Category: Blaze Media
‘Unnecessary and protracted’: Elise Stefanik drops out of New York governor’s race
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York suspended her gubernatorial campaign on Friday just weeks after joining the race in November.
Stefanik becomes one of many prospective Republican retirees, clarifying that she will not seek to return to Congress either. Stefanik maintained that she would have won the Republican gubernatorial primary but that her candidacy would draw away crucial resources in an electorally “challenging” state like New York.
This is not the first time Stefanik’s career has taken an abrupt turn.
“I am truly humbled and grateful for the historic and overwhelming support from Republicans, Conservatives, Independents, and Democrats all across the state for our campaign to Save New York,” Stefanik said in a Friday post on X.
“However, as we have seen in past elections, while we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York,” Stefanik added.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Stefanik said her family was a big part of her political calculus, saying she would regret taking more time away from being with her young son.
“And while many know me as Congresswoman, my most important title is Mom,” Stefanik said. “I believe that being a parent is life’s greatest gift and greatest responsibility. I have thought deeply about this and I know that as a mother, I will feel profound regret if I don’t further focus on my young son’s safety, growth, and happiness — particularly at his tender age.”
This is not the first time Stefanik’s career has taken an abrupt turn.
RELATED: GOP feud breaks out after Elise Stefanik accuses Speaker Johnson of protecting the deep state
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Stefanik was President Donald Trump’s first pick to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, even forfeiting her leadership position in the House and going through the early stages of Senate confirmation at the beginning of the year. Her nomination was later pulled, with Republican leadership citing the historically narrow House margins. Mike Waltz was instead confirmed to the position.
Stefanik returned to the House and later announced her gubernatorial run in November, before announcing on Friday she would step back from public service altogether.
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Debate: Hip-hop culture’s grip on Deion and Shedeur Sanders
BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock believes that football stars like Deion Sanders and his son Shedeur are spreading the worst of black culture to not only NFL fans but players — but former NFL quarterback Shaun King doesn’t share his sentiment.
“If we’re being honest, the black rap hip-hop culture has permeated every part of America. I mean, go on TikTok. It’s white moms with young white daughters doing the dances. You know, I don’t even know if athletes are who this generation of young Americans idolize,” King argues.
“All they did was looked at what the algorithm says works, and we’re going to use this to build a post-Deion playing career brand, and it’s focused on that energy. But they didn’t create it. They just took what was working and said, ‘We’re gonna use it to bring some more money into the Sanders’ family,’” he continues.
“So that’s why I try not to target them. It’s like they’re the reason that Jaxson Dart is wearing diamond necklaces or that J.J. McCarthy is doing the dance as he runs. … It’s rap, hip-hop took over,” he says, adding, “They had like a 10-15 year stretch where they kind of raised a whole decade of Americans.”
“On that we agree,” Whitlock says.
“Hip-hop has had incredible influence over athletes and young people in general, and for black athletes, my argument is like, ‘Hey man, football, particularly at the quarterback position, but football in general, because of its military-like structure, it’s about submission,’” he explains.
“It’s about submitting to the head coach and the team as greater than yourself. And hip-hop is about individuality and being rebellious to authority,” he adds.
Whitlock also points out that point-wise, white quarterbacks are dominating black quarterbacks in the NFL — and he believes it has a lot to do with this culture.
“White guys are free to submit,” Whitlock explains. “Black guys have all this pressure to be rebellious, mimic hip-hop culture, and that’s why there’s a bit of a struggle, and that’s what I’m saying is going to be a part of Shedeur’s struggle.”
Want more from Jason Whitlock?
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VIDEO: Erika Kirk endorses JD Vance for president
Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk announced her endorsement of Vice President JD Vance for president in 2028 during her Thursday speech at the AmericaFest conference.
Vance will speak on Sunday at the conference organized by Turning Point USA, the organization founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012.
‘If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee.’
“We’re gonna ensure that President Trump has Congress for all four years,” she said. “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible!”
The thousands at the conference in Phoenix, Arizona, responded with resounding applause.
Vance has not said if he’s running for president yet, but he’s seen as a prominent front-runner for the nomination.
“My attitude is, the American people elected me to be vice president,” he said in October. “I’m going to work as hard as I can to make the president successful over the next three years and three months, and if we get to a point where something else is in the offer, let’s handle it then.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also considered a potential presidential candidate, said that he would support Vance if the vice president ran for the Oval Office.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio said to Vanity Fair.
RELATED: JD Vance responds to the possibility of Vance-Rubio presidential ticket
Vance has said Kirk’s organization was pivotal in the re-election of Trump in 2024.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024; he helped us staff the entire government,” he said.
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‘We’re still on the air, Tim’: Hockey announcer’s hot mic sexual remarks result in suspension
Philadelphia Flyers radio play-by-play announcer Tim Saunders may have some explaining to do to his superiors.
Saunders has been suspended for two games by the Flyers, and now the organization is apologizing for comments he made on Thursday night.
‘We take this matter very seriously.’
During a commercial break in the third period of the Flyers and Buffalo Sabres game, Saunders went to a commercial break before he was heard making some non-hockey-related remarks.
“Now, they’re going to take the TV time-out. We’ll take it as well. Seven [minutes] gone in the third [period]. It’s 3-2 Buffalo on the Philadelphia Flyers Broadcast Network,” Saunders said, thinking he would then be off the air.
After a few seconds, the announcer is heard humming a tune to himself before more dead air, as muffled audio of in-arena promotions are heard in the background.
It was nearly 20 seconds after the start of a would-be commercial break when Saunders said, “While you’re down there, would you mind blowing me?”
Following a few more seconds of silence, broadcast partner and former NHL player Todd Fedoruk inserted, “I think we’re still on the air, Tim.”
Saunders then seemingly has a good chuckle before stopping to seriously ask, “No, we’re not, are we?”
RELATED: San Jose Sharks apologize for displaying pro-ICE message on scoreboard during Hispanic celebration
As reported by Crossing Broad, Saunders took another long pause before laughing again and asking, “Are we? Do you have us? Mikey, talk to me.”
On Friday morning, the Flyers issued an official statement on their social media saying they were “aware of the inappropriate comment” made during the TV time-out.
“These remarks do not reflect the standards of conduct or values we expect from anyone associated with our organization,” the team wrote.
The Flyers then announced that, effective immediately, a two-game suspension had been issued while they “address this matter with all parties involved.”
“We take this matter very seriously, and sincerely apologize to our listeners, fans and all those affected by these comments,” the statement concluded.
RELATED: Male players take over women’s hockey in Minnesota — one team has 4 men
The majority of Flyers fans on X reacted negatively to the announcement, with one Philly sports fan calling it an “incredible overreaction.”
“A suspension??? World gone soft,” a fan named Ryan said.
Jeff added, “Give him a raise.”
The Flyers would go on to lose the game 5-3.
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The Oscars will leave TV — and may never come back
A seismic shift is coming for Hollywood’s biggest awards show.
Following a tough decade that has seen the program lose more than 40% of its audience, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has agreed to a multiyear deal that will take it off television airwaves.
In 2021, viewership sank to less than a third of the 2016 audience, with just 10.4 million viewers.
California streaming
Starting in 2029, the 101st Oscars will air in an online format as part of an exclusive deal with YouTube for the global rights to the broadcast. The deal, which runs through 2033, includes the rights to cover the red carpet, behind the scenes, and the Governors Ball.
As reported by Variety, the awards show will leave ABC — where it has been for decades — and will become available on YouTube around the world and to YouTube subscribers in the United States.
Will the show leave extended commercial breaks behind as well? Unlikely. Inside sources revealed to Variety that ads will be a part of the broadcast, and the intent behind the shift was actually to capitalize on YouTube’s captioning and audio translation features.
RELATED: Guillermo del Toro stops awards show music to drop ‘F**k AI’ bomb
Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
Falling stars
While the awards telecast has gained some of its viewership back in the last few years, the numbers are still much smaller than they were when President Trump took office the first time.
In 2016, the Oscars saw approximately 34.4 million viewers. That number dropped steadily to 23.6 million by 2020, until a massive free fall in 2021. That year, viewership sank to less than a third of the 2016 audience, with just 10.4 million viewers.
Viewership has climbed back up since and showed decent growth through 2024, when it had 19.5 million viewers. However, the numbers largely stagnated for 2025 with 19.7 million, which is about 57% of what viewership was in 2016.
Still it seems the program will never again reach the peaks it had as recently as 2010, when it garnered over 41 million sets of eyeballs.
RELATED: Can conservatives reclaim pop culture?
Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images for YouTube
Global services
Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor released a joint statement calling the new deal a “multifaceted global partnership with YouTube” that will reach “the largest worldwide audience possible.”
They added, “This collaboration will leverage YouTube’s vast reach and infuse the Oscars and other Academy programming with innovative opportunities for engagement while honoring our legacy. We will be able to celebrate cinema, inspire new generations of filmmakers, and provide access to our film history on an unprecedented global scale.”
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan labeled the Oscars “one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry.”
‘Disastrous program’: Trump administration pauses ‘diversity’ visa Brown University shooter used to enter United States
The United States has paused a visa program after shocking details emerged in the Brown University shooting investigation.
Late Thursday night, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the pause of the DV1 program, a visa lottery system that the Brown University shooter, identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, reportedly used to obtain a green card.
‘At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.’
“The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Secretary Noem said on X. “In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.”
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem added.
Valente, who is also believed to be responsible for the recent slaying of an MIT physics professor, was found dead inside a storage facility Thursday night.
The DV1 program, also known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, makes up to 55,000 visas available to immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The program is “random and blind to the number of family members who might immigrate with the selectee,” according to the State Department website.
The 2026 visa lottery drew from 20,822,624 applicants from over 170 counties all around the world, according to State Department statistics.
The top 10 countries, from highest volume to lowest are: Egypt, Russia, Algeria, Ukraine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kenya, Nepal, and Morocco. Other countries that broke 3,000 are Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey.
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Jennifer Lawrence admits she can’t separate her politics from movies: ‘That’s how I’m digesting the world’
Actress Jennifer Lawrence says her creativity and politics are inherently intertwined.
Lawrence revealed her thoughts during a discussion with fellow Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
‘Maybe she didn’t know that I was on an Ambien.’
Brain trust
Lawrence, 35, and DiCaprio, 51, appeared on Variety’s “Actors on Actors” segment, with the duo discussing their pasts as child actors, upcoming films, and briefly, politics as it pertains to their art.
DiCaprio was discussing his 2025 political film, “One Battle After Another,” when Lawrence asked about bringing politics into the movie industry.
“I think that the creative part of my brain and the political part of my brain are intrinsically linked,” Lawrence prefaced. “Like, I keep finding, like, every time I come up with, like, a movie or, like, it’s more often than not political.”
“I think it’s ’cause that’s how I’m, like, digesting the world. Are you like that?” she asked DiCaprio.
“No,” DiCaprio plainly replied.
Lawrence attempted to move on to another question, but the “Titanic” star was eager to explain why.
RELATED: Handmaid’s fail: Hillary stumps for Jennifer Lawrence’s new pro-abortion documentary
Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Stating that his latest film feels “very topical,” DiCaprio said it is “very difficult to say something about the world we live in” on film.
“It has to have an element of irony or comedy to it; otherwise people — they’re not allowed in. … And it feels like, ‘Oh, I’m watching these people’s vocation and, you know, do I relate to them?'” he explained.
DiCaprio tacked on, “There’s all those political films of the ’70s: ‘The Parallax View,’ ‘Three Days of the Condor,’ ‘All the President’s Men.’ And they were taken very seriously. But nowadays, it feels like there’s such polarity and such extremism that if you pick a side, you’re alienating.”
Pillow talk
Later in the interview, Lawrence had more strange anecdotes that seemed to paralyze the veteran actor. She soon brought up the fact that both she and DiCaprio are “obsessive about sleep” when filming a movie, before reciting some of her on-set drug follies.
DiCaprio seemingly played along, smiling and laughing at times, but clearly had nothing to add.
“I took an Adderall instead of a sleeping pill,” Lawrence said, as DiCaprio smirked. “And then I didn’t sleep all night, and I was taking hot showers, panicking, because I am not somebody who can function without sleep. … I also once took an Ambien in the morning, thinking it was something else,” she continued.
“Wow. Those are key screwups,” the leading man laughed in response.
“Elizabeth Banks got really annoyed with me,” Lawrence said about her Ambien usage on the set of “Hunger Games.”
She continued, “Maybe she didn’t know that I was on an Ambien.”
DiCaprio simply put his head down and laughed, without responding.
RELATED: Jennifer Lawrence claims no women were action movie stars before her
Sigourney who?
Lawrence has made interesting claims during sit-downs on the same program before, including in December 2022 when she claimed she was the first female lead of an action movie.
Also on Variety’s “Actors on Actors,” Lawrence told Viola Davis:
“I remember when I was doing ‘Hunger Games,’ nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work. We were told, girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead.”
Sigourney Weaver (“Alien”), Uma Thurman (“Kill Bill”), and Milla Jovovich (countless “Resident Evil” films) could not be reached for comment.
‘Money hungry Jews’: Mamdani appointee abruptly quits after her anti-Semitic online posts resurface
An appointee for New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, abruptly resigned after the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey exposed her past anti-Semitic social media posts.
On Wednesday, Mamdani announced that Catherine Almonte Da Costa would be his director of appointments.
‘As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation.’
The ADL responded to the nomination by highlighting Da Costa’s numerous anti-Jewish online comments.
“Her social media footprint includes posts from more than a decade ago that echo classic antisemitic tropes and otherwise demean Jewish people. … We appreciate Da Costa has relationships with members of the Jewish community, but her posts require immediate explanation — not just from Ms. Da Costa, but also from the Mayor-Elect,” the ADL wrote.
The ADL continued, “Vetting the appointment of city leaders will be Ms. Da Costa’s responsibility and the Jewish community deserves to know: 1) Were these comments previously identified by the Mayor-elect’s team? If so, why were they excused? 2) What will be the policy of the new Administration if comments like these are discovered during the vetting process?”
The ADL’s post included screenshots of three X posts from Da Costa’s account, which has since been removed.
RELATED: Mamdani dares ICE to come get him — and throws the Constitution in the trash
Zohran Mamdani. Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images
“Money hungry Jews smh,” Da Costa apparently wrote in January 2011 on then-Twitter, presumably using an abbreviation for “shaking my head,” an expression of disapproval.
“Woo! Promoted to the upstairs office today! Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps,” she apparently wrote later that year.
“Far Rockaway train is the Jew train,” a third post read from June 2012.
In 2020, Da Costa posted anti-cop sentiments, calling for the defunding of the New York Police Department by $1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year to “get cops out of our schools & subways,” the New York Post reported.
L to R: Zohran Mamdani, Jahmila Edwards, Catherine Almonte Da Costa. Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images
Da Costa announced her resignation on Thursday, following the resurfaced posts.
“I spoke with the mayor-elect this afternoon, apologized, and expressed my deep regret for my past statements,” Da Costa said. “These statements are not indicative of who I am. As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused. As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation.”
In a separate statement, she contended that her “tweets from well over a decade ago … do not in any way, shape, or form reflect who I am or my views and beliefs today.”
Mamdani called Da Costa’s past remarks “unacceptable,” adding that the posts “absolutely do not represent him or the values of his administration.”
“Catherine expressed her deep remorse over her past statements and tendered her resignation, and I accepted,” he added.
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Senate confirms more Trump nominees, surpassing Biden-era confirmation pace after deploying nuclear option
The Republican-held Senate approved a third batch of nominees Thursday night, surpassing the confirmation pace from previous presidencies.
Under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), the Senate confirmed 97 more nominees in a 53-43 vote. In 2025 alone, the Senate confirmed 417 of President Donald Trump’s nominees, leaving just 15 nominees on the docket.
‘It’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty.’
This confirmation rate greatly outpaced former President Joe Biden, who had 365 nominees greenlit through the Senate in 2021.
This unprecedented confirmation pace came after Thune deployed the nuclear option in September to address the ballooning number of nominees awaiting their confirmations over the summer.
RELATED: John Thune to use Democrats’ own ‘nuclear option’ to defeat Senate confirmation blockade
Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Thune changed the vote threshold in September for sub-Cabinet level positions, allowing nominees to be confirmed in large groups as opposed to individual, tedious votes Democrats consistently tried to obstruct.
“It’s delay for delay’s sake, and it’s a pettiness that leaves desks sitting empty in agencies across the federal government and robs our duly elected president of a team to enact the agenda that the American people voted for in November,” Thune said in an op-ed for Breitbart.
RELATED: ‘This is a must-win’: These 4 Republicans voted against banning trans surgeries on children
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
“Republicans aren’t going to tolerate this obstruction any longer,” Thune added. “We have tried to work with Democrats in good faith to batch bipartisan, noncontroversial nominees and clear them expeditiously, according to past precedent. Democrats have stood in the way at every turn.”
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DEI hustlers lash out after Trump official solicits discrimination complaints from white men
In his damning Dec. 15 article in Compact magazine titled “The Lost Generation,” Los Angeles-based writer Jacob Savage detailed the disenfranchisement of white male Millennials and their systematic exclusion from various industries, especially academia, entertainment, medicine, the news media, and tech.
While America has long been reckoning with the fallout of the DEI war on meritocracy, Savage’s viral article — which journalist Matt Taibbi indicated was initially accepted by the Atlantic on the condition that it avoid making the bigger societal point — crystallized for many, with the help of statistics and personal accounts, the extent and true impact of that racist campaign.
‘This was an injustice, plain and simple.’
After Vice President JD Vance weighed in on the article and the discrimination discussed therein, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chairwoman Andrea Lucas released a video on social media imploring white men to seek damages — a video that Vance subsequently shared.
“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws,” said Lucas, a Republican critic of DEI and mother of two who was appointed to lead the EEOC by President Donald Trump in January.
The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to probe and litigate against private companies for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.
Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Image
Lucas, who previously noted that Savage’s article told “a story chock full of unlawful discrimination,” said in the video that it was imperative that those keen on taking action contact the EEOC as soon as possible, as “time limits are typically strict for filing a claim.”
The EEOC chairwoman also noted in a follow-up message, “You may have waived your right to money, but you still have the right to blow the whistle and participate in the EEOC process — and EEOC can sue on behalf of a class.”
Lucas has made no secret of her contempt for DEI.
In a May 2024 speech — nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard/UNC, banning race-based college admission — Lucas stated:
Race or sex cannot be even a plus factor, a tiebreaker, or a tipping point in the employment context. People sometimes think that race or sex can be part of the equation for an employment decision if race or sex is not the sole factor, the exclusive factor, or the deciding factor. That is dead wrong. If race or sex was all or part of an employer’s motivation, that violates federal employment law.
She noted during the Q&A following her remarks that “many employers, by doing lazy, high-level virtue signaling, paint-by-numbers DEI, have mass discrimination.”
Proponents of the DEI regime were evidently prickled by Lucas’ latest remarks.
David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the NYU School of Law, told the Associated Press that Lucas’ recent posts demonstrate a “fundamental misunderstanding of what DEI is.”
“It’s really much more about creating a culture in which you get the most out of everyone who you’re bringing on board, where everyone experiences fairness and equal opportunity, including white men and members of other groups,” Glasgow said. “If DEI has been this engine of discrimination against white men, I have to say it hasn’t really been doing a very good job at achieving that.”
RELATED: Trump takes a wrecking ball to the woke campus economy
Photo by Tom Brenner-Pool/Getty Image
Jenny Yang, a former EEOC chairwoman who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, similarly complained, suggesting it was “problematic” for Lucas to speak out about the disenfranchisement of white men.
“It suggests some sort of priority treatment,” said Yang, who served as deputy assistant to former President Joe Biden for so-called racial justice and equity. “That’s not something that sounds to me like equal opportunity for all.”
Hours ahead of Lucas sharing her video to social media, Vice President JD Vance noted on X that Savage’s article was “an incredible piece that describes the evil of DEI and its consequences.”
“A lot of people think DEI is lame diversity seminars or racial slogans at NFL games,” Vance wrote. “In reality, it was a deliberate program of discrimination primarily against white men.”
“This is why the Trump administration has so dedicated itself to eradicating racist discrimination. We’ve eliminated funding for DEI, required government grantees to certify that they’re not engaged in DEI, fired a number of DEI employees, and asked the great [Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon] to aggressively prosecute all forms of racial discrimination,” the vice president continued. “For too many Democrat leaders, racial discrimination was bad unless it targeted white men. This was an injustice, plain and simple.”
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