and Durham (as well as Minot and Mechanic Falls prior to redistricting)," Brakey added. He then listed many accomplishments.
Some were solid Republican policies, including welfare reform and abolishing sales tax on gold and silver. Brakey also supported constitutional carry, which "allows law-abiding citizens to carry firearms without a permit, safeguarding the right of all Mainers to defend themselves, their families, and their communities."
The state senator showed his libertarian side with his support of legalized marijuana. "I led the Health and Human Services Committee to pass laws that expanded access to medical cannabis and ensured an industry driven by small businesses on market principles, increasing access for patients while protecting against corporate capture," Brakey wrote.
Blakey also boasted how he pushed for "the right to keep a hedgehog as a pet." The lawmaker said the idea came at the urging of schoolchildren who learned how to use the "legislative process to advocate for a little slice of freedom" in the process.
The 36-year-old also shared his plans for the future in the same lengthy post. "For the last several months, I have been engaged in the process of relocating to the state of New Hampshire for professional opportunities," he explained.
"Today, I am completing that move with the intention to change my voter registration and cast a ballot in the New Hampshire elections.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my colleagues, staff, and my constituents for their support, trust, and cooperation over the years," Brakey added.
"It has been an immense honor to serve our state, and I look forward to watching the continued progress and prosperity of the Pine Tree State from across the border in the Granite State. Please accept this letter as my formal notice of resignation," Brakey said, adding that he's "committed to ensuring a smooth transition" for his replacement.
Brakey ended his letter with one last point. "Furthermore, my opinion is, the Federal Reserve should be destroyed." This point is fitting as, according to the Sun Journal, Brakey is the executive director of the Free State Project in New Hampshire, which was created to persuade more libertarian-minded people to move to the state.
Brakey has made it his mission to flood New Hampshire with libertarian voters, including himself, to turn the state into a haven. It's only fitting that he should end his political career in Maine by doing just that.
Former President Donald Trump promised mass deportations while speaking at a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, Just the News reported. Trump's platform has always included a commitment to stopping illegal immigration, but he made this his final pitch to voters Monday in a heavily Latino city in a crucial swing state.
Conventional wisdom says that Trump must win Pennsylvania's 19 electoral votes to become president again. Conventional wisdom also says that Latino voters are turned off by candidates who crack down on illegal immigration.
However, Democrats seem to be losing ground as Trump told an enthusiastic crowd about his plans one day before Election Day. "The United States is now an occupied country, but it will soon be an occupied country no longer," Trump said to uproarious applause.
Trump was not shy about reiterating his hardline immigration position. "On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history," Trump told rallygoers.
"We're going to get them out," he added. Trump pointed out that "Dwight Eisenhower has the record" for the most deportations.
"He was a very moderate kind of a guy who's a good general [and] a good president... did a good job, but he hated the concept of people pouring into our country, and he has the record, but we're going to, unfortunately, beat the records, not something I want to do. But this is not sustainable by any country," Trump lamented.
"They're taking over your towns, your schools, your hospitals," he added. Trump mentioned the desperate situation in Springfield, Ohio, where a surge of illegal immigration has overwhelmed the small city.
"I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered. The United States is now an occupied country, but it will soon be an occupied country no longer," Trump added.
Trump's pushback against illegal immigration was supposed to be a stance that made him unpopular with Latinos. Perhaps there was a case to be made in past elections, but not so for 2024.
Now, according to Politico, Trump has picked up support in the community. Although Vice President Kamala Harris still enjoys a majority 55% support compared to Trump's 36% in Pennsylvania among Latinos, she's trailing President Joe Biden's numbers from 2020.
Even in Reading, where Latinos make up 68.5% of the population, there are signs that it isn't the slam dunk for Harris that it was for Biden as people suffer under Democrats' leadership. "Housing cost, utilities, groceries: it’s all gone up," Michael Rivera, who is the Burks County commissioner and is half Puerto Rican, pointed out.
"My wife is on the board of a shelter, and she mentioned to me the other day that they’ve gone up to 60 inquiries a month from women and children looking for a place to stay because of housing insecurity. There’s a huge need," he added.
The policies of the last three-plus years have impacted all Americans, including the Latino population. Trump is the president for all Americans who will fix the problems the previous administration has created, and everyone knows it.
Oliver Anthony, the musician whose song "Rich Men North of Richmond" went viral last year, said in a long YouTube video that he plans to leave the music industry to start a traveling ministry.
Anthony, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, said in the video, "I’ve decided that moving forward, I don’t need a Nashville management company. I don’t even need to exist within the space of music. So, I’m looking at switching my whole business over to a traveling ministry."
He added that "our system is broken."
He also shared that his grandfather had been a traveling minister as well.
"I have this vision for this thing that I’m calling the Real Revival Project, and it’s basically going to start as a grassroots music festival, but hopefully it grows into something that can literally change our landscape and our culture and the way we live," he said.
He said that he wants to bypass the "monopolies" of Ticketmaster and LiveNation in a setup that parallels the Nashville circuit, and he had his first "thrown-together" show on Saturday.
His plan is to stimulate small-town economies and bring music to places that haven't had it in a long time.
He further wants to help musicians in these towns find success.
Anthony said in the video that he made enough money in the last year to last him the rest of his life. He has more than a million subscribers on YouTube and his song broke records on the Billboard charts.
"I never have to work another day in my life. I have everything that I wanted," he said.
He said he felt a "calling" from God "to make a real impact in this world, to make a real change, to help light a fire that no one really can extinguish in my lifetime or after."
"I’m just somebody who thinks the whole way we live is a--backward and so stupid, and it serves nobody but the people at the top of the hierarchy that we no longer really need to serve," he explained.
Anthony said he was already trying to get out of the music industry when his song about D.C. politicians went viral.
He said he is conservative, but isn't a Republican or a Democrat.