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Like it or not, Dick Cheney paved the way for Donald Trump
The great British statesman Enoch Powell observed nearly 50 years ago: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” Dick Cheney is no exception to Powell’s hard rule.
Our newspapers and publications in the coming days will be rife with surreal and false remembrances of the former vice president, who died Tuesday, age 84.
Surreal, because Democrats who spent a lifetime vilifying the man will laud him in death as a great statesman who opposed President Donald Trump and the populist right, while members of his own party will hold his legacy in significantly lower esteem.
Fake, because political commentators are incapable of remembering a time before Trump and can only “remember” the past by projecting their present emotions onto it.
When reviewing the former vice president’s complete antipathy for President Trump, it’s difficult to see it as having been anything but deeply personal.
Before many of my colleagues seem able to remember, Cheney was the consummate political badass, an archetype of ruthlessness, a meme before the meme wars. His economics and foreign policy deserve their exile from today’s Republican Party, but in his day, he bucked hard against the Republican urge to compromise with the rising American left and showed little sympathy for the wails of his opponents.
Cheney refused a role as polite, controlled opposition. He wielded political power without apology and helped rebuild the executive authority and culture Trump and the populists now wield to great effect. In a final irony, Cheney’s arrogance abroad — using military power to secure American energy interests and spread democracy — achieved neither. Instead, his failures cleared the way for the populist revolt that remade his party beyond recognition.
First, Dick Cheney the badass. He left Wyoming for Yale on a scholarship — and quickly flunked out. Undeterred, he returned — and flunked out again. Yale decided he wasn’t cut out to be a Yalie after all.
Despite his considerable intelligence, young Cheney headed back west, took a job as a power-company lineman, and began dating Lynne Ann Vincent, the woman who would become his wife of 61 years.
But his time back in Wyoming didn’t start off so well. Five days before the 2000 election, when news broke that George W. Bush had been arrested for drunk driving a quarter-century earlier, Cheney trumped his boss (for the first of many times), revealing he had two DUIs. It was Lynne, the more disciplined scholar, who convinced him to get his act together and go back to school.
“Lynne, after spending a semester in Europe, had graduated summa cum laude from Colorado College,” Cheney later wrote about those early days. “And I was sleeping off a hangover in the Rock Springs jail.”
After earning his degree, Cheney went to Washington, where his lifelong friend Donald Rumsfeld recruited him into Richard Nixon’s White House. When President Gerald Ford made Rumsfeld defense secretary, Cheney succeeded him as White House chief of staff.
After Ford’s defeat in 1976, Cheney ran for Congress. At 37, he suffered the first of five heart attacks while campaigning — but still won, beginning a five-term House career that ended when President George H.W. Bush named him secretary of defense. In this role, he successfully prosecuted the Gulf War.
After Bush’s loss to Bill Clinton in 1992, Cheney left public life, only returning after Bush’s son tapped him to find the best possible vice president for his ticket. In typical Cheney fashion, he found himself — and accepted the oft-derided job only if it came with a broad and influential portfolio of responsibilities.
Haunted by what he saw as the post-Watergate diminishment of the presidency, Cheney spent eight years under George W. Bush pushing for a more muscular executive branch. He championed an aggressive, sometimes vicious foreign policy, restrained the administration’s more liberal impulses, and redefined the modern presidency for a generation.
But the years in Washington didn’t tame the old Wyoming lineman’s temper. During a Senate-floor photo op in 2004, he told Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to “go f**k yourself.” Charles Krauthammer wrote one of the better columns on the incident, calling it one of the great political moments of the era. When the comedian Dennis Miller brought it up in 2010, Cheney grinned and called it “sort of the best thing I ever did.”
His scowling visage became a fixture in the deeply Democratic press of the 2000s. When C-SPAN caught him lurking in the bushes while Bush delivered a Rose Garden address, the images instantly went viral. Far from shrinking from his villainous reputation — he embraced the nickname “Darth Vader” — the vice president reveled in the left-wing media’s scorn.
One of his lasting frustrations was his boss’ refusal to pardon Scooter Libby — the longtime aide wrongly accused of leaking a CIA agent’s identity. Bush and Cheney’s relationship never recovered.
By all appearances, Cheney seemed the sort of man who might have welcomed Donald Trump’s rise. He came from a blue-collar state, and the administration that followed his had toyed with prosecuting him for war crimes. Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, even flirted publicly with the idea. Trump, in contrast, pardoned Cheney’s friend Libby during his first term.
Yet Cheney chose a different course — one that would define, and in many ways tarnish, his legacy.
His hostility toward Trump wasn’t ideological; it was personal. Trump had done much that Cheney once claimed to value: building close ties with Israel’s hawkish leadership, confronting Iran, reasserting U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, and strengthening NATO by forcing European allies to pay more for their own defense. Their disagreements on trade hardly explain Cheney’s claim that “in our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic” than Trump.
The truth is that beyond simply challenging the foreign-policy blob consensus, Trump was the first Republican candidate for president since Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) to explicitly attack the Bush administration’s record on 9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan. As president, Trump completely disavowed the reckless and destructive decades of war in the Middle East and Central Asia.
When Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) joined Democrats in their campaign to destroy Donald Trump after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the Republican base mocked her and unceremoniously ejected her from power. She lost her leadership post, her primary, and the loyalty of the movement her father helped build. That humiliation cut deep. For a man as proud — and prideful — as Dick Cheney, the rejection did not sit well.
His bitterness during Trump’s first term hardened into something darker. Cheney lent credibility to the Russia hoax and, in one of his final political acts, endorsed Kamala Harris. It was a sad, almost tragic coda to a long and consequential career.
In the end, Cheney fulfilled Enoch Powell’s old truth about politics — one he would have recognized but never admitted. “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure.” Powell’s words have echoed through this story from the start, but they fit Cheney too perfectly to ignore.
He left politics the way he lived it: defiant, scowling, and unwilling to bend. The man who once told a U.S. senator to “go f**k yourself” had one final message for the movement he ultimately could not control. Rest in peace.
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Pfizer COVID shot sales plummet after Trump administration ends universal recommendations
U.S. sales of Pfizer’s Comirnaty shots have taken a nosedive since the Trump administration updated its immunization schedules last month and dropped the universal collective recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines.
The pharmaceutical company’s revenues for the third quarter of 2025 are down 6% — amounting to a $1 billion drop — compared to the same stretch the previous year.
‘CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks.’
Pfizer indicated in its latest earnings statement that “the operational decrease was primarily driven by a year-over-year decline in COVID-19 product revenues largely due to lower infection rates impacting Paxlovid demand as well as a narrower vaccine recommendation for COVID-19 in the U.S. that reduced the eligible population for Comirnaty.”
Sales of Comirnaty were down 25% in the United States, and sales of Paxlovid, an oral antiviral medication that treats mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults, were down 52%.
When his agency dropped the universal recommendation last month for Comirnaty — a controversial vaccine used at a time of population-wide immunity to treat an endemic virus fatal in roughly 1% of confirmed cases — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Acting Director Jim O’Neill stated, “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.”
RELATED: Naomi Wolf continues to expose COVID vaccine: ‘A depopulating technology’
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
The CDC’s decision came just months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration forced Pfizer to slap a damning warning on its Comirnaty vaccine noting the estimated unadjusted incidence of heart conditions following administration of the 2023-2024 formula of the shot, as well as the longitudinal results of a 2024 study concerning cardiac manifestations and outcomes of vaccine-associated myocarditis in American youths.
The FDA also required Pfizer to describe the new safety information in the adverse reactions section of its vaccine information insert such that it now notes that “the estimated unadjusted incidence of myocarditis and/or pericarditis during the period 1 through 7 days following administration of the 2023-2024 Formula of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was approximately 8 cases per million doses in individuals 6 months through 64 years of age and approximately 27 cases per million doses in males 12 through 24 years of age.”
While the FDA has approved the drug for use in individuals who are 65 years of age and older or 5-64 years old who suffer from at least one underlying condition putting them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19, it revoked the emergency use authorization for the shot in August.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla reportedly suggested on a Tuesday call with analysts that the company is looking for opportunities outside the United States, stating that the company’s catalog of vaccines constitute a “key area of focus in international markets.”
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Tommy Robinson has the last laugh after politically motivated terrorism arrest: ‘Free speech won!’
Tommy Robinson has long drawn the ire and attention of British establishmentarians by raising hell about the fallout of mass immigration, the failure of multiculturalism in England, the threats posed by radical Islam, and the cover-up of the Pakistani rape-gang scandal.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, various other politicians, and even some woke clergymen have condemned him; multiple social media platforms have banned him; and he was even told to stay clear of an entire city.
‘Thank you for raising the flag of England whilst so many cowards cowered.’
The desperation to shut Robinson up or, at the very least, make him go away manifested last year in the form of an unjustified police stop, which resulted in his indictment on a terrorism charge under the British equivalent of the Patriot Act.
To the likely chagrin of Robinson’s detractors in parliament and to the delight of his supporters on the scene, Judge Sam Goozee of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court cleared the 42-year-old activist on Tuesday, agreeing with the defense that the stop was unlawful and that police discriminated against Robinson because of what he stands for and his political beliefs.
“That judge’s verdict is a slam down against the police,” Robinson told reporters outside the courthouse. “Read what he says. Read about the evidence. It was corrupt. It was unlawful.”
“I’m frustrated still. I should be happy. I’m not happy because I shouldn’t be put through this time and time again,” Robinson added.
RELATED: The UK wants to enforce its censorship laws in the US. The First Amendment begs to differ.
photo by Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images
On July 28, 2024 — a day after organizing a political rally — Robinson was detained by Kent police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act while attempting to travel to Spain, where he now lives. During his detention, Robinson was told to give police the PIN necessary to access his phone.
Robinson allegedly told police, “Not a chance, bruv. … You look like a c**t, so you ain’t having it,” adding that his phone contained sensitive “journalist material” regarding “vulnerable girls.”
Alisdair Williamson, Robinson’s lawyer, emphasized during the trial that Robinson “was stopped unlawfully, detained unlawfully for 40 minutes, and asked questions that were something to do with his political beliefs.”
Judge Goozee evidently agreed, finding on Tuesday that the stop did not appear motivated by any genuine suspicion of terrorism but rather by Robinson’s beliefs, which altogether qualify under the law as a protected characteristic. The judge also took issue with the police officers’ apparent selective amnesia regarding the incident and credibility.
Goozee said in his ruling, “I cannot put out of my mind that it was actually what you stood for and your beliefs that acted as the principle reason for the stop,” the Guardian reported.
“I cannot convict you,” the judge added.
In addition to questioning what happens now to the counterterrorism officers who unlawfully targeted him, Robinson thanked Elon Musk after the trial, stating, “I’m forever grateful. If you didn’t step in to fund my legal fight for this, then I’d probably be in jail. So today, free speech won!”
Elon Musk responded, “Thank you for raising the flag of England whilst so many cowards cowered.”
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‘Swatting’ hoax hits Election Day: FBI probes ‘terroristic’ emails to polling locations in NYC, NJ
Some polling locations were targeted by bomb threats on Election Day, but officials said that no voting was disrupted because of the incidents.
The New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they were investigating an “elaborate swatting attempt” at some New York City polling locations.
County officials then said that the threats were all ‘malicious, intimidation-driven acts intended to disrupt the democratic process.’
Police sources said that “terroristic” threats were sent via email about the polling locations at Washington Heights, the West Village, and Midtown.
At the same time, New Jersey police were responding to bomb threats in at least seven counties.
New Jersey Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way also serves as the state’s highest election official and said there were “no credible threats” and encouraged voters to resist intimidation.
“We are doing everything in our power to protect voters and poll workers and coordinate closely with state, local and federal partners to ensure a smooth and safe election,” she added. “We encourage every eligible voter to exercise their right to vote before 8:00 p.m. today.”
Polling sites in Bergen, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Passaic Counties all received the emailed bomb threat, according to N.J. Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
“Law enforcement officers have responded at each affected polling place, and they have worked swiftly to secure these polling locations and ensure the safety of every voter,” Platkin added in a statement. “Some of these polling locations have already reopened to the public. At others, voters will be directed to a nearby polling location to cast their ballot.”
County officials then said that the threats were all “malicious, intimidation-driven acts intended to disrupt the democratic process” but assured voters that polling sites were safe and secure.
RELATED: DHS: Deadly Dallas ICE shooting came a month after bomb threat at same office
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Dept. of Justice was responding to the threats.
“We are on it. This Dept. of Justice is committed to free, fair and safe elections,” she wrote on social media.
Some New Jersey schools were closed for the day out of an abundance of caution over a threat made to a polling site at a high school.
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How H-1B hires broke USAA’s bond with veterans
The United Services Automobile Association is one of the most venerable names in banking and insurance, a company that prides itself on its service to members of the military and their families. In recent years, however, USAA has run into serious financial trouble due to a combination of mismanagement, fashionable diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and the firm’s increasing reliance on incompetent and untrustworthy H-1B workers, most of whom are from India.
A significant number of current and former USAA employees have come forward to discuss what they describe as a toxic workplace culture, which has led to an alarming number of employee suicides, and the company’s outsourcing of critical functions to H-1Bs and Indian consultancies, putting at risk the financial data of its customers, which include high-ranking members of the U.S. armed forces.
What began as a cost-cutting strategy in the early 2000s now threatens the stability of an institution long trusted by veterans.
Insiders granted anonymity to avoid retaliation say USAA’s decline began in the 2000s under then-CEO Robert G. Davis, who outsourced IT and other core functions to H-1B contracting firms such as Tata Consultancy Services. Those firms imposed contracts requiring USAA to maintain minimum staffing levels, creating chronic overstaffing. Idle contractors were reportedly assigned “busywork” to meet quotas, with conference rooms converted into laptop farms where workers sat “packed like sardines.”
One insider described the result as “incredibly incompetent” operations. Projects that U.S.-based employees could complete on time were instead handed to H-1B contractors who often lacked the necessary skills and required retraining.
From cost-cutting to collapse
At the same time, USAA repeatedly laid off American staff and replaced them with foreign workers, driving labor costs higher and eroding institutional knowledge. Davis retired abruptly in 2007, but his successors continued his policies, expanding USAA’s offshore footprint with new IT centers in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Chennai, India.
Insiders say H-1B contractors at USAA often lack basic programming skills, compounding inefficiency. In one case, a credit card processing problem baffled contractors for six months until the company brought back a retired American employee, who solved the problem in a matter of days. The constant visa turnover worsens the issue. Skilled H-1Bs leave after six years, draining institutional knowledge. Turnover is even higher at USAA’s Guadalajara facility, where Indian employees reportedly fear cartel violence.
Bureaucratic bloat magnifies these problems. Each team has dual directors, and many systems rely on outdated software. That dysfunction has drawn scrutiny from federal regulators, who fined USAA for failed audits and violations of anti-money-laundering laws. Those failures forced the company to sell off divisions, including real estate, and pushed USAA into persistent losses through much of the decade.
Customers have also felt the effects. Many complain that poorly trained H-1B staff struggle to handle basic service requests. One customer said resolving a fraud alert took hours — and that he now contacts USAA’s top executives directly to get results.
Security risks and cultural decay
USAA’s growing dependence on H-1B contractors and overseas labor has created potential security and compliance risks, according to multiple insiders. The company has outsourced anti-money laundering work to Tata Consultancy Services, which reportedly performs much of that work in India. As a result, the personal financial data of U.S. service members and veterans may be stored or processed abroad.
USAA also shares customer data — including names, addresses, and birth dates — with LexisNexis, with no option for customers to opt out. One customer said he only discovered this practice after receiving a notice in the mail.
RELATED: The visa that ate America’s tech jobs
subodhsathe via iStock/Getty Images
Inside the company, these policies have coincided with a marked decline in morale. Mass layoffs of veteran employees have preceded at least three suicides, including one who shot himself in a company parking lot. A former director described intervening to stop another potential suicide. Tensions intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when USAA defied Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning vaccine mandates.
Employees describe a sharp cultural shift away from USAA’s traditional military ethos toward a mishmash of corporate diversity programming. The company has hosted Diwali celebrations and mandatory DEI events while facing allegations of religious discrimination against Christian employees. One former employee has taken a case to arbitration. Internal surveys reportedly show employee satisfaction at just 33%.
An institution on the brink
Analysts say the company’s reliance on foreign labor and internal instability have eroded its reputation for customer service and financial stewardship. What began as a cost-cutting strategy in the early 2000s now threatens the stability of an institution long trusted by veterans.
Whether USAA can recover will depend on its ability to restore confidence — both among employees and the members it was established to serve.
Editor’s note: The headline and subheadline of this article have been edited after publication.
Bondi exposes ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ Arctic Frost action against Trump by Biden admin
Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed on Tuesday further disturbing details about the Biden administration’s Operation Arctic Frost, which targeted at least nine Republican lawmakers.
‘It was a clear effort by the Biden White House and the Biden DOJ to go after the president.’
Documents previously published by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) exposed that the operation sought the private cellphone records of Republican politicians.
The investigation into Arctic Frost unveiled that the Biden administration provided Trump’s phone to special counsel Jack Smith, Bondi announced on Tuesday.
“During the Arctic Frost Investigation, we found that Special Counsel seized President Trump’s government-issued phone,” Bondi wrote in a post on X.
Bondi called the action by the Biden administration “UNPRECEDENTED.”
“In addition, Special Counsel subpoenaed all of President Trump’s PERSONAL phone records,” she continued. “We can never again allow this kind of government weaponization in America.”
RELATED: Liberal media remains DEAD SILENT on Biden FBI’s Arctic Frost operation against conservatives
Attorney General Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Bondi stated that the latest findings were provided to Congress.
Conservatives flooded Bondi’s post with comments asking if any arrests would follow these new revelations, expressing that many are tired of the political theater and want to see justice served.
“Why not move forward with charges?” one X user asked. “Why hand it to Congress … so it can die in committee and resurface as campaign soundbites? We’re tired of the theater. We want accountability.”
“America is sick and tired of talk,” another user wrote. “We want major arrests and long prison terms. I really do not know how else to make this more clear. Our guy has a MUG SHOT, his personal home was raided by armed law enforcement with shoot to kill orders. He has had multiple attempts on his life.”
RELATED: ‘Not. One. Story.’ Liberal news outlets’ silence regarding Biden’s ‘enemies list’ is deafening
Special Counsel Jack Smith. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted to Bondi’s announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing.
“I think this is just further evidence of the egregious overreach and weaponization of government that took place under the previous White House against then-former president and now-President Donald J. Trump,” Leavitt said. “It was a clear effort by the Biden White House and the Biden DOJ to go after the president.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment beyond the AG’s statement.
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Capitol Police repeatedly used lethal force on protesters early on Jan. 6, video shows
In the span of less than 10 minutes after a huge crowd of protesters filled the U.S. Capitol West Plaza beneath the inauguration stage on Jan. 6, Capitol Police repeatedly used lethal force on the crowd, targeting people in the head, neck, face, and upper body — actions one use-of-force expert called “criminally negligent.”
During that brief span, at least 16 people were shot with kinetic-impact projectiles, including nine who took shots to the top of the head, face, and base of the neck, according to Capitol Police surveillance video obtained by Blaze News.
‘We need munitions! Unload! Unload it all! Take ’em out!’
The rounds are designed to be shot at or below the waist or skipped off pavement to strike the legs and cause trauma and “pain compliance.” None of the rounds observable on the surveillance footage struck below the belt, putting all of the observable rounds in dangerous and potentially lethal territory.
The targeting of the crowd and one graphic, bloody injury to a protester’s face enraged the crowd and appeared to lead to a large escalation of violence toward police, including the throwing of water bottles and flagpoles and the use of pepper spray and bear repellent, the video showed.
Deputy Police Chief Eric Waldow claimed in a U.S. Capitol Police radio dispatch about 1:11 p.m. that his officers were using “indirect firing,” but the department’s surveillance video contradicts that claim.
Waldow also said he gave “repeated warnings” to the crowd to disperse or face chemical munitions, but video shows he did not have a bullhorn, and no warnings could be heard on ground-level video or the USCP surveillance video.
He ordered Capitol Police grenadiers to open fire on the crowd at 1:06 p.m.
“I got a crowd fighting with officers, pushing, throwing projectiles,” he broadcast. “I have given warnings about chemical munitions. I need the less-than-lethal team positioned above me to identify the agitators and start deploying. Launch, launch, launch!“
Stan Kephart, an expert witness on police use of force who reviewed the Jan. 6 surveillance video, said firing crowd-control weapons from an elevated platform into a dense crowd and striking targets above the shoulders is both “criminally negligent” and “potentially a lethal act.”
“There is a wealth of clear and convincing evidence here that police were not trained or equipped to move, disperse, and arrest stragglers,” Kephart told Blaze News. “Instead they adopted a punishment tactic, inflaming the crowd and resulting in injury that they are responsible for.”
‘If you really want to start a riot, shoot them in the head.’
The grenadiers who fired on the crowd from the “crow’s nest” outcropping during the first hour included training officer Shauni Kerkhoff, Sgt. Adam Descamp, and Sgt. Gary Sprifke, Blaze News has learned. Officer Bret Sorrell stood in the crow’s nest holding a riot shield, video showed.
Blaze News asked for comment from Capitol Police Public Information Officer Timothy Barber and Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan, but did not receive a reply.
The number of protesters struck with deadly force by crowd-control weapons in the early minutes of Jan. 6 is much higher than previously known, the surveillance video showed.
The fusillade of so-called “less-lethal” crowd-control weapons came in response to thousands of protesters who streamed onto Capitol property after a lightly defended police line near the Peace Memorial was breached at 12:53 p.m. Most of the early crowd ended up on the West Plaza beneath the “crow’s nest” outcropping where presidents-elect take the oath of office.
The massive, amped-up crowd caught Capitol Police off guard. There was insufficient security to defend the Capitol — in part because many officers were diverted to respond to two pipe bombs discovered during a 25-minute span at the nearby Democratic National Committee building and the Capitol Hill Club next to the Republican National Committee building.
RELATED: BBC allegedly deceptively edited Trump’s Jan. 6 speech into riot lie
Protester Joshua Black of Leeds, Ala., is led away by a medic after being shot in the face with an FN 303 projectile launcher round at the U.S. Capitol about 1:06 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.Metropolitan Police Department
Surveillance video captured from the Lower West Terrace captured the flight of .68-caliber yellow marking rounds and red pepper rounds from powerful FN 303 projectile launchers. Produced by FN America, the FN 303 is powered by 3,000-psi compressed air. Rounds travel at 300 feet per second. A Tippmann 98 pepper-ball rifle was also used on the crowd. Most of the rounds were fired from less than 50 feet away, video showed.
Targeting the head with kinetic-impact projectiles is prohibited by manufacturers and industry safety standards due to the risk of fatal injuries. It is considered lethal force. The website of FN Herstal, parent company of FN America, stresses the point, saying the company “forbids users from aiming at the head.”
“The primary effect of the projectile is trauma, which directly neutralizes the aggressor,” the FN America website says. “Secondary effects from the projectiles can be delivered via a chemical payload depending on mission requirements.”
Operators of less-lethal crowd-control weapons are trained not to aim at or strike the head, face, eyes, ears, throat, neck, spine, kidneys, or groin.
A retired U.S. Army special forces operative who has used the FN 303 launcher and other less-lethal weapons in overseas missions said firing at heads from an elevated perch “will cause such rage afterward.”
“If you really want to start a riot, shoot them in the head,” he told Blaze News.
The bombardment of the early crowd is the latest controversy on weapons and tactics used by Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department on Jan. 6.
Minutes after the less-lethal projectile launchers were unleashed, MPD flowed onto the West Plaza, spraying protesters with high-velocity oleoresin capsicum, commonly known as pepper spray.
After pushing protesters back and forming a police line with bicycle-rack barricades, MPD officers began lobbing dozens of suspected incendiary grenades into the crowd and firing 40mm shells containing plastic pellets, beanbags, and tear gas. Some 40 munitions were fired or lobbed into the packed crowd on the north side of the plaza over the course of an hour, video showed.
At 1:18 p.m., a Capitol Police supervisor broadcast instructions to keep firing at the crowds. “We need munitions!” he shouted to dispatch. “Unload. Unload it all! Take ’em out!”
Pain compliance
Kephart said the descriptor “less-lethal” weapon depends on the launchers being used in a proper and responsible manner as specified by the manufacturer. Otherwise they can easily be lethal weapons.
“All launchers and chemical munitions are ‘pain compliance’ devices first and predicated on compliance, with the pain of the launcher’s impact or the gas, or singularly the beanbag or dowel impact pain. That is why they are to be fired at the belt line or skipped off the ground.
“Additionally, the accuracy factor in deploying these launchers is poor,” Kephart said. “Unlike a rifled bullet, the projectile wobbles in flight due to the absence of rifling stabilizing it in flight.”
A U.S. Department of War less-lethal weapons expert and training instructor told Blaze News that firing into a tightly spaced crowd has great risks that he would not have taken that day. He examined the surveillance video at the request of Blaze News.
‘The escalation of force totally amplified these small groups of people.’
“I know, myself, wouldn’t have felt comfortable sending those rounds into a crowd knowing they would impact face/head target areas and definitely not guaranteed for the intended target,” said the expert, who asked not to be identified by name or title. “Nor would I have advised those around me to do the same. As an instructor, you lead by example, especially being on the line and controlling those around you, and maintaining integrity/continuity/accountability for every round.”
One of the Capitol Police officers whom video showed firing on the crowd with a Tippmann 98 pepper-ball rifle was Shauni Kerkhoff, a certified trainer on the proper use of crowd-control weapons. Pepper balls struck protesters in the early crowd in the head and face. Two riot-gear-clad Capitol Police officers were also struck with pepper rounds, including one who took a shot to the rear of the helmet.
A now-former Capitol Police Civil Disturbance Unit officer who was on the police line beneath the grenadiers said verbal warnings would have been worthless with the extreme crowd noise and stiff winds on the West Plaza. Blaze News asked the former officer to review the surveillance video.
“You really think people were listening with all the noise?” asked the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “He [Waldow] probably saw everything that was going on and panicked, or at least that’s what I feel when I hear him say ‘launch!’ multiple times.”
The former Civil Disturbance Unit officer said repeated attempts to push through the early police line were made by small groups. “I think they could have been contained easily, but the escalation of force totally amplified these small groups of people,” he said.
RELATED: Analysis: FBI’s Jan. 6 pipe bomb update omits key evidence, withholds video
A bystander puts a compress on a bleeding wound punched in Joshua Black’s face by a crowd-control projectile on Jan. 6, while a protester registers his disapproval.Special to Blaze News
The Department of War expert said emotions can be inflamed when crowd-control weapons are used improperly.
“Some of the intended targets and where they hit enticed the crowd to react emotionally and feel they were being targeted or felt the need to protect themselves,” he said. “First aid for the crowd within the crowd was provided, but that’s also enough for an already emotional crowd at that point to [go] one of two ways: become louder and more emotional or take some type of action to start defending themselves.
“In my line of work, [that’s] something you want to avoid altogether,” he said. “It does not take much for a crowd to become unruly or violent.”
The FN 303 launcher was implicated in the 2004 killing of a Boston woman shot in the eye socket by police during a Boston Red Sox American League pennant celebration.
The fusillade of projectiles was fired by grenadiers from the Capitol Police Civil Disturbance Unit, the first of whom arrived in the “crow’s nest” outcropping at 1:01 p.m., security video showed.
Amped-up crowds
From the time the crowd filled in the plaza and police began to establish a hastily formed line, protesters were seen in animated, heated discussions with police. One man carried a sign that read “Expose Election Fraud” on the top and “Playing for Blood” on the bottom. A few rows behind him, a man held up a black baseball bat while another raised an empty axe handle.
A large man in a tan coat and black cap was pushed back by an officer with a riot shield, causing him to fall. As he began to get up, an officer under the scaffolding to the south tossed a tear-gas canister at the feet of protesters and the cloud of gas swirled out into the crowd.
Police used their shields to start pushing the crowd back. Scuffles broke out along the farthest southern police line, with protesters surging and then being pushed back by police. Two of the men in the scrum were a short time later targeted for less-lethal weapons fire.
‘They shot him in the f**king face!’
At approximately 1:06:29, a grenadier fired a .60-caliber fin-stabilized projectile from a compressed-air FN 303 launcher that struck a black-cap-clad protester in the head. The impact blew the man’s hat off, video showed. The round bounced off his head and struck a nearby riot officer.
Just prior, video showed the man was in the second row of a group surging toward the hastily assembled police line. As police pushed the group back, the projectile screamed past the Trump 2020 flag the man carried, striking him in the left side of the head.
Seven seconds later, a man in a tan jacket was struck by a projectile on the brim of his Make America Great Again cap. The round deflected off the cap and struck his upper right chest. He flinched, grabbed his head, and crouched down, video showed.
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A crowd-control projectile fired by U.S. Capitol Police strikes a protester in the head on the U.S. Capitol West Plaza at 1:06 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police
Some 30 seconds later, a man wearing a light blue sweatshirt near the police line was struck in the back at the base of his neck. The projectile ricocheted into the crowd. When the man turned around, another round struck his upper chest and dropped to the ground.
A man in a blue sweatshirt who was pushing an officer was shot in the back at about 1:07 p.m., video showed. The projectile ricocheted west into the crowd. The man next to him, who was also scuffling with officers, was targeted for projectile fire, but the round struck his backpack and fell to the ground.
Joshua Black of Leeds, Ala., was the next person to take a potentially lethal shot from above. At 1:07 p.m., video showed the yellow FN 303 projectile striking him in the left cheek. Unlike some of the other projectiles, this one did not bounce off or ricochet. It punched through Black’s cheek and embedded in his mouth.
Black bled profusely, the blood forming a pool on the ground that was still visible hours later. Bystanders immediately tended to his wound. One of them turned to the crowd and shouted, “They shot him in the f**king face!”
“This is a peaceful protest,” a woman shouted, according to ground-level video obtained by Blaze News. “Peaceful!” Another bystander shouted, “We are witnessing tyranny. We are witnessing tyranny right now.”
While Black was getting attention for his wound, a pepper ball fired from above struck a Capitol Police CDU officer in the back of the helmet, sending a cloud of pepper powder into the air. A second shot narrowly missed another officer’s head and exploded on the officer’s riot shield, video showed.
‘Typically, I aim for the ground.’
The bloody scene surrounding Black caused numerous members of the crowd to begin shouting and pointing at the line of riot-gear-clad Civil Disturbance Unit officers on the plaza. Several pointed up to the inauguration balcony in an accusatory fashion, while others issued middle-finger salutes, video showed.
Waldow ordered the less-lethal unit to target a man wearing a baseball batting helmet and carrying an axe handle with an American flag attached to one end.
“Have the less-than-lethal target the subject with the baseball hat and the axe handle and the subject with the gas mask and the American shirt, the American flag shirt. He’s assaulting an officer now,” Waldow said on police radio.
Shortly, an FN 303 round zoomed at the man’s face, appearing to clip his chin before striking his gloved hand. Minutes later, video showed blood running down the man’s left cheek. The man was shown on surveillance video at the police line minutes earlier, but it’s not clear if he shoved or struck an officer.
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U.S. Capitol Police Officer Shauni Kerkhoff shows a rubber bullet to soldiers of the Maryland Army National Guard’s 115th Military Police Battalion, Salisbury, Md., during a joint training event in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27, 2021.U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Arcadia Hammack
A short distance away, a man in a blue winter coat was struck in the right side of the neck or base of the skull by a projectile. The round bounced off his head and struck a nearby man in the leg.
The man in the blue jacket knelt down to lend aid to the man who had been shot in the back moments earlier. After he stood up, he realized he was tracking through Black’s blood on the ground. He pointed down at the huge bloodstain and looked at the police line. He then went to the line and began shoving officers.
At this point, a sizeable group was now battling with police. Several men in the crowd aimed liquid and foam pepper spray at the officers. Projectiles, including flagpoles, water bottles, and traffic cones, were heaved at the police line, video showed.
Police surged into the crowd in what appeared to be an attempt to check on the injured Black. While officers tried to help Black off the ground, a rioter in a bicycle helmet and a dark face covering aimed a stream of pepper spray at several officers and might have hit the supine Black as well, video showed.
Training officer testified
Kerkhoff, who joined the U.S. Capitol Police after college in 2018, was the first witness against Guy Wesley Reffitt in the first Jan. 6 federal criminal trial in March 2022. She told a jury that she fired pepper balls at Reffitt as he scaled the Northwest Steps. When that didn’t stop Reffitt, she said, another officer fired at Reffitt with the FN 303 launcher.
She testified that she was a trainer for the Tippmann 98 rifle and the FN 303 launcher. Three weeks after Jan. 6, Kerkhoff was a less-lethal weapons instructor at a joint training event with the Maryland Army National Guard’s 115th Military Police Battalion.
In her trial testimony, Kerkhoff said the pepper-ball rifle is meant to cause some pain to the target to coerce compliance.
“So it has a small amount of pain compliance. So it should hurt a little bit. So that should deter actions,” Kerkhoff said in her March 2, 2022, testimony. “As well as when the ball hits something, it will — it is filled with PAVA powder, so it will launch that PAVA powder into the air and will affect the nasal passages as well as the eyes, causing stinging, burning.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler asked her, “What do you aim for when you first start launching?”
“Typically, I aim for the ground,” Kerkhoff replied.
Noting her previous testimony about experience with the Tippman 98 rifle, Nestler asked Kerkhoff about her knowledge of the more powerful FN 303 launcher. “Was that something you were trying to use or are you just familiar with?” Nestler asked.
“No, I am an instructor on both of those weapons,” she replied.
The former Civil Disturbance Unit officer told Blaze News that Kerkhoff left the U.S. Capitol Police about six months after Jan. 6 and that he had since been unable to reach her. Her colleagues heard she went to work for a three-letter federal intelligence agency, he said.
“She immediately wiped her social media, phone numbers, and email accounts,” he said. “Nobody was able to reach her after that.”
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NJ deputy AG takes stand against race-baiting Democrat out to ‘silence’ conservatives amid dead-heat race
As the tight gubernatorial race in New Jersey reaches its final stretch, a deputy attorney general last week left his secure government career to speak out on pivotal political issues impacting his home state.
After a 14-year public service career, during which he worked on high-pressure cases as a deputy AG, assistant prosecutor, and defense attorney, William Holmes announced that he felt compelled to resign.
‘I cannot, in good conscience, work under someone who would label me a racist or white supremacist simply for sharing some of Kirk’s views.’
He referred to the celebration of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, along with New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill’s comments about Kirk, as the final straw.
Holmes expressed deep concern that Sherrill would secure a victory against Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli on Tuesday.
“I disagree with her on many issues, but what troubles me most is her recent characterization of Charlie Kirk’s views as ‘racist’ and ‘anti-American,'” Holmes wrote in a post on Facebook addressing his recent decision to resign. He called Sherrill’s “reckless labels” of Kirk’s views “disqualifying.”
Holmes was referring to a statement released by Rep. Sherrill (D-N.J.) on Kirk’s murder. While she condemned the “horrific” assassination, she called Kirk’s views “vile” and accused him of trying to “roll back the rights of women and Black people.”
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Image source: William Holmes
“Any person who is trying to hold a position of great power should at the very least try to understand the arguments of their political opponents. The ignorant labeling by Sherrill shows she made no such attempt,” Holmes told Blaze News.
He further scrutinized Sherrill for remaining silent about Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones’ text message scandal, in which he wished death on a Republican rival and his children.
“I resigned because I want to urge people not to vote for Mikie Sherrill and to give Jack a chance. Her inflammatory comments, made before Kirk was even laid to rest, cannot be ignored,” he wrote. “I cannot, in good conscience, work under someone who would label me a racist or white supremacist simply for sharing some of Kirk’s views.”
Holmes acknowledged that resigning was a risky decision, but he emphasized the importance of freely discussing political matters.
“I’ve had to bite my tongue on many issues, such as how bail reform was implemented, the assassination attempt on President Trump and the coverage of it afterwards, and of course, Charlie Kirk’s recent death and the aftermath of it,” Holmes told Blaze News. “I understand some of the reasoning as to why a prosecutor needs to stay silent and how it could affect the public’s trust. However, I also know that if my co-workers knew I had strong conservative views, it would likely ruin any chances of a promotion while serving under a Democratic leadership.”
Jack Ciattarelli. Photo by Andres Kudacki/Getty Images. Mikie Sherrill. Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
Holmes contended that “debate is the best forum for discovering truth.” He stated that labels like “Nazis,” “racists,” and “fascists” are used to dehumanize conservatives and discourage debate.
“I hope others are willing to come forward and speak out and defend their beliefs. The more people who are willing to speak out and criticize the ignorant labels by people who do not even bother trying to understand our beliefs, the harder it will be to silence us,” he said.
As of Saturday, RealClearPolling had Sherrill with an average advantage of just 3.3 points over Ciattarelli, and some recent polls show just a 1-point advantage.
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Texas DMV has allegedly been registering vehicles to illegal aliens
Amid road dangers such as non-English-speaking foreigners behind the wheels of 18-wheelers across America, one Texas state representative claims to have discovered another abuse of the system, this time at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
On Monday, Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison (R) wrote a letter to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles demanding an investigation after his office received reports that illegal aliens were able to register vehicles despite their status.
‘It is past time the Texas government starts acting like we are in a battle for the future of western civilization, because we are.’
“My office recently received alarming reports of illegal immigrants being able to register their vehicles in the State of Texas. To my shock, upon investigation, my office has verified that these reports are in fact real,” Harrison said in the letter.
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Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The letter cites Texas Transportation Code section 502.040(b), which reads, “The application must be accompanied by personal identification as determined by department rule.”
The letter alleges that the “broad authority” given to the department may have been misused.
“I am writing today to inquire what steps, if any, the DMV has taken and is implementing to determine whether the owner of the vehicle is a citizen or lawfully in the country before issuing vehicle registrations,” the letter continues.
On the condition that the DMV doesn’t take “prompt and efficacious action,” Harrison threatened to introduce legislation requiring the DMV to verify legal status before issuing registrations.
Texas phased out temporary, paper license plates on July 1 of this year, perhaps as a measure against fraud related to the problem Harrison identified and complained about this week.
In his post, Harrison also emphasized the important role Texas politicians need to play in aiding the Trump administration: “It is past time the Texas government starts acting like we are in a battle for the future of western civilization, because we are.”
Barring a special legislative session, which Harrison has called for, the Texas state House is not set to convene again until the spring of 2027.
Harrison, who has a track record of raising awareness and effecting change outside of the legislative process, told Blaze News that the DMV already has the authority to “do the right thing” when it comes to verifying legal status prior to registering vehicles in Texas, despite the “broad authority” granted to the department.
Blaze News reached out to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles but did not immediately receive a response.
Editor’s note: This article was edited after publication to include statements from state Rep. Brian Harrison.
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Karine Jean-Pierre’s memoir ROASTED: A review so savage, Glenn Beck wants to hug the critic
On October 21, Karine Jean-Pierre’s memoir, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” was released. In the book, the former White House press secretary critiqued the Biden administration for its dysfunction, blamed Joe Biden’s abrupt withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race on a Democrat coup, publicly announced her departure from the Democrat Party, and advocated for political independence as a path forward for Americans.
And people absolutely hate it.
From the Washington Post to Politico and beyond, Jean-Pierre’s book has been met with relentless criticism, with reviewers slamming the memoir as cringeworthy, grievance-driven, and profoundly unconvincing.
But there’s one scathing review that stands out among the rest. In fact, it’s so unapologetically scorching, Glenn Beck read the entire critique aloud on an episode of “The Glenn Beck Program.”
Titled “A Book So Bad It Shattered Liberals’ Faith in DEI,” the review comes from journalist and editor Andrew Stiles at the Free Beacon, who pulled no punches in eviscerating Jean-Pierre’s memoir as a self-indulgent disaster wrapped in identity politics.
Stiles, calling the book “the worst political memoir ever written in the history of the English language,” opened his damning evaluation by mocking Jean-Pierre for being “the highest-ranking openly queer, French-born black woman with a hyphenated surname to publicly renounce the Democratic Party for being mean to Joe Biden.”
“Imagine writing a book so bad it could shame Democrats and liberals into second-guessing their cult-like devotion to DEI,” he wrote.
Stiles highlighted the irony of Jean-Pierre’s rise to prominence — something that was celebrated as “a triumph for diversity and representation” — only for reporters and colleagues to turn around and reveal that she was “ineffectual,” “unprepared,” “dumb,” and “the most incompetent and irrelevant White House press secretary ever.”
Her biggest accomplishment, said Stiles, is that she will forever be “a cautionary tale of what can happen when a desire to ‘make history’ takes precedence over everything else.”
He went on to address Jean-Pierre’s disastrous book tour, condemning the disgraced ex-spokeswoman for “[fumbling] her way through interviews, repeatedly invoking her lived experience as a trailblazing black woman and openly gay pioneer,” and blurting out so much “drivel” even liberals have renounced their support. He gave the example of Jean-Pierre’s interview with the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner, during which she claimed the “broken White House” phrase in the subtitle of her book is “actually a reference to Donald Trump’s administration.”
Stiles then turned his unsparing eye to the content of “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” which he hilariously called “mercifully brief,” yet “intolerably long.” “Like her rambling press briefings, Jean-Pierre’s prose is riddled with contradictions that boggle the mind,” he penned.
“A more discerning editor could have whittled down her meandering attempts to explain why anyone should care that she’s an independent now, but they had to fill the pages somehow. In so many words, she explains that leaving the party was a tantrum-like plea for attention — a deeply personal quest for ‘new ways to be acknowledged’ that is ‘also about self-care.”’
Stiles noted Jean-Pierre’s hope that her memoir will spark “more nuanced political conversations.”
“It has certainly provoked a conversation — shockingly nuanced in the context of Democrat Party politics — just not the one she was expecting,” he concluded.
“I love this review. I want to hug the person who wrote this review,” laughs Glenn.
To hear Stiles’ full review and Glenn’s commentary, watch the video above.
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