Day: November 21, 2025
A payout scheme for senators deepens the gap between DC and the rest of us
During the final hours of the shutdown fight earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) slipped a toxic provision into the continuing resolution that reopened the government. The clause created a special pathway for select senators to sue the federal government, bypass its usual legal defenses, and claim large payouts if their records were subpoenaed during the Arctic Frost investigation.
The result? About eight senators could demand $500,000 for every “instance” of seized data. Those instances could stack, pushing potential payouts into the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. That is not an exaggeration. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has all but celebrated the prospect.
Graham said he wanted ‘tens of millions of dollars’ for seized records while victims of weaponization still face shattered lives.
No one else would qualify for compensation. Only senators. Anyone who spent years helping victims of political weaponization — often pro bono, while prestige law firms chased billable hours — can see the corruption in plain view. The message this provision sends on the central Trump-era promise of accountability could not be weaker: screw the people, pay the pols.
The surveillance of senators was wrong. It should never have happened. But senators did not face what ordinary Americans endured. Senators maintain large campaign accounts to hire top lawyers. They operate out of official offices, armed with constitutional protections such as the Speech and Debate Clause. They do not lose their homes, jobs, savings, or businesses. Thousands of Americans did. Many still face legal bills, ruined livelihoods, and ongoing cases. They deserve restitution — not the politicians who failed them.
Graham helped push this provision forward. As public criticism grew, he defended it. On Sean Hannity’s show the other day, he said: “My phone records were seized. I’m not going to put up with this crap. I’m going to sue.” Hannity asked how much. Graham replied: “Tens of millions of dollars.”
Democrats will replay that clip across every battleground in the country going into an uphill midterm battle in 2026.
Graham embodies the worst messenger for this fight. He helped fuel weaponization long before he claimed victimhood. He urged the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to pass the Steele dossier to the FBI. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he did nothing to slow the Justice Department and FBI as they pursued political targets. He even supported many of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees who later embraced aggressive lawfare tactics. If anyone owed restitution to victims, Graham sits high on the list.
RELATED: Trump’s pardons expose the left’s vast lawfare machine
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Fortunately, enough Republicans recognize the political and moral disaster of funneling taxpayer funds to senators while real victims remain abandoned. The House advanced a measure today to repeal the provision. Led by Reps. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas), the House forced the Senate to address in public what it attempted to smuggle through in private.
Thune defended the measure in comments to Axios. He argued that only senators suffered statutory violations and said the provision was crafted to avoid covering House members. He did not explain why any House member who was illegally surveilled should receive no remedy.
The Senate leader also claimed the financial penalty would deter a future Justice Department from targeting lawmakers, citing the actions of special counsel Jack Smith. His emphasis on “future” misconduct glossed over a critical fact: The provision is retroactive and would cover past abuses.
That defense cannot survive daylight. Repeal requires 60 Senate votes, and not a single Democrat will fight to preserve a payout for Graham. Republicans should not try either. Efforts to strike the measure need to begin immediately. Senators — especially Thune — should commit to an up-or-down vote. If they want to send tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to Graham, they should do it in public, with the country watching.
Washington already reeks of grift and self-dealing this year. If senators protect this provision, that smell will spread nationwide.
Woman allegedly tossed coffee at mom and her infant over dog leash dispute — and is now facing deportation
A Florida woman who was apparently angry over a dog being walked without a leash reacted outlandishly and may be deported after police investigated the incident.
The altercation unfolded on Friday morning when Nina Jaaskelainen confronted a mother outside of a home on Quail Nest Lane in Volusia County according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Video of the altercation was posted to social media.
Jaaskelainen even mocked and ridiculed the mom as she recorded.
Kelly Brisell told WESH-TV that she was walking with her 11-month-old son, Owen, and her dog named Ponce.
“She started screaming at us,” Brisell recalled. “I ignored her. She kept saying it, and I said, ‘I don’t have a leash,’ and kept walking. Then she looked at Ponce, walked up, and threw her coffee on him.”
At one point, Jaaskelainen warned that her own dog had previously killed another dog.
She then tossed cold coffee on them, according to the police.
“It was all over my clothes and all over him,” Brisell added. “It was over his eyes, nose, and temple. Thank God the coffee wasn’t hot.”
Jaaskelainen even mocked and ridiculed the mom as she recorded.
“You just threw coffee on my child!” Brisell yelled on the video.
“Good!” Jaaskelainen replied.
The woman was charged with two counts of battery, but investigators eventually determined that she was also in the country illegally. Jaaskelainen, who had no prior criminal history, is being held on an ICE detainer and is facing deportation.
RELATED: Democrat fires staffer accused of posing as immigration attorney at ICE facility
The woman is originally from Finland.
“Had she not done that, we would have all went about our day. It could have been an exchange of words, and I would have left and probably never saw her again,” Brisell added. “The way she escalated it changed everything.”
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Pregnant mom and son brutally beaten outside Chicago school
On Monday afternoon, a pregnant mother was walking her 9-year-old son home from his Chicago school when a group of kids started chasing after the mother and son, calling them names and taunting them.
In video footage of the attack, the children were beating the mother and her son against a fence outside the school and dragging them to the ground before the pair were taken to the hospital.
“It’s a very sad story. Anytime you see a mother trying to protect her child and then being totally beaten by a group of children, that is one of the most unfortunate things that you could witness,” Pastor Corey Brooks tells BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock on “Fearless.”
However, Brooks noticed something interesting when he looked at all the news footage surrounding the incident.
“One of the things that I’ve noticed as I looked through a bunch of video footage and I’ve looked at a lot of interviews is that there’s only one father that I’ve seen that’s been present, and that’s the father who was standing behind the sister that was beaten,” Brooks explains.
“I know that father because they’re members of my church. I know the young boy that was beaten because they’re in our after-school program. His grandmother is also a part of our church. So, I’m very familiar with that family,” he continues.
“But one of the sad things about it is that none of these other fathers of these children who beat this woman have spoken out or said anything. I’ve seen interviews with the mothers, with some of their children, but no fathers,” he adds.
And this is not just an issue in Chicago, but black families everywhere.
“I think that is a major problem that we’re faced with in our community, the lack of presence of fathers,” he says. “And anytime you get to a point to where the kids can get it, it’s a sad day.”
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