When I brought the truth to Congress, Democrats lost their minds



Democrats have dragged anti-law enforcement violence into the political mainstream. We’ve never seen this level of shameless rhetoric — let alone open justification of violence — from a major American political party in our history.

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday, I opened my testimony by reading direct quotes from Democrats calling for violence. I also cited the 830% spike in assaults against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. I even pleaded with Democrats to stop encouraging threats against law enforcement.

Democrats’ goal was obvious: Slow the hearing down, bore the public, and turn a losing argument into a sleepy C-SPAN rerun.

That’s when Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) lost it.

After just one minute's worth of testimony, Thompson interrupted me mid-statement and demanded a vote to strike my remarks from the record. He failed. I reclaimed my time and continued.

A quick reminder: Thompson chaired the January 6th Select Committee — the entire purpose of which was to blame President Trump for a riot he didn’t cause. Trump explicitly told supporters to remain peaceful and go home. But when I confronted Thompson and his colleagues with their own words — when I showed that they had actually called for violence—he tried to shut me up.

We already knew he was a hypocrite. He just confirmed it.

What triggered him exactly? Maybe it was me quoting a Democrat who told Axios, “There needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public.” Or the one who said, “Civility isn’t working,” and told activists to prepare for “violence.”

Maybe it was when I reminded the room that Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) had been indicted for interfering with federal officers at an ICE facility. Or when I listed attacks on the Department of Homeland Security personnel in Alvarado, McAllen, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Linda Vista.

I didn’t even get into the stack of quotes from Democrats calling DHS officers “Nazis,” “terrorists,” or “the Gestapo.” I had pages of them. But with only five minutes to testify, I picked the highlights.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) — who showed up late and left early — picked up where his colleagues left off. He said ICE was “terrorizing” illegal immigrants. He accused ICE of jailing a child with his parents instead of separating the family, apparently unaware that he was criticizing the very policy he demands.

The rest of the hearing dragged on for seven hours.

Democrats used procedural games to stall for time, forcing vote after vote on irrelevant subpoenas. Their goal was obvious: Slow the hearing down, bore the public, and turn a losing argument into a sleepy C-SPAN rerun. Not a single Democrat asked a question of any Republican witness until the very last minute.

I was barely paying attention by then.

When Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) said my name, I thought she was a staffer. I didn’t recognize her. I assumed she might be a delegate from one of the territories Americans forget they own.

She shuffled between reading from her Trapper Keeper and trying to deliver rhetorical questions that might eventually lead to something substantive. Then came her big moment.

She asked if I agreed with her description of a detention facility incident.

RELATED: ‘Democrats clearly weren't prepared’: Blaze News contributor schools libs on border crisis in fiery hearing

  Homeland Security Committee

I told her flatly that I wasn’t going to take her word for it — and yes, I support detaining illegal aliens during removal proceedings. That’s the law. Her response was dramatic. She looked like someone had slammed on the brakes while she was mid-sentence. Head thrown back. Eyes wide. Total shock.

She tried to recover, flipped back to her notes, and asked if I agreed that Democrats have the authority to just walk into ICE facilities and call it “oversight.”

I reminded her I’ve written about this extensively — including right here at Blaze News — and that no, Democrats can’t just show up at a federal detention center and expect to play dress-up as immigration watchdogs. I told her I was doing my best to keep them out of jail.

— (@)  
 

Then, of course, she brought up Jeffrey Epstein.

At first, I considered thanking her for finally connecting mass illegal immigration to the topic of sex trafficking — but the exchange went in a different direction. She claimed I had reversed my position on the Epstein investigation to match the Trump administration’s narrative.

False.

Since Axios published its memo announcing the case closure, I’ve criticized that decision every single day — on air, in print, on social media, and in private. I haven’t backed off an inch. I called her a liar because she was lying. That clip went viral, and I’m glad it did.

If Ansari had taken the time to read my previous commentary — especially at Blaze News — she might’ve avoided the embarrassment. Maybe it’s time she got a subscription.

The GOP establishment lost to Trump — now it's rebranding as ‘neo-MAGA’



From the moment Donald Trump announced his run for president, the Republican establishment hated his guts. In 2016, the brash New York billionaire was treated like a joke — an embarrassment degrading the political process. But as Trump gained momentum, establishment figures faced a choice: Throw in with “NeverTrump” or pretend they’d seen the light.

Some bolted to NeverTrump outfits like the Bulwark or the Lincoln Project. Others stuck around, biding their time, waiting for a chance to reclaim the party from the populists. Now that Trump defines the GOP, they’ve shifted strategies. If you can’t beat MAGA, co-opt it.

MAGA has never been a cult, despite what the detractors may say. Supporters have stood by him because he fought for the things they care about.

Trump’s first term resembled an awkward arranged marriage. He won the heart of the base and created a movement mostly detached from the GOP machine. But he lacked the institutional infrastructure necessary to govern. Running the executive branch requires armies of staffers, bureaucrats, and loyal operatives — none of which MAGA had.

That vacuum was filled by GOP establishment swamp creatures, many of whom actively opposed the president and his agenda. Key officials undermined him. Military leaders lied to his face. Despite some major victories, Trump’s presidency was defined by a constant war against a hostile ruling class.

The great Republican hope?

With outrageous legal attacks from the Biden administration raising doubts about Trump’s electability, Ron DeSantis was encouraged to step in. I like DeSantis — he’s my governor, and he has done an outstanding job, especially standing up to the COVID-19 insanity. But the truth is that DeSantis has never been a gifted campaigner. He barely scraped by in 2018 against a man later found doing meth in a hotel with a male prostitute.

Trump, whatever his flaws, is a force of nature on the campaign trail. Anyone paying attention could see that DeSantis was walking into a meat grinder.

Still, many Republicans who hadn’t declared themselves NeverTrump saw DeSantis as their chance to strike. He had a solid record and stuck closer to the establishment line. He was more disciplined, less prone to off-script rhetoric, and — most important — not under indictment.

So the donor class and the consultant class threw their weight behind him. The money flowed, the media declared him the future, and the campaign ... flopped. Hard.

After DeSantis’ inevitable loss, anti-Trump Republicans were left stunned, tending to their bruised egos and looking for a new angle. Trump had survived an assassination attempt and beaten Kamala Harris. It was clear: He was the party. The idea that he could be swapped out for a more polished Republican was delusional.

Strain on the base

MAGA wasn’t going to be defeated by recycled talk about small government and lower taxes. The only remaining play was to redefine the movement from within.

Trump’s second term began with a burst of action: government agencies were shuttered, birthright citizenship was challenged, and deportations resumed. MAGA supporters were elated. Progressives were stunned. But the GOP establishment was left wondering how to reinsert itself into power.

Then came the cracks.

Trump ordered a strike on Iran at Israel’s request — only for Benjamin Netanyahu to blow off the president’s social media appeals to honor a ceasefire. Trump floated amnesty for illegal aliens working in agriculture and hospitality. The Justice Department and FBI dismissed any suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein had blackmailed elites, was murdered, or left behind a client list.

This was especially disturbing given that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel had built their MAGA reputations by promising to expose Epstein’s secrets. Suddenly, the story changed. The fabled “client list” did not exist after all. The “truckload” of evidence amounted to nothing. Cover-up? What cover-up?

The strain on Trump’s relationship with his base was real — and that was the opening establishment Republicans needed.

RELATED: Progressive castoffs don’t get to define the right

  Blaze Media illustration

Enter ‘neo-MAGA’

Out of nowhere, a new class of Trump supporter emerged: neo-MAGA. Most of these operatives were DeSantis die-hards last year. Now they claim to be Trump’s most loyal defenders. They spend their time lecturing actual Trump supporters for lacking faith in a man they previously ridiculed.

In their telling, MAGA never meant ending regime-change wars — it meant launching new ones in Iran. MAGA never meant deporting illegal aliens — it was just about gang members and drug traffickers. MAGA never cared about Epstein’s client list, so don’t worry about it. Just trust the process. Trust the staff. Trust the people who said the files were real and now insist they were imaginary.

The “trust the staff” line is especially rich, considering that many of these same influencers trashed Trump’s appointment of Steve Witkoff as a negotiator for not being sufficiently pro-Israel. Now they demand blind loyalty to the very people they attacked last week.

This isn’t about loyalty to Trump. MAGA has never been a cult, despite what the detractors may say. Supporters have stood by him because he fought for the things they care about: economic populism, national sovereignty, immigration, and a restrained foreign policy. When he delivers, they cheer. When he falters, they push back.

Neo-MAGA wants to replace that dynamic with a new one — one where dissent is heresy and the old GOP agenda returns under a different label. These operatives see a chance to ride the MAGA brand back into power, reshaping it into something safer, softer, and friendlier to the donor class.

But the base haven't forgotten. They remember who bolted. They remember who mocked them. They remember who told them DeSantis was the future. And they know that the same people now preaching unity were, until five minutes ago, rooting for Trump to fail.

Whatever disagreement exists between Trump and his base, both should beware of the interlopers trying to turn this moment into a reset for the GOP establishment. MAGA wasn’t built on loyalty to staffers or influencers. It was built on promises, and those promises still matter.

Enough Epstein. We’re finally living through the conservative revolution we’ve always needed.



If you spend an inordinate amount of time online — doomscrolling, podcast-hopping, and trading theories with your pals on Signal — you might be fixated on every twist in the Jeffrey Epstein saga. Or maybe you’ve convinced yourself that the transgender sports fight doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of American politics.

That would be a serious mistake.

Conservatives are finally acting like revolutionaries, while prominent Democrat mayors are screeching and sobbing in the streets.

You’d be missing the most significant conservative revolution Washington has seen in decades — maybe ever.

Start with sports. The right’s victory in pushing back transgender ideology on this front marks a turning point. Not just because it helps women’s athletics. Not even because it polls well.

It matters because it's the first real cultural win for truth over lies I've seen in my adult life. And without that kind of victory — without truth — nothing else can be fixed.

It might feel strange or even deflating to call broad public agreement on something so obvious a "major victory." But consider what has happened.

Picture a living Joseph Stalin stepping to a podium and admitting: Yes, the mass graves are real. The people already knew — they had lived it. But for years, they were forced to lie or risk losing their livelihoods.

That’s what Americans experienced just last year. We lived under a giant, state-sanctioned falsehood.

This country has a habit of moving on too quickly from moral failure. But conservatives shouldn’t forget what it felt like to endure the Democrats’ four-year crusade.

Welfare rolls soared. Government job numbers got a boost — from foreign workers. White men ages 50 to 65 could not get hired. The border stood wide open. And crime? It was tolerated, even sanctified, as if letting it happen was an act of charity.

In the six months since his inauguration, Donald Trump has sealed the border. On a shoestring budget, his administration launched raids up and down the country, striking fear into the hearts of illegal immigrants nationwide to the point that we’re seeing serious self-deportations.

The White House fired or bought out more than 100,000 federal bureaucrats, made the largest tax cut in U.S. history permanent — even with a geriatric Senate that still leans on liberal Republicans — and proved that America can hit its enemies hard without getting dragged into nation-building.

That same tax cut included $75 billion for interior immigration enforcement. Just two weeks ago!

Think about this: The Republican Party has held the White House and both chambers of Congress three times since before 9/11, an atrocity committed by illegal aliens. This is the first time the GOP has used that power to deliver real results.

During the previous two trifectas, Republican leaders pursued amnesty.

Amnesty!

Over the past six months, this administration has forced NATO to bow, won case after case at the Supreme Court against activist judges who imagine themselves kings, and finally pulled the plug on PBS and NPR.

That last one? A Republican campaign promise for decades. No one ever meant it — until now.

The White House just passed a tax law that allows companies to put $10,000 or $10 billion into building industrial infrastructure — and write 100% of it off on their taxes.

The administration made colleges rescind fake records set unfairly by men competing in women’s sports — and offer apologies to those women who were wronged.

It froze tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds headed to liberal universities and sued them for racial discrimination.

Former CIA director and Russiagate hoax ringleader John Brennan is fuming on TV. Top staff for Joe Biden are on video pleading the Fifth Amendment to hide potentially criminal activity in the last administration.

The White House has completely redrawn America’s trade regime. There are tariffs across the board, with harsher penalties for countries flooding cheap garbage manufactured by near-slave labor into U.S. markets. So far, few countries have risked any sort of retaliation, and our country’s economy has yet to suffer any serious consequences.

Birthright citizenship — long treated as sacrosanct in political debate — is finally on the chopping block. And few Americans are remotely bothered about it.

This administration has also taken on the vaccine-industrial complex. For the first time ever, the Department of Health and Human Services is investigating the explosion in autism rates.

When Big Pharma corporatists in white coats pushed back, the administration didn’t flinch. It fired them from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Fired.

President Trump also did what no Western leader would: He called out the South African government’s campaign of land seizures and government-incited murder. While Pretoria wraps itself in the legacy of Nelson Mandela, it has driven a once-prosperous nation to ruin. Trump opened the door to the Boers without apology.

Meanwhile, polls are up among Hispanics and black men. Up! While the internet-obsessed kvetch endlessly that the president didn’t break court orders to unseal names of the accused on Epstein Island, a CNN poll this week found Republican approval for him rose two points to 88%. At the same time, a Quinnipiac Poll found that the number had risen three points to 90%. Ninety percent!

In the culture, conservatives have the top comedians and some of the coolest actors. Conservatives have finally realized they don’t need to defend the American institutions that loathe the right — they need to train their fire on those institutions.

Conservatives are finally acting like revolutionaries, prominent Democrat mayors are screeching and sobbing in the streets, and when violent left-wing mobs try to barricade police stations, the police open the doors and charge out — then mock them. When 11 kitted-up, armed, and masked Antifa members launched a terror attack on a Texas detention center for illegal aliens, they were routed, hunted down, and arrested by police. Not special forces — frontline cops and agents.

Democrats and their allies are scattered, demoralized, and afraid. The influence of Hollywood and the corporate media is at an all-time low. They are cringey.

So set aside the Signal chat and step away from social media. This is the moment so many have been waiting for — we’re living in it. And we’re not tired of winning.

Blaze News: 'Democrats clearly weren't prepared': Blaze News contributor schools libs on border crisis in fiery hearing

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Neocons are back — and they’re botching Trump’s Latin America policy



A quiet but dangerous conflict is brewing within President Trump’s foreign policy team — a battle between the true red America First voices who made his first term successful and the same old neoconservative ideologues who have derailed U.S. diplomacy for decades.

Heightened by the bombing of Iran, this clash made headlines again earlier this month. This time, it was over botched negotiations over the return of Americans currently held by the socialist Venezuelan government.

Marco Rubio’s hatred of Latin American socialism is clear, but that shouldn’t come at a strategic cost to our country.

Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell, a realist to his core, was on the verge of brokering a deal that would have secured the release of imprisoned Americans in exchange for Chevron’s continued operations in Venezuela. It was classic Trump diplomacy: bold, transactional, results-oriented.

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio intervened. The State Department made a much less attractive and watered-down proposal to repatriate 250 Venezuelan aliens in exchange for the American prisoners. The interests of the U.S. oil industry were completely ignored.

Wires were crossed, and the talks collapsed.

Two critical lessons

Two lessons are evident: The first and most obvious is that Grenell is responsible for talks with Venezuela and that he is the only U.S. figure Venezuela trusts — a point that shouldn’t be undermined.

The second is that Trump’s transactional diplomacy, represented by Grenell, works — when it’s allowed to. We’ve seen this with Steve Witkoff’s trips to the Middle East and the president’s own handling of NATO.

The Venezuelan government wants to negotiate with Grenell and Grenell alone — and for good reason. He speaks the language of leverage, not lectures. As special envoy, he has built a diplomatic channel that has delivered in the past. In January, for example, Grenell secured the release of six Americans, a great achievement.

RELATED: Biden did that? No, it’s Marco Rubio making gas prices skyrocket this time

  Photo by PEDRO MATTEY/AFP via Getty Images

In contrast, Venezuela all but refuses to communicate with Rubio. They see him as persona non grata. His methods, based on intervention and blunt force, are bound to fail.

This is particularly true now that we live in a world where U.S. dominance is not guaranteed. And as the United States has isolated Venezuela, the Latin American nation has been pushed deeper into Beijing’s orbit.

Oil exports to China, for example, have surged since Chevron’s license to operate was canceled in May. In turn, Venezuelan exports to the U.S. and its capitalist allies have cratered.

The strategic cost

Rubio’s hatred of Latin American socialism is clear, but that shouldn’t come at a strategic cost to our country. This isn’t a diplomatic blunder. It’s a threat to U.S. energy security and a betrayal of Trump’s promise to bring down prices at the pump.

We want Venezuelan oil and gas to head to the U.S. Gulf Coast, not Beijing. We need to protect the Monroe Doctrine, which says that no outside power should have a foothold in the Western Hemisphere.

The importance of energy security cannot be overstated. For an administration elected in large part on its promise to cut gas prices, it is a big mistake to turn our backs on Venezuela’s hydrocarbon reserves, the largest on earth.

Doing so increases American dependence on Canadian oil — not a smart move as we fight a trade war with Prime Minister Mark Carney — and on suppliers in a volatile Middle East, where Iran still looms large.

This is not to mention that the policy of isolation is damaging to Chevron, a champion of the American oil industry.

Under its former special license, Chevron was pumping out nearly a quarter of a million barrels of oil per day. This went straight to thirsty refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast, which depend on Venezuela’s unique heavy crude oil. That lifeline has been cut, and it’s American consumers who will pay the price.

Grenell understood this and so wrapped Chevron’s status into his negotiations, a deal that put American interests first. Rubio, on the other hand, prioritized an ideological pursuit of regime change over American energy security.

President Trump should intervene.

He praised Grenell’s successful negotiations in January and should make clear that Venezuela policy is not for Rubio to decide. The goal is clear: Bring our citizens home, restart Chevron’s work, and reassert U.S. influence in our own hemisphere.

Renew Grenell’s leverage

Grenell, with renewed powers, should return the United States to a policy of strategic engagement. That’s what America First really looks like. That’s the approach to foreign policy promised to us in 2024. That’s the MAGA way.

It’s time to put the neocons back in the box and go back to the bold, pragmatic diplomacy that made Trump’s first term — and will make his second — a victory for everyday Americans and a triumphant return to common sense.

Jerome Powell’s luxury Fed is failing the American people



Rumors have picked up in recent weeks about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s future. Some expect President Trump to fire him. Others think Powell may step down on his own. Either way, the speculation points to a larger problem: Powell and the Fed have lost touch with the realities facing ordinary Americans.

Powell’s refusal to lower interest rates, despite direct pressure from the White House, is just the start. The deeper issue is the Fed’s glaring hypocrisy. It preaches fiscal restraint while spending lavishly — most notably on a $2.5 billion office renovation.

The Fed has become increasingly disconnected from the needs of the American people.

This kind of waste raises serious questions about the Fed’s credibility. How can the central bank warn the public about debt and overspending while burning billions on luxury upgrades?

The Federal Reserve has spent years warning about the dangers of excessive government debt. It insists higher interest rates are necessary to curb inflation and keep the economy from overheating. The message is simple: Control spending or risk a financial crisis.

But the Fed doesn’t follow its own advice.

While millions of Americans struggle with high prices, ballooning mortgages, and record credit card debt, the Fed overspent $700 million on a top-to-bottom renovation of its D.C. headquarters. The upgrades include a rooftop garden and decorative water features.

Yes, water features.

The hypocrisy is hard to ignore. The same institution that lectures the public on fiscal discipline is more than happy to greenlight luxury amenities for itself. If the Fed believed a word of its own rhetoric, it would lead by example.

Instead, it spends like a bloated federal agency while scolding taxpayers for doing the same. Its calls for restraint ring hollow — and Americans know it.

Failure to lead

The Fed’s primary role is to ensure the stability of the financial system and provide guidance to the U.S. economy. Yet, it has shown no willingness to practice the same fiscal restraint it urges on the rest of us.

If the Fed were truly concerned about the nation’s financial health, it would have used this money for something more productive — like investing in programs to reduce debt, support economic growth, or ease the burden on taxpayers.

RELATED: Vought slams Fed Chair Powell over 'grossly mismanaged' luxury renovations

  Vought slams Fed Chair Powell over 'grossly mismanaged' luxury renovations. Anna Moneymaker / Staff via Getty Images

Time for accountability

Instead, the Federal Reserve has chosen to prioritize its own image and comfort. The $2.5 billion renovation comes at a time when the economy is struggling to recover from the pandemic's effects, high inflation, and rising debt. While the Fed continues to push for higher interest rates, making borrowing more expensive for businesses and consumers, it’s simultaneously indulging in luxuries that most Americans would never dream of.

Jerome Powell’s refusal to lower interest rates is just one symptom of a larger issue within the Fed. The institution has become increasingly disconnected from the needs of the American people. The American people need a Federal Reserve that leads by example — one that practices the fiscal responsibility it preaches to others.

If the Fed cannot demonstrate fiscal discipline, it must be held accountable. That starts at the top. Powell needs to go.

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Is the FDA swapping ‘right to try’ with ‘let them die’?



The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently dealt a crushing blow to families affected by deadly childhood diseases by denying promising treatments. All caring Americans should greet this decision with disgust. Not only is the decision disgraceful, but it’s also politically hypocritical.

Bureaucrats should not let political agendas or indecision get in the way of potentially lifesaving decisions when parents of terminally ill children are more than willing to take the risk.

Earlier this month, Democrats claimed that forcing able-bodied people to work and shortening enrollment periods for the “Un-Affordable” Care Act would kill people — a prime example of “Chicken Little” hyperbole without facts.

Politically driven agendas

What is factual, however, is that one of their own could actually be responsible for real deaths. The FDA, under the leadership of Dr. Vinay Prasad — a Bernie Sanders supporter — just denied two lifesaving treatments for children with rare diseases, despite these treatments having passed through the Trump administration's approval process.

Dr. Prasad, a self-identified "lifelong progressive Democrat," is the FDA’s chief medical and scientific officer and the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. With an extensive research background, particularly in oncology, he is clearly qualified for his position. He has even rejected efforts from pharmaceutical companies to push COVID-19 vaccines for anyone over the age of 12, citing sound "patient freedom" science.

But he needs to go — and not just because socialists shouldn’t be in the Trump administration (or any U.S. government position). His ideology denies kids who are on the verge of dying the opportunity to live.

Children don’t have time to wait

Earlier this month, Prasad rejected two potential treatments for devastating childhood diseases: Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Sanfilippo syndrome.

The life expectancy for a Duchenne patient is 22 years. In the process, it destroys a child’s muscles and causes neurological deficiencies.

Sanfilippo syndrome, often called “childhood Alzheimer’s," is fatal. Few children live beyond their early teens, accompanied with cognitive, functional, and muscle decline.

Take Sadie, for example, a little girl who is currently battling Sanfilippo syndrome. Her website, "Saving Sadie Rae," tells her story. She is an adorable, perky little fairy princess, adored by her family (and her Instagram fans) and is in the process of dying from Sanfilippo.

Her parents are loving, dedicated caregivers, and her mother is on a mission to encourage the FDA to reverse its decision that, to parents like Sadie’s, is a blinking red light that says, “We don’t care about your kid.”

Although the FDA has delayed its final decision until at least next year, Sadie’s parents, along with others, are painfully aware: Their kids don’t have time to wait.

Duchenne and Sanfilippo parents are just regular people. They aren’t doctors or lobbyists. They're ordinary people facing an unimaginable situation, and they’re desperate for hope. They want the FDA to move forward with promising treatments.

Bureaucratic backlog kills

In a recent conversation I had with former FDA Associate Commissioner Peter Pitts, who works closely with the Duchenne muscular dystrophy community, he expressed frustration with the agency.

In recent years, the FDA has thankfully begun to listen more carefully to the parents of children with orphan diseases, meaning that they are rare but devastating. This does not throw regulatory science out the window, but gives a voice to parents willing to accept higher risks for what the FDA might view as tertiary benefits of new therapeutics — because the alternative and end point is early death.

Pitts continued:

The question of "what is the risk tolerance" of this community has been made abundantly clear by the community itself — parents are willing to accept higher risks to potentially provide less suffering and longer life for their children. That begs the question whether Dr. Prasad’s well-known dislike of the pharmaceutical industry — often in lockstep with Democrat talking points — has trumped the wishes of the disease community — and with callous disregard for the quality of life for children suffering with Duchenne or Sanfilippo syndrome. That’s almost too awful to comprehend.

Although the developer of the Sanfilippo treatment claims it has “robust” confirmation of efficacy, FDA bureaucrats fussed about its manufacturing procedures, which the company says are unrelated to the quality of the gene therapy.

Is this genuine concern or just an excuse?

RELATED: HHS surmounts obstacles set by Democrat-appointed judges, gives thousands of bureaucrats the boot

  Photo by Trigga via iStock/Getty Images

Similarly, when rejecting the Duchenne cell therapy, the FDA insisted that the biotech company provide more "substantial evidence of effectiveness." But the real evidence that matters is that children and young adults are suffering and dying without treatment.

Technology, bioengineering, and gene therapy are blessings of hope for every family and patient suffering from orphan diseases.

Give kids their one chance

Bureaucrats should not let political agendas or indecision get in the way of potentially lifesaving decisions when parents of terminally ill children are more than willing to accept the high risk under President Trump’s “right to try” initiative or any other FDA-approved protocols. They pray these treatments will help their children, but they fully understand that they might also only benefit future children with these diseases.

That level of selflessness should be considered by the FDA when making these decisions.

Parents of children with fatal orphan diseases have written the FDA an unequivocal permission slip. Perhaps under new leadership at the Medical and Scientific Office, it will finally take this hall pass and run with it — on behalf of children who can’t.

ROOKE: That Thing Democrats Swear Never Happens Just Happened In Texas

'the thing not happening, but even if it does, it's good that it is'

Disabled vets denied dignity as VA claim backlog becomes unbearable



My husband and I visited our families for Independence Day. For millions of Americans, that's a typical summer tradition. For us, it was an extraordinary day. Kyle is an active-duty naval officer who has spent several years of our marriage deployed overseas and across the United States.

Kyle and I expected the challenges of military life: the deployments, the stresses on mental health, even the risk of homelessness or divorce that looms over many military families. Yet the one issue we weren’t prepared for — one we are keenly aware of as Kyle approaches retirement — is the shock of seeing firsthand the Department of Veterans Affairs repeatedly fail those who have served.

The VA made all veterans a promise: dedicated care after service. Today, that promise is broken daily.

From December 2023 until June of this year, I served as the ombudsman for my husband's ship, the USS Harry S. Truman. My role was to bridge the gap between command and families, ensuring that they had access to critical resources and could reach command in case of emergency. In that position, I watched closely as families ahead of ours navigated life after active service, applying for the VA benefits they had been promised.

What I’ve observed is nothing short of betrayal.

A broken promise

Veterans aren't just denied their hard-earned benefits by bureaucratic red tape. Their entire lives are often put on hold, causing untold mental health, family, and professional suffering in addition to what is endured during deployments.

One of the most common struggles veterans and their families face is the historic backlog of claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs. While the number has improved in recent months, nearly 185,000 backlogged disability claims remained unprocessed as of June.

RELATED: Anti-American ideology still festers at West Point

  DepthofField via iStock/Getty Images

Veterans regularly spend months — or even years — in limbo, trying to secure the benefits they’ve earned while dealing with disabilities incurred while serving.

Partially disabled veterans with treatable conditions like tinnitus or various levels of post-traumatic stress disorder want to work in the private sector, but they need specialized care to do so. Getting approval for that care is a nightmare, with many giving up altogether or resorting to expensive — or sometimes shady — advocates for assistance.

Lawmakers must step in

That's why states and Congress must intervene where the VA has failed. In Rhode Island — my home state and possibly our future home — the legislature introduced the Save Act, a state-level version of the federal Choice Act. Both bills aim to expedite the benefits process by allowing veterans to hire certified consultants. Importantly, these measures would safeguard veterans from exploitation by setting payment caps, ensuring that providers have VA approval, and mandating that consultants only receive payment after veterans do.

Unfortunately, Rhode Island's legislature rejected the Save Act, instead passing a more restrictive bill that prohibits veterans from consulting experts during their initial claims for benefits. Despite this setback, momentum in several states and Congress to support veterans is encouraging.

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins says he’s made progress on the backlog, but decades of mismanagement and corruption can’t be unwound in a matter of months. Moreover, a supposed 25% reduction in claims backlog raises troubling questions: How many veterans were hastily denied to meet bureaucratic quotas?

I’ll be old and gray before this bureaucratic nightmare is fixed — if ever.

Our veterans deserve better

When Kyle first raised his right hand, America made him — and all veterans — a promise: dedicated care after service. It’s the same promise that has been made to veterans for decades in return for enduring stressful deployments, risking both their lives and family bonds. Today, that promise is broken daily. Families are subjected to unbearable delays and bureaucratic hurdles, often forced to fight for benefits they've already earned or tragically never receive.

I’ll always cherish Independence Day 2025, which took us up and down much of the East Coast — together, for once, as an entire family. It offered a glimpse into the life we dream of when Kyle retires — a life we earned together through sacrifice. The VA should help us realize that dream, not obstruct it.

It's past time for lawmakers and VA leadership to fulfill their obligations and put veterans first.