Bernie Sanders shuns Mark Levin debate: Scared of being grilled over his Castro crush?



Mark Levin has repeatedly invited Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on “LevinTV” to debate him over Sanders’ long list of socialist policies, like government-run health care, punitive wealth taxes, and union-heavy labor schemes. Many public invitations have been extended, but every time — crickets.

Is he just too busy rallying Trump haters on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour? Or is he scared Mark will wipe the floor with him?

Perhaps he’s hesitant because he knows he’ll be skewered over his fascination with communist dictators — like his lauding of the tyrannical Cuban despot Fidel Castro back in 2020 during a "60 Minutes" interview and subsequent CNN town hall.

Following his controversial statement in the interview that it’s “unfair to simply say everything [about Castro’s Cuba] is bad,” Sanders doubled down in the town hall.

“When Fidel Castro first came to power ... you know what he did? He initiated a major literacy program,” Sanders retorted.

“There was a lot of folks in Cuba at that point who were illiterate, and he formed a literacy brigade. ... They went out, and they helped people learn to read and write. You know what I think? Teaching people to read and write is a good thing,” he added.

“Wow, a literacy program,” mocks Levin. “But you weren't allowed to read what you wanted to read. You weren't allowed to say what you wanted to say. There was no right to speech, free speech, or any other kind of speech unless it was dictated by the government.”

Castro, he reminds, was “a genocidal maniac who was killing people and throwing them in prison,” and his “literacy brigades” were “filled with people who had allegiance to [him] and the communists.”

“They were not just going into homes to teach literacy. They were going in their homes to spy,” says Levin.

Sanders caveated his praise of Castro’s literacy initiative by arguing he’s been “critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world,” including Cuba’s, but Levin calls him a “a liar.”

“He used to defend all the communist leaders. Now, he's got a little more clever in his extremely old age,” he corrects.

“He supported the communist leader in Nicaragua. ... He supported the communist leader in Cuba. He supported the communist leader in the old Soviet Union when he honeymooned in Moscow,” Levin adds.

Sanders capped his defense of Castro by arguing, “I happen to believe in democracy, not authoritarianism.”

“No, he doesn't believe in democracy,” says Levin, citing George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” in which he argued that political language is often manipulated by authoritarians to mask their wicked ends.

Sanders is “a Stalinist,” he says.

“This is why Bernie Sanders won't come on any of my shows. He will not come on any of my shows because he knows I'm going to question him.”

To see the clip of Sanders and hear more of Levin’s commentary, watch the clip above.

Want more from Mark Levin?

To enjoy more of "the Great One" — Mark Levin as you've never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

'White people bad': CNN panel crushed over embarrassing  Smithsonian exhibits



Celebrated fitness expert Jillian Michaels appeared on a CNN panel and mocked several Smithsonian museum exhibits for displaying blatant progressive bias.

On CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip," Michaels fired back at Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and former Democrat strategist Julie Roginsky for taking issue with the Trump administration's official review of exhibits and materials at the Smithsonian.

Roginsky claimed that Trump has "some random person" deciding what is appropriate for the museum and that the exhibits now must align with topics that do not offend the president or his supporters. Michaels asked the panelist to address some of the exhibits, to which the Russian Roginsky replied that slavery was something the Trump administration did not want to talk about.

'Do you know that when you walk in the door, the first thing you see is the gay flag?'

“He’s not whitewashing slavery," Michaels said. The trainer continued, despite Roginsky's objection: "And you cannot tie imperialism and racism and slavery to just one race, which is pretty much what every single exhibit does.”

Michaels argued that it was worth noting just 2% of white Americans owned slaves, and the horrible practice has been around for "thousands of years" and therefore predates America.

"Do you know who was the first race to try to end slavery?" Michaels asked Roginsky.

At that point, host Phillip chimed in, "I'm surprised you're trying to litigate who is the beneficiary of slavery."

Michaels immediately rejected the assertion and later remarked that Phillip was trying to straw man her argument and connect everything to race, just as the museum was.

"Every single thing is like, 'Oh, no, no, no, this is all because "white people bad."' That's just not the truth," Michaels said about the exhibits.

She was not done.

RELATED: CNN host says J6 was the worst day for violence in DC amid Trump's National Guard deployment

THE BIGGEST LOSER -- Episode 717 -- Jillian Michaels (L), Mike Morelli (R): Photo by Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Phillip asked for other examples from Michaels, who was able to cite several from documents she brought with her.

"Every single exhibit, I have a list of every single one. Like, people migrated from Cuba because 'white people bad,'" Michaels explained. "Do you know that when you walk in the door, the first thing you see is the gay flag?" she told the panelists.

Still Phillip was not convinced, so Michaels continued.

"There's one [exhibit] called 'Change Your Game,'" she detailed. "'Is gender testing fair in sports?' Then it goes on to say how it's complex to do gender testing in sports. It's not complex. It's basic science."

The panel, often interrupting, seemingly could not answer Michaels' questions as to "why is this in the Smithsonian?"

"It's been completely captured, and it's totally partisan," the 51-year-old claimed.

As Michaels rattled off her examples, the CNN host declared, "We don't have time to litigate all of this," but Michaels fired back again.

"Of course we don't because then you're gonna lose the argument. Everything [in the museum] is racialized."

RELATED: Brian Stelter melts down as Trump makes the Smithsonian great again

Jillian Michaels at the Wellness Your Way Festival at the Colorado Convention Center on August 16, 2019, in Denver, Colorado. Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Wellness Your Way Festival

Michaels took to her X page following the segment to share an image of a Smithsonian exhibit about Cuban and Caribbean migration to the United States.

The exhibit blamed the migration on U.S. support for "foreign governments that favored U.S. businesses and fought communism," along with "U.S. policy" that contributed to "violence and corruption."

It also noted "wealthy white Cubans" as the first to leave the island but did not openly note communist policies as a reason for poverty or corruption.

"When you make every single exhibit about white imperialism when it isn't relevant at all, that is a problem," Michaels told the CNN commentators.

As for her claim that just 2% of white Americans owned slaves, progressives have argued the figure is unfair because it does not focus on the states in which slave-owning was most prominent, which Politifact called "the most reasonable way" to measure it.

Although the 2017 article sought to disprove a similar claim (the figure used was 1.4%), Politifact actually cited a historian who said the idea that black American slave owners had around 20,000 slaves of their own during the same time period was "not that far off."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The capital of the free world cannot be lawless



Donald Trump on Monday invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and deploying the National Guard to restore law and order. This move is long overdue.

D.C.’s crime problem has been spiraling for years as local authorities and Democratic leadership have abandoned the nation’s capital to the consequences of their own failed policies. The city’s murder rate is about three times higher than that of Islamabad, Pakistan, and 18 times higher than that of communist-led Havana, Cuba.

When DC is in chaos, it sends a message to the world that America is weak.

Theft, assaults, and carjackings have transformed many of its streets into war zones. D.C. saw a 32% increase in homicides from 2022 to 2023, marking the highest number in two decades and surpassing both New York and Los Angeles. Even if crime rates dropped to 2019 levels, that wouldn’t be good enough.

Local leaders have downplayed the crisis, manipulating crime stats to preserve their image. Felony assault, for example, is no longer considered a “violent crime” in their crime stats. Same with carjacking. But the reality on the streets is different. People in D.C. are living in constant fear.

Trump isn’t waiting for the crime rate to improve on its own. He’s taking action.

Broken windows theory in action

Trump’s takeover of D.C. puts the “broken windows theory” into action — the idea that ignoring minor crimes invites bigger ones. When authorities look the other way on turnstile-jumping or graffiti, they signal that lawbreaking carries no real consequence.

Rudy Giuliani used this approach in the 1990s to clean up New York, cracking down on small offenses before they escalated. Trump is doing the same in the capital, drawing a hard line and declaring enough is enough. Letting crime fester in Washington tells the world that the seat of American power tolerates lawlessness.

What Trump is doing for D.C. isn’t just about law enforcement — it’s about national identity. When D.C. is in chaos, it sends a message to the world that America is weak. The capital city represents the soul of the country. If we can’t even keep our own capital safe, how can we expect anyone to take us seriously?

RELATED: Trump to DC: Public safety isn’t optional

O2O Creative via iStock/Getty Images

Reversing the decline

Anyone who has visited D.C. regularly over the past several years has witnessed its rapid decline. Homeless people bathe in the fountains outside Union Station. People are tripping out in Dupont Circle. The left’s negligence is a disgrace, enabling drug use and homelessness to explode on our capital’s streets while depriving these individuals of desperately needed care and help.

Restoring law and order to D.C. is not about politics or scoring points. It’s about doing what’s right for the people. It’s about protecting communities, taking the vulnerable off the streets, and sending the message to both law-abiding and law-breaking citizens alike that the rule of law matters.

D.C. should be a lesson to the rest of America. If we want to take our cities back, we need leadership willing to take bold action. Trump is showing how to do it.

Now, it’s time for other cities to step up and follow his lead. We can restore law and order. We can make our cities something to be proud of again.

Tales of a Cuban Television Revolutionary

On my first day in the television comedy business, I learned two important lessons. The first was that there really was a rule about words with the hard "k" sound. In Neil Simon's brilliant play about two aging comedy stars, The Sunshine Boys, they both insist that "k" words are funny. And it turned out my bosses and coworkers on the writing staff of the long-running hit sitcom, Cheers, agreed. Always pick the "k" word, I was told.

The post Tales of a Cuban Television Revolutionary appeared first on .

'It's the Greatest Honor of My Life': Israel-Hating American Woman Gushes Over Visit to Iran, Calls US 'Genocidal' After NPR Named Her 'a Good Citizen'

An anti-Israel activist whom NPR touted in recent years in a segment on "how to be a good citizen"—citing her campaign work on behalf of Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.)—filmed a pro-Iran propaganda video from an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility this week.

The post 'It's the Greatest Honor of My Life': Israel-Hating American Woman Gushes Over Visit to Iran, Calls US 'Genocidal' After NPR Named Her 'a Good Citizen' appeared first on .

Trump releases the JFK files — but are we getting the whole truth?



Eighty thousand documents — that’s what the Trump administration just dumped on the American people.

Yesterday, Donald Trump delivered on one of his campaign promises: to release the sealed government files relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But let’s be real: Are we really supposed to believe that those who controlled the files will give us anything that will lead to any real answers? Or is this just another round of obfuscation, another carefully orchestrated release designed to bury the truth in an avalanche of paper and PDFs?

The CIA was actively shaping media narratives decades ago.

My team spent the last 24 hours combing through the first batch. Let’s break it down.

What’s new?

One of the biggest revelations from the JFK files concerns a 1967 memo, which references a CIA operative and former U.S. Army captain named John Garrett (“Gary”) Underhill. According to this document, Underhill fled Washington in a panic the day after JFK’s assassination, confiding in a friend that a “small clique within the U.S.” was responsible for Kennedy’s murder.

Six months later, Underhill was found dead. The official ruling — with little surprise — was suicide.

Another document reveals that the KGB closely monitored Lee Harvey Oswald while he was in the Soviet Union — and interestingly, the files suggest Oswald was a poor shot during target practice there. A Soviet man even contacted the British Embassy in 1963, claiming that Oswald had been planning to kill the president. This man said he warned American officials, but nothing was done.

If we take these documents at face value, the message is clear: Our government, at best, was stunningly incompetent.

Arguably, one of the most disturbing patterns to emerge from the JFK files is the CIA’s extensive domestic operations. One document details covert operations conducted from multiple U.S. cities, including wiretapping and media manipulation, indicating that the CIA was actively shaping media narratives decades ago.

What’s next?

My team is still sorting through this mountain of documents, and there will be more to come. But if the latest debacle with the released Epstein files is any indication, we won’t find the smoking gun — at least not immediately.

We’ll see more evidence of what we’ve suspected all along: The deep state will stop at nothing to cover its tracks, whether by suppressing confidential documents or dumping 80,000 documents that bury the truth.

Next week on my show, we’ll go even deeper into these findings. Until then, remember: Don’t just accept what the government hands you. Think. Question. And never stop searching for the truth.

Want more from Glenn Beck? Get Glenn's FREE email newsletter with his latest insights, top stories, show prep, and more delivered to your inbox.

Biden regime launches two new attacks on incoming Trump administration



As the end of his regime draws near, Joe Biden is using his final days to create an intentional mess.

“Think of him walking out of the White House and just chucking grenades,” says Liz Wheeler.

This isn’t just about sabotaging Donald Trump, though; it’s also about flipping the bird to his supporters — people who want to see mass deportations, biological males kept out of women’s spaces, and an end to the gross spending that has left the country in economic shambles.

“He wants to stop President Trump from doing everything that you and I voted for,” says Liz.

However, she knows that Joe Biden himself doesn’t have the mental acuity to orchestrate this kind of political sabotage — it’s “whoever controls Joe Biden” that’s doing it.

“Obama, maybe,” she theorizes.

Whoever that person or group is has now launched two additional attacks against the incoming administration.

“Biden's puppet masters have removed Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism,” says Liz, and they are attempting to “throw a roadblock in the Elon Musk-Vivek Ramaswamy DOGE efforts.”

Musk, with Trump’s support, plans to make all remote government employees report in person — an idea Liz says is excellent and necessary, as it ensures employees are “not taking advantage of taxpayer money” or “actively working to harm the administration.”

To thwart these efforts, “Joe Biden [is trying] to cement the stay-at-home allowance for the federal workforce.”

This is an attempt, Liz says, to ensure that the administrative state can never be abolished.

He wants “his swamp creatures, his administrative state tucked away in their little holes, in home, where no one can see what they're doing,” she says.

To hear more of Liz’s analysis, watch the clip above.

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.