'Patriot Act 2.0' — Lindsey Graham's DANGEROUS plan after Trump shooting



FBI whistleblower Steve Friend has a warning in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Trump — and it’s not for former President Trump.

“There was an exchange between deputy director Paul Abbate and Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, where to the layperson it seems reasonable the FBI wants to open up all avenues, remove the blindfold, have no blinders on, consider the fact that this could be assassination, this could be domestic terrorism,” Friend tells Jill Savage of “Blaze News Tonight.”

However, to the non-layperson — this could mean something more sinister.

“When you designate something as a domestic terrorist investigation, that enables you to make it classified, and when you have a classification code on there, you have to have a need to know in a security clearance,” Friend explains.

Because of that, the FBI can withhold information.

“The American people are not going to have the transparency that we ultimately need for this investigation,” he says.

While the FBI’s actions are concerning, that’s not Savage’s only concern.

“Lindsey Graham had a very concerning solution for the issues with the investigation,” Savage tells Friend.

“We have encrypted apps of an assassin, a murderer, and we can’t get into them all these days after,” Graham said. “That needs to be fixed folks. I’m all for privacy, but to a point.”

“What if, in the future, somebody’s using these apps to communicate with a foreign power. I think we need to know these things. We need to know them in real time,” he added.

Friend says that Graham’s suggestion would effectively render the Fourth Amendment a “dead letter, at that point.”

Graham’s use of the phrase “real time” is also concerning.

“Real time, which means continually monitoring it,” Friend explains.

“This is the government assuming that a tool will be used for ill, when it is just a tool. Because we don’t trust the government in this country. The job of law enforcement is not supposed to be easy. You’re supposed to have reasonable suspicion, probable cause, the burden is supposed to be there,” he adds.


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'Blaze News Tonight' RECAP: Elon Musk's Trump donation, Secret Service failure, and a Jan. 6 victory



In the wake of Trump’s near-assassinaton, Elon Musk has not only endorsed Donald Trump for president but has also pledged $45 million a month to a Trump-affiliated PAC, likely making him an even bigger target for the left. Corrupt Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) has been convicted on 16 counts, leading several Democrat senators to call for his resignation, even threatening to expel him if he refuses to step down. Next, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) gives her thoughts in an exclusive interview on Trump’s decision to appoint JD Vance as his running mate, as well as Biden’s calls for unity. Next, former Navy SEAL and security expert Erik Prince joins the show to shed light on the newly surfaced Iranian assassination plot, as well as the failure of the Secret Service not only at the rally but in general. However, there is a hopeful development in one January 6 case. A federal judge ordered the release of January 6 prisoner John Strand. Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker calls in to discuss the ruling.

Elon Musk Goes Full MAGA with Monthly $45M Trump Super PAC Pledge | Guest: Erik Prince | 7/16/24 www.youtube.com

Elon gets super political in super PAC donation

Senior politics editor and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media Christopher Bedford joins Jill and the panel on “Blaze News Tonight” from day two of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to discuss Elon Musk’s recent political moves and Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez’s conviction.

In regard to Musk’s donation pledge, Bedford says, “My gosh, he’s brave.”

Not only did Musk pledge “$45 million a month, a staggering amount of money,” to a Trump super PAC, but he also expressed his disapproval of Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bill that permits children to transition behind their parents’ backs by vowing to “move his space company to Texas.”

Further, Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, who Bedford says is “one of the more openly corrupt senators” and “an incredibly arrogant politician,” has been convicted on “federal corruption charges.”

Even “the Democrats just want him to go away,” says Bedford.

Further, Julio Rosas, Blaze Media’s national correspondent, who is also attending the RNC convention, spoke with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) about her thoughts regarding Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance.

“It’s the direction I want the party to go in, and that’s going to be America first,” Greene said of Vance.

To Biden’s calls for “unity,” Greene was candid: “If Joe Biden and the Democrats were serious about unity, he would completely stop the weaponized Department of Justice that he has enabled, he would reel back Merrick Garland, he would drop all the charges against President Trump, [and] he would release political prisoners who are being held in prison for years now for protesting election fraud.”

Secret Service failure and Kimberly Cheatle’s refusal to step down

The Secret Service is on high alert after reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump have surfaced. Former Navy SEAL and security expert Erik Prince joins the show to shed light on the threat.

“I think this is a desperate effort to deflect from a completely botched job of protecting the leading Republican candidate and front-runner for the next presidency,” Prince tells Jill, adding that he doesn’t give the threat “a whole lot of credibility.”

“We suffer from a from a whole collection of federal agencies that are bloated, obese, unaccountable, and ineffective, and we continue to steer away from a merit-based, execution-based excellent society to our detriment,” he continues, noting that had Trump been killed, “we could have literally torn the country asunder.”

When Prince points to the lack of merit in our federal agencies, he is, at least in part, referring to Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle’s DEI initiative to ensure 30% of the force is made up of women.

Even though Cheatle has technically “[taken] responsibility” for Trump’s near-assassination, she has nonetheless refused to step down from her position.

While the FBI has sworn to investigate Saturday’s unfortunate events, Jill questions the authenticity of their claims, given “the way that the federal agencies have handled Donald Trump-related issues in the past.”

Prince agrees, stating he has “zero confidence in the federal government being able to investigate itself.”

A January 6 victory

The tides have turned for one January 6 defendant, John Strand, who was ordered to be released by a federal judge this July.

Blaze News investigative journalist and fellow January 6 victim Steve Baker joins the show to explain the details of Strand’s case. Steve tells Jill and the panel that Strand is one of the more “high-profile cases” of all the January 6 defendants.

Strand attended the Capitol on January 6 because he was the friend and bodyguard of Dr. Simone Gold, who was deplatformed during the height of COVID for recommending “alternate therapies that were not part of the approved narrative from the administration.”

Dr. Gold was scheduled to speak at the Capitol that day — an event that was “legally permitted.” When the Oathkeepers and Strand escorted Dr. Gold to her speaking location, however, the chaos had already begun.

“John Strand and Simone Gold did not participate in violence; they did not participate in breaching the Capitol building whatsoever,” says Baker, “but when the doors opened, they, like so many hundreds and even thousands of others, did in fact go inside peacefully, and she actually decided to deliver her prepared remarks there in the Rotunda.”

After Dr. Gold delivered her speech, she and Strand “peacefully left.” However, both were “arrested very early on” and were “charged not only with a handful of misdemeanors,” but also with the “infamous 1512 obstruction of an official preceding felony, which carried up to 20 years potential imprisonment.”

While Gold ended up “taking a plea deal" involving “60 days in prison,” Strand decided that “he was going to be a warrior” and fight the charges. In the end, he was sentenced to “32 months in prison.”

“They committed exactly the same crimes, but because he wasted the government's time and he put them through the hassle of having to prepare for a trial … Simone got two months in prison and he got 32 months in prison,” says Baker.

However, the Supreme Court’s “overturning of 1512" led to Strand’s release.

'Blaze News Tonight' RECAP: Implications of Trump’s near-assassination, JD Vance, and eerie parallels between Trump and Roosevelt



Last weekend, President Trump came within a literal inch of death during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The following Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed his classified documents case due to the unconstitutionality of Jack Smith's involvement. BlazeTV host of “Stu Does America” Stu Burguiere joins "Blaze News Tonight" to discuss the historic last few days for Donald Trump and what they could mean come November. Next, Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford and Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas tune in from the RNC convention in Milwaukee to discuss President Trump's VP pick — Ohio Senator JD Vance — and the anti-Trump protests raging in the streets outside the convention. Next, the panel discusses the group of attendees at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally who witnessed the shooter mount the roof and who called for help but were ignored. Former intelligence analyst for the Department of Defense and chief researcher for Glenn Beck Jason Buttrill joins to break down the failure of the Secret Service to protect former President Donald Trump from danger. Lastly, BlazeTV host of "The Glenn Beck Program" and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck joins the show to discuss the parallels between the attempted assassination of Trump and that of President Theodore Roosevelt.

'America’s Hitler'?! Biden’s Unity Message TANKS After Trump Picks JD Vance for VP | 7/15/24www.youtube.com

Historic days for Donald Trump

At a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, former president Donald Trump was nearly assassinated when a shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire from a nearby rooftop, hitting Trump in the ear. Two days later, Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Trump’s classified documents case, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed.

“This is probably one of the craziest sequences of events that I've ever seen in politics,” says BlazeTV’s Stu Burguiere.

“To just have a bullet go through your ear, you're an inch away from dying, to have the presence of mind to stand up there and raise your fist and show America that … not only did this not hurt you, but we're going to keep going is one of the most incredible moments — the most bada** moment — I've ever seen,” he tells Jill.

According to Stu, Trump’s bold display of courage will likely result in “a bump” for him, meaning that people who have never considered voting for him before may find themselves “crossing that line for the first time because there is something really, truly American” about “the way [Trump] reacted.”

Further, Stu suspects the mainstream media will soften toward Trump for a while and conveniently “forget about all the rhetoric” it’s been spreading about his similarity to Hitler.

“You call somebody Hitler over and over and over again, it's going to create an impression among some unstable people that the correct, moral thing to do is to take him out,” says Stu, suggesting that the media’s rhetoric is at least partially to blame for Trump’s almost-assassination.

Republicans unite at Milwaukee RNC Convention, anti-Trump protests rage on

According to Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford, currently attending the RNC convention in Milwaukee, the events that occurred over the weekend seem to be unifying the right.

“The Republicans were already set to walk into this week more unified than the Democratic Party by an absolute long shot, but the historic deadly attack and the attempted assassination that we watched on television on Saturday has even heightened that,” says Bedford, adding that the spectrum of Republicans coming together ranges from warmongering Nikki Haley to 50 Cent.

As for Trump’s VP pick — Ohio Senator JD Vance — Bedford alleges that the majority of convention attendees seem “thrilled with this decision,” but there are certain individuals, “some of the old Tea Party conservatives,” for example, who are not so thrilled.

“What choosing Vance says — a young senator, 39 [years old], in his first term, a rising star, telegenic, intelligent — is it allows the MAGA movement to know that there's some kind of future, a potential successor, after Trump's second term in office if he wins,” Bedford explains.

For all the unity among Republicans, however, there seems to be equal solidarity among Trump-haters. Footage shows mass anti-Trump protests in the streets of Milwaukee, where Trump-Hitler rhetoric has not waned at all.

Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas tells Jill that in the press conference that followed the march on the RNC, protest leaders were “denouncing Trump,” likely realizing that his “popularity [is] rising in the aftermath” of the assassination attempt.

“One of the speakers did say that, generally speaking, she was against any assassination attempt on any politician, but then she caveated that by saying it's undeniable that Trump's rhetoric, policies, and actions has led to the legitimization of political violence by white nationalists,” Rosas reports.

Secret Service failure?

Police forces and Secret Service at the rally where President Trump was shot have come under intense scrutiny after a group of bystanders witnessed the armed shooter mount the roof but were ignored when they reported the threat.

Jill plays the footage of one witness recounting to the BBC’s Gary O'Donoghue that he “[pointed] at the guy crawling up the roof” to police and Secret Service and even told police that “there's guy on the roof with a rifle,” but nothing was done until after Crooks had already started firing.

He also asked: “Why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs?”

Former intelligence analyst for the Department of Defense and chief researcher for Glenn Beck Jason Buttrill calls the situation “ridiculous” and “chaotic.”

Jason, who’s “worked alongside Secret Service,” says that he “cannot fathom how this happened,” as Secret Service — especially when the protective operation involves a president — will “show up weeks in advance” to conduct a “site survey” for the purpose of developing a “multi-tiered security plan.”

Part of that security plan involves setting up “firing positions” that fall “outside the perimeter,” completely debunking the narrative of the Secret Service director who claimed that “they’re not responsible outside that perimeter.”

All considered, it seems highly unlikely that the roof from which the shooter fired was not considered a high-risk area by the Secret Service prior to the rally.

Parallels between Teddy Roosevelt & Donald Trump’s almost-assassinations

Glenn Beck, a lover of history, couldn’t help but notice several parallels between Donald Trump’s near-death experience and that of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.

When Roosevelt was shot, the bullet “didn't go into his lungs” but rather “lodged between two ribs because the speech and his glasses,” which he’d put into his front coat pocket, “caught that bullet,” says Glenn, adding that Roosevelt “went on to give the speech” despite his wound.

“The way Donald Trump handled the assassination attempt is almost identical to what Teddy Roosevelt did,” he tells Jill. “When Donald Trump got up and he said, ‘Wait, wait, wait,’ and then he looked at the crowd and held his fist up and he said ‘fight.’ I ... immediately thought of Theodore Roosevelt.”

Jill agrees, adding that Trump “never backs away from a fight,” which is also “what Teddy Roosevelt is known for.”

As for Trump’s decision to select JD Vance as his running mate, Glenn says, “I think it was a really good move.”

Vance, according to Glenn, has the potential to carry on Trump’s legacy and counteract the left’s narrative that Trump will refuse to leave office.

“You could interpret this as … Donald Trump saying, ‘I know I'm only going to be there four years,”’ says Glenn, meaning that Vance, if he runs for president in 2028, could actually accomplish much of what Trump set out to do — things that Trump knows are impossible to achieve in one term.

'Blaze News Tonight' RECAP: Project 2025, the SAVE Act, and Inflation



The left is panicking over Project 2025, villainizing it as far-right extremism, but what's really in the document? Heritage Foundation president and co-author of the initiative Kevin Roberts joins the show to answer questions and debunk lies regarding Project 2025. Next, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) explains the SAVE Act — a bill that would bar non-citizens from voting in the 2024 election. Democrats have largely voted against it; Biden has even vowed to veto it, and yet, 81% of the American people agree that only American citizens should have the right to vote in U.S. elections. What the people want is crystal clear, but how likely is the SAVE Act to pass prior to November? Finally, Carol Roth joins the program to tell us the truth about inflation, including what the recent one-tenth drop means for the average American.

Project 2025: Heritage President DEBUNKS Lies | Guests: Kevin Roberts & Sen. Mike Lee | 7/11/24www.youtube.com

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts on Project 2025

Democrats are in an uproar over Project 2025, calling the initiative far-right extremism and attempting to attach the document to Donald Trump, who has denied any affiliation. Headed by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a detailed plan of policy proposals for the next conservative administration. What's in the document, though? Kevin Roberts, Heritage Foundation president and co-author of Project 2025, joins the show to "separate fact from fiction."

The list of lies liberals are spreading about Project 2025 grows longer by the day, but "the one thing they get right," Roberts says, "is that we call for the utter elimination of the U.S. Department of Education."

As for the people "doxxing" and "threatening" those behind Project 2025, Roberts promises unapologetic prosecution.

"We are going to prosecute you, and we're going to do that using every ounce of the law. It's going to be peaceful; it's going to be lawful, but you have picked the wrong fight," he says.

Sen. Mike Lee on the SAVE Act

Among the many fears Americans harbor regarding Biden's open border policies that have ushered in millions and millions of illegal immigrants is the concern that non-citizens will be given voting rights prior to the 2024 election, potentially changing the outcome. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), however, alongside Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and House Speaker Mike Johnson, have proposed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act that aims to ensure only American citizens can vote in the 2024 election. Unsurprisingly, most Democrats have voted against it. Biden has also mentioned vetoing the bill.

Sen. Mike Lee, who joins the show, explains that liberal opposition to the bill is rooted in Democrats' desire to "rely on non-citizens" to impact "a federal election" — something he calls "terrifying."

While Lee admits that they face "some heavy obstacles to passing [the SAVE Act]," he knows that should the bill be voted down, the decision "is going to come at a price," granted "81% of American voters agreed that only citizens — only American citizens — should vote in federal elections," which is "a huge bipartisan supermajority."

Sen. Lee also broke down his op-ed on Blaze News, which discusses the legal lawfare the left has used to take down Trump. "[Democrats] are the rule of law," he says, adding that "Democrats love throwing around ... the term 'our democracy,' and yet, when they use the term democracy, they're more often than not talking about something that is the exact opposite of democracy."

As for President Biden's cognitive decline, Lee says his Democratic colleagues "are referring behind closed doors to this situation ... as the 'Weekend at Bernie's' chat."

"I think they've finally started to accept the fact that they've pushed it so far they can't take it any farther."

Carol Roth on inflation

Blaze News contributor and author of "You Will Own Nothing" Carol Roth joins the show to tell us the truth about inflation, one of the biggest — if not the biggest — complaint of American citizens.

"The top issue on Americans’ minds as they head to the polls is the economy," Roth wrote in her recent article "The GOP needs to stay focused on inflation, not cognition."

Roth, who agrees that Biden's mental acuity is a problem, argues that his administration's destructive policies — including the ones driving inflation through the roof — are the far more pressing issue.

"We're missing the opportunity when we're talking about his cognitive decline to talk about the fact that whether it's Biden or someone they put in his place ... these are the broader policies of not just this man but of the Democrats and that if we want to save our country, we need to be making a change in holding those people accountable, and that goes farther than just Joe Biden," she says.

As for inflation, which as of yesterday was down "one-tenth of 1%," Roth says she isn't hopeful it will make a real difference for the average American.

"A quarter of a percentage point, which is probably what is on the table today for September (if that even happens) isn't going to change things meaningfully," she says, adding that she thinks "we need to see something like a 1% cut ... then maybe Americans start to feel a little bit of relief in terms of anything that is tied to an interest rate."

"The most meaningful thing it will mean is that the $35 trillion in debt we have — that big portion of it that needs to be refinanced plus the almost $2 trillion deficits that we're running that need to be financed — they will be able to be financed hopefully at lower interest rates, which will overtime, theoretically, bring down the deficits and hopefully have a positive impact on inflation ... that's the best we can hope for."

For more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, tune in to 'Blaze News Tonight' daily on BlazeTV.

Sotomayor’s Bodyguard Saved By Second Amendment Self-Defense Right That Justice Rejected

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Three Secrets To Success From The Most Underappreciated Man In American History

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-14-at-1.09.31 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Screenshot-2024-03-14-at-1.09.31%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]James Madison's list of achievements did not happen by accident. We have much to learn from him.