Category: Blaze Media
The left tries — and fails — to brand Pete Hegseth a ‘war criminal’
The left is attempting to paint Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a war criminal — and it’s backfiring miserably.
Hegseth is being accused of ordering a second strike on 11 Tren de Aragua terrorists who were running a drug-trafficking boat, while the left is attempting to spin it into an evil, unthinkable act.
“Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all,” a Washington Post headline reads. The subhead follows, “As two men clung to a stricken, burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6, the Joint Special Operations commander followed the defense secretary’s order to leave no survivors.”
“Am I supposed to feel bad for the drug runners? Am I supposed to feel bad for the narco-terrorists? I don’t feel bad for the narco-terrorists. Who I feel bad for are all of the families in this country who had to bury their loved ones due to the importation of these drugs from these narco-terrorists,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments.
“So, I don’t know, Washington Post, I don’t really feel bad for these two men clinging to a stricken burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6,” she continues.
Now, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is claiming that what Hegseth allegedly did crossed a line that he should “never step over.”
“If what has been reported is accurate, I’ve got serious concerns about anybody in that chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over,” Kelly said in a segment on CNN.
“This was the same guy who was just, like, last week telling the military to basically commit treason, telling the military to be insubordinate when it comes to the commander in chief and when it comes to orders that they are being given. So, it’s really, really rich,” Gonzales says.
But Kelly isn’t the only one who went after Hegseth, with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) telling ABC, “It’s very possible there was a war crime committed.”
“Of course, for it to be a war crime, you have to accept the Trump administration’s whole construct here, which is, we’re in armed conflict at war with this particular, with the drug gangs. Of course, they’ve never presented the public with the information they’ve got here. But it could be worse than that,” Van Hollen said.
“If that theory is wrong, then it’s plain murder. But even if you accept their legal theory, that it is a war crime. And so, I do believe that the secretary of defense should be held accountable for giving those kinds of orders,” he added.
“You’re going to be shocked to hear,” Gonzales comments, “that it turns out, all of this was total bulls**t because Pete Hegseth, according to the White House, was not even in charge when the second strike was ordered.”
“Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” she adds.
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Is the ayatollah a feminist?
The horseshoe theory may have been on full display after the supreme leader of Iran made a surprisingly feminist statement on social media.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei often ponders philosophical and political topics on his X page, most recently critiquing the role of women in Western society. In a string of posts on Wednesday, Khamenei insisted that Islam treats women better than other Western faiths and societies, and even resurrected a 2010s feminist talking point that has long been debunked.
‘Women’s wages are lower than men’s for the same work.’
“Islam’s view of women is the opposite of the Western capitalist view,” Khamenei said in a post on X. “In Islam, she possesses her independence, her capacity to act & to progress, her identity; in the West, her dignity is not respected, and she is treated as an object in the service of material interests.”
There is certainly room to criticize women’s role in Western societies, especially in the post-modern era. However, Khamenei conveniently omits the practical application of Sharia law in countries like Iran that tolerate child marriages and require women to hide behind hijabs.
Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images
In an even more surprising take, Iran’s supreme leader insisted that the gender wage gap was an oppressive reality that Western women have to endure, despite it being both disproven and outlawed altogether.
“Today, in many Western countries, women’s wages are lower than men’s for the same work,” Khamenei said in a post on X. “Today, that’s how it is. It’s a blatant injustice.”
RELATED: How Sharia law violates everything the founding fathers built
Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images
While criticizing the West, the ayatollah omitted the real, dramatic gender disparities in Iran’s workforce.
In Iran, less than 14% of women participate in the workforce, compared to 67% of men. Additionally, a husband can prevent a wife from working at all if he believes it to be “with the family interests or the dignity of himself or his wife.”
Iran’s law also forbids women from being employed in “dangerous, arduous, or harmful work,” with massive underrepresentation in higher professions like parliament. Women are barred from positions like supreme leader, and they cannot be appointed to judicial roles.
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Los Angeles County Democrats vote to ban ICE from using masks — and the DOJ issues defiant response
The Democrat-controlled Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to ban the use of masks by federal officials, and the Justice Dept. responded immediately with a fiery statement.
All of the Democrats on the board voted 4-0 in favor of the ordinance on Tuesday, with the lone Republican member abstaining. A second vote on Dec. 9 is needed to pass it. If that happens, law enforcement officers will be required to wear visible identification and agency affiliation.
‘We will not expose our brave men and women to personal attacks by allowing agitators to dox them and their families through facial recognition tools.’
Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, responded immediately to the vote.
“Let me be very clear: the county has no jurisdiction over federal agents, and we will not comply with any state or local laws restricting federal law enforcement,” he posted in a statement on social media.
“Our agents are under unprecedented assault in Los Angeles, largely due to reckless narratives and rhetoric advanced by the media and local politicians,” he added. “We will not expose our brave men and women to personal attacks by allowing agitators to dox them and their families through facial recognition tools.”
In a statement about the vote, Supervisor Janice Hahn accused ICE of behaving like an “authoritarian secret police” force.
“This is how authoritarian secret police behaves — not legitimate law enforcement in a democracy,” Hahn said.
“ICE agents are violating our residents’ rights every day they are on our streets. These agents hide their faces. They refuse to wear badges,” she continued. “They pull people into unmarked vans at gunpoint and wonder why people resist arrest. We are declaring in no uncertain terms that in L.A. County, police do not hide their faces. That is our expectation, and this ordinance will now make it our law.”
RELATED: DHS slams Newsom over illegal alien accused in death of 11-year-old boy on Thanksgiving
If approved in the second vote, the mask ban will go into effect 30 days after that vote.
Hahn added that the board expects the Trump administration to challenge the ban in court, and it is prepared to take on the court battle.
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New York Times admits massive fraud under Tim Walz
BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo and his co-author have broken a story on the rampant fraud within Minnesota’s social services system — and now even the New York Times is reporting on what has gone down on the governor’s watch.
“This is fascinating,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says. “Why would they be doing this? … Why would Tim Walz be the target of an actual investigation by the New York Times?”
In the New York Times article, titled, “How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Social Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch,” the outlet writes, “Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in the pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided.”
“These are the types of things that we always tell you are going to happen when they set these programs up. They always do happen, and no one cares,” Burguiere says.
“Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating. That is more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections,” the article reports.
Burguiere isn’t surprised in the slightest.
“It’s weird — when you just give away a bunch of free money, a lot of people who want free money show up. That happens all the time. It’s what we say about the border. It’s what we say about all sorts of different communities that are able to access this cash,” he says.
And according to the Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary, Walz was aware of the fraud well before he began taking action to stop it.
“Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports,” the account wrote in a post on X.
And according to the White House, the Trump administration is now “terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somalis, indefinitely halting migration from third-world countries, re-examining green cards for every alien from every country of concern, pausing all asylum decisions, and more.”
“I’m sure there are many wonderful examples that escaped a civil war and have done great things,” Burguiere comments regarding Somali citizens. “That being said, a lot of these people are not examples of that situation, and we need to do something about that, not ignore it because we feel bad to call people names because we’re worried they might think we’re racists.”
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AUDIO: Justice Clarence Thomas dismantles Democrat AG’s office lawyer on lawfare against pro-life pregnancy center
An exchange between Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and an attorney from a Democratic attorney general’s office has gone viral on social media.
The case involves a pro-life pregnancy center objecting to a subpoena from the New Jersey state attorney general’s office to provide a list of its donors. Thomas cornered a representative for the AG’s office in oral arguments about the justification for the legal targeting of the faith-based group.
Even Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal justice on the court, appeared to be sympathetic to the pro-life center’s plight.
Thomas zeroed in on the point that there had been no complaints from donors about the center, while Sundeep Iyer, the chief counsel to the New Jersey attorney general’s office, was defending the investigation into whether donors had been deceived.
“Did you have complaints that formed the basis of your concern about the fundraising activities here?” Thomas asked.
“We certainly had complaints about crisis pregnancy centers,” Iyer responded.
“No, about this crisis pregnancy center,” Thomas interrupted.
“So, I think we’ve been clear from the outset that we haven’t had complaints about this specific —” Iver replied.
“So you had no basis to think that they were deceiving any of their contributors?” Thomas interrupted again.
“I don’t think that’s correct, Your Honor,” Iyer stammered.
“I think we had carefully canvassed all of the public information that is provided on the website of First Choice in making a determination that we wanted to initiate an investigation,” he continued.
“But you had no factual basis,” Thomas asserted.
“I don’t think that’s true, Your Honor. I think, for example, you could take a look at a comparison between the donation page of First Choice that we have carved out, from the very beginning —” Iyer said.
“But you had no complaints?” Thomas asked.
“We had no complaints, but the state governments [and] federal government initiate investigations all the time in the absence of complaints, where they have a reason to suspect that there could be potential issues of legal compliance,” Iyer responded.
“Well, that just seems to be a burdensome way to find out whether someone has a confusing website,” Thomas asserted.
Iyer went on to argue that the existence of complaints would be material to the merits of the case, but not to whether the state officials had standing for the subpoena.
Audio of the exchange was posted to social media, where it went viral.
The Supreme Court is considering whether the state court must enforce the subpoena against First Choice Women’s Resource Centers before the faith-based pregnancy center can challenge it in federal court.
RELATED: Leftist war on pro-life pregnancy centers faces Supreme Court reckoning
The center argues that the subpoena violates its First Amendment right to free speech as well as the right to free association.
Even Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal justice on the court, appeared to be sympathetic to the pro-life center’s plight.
“An ordinary person, one of the funders of this organization or any similar organization, presented with this subpoena and then told, ‘But don’t worry, it has to be stamped by a court,’ is not going to take that as very reassuring,” she said during the case.
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A Talented Student, But the Wrong Ancestry. Why We Filed Suit Against the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
Imagine a high school senior anywhere in America with a 4.0 GPA, rigorous coursework, and an extensive record of volunteering and community service. He plans to attend a four-year university but, like millions of families, worries about how to afford it. He discovers a prestigious national scholarship fund offering mentoring, leadership training, and up to $5,000 in financial aid.
The post A Talented Student, But the Wrong Ancestry. Why We Filed Suit Against the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. appeared first on .
Lawsuit: California’s Race-Based Gerrymandering Is Unconstitutional
California’s new gerrymandered congressional map was drawn “with illegal racial intent and with illegal racial considerations,” a new lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges. Brought on behalf of several California residents by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), the legal challenge contests the legality of the Golden State’s recently enacted congressional map. Approved by California voters last […]
DHS slams Newsom over illegal alien accused in death of 11-year-old boy on Thanksgiving
The Department of Homeland Security is blasting California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) after an illegal alien was charged in the death of an 11-year-old boy on Thanksgiving.
Hector Balderas-Aheelor ran over Aiden Antonio Torres De Paz when the boy left his Escondido home to retrieve a soccer ball on Thanksgiving eve, according to police. The boy died the next day, on Thanksgiving morning.
‘We do give thanks that he is up above with our heavenly father.’
Officials said Balderas-Aheelor did not stop and sped away from the scene. He was later apprehended and arrested for the alleged hit-and-run.
The 44-year-old Mexican national had been deported three times in 2004 and a fourth time in 2010, according to a DHS press release.
In a post from the agency on social media Wednesday, the agency accused Newsom of refusing to honor the immigration detainer on the man.
“Governor Newsom is REFUSING to honor the ICE detainer for an illegal alien who killed an 11-year-old boy,” read the statement in part.
“When will Governor Newsom stop releasing criminals into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk?”
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin added that the state’s “sanctuary laws threaten to put this killer back onto California’s streets.”
Newsom’s office responded with a brief statement.
“The federal government admits a failure to apprehend the suspect when he unlawfully entered the U.S., but California law does not prevent them from acting now,” said a spokesperson.
RELATED: Illegal immigrant community shocked by ICE nabbing popular figure for deportation
Balderas-Aheelor was charged with felony hit-and-run causing death or injury.
“Sanctuary policies, like those backed by Gov. Newsom, put Californians in danger every day,” replied Rep. Ken Calvert of California on social media. “We must make the safety of California families our top priority.”
Irene Gonzalez, a friend of the child’s family, spoke to KNSD-TV.
“We’re not celebrating Thanksgiving like we should be,” she said.
“We do give thanks that Aiden is no longer in pain. … We do give thanks that he is now up above with our heavenly father.”
Escondido is a suburb of San Diego.
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Jack Posobiec’s prediction comes true in record time; classified Trump-Russia call conveniently leaked
Just days ago, Jack Posobiec predicted future government leaks to damage President Trump were incoming — and not 24 hours after his prediction, it was proven right.
“When the first impeachment of President Trump happened in 2019, it was regarding leaks from a phone call, believe it or not, with Ukraine and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” Posobiec told BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”
“So in that case, you had Alexander Binman, who was an Army officer. You had the CIA officer Eric Ciaramella that was detailed to President Trump’s White House and the National Security Council. I’ve said that I think what they’re trying to do is gin this up again. They’re trying to get someone … to start leaking classified information, national security information,” he continued, adding, “Like, oh, I don’t know, the current peace negotiations between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia.”
The plan, Posobiec told Wheeler, would be to get “another impeachment of President Trump.”
“And if the Democrats are able to be victorious in taking back the House, many people think that’s a possibility for 2026, then this will be something that they have on the shelf ready to go day one,” he explained.
“I think that there’s a plot afoot, I absolutely think that it’s a color revolution designed to overthrow the sitting commander in chief, the president of the United States,” he added.
Wheeler is astounded by how quickly Posobiec was proven correct.
“Less than 24 hours after that aired … Jack’s prediction came true. We were greeted this morning with a leak, a leak of a classified phone call, or I would assume it was classified, a transcript of a phone call between Vladimir Putin’s senior foreign policy adviser and Steve Witkoff, who is President Trump’s special envoy,” Wheeler explains.
“This phone call between Witkoff and Putin’s senior foreign policy adviser is being presented in exactly the same way as that phone call between President Trump and Zelenskyy was presented all those years ago,” she continues.
Now the left is “framing this as some kind of great scandal.”
“They’re saying President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has advised the Russian government, has given advice to Vladimir Putin, on how to coerce Trump into agreeing to a certain peace plan,” Wheeler explains, pointing out that “there was nothing remotely scandalous about anything that was said in that call.”
“The scandal, of course, is that this call was leaked to Bloomberg and that this was released publicly. That is a bad faith move by a bad actor, and we should figure out who leaked that to Bloomberg because it will be detrimental to actually creating a peace deal,” she says.
“President Trump is not only a good negotiator, he’s a good negotiator because he negotiates at a very high level, but he uses very basic negotiation techniques and tactics. One of the most effective negotiation tactics, when you have something that you want the other party to agree to, is to make the other party think that your idea is their idea,” she continues.
“That is what you’re seeing play out with Steve Witkoff,” she adds.
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Cop torches career after home invasion, physical attack on former lover — and his girlfriend — plus threat to burn down house
A New Jersey police officer has lost her law enforcement career in the state following a home invasion, physical attack, and threats to burn down a former lover’s residence.
Rebecca Sayegh, 32 — formerly with the Toms River Police Department — pleaded guilty to burglary, criminal mischief, and simple assault on Nov. 17.
‘I’m going to f**king burn your house down next, you piece of s**t.’
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced in a statement that his office wants Sayegh to serve 180 days in jail when she’s sentenced on Jan. 26. As part of her probation, prosecutors also want her to have no contact with the victims and to pay restitution.
Sayegh — who had been suspended without pay since her April arrest — was required to forfeit her position with the police department effective Nov. 17; she’s also barred from any future employment with the state of New Jersey, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Sayegh’s guilty plea stems from a violent home invasion of her ex-boyfriend’s home in Berkeley Township.
As Blaze News previously reported, Sayegh used her baton to smash through the front door of her ex-boyfriend’s home around 11:20 p.m. on April 25.
But the violent incident didn’t stop there.
Sayegh — who was off-duty at the time — engaged in a verbal confrontation with her former lover and his new girlfriend that quickly escalated into a physical attack, according to court documents NJ.com obtained.
Citing Assistant Prosecutor Isabella Young, NJ.com reported that the girlfriend suffered swelling to the eye when Sayegh poked her with her fingernail.
The couple was able to restrain Sayegh before she “broke free” and smashed items in the house and knocked photos off a wall, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
Billhimer said Sayegh damaged the hood of a vehicle belonging to one of the victims that was parked in the home’s driveway.
The New York Post reported, “As Sayegh continued on her chaotic rampage, the new girlfriend retreated into the backyard, where she called 911.”
The prosecutor’s office stated: “Sayegh was taken into custody at the scene — after having resisted efforts to peacefully place her under arrest.”
Citing police bodycam video, the Daily Mail reported that Sayegh appeared to tell her ex-boyfriend: “I’m going to f**king burn your house down next, you piece of s**t.”
Sayegh caused $2,000 in damage to the house and another $500 to a vehicle, Young said.
Just months before the violent home invasion, Sayegh sued the Toms River Police Department, alleging sexual harassment, being passed over for promotions due to her gender, and a “boys club” culture.
Sayegh’s lawsuit alleges that she “has been victimized by a campaign of disparaging, degrading, harassing, and discriminatory conduct by defendants and the de facto ‘boys club’ culture cultivated and maintained in the department,” the Asbury Park Press reported.
The October 2024 suit also claims that fellow officers “spread false and defamatory rumors throughout the department that [the] plaintiff was sleeping with various male co-workers, commented on [the] plaintiff’s appearance, and insinuated that [the] plaintiff could not complete the responsibilities of her position simply because she is a woman.”
The defendants’ attorneys have described the lawsuit as “frivolous and without legal basis” and “baseless and/or meritless.”
Sayegh — who joined the department in 2017 — claimed that her former captain, Shaun O’Keefe, “shamelessly” pursued a sexual relationship with her.
Sayegh’s lawsuit alleges that O’Keefe followed her into the women’s restroom, took out his penis, and told her to perform oral sex on him during a Toms River Police Foundation event at the Bey Lea Golf Course in June 2022.
O’Keefe retired from the police department in 2021.
In April 2025, Superior Court Judge Robert E. Brenner dismissed the claims against O’Keefe without prejudice, ruling that the lawsuit was filed after the two-year statute of limitations had expired, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Sayegh’s lawsuit against the police department is still pending, according to the Daily Mail.
Sayegh previously had been commended and received an award for her “bravery” after rescuing a woman and her pets from a Toms River house fire in January 2021.
“Officer Sayegh went to the front door and made entry, locating Ms. Nicolo and her pets. Officer Sayegh was able to escort Ms. Nicolo and her pets across the street to safety. Officer Sayegh is commended for her swift action, bravery, and lifesaving actions,” the department stated.
The Toms River Police Department and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ requests for comment.
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