With Friends Like These: Conservative Nationalists in the Age of Trump
Elections in Canada and Australia rarely make the news in the United States, but this year’s battles for Ottawa and Canberra have taken on a new significance. They are widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency.
The post With Friends Like These: Conservative Nationalists in the Age of Trump appeared first on .
Justin Trudeau's own brother says Canada is RUINED
Justin Trudeau’s lineage has long been a topic of debate, as many conspiracy theories have swirled around who his father really is — but who his brother is is not up for debate and neither are his brother’s feelings on Trudeau himself.
His brother, Kyle Kemper, sat down with Alex Stein on “Prime Time with Alex Stein” this January to tell him how he really feels about the former prime minister of Canada.
“In your opinion, did your brother do permanent damage to Canada? Did he really make it a worse place?” Stein asked Kemper.
“Oh, I think so,” Kemper replied. “He was the spokesperson, leading the script, being the lead actor in the, you know, multi-trillion dollars of wealth transfer from sovereign Canadians into moving up the chain.”
“Right at the end of the trucker thing, too, that’s when all of a sudden the Ukraine narrative popped in,” Kemper continued, noting that right after Trudeau froze bank accounts, suspended drivers' licenses, and even threw some truckers in jail — it was, “Ukraine, we love you.”
“Everybody put a Ukraine flag in your bio, because this is serious. We will stand with you forever,” he mocked.
However, at the time of the interview, right-wing Pierre Poilievre had thrown his hat in the ring to take Trudeau’s spot as prime minister of Canada — but that spot has now been filled by Mark Carney.
But Kemper never had much hope for the country anyway.
“The way that the politics works, it’s literally just, you say ‘up,’ I say ‘down,’ game. It’s literally nonstop in the House of Commons,” Kemper tells Stein. “Nobody answers questions. It is absurd. It is an affront to the intelligence of all Canadians. It is no longer truly representative of it.”
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No choice for Canadian voters when it comes to sending billions to Ukraine
Say what you will about Donald Trump — he knows how to drum up publicity. He's even managed to interest Americans in Canada’s upcoming federal election, now less than a week away.
The president's influence on the contest was all but guaranteed last month, when he made good on his threats to levy a 25% tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum — with further duties on lumber and pharmaceuticals a possibility.
Despite his ostensible Canada-first outlook, Pierre Poilievre has been in lockstep with the Liberal government policy on Ukraine for over three years.
Prior to this movie, Pierre Poilievre's Conservative Party was strongly favored to unseat the reigning Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau successor Mark Carney.
Not so today.
Agreeing to agree
The Liberals have benefited from a surge of Canadian antipathy toward Trump, to the extent that they now seem to be running more against the American president than the opposition Conservative Party — something that the American media has not failed to notice. For his part, Trump has actually endorsed Carney.
With the April 28 election looming, what has become a two-party race between Liberals and Conservatives remains close.
While the vote may serve as a referendum on Trump's economic policy, another issue has proven depressingly uncontroversial: support for Ukraine. For all of their differences, Canada's four major political parties all share a turgid and demented determination to continue to pour billions of dollars into the black hole of Kyiv.
This despite Trump’s repeated pledge to end the Russia-Ukraine war. While saying he could do it in a mere 24 hours may have been typical Trumpian hyperbole, it's clear that securing peace remains a priority for the president.
Biden's folly
One need only look at what happened under the previous administration to understand why. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a regular visitor to the Biden White House, always clad in his odd mixture of combat gear and activewear — and never leaving empty handed.
The engagement of U.S. and NATO military personnel alongside Ukrainian soldiers, as well as the use of American and British missiles to strike the Russian heartland, brought America perilously close to nuclear war with Russia. Seeing the horrible potential for a third world war, both Trump and then-Senator JD Vance urged caution and encouraged peace.
Incredibly, Canada seems not to have taken the hint.
Alone and outgunned
Even as Trump slowly but surely extricates the U.S. from supporting Ukraine and distances itself from NATO members who delusionally believe they can either take on Russia in a conventional war or somehow survive a nuclear one, Canadian political leaders talk about going it alone against Russia without America.
This is beyond ludicrous. Canada does not have a single operational tank left after giving all of its working Leopard models to Ukraine. It has yet to replenished the vast quantities of armaments it has given Ukraine; in fact, it is unable to do so. The U.K.’s military is also a shell of what it was, say, in 1982, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went to war over the Falkland Islands.
Besides, the war is effectively over. Ukraine cannot continue to furnish more troops for the battlefield even if it continues to abduct recruits from the streets and bars. Anyone who advocates the continuation of the war is, knowingly or not, arguing for the killing of an entire generation of Ukrainians. It is a consummation that might have already occurred.
Not up for debate?
Canadians should demand to know why all four party leaders at the English-language leaders’ debate in Montreal last Thursday stood foursquare behind that policy.
Yes, such painful pandering should be expected from Carney, as well as Bloc Quebecois (separatist) chief Yves-Francois Blanchet and New Democratic Party boss Jagmeet Singh. But Poilievre?
Despite his ostensible Canada-first outlook, the politician has been in lockstep with the Liberal government policy on Ukraine for over three years.
When asked how a Conservative government would respond to Zelenskyy’s continued demands for money and armaments, Poilievre responded, “I believe we should continue to support Ukraine. Our party supported donating missiles that the Canadian military was decommissioning. We supported funds and other armaments to back the Ukrainians in the defense of their sovereignty.”
Knowing full well how unpopular this view is with his conservative base, Poilievre quickly tried to change the subject, emphasizing the need “to rebuild our own Canadian military, because the Russians want to make incursions into our waters."
"We'll be buying four massive Arctic ice breakers," Poilievre continued. "I'll be opening the first Arctic base since the Cold War in Canada, CFB, Iqaluit.”
Fleshing it out
That wasn’t good enough for the debate moderator, who pressed Poilievre to “put a little more flesh on the bone of what you think Canada could do for Ukraine.” His response:
My answer is that we should continue to support Ukraine. We don't need to follow the Americans in everything they do when they're wrong, then we will stand on our own and with other allies and with respect to Ukraine, that includes support with intelligence equipment, armaments, but it also includes defunding Putin. Right now, Vladimir Putin has a monopoly on the European energy market because, frankly, the liberals blocked exports of Canadian natural gas off the Atlantic coast. They blocked multiple projects. I would rapidly approve those projects on national security grounds, so that we can, we can actually ship Canadian natural gas over to Europe, break European dependence on Putin, defund the war, and turn dollars for dictators back into paychecks for our people.
Nice try, but it still adds up to flaky policy based on a perceived need to appease the Ukrainian-Canadian vote that is preponderant in many key constituencies across Canada — a vote that generally goes to the Liberals.
Poilievre's words may also alienate Conservatives to the point that they decide not to vote at all — or to give their vote to the one Canadian party that opposes aid to Ukraine: Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada.
Maxime effort
People's Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier campaigns in Edmonton April 18. NurPhoto/Getty Images
A libertarian alternative that has fielded candidates in every Canadian riding and could actually capture one or two this election, the PPC lacked the 5% share of national voters necessary to participate in the debate.
Nevertheless, Bernier continues to speak for all Canadians fed up with their country's involvement in this endless and expensive quagmire.
As he told Align:
The war in Ukraine is not a conflict between good and evil, or autocracy versus democracy. It’s a longstanding conflict over border territories between these two countries that has been amplified and turned into a proxy war by NATO and the imperialist warmongers in Washington and other western capitals.
It doesn’t concern Canada and we should have nothing to do with it. Russia is not our enemy. The only reason Canada is so involved is that the establishment parties are pandering to Canadians of Ukrainian descent.
It's a message that deserves a wider hearing and could resonate with Canadians fed up with the endless and expensive quagmire.
What does Trump see in Canada's pro-China prime minister?
President Donald Trump seems wonderfully comfortable with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. He calls the Liberal leader “Mark” and “prime minister of Canada.”
Remember when it was “governor of the 51st state” for Trudeau?
Carney’s Jackson Hole speech flatly demanded that central banks collaborate and replace the US dollar to rectify its 'domineering influence' on trade around the world.
Trump has actually predicted that Carney will win the upcoming Canadian federal election and that he will be quite pleased with this result.
But the president is headed for a grim disappointment, because Carney is unlikely to do anything about an issue that Trump is viscerally concerned about: the fentanyl crisis.
Border disorder
Way back in late November 2024, Trump began to complain about Canada’s lax border security and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. across that border and threatened to slap a 25% tariff on all Canadian products if these matters weren’t rectified.
Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government responded with a laughable $1.3 billion border security plan that was spread over six years with most of the funding only being available in years four through six. Trudeau also appointed a fentanyl czar who had previously worked as security adviser to the prime minister.
Of course this was all a bit of window-dressing, since, as investigative journalist Sam Cooper has noted, shipments of fentanyl precursors continue to arrive at the port of Vancouver and the containers are ignored.
Trudeau part deux
If Trudeau has done nothing to stem the tide of fentanyl, why should we believe that Carney will do any differently, especially when he is even more beholden and more in awe of China than his predecessor?
Where Trudeau once infamously said that he admired the “basic dictatorship” of China because it could force its population to follow climate change policies “on a dime,” Carney is a constant acolyte of the People’s Republic and has been for years.
So why has Trump endorsed Carney as his choice to win the April 28 Canadian federal election? Does he really believe that Carney will either bolster border security or take the fentanyl crisis seriously? Does he not believe that Carney’s principal opponent, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, is not serious about rectifying border security and eradicating fentanyl abuse when he has made both part of his election policy package?
Just how beholden is Carney to China? The evidence continues to emerge during an election campaign that Carney has virtually walked through so far, ahead in virtually every poll after Trudeau took the Liberal Party to record lows before he announced his intention to resign on January 6.
Poilievre protests
Poilievre expressed outrage on March 26 that Carney had the gall to meet with Chinese central bank officials in October 2024 to negotiate a loan for the Carney-chaired Brookfield Assets Management.
Why the fuss? Carney was working as a special economic adviser to Trudeau at the time, and he was in Beijing to ostensibly represent Canadian interests, not personal or business ones. Carney left with a 1.96 billion yuan or $276 million (CDN) loan.
Poilievre called China “a hostile foreign regime that we have since learned executed four Canadians and took numerous Canadians hostage for a lengthy period of time” and wondered how Canadians could know if Carney was “not going to act against our interests in favor of his financial interests.”
The Conservative leader suggested it would be difficult for the new prime minister to “stand up to foreign interference when he is so financially compromised.” He described Carney as:
a weak, out-of-touch leader so terribly compromised and conflicted, whose interests go against our national interests. … Mark Carney will never be able to protect our national interests because he has massive financial conflicts of interest overseas. What we need now is not to give the Liberals a fourth term with a weak and compromised leader. What we need is a prime minister who will put Canada first for a change.
That was only the latest revelation of Carney’s double dealing.
Chinese democracy
Carney was the chairman of Brookfield when he announced that the company was moving its headquarters to New York City. That was just before he announced that he was running for the leadership of the Liberal Party.
Despite telling the Trudeau government to push net zero policies at the expense of Canada’s energy sector and to oppose the construction of pipelines, Carney operated Brookfield in an inverse fashion, investing billions in fossil fuels and pipelines not associated with Canada.
Carney has consistently promoted net zero policies while praising the environmental stewardship of China. As the United Nations special envoy for climate change and co-chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, Carney actually suggested that the world should look to China for climate change policy inspiration — and not look at the preponderance of coal-fired plants in that country.
"China has made a huge contribution to the fight against climate change, not only in terms of its massive investment in clean technologies and exporting them to other countries, but also in actively developing the financial system needed for the green transition," he said.
Yuan to grow on
It might also interest Trump that Carney has also been an advocate of the Chinese yuan replacing the U.S. dollar as the global currency. At the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in 2019, Carney advocated for both the Chinese currency and also a "new synthetic hegemonic currency," to be used to replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Carney’s Jackson Hole speech flatly demanded that central banks collaborate and replace the U.S. dollar to rectify its “domineering influence” on trade around the world.
In the same speech, Carney bemoaned the booming economy that America was experiencing under Trump. “Now that the United States’ economy is doing better than most, pushing the dollar higher, smaller countries are suffering more than they should. Trump’s tariffs on imports from China and elsewhere are adding to the dollar’s strength as well, making matters even worse.”
And the most likely candidate for true reserve currency status, the Renminbi (RMB), has a long way to go before it is ready to assume the mantle. The initial building blocks are there. Already, China is the world’s leading trading nation, overtaking the US at the start of this decade. And the Renminbi is now more common than sterling in oil future benchmarks, despite having no share in the market prior to 2018.
So while Carney is campaigning in front of a podium that reads “Canada Strong” and is somehow satisfying a U.S. president who supports America First, it will be China Strong and China First under this globalist, environmental extremist central banker whose election this month would be toxic for both Canada and the United States.
Trump tariff boosting Trudeau's successor, Conservatives warn ahead of fed election
As the campaign to determine Canada's new prime minister continues, one issue remains at the forefront: President Donald Trump and the United States.
Locked in a close race with the Conservative Official Opposition, the governing Liberal Party got a vote of confidence from Trump himself, posted Friday, March 28, on X and Truth Social that he had phoned Carney and had “an extremely productive call.”
'I am now off to the US yet again to try and speak to Americans ... to convince their president to change course on tariffs against Canada.'
“I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Liberal leader Mark Carney, who only became prime minister just over a week before calling a snap federal election for April 28, was initially highly combative toward Trump as the president continued to threaten to impose a 25 % tariff on all Canadian products with the exception of oil and gas, which will be subject to a 10 % tariff.
However, Canada was not subject to any new tariffs when Trump expanded his program on April 2.
Dropped call?
Initially, Carney said that Trump wouldn’t talk to him. The confession was apparently inadvertent because Carney almost immediately tried to walk back the statement.
“The president is waiting for the outcome of the election and to see who has a strong mandate from Canadians or who has a mandate from Canadians. Is it someone … who is in sync with him, or is it someone who is going to stand up for Canadians? I am going to stand up for Canadians. I hope Canadians will back me, and then we'll have a discussion,” Carney told reporters on March 24.
“Did you say that President Trump is waiting to talk to the prime minister of whoever wins this election?” one reporter responded.
“Well, that's an interpretation, but I think it's a reasonable interpretation. I'm available for a call, but you know, we're going to talk on our terms as a sovereign country, not as what he pretends we are and on a comprehensive deal,” Carney said, not adding that Trump has said he would prefer to deal with a Liberal government under Carney than a Conservative one under Poilievre.
'Unjust and unfair'
The escalating trade war has divided provinces from the federal government, with Alberta’s Conservative Premier Danielle Smith, who was invited to the Trump inauguration, asking the president to hold off on the tariffs because the conflict is helping Carney and the Liberals to overtake the Conservatives in the election.
Smith, who has reached out to much of conservative U.S. media, recently told Breitbart that the “unjust and unfair tariffs” have “actually caused an increase in the support for the Liberals. And so that's what I fear, is that the longer this dispute goes on, politicians posture, and it seems to be benefitting the Liberals right now,” she said.
“So I would hope that we could put things on pause, is what I've told administration officials, let's just put things on pause so we can get through an election. Let's have the best person at the table make the argument for how they would deal with them, and I think that's [Conservative leader] Pierre Poilievre.”
Smith went on to say that Poilievre “doesn’t believe in any of the woke stuff” and that his perspective “would be very much in sync with, I think, the new direction in America.”
Pot calls kettle black
Liberals castigated Smith for asking the U.S. to “interfere” in the Canadian election — an ironic accusation since the Liberals have clearly been campaigning more against Donald Trump and the perceived American menace than even their Conservative Party opponents.
Smith appeared on Ben Shapiro’s podcast almost two weeks ago, and before leaving, the popular and populist premier defended that decision in the Alberta legislature.
“I am now off to the U.S. yet again to try and speak to Americans, this time through the second-largest podcaster in the world, whose audience is made up of exactly the people we need to persuade, to convince their president to change course on tariffs against Canada," Smith said. "And what does Team Carney want me to do? They want me to abandon my post, remain in Alberta, and do absolutely nothing to defend our province."
“They want me to cower in the face of eastern media pundits and politicians who favor political grandstanding to effective diplomacy. I'm fiercely criticized for going into the lion's den to change the hearts and minds of the very Americans that we need on Canada's side to avoid a trade war with the most powerful economy on Earth,” she continued.
Smith resolved that “this lady” may be expected to “just sit down and shut up” but that she is resolved to do otherwise.
“I will not be silent. Alberta will not be silent. We will not be pushed around and called traitors for merely having the courage to actually do something about our nation’s and province’s predicament, other than merely indulging in self-righteous tantrums.”
Canada’s Upcoming Election Is All About Donald Trump
Carney makes a fitter foe than Trudeau. So would a soggy, egg-battered slice of bread drowned in maple syrup.
Blaze News original: When the mainstream media's left-wing bias costs them credibility
The mainstream media's left-wing bias is far from a brand-new topic.
Blaze News readers may recall a fairly big story in the fall of 2021 when Netflix employees staged protests in Hollywood against their company's decision to stream Dave Chappelle's comedy special "The Closer" due to what they characterized as his "transphobic comments" in it.
'The Fake News losers at CNN tried to fact check President Trump saying Biden spent $8 million on "making mice transgender," but President Trump was right (as usual).'
Amid the outrage, a prominent Netflix showrunner quit in protest; the company suspended three employees — including a queer trans worker — for crashing an executive meeting focused on Chappelle; and Netflix fired the organizer of a planned walkout for leaking confidential data related to Chappelle's special.
But during that very walkout, a big surprise took place: One guy showed up amid the furor to defend Chappelle. He's pictured below:
Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
As you might guess, the protesting militants tried to intimidate him and shut down his free speech, but it didn't work.
Not so surprising was that the Associated Press got the idea that the Chappelle supporter was the one screaming profanities at protesters — and Variety actually called him the aggressor. Well, both outlets eventually admitted their reporting errors and walked things back.
Fast-forward to President Donald Trump's March 4 address to a joint session of Congress and his eye-popping claim that among the long and still-growing list of governmental waste is "$8 million for making mice transgender."
On cue, CNN initially said Trump's claim was false, adding that it couldn't determine where the president came up with the $8 million figure. Soon, though, the article was corrected to say the claim "needed context" and deleted the content calling it false.
"An earlier version of this item incorrectly characterized as false Trump's claim about federal money being spent for 'making mice transgender.' The article has been updated with context about the spending, which was for research students on the potential human health impacts of treatments used in gender-affirming care," the article read.
The two versions were posted to social media by the popular Libs of TikTok account, and many mocked CNN over the error — and then the White House joined in on its official social media account: "The Fake News losers at CNN tried to fact check President Trump saying Biden spent $8 million on 'making mice transgender,' but President Trump was right (as usual)."
The same left-wing media bias and the same result.
The following are a number of other recent examples of when the mainstream media's left-wing bias costs them credibility:
Joe Rogan torches MSNBC for 'deceptively' editing video clip to appear he praised Kamala Harris when he actually was talking about Tulsi Gabbard
Joe Rogan slammed MSNBC for “deceptively editing” a video clip that made it appear that the massively popular podcaster was praising then-Vice President Kamala Harris when he actually was talking about Tulsi Gabbard.
Here's how it went down: During an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast with guest Michael Malice that aired July 30, Rogan torched Democrats for not embracing Gabbard as a presidential candidate, and he touted Gabbard as "a strong woman." MSNBC posted the clip on its TikTok page and edited it to make it appear that Rogan was referring to Harris rather than to Gabbard.
Gabbard on Aug. 2 posted the MSNBC clip on her X with the caption: "MSNBC is again EXPOSED as a propaganda machine for the Democrat Elite, and how they will brazenly try to deceive the American people." She described the MSNBC clip as "completely false."
MSNBC has since replaced the questionable clip and issued a correction: "We have removed an earlier version of this post that incorrectly implied Joe Rogan was talking more about Vice President Kamala Harris. He was referring to Tulsi Gabbard."
Rogan also commented on the edited MSNBC clip during a podcast episode, saying the news network "took a clip of me talking about Tulsi Gabbard, and they edited it up and made it look like I was saying great things about Kamala Harris." Rogan added, "They just deceptively edited the things I was saying."
Rogan blasted MSNBC: "They don’t care about the truth; they just want a narrative to get out there amongst enough people because most people are just surface readers."
“We’re in a very weird time with media, and I think truth is super important," he continued. "I think someone that’s willing to do something like that — that’s a real offense. It's a real offense. It's not a small thing. It's a real lie, and it’s a lie that changes other people's opinions."
Elon Musk joins chorus of critics dumping on the Associated Press over its trifecta of laughably bad hot takes — all committed on a single day
The Associated Press on Jan. 3, 2024, took plenty of heat for three tidbits it published.
Elon Musk, among the AP's many critics, responded to one of the awkward instances, writing on X that "the @AP has the woke mind virus growing out of its head like a giant mushroom!"
Blaze News detailed the first instance, noting the AP covered the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay with the following headline: "Harvard president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: plagiarism."
But the AP's corresponding post on X was flagged with Community Notes emphasizing the absurdity of the title and the article's premise. Later in the day, the AP changed the headline to "Plagiarism charges downed Harvard's president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage." This alteration was executed without an editorial note.
The AP ultimately told Blaze News why it had made the change: "The initial story didn't meet our standards, so we updated it."
Also in its article about Gay, the AP's Collin Binkley and Moriah Balingit highlighted a tweet from Christopher Rufo that reads, "SCALPED," in response to the news that Gay had resigned. The AP claimed Rufo's tweet was written "as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans."
But Musk opined, "Woe, the @AP hasn't merely drunk the woke Kool-Aid, they are swimming in it!" He added, "Somehow, indigenous peoples went from being referred to almost exclusively as baby-killing savages to almost exclusively being referred to as noble, peace-loving ecologists! In reality, all peoples back then did terrible things by modern western standards. Slavery, for example, was standard practice worldwide, including within Africa, until a few hundred years ago and was stamped out by force primarily by the British."
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' press secretary Jeremy Redfern asked Balingit and Binkley for a response after sharing an image of a white man who had been scalped as a boy by Sioux Indians. Finally, the AP edited the paragraph about Rufo — without an editorial note — to read: "On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote 'SCALPED,' as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans and also used by some tribes against their enemies."
The AP also on that day published an article titled, "Things to know about Minnesota's new, non-racist state flag and seal," which concerns the final decision on a new state flag from the Minnesota Emblems Redesign Commission. The AP apparently concluded that the old flag — which depicts an Indian riding a horse and a farmer plowing his field — is racist. The new flag by 24-year-old white designer Andrew Prekker is a minimalist, starred tricolor. Facing additional criticism, the AP changed the headline to "Things to know about Minnesota's new state flag and seal."
Blaze News staff writer Joseph MacKinnon noted: "The AP is evidently cognizant of its embarrassing errors, granted it has been desperately attempting to correct them. However, this corrective effort has been made all the more difficult by the fact that myriad publications across the nation routinely regurgitate the AP's articles — meaning those errors continue to live on coast to coast despite the agency's centralized efforts to make stealth edits and title changes."
Esquire article blasting Republicans contains falsehood so egregious that a correction and an apology aren't enough to save it
Esquire magazine published an article late last year that ripped Republicans' criticism of then-President Joe Biden for pardoning his son Hunter because, the piece said, former Republican President George H.W. Bush pardoned his own son Neil.
"Nobody defines Poppy Bush's presidency by his son's struggles or the pardons he issued on his way out of the White House," read the subheading of Dec. 3 article by Charles P. Pierce. "The moral: Shut the f**k up about Hunter Biden, please."
The problem? Bush never issued such a pardon. Soon, the humiliating falsehood was discovered, and Esquire issued a correction: "Editor's note: This story has been updated. An earlier version stated incorrectly that George H.W. Bush gave a presidential pardon to his son, Neil Bush. Esquire regrets the error." Before long, the magazine deleted the story altogether — but the publication was raked over the coals:
- "Esquire Magazine is literally making stuff up to try to defend Joe Biden's pardon of Hunter Biden. The people who scream about misinformation are doing it to cover for Joe," said radio talk show host Erick Erickson.
- "Even given the lengths to which some journalists will go to advance the approved narrative, this is unreal," responded Boston Globe op-ed editor Jeff Jacoby.
- "How many people does an article have to pass through at @esquire, from idea to completion, before being published? 4? 5? Not one of them thought to check if the concept on which the article was based was true or not?" asked columnist Derek Hunter.
- "How in God’s name did you get the George H W Bush/Neil Bush so completely wrong? Doesn’t Esquire have fact checkers anymore?" read another tweet.
Marco Rubio and JD Vance — on three occasions between them — get the better of CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan after she peddles false narratives during televised interviews
In early November 2024, CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan repeated false accusations suggesting that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.), prompting then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to correct the record.
It all started after Rubio argued that Trump would promote safety and security in the U.S. and abroad, after which Brennan said Trump spoke of "training guns on the face of Liz Cheney." Rubio shot back, "That's not what he said."
Brennan initially defended her assertion because, according to her, CBS producers had played a "sound bite" of Trump accusing Cheney of being a so-called chicken hawk. But CBS played only a sound-bite of Trump's remarks — not the full context.
"Donald Trump doesn't talk like someone who's been in Washington for 30 years," Rubio defended. "Training guns on her face?" Brennan replied, after which Rubio shot back, "He doesn't say it the way I would have said it, no, but that's not what he said, Margaret. You guys know that. Come on. I mean, everybody knows exactly what he was saying."
Brennan wouldn't concede, telling Rubio, "We played the sound-bite." But Rubio answered her with the facts: "No, you played a piece of the sound-bite, because, in another piece of it, he said he would give her a gun to go stand in conflict as well. You don't normally give a gun to someone that is going to be facing a firing squad, which is what much of the media made it sound like. The point he was making is not a new point. It is a point that has been made by people in both parties for decades. And that is: You're all for war, and it's easy to be for war when you're in some fancy building, and you're safe and sound in Washington, D.C." Only after that did Brennan give up defending her faulty point.
In late January, Brennan tried her tactics with newly elected Vice President JD Vance, trying to corner him over the Trump administration's immigration policy and suggesting that removing illegal aliens and ending birthright citizenship is anti-American. "This is a country founded by immigrants," she declared.
Vance shot back, saying, "Just because we were founded by immigrants doesn't mean that 240 years later, we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world" and that "America should actually look out for the interests of our citizens first."
Brennan changed course and pressed Vance on the administration's moratorium on refugee admissions, insinuating hypocrisy on the part of the vice president. After more of her attempts to poke holes in Trump's immigration policies, Vance cut off Brennan and famously said, "I don't really care, Margaret. I don't want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me."
Finally, Brennan was back interviewing Rubio last month and actually suggested that free speech set the stage for the Holocaust. Of course, Rubio wasn't having any of it, and he eventually told Brennan, "I have to disagree with you. Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews, and they hated minorities, and they hated those that they — they had a list of people they hated, but primarily the Jews."
Newsweek annihilated on social media over its bizarre framing of Trump's campaign stunt when he handed out Big Macs and fries at McDonald's: 'The Pulitzer Prize is on the way'
Remember when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump put on a McDonald's apron and handed out french fries from a drive-thru window last October? Remember when Newsweek tried to "debunk" Trump's obvious stunt, designed to mock his opponent, Kamala Harris, for claiming without evidence that she once worked at a McDonald's?
Newsweek's headline actually read, "Rumors have been circulating on social media that former President Donald Trump's visit to the popular fast-food chain was staged." You don't say!
As you might guess, critics mocked Newsweek's article into oblivion:
- "I’m gonna have to spend some time contemplating the possibility that this was not a completely organic event featuring a former president taking a side gig at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s while he’s running for president," commentator Mary Katharine Ham sarcastically noted.
- "Wait, you’re telling me that Trump didn’t fill out an application and organically start working at a PA McDonald’s where a film crew spontaneously showed up with SS vetted customers, he staged it all? It wasn’t for the $25 in wages??" responded blogger Courtney O'Dell with tongue firmly in cheek.
- "Dust off the mantle, the Pulitzer Prize is on the way," joked satirist David Burge.
- "Woodward and Bernstein who? Looks like @Newsweek just wrapped up the Pulitzer for investigative journalism. Next up. Rumors Santa may not be real," said Barstool founder David Portnoy.
Newsweek, again? Yes, indeed — and this time magazine claims Tucker Carlson 'launches' show on Russian-state TV. Uh, not so much.
A mere five months prior to Newsweek's mock-worthy piece on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump working the drive-thru window at a McDonald's, the magazine published a story claiming Tucker Carlson had launched a show on Russia 24 — a state-controlled Russian media outlet. Newsweek cited as its source a newspaper owned and controlled by the Russian government.
The story quickly spread online, leading to accusations that Carlson was "quite literally, a mouthpiece of the Russian state" and that Carlson "has now embraced his master," a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Of course, Newsweek's report was shown to be false, and the magazine updated and corrected its story. The false claim appears to have originated from Ukraine’s Institute of Mass Information and Ukraine Pravda.
New York Times columnist resoundingly ridiculed for regurgitating bizarre NPR claim against Israel amid its war with Hamas: '30 THOUSAND trucks?'
In March 2024, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof posted a bizarre claim from an NPR report against Israel amid its war with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip — and both NPR and Kristof were mercilessly ridiculed for it on social media.
Kristof reposted an outlandish detail from the NPR report — that there were an impossibly large number of relief trucks that Israel was holding up: "[Jane Arraf] of @NPR quotes a Jordanian official as saying that 30,000 aid trucks are stuck at the Egypt/Gaza border, waiting for Israeli approval to enter Gaza, with some Jordanian trucks stuck there for the last two months. Meanwhile Gaza kids starve."
Critics on social media immediately took Kristof and NPR to task for circulating such a ridiculous figure.
"Nick, I realize you’re an idiot, but does that sound right to you? 30 THOUSAND trucks?" responded Jonathan Greenburg, who went on to calculate that 30,000 trucks would take up 271 miles of street space. He added, "That’s twice the distance from Kerem Shalom to Amman, where @janearraf’s idiot source is feeding her fake statistics because he knows hacks like you are dumb and malicious enough to believe anything you’re fed." Greenburg also said, "They don’t even try to make their propaganda believable and the all stars in the Western media lap it up because OF COURSE the Jews have kept a line of trucks visible from Mars waiting at the Gaza border!"
Other responses:
- "30,000 trucks? LOL. People with an anti-Israel mindset will believe anything. Where are all these truck drivers sleeping? Who is feeding them? Where are the satellite photos of these trucks? Why hasn't this huge line of trucks at the border received any attention before now? I mean, some basic questions that anyone with common sense would be asking," David Bernstein replied.
- "That’s what happens when your fervent conviction that Israel is to blame for everything addles your ability to think reasonably," replied Eylon Levy.
- "30,000 trucks stuck at the Egyptian border? You want people to believe that trucks are lined up for 300 miles awaiting inspection by Israel? Reporters from the NY Times repeat other people's lies because it's easier than making up their own," responded Joel Petlin.
- "Imagine pretending there are *30,000* trucks just sitting there at the border just to bash Israel. They don’t even try to make the propaganda believable," said radio host Jason Rantz.
Kristof eventually deleted the tweet.
NPR on April 17 issued the following "clarification" at the bottom of its story: "On March 27, NPR quoted a Jordanian official claiming there were as many as 30,000 aid trucks held up at the Rafah crossing with Egypt to enter Gaza. We were subsequently unable to confirm this figure and no longer believe it is accurate. Ahmed Naimat, spokesman for Jordan's National Center for Security and Crisis Management, said he based the number on satellite images but did not provide them. NPR's own analysis of later satellite images does not support that figure. Most aid groups currently estimate that as of early April 2024 there were generally between 3,000 and 7,000 trucks waiting to be allowed into the Gaza Strip pending Israeli security-related inspections."
NBC News tries to covertly revise article that originally contradicted Biden White House claim that it wasn't given choice between bringing home WNBA's Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, both held hostage by Russia
NBC News issued a December 2022 report contradicting the official narrative of then-President Joe Biden concerning the government's prisoner swap with Russia — then the news network changed its original story without saying it had done so. Only after being met with online criticism and a request for comment from Blaze News did NBC News publish a correction.
In its Dec. 8 prisoner swap with Russia, the Biden administration exchanged Viktor Bout, who conspired to kill Americans, for pro basketball player Brittney Griner.
The White House suggested the Biden administration never had a choice to bring home former Marine Paul Whelan from Russia — that "the choice became to either bring Brittany home or no one." But NBC News, citing a senior U.S. official, first reported that the "Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Griner or Whelan — or none."
Rikki Ratliff-Fellman, director of programming at Blaze Media, noted a significant discrepancy between NBC News' original report and its revised article. Without issuing an editorial note, NBC News made a stealthy change to the article, such that it now reads, "The Kremlin ultimately gave the White House the choice of either Griner or no one after different options were proposed."
Some food for thought: then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Griner is "an important role model; an inspiration to millions of Americans particularly the LGBTQI+ Americans and women of color."
What's more, a paragraph was added to the NBC News article concerning Whelan's notification in prison about the "outcome of the negotiations" — and without an editorial note.
Blaze News reached out to NBC News, asking why it originally failed to highlight the change with an editorial note, whether someone at the White House asked for the change, whether its original source had recanted or stood by its initial claim, and whether it continues to stand by its source.
NBC News then issued a correction saying that "an earlier version of this article misstated the choice the Biden administration was given over hostages. It was to swap for Griner or no one, not a choice between Griner or Whelan."
Still, Whelan's lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov indicated that the deal involved a choice and implied that it was between his client and Griner. The lawyer said the exchange was a "one to one" and that "choosing Griner appeared 'more humane' because she is a woman and an Olympic champion, while Whelan was in the military and it is 'easier for him to be in custody.'"
After the beginning of his detention in Russia in 2018 and his espionage conviction by a Moscow court in 2020, Whelan finally was set free Aug. 1, 2024. Griner — who refused to stand for the American national anthem during home openers in 2020 — was arrested in February 2022 on smuggling charges after traveling to Russia with cannabis oil in her luggage.
Leftist media outlets walk back false reports that conservative host Michael Knowles at CPAC said transgender people 'must be eradicated'
Daily Wire host Michael Knowles during his 2023 CPAC speech stated, "For the good of society ... transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level."
Knowles also said, "There can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism. It is all or nothing. If transgenderism is true, if men really can become women, then it's true for everybody of all ages. If transgenderism is false, as it is, if men really can't become women, as they cannot, then it's false for everybody, too. And if it’s false, then we should not indulge it."
However, multiple left-leaning media outlets ran false reports saying Knowles called for the eradication of transgender people.
The Huffington Post published a piece originally titled, "At CPAC, A Call For Trans People To Be 'Eradicated' Gets Big Cheers." The Daily Beast ran a story originally titled, "Michael Knowles Says Transgender Community Must Be 'Eradicated' at CPAC." Rolling Stone — which has paid out millions for false reporting and defamation — ran a piece with the headline, "CPAC Speaker Calls for Transgender People to Be 'Eradicated.'"
Knowles immediately called out the leftist outlets and demanded retractions.
The Huffington Post changed its headline to read, "CPAC Speaker’s Trans Comments About ‘Eradication’ Sound Downright Genocidal." The story itself had claimed, "There are an estimated 1.6 million trans people in the United States. Knowles told the CPAC crowd that these people should not have a right to exist." The word "essentially" was added so that the sentence reads, "Knowles essentially told the CPAC crowd that these people should not have a right to exist."
The Daily Beast changed the headline of its article to "Michael Knowles Says Transgenderism Must Be 'Eradicated' at CPAC."
Rolling Stone changed its headline to "CPAC Speaker Calls for Eradication of ‘Transgenderism’ — and Somehow Claims He’s Not Calling for Elimination of Transgender People" and provided an editorial note stating, "This post has been updated to include statements from transgender rights activists and additional comments from Knowles."
The augmented Rolling Stone piece contains commentary by Erin Reed, a male transgender activist, on Knowles' demand for a retraction, suggesting that it's "an absurd distinction. There is no difference between a ban on 'transgenderism' and an attack on transgender people." Reed also claimed, "They are one and the same, and there's no separation between them."
Following the changes, Knowles tweeted, "I’m pleased to see that both @thedailybeast and @RollingStone have at least partially admitted their dishonesty by changing their libelous headlines. I look forward to seeing the other outlets that are defaming me follow suit!"
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) commented, "It is indeed libelous. It’s an example of how a bad Supreme Court ruling from 1964 (NY Times v. Sullivan) has created a monster—giving the news media a license to lie about any public figure who can’t prove that the reporter acted with 'actual malice,' which is nearly impossible."
Canadian Press issues 3 embarrassing retractions after publishing 'hit piece' against Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre
The Canadian Press issued three retractions after publishing an October 2023 story saying Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre blamed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for poor relations with India.
"BREAKING: Canadian Press forced to retract three separate 'erroneous statements' from one story alone," Poilievre wrote on his X page. "It was another false hit piece now thoroughly discredited. Remember that next time they attack me."
The Canadian Press issued a retraction at the bottom of its story two days after the piece was first published admitting that the headline included comments attributed to Poilievre that he didn't say: "Note to readers: This is a corrected story. In a headline on an earlier version of the story, The Canadian Press erroneously reported that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre cited Sikh aggression toward Indian envoys when blaming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for Canada's poor relations with India. In fact, Poilievre did not mention Sikhs during his interview with Namaste Radio Toronto, which was the basis for the story."
The retraction continued: "The Canadian Press also erroneously reported that Poilievre blamed Trudeau for 'aggression shown to ... Indian diplomats at public events.' In fact, Poilievre did not link those remarks to Trudeau." In addition, the retraction stated, that "the story erroneously reported the World Sikh Organization of Canada had argued that Poilievre was indirectly pointing the finger at Sikhs. In fact, the group's lawyer Balpreet Singh had argued that Poilievre was wrong to point the finger at anyone other than the Indian government."
Readers of Blaze News likely will recall a viral story just a week earlier about Poilievre casually eating an apple while giving simple answers to a reporter's dubious line of questioning. The reporter noted that "a lot of people" had accused Poilievre of "taking a page out of the Donald Trump book," after which Poilievre asked, "Which people would say that?" The reporter replied, "Well, I'm sure a great many Canadians, but ..." after which Poiliere shot back, "Like who?" The reporter soon changed his line of questioning.
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Trudeau Resigns, Denying Himself the Chance of Governing America’s 51st State
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation following tensions with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, likely bringing an end to nearly a decade of left-wing policymaking by the United States' northern neighbor.
The post Trudeau Resigns, Denying Himself the Chance of Governing America’s 51st State appeared first on .
Trump cracks jokes as Trudeau's leftist government apparently begins to disintegrate
"Sunny ways, my friends. Sunny ways," Justin Trudeau told his countrymen when elected Canada's prime minister in 2015. "This is what positive politics can do."
It appears that dark days are ahead for the leftist prime minister. After nine years marked by personal scandals, tax hikes, an unprecedented influx of immigrants, a spike in illegal immigration, rising crime, unanswered church burnings, a housing crisis, coercive medicine, and the rise of state-facilitated suicide as a leading cause of death nationally, Trudeau now faces a disapproval rating of 68% and a Canadian dollar trading at a five-year low. Although Trudeau has survived multiple no-confidence votes in recent months with the help of socialist New Democrat Party and Bloc Québécois lawmakers, his Cabinet has begun to disintegrate before his eyes.
Just weeks after Trudeau's foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly effectively auditioned for his job in the pages of the New York Times, Trudeau's deputy and finance minister Chrystia Freeland called it quits.
Freeland, a former journalist who did her best to alienate President-elect Donald Trump during his first term with passive-aggressive commentary, noted in a public letter to Trudeau that his alleged desire for her to migrate to a different role in his Cabinet was the last straw.
'The government of Canada itself is spiraling out of control.'
"To be effective, a Minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence," wrote Freeland. "In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it."
Although Freeland was on board with Trudeau's unlawful decision to use martial law in 2022 to crush the peaceful trucker protests and cosigned his various other controversial decisions, she suggested that in recent weeks they have been "at odds about the best path forward for Canada" and condemned his "costly political gimmicks."
Built into Freeland's letter was an apparent pitch for a new national direction, signaling the outgoing Cabinet minister's possible interest in competing against Joly, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, and other ambitious liberals for Trudeau's position.
Freeland noted further that while she was resigning her Cabinet position, she would keep her seat in Parliament and run again in the next federal election.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre stated at a press conference Monday, "The government of Canada itself is spiraling out of control right before our eyes and at the very worst time."
'I can say we're not united.'
"Justin Trudeau has lost control and yet he clings to power. We cannot accept this kind of chaos, division, weakness, while we are staring down the barrel of a 25% tariff from our biggest trading partner and closest ally, which, by the way, is headed by a newly elected president with a strong and fresh mandate — a man who can spot weakness from a mile away," added Poilievre. "Ms. Freeland has been Mr. Trudeau's most trusted minister now for a decade — for nine years. She knows him better than anyone, and she knows that he's out of control."
Trump, who has done little to conceal his dislike for Freeland over the years, noted on Truth Social, "The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau. Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!"
Shortly after Freeland threw in the towel, Trudeau appointed his safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc, to the role of finance minister.
Hours after Freeland's resignation Monday, the Trudeau Liberal government released its fall economic statement, which proved to be more bad news. Despite Freeland's promise of fiscal responsibility and "guardrails" earlier this year, the Liberal government overshot its deficit target by over $20 billion, ending up with a federal deficit of $61.9 billion for 2023-24.
Following Freeland's shock resignation and the deficit announcement, members of Trudeau's Liberal Party of Canada held a mutinous caucus meeting, with numerous parliamentarians urging the prime minister to step down, reported Canadian state media.
"I can say we're not united," Liberal parliamentarian Chad Collins told reporters after the caucus meeting. "There's still a number of our members who think we need a change in leadership and I'm one of them."
"I think the only path forward for us is to choose a new leader and present a new plan to Canadians with a different vision," added Collins.
Wayne Long, another Liberal parliamentarian, suggested that one-third of the sitting members of Trudeau's party want him to resign, one-third are fence-sitters, and the remainder are loyalists.
Trudeau reportedly noted at a Christmas party Monday for Liberal donors that it had "not been an easy day" but otherwise remained mum on the topic of his abandonment.
Trudeau's day was likely made worse by his party's third federal by-election loss in recent months after Conservative Tamara Janset beat out a Liberal for a federal swing seat in British Columbia by a landslide. Polls indicate that in the event of a snap election, the Liberal Party will similarly be demolished at the ballot box nationwide.
A December 8 Ipsos poll indicated the Conservative Party of Canada would easily defeat Trudeau's Liberal Party. The CPC was leading in the polls with 44%. The NDP and the Liberal Party are both tied for second place with 21% each.
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