Category: Blaze Media
Socialist Mamdani’s tax assault on NYC’s rich begins — claims Adams forced his hand with fiscal crisis
New York City’s newly inaugurated mayor, Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, revealed plans to increase taxes on “the richest New Yorkers” less than one month into his term, blaming former Mayor Eric Adams (D) for a budget shortfall.
On Thursday, Mamdani held a press conference to detail the “Adams Budget Crisis,” claiming that the former mayor “misled and misinformed” New Yorkers about the “true state” of the city’s finances.
‘And here’s the part socialists hate saying out loud: “Free” is a lie.’
“I will be blunt: New York City is facing a serious fiscal crisis. There is a massive fiscal deficit in our city’s budget to the tune of at least $12 billion. We did not arrive at this place by accident. This crisis has a name and a chief architect,” Mamdani said.
“This is the Adams Budget Crisis.”
He accused Adams of handing the new administration “a poisoned chalice” by “systematically” under-budgeting necessary services, including rental assistance, shelter, and special education.
“Knowing his time in office was likely coming to an end, Mayor Adams chose political self-preservation over fiscal responsibility. This is not just bad governance. It is negligence,” Mamdani remarked.
“The Adams administration dramatically and intentionally understated the problem.”
Mamdani vowed to balance the budget over two fiscal years by implementing “bold solutions,” including “recalibrating the broken fiscal relationship between the state and the city.” He argued that New York City contributes 54.5% of the state’s revenue but receives only 40.5% of its operating expenditures.
RELATED: ‘Proud to be a sanctuary city’: Mamdani announces another handout for illegal aliens in NYC
Zohran Mamdani. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
“Working people did not cause this crisis, and they cannot be made the victims of its solution,” Mamdani stated.
“The time has come to tax the richest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations,” he declared.
Mamdani stated that he could “build a stronger city for everyone” if New York’s top 1% earners paid an additional 2% in income taxes, while claiming that the increase was not significant enough to drive wealthy individuals to leave the state.
Eric Adams. Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Adams fired back at Mamdani in several posts on X, denying that he left a deficit in the city’s budget.
“Facts have a way of getting in the way when slogans replace math and blame replaces leadership,” Adams wrote. “I didn’t leave a ‘budget hole.’ I left over $8 BILLION in reserves. Only someone who can’t read a balance sheet would call that a crisis.”
“And here’s the part socialists hate saying out loud: ‘Free’ is a lie. Every so-called free program comes with a price tag, and someone always pays for it,” he added.
Adams argued that Mamdani’s real motive behind his press conference was to find a way to pay for the “laundry list of ‘free’ giveaways” he promised New Yorkers “to buy votes.”
“Now that the math doesn’t work, instead of owning the fact that he misled New Yorkers, he’s blaming me,” Adams said. “This is the same Mamdani who spent years attacking me for not spending enough during the migrant crisis. The only reason those reserves exist is because I ignored him and his socialist comrades who demanded we blow billions more with no guardrails.”
Adams mocked Mamdani in a third post on X, writing, “When you promise ‘free’ everything on Sunday, boldly declare that millionaires and billionaires shouldn’t exist on Monday, and by Tuesday you’re scrambling to fund your giveaways with the very people you wanted gone just yesterday.”
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‘We will be exposing all of it’: H-1B visa applications shut down in Texas as Sara Gonzales warns H-4 visas are next
After BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales exposed the truth hiding behind H-1B visas in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott (R) decided to open an investigation into H-1B visa abuse and has directed all Texas state agencies to freeze new H-1B visa applications.
“In light of recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa program, and amid the federal government’s ongoing review of that program to ensure American jobs are going to American workers, I am directing all state agencies to immediately freeze new H-1B visa petitions as outlined in this letter,” Abbott wrote in a statement.
“Evidence suggests that bad actors have exploited this program by failing to make good-faith efforts to recruit qualified U.S. workers before seeking to use foreign labor. In the most egregious schemes, employers have even fired American workers and replaced them with H-1B employees, often at lower wages,” he continued.
“Rather than serving its intended purpose of attracting the best and brightest individuals from around the world to our nation to fill truly specialized and unmet labor needs, the program has too often been used to fill jobs that otherwise could — and should — have been filled by Texans,” he concluded.
“Credit where credit is due,” Gonzales comments. “Let this play out. Let this investigation play out. Let them prove to us how far they are willing to go. This is step one of many different steps that need to take place in order for us to take our country back, in order for displaced American workers to be able to find work again.”
“So we’re not stopping. Obviously, public pressure works. We’re going to expose every aspect of this racket from the H-1B visas to all of the other visas that feed off of them, like H-4 visas,” she continues.
“But it turns out, yeah, your spouse can just get a visa too, if you’re on an H-1B. The kids too. There’s a visa for that. And so these H-4 visas have even less oversight on the rules of the kinds of jobs that they can get on and take on an H-4 visa,” she explains.
If an immigrant here on an H-4 visa wants to work at a place like McDonald’s, “there’s nothing stopping them,” Gonzales says.
“The whole thing is a racket,” she continues. “We will be exposing all of it.”
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Illegal alien ‘monster’ accused of throwing rock into school bus, fracturing skull of young girl placed on ICE detainer: Feds
A criminal illegal alien accused of throwing a baseball-sized rock into a New Jersey school bus and fracturing the skull of an 8-year-old girl was placed on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, the Department of Homeland Security said earlier this week.
The DHS, citing local reports, said the school bus was traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike to Yeshivat Noam — a local Jewish day school — after a field trip at Liberty Science Center on Jan. 7.
‘We hope New Jersey’s sanctuary politicians will help us keep him off American streets for good.’
Officials said Hernando Garcia-Morales of Mexico threw a rock at the vehicle, breaking a window and hitting the third-grade student, who was forced to have surgery.
The DHS said two days later — Jan. 9 — New Jersey Turnpike State Police arrested Garcia-Morales for aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and possession of a weapon. The Bogota (New Jersey) Police Department also charged him for aggravated assault, criminal trespassing-defiant, criminal trespassing-peering, and criminal mischief-damage property, DHS said.
NJ.com added that Garcia-Morales was found in a self-made campsite within Old Croaker County Park in Bergen County.
Garcia-Morales has had an extensive criminal history while living in sanctuary state New Jersey, the DHS said, noting that he was arrested for burglary in 2023 and for possession of a weapon and theft in 2006.
In addition, the investigation also linked him to multiple rock-throwing incidents in Bogota Borough, NJ.com reported, citing state police.
Garcia-Morales has since been placed in ICE custody, NJ.com added.
DHS said Garcia-Morales entered the United States on an unknown date.
“Violently targeting a school bus full of children is extremely wicked and heinous,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who called the suspect a “monster.”
“Hernando Garcia-Morales should have never been in this country, let alone released, after multiple arrests, into New Jersey communities,” McLaughlin also said, adding that “we hope New Jersey’s sanctuary politicians will help us keep him off American streets for good. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminal illegal aliens have no place in the U.S.”
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FDA Wants Pause On Landmark Abortion Pill Suit. Pro-Lifers Say It Will Cost Lives
The FDA hinted it does not plan to weigh on the safeguards stripped under Biden until its mifepristone review is complete.
‘Gentle nurse’ narrative cracks: New video appears to show Pretti spit toward federal agents and kick out taillight
A video circulated on social media on Wednesday that appears to show Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, having an altercation with federal agents in Minneapolis on January 13, a week before he was fatally shot.
The News Movement stated that it was filming a documentary about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minneapolis when it received a tip that federal agents were blocking a street. Protesters had gathered in the area.
‘Now we know that Alex Pretti was not a kindly gentle nurse … he was a CRIMINAL!!!’
In the video, a man who appears to be Pretti is seen shouting at and spitting toward an agent inside a Ford SUV. He then kicks the right taillight, shattering it and dislodging it from the vehicle.
A federal agent steps out of the rear passenger side of the vehicle to confront the man and attempts to wrestle him to the ground, but the man resists. Other agents step in to pin the man to the ground.
The News Movement reported that the agents fired tear gas and pepper balls into the crowd of protesters.
After a brief altercation, the agents release the man, who returns to his feet and moves away from the officers. What appears to be a gun is seen in the man’s waistband.
Minutes later, the federal officers climb back into their vehicle and drive away.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Blaze News that the department is “reviewing this footage.”
A representative for the Pretti family confirmed to CBS News that the person in the video was Alex Pretti.
The News Movement reported that the footage was analyzed using the BBC’s facial recognition technology, which confirmed Pretti’s identity with 97% accuracy.
When reached for comment, the BBC referred Blaze News to its news clip on the shooting of Pretti, which included the News Movement’s January video.
Steve Schleicher, an attorney for the Pretti family, said in a statement obtained by the BBC, “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street — despite posing no threat to anyone — he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan. 24.”
RELATED: Alex Pretti broke a rib in a previous altercation with feds a week before he died: CNN
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Conservative commentators reacted to the newly surfaced video of Pretti, arguing that it shatters the left-wing narrative that he was a peaceful protester.
“This footage is so damning, that you and I both know it will never leave X,” Matt Van Swol wrote. “Now we know that Alex Pretti was not a kindly gentle nurse … he was a CRIMINAL!!! An ARMED, VIOLENT, DANGEROUS, UNHINGED criminal. HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN PRISON!!!!!!!”
Tim Pool stated, “WOW. Footage shows Alex Pretti ATTACKING DHS Agents. Could he have been known to the agents as they attempted to arrest him? Known violent extremist, armed, violent, actively resisting?”
“He committed 3 crimes and wasn’t arrested. He should have been in jail. Would have saved his life,” Owen Shroyer wrote.
A separate video from what appears to be the same incident captured Pretti seemingly shouting at federal agents, “F**king assault me, motherf**ker,” before he spat on and kicked the officers’ vehicle.
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Somali radical accused of sickening salivary assault on federal agents after bizarre ‘bananas with rice’ speech
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrest on Wednesday of 16 anti-ICE rioters who allegedly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and/or interfered with federal agents while officers were engaged in official duties in Minneapolis.
Among the radicals charged under 18 U.S. Code Section 111 was Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old “Somali-American” whose bizarre speech about Somalis’ supposed affinity for bananas and rice recently went viral.
‘I will carry this on my shoulders.’
Ahmed, who lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, held a press conference with Democrat state Rep. Samakab Hussein at the Minnesota Capitol last week, where she criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accused federal agents of roughing her up, and did her apparent best to provide some insights into Somali identity.
“I got kidnapped by ICE,” said Ahmed, wearing a bandage on a portion of her head not covered by her Islamic veil. “ICE came to my neighborhood, where — my neighborhood is a very Somali neighborhood. It’s a predominantly Somali neighborhood. There’s many Somalis that live here.”
Ahmed indicated that she saw a pair of Somali men running away from federal agents outside an apartment complex on Jan. 14 and decided to get involved. When asked for her ID, she allegedly complied.
Footage appears to show a woman believed to be Ahmed spitting in the face of a federal agent.
Following the apparent salivary attack, Ahmed was reportedly arrested, taken to the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling, then briefly held on pending federal felony charges at Sherburne County jail in Elk River.
Speaking at the press conference several days after she was released without charges, Ahmed claimed both that an ICE agent used a racial slur in reference to her and that she suffered a concussion during the arrest.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“They arrested and detained me for two days, and I was put in county jail,” continued the anti-ICE radical. “Then there was this ICE agent who called me a racial slur.”
“I am proud to say I have survived ICE,” said Ahmed. “Many people are saying, including my family and friends, that I will go down in history, and I will carry this on my shoulders.”
While Ahmed’s sob story resonated with Democrats such as Rep. Betty McCollum and other anti-ICE liberals, the part of her monologue that went viral online was her commentary on Somalis and “eating bananas with rice”:
I’m Somali. I’m proud to be Somali. To me, being Somali isn’t just eating bananas with rice. It’s a, it’s a lot, it’s like a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s an interesting thing. It’s a — it’s very hard to describe what means to be Somali and what it means to be American, but it’s like a cultural fusion. It’s kind of like the bananas and rice, you know? People don’t really see like — you know it’s a, it’s a, it’s — you know, people don’t think, “Oh, you can eat bananas with rice,” but that’s what it’s like to be Somali and American. It’s like that combination of banana and rice, but you’re gonna get what I mean.
Despite the supposed fusion of bananas and rice, the U.S. State Department has paused immigrant visa processing from Somalia, citing it as one of 75 countries “whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates.”
The Center for Immigration Studies indicated in a report last month that in Minnesota, approximately 54% of Somali-headed households received food stamps and 73% of Somali households had at least one member on Medicaid. By way of comparison, the figures for native households were 7% and 18%, respectively.
“Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars. Billions every year. Billions of dollars, and they contribute nothing. The welfare is like 88%. They contribute nothing,” President Donald Trump said last month. “I don’t want them in our country; I’ll be honest with you. Some might say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country.”
Ahmed is now hitting up sympathizers for cash, requesting $20,000 on GoFundMe “to support her in this difficult moment.” At the time of publication, she had raised nearly $2,000.
Regarding the arrest of Ahmed and other anti-ICE radicals, Bondi noted, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: NOTHING will stop President Trump and this Department of Justice from enforcing the law.”
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‘STOP THE SCAMS!’ Trump announces new office in DOJ dedicated to investigating fraud
With more and more fraud being investigated and exposed across the country, the Trump administration has created a new office specially dedicated to prosecuting these types of crimes.
On Wednesday night, President Trump announced the creation of the office and his nominee to run it.
‘My Administration has uncovered Fraud schemes in States like Minnesota and California, where these thieves have stolen Hundreds of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars.’
“I am pleased to nominate Colin McDonald to serve as the first ever Assistant Attorney General for National FRAUD Enforcement, a new Division at the Department of Justice, which I created to catch and stop FRAUDSTERS that have been STEALING from the American People,” Trump said on Truth Social. “My Administration has uncovered Fraud schemes in States like Minnesota and California, where these thieves have stolen Hundreds of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars.”
Trump called McDonald a “very Smart, Tough, and Highly Respected AMERICA FIRST Federal Prosecutor” and promised that the administration would “RESTORE INTEGRITY” to the federal programs.
RELATED: ‘PLAYING WITH FIRE!’ Trump responds to Minneapolis Mayor Frey’s latest act of defiance
Todd Blanche and Pam BondiPhoto by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
“STOP THE SCAMS!” Trump concluded.
McDonald, though not a well-known figure on the national stage, has a resume built for the new position.
For example, McDonald successfully prosecuted a large-scale conspiracy in 2020 that the judge in the case called “staggering in its breadth, its scope, and its audacity.”
The conspiracy case, which involved multiple people including the former police chief of Honolulu, brought multiple charges and sent several people to prison for years.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi, signaled his approval of the choice on X: “Colin is a rockstar, who was instrumental in our team’s mission of Making America Safe Again. He is a consummate prosecutor who loves God, family, and country and will serve the President and the American people well.”
Likewise, ambassador and chief of protocol Monica Crowley cheered on the decision: “President Trump is putting an end to the United States of Fraud.”
The announcement was made amid ongoing talks between the Trump administration and the leadership of Minnesota, one of the primary hot spots of widespread fraud.
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‘Justice is coming’: Border czar Tom Homan vows to stay in Minneapolis ‘until the problem is gone’
President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, pledged to stay and clean up Minneapolis until justice is served.
Homan traveled to Minneapolis this week in the aftermath of a second fatal shooting of an anti-ICE agitator. Despite new footage apparently showing Alex Pretti, the radical killed over the weekend, spitting on federal agents and kicking out a tail light, violent activists are continuing to ravage Minneapolis.
‘They’ll be held accountable.’
“The reason for the massive deployment is because of the threats, because of the violence,” Homan said during a Thursday press conference. “… We brought extra resources in to provide that security.”
“When the violence decreases, we can draw down those resources.”
RELATED: Alex Pretti broke a rib in a previous altercation with feds a week before he died: CNN
Ben Brewer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Homan suggested that many of these violent mobs are not organic, but rather organized and well-funded groups of agitators motivated by ideology. Although he didn’t specify the approach, Homan committed to holding these agitators accountable.
“About the organization and the funding of the attacks on ICE,” Homan said. “I’m not going to answer a lot about that, because I’m not going to show our hand, but they’ll be held accountable. Justice is coming.”
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
Homan said a lot of progress has been made since he arrived in Minneapolis on Monday, claiming Minnesota has agreed to allow county jails to notify federal agencies like ICE when illegal aliens are released so they can be taken into custody. Although Homan acknowledged that this is a step in the right direction, he is committed to staying in Minnesota until the work is done.
Blaze News has reached out to Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison for comment.
“I’m staying until the problem is gone,” Homan said.
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Minnesota police crack down on anti-ICE protesters, multiple arrests outside hotel
As talks between the Trump administration and Minnesota leadership continue, with some possible success, police have begun dealing with protesters more efficiently this week.
In a surprising turn of events, protesters in Minneapolis were swiftly dealt with near the Graduate by Hilton hotel.
‘All individuals: You are under arrest. Please sit down.’
In video originally captured on independent reporter Brendan Gutenschwager’s livestream of the protests in Minneapolis on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, protesters could be seen being kettled by police on a street block.
Police officers, who were reported to be Minnesota state police and University of Minnesota police officers, quickly formed a line on the street.
Photo by Kerem YUCEL / AFP via Getty Images
“All individuals: You are under arrest. Please sit down,” one officer says once the police line is set.
The video showed a few dozen protesters on the street, many of whom sat down immediately in compliance with the order.
Gutenschwager reported that this kettling tactic was used near the Graduate by Hilton Minneapolis.
A second video of the aftermath of some arrests shows police walking arrestees toward a line of blue buses.
Frontlines TPUSA posted a video on the ground of the same event. Describing the scene, the cameraman says, “They’re being taken into these buses now with bars on the windows.”
Though the crowds seemed subdued during and after the kettling tactic, Gutenschwager’s livestream showed that the protesters were much more energetic and disruptive in the earlier hours of the night.
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