Liberal Host Challenges Trump’s AG On His Loyalty, He Doesn’t Take The Bait

 In a seemingly partisan attack on Sunday morning television, “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker badgered Attorney General Todd Blanche over whether he would pledge to remain completely “independent” from President Donald Trump.

Welker grilled Blanche on his past as Trump’s personal defense attorney, demanding to know if the Department of Justice would operate free from White House influence, querying, “You of course used to be President Trump’s former personal defense attorney. Can you pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House?”

Blanche shot back, rejecting the premise of her question entirely. “No, I’m not going to pledge that,” he declared. “And no attorney general should ever pledge that. … If I were to pledge I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says, ‘I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country’ — which is what he has said — what you’re saying to me is I should say, ‘No, sir, I’m not going to do it.’”

“This narrative that’s mostly pushed by the Left and pushed by the media that the president’s going to pull me aside and ask me to do something illegal is completely a false narrative, not true, will not happen, and hasn’t happened,” he added.

Yet, while the media routinely obsesses over hypothetical concerns regarding Trump’s control over the Justice Department, conservative critics point to history, arguing that the double standard is glaring. Under the previous administration, President Barack Obama used Attorney General Eric Holder and the DOJ as political weapons to advance a partisan agenda and bypass constitutional limitations.

While news anchors now demand strict walls between the White House and the DOJ, legal scholars and conservative watchdogs posited that rather than acting as an independent officer sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution, Holder functioned as Obama’s personal defense attorney and political operative. During that era, the DOJ selectively enforced laws, as it chose not to enforce federal laws that conflicted with the administration’s political goals (such as certain federal drug laws or portions of immigration law) while it targeted political opponents.

The controversial track record included Operation Fast and Furious, where the ATF “gun-walking” operation was allowed to proceed. Critics argued the DOJ allowed illegal weapons to flow into Mexico to build a public political case for stricter domestic gun control laws. When Congress launched an investigation into the botched operation, Holder refused to hand over documents, leading the House of Representatives to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Rather than demanding transparency, President Obama made the decision to invoke executive privilege to shield Holder.

Furthermore, press freedom advocates and conservative commentators previously raised alarms over the DOJ’s actions against journalists, including the secret seizure of Associated Press phone records and naming Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “co-conspirator” in a leak investigation.

Critics also pointed to electoral policy, claiming the DOJ used civil rights enforcement and voting rights lawsuits to mobilize the Democratic base and block state-level voter ID laws.

‘Back Behind Bars’: Career Drug Dealer Freed By Joe Biden Arrested Again

 A drug dealer let off the hook by President Joe Biden was arrested with a large stash of cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.

Walter Lee Muhammad, granted clemency in the final months of the Biden presidency, faces drug trafficking charges after police say he was arrested with 25 kilograms of cocaine, seven kilograms of heroin, and four kilograms of fentanyl. Biden cut the Atlanta-based Muhammad’s 10-year prison sentence six years short in December 2024 when he issued clemency to over a thousand drug offenders. 

“Muhammad is a serial drug trafficker who — despite receiving the extraordinary gift of presidential clemency — continued to deal lethal fentanyl and other dangerous drugs,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg. “Thanks to our law enforcement partners, the community is safer with this repeat offender off the street and back behind bars.” 

Muhammad now faces federal and state drug trafficking charges after a lengthy investigation.

DEA agent Michael DeWald said in the complaint against Muhammad that he and other suspected drug traffickers had been under investigation since July 2025. Officials suspect that Muhammad had several Atlanta properties that he used to store and distribute the drugs. 

On August 5, 2026, DEA agents observed multiple bags being shuffled out of a property used by Muhammad. Those bags were transferred to a BMW which left late that evening for North Carolina. The BMW was stopped by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office, which deployed dogs that detected drugs, according to investigators. 

“The Adidas bag contained MUHAMMAD’s clothing that was wrapped around four kilograms of fentanyl. Deputies found 25 kilograms of cocaine in the cardboard box. Guilford County Sheriff deputies field-tested the seized substances, and both tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl, respectively,” DeWald wrote in the complaint. 

 

Seized drugs: DOJ.

The next day, agents searched Muhammad’s property and found more heroin and fentanyl, along with three firearms, including a stolen Glock handgun. 

 

Muhammed: Guilford County Sheriff; Guns: DOJ.

“Despite receiving a second chance, this defendant returned to trafficking fentanyl and putting lives at risk,” said DEA special agent Jae Chung. “The seizure of this significant amount of fentanyl is a reminder that we will continue to hold those who profit from this deadly poison accountable.”

Prior to Biden’s clemency, Muhammad had been convicted for drug trafficking three other times. In August 1999, he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Just over ten years later, in November 2010, he was convicted of conspiring to distribute marijuana, and in February 2020 he was sentenced for intending to traffic fentanyl. 

Biden issued a wave of pardons to drug dealers in his final months in office, claiming he was taking steps to give mercy to people given “disproportionately long sentences.” On January 17, 2025, he commuted the sentences of 2,500 drug offenders, in addition to the nearly 1,500 he granted clemency to in December 2024.

“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history,” Biden boasted at the time.

Parents Sue School District Over Mosque Field Trip, Claim Religious Indoctrination

 A group of parents is suing the Palo Alto Unified School District and Brent Kline, principal of Palo Alto High School, in federal court, alleging the school’s “Social Justice Pathway” turned a class field trip to a Santa Clara mosque into taxpayer-funded religious indoctrination.

The suit, filed August 7 in the Northern District of California, centers on a fall 2025 visit to the Muslim Community Association mosque in Santa Clara. According to the complaint, students were encouraged to don Islamic religious attire, given Qurans to take home, and observed a midday prayer service.

Ten individual plaintiffs and an advocacy group, Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools — San Francisco Bay Area, brought the case. Eight are Jewish; the Hindu and Zoroastrian plaintiffs live in neighboring communities and do not have children enrolled at Palo Alto. The complaint alleges that the mosque is the only house of worship the program visits, and alleges its website has promoted both the school visits and local religious conversions.

“[T]he District failed to maintain religious neutrality, failed to ensure equal treatment among faiths, failed to protect student privacy, and failed to vet, supervise, and monitor religiously divisive outside speakers during the school-sponsored event,” the filing claims.

The Pathway is a three-year course track open to Palo Alto High students beginning sophomore year. The complaint alleges that during the mosque visit, students were exposed to Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whom the filing describes as a “controversial outside speaker with publicly documented hostile statements concerning Jews.” Billoo, the suit says, “was allowed unfettered access to students to advocate personal religious and political views without balancing perspective or adequate supervision.”

Billoo told the San Francisco Chronicle the suit was “misguided,” saying students who observed prayer were taught about Islamic religious practices and that participation was voluntary. “One of the most important ways we combat hate is to learn about each other,” she said, adding that she believed the plaintiffs were trying to intimidate districts out of that work.

The filing states that “students were photographed during the visit by the Islamic institution hosting the event in a manner that promoted participation in Islamic customs,” and that “identifiable student images taken inside the mosque while students wore religious attire later were publicly posted for promotional and/or community-facing purposes.” Parents, the suit alleges, were never given meaningful informed consent for the photography or its publication, nor were they given a meaningful opt-out.

Superintendent Jason Glass told the Chronicle the district learned through news coverage and has not been served. Glass said he had read the complaint but that the district could not verify its allegations, adding that any instruction touching religion must be academic rather than devotional. He said the district is reviewing its practices.

The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and seek declaratory relief, an injunction barring the district from sponsoring similar activities, an order requiring defendants to remove the student images to the extent they can, nominal damages, and attorneys’ fees.

‘Abolish ICE’ Is Now Official DNC Policy

 The Democratic National Committee adopted a resolution Saturday urging congressional Democrats to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alongside a competing measure calling only for reforms to the agency, at the party’s summer meeting in Austin, Texas.

The abolition measure, known as Resolution 27, cleared the DNC’s Resolutions Committee on Thursday in a 25-12 vote with one abstention before heading to the full membership, Newsweek reported. Both resolutions were bundled into a larger package and approved by the full membership on a unanimous voice vote, according to the Washington Times. The vote is nonbinding and does not change the party platform for 2028.

The reform measure, sponsored by DNC Chairman Ken Martin, drew broader support in committee than the abolition proposal.

The vote comes amid internal party debates over immigration policy ahead of this year’s midterm elections as President Donald Trump expands deportation efforts. In July, border czar Tom Homan said ICE was on schedule to set arrest records for a second consecutive month and described the push as “deportation-maxxing.”

The resolution calls on Democratic members of Congress to enact legislation dissolving ICE and winding down the immigration detention system. It seeks to restrict Department of Homeland Security funding unless certain enforcement activities end, including workplace raids, mass roundups, arrests at courthouses, arrests at ICE check-ins, and actions near schools and houses of worship. It also calls for terminating contracts with private detention providers.

Martin said official party platforms are set every four years at the national convention, and argued Democrats are still united in opposing the administration’s enforcement approach even as they split over what should replace it.

“Our official party positions are determined at the convention every four years in our platform,” Martin said in a statement to Newsweek. “However, clearly, the one thing that unites Democrats, regardless of their position on reform versus abolish or whatever other ways to change what’s happening, is people believe that what ICE is doing right now and CBP and the federal government should stop. There has to be a better way.”

The White House criticized the action. Spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Newsweek on Saturday:

“Extreme radical Democrats want to abolish ICE and defund the police. Instead of trying to abolish ICE, Democrats should be thanking ICE law enforcement officers for putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members from American communities. Many of these criminals were released from jails by Democrat radical politicians. President Trump’s efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens from American communities is already delivering results including the lowest murder rate in 125 years.”

The resolution also calls for closing detention facilities, releasing most immigration detainees, and expanding civil rights oversight.

Michele Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana who proposed the abolition measure, said Democrats need to take a clear position, pointing to the dissolution of ICE’s predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as precedent, according to the Associated Press.

“I think one of the reasons why people are not trusting the party is because we sound so academic,” she said. “We sound focus group tested, we sound poll tested because we’re worried about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing and not just like, just stand on business, like take a position.”

DNC member Yvonne Reeves-Chong voted against it, saying it would win over only part of the party’s base while drawing fire from another group of voters, according to the AP.

“I would strongly suggest we get to the business of winning races so we can make the policies that make a difference,” she said.

Earlier this year, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stopped short of calling for ICE’s elimination while demanding reforms such as banning face coverings for agents, requiring visible identification, and restricting enforcement near schools and churches.

Polling suggests voters are focused elsewhere. Marquette Law School’s most recent national survey, released August 5, found inflation and the cost of living ranked as the top issue for 35% of adults, with immigration and border security at 5% — down from 14% in January.

The same poll found Trump’s overall approval had risen to 40%, his first uptick in a Marquette survey this term, and border security was the only issue on which he cleared 50% approval.

ICE itself remains unpopular. A Marquette survey conducted in late January found 40% of adults approved of the agency’s job performance and 60% disapproved. But the same poll found 56% still favored deporting illegal immigrants, and among that group, 65% approved of ICE’s conduct.

Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way, has argued that immigration should not be Democrats’ first message to voters because it is not their top concern — but that ignoring the issue is also a mistake. Democrats “cannot allow Republicans to be the only party offering a vision” on immigration, she told Newsweek.

Parents Sue California School For Taking Students on ‘Field Trip’ to Mosque – Girls Told to Wear Hijabs, Given Qurans

 The very definition of Creeping Sharia – and it’s unconstitutional.

Parents are suing Palo Alto High School in California after the students were taken on a ‘field trip’ to a Mosque last fall and given Qurans as a part of the school’s “Social Justice Pathway” program.

The female students were told to wear an Islamic head covering (hijab). 

Parents of former Jewish students, a Hindu parent, and a Zoroastrian parent filed a lawsuit against Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto Unified School District, and the school’s principal, Brent Kline.

The lawsuit alleges that photos of the children were posted online without the parents’ consent.

The children were also exposed to Zahra Billoo, a radical Islamic activist and executive director of the Bay Area’s office of terror-linked CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).

Zahra Billoo slammed the parents who filed the lawsuit in a statement to The San Francisco Chronicle and accused them of attempting to intimidate the school districts. 

“Public schools and the government have an obligation to remain neutral toward religion, but what neutrality does not mean is shielding students entirely,” Billoo said. “The job of educators is to teach students, and expose them to different worldviews. That’s what happened here.”

“One of the most important ways we combat hate is to learn about each other,” Billoo said. “I am concerned that this group of parents not only wants to counteract that for their own children… but is attempting to intimidate schools and school districts from doing necessary work of educating the next generation.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis this summer announced his intent to designate CAIR as a terrorist organization.

The California Post reported:

Parents of Bay Area high school students taken on a field trip to a mosque are suing over the visit — alleging students were encouraged to wear hijabs and given Qurans.

A group representing two Jewish parents of Palo Alto High School students, three former Jewish students, a Hindu parent and a Zoroastrian parent is suing the school over claims the children were exposed to the idea that Islam was aligned with social justice work.

The group, Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools, says students in the school’s Social Justice Pathway program took a trip to the mosque last fall and were handed Qurans while female students were encouraged to wear hijabs, the Islamic face covering viewed by some as oppressive to women.

The lawsuit also alleges photos of the students were taken and posted online without parental consent.

Palo Alto Unified School District and Palo Alto High School principal Brent Kline were also named in the lawsuit.

Public schools across the country are busing American Christian and Jewish children to mosques.

A Texas public school recently came under fire for taking students to an Islamic center to “experience Islam firsthand” – Jihad included?

WATCH:

DNC Formally Adopts Resolution Calling For Abolishing ICE

 The Democratic National Committee adopted a resolution Saturday urging congressional Democrats to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alongside a competing measure calling only for reforms to the agency, at the party’s summer meeting in Austin, Texas.

The abolition measure, known as Resolution 27, cleared the DNC’s Resolutions Committee on Thursday in a 25-12 vote with one abstention before heading to the full membership, Newsweek reported. Both resolutions were bundled into a larger package and approved by the full membership on a unanimous voice vote, according to the Washington Times. The vote is nonbinding and does not change the party platform for 2028.

The reform measure, sponsored by DNC Chairman Ken Martin, drew broader support in committee than the abolition proposal.

The vote comes amid internal party debates over immigration policy ahead of this year’s midterm elections as President Donald Trump expands deportation efforts. In July, border czar Tom Homan said ICE was on schedule to set arrest records for a second consecutive month and described the push as “deportation-maxxing.”

The resolution calls on Democratic members of Congress to enact legislation dissolving ICE and winding down the immigration detention system. It seeks to restrict Department of Homeland Security funding unless certain enforcement activities end, including workplace raids, mass roundups, arrests at courthouses, arrests at ICE check-ins, and actions near schools and houses of worship. It also calls for terminating contracts with private detention providers.

Martin said official party platforms are set every four years at the national convention, and argued Democrats are still united in opposing the administration’s enforcement approach even as they split over what should replace it.

“Our official party positions are determined at the convention every four years in our platform,” Martin said in a statement to Newsweek. “However, clearly, the one thing that unites Democrats, regardless of their position on reform versus abolish or whatever other ways to change what’s happening, is people believe that what ICE is doing right now and CBP and the federal government should stop. There has to be a better way.”

The White House criticized the action. Spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Newsweek on Saturday:

“Extreme radical Democrats want to abolish ICE and defund the police. Instead of trying to abolish ICE, Democrats should be thanking ICE law enforcement officers for putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members from American communities. Many of these criminals were released from jails by Democrat radical politicians. President Trump’s efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens from American communities is already delivering results including the lowest murder rate in 125 years.”

The resolution also calls for closing detention facilities, releasing most immigration detainees, and expanding civil rights oversight.

Michele Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana who proposed the abolition measure, said Democrats need to take a clear position, pointing to the dissolution of ICE’s predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as precedent, according to the Associated Press.

“I think one of the reasons why people are not trusting the party is because we sound so academic,” she said. “We sound focus group tested, we sound poll tested because we’re worried about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing and not just like, just stand on business, like take a position.”

DNC member Yvonne Reeves-Chong voted against it, saying it would win over only part of the party’s base while drawing fire from another group of voters, according to the AP.

“I would strongly suggest we get to the business of winning races so we can make the policies that make a difference,” she said.

Earlier this year, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stopped short of calling for ICE’s elimination while demanding reforms such as banning face coverings for agents, requiring visible identification, and restricting enforcement near schools and churches.

Polling suggests voters are focused elsewhere. Marquette Law School’s most recent national survey, released August 5, found inflation and the cost of living ranked as the top issue for 35% of adults, with immigration and border security at 5% — down from 14% in January.

The same poll found Trump’s overall approval had risen to 40%, his first uptick in a Marquette survey this term, and border security was the only issue on which he cleared 50% approval.

ICE itself remains unpopular. A Marquette survey conducted in late January found 40% of adults approved of the agency’s job performance and 60% disapproved. But the same poll found 56% still favored deporting illegal immigrants, and among that group, 65% approved of ICE’s conduct.

Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way, has argued that immigration should not be Democrats’ first message to voters because it is not their top concern — but that ignoring the issue is also a mistake. Democrats “cannot allow Republicans to be the only party offering a vision” on immigration, she told Newsweek.

El-Sayed To Headline Convention With Cleric Who Loves Child Marriage

 Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed will spend Labor Day weekend speaking at a Muslim conference alongside an antisemitic cleric who said he forced his 13-year-old niece into marriage.

El-Sayed, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan, is slated to speak at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention, held in Detroit from September 4-7, The Washington Free Beacon reported. ISNA was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, and a judge ruled in 2009 that the government had presented “ample evidence” tying the group to Hamas.

Also on the convention roster is Tariq Masood, a Pakistani cleric who has urged followers to marry off their young female relatives, citing his own niece’s marriage at 13.

Masood is scheduled to moderate a panel on “avoiding mental illness in youth” aimed at addressing how parents “can prevent or minimize the impact of any trauma leading to a mental illness.” He will moderate that session alongside ISNA president Syed Imtiaz Ahmad, who is separately listed on El-Sayed’s own panel, according to the convention itinerary.

Masood has also preached against Jews. In a 2024 sermon titled “The Final Humiliation of the Jews,” he said Jews’ “cunning minds” had worked to bring the world under their control, according to translations reviewed by the Free Beacon. “The Quran condemns Jews,” he said, adding that “not all Jews are the same” before claiming no other community in the world matched Jews for “evil and turmoil.”

The El-Sayed campaign told The Daily Wire on Saturday that the Democrat “does not endorse” anyone speaking at the conference.

“Abdul is not affiliated with and does not endorse any other participant of the conference,” a spokeswoman for the campaign said. “He is scheduled to participate in a different panel at the ISNA conference to speak on unity and commitment to justice in public service.”

El-Sayed is scheduled to speak on a panel titled “Cultivating God Awareness in a Turmoiled America.” Ahmad is listed on that panel as well, alongside Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks founder and uncle of America-hating streamer Hasan Piker.

El-Sayed’s panel discussion is advertised as a way to push Muslim Americans and their faith into the public square.

“In this storm, remaining principled, morally clear, and emotionally steady is essential for Muslim Americans,” the ISNA wrote. “ISNA meets the moment by framing taqwa (God-Awareness) not only as personal piety but as a public strategy for success. It urges the Muslim community to mobilize taqwa to uphold unity, ethical integrity, and an uncompromised commitment to justice. This session turns taqwa into actionable guidance, equipping participants not merely to survive but to thrive in workplaces, schools, digital spaces, and community life — and to succeed on their own terms.”

 

El-Sayed’s ties to ISNA are also familial and financial. His father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, has sat on the group’s founders committee since at least 2007 and also serves on the board of CAIR’s Michigan chapter, according to the Free Beacon. Jukaku has given $300,000 to a super PAC backing El-Sayed’s Senate bid.

Another scheduled speaker is Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn imam who testified as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “blind sheikh” convicted in 1995 of plotting a wave of New York terror attacks. Prosecutors listed Wahhaj among roughly 170 people who might be named as co-conspirators in that case, though he was never charged and the lead prosecutor has said inclusion on the list did not mean the government alleged he was a conspirator.

The leftist Democratic Senate nominee narrowly won his party’s primary earlier this month pushing a far-Left agenda that includes Medicare for all and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In the recent past, he has also called to defund the police and restructure the U.S. Supreme Court, both issues that are pushed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). While El-Sayed has said that he doesn’t identify as a socialist, the Democrat rode a wave of DSA support in his primary election.

El-Sayed campaigned alongside Hasan Piker ahead of the primary and has resisted calls to cut ties with him, dismissing Piker’s claim that “America deserved 9/11” as a “dumb statement.” Asked on Meet the Press whether he would campaign with the communist streamer again, El-Sayed said he was “a lot more focused on who I’m campaigning to.”