Tulsi Gabbard has national security 'experts' worried: 'DNI has access to every single secret'



There is a pattern developing with regard to President-elect Donald Trump's recent nominations: He announces someone apparently well suited to executing the agenda he successfully campaigned on; those with vested interests in the status quo panic; and establishmentarians viciously attack the nominees, pleading with nominal Republicans in the U.S. Senate to prevent their confirmation.

This pattern has been repeated for multiple picks, including former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Although virtually all of Trump's nominations have ruffled feathers, his choice of Lt. Col. Tulsi Gabbard to serve as the director of national intelligence appears to have inspired a special kind of unease among Democratic lawmakers, the liberal media, and elements of the intelligence community.

The media

The Atlantic's Tom Nichols rushed to characterize Gabbard's nomination as a "national security risk," complaining that she previously suggested NATO might have had something to do with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that Syria did not pose a direct threat to the United States.

"Gabbard is a classic case of 'horseshoe' politics," Nichols warned. "Her views can seem both extremely left and extremely right, which is probably why people such as Tucker Carlson — a conservative who has turned into … whatever pro-Russia right-wingers are called now — have taken a liking to the former Democrat (who was previously a Republican and is now again a member of the GOP)."

The Washington Examiner's Tom Rogan suggested that by nominating Gabbard, Trump — who was kneecapped in his first term by a malignant counterintelligence investigation and whose 2020 political adversary was given narrative cover prior to the election by CIA contractors and intelligence community alumni — "is putting his distrust of the intelligence community before the critical interests of national security."

After trotting out the Syria and Russia-themed attacks against Gabbard, then insinuating that she is a sympathizer with the communist Chinese regime, Rogan warned that if confirmed, she would supervise "all U.S. intelligence agencies' collection, analysis, and mission efforts and the production and dissemination of the U.S. government's most sensitive intelligence reporting and analysis. This includes knowledge of spies buried deep inside foreign governments and terrorist organizations."

'This appointment is sending shock waves here in the United States.'

Bill Kristol quoted Jonathan Last, editor of the neocon blog the Bulwark, as writing, "Making Gabbard DNI simply makes no sense. ... Or rather, it makes no sense for America. For Russia, DNI Gabbard makes all the sense in the world."

Last appeared particularly upset over Gabbard's opposition to fruitless foreign entanglements and ineffectual U.S. sanctions.

Dems and spooks spooked

"This appointment is sending shock waves here in the United States but also around the globe," John Brennan, former director of the CIA and chief counterterrorism adviser to former President Barack Obama, said in conversation with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace.

Brennan, one of the signatories of the infamous Hunter Biden "intel" letter, likened the 18 intelligence agencies that Gabbard would oversee to an orchestra, suggesting that she likely doesn't even know what instruments are being played.

Former Bush adviser John Bolton, a key proponent of America's disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq, suggested to NewsNation's "The Hill" that with Trump's "announcement of Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence, he's sending a signal that we have lost our mind when it comes to collecting intelligence."

One former senior intelligence official who spoke under the condition of anonymity told Politico that the choice was a "left turn and off the bridge."

Another intelligence official warned that America's allies, including Israel, might withhold information from Washington if Gabbard were the DNI, adding, "What some allies share may now be shaped by political goals rather than professional intelligence sharing."

An unnamed "Western security source" similarly suggested to Reuters that Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand may be less forthcoming about the intelligence they collect, stressing that foreign nations believe Trump's appointments all lean in the "wrong direction."

Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger (Va.), a former CIA officer who now warms a chair on the House Intelligence Committee, suggested on X that Gabbard, who served in Iraq and Kuwait, would be an oath-breaker.

"The men and women of the U.S. Intelligence community honor their oaths by collecting the vital intelligence that keeps our fellow Americans safe. The global threats we face require a Director of National Intelligence who would do the same. Tulsi Gabbard is not that person," wrote Spanberger.

The former spook, echoing Nichols, appears to have unwittingly highlighted what has the establishment panicking, telling The Hill, "The DNI has access to every single secret that the United States has, every single bit of information that we know. … It's the keys to the intelligence community kingdom."

Larry Pfeiffer, former chief of staff at the CIA under the Bush administration, told The Hill, "Some of the statements she has made through the years that sound like they came right out of the Kremlin's talking points paper are a little bit alarming. Her cozying up to Bashar al-Assad and being an apologist for him as well just raise questions in my mind. Is that really the best person to put in charge of this very complicated, very sensitive operation that is the U.S. intel community?"

Jamil Jaffer, a former House Intelligence Committee staffer and national security prosecutor, told The Hill, "What is unusual here is you've got somebody who's had such a long and vociferous track record of saying things that are factually incorrect, that seem to give aid and comfort to U.S. adversaries and that undermine the very people they should be representing at the principals committee."

As with Hegseth and Gaetz's critics, those denouncing Gabbard appear to be exponents of the very worldview and policy conventions that Trump was effectively elected to obliterate.

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

DHS refused to look into alleged would-be Trump assassin flagged on his way back from Ukraine: Report



The U.S. Secret Service admitted this week to failing to search the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, just before President Donald Trump hit the links on Sunday.

When pressed on why the Secret Service failed to spot a Democratic donor — known to the FBI — who apparently had camped out at the course for 12 hours with an SKS-style 7.62x39 caliber rifle, acting USSS Director Ronald Rowe blamed the intended target, telling reporters that Trump "wasn't supposed to have gone there in the first place."

While the USSS is facing criticism over its latest bungling of Trump's security, its parent agency also appears to have dropped the ball.

Just the News reported that Trump critic Alejandro Mayorkas' Department of Homeland Security was prompted to investigate suspected would-be assassin Ryan Routh upon his return home from Ukraine last year after U.S. border officials flagged him as suspect, but the agency didn't bother to act.

'Simply get all military gear and money.'

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reportedly interviewed Routh at the Honolulu airport in June 2023. Officials knew of his travels to Poland, specifically to Warsaw near the Ukrainian border, as well as to Istanbul, Turkey. They were also aware of his efforts to recruit mercenaries from Taiwan, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and Moldova to fight in Ukraine against the Russians.

Blaze News previously noted that Routh ran a website called "Fight for Ukraine," which details various ways — including unlawful ways — people could supposedly go to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine.

"Simply get all military gear and money and fly to Krakow[, Poland]. Take an intercity train or bus to Przemyśl. Take a local train or bus to Medyka. Make your way to the border with Ukraine," wrote Routh.

While Routh was keen on having civilians from across the globe put their lives on the line in Ukraine, he never fought himself, reported the New York Times, whose reporter Thomas Gibbons-Neff first heard of Routh through a former Afghan special operations soldier in Iran.

Routh hatched a grand scheme to get militants fleeing the Taliban to go fight for Kiev. His X feed was littered with failed pleas to Western defense officials and organizations to allow such Afghan mercenaries into Ukraine.

Extra to attempting to recruit mercenaries, while in Ukraine, Routh also demonstrated in support of the Azov Brigade, an outfit associated with neo-Nazis since its inception.

The brigade said in a statement this week it "has no connection" to Routh and that rumors to the contrary are "playing along with Russian propaganda."

According the records reviewed by Just the News, Routh gave the border officials interviewing him a card stating that he was the director of a group called the "International Volunteer Center."

USA Today indicated Monday it tried calling a number associated with Routh and was greeted by a voicemail message identifying the number's owner as "Ryan in Hawaii," working with the "National Volunteer Center, sending soldiers to Ukraine, as well as Taiwan."

The International Volunteer Center in Ukraine made clear it hasn't worked with Routh, telling the New York Post, "We have been officially registered as an organization in Ukraine since October 2023. Prior to the recent developments, none of us had any knowledge of Mr. Routh or any other entity named the International Volunteer Center, aside from our own registered organization."

'There's one person you guys need to keep an eye on, because he's a ticking time bomb.'

Ukraine's foreign legion — which Routh frequently contacted — has characterized the suspected would-be assassin as a charlatan and denied his involvement in the unit.

According to CBP's memo pertaining to Routh's interview, "Subject is a USC who had traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for 3 months to help recruit Soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova, and Taiwan, to fight in the Ukrainian war against Russia."

"Subject stated that he does not get paid for his recruiting efforts and all his work for the Ukrainian government is strictly volunteer work Subject provided his recruiting business card (cards have been uploaded into the event) which list his recruiting partners that he speaks with to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Romanian, Pakistan, Syria, and Israel," continues the memo reviewed by Just the News. "Subject stated that he obtains money from his wife to help fund his trips to Ukraine."

The memo further stated that Routh was referred to the DHS' Homeland Security Investigations but that HSI declined to look into the matter.

"HSI was contacted and refused the case," said the memo.

When pressed for comment, the DHS referred Just the News to the FBI, which is overseeing the investigation into the assassination attempt.

The DHS also apparently failed to take action in response to another concerning report submitted by Chelsea Walsh, a nurse from West Palm Beach who encountered Routh in Kiev in 2022.

Walsh was so worried about Routh's volatile nature and threats of violence that she reported him to a CBP officer at Washington's Dulles airport in June 2022 after returning from Ukraine.

Walsh told WPTV-TV, "As a nurse, we are trained to detect when people are a threat to themselves or others, and I was beginning to realize more and more that Ryan was a threat to others."

At the airport, “[the agent] said that he represented Homeland Security and he was only interested in homeland security threats," said Walsh.

"I told him, 'Then there's one person you guys need to keep an eye on, because he's a ticking time bomb. His name is Ryan Routh, and he lives in Hawaii. He's coming back from Ukraine eventually, and someone needs to follow up with him.'"

Walsh said the DHS never followed up with her.

The FBI — whose agent in charge of the Miami field office, Jeffrey Veltri, was reportedly compelled to scrub his social media history because of his anti-Trump rhetoric — also appears to have let Routh slip off its radar.

Blaze News previously reported that the FBI received a complaint in 2019 that Routh had a firearm. Owing to Routh's felonious record, including a 2002 conviction on a possession of a weapon of mass destruction charge, the complaint would ostensibly have been grounds for an interview at the very least.

Veltri said at a press conference Monday, "When following up on the tip, the alleged complainant was interviewed and did not verify, I repeat, did not verify providing the initial information. The FBI passed that information on to local law enforcement in Honolulu."

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

Erik Prince identifies for 'Blaze News Tonight' the first casualty of the second assassination attempt



Erik Prince spoke to "Blaze News Tonight" on Monday about the latest attempt on President Donald Trump's life, the ostensible incompetence of certain federal agencies, possible security considerations moving forward, and what the former president ultimately lost on Sunday.

Paradise lost

Prince, a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer and founder of the private military company Blackwater, highlighted something otherwise glossed over in other analyses of the second failed assassination attempt: namely that Trump, vilified by the media and political establishment, has effectively lost his last refuge.

"The thing that really disgusted me on top of everything else is golfing was a happy place for Donald Trump," said Prince. "He loved to do it, he's good at it, and they took that away from him."

Prince noted that now, "every time he's on a golf course and he looks at a beautiful tree line, [Trump] thinks: 'Yeah, that's a beautiful tree line, but that's also where somebody can be hiding, waiting to shoot me.' I feel bad for the guy."

Federal failures and solutions

According to Prince, Trump not only lost his happy place but came close to losing his life once again "because nothing has changed."

While Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the U.S. Secret Service and a handful of agents supposedly were placed on leave, the private security expert suggested that the institutional rot remains.

"Nobody's been fired from the Secret Service," continued Prince. "There hasn't been a housecleaning of the head shed or of the ranks."

'You want hunters of men — people that think offensively.'

"You know the definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again and expect a different result," added Prince.

Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker pressed Prince on whether Trump needs to "either supplement or replace" his Secret Service protection before the election.

Prince indicated that it would be prudent to reinforce Trump's security detail with some of the Pentagon's more reliable operators.

The Blackwater founder indicated there is "a lot of private-sector capability that's available" but that meshing those capabilities with a federal organization such as the USSS would prove very difficult.

"The problem with the Secret Service is there's 10 or 15 percent are fantastic. Olympic-level performance. Great. Another 20 or 30 percent are just bureaucrats showing up. There's another 50 percent that are just really useless and malign," continued Prince. "It wouldn't be hard to top-grade a lot. I just don't know how deep their bench is."

While Prince indicated Trump could supplement his security detail with elements from the private sector, it would be better to source operators from "Joint Special Operations Command, which houses SEAL Team Six and Delta."

"Take some operators from there because you want people that are predators. You want hunters of men — people that think offensively; who think, 'How am I going to kill Donald J. Trump?' And you say, 'This is the 20 ways we're going to do it.' And you plug every one of those 20 ways to make sure he is safe," said Prince.

By having offensive rather than reactive thinkers on the job, Prince indicated that Trump would be more secure against the likes of suspects like Routh and also better positioned to withstand attacks by more competent killers such as ISIS terrorists, Hezbollah militants, or Latin American gangs.

Localizing the investigation

Prince emphasized that the successful capture of alleged would-be assailant Ryan Routh was entirely the doing of local law enforcement and that FBI cannot be relied upon to conduct a proper investigation into what happened.

"The real heroes of yesterday are the sheriffs because they actually coordinated with each other across county lines," said Prince. "The feds had nothing to do with capturing that guy."

Officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Martin County Sheriff's Office tracked the suspect down and arrested him on I-95, roughly 40 miles away from the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he apparently evaded the USSS.

"I don't have any confidence in the FBI Miami field office to do this investigation," said Prince, noting that Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge "had to scrub, had deleted his social media history because he was so wildly anti-Trump."

A whistleblower told the House Judiciary Committee last year that the FBI compelled Veltri to delete his anti-Trump posts before he took over the Miami field office, reported the Washington Times.

According to the whistleblower's disclosure obtained by the Times, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, and Executive Assistant Director Jennifer Moore "wanted to ensure that Veltri appeared non-political, Veltri was ordered to remove all of his Facebook and social media posts that were anti-Trump."

The bureau downplayed allegations of political bias, particularly with regard to Veltri's selection for a position that oversees Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

'That opens the intellectual can of worms for every left-wing screwball.'

"This is the same FBI office that did the bogus raid on Mar-a-Lago on this documents case," Prince told "Blaze News Tonight." "So if you think he's going to do an honest job at digging into leftist conspiracy to kill President Trump, no way."

Prince underscored the need for Florida to conduct its own investigation — which Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) confirmed Sunday is happening.

The left's culpability

Compounding the problem of security issues for Trump is the president's continued demonization by the left.

"When the left makes, creates the intellectual space and the apocryphal claims that Donald Trump is Hitler and that he must be eliminated, he must be stopped at all costs, that he's a threat to democracy — that opens the intellectual can of worms for every left-wing screwball saying 'I'm going to be the savior of the left. I'm going to kill Donald Trump.' And that's exactly what this guy was doing," said Prince.

Ryan Routh, the suspected would-be assassin, is a convicted felon, an ActBlue donor, and a Ukraine war obsessive.

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) provided a succinct biography of the suspected would-be assassin in a Tuesday Blaze News op-ed:

Here is what we know so far: Kamala Harris has said that "democracy is on the line" in her race against President Trump. The gunman agreed and used the exact same phrase. He had a Biden-Harris bumper sticker on his truck. He was obsessed with Ukraine’s "fight for democracy" and absorbed many unhinged views about the Russia-Ukraine war. His name is Ryan Routh, and he donated 19 times to Democratic Party causes and zero to Republican ones.

Blaze News previously reported that Routh has repeatedly echoed Democratic talking points, including "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot" and that the Jan. 6 riot was a "catastrophe ... perpetrated by Donald Trump and his undemocratic posse."

In his self-published 2023 book "Ukraine's Unwinnable War," Routh invited Iranians to assassinate Trump, stating, "No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection."

Prince said Routh "was supercharged by the left's wild rhetoric" and "trophy hunting."

"He was there to be the one — the killer of Donald Trump," added Prince.

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

Video Shows Police Take Down Man Allegedly Attempting To Breach Trump Rally’s Media Area

Law enforcement officials eventually subdued the man with a taser

Even liberal media cannot ignore the border wall-sized problem with Harris campaign ad



For lack of a detailed platform indicating what she might finally get around to doing if elected president, Kamala Harris has instead been campaigning on what she would like American voters to think she has accomplished.

Harris posted a campaign ad earlier this month touting her record on the border. On closer inspection, critics and even some elements of the liberal media noticed something amiss about the 30-second video: President Donald Trump's border wall.

Whilst insinuating that Harris has been strong on the border, the campaign ad repeatedly shows off the same border wall Harris spent years criticizing and then joined President Joe Biden in defunding upon taking power.

Omitting any mention of the tens of millions of illegal aliens who have stolen into the country under Harris' watch, the narrator for the campaign ad claims, "As a border state prosecutor, she took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and guns across the border."

"As vice president, she backed the toughest border-control bill in decades," says the narrator. "And as president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking. Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris."

Mike Howell, executive director of the Heritage Foundation's government watchdog Oversight Project, highlighted the Trump border wall's cameos in the video Friday, tweeting, "What is that in this ad? Looks like the @realDonaldTrump BORDER WALL to me!"

Peter Hasson, editor of the Washington Free Beacon, noted in reply, "Not only is Kamala featuring border wall in her campaign ad, it appears that she's featuring *Trump-era* additions to the border wall. The campaign footage (left image) matches VOA footage (right image) identified as Sasabe, Arizona. CBP website shows the wall in Sasabe was built under Trump."

ABC News' Jonathan Karl played the video Sunday for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and asked, "What do you make of her transformation on this issue?"

Sanders offered a diplomatic response, attributing a potential border policy to Harris.

'Trump's border wall is just a stupid use of money.'

Karl, ostensibly hoping for Sanders to acknowledge the vice president's radical about-face on the issue, said, "If you take a look at that ad, and one thing that I found striking, is if you look — and I think we have the images here — there are at least three points in that ad that show the border wall. Donald Trump's border wall."

"Is it now the position of the Democrats that they favor the border wall?" asked Karl.

"You can ask the Harris campaign about that ad," said Sanders.

Harris' use of Trump's accomplishment to visually imply it to be her own might be less controversial if it were not for the Democrat's years-long rhetorical and administrative campaign against the wall.

In 2017, Harris wrote, "Trump's border wall is just a stupid use of money."

Bloomberg reported that in February 2018, congressional Democrats expressed an unwillingness to grant Trump $25 billion to build a border wall in exchange for those illegal aliens deemed "Dreamers" to gain a path to citizenship. Harris was one of three Senate Democrats who rejected the deal.

Harris' spokeswoman at the time suggested, "With any vote she takes in the Senate, she looks at all the evidence, does her homework, and does what she believes is the right thing to do. This one was no different."

Harris made clear in a statement that funding should not "be used to implement this administration's anti-immigrant agenda."

While peddling her book, "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey," in 2019, Harris reportedly suggested the wall was Trump's "vanity project" and threatened litigation should he move forward with it.

During a CNN town hall just weeks later, Harris called the border wall Trump's "medieval vanity project," emphasizing that she would "not vote for a wall under any circumstances."

Prior to being run out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with no delegates to her name, Harris tweeted, "Trump's border wall is a complete waste of taxpayer money and won't make us any safer."

Shortly after taking power, the Biden-Harris administration halted the flow of government funds toward the construction of the wall and in subsequent months took additional steps to axe construction contracts.

Harris appears keen to gloss over her track record of keeping the border porous, especially in light of polling data indicating that Americans are tired of illegal aliens stealing into the country.

Gallup revealed last month that 53% of respondents signaled a desire to expand the construction of walls along the U.S. border. 63% said they favored allowing the president and the secretary of Homeland Security to bar entry to asylum-seekers when the southern border is overwhelmed.

Earlier this year, a Monmouth University poll found that over 8 in 10 Americans recognized illegal immigration to be either a very serious (61%) or a somewhat serious (23%) problem.

The poll also found that 53% of respondents supported the border wall.

The Harris campaign ad starring Trump's border wall drew heat earlier this month for a different reason: The law enforcement members shown standing next to her wanted it known that their images were used without permission and that she did not have their support.

Blaze News previously reported that Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux and District Attorney Tim Ward expressed outrage over their inclusion in the video.

"In light of a recent political ad put out by Kamala Harris featuring Sheriff Boudreaux, as well as other local law enforcement, the Sheriff wants to make it abundantly clear that his image is being used without his permission, and he does NOT endorse Harris for President or any other political office," Sheriff Boudreaux said in a statement.

"Just as Sheriff Boudreaux said, I do not in any way want the use of that photo to be construed as support of [Harris] either in her candidacy, current candidacy, or even in her tenure as attorney general of the State of California," said Ward.

Tulare County officials also contradicted Harris' characterization as a "border state prosecutor."

According to Boudreaux, "The truth is, Harris never cared about the cartels and did nothing to stop people from illegally crossing the border."

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

Report: Secret Service Agent Abandoned Post During Trump Rally To Breastfeed

A female Secret Service agent assigned to protect former President Donald Trump at a recent rally left her post to breastfeed her child without proper approval, according to a new report. Citing sources within the agency, RealClearPolitics (RCP) reporter Susan Crabtree revealed Thursday that an agent tasked with defending Trump at the former president’s Wednesday […]

Chicago-area village credit cards frozen, deputy chief laid off as Lightfoot concludes investigation into controversial mayor



Chaos in the Chicago-area village of Dolton continues, as trustees voted to freeze municipal credit cards and lay off staff while former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot wraps up her investigation into fellow Democrat and self-described "Super Mayor" Tiffany Henyard.

A meeting of Dolton officials had already been scheduled for Monday, but one meeting turned into two after some trustees claimed that Mayor Henyard, who is also the supervisor for Thornton Township, would not let them add items to the agenda. So they arranged to host a separate meeting at Village Hall before the other meeting there began.

'Y'all are being hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray.'

As has been the case at most Dolton public meetings for the past several months, the meetings on Monday quickly got out of hand. For one thing, shortly after the series of meetings began, Henyard forced attendees to stand up, exit the area, and walk through metal detectors that had apparently malfunctioned earlier in the day.

"You guys have to go through the metal detectors so that everyone is secure in the building," Henyard ordered.

Then when Henyard entered, she took a seat normally reserved for the village attorney. She also had two defense attorneys sit next to her and even attend a closed-door session, though attorney Burt Odelson, who serves as the legislative counsel for the Dolton Board of Trustees, claimed they had no legal standing to attend such a session.

How these criminal defense attorneys are being paid is unclear, but Odelson asserted that paying them out of village funds would be illegal. One of the attorneys later stated he had not been paid by the village.

Henyard is the subject of a federal investigation but has not yet been charged with any crime.

The main focus of the meetings was curtailing spending. To that end, Dolton trustees voted to freeze the use of almost all village credit cards, claiming too many people had abused the privilege while the village wallows in debt.

"There’s thousands and thousands of dollars for Amazon purchases, for PayPal, for Target, for Walgreens, for [regional supermarket chain Jewel-Osco] in the hundreds and thousands of dollars," said Michael McGrath, lawyer for Dolton’s trustees.

"Speaking to the accounting department, we are in financial disaster," added trustee Kiana Belcher.

For now, only the director of administrative services will be able to use the village credit card and only for purchases preapproved by the board.

Another significant financial drain is Henyard's extravagant security retinue, including four security SUVs that cost the village $250,000. Trustees suggested off-loading the vehicles to relieve themselves of the payments, but the final decision about the vehicles will be made at a later date.

Finally, the board voted 4-1 to lay off certain municipal employees, including Deputy Chief Lewis Lacy, a supposed Henyard ally. Henyard slammed the layoffs as thinly veiled "political retaliation," but the trustees countered that they had to trim as much fat as possible to stay afloat.

"It’s unfortunate, but we have to make these decisions so we can make payroll," claimed trustee Brittney Norwood.

Because of Henyard's history of lavish spending and the village's poor financial circumstances, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was tapped to conduct a formal investigation into Henyard, notoriously nicknamed the "Dolton dictator," and the village itself.

Lightfoot is expected to give a preliminary report of her findings on Thursday.

"Y'all are being hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray," one resident said during the meeting.

"We deserve a mayor that truly cares about our village and not a mayor who sees our village as her personal playground," claimed another.

"The village is bleeding," agreed trustee Norwood. "If residents knew the truth, they’d hit the roof."

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

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



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

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

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

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

Because of that, the FBI can withhold information.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Want more from Blaze News Tonight?

To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Democrats Eye J6 Chairman Who Tried To Eliminate Trump’s Secret Service Protection To Investigate Assassination Attempt

Punchbowl not only omitted Thompson's efforts to remove Trump's security, but also said nothing of his misconduct on the J6 Committee.

Mark Levin 'lays out the facts' of Trump’s shooter



Mark Levin, although disturbed by Trump’s near assassination, wasn’t shocked at the attempt on the former president’s life.

“What do the media think is going to happen when they keep calling Donald Trump Hitler? When individual hosts so pathetically, egotistically say, ‘I fear for my liberty if Donald Trump is elected; I fear that he will throw me in prison’?” he asks.

What he is shocked by, however, is the unbelievable circumstances surrounding the assassination attempt.

Mark Lays Out the Facts of Trump’s Would-be Assassinyoutu.be

“How the hell does a guy,” who has “not even [a] military background” or “law enforcement background” mange to “get access to a building which is a staging ground for local police and Special Ops” carrying something as big as a rifle? Mark asks, perplexed.

“How does he sit on that roof, then lie down, get in position, [while] the audience is screaming, ‘He's got a gun! He's got a gun!’?”

“I'm not blaming anyone yet; I'm laying out the facts as we know them,” he says.

To hear more of Mark’s analysis and discover what Donald Trump said to him following the day of the assassination attempt, watch the clip above.

Want more from Mark Levin?

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