Day: November 21, 2025
As ICE readies ‘Swamp Sweep,’ Mississippi pledges to aid — not block — federal crackdown
Operation “Swamp Sweep” to bring 250 border agents to Mississippi and Louisiana for two-month immigration crackdown targeting criminal aliens.
Minnesota taxpayer dollars funneled to Al-Shabaab terror group, report alleges
Minnesota taxpayer funds allegedly reached the Al-Shabaab terror group through extensive, complex fraud schemes involving several organizations.
Giants rule out Jaxson Dart for game vs Lions, Jameis Winston gets second consecutive start
The New York Giants announced Friday that Jameis Winston will start for the second consecutive week as Jaxson Dart remains in concussion protocol.
Assistant high school principal and brother allegedly planned violence against ICE agents: police
Assistant principal placed on leave as Virginia Beach police investigate “incredibly alarming” threats against federal agents and local officers.
Capitals player learns wife gave birth during game, fights back tears in emotional interview: ‘Proud of her’
Dylan Strome’s wife gave birth to their daughter during the first period of the Washington Capitals’ 8-4 win, leaving the center emotional between periods.
Federal probe demands Chicago Teachers Union explain missing financial audits since 2020
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates faces federal probe over five years of missing financial audits required under transparency laws.
Mr. Bin Salman Goes to Washington
Mohammed bin Salman got a royal welcome to Washington this week. President Donald Trump greeted the Saudi crown prince with a horseback procession, a lavish banquet, and even a fighter jet flyover. This pomp did not go over well in Washington, which Bin Salman has not visited since the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and fierce critic of the crown prince. Many Americans see no reason to roll out the red carpet for a ruler on whose hands they see plenty of red already.
The post Mr. Bin Salman Goes to Washington appeared first on .
The Death of Higher Education
New reports out note that college students can’t do Math (arithmetic actually) and now Harvard admits “A’s” are normative, not exceptional (breaking the heart of this once proud straight-A student.) We have a problem. Our best and brightest aren’t and our university system will soon collapse as the financial cost of engaging in it seems less and less worthwhile. Earlier this week Mary Katherine Ham told the host she did not know if college would be worth it for her children. It is a big problem.
The post The Death of Higher Education appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
How GOP leadership can turn a midterm gift into a total disaster
Did Donald Trump secretly plan this fight over the Jeffrey Epstein files to lure Democrats into another political trap? No. I don’t believe he did. I know people close to the president who were frustrated over the summer when he abruptly shifted from promising the files’ release to calling it a “distraction” and a “hoax.” I said at the time on my show that the switch was the first major misstep of Trump 2.0.
But I understand why the 4D-chess theory is so tempting now. It looks like a setup. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) spent months attacking Trump over Epstein. Then we learned that Jeffries may have accepted donor requests from Epstein after Epstein’s first sex-offense conviction. And a Democrat from the Virgin Islands — Epstein’s district — was literally taking dictation from Epstein on what questions to ask in a congressional hearing.
The 2026 midterms are coming fast. If the GOP wants to avoid another preventable disaster, it had better stop rehearsing the same script.
Those are facts, not theories.
The deeper truth, though, has nothing to do with strategy. American politics follows two patterns, and both showed up again this week.
First, Republicans pre-emptively surrender. Always.
Watch Democrats tell soldiers to ignore orders while Trump follows every instruction a federal judge hands him. His restraint isn’t Romney-level, but the Republicans around him shrink the space for any real fight. That’s why Attorney General Pam Bondi is developing a well-deserved reputation for overpromising and under-delivering.
RELATED: The right message: Justice. The wrong messenger: Pam Bondi.
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Second, Democrats always overreach when Republicans fold.
We saw it in 2018 when Republicans gave up on repealing Obamacare and lost 40 House seats for their cowardice. The pattern continued in 2020, as Democrats pushed their false god evangelism into insane absolutism — on “fortifying” elections, on arresting Trump, on forcing people into taking the poisonous jab, on transitioning kids. It was mark of the beast stuff, and voters wanted no part of it.
The latest example came this week, when Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) answered a question from a friendly reporter about why Democrats never pursued the Epstein files when they had the chance by snapping, “What is [Trump] hiding?” The Senate had just voted almost unanimously to release those files, and instead of revealing Trump, former Bill Clinton hack Lawrence Summers stood exposed for his ties to the sex offender, seeking his counsel as “wingman” in an effort to seduce the daughter of a high Chinese Communist Party official.
Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Both parties cling to their worst instincts. Republicans surrender too easily. Democrats push too far. And no politician in modern history has been buoyed more by his opponents’ excesses than Donald Trump.
So once again, Republicans hold the advantage on the Epstein files — at least for the moment. But early signs suggest they may squander it. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Pam Bondi appear ready to narrow or redact the release into something the base will see as betrayal. If that happens, Democrats won’t need to win the argument. Republicans will beat themselves.
The 2026 midterms are coming fast. If the GOP wants to avoid another preventable disaster, it had better stop rehearsing the same script.
A little discipline — and a little courage — would go a long way.
Stop asking questions shaped by someone else’s script
The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.
Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.
Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.
The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.
Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.
Truth-seeking is real work
Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.
If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.
But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.
This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.
Bad-faith questions
This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?
FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.
Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.
If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.
RELATED: Antifa burns, the media spin, and truth takes the hits
Photo by Philip Pacheco/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?
The real target
These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.
If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.
That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.
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