Author: Sarah Fortinsky

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie condemned the reported deployment of federal immigration officers to his city, saying the operation is meant to incite “chaos and violence,” rather than reduce crime. “In cities across the country, masked immigration officials are deployed to use aggressive enforcement tactics that instill fear, so people don’t feel safe going about their daily lives,” Lurie said in a 9-minute video statement. “These tactics are designed to incite backlash, chaos and violence, which are then used as an excuse to deploy military personnel,” he added. The statement came immediately after the deployment was first reported. Lurie spoke…

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) furloughed more than three-quarters of its staff Monday as the government nears its fourth week of a shutdown. A Department of Energy spokesperson told The Hill that 1,400 NNSA employees will be furloughed by the end of Monday, leaving fewer than 400 working at the agency, which is in charge of overseeing the nation’s nuclear stockpile. “Due to the Democrat shutdown, approximately 1,400 NNSA federal employees will be furloughed as of today, October 20th and nearly 400 NNSA federal employees will continue to work to support the protection of property and the safety of human life,” the spokesperson said…

Democrats in Congress called on President Trump to withdraw his nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) after a new report exposed text messages in which the nominee purportedly denounced the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and admitted to having a “Nazi streak in me from time to time.” Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.) — the top Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, respectively — wrote a letter to the president on Monday urging him to dismiss Paul Ingrassia from federal service and to withdraw…

Former Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) will not be required to pay any additional fines or restitution related to his criminal conviction, according to his clemency order, which was made public on Monday. Santos was released from prison Friday after President Trump announced that he signed a sentence commutation for the former lawmaker, who reported to prison three months ago to begin his 87-month sentence. The clemency order grants Santos “an immediate commutation of his entire sentence to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions.” Santos — who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated…

Actor Jon Cryer said on Sunday he was proud to be part of the “resistance cringe” after he was featured in the background of a news photograph from the “No Kings” protests this weekend. In a post on the social platform Bluesky, the “Two and a Half Men” actor highlighted the image, which was featured in a piece in The Atlantic titled “Resistance Is Cringe — But It’s Also Effective.” The image showed a sea of people holding pro-democracy signs and American flags and surrounding a massive banner depicting a scroll with the words “We the People” in large print,…

President Trump on Sunday called this weekend’s “No Kings” demonstrations against him a “joke” and rejected suggestions that he is acting like a monarch. “I’m not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That’s all it is. I’m not a king at all,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One while flying back to Washington, D.C. from Florida. Millions of Americans gathered at “No Kings” events across the country on Saturday, protesting Trump and his administration. Roughly 2,600 demonstrations took place in all 50 states, with massive events in cities including Washington, New York, Chicago and Los…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Sunday that his state is targeting professors pushing “leftist ideologies” as he shared news of the latest college educator allegedly fired over their beliefs. In a post on social media, Abbott shared an Axios article about a University of Texas professor, Art Markman, who said the school’s leadership dismissed him from his administrative role in September “due to ideological differences.” “Univ. of Texas professor was dismissed from an administrative post overseeing university academic affairs because of ideological differences,” Abbott wrote, echoing the professor’s own statement. “Texas is targeting professors who are more focused on…

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday said the “No Kings” protests against President Trump this weekend were a “stunt” created by Democrats because they needed “cover” amid the ongoing government shutdown. In an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” Johnson suggested there was no need for Trump’s critics to join No Kings demonstrations this weekend, saying the very fact that the protests took place is proof that they were not necessary. “The irony of the message is pretty clear for everyone. If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now. If President Trump was a king,…

Longtime conservative pollster Kellyanne Conway, who successfully ran President Trump’s 2016 campaign, recalled fielding numerous high-paying offers before she accepted a job in the first Trump administration as senior counselor to the president. In an interview on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” Conway said prospective buyers and clients flocked to her polling firm after she shepherded Trump’s campaign to victory, in what Conway acknowledged came as a surprise to some political observers. “I will say this: I was also staring at a goldmine of life-changing money because Trump won. People weren’t expecting it,” Conway said on the podcast. “I said, ‘We…

GOP strategist Karl Rove predicted Saturday that deploying National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities, over the objections of their respective states’ governors, will ultimately be a losing issue for President Trump. In an interview on Fox News’s “The Journal Editorial Report,” Rove pointed to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showing 58 percent of U.S. adults say the president should only deploy troops to areas with external threats — a view held by 72 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Republicans and 53 percent who identify as “other.” Only 37 percent of the public say the president should be able to send…