Not long ago, nearly everyone — Democrats included — agreed that Andrew Cuomo was finished, a despicable scoundrel unfit for public office. As governor of New York, he presided over the deaths of thousands of seniors by forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients. He pushed bail “reform” laws that unleashed violent criminals on the public. And after years of lecturing others about sexism, he resigned in disgrace for allegedly groping female subordinates.
That should have been the end of his political career. It wasn’t.
The conservative establishment’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo exposes what it has become: a protection racket for failed elites.
Now Cuomo is back, running for mayor of New York City, and astonishingly, he’s doing so with the blessing of the so-called conservative establishment. The Murdoch media, Republican megadonor John Catsimatidis, and a parade of Fox News personalities are all urging New Yorkers to cast their ballot for him on Nov. 4. Their justification: Cuomo’s opponent, Zohran Mamdani, is a hundred times worse.
Mamdani, a self-described socialist and Hamas sympathizer, is undeniably radical. But the hysteria surrounding him has become an all-purpose excuse for elites to rehabilitate Cuomo. We’re told by pundits that electing this pro-Hamas, pro-LGBTQ Marxist from Uganda would unleash terrorists on the city’s Jewish population.
On Fox News this week, Democrat donor Bill Acker and Manhattan rabbi Elliot Cosgrove — who still insists, falsely, that Donald Trump praised Nazis — pleaded with viewers to vote for Cuomo. Moments later, Catsimatidis commanded Republicans to follow Trump’s “endorsement” and support the disgraced ex-governor.
The spectacle would be farcical if it weren’t so cynical: lifelong Democrats and media barons treating Cuomo as the savior of civilization because the alternative offends them more.
The lowest point came with a New York Post editorial on October 20, which offered Cuomo a backhanded endorsement while smearing his rival Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder who has spent decades fighting crime in New York’s subways.
The Post dismissed Sliwa as an “oddball with a sometimes-shady past and zero experience relevant to running the behemoth that is city government.” The same editorial mocked his animal-welfare activism as proof of eccentricity.
Contemptible doesn’t begin to describe the awfulness of the Post’s inept editorial. What “shady past” is the Post’s editorial board talking about? The editorial didn’t say — perhaps because nothing in Sliwa’s record compares to Cuomo’s documented abuses of office. The paper that once condemned Cuomo as unfit for power now cheers his comeback, pretending that the only alternatives are socialism or sleaze.
The irony is that New York had a credible choice all along. Sliwa, a Reagan Republican with a populist streak, ran close behind Cuomo in the primary. He could have united voters across party lines, much as Fiorello La Guardia did in the 1930s, by campaigning on a single theme: restoring safety to a city in decline.
Instead, the city’s plutocrats and media elite sided with the insider they knew. Cuomo belonged to their cocktail circuit; the “oddball” Sliwa didn’t. He talked about crime too much. He didn’t chant “anti-Semite” often enough for their tastes. He simply refused to play their game.
Now, with Mamdani leading in the polls, the same establishment that once excoriated Cuomo has gone into panic mode, insisting that he’s the only bulwark against chaos. The New York Post, in particular, has worked overtime to rebrand him as the city’s last line of defense — conveniently forgetting its own editorials from two years ago calling him corrupt and dangerous.
RELATED: Why Zohran Mamdani will be ‘one of the most catastrophic mayors ever’
Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel is reckless, and his support for Hamas is morally obscene. But none of that would give him the power to conduct foreign policy. His real danger lies in domestic policy: dismantling what remains of New York’s police protection, completing the work Cuomo started when he ended cash bail.
If Mamdani wins, the result will be anarchy. But if Cuomo wins, it will be something worse — vindication for a ruling class that believes corruption is preferable to conviction, provided it keeps the right people in power.
The conservative establishment’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo exposes what it has become: a protection racket for failed elites. In the name of “stopping the left,” it now rewards the very figures who wrecked the state in the first place.
New Yorkers don’t have to choose between a Marxist and a predator. They could have chosen the man who actually rides the subway and fights for the normal people who live in the city. They chose not to. And the city will keep getting what its establishment demands — chaos, decay, and the return of the despicable scoundrel they once swore they’d never defend.
The left is in an uproar, accusing conservatives of pushing Jimmy Kimmel off the air and of hypocritically undermining their own First Amendment principles.
Yet, Kimmel’s exit was driven by a fed-up network responding to market forces. The left has looked the other way when conservative outlets battled federally funded censorship campaigns targeting their voices, including as recently as December 2024.
'Jimmy Kimmel got canceled by his own Democrat-run network because his own affiliates finally got fed up with his garbage ratings, his garbage behavior, and his garbage lies.'
The now-defunct Global Engagement Center, a subdivision of the State Department, was formed under the Obama administration and tasked with the mission “to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.”
While the GEC was initially created to protect Americans from “disinformation” from other countries, it was used against several American media outlets, including Blaze Media.
Under the Biden administration, the GEC expanded its so-called disinformation efforts, partnering with the Global Disinformation Index, a United Kingdom-based nonprofit. GDI claims to provide “independent, neutral, and transparent data and intelligence to advise policymakers and business leaders about how to combat disinformation and its creators.”
This partnership allowed the Biden administration to finance the censorship of American media without violating its goal of countering foreign propaganda.
RELATED: Biden-Harris deep state censorship scandal EXPOSED: Here's who's fighting back
The GDI published a report in 2022 that listed American outlets it deemed the “least risky” and the “riskiest” for publishing "disinformation."
According to the GDI, the top 10 “riskiest” media websites included:
GDI labeled NPR, AP News, the New York Times, ProPublica, and Insider among the top 10 least risky.
The federal government’s funding of GDI prompted a lawsuit in December 2023 from Texas, the Daily Wire, and the Federalist. The lawsuit called it “one of the most egregious government operations to censor the American press in the history of the nation.”
“Conservative commentators and news outlets like the Federalist were blacklisted, censored, and illegally targeted for destruction by the federal government for years, and Jimmy Kimmel never said a word,” Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of the Federalist, told Blaze News.
“Jimmy Kimmel got canceled by his own Democrat-run network because his own affiliates finally got fed up with his garbage ratings, his garbage behavior, and his garbage lies,” Davis continued. “Charlie Kirk, who was murdered in front of his wife and children because of his beliefs, is an actual martyr. Jimmy Kimmel is a pathetic crybully who’s finally getting a taste of his own medicine.”
The GEC was officially shut down in December 2024.
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Donald Trump’s glowingly successful efforts at building relations with Arab leaders have evoked criticism from neoconservative skeptics. One such example appears in Rich Lowry’s column on “the Trump doctrine,” prominently featured in Friday’s New York Post. Though the Post has relentlessly exposed hypocritical and dishonest attacks on Trump’s domestic policies, its editors never seem quite able to throw off their constricting neoconservative view of foreign affairs.
Lowry quips that while George W. Bush sought to spread democracy everywhere, “Trump wants to spread gleaming high buildings.” While Bush appealed to high ideals, Trump, in his address to the Saudis, called for nothing more than “peace and prosperity.” In a supposedly uninspiring speech, our president praised Riyadh for “becoming not just a seat of government but a major business, cultural, and high-tech capital of the entire world.”
Before we embark on a crusade to export our values, we might first reckon with our internal troubles.
Lowry reminds his readers that Trump delivered these remarks before unworthy monarchs and emirs rather than democratically elected heads of state. “Standing for democratic ideals is an enormous part of America’s appeal around the world,” Lowry writes, “and if we get into competition with China purely over who is richer and can cut more deals, we are kicking away one of our major advantages.”
Allow me to question that assumption.
It’s not clear why Western “democracies” in their present denatured state should be holding themselves up as a model for other societies. Before we embark on a crusade to export our values, we might first reckon with our internal troubles: the war launched by our media, educators, judges, and government bureaucrats against gender distinctions, white men, and free speech. Moreover, the deep state and its European and Canadian counterparts pose a significant threat to constitutional government — most notably, the judicial campaigns against conservative parties in Europe, particularly Germany, and the open-door immigration policies importing criminal gangs and unassimilable voters. Perhaps, we should address these matters before trying to make others more like us.
Moreover, what qualifies as a “sufficiently democratic” society in the eyes of Lowry and like-minded zealots? Is democracy compatible with gender restrictions on voting? If so, then the United States was not democratic until the passage of the 19th Amendment — or perhaps not until the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which established federal supervision of voting procedures to prevent racial discrimination. Presumably, Lowry would want us to bestow on Arab nations the exact version of democracy that suits him: American democracy in its latest manifestation — perhaps without diversity, equity, and inclusivity mandates.
To his credit, Trump is focused on addressing many of the internal problems I’ve mentioned. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance has called attention to the glaringly undemocratic practices in other members of the “free world.” Trump and Vance are interested in restoring what used to be our political traditions in the West instead of engaging in regime changes elsewhere.
President Trump also understands the benefits of peace and good relations in the Middle East. If he can de-escalate conflict by negotiating with monarchs in Saudi Arabia or parliamentary leaders elsewhere, he will. While neoconservatives may grumble about Trump’s unwillingness to proclaim their preferred ideals, even Democratic politicians have praised his efforts in advancing “peace and prosperity” in the Middle East. Trump also returned from the region with more than $1 trillion in commercial deals — hardly a failure by any measure.
I also fail to see how launching a global democracy crusade will help the United States gain the upper hand in its strategic rivalry with China. Such a mission might win applause from neoconservative think tanks and editorial boards, but it would do little to shift geopolitical realities. European “democracies” may decide to buy their energy from the United States rather than Russia, but the motivation for such a decision would be material interest or fear of Trump’s reprisals rather than membership in some vestigial value community. Even if governments cloaked such decisions in democratic rhetoric, their real motivation would be something other than ideology.
This brings us to another one of Lowry’s canonical teachings: “Liberal societies are, as a general matter, more reliably our friends and more reliably achieve prosperity because it is less likely that they will be interrupted by civil war or revolution.” An America run by Kamala Harris and her party might quickly disprove Lowry’s rule about democracy bringing tranquility and prosperity. Constitutional democracies can degenerate into something less palatable, and looking at the parlous state of freedom in some Western countries, I wouldn’t rely any longer on what Lowry considers “reliable.”
While Lowry clearly does not approve of monarchical, theocratic Saudi Arabia, that non-democracy has not had a revolution or civil war for centuries. Is that “reliable” enough?
Weeks ahead of the 2020 election, the New York Post dropped a possibly election-altering bombshell report about the discovery and damning contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, which the FBI authenticated nearly one year earlier.
A 2022 poll found that the supermajority of Americans believed that President Donald Trump would have won re-election that election cycle had voters known the Post's report was accurate. Apparently aware that the report could have this kind of impact, the liberal media, social media platforms, a cabal of former intelligence officials, active CIA contractors, and other politically motivated forces worked to discredit and suppress the story.
The FBI was a major player in this campaign to gaslight the American people.
According to chat logs shared by Republicans on the House Committee on the Judiciary, the bureau not only misled social media companies into believing the Post story was Russian disinformation but actively worked to prevent employees from discussing the laptop's authenticity, going so far as to impose a "gag order" regarding discussions of Hunter Biden's laptop.
In chat messages dated Oct. 14, 2020 — the date the Post's story was published — an individual whose name was redacted informs Elvis Chan, the assistant special agent in charge of the San Francisco FBI field office's cyber program, of the "gag order."
— (@)
An October 2024 congressional report released by the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government identified Chan as the "primary point of contact at the FBI" for the meetings between the bureau and Big Tech that "led to the prebunking of the laptop story in 2020."
When asked, "Anyone discussing that NYPost article on the Biden's?" Chan responds, "Yes we are. c d confirmed an active investigation. no further comment."
'It failed to disclose that it possessed and had authenticated the laptop — a key fact.'
Michael Shellenberger's investigative outfit Public, which first reported on the FBI chat messages, noted that "c d" was likely shorthand for the bureau's Criminal Division.
Chan then asks, "Actually what kind of case is the laptop thing?" adding, "Corruption? campaign financing?"
Another FBI employee whose identity was redacted responds, "CLOSE HOLD —" followed by a blacked-out response.
Chan responds, "oh crap," then notes, "ok. It ends here."
In another series of messages, one FBI employee can be seen telling another, "Nobody on call is is [sic] authorized to comment upon NY Post story," to which another employee responds, "gotta love it."
A bureau insider made clear: "do not discuss biden matter."
— (@)
It is clear from the messages that the FBI was aware of active efforts to discredit the story. One FBI employee noted, for instance, that "twitter is treating [the story] as disinformation."
In the days following the publication of the Post story, the FBI clammed up, refusing to provide censorious social media companies with more details and repeatedly leaning on the response "no comment" as indicated by the newly released chat messages.
The Judiciary report noted that "while the FBI clarified that it had no specific evidence of a Russian hack-and-leak operation [in communications with social media platforms], it failed to disclose that it possessed and had authenticated the laptop — a key fact that likely would have ended any justification for censorship."
The report emphasized that "if the FBI's intent was truly to help social media companies combat actual foreign influence operations, the FBI should have shared the single most important fact: the influence-peddling allegations in the Post story were based off of real, credible information, including information in the FBI's possession. The FBI failed to do so."
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said in response to the revelations about the gag order, "The FBI's groupchats revealed they were directly involved in election interference," adding, "Where is the outrage?"
"When will there be a criminal investigation?" asked Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.
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President Donald Trump reportedly confirmed over the weekend that he intends to give a full pardon to Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer, citing the price the former Abercrombie & Fitch model turned fraudster has supposedly paid for exposing the Biden family's apparent corruption.
"He's getting a full pardon," Trump told the New York Post's Miranda Devine on Sunday. "He was screwed by the Bidens. They destroyed him like they tried to destroy a lot of people."
Together, Archer and Hunter Biden co-founded the investment firm Rosemont Seneca with John Kerry's stepson Christopher Heinz; co-established a China-backed investment fund called BHR partners; and joined the board of the scandal-plagued and now-defunct Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings.
Over the decade he worked with Hunter Biden, Archer learned a great deal about the convicted felon's shady business dealings and character. Text messages found on Hunter Biden's infamous laptop indicate that Archer may have also soured on the Biden family when its patriarch refused to help him with his fraud charges.
Archer was convicted in 2018 for the fraudulent issuance and sale of over $60 million of tribal bonds.
'It's the price of being the most powerful group of people in the world.'
While Archer and two other Burnham Financial Group executives were found guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud, Hunter Biden — who was the vice chairman of Burnham and raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars — was not similarly charged in the fraud scheme.
Archer's conviction was overturned but then later upheld by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Archer's case last year.
After the Biden Department of Justice appealed the overturning of his conviction in 2018, Archer allegedly wrote to Hunter Biden, asking, "Why did your dad's administration appointees arrest me and try to put me in jail? Just curious. Some of our partners asking out here."
"Why would they try to ruin my family and destroy my kids and no one from your family's side step in and at least try to help me. I don't get it," Archer allegedly wrote. "And I'm depressed. Bunch of these [Asian partners] getting in my head asking me the same so just curious what I should answer."
Hunter Biden reportedly responded by text, "Every president's family is held to a higher standard [and] a target. It's the price of being the most powerful group of people in the world. It's why our democracy remains viable. It's unfair at times but in the end the system of justice usually works and like you we are redeemed and the truth prevails. The unfairness to us allows for the greater good."
"Every great family is persecuted prosecuted in the U.S. — you are part of a great family — not a side show not deserted by them even in your darkest moments," Hunter Biden allegedly texted. "That's the way Bidens are different and you are a Biden. It's the price of power."
Evidently, Hunter Biden's textual pep talk didn't cut it.
Archer proved more than willing to furnish congressional investigators and the media with insights into Joe Biden's involvement in his son's overseas dealings — dealings the former president repeatedly claimed he had nothing to do with — as well as into why Joe Biden may have leveraged $1 billion in U.S. aid to get a top Ukrainian prosecutor who had been investigating corruption fired.
'I was the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort intended to destroy and silence me.'
Whereas Biden claimed in 2019, "I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings," Archer told the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability in 2023 that the former Democratic president spoke to his son and to his son's business partners on numerous occasions and was "the brand" Hunter Biden trafficked in.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) underscored that Archer's testimony was "critical to the Committee's investigation."
"A full pardon," Trump reiterated to Devine on Sunday, characterizing Archer as an "anti-Biden person."
Archer, who reportedly met Trump in Philadelphia on Saturday at the NCAA wrestling championships, told the Post, "I want to extend my deepest thanks to President Trump."
"I am grateful to the president for recognizing that I was the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort intended to destroy and silence me," continued Archer. "Like so many people, my life was devastated by the Biden family's selfish disregard for the truth and for the peace of mind and happiness of others. The Bidens talk about justice, but they don't mean it."
Archer was originally sentenced to serve a year and a day in prison and ordered to forfeit $15.7 million and pay $43.4 million in restitution. Archer's sentence was, however, overturned on a technicality, and he was set for a resentencing later this year.
Now it appears that the former Burisma Holdings board member whom Hunter Biden characterized as family will get off scot-free.
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On Sunday the New York Post reported that New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign took in nearly $13,000 in “potentially illegal foreign donations.” Unsurprisingly, the party that spent four years claiming “no one is above the law” when justifying their lawfare against President Donald Trump is now silent on such alleged election […]
A Virginia grand jury indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday, according to reports. A jury of her peers in the Eastern District of Virginia made the decision to indicte James, and while the details of James’ indictment were not immediately available, Reuters reported James was indicted for bank fraud, citing a source […]
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