(DCNF)—MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said the “complete failure of government” in California allowed for the destruction of residences and communities by the five wildfires that set ablaze in areas of Los Angeles.
The city lacked the budget to adequately fill fire hydrants which allowed for the destruction of thousands of homes and the deaths of at least 10 people. Scarborough said it is still unknown what has caused Newsom’s administration’s “complete failure” to protect Californians’ homes and livelihoods, and argued that the lack of readiness by state governments to properly handle natural disasters has been a recurring phenomenon for several years.
“Happy Friday, if we can even say that with just the hellscape that is Los Angeles … We don’t know the exact causes for the complete failure of government to be able to protect these homes, I don’t think we can say it’s the smelt alone,” Scarborough said. “We don’t know what it is. But I do think it is going to be like Hurricane Katrina. I mean, the infrastructure has been slashed. You can’t just say it’s [Los Angeles Mayor] Karen Bass, you can’t just say it’s Gavin Newsom. This has been a trend for 30 years. Infrastructure has been slashed across America and you do have climate change, so you have wildfires sweeping into urban areas. They’re kind of like fighting the last war.”
“But I just … the longer we get into this, the more I think about how New Orleans didn’t invest in their levee system, how they didn’t invest in critical infrastructure, and people died because of it. It’s just hard to hear people say in one of the richest cities in the world say ‘Oh, we don’t have enough water to protect people’s homes,’” Scarborough continued.
An analysis from OpenTheBooks, a government transparency organization, found that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) lacked the budget to adequately fund fire hydrants despite having received substantial taxpayer-funded salaries. Several fire hydrants in the impacted areas ran dry and failed to combat the flames that spread across hundreds of neighborhoods.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley committed significant resources to an internal “racial equity plan” and other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Over 100,000 residents in Pacific Palisades, Eaton Canyon and other communities had to evacuate their homes, with thousands returning to find their houses in ashes, according to the Los Angeles Times. Residents impacted by the fires told the Daily Caller News Foundation Wednesday that they were told to evacuate without warning and unexpectedly lost their houses and personal belongings.
EATON FIRE: Additional footage from today #California | #Altadena | #CaliforniaWildfires pic.twitter.com/FNUBvJMkm0
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 9, 2025
EATON FIRE: Another shot from tonight obtained by @DailyCaller News Foundation. Being told winds are still pushing embers around making it incredibly hectic for officials to slow anything down. #Pasadena | #California pic.twitter.com/sqf1qlR3bl
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 8, 2025
Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass traveled to Ghana for the inauguration of Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama as the fires raged across her constituents’ backyards. Sky News reporter David Blevins caught the mayor off guard Wednesday as he asked if she owes an apology to the citizens of Los Angeles.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—An emotional mother personally impacted by the wildfires confronted Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday and begged him to answer how he will help Californians affected by the natural disaster.
The woman, whose daughter’s school burned down, approached the governor in her neighborhood demanding to know how he plans to aid the communities devastated by the five destructive fires that rapidly spread across parts of Los Angeles. Newsom claimed he was attempting to call President Joe Biden, leading the woman to bluntly tell him she did not believe he was about to call the president.
“Can I hear it? Because I don’t believe it,” the woman said. Newsom claimed that he tried “five times” to make the call, prompting the mother to ask why the president was not taking his calls.
“It’s not going through, so I have to get cell service,” Newsom explained.
“Let’s get it, let’s get it, I want to be here when you call the president,” she responded.
“I appreciate [that], I’m doing that right now and we need to get immediate reimbursements, individual assistance to help you. I’m devastated for you, I’m so sorry, especially for your daughter,” Newsom said.
The woman then asked Newsom why the state’s hydrants lacked the water needed to put out the fires. The governor assured her that he is taking all of the necessary steps to provide Californians with the necessary resources before cutting the conversation short and stepping into his vehicle.
“What are you gonna do? I would fill up [the hydrants] personally you know that,” she said. “I would fill up all of the hydrants myself. But would you do that?”
“I would do whatever I can,” the governor replied.
“But you’re not,” she interjected. “I see — do you know there’s water dripping over there, governor? There’s water coming out of there, you can use it.”
“I appreciate that, I’m gonna make the call to address everything I can right now, including making sure people are safe,” the governor answered.
An analysis from OpenTheBooks, a government transparency organization, said that Los Angeles lacked the budget to fund adequate fire hydrants despite the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) having received substantial taxpayer-funded salaries. Several fire hydrants in the state ran dry as the LADWP and fire department officials attempted to combat the flames that destroyed thousands of homes, neighborhoods and communities in the area.
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 9, 2025
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley committed significant resources to an internal “racial equity plan” and other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Over 100,000 people had to evacuate their homes and at least five people have died, though officials believe the death toll is higher, according to the Los Angeles Times. About 1,000 homes in Pacific Palisades and the same number of residences in Eaton Canyon perished after the areas were set ablaze.
Residents told the Daily Caller News Foundation Wednesday that they did not expect their homes and personal belongings to completely perish, and that they received notice to evacuate without any prior warning.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, the longtime husband of “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin, is being accused of fraudulently billing an insurance company in a new lawsuit filed in December, the Daily Mail first reported Tuesday.
Hostin, an orthopedic surgeon, is among nearly 200 defendants named in one of the largest RICO cases filed in New York, according to the Daily Mail. Hostin, along with the other defendants, are accused of performing fraudulent healthcare services and billing American Transit, an insurance firm that covers taxi companies and Uber drivers, in exchange for “kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions,” according to the lawsuit.
Sunny Hostin's surgeon husband Emmanuel accused of insurance fraud in bombshell lawsuit https://t.co/LE77GwP15U pic.twitter.com/7uSl5U0NJY
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) January 7, 2025
The lawsuit, filed on Dec. 17, states that Hostin has been the owner of Hostin Orthopaedics in New York City since February 2006, according to the lawsuit. He allegedly “knowingly provided fraudulent medical and other healthcare services” and billed the insurance company.
“Defendant Hostin is the record owner of Hostin Orthopaedics and purportedly provided examinations to Covered Persons through Hostin Orthopaedics, and fraudulently billed American Transit for medical and other healthcare services, pursuant to a fraudulent predetermined treatment protocol irrespective of medical necessity in exchange for kickbacks and/or other financial compensation paid by one or more of the Controllers and/or other entities owned, controlled, and operated by them and/or one or more of the John Does 2 through 20 or ABC Corporations 1 through 20,” the lawsuit stated.
William Natbony, an attorney representing the insurance company, said his client is fighting “no fault fraud” which has reportedly become a major problem in the state of New York.
“American Transit filed a lawsuit as part of its statutory responsibility to fight such fraud,” Natbony said.
Daniel Thwaites, an attorney for Hostin, said his client denies all of the allegations and called the lawsuit a “blanket, scattershot, meritless lawsuit by a near-bankrupt insurance carrier,” according to the Daily Mail. The attorney accused the insurance company of “abusing the legal system to limit and restrict healthcare benefits” to its customers.
“[The lawsuit] is meant to intimidate and harass doctors from collecting for care given to American Transit insureds and their passengers,” Thwaites said.
The lawsuit accused Hostin of seeing two patients in January 2023 who were involved in “low impact” collisions that would have caused “no more than soft tissue injuries,” according to the Daily Mail. The surgeon reportedly performed arthroscopic surgery on the patients within two months without checking to see if they had recovered through less invasive care.
The insurance company pointed fingers at the “No-Fault Law,” a New York law from 1974 which requires insurers to pay up to $50,000 for medical expenses for those hurt in car accidents regardless of who is at fault, for the reported rise in “rampant” insurance fraud, the Daily Mail reported. American Transit is seeking $450 million in damages, according to the Daily Mail.
Hostin’s wife, Sunny, has previously worked as a federal prosecutor and an attorney for the Justice Department before joining “The View” as a co-host in 2016.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—A CNN panel got into a heated exchange Wednesday as panelist Maria Cardona accused President-elect Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk of “having no interest in governing” due to their opposition to the continuing resolution (CR).
The 1,574 page spending package would temporarily extend government funding levels through March 14, 2025, by approving hundreds of billions in spending to avoid a shutdown, which would provide pay raises for all congressional members and $100 billion in disaster relief. Cardona accused Trump and Musk of being incompetent and unable to govern after they came out against the legislation.
“The problem is Donald Trump has now put on the table, ‘don’t do anything with the bill unless you raise the debt limit.’ That’s insane! It takes months to negotiate a debt limit,” Cardona said. “So, I don’t think that the majority of the people voted willingly for this. The people voted for somebody, a group of people [and] a group of leaders to govern. And what Donald Trump and Elon Musk and [Vivek] Ramaswamy and Speaker [Mike] Johnson are now proving is that they have absolutely no ability to govern and perhaps, worse than that, not even an interest in governing.”
Gail Huff Brown, a former Republican congressional candidate in New Hampshire, argued no flawed bill should be passed and criticized the raise for congressmen and senators. Members of Congress, who currently earn a base salary of $174,000 annually, would receive a maximum salary increase of $6,600 if President Joe Biden signs the CR into law.
Arthur Adala, a veteran New York trial attorney, argued Musk has an exceptional track record of running companies and has the credibility to advise Trump on important policy issues.
“[Musk] also has a pretty darn good track record of running companies. I mean, he took people to space,” Adala said. “That’s not just like running Fords Motor Company or Tesla, he took people to space. His stock is through the roof. He obviously has the credibility of many Americans, many Americans who own that Tesla stock in their portfolio and watching it go through the roof. So it’s not like Donald Trump is asking a guy who’s failed, after failure, after bankruptcy, he’s asking a pretty smart dude.”
Cardona then argued that Musk is attempting to harm the same government that provided him with billions of dollars to help start his businesses, leading Adala to once again come to Musk’s defense by saying he knows how the government works.
“You know what’s so ironic about what you said? How many billions of dollars did Elon get from the government in order to start those companies? And now he wants to blow it up?” Cardona said.
“Well now you’re contradicting yourself,” Adala replied. “Because you’re saying he knows how the government works. You just said he doesn’t know how the government works, but he knows how to get the money, so he knows how it works.”
Musk, the co-head of the president-elect’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said Wednesday that any lawmaker who votes in favor of the CR should be voted out in the 2026 midterm elections. Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk’s DOGE partner, called on the bill to be voted down over its “special interests and ‘pork’ funding.”
Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance said Wednesday that the Democrats must eliminate or extend the debt ceiling under Biden’s watch and called on Congress to pass a “streamlined spending bill” in June 2025 that does not grant “Democrats everything they want.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg accused Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of fat shaming heavyset Americans by encouraging healthy lifestyle choices over weight-loss drugs during a Thursday segment.
Kennedy has repeatedly accused the medical industry of prescribing medications rather than encouraging good lifestyle choices, telling CNBC’s Jim Cramer Thursday that Americans should first rely on healthy lifestyle choices and nutritious diets before being prescribed GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. Goldberg argued that Kennedy’s encouragement for healthy lifestyle choices is “setting folks up for shame” and said she relied on medication to lose weight. (RELATED: RFK Jr. Wants Fluoride Out Of Water — And It’s Not Nearly As Crazy As His Detractors Claim)
“This isn’t just about food,” Goldberg said. “This is sometimes — people are born genetically larger. But I want to say this to [Kennedy], because you’re setting folks up for shame … Maybe you don’t know you’re doing it, I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m gonna say you don’t know, you don’t realize what you do to people when you say stuff like that because it doesn’t work for everybody and I’m gonna show you sir, because I weight close to 300 [pounds] less than 2 years ago, and without the Mounjaro, this would not have happened.”
After showing off her weight-loss, Goldberg said medications can prevent cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who will co-lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), argued in an X post Wednesday that lowering the costs of “GLP inhibitors” would “improve the health, lifespan and quality of life” of Americans. Medicare is not currently allowed to cover medications for the purpose of weight-loss alone, but will cover GLP-1 drugs for patients with Type 2 diabetes, according to ABC News.
Musk’s post came in response to the ongoing discourse about the current healthcare system following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. His alleged murderer, Luigi Mangione, wrote a three-paged document lamenting UnitedHealthcare and other corporations for its alleged “abuse” of Americans to make “immense profit,” according to a published copy of the note.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy said there is a “faction” of jurors in the Daniel Penny trial that have bought into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s alleged racial narrative.
Jurors told Judge Maxwell Wiley on Friday that they were at a “deadlock” in their deliberations on the verdict, leading the judge to dismiss the second-degree manslaughter charge and leave the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide up for consideration. As the jurors continued their deliberations Monday, McCarthy told “America’s Newsroom” that the trial will likely result in a mistrial due to several jurors believing in Bragg’s “racialized” framing of the case.
“Let’s remember what Bragg was pushing for up until Friday was the recklessness charge which carried a 15-year penalty,” McCarthy said. “So, I don’t see any change in the position of the DA, I see a change in the strategy of someone who couldn’t get the count that he was pushing for so now he’s onto this other count. But as far as this overcharging is concerned, look, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about two cases from Bragg. This case, where he overcharged it to push for a compromised verdict, and the other case which was at most a single transaction business record case and turned it into 34 felonies. So that’s what we’re dealing with here.”
“You have to wonder if some jurors think that they’re basically being brought back to court everyday until they finally convict this guy of something,” McCarthy continued. “My own view of it is that you probably have two factions on the jury, one that’s bought into this racialized presentation by the DA’s office that wants Penny convicted because [Jordan] Neely died whether Penny was actually responsible for that or not, and then you have another faction of jurors who think nothing should happen here, this guy should be acquitted. And what I assume is probably going to happen is after a day or two, it will be clear that we have a stalemate there will be a mistrial. I’d like to see him get acquitted, but it’s hard to believe that’ll happen given that there were some jurors, at least one, who was willing to convict him on the recklessness which I don’t even think there’s any evidence for.”
Bragg charged Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, over the death of 30-year-old homeless man Jordan Neely after the defendant restrained him in a chokehold on a subway in New York City in May 2023. Neely allegedly screamed at commuters in an “aggressive” and threatening manner by throwing his jacket on the ground and telling passengers he did not care if he went to jail, prompting Penny to take action.
A Manhattan medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide in May 2023, further prompting Bragg to press charges against Penny. The now-dismissed manslaughter charge came with a potential 15-year prison sentence, while the negligent homicide charges comes with a maximum four-year sentence.
In a separate case, Bragg charged President-elect Donald Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an $130,000 hush money payment to former porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. A jury convicted Trump on every felony count in May, though Judge Juan Merchan indefinitely delayed the sentencing date following the election and permitted the president-elect’s legal team to file a motion to dismiss the case.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—Fox Business host Charles Payne called out the alleged “huge double standard” of President Joe Biden’s family Tuesday by revealing that his brother, who struggles with a crack addiction, is currently serving a jail sentence.
Payne said his brother, who is getting out of jail on Friday, is likely one of the first Americans to struggle with an addiction to crack cocaine and may likely start using the substance again once he is free. He accused Biden of participating in elitism in order to save his son from jail time while everyday Americans struggling with addiction have had to face the consequences for their crimes.
“Hearing Democrats try to justify what Biden is doing with his son because his son has a drug habit is just heartbreaking,” Payne said on “America’s Newsroom.” “I’m gonna tell you something right now, and I probably shouldn’t say this. My brother’s getting out of jail on Friday. My brother was among the first 100 crack addicts in America. At least the first 1 out of 200. In the hood, when he came upstairs and told us about crack and how great it was, I had never heard of it before. I kind of don’t want him to come out of jail because before he went in, he stopped my aunt’s house and he didn’t have shoes on in the middle of winter.”
Payne accused black Democrats of remaining silent on the pardoning of Hunter despite the crack issue being a detriment to their community. (RELATED: Jonathan Turley Breaks Down How Hunter Biden Could Face ‘Additional Charges’ In The Future Despite Being Pardoned)
“What’s happening with the Biden’s, and this is the ultimate sign of elitism, and just of entitlement gone amok … Where are black Democrats saying this is such a huge double standard? That if this was Donald Trump and anyone in his family, there would be people in the streets screaming. Now if you want to use this as a way of saying ‘hey, we need to find more ways of reforming and helping everyone out and not just Hunter Biden,’ but this has hurt our community so badly and no one’s immune from it,” Payne continued.
“And listen, I wish I could be there waiting for [his brother] when he gets out on Friday, but I can’t,” he added. “I wish I could be there to hold his hand and everything, I can’t. We talked about this. He’s probably going to go back to smoking crack even though he hasn’t had it for a year. He was the smartest one in my family growing up, he’s a great person in his heart, and he could’ve been a great American. It’s a slap in the face to everyone that Joe Biden gets to do this. It really is, it’s a slap in the face for anyone whose family members had gone to jail for doing stupid stuff.”
Biden issued a “full and unconditional” pardon for his son on Sunday regarding any crime he is charged with or may have committed from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024. The president alleged that his political opponents “singled out” Hunter by charging him for crimes that almost no American allegedly gets prosecuted for having committed, including writing false information on a gun purchase form and paying back their taxes past the deadline.
A Delaware jury convicted Hunter in June on three felony charges related to his purchase of a gun in 2018 while knowingly being addicted to drugs and for writing false information on a gun purchase form. He faced up to 17 years in prison over nine charges relating to his alleged failure to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 in California.
The pardon further protects Hunter from facing any potential charges regarding an alleged influence peddling scheme in his overseas business dealings in Ukraine, China and Romania.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—A CNN panel said South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law could somehow be comparable to President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency during a Tuesday segment.
Yeol made the declaration during an unannounced Tuesday television address where he accused the country’s opposition Democratic Party of sympathizing with North Korea and of intending to incite a “rebellion,” which lawmakers later voted to block and overturn the measure within hours. The CNN panel claimed this event should be a warning bell for Americans as Trump is about to take office, citing his statements to use the military to stop rioting in the streets.
“Obviously, we around the table should talk about why this should be an important thing for Americans to pay attention to, particularly given that Donald Trump is about to be president in a number of weeks, who has said wants to use the military to go after his own enemies,” CNN White House correspondent MJ Lee said.
Trump said during a Fox News interview in October that he would support deploying the National Guard or the military if necessary to stop “outside agitators” who would have potentially caused violence in the streets on Election Day. Democrats and the liberal media accused him of preparing to use the military to arrest his political opponents he deems as an “enemy of within,” including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff.
“You talked about, shocking, the parallels of January 6, just the image of a democracy facing this kind of crisis, I think people are scared about or sort of Democrats are scared about when they think about Trump’s return,” Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan said. “Because he has encouraged the use of force to achieve political goals or try to achieve a political goal on January 6 or at least played with it. And he’s talked about now pardoning some of these folks on January 6, the rioters, insurrectionists, whatever you want to call them.”
The liberal media, Democrats and the White House all attempted to paint Trump as a threat to democracy and accused him of being a “fascist” before the 2024 election in large part due to the events that took place at the Capitol riot. Despite the messaging, Trump won all seven battleground states and became the first Republican presidential nominee to win the popular vote since 2004.
The now-president-elect stated in June 2020 that he would deploy “all available resources” including members of the military, to tackle the violent riots roaming across Washington D.C. and other major cities in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. He urged governors throughout the U.S. to deploy the National Guard to counter the rioters, looters and lawlessness dominating the streets.
Colorado, Maine and Illinois attempted to remove Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, as they accused Trump of engaging in an insurrection in the aftermath of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The Supreme Court later overturned in March by ruling that a state does not have the power to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—John Phillips, the stepfather of the late Laken Riley, emotionally read one of her final journal entries addressed to her “future husband” following the Wednesday conviction of her killer.
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard found Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, guilty on all ten counts of killing Riley outside of the University of Georgia’s campus on Feb. 22 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As the family pleaded for Ibarra to serve a life sentence without parole, Phillips read words Riley wrote in her entry on Jan. 17, 2023, where she promised to be a loving, God-fearing future wife and mother to her future family.
“I think one of her last journal entries dated 12/17/23 says it best, so here we go: ‘To my future husband, as silly as I feel writing this, my old small group leader once recommended it, so here I am,” Phillips read. “‘To my future husband, I want you to know that I’m thinking about you and working everyday to become the best wife I can be by working through my current relationships to best prepare me for ours and our kids one day. I’m focusing on God and what he defines as a faithful, Christian life and so that I can best embody those characteristics. I pray that you know that it is with my full faith and trust in God that I know that this relationship has been handcrafted by Him. I pray that we continue to glorify the Lord, prioritizing him in every aspect of our lives, and raise our family, our future family to be God-fearing Christians as well.’”
“‘I pray God is the singer of our relationship as it is a gift from Him, I thank Him for you before I even know you. I can’t wait to love you in the best way I know how for the rest of our lives,’” her stepfather read. “‘I pray you know and feel the importance of our love and hopes for our relationship. No matter what challenges we face, I pray that our trust in God and for one another overrules the obstacle. May our relationship last forever, Your future wife, Laken.’ That your Honor was our beautiful Laken. That your Honor is just a glimpse of what was tragically and brutally taken from her and us that day.”
The convicted murderer, who unlawfully entered in September 2022, abducted Riley while she was on a jog and murdered her by causing blunt force trauma to the head with an inanimate object. The judge found Ibarra guilty of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing or hindering a 9-1-1 call, tampering with evidence and being a peeping tom.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Ibarra had entered the U.S. illegally through an entryway near El Paso, Texas, and was released into the country on parole due to the lack of detention space at the time. He was later arrested for allegedly acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 years old in New York City, according to ICE.
His former roommate, Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello, testified during a Monday hearing that she and Ibarra traveled from New York City to Athens, Georgia, after requesting a “humanitarian flight” in September 2023, four months before Riley’s murder.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>(DCNF)—Vanity Fair special correspondent Molly Jong-Fast told the co-hosts of “Morning Joe” Wednesday that the media needs to quit heavily covering President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged “offensive” language during his second administration.
Jong-Fast wrote in a Vanity Fair column Monday that expressing outrage over Trump’s remarks about women and “wokeness” only satisfies his supporters and is less dangerous than what he may do during his administration. The “Morning Joe” guest argued the media focused too heavily on Trump’s rhetoric throughout his first administration, and stated they should instead focus on Trump’s alleged threat to democracy and American institutions.
“We are in it for 4 years, this is gonna be a marathon, not a sprint. We need to protect norms and institutions and not focus on the aesthetic problem of Trumpism,” Jong-Fast said. “The first time there was a lot of ‘he used vulgar language,’ you know, offended by things and more focus on the norms and institutions. So, the war on woke is vague. You saw reporting that had these people, Trump voters, saying Trump had defeated woke. So that’s vague. But the structural things that Trump might do to try and fight woke could end up undermining democracy. So I feel like, more focused on democracy, democratic values, norms and institutions, the structures that keep America, America, and less focused on the aesthetic problems of Trumpism.”
Jong-Fast wrote in her piece that Trump’s tweets during his first administration distracted from the “actually terrifying things” the then-president did. She argued that his possible “outrageous” remarks that will be made in the upcoming 4 years should not get the same reactions.
“Will I be outraged? Obviously, Trump will do outrageous things. But in entering likely one of the most perilous moments for our democracy, we must focus on the assault on essential norms and institutions, because without them, we are lost,” she wrote.
The media, including “Morning Joe,” spent the entirety of the 2024 election season warning that Trump is a “threat to democracy” and will govern as a dictator, even likening him to former Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Scarborough accused Trump of being the single biggest “threat to democracy since the Civil War” and compared him to Hitler during a Sept. 23 segment, while one of their guests Claire McCaskill claimed he is “more dangerous than Hitler” during a November 2023 segment on the program.
Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Friday to discuss their concerns regarding policy issues, including abortion and illegal immigration.