Secretaries Of War, Navy Talk Bringing Back Manufacturing Jobs, Covid Objectors, And Combat Readiness

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan spoke of the dire national security need to revive U.S. manufacturing.

ESPN fatigue: Stephen A. Smith pushes vaccines, racial drama, and no real journalism



ESPN is in trouble, and BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn’t surprised — especially considering that one of its “stars,” Stephen A. Smith, has been pushing woke nonsense on listeners since the tiresome events of 2020.

In one clip that Whitlock plays from 2022, Smith addresses an incident involving a Duke volleyball player, Rachel Richardson, who claimed that she heard racial slurs in a game against BYU.

“I’m saying, BYU, you did it by allowing this to happen and not addressing it expeditiously, not addressing it with the level of quickness and speed that you should have addressed it with. So now, instead of looking at that fool, that racist bastard that was spewing that nonsense towards Miss Rachel Richardson,” Smith yelled on ESPN’s “First Take.”

“This is why I have fatigue,” Whitlock comments, annoyed. “And y’all remember this. This is about some BYU student that allegedly called some black girl the N-word or something at a volleyball game. It made no sense. There was no proof of it.”


“And Stephen A. Smith’s on TV yelling and screaming and wagging a finger at some white kid that he doesn’t know who he is. There’s no proof that it happened. There never was any proof that it happened. He made a fool of himself and ESPN, and they allowed it to happen. This is supposed to be some media corporation that should have some understanding of the basic tenets of journalism. And they’ve platformed Stephen A. Smith as if he’s the face of sports journalism,” he adds.

But Smith’s BYU outburst is far from the worst of it.

“The virus has been especially brutal to my community, with data showing black Americans being far more likely to get infected, get hospitalized, and, yes, even die from COVID-19. And now the data shows black Americans are not getting the vaccine, at least not at the same rate as other communities,” Smith preached on ESPN.

“Just in Philadelphia, where Rite Aid pharmacies are distributing the vaccine, 87% of vaccinations so far have gone to white folks, reportedly,” he added.

“‘You gotta take this poison, y’all,’” Whitlock mocks. “‘Black people, my community. Now, yes, I lived in a gated community filled with white people, but when I say my community, I’m talking about you black people.’”

“‘You got to take this experimental vaccine and kill yourself. … My IQ is probably in the low 80s, but I’m a doctor and can tell you what vaccines you should take,’” he continues.

“This is insanity,” Whitlock says, adding, “And you wonder why people have fatigue.”

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Florida surgeon general moves to END all vaccine mandates for children



Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo does not take the issue of childhood vaccines likely — and is making major changes for the health and safety of Florida children.

Florida is seeking to end all vaccine mandates, including those for schoolchildren.

“The whole ‘means justify the ends’ that people are championing — our critics are championing — it’s a really bad way to make public policy,” Ladapo tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”


“Ultimately, I get the interest in — you know, none of us want people to be sick. None of us want to have to deal with people catching different viruses or bacterial infections, going to the hospital, things that are part of life — but we want to minimize those for sure,” he continues.

“But you can’t do it through unethical means. The means do not justify the ends. If the means are bad, the means are bad. The means and the ends are two different things. And it’s just so clearly both a parents' rights issue and it’s very clearly a moral and ethical issue,” he adds.

Ladapo believes that Americans have a God-given right to “control what goes into your body.”

“Otherwise, do you really own it?” he asks.

Gonzales couldn’t agree more.

“If the government says you don’t have the right to control what enters your body, you don’t have any rights,” she says. “Like, that is one of the most fundamental, basic ideas. I don’t understand how it’s controversial.”

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ESPN forced her to get the COVID shot — then fired her anyway



Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele was among those in 2021 forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine in order to keep her job — but after complying and getting the shots, her employer let her go anyway.

Steele was taken off the air following a podcast appearance on “Uncut with Jay Cutler,” where she called vaccine mandates “sick” and “scary.”

“You’ve had this long career, this illustrious career, and it came to a point when truth was on the line, and you took a risk,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says to Steele.

“I had been suspended, punished at ESPN in 2021. As we tape this, exactly four years ago I was suspended and in bed, sobbing and scared to death of what was next,” Steele explains.


“I was suspended for speaking up about being forced to take the COVID vaccine in order to keep my job at Disney. ... I had to be fully vaccinated by September 30, 2021, or else, and I waited until the very last second, and I had prayed about it,” she continues.

While Steele was against taking the shots, the pressure she felt as a mother with bills to pay was too much, and she decided to comply.

“I was ready to walk away, but as the sole wage earner with three kids and an ex and alimony and all those things, I felt like I had to make the choice to do it to keep my job. I still struggle with that. I feel like I caved,” she explains.

“So, I did it, and I complied, and then I talked on a podcast about it,” Steele tells Stuckey, noting that she went on the podcast immediately after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, so she was extra angry.

“I said, ‘I think it’s sick and wrong for any employer to force an employee to do something to their bodies that they don’t want to.’ Pretty simple. I said, ‘But I love my job, and I need my job.’ And here we are,” she tells Stuckey.

“And that was the beginning of the end,” she adds.

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PHOTOS of MAHA infiltrator caught with mRNA lobbyists



A deep-state actor has been attempting to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from his position as director of Health and Human Services — and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler has the receipts.

“We have an untold story about what’s happened over the course of the past week at the CDC. We all know the publicly reported stories of what happened — that Susan Monarez, who was the previous head of the CDC, was asked by HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy to fire some people who were not in line, not in alignment with the MAHA agenda,” Wheeler begins.

Wheeler calls Monarez “a bad apple” and a “militant pro-vaxxer” who is not ideologically aligned with the MAHA movement and even defended mRNA vaccines and the COVID vaccine during her confirmation hearing.

“The question, of course, was why was she nominated in the first place as CDC director?” Wheeler asks, before calling the answer a man named Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana.

According to Wheeler, Cassidy is a “MAHA infiltrator."


“He doesn’t seem like someone who’s propagating evil. But let me tell you about what happened over the weekend at the CDC when then-CDC Director Susan Monarez was asked by Bobby Kennedy, HHS secretary, to fire individuals at the CDC who were opposed to Bobby’s MAHA agenda,” Wheeler explains.

“Susan Monarez said ‘no.’ She refused to do the directive of her boss,” she continues, noting that this resulted in her being asked to resign — which she also refused to do and instead hired a lawyer.

“So Bobby Kennedy called President Trump, the White House — HHS communicated with the White House, I should say, to be precise. And President Trump said, ‘Actually, the CDC director, because you’re now a Senate-confirmed official, serves at the pleasure of the president, and it is now my pleasure that you not serve as the CDC director,’” Wheeler says.

“Now, that’s what’s known. You read that,” she adds.

What’s not known is that the first phone call Monarez made after being asked to resign was to Senator Bill Cassidy, who has been instrumental in torpedoing other MAHA efforts.

This is where a lobbying group called “Alliance for mRNA Medicines” comes in, which Wheeler says is “exactly what it sounds like.”

“It is a group dedicated to lobbying, pressuring, capturing members of the federal government and advocating for mRNA vaccines. They call them medicines because they don’t want vaccines in the title,” Wheeler explains.

In a highlight reel the group posted on social media, where they bragged about “what they accomplished during their trip to Washington, D.C.,” they show a meeting with none other than a smiling Cassidy.

“This man, Senator Bill Cassidy, is in the pocket of Big Pharma … but it’s worse than that. Senator Bill Cassidy is not only in the pocket of Big Pharma, he’s in the pocket of the mRNA vaccine lobby,” Wheeler says.

In 2023-2024, Cassidy was the second-highest Republican Senate recipient of Big Pharma cash. In one year alone, he received $290,000 from Big Pharma employees and lobbying groups — which is from just the easily trackable direct donations.

“And funny how the moment he became the ranking member of the Senate Health Committee, he suddenly received an influx of donations not just from pharma employees, but from pharma executives,” she explains, noting that one of those executives is the CEO of Pfizer.

“There’s an infiltrator who’s standing in the way of the MAHA-MAGA alliance,” Wheeler continues, adding, “Senator Bill Cassidy is captured not just by Big Pharma money but by the mRNA vaccine lobby, and there’s photographs to prove it.”

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Florida moves to end ALL vaccine mandates in MAJOR health policy shift



A massive announcement from the surgeon general of Florida, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, is turning the vaccine-obsessed world as Americans know it completely upside down.

That is, that all vaccine mandates will be eliminated in Florida.

“What I’m most excited about is an announcement that we’re going to make, that we’re making now, which is that the Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law,” Ladapo announced.

“All of them. All of them,” he repeated to overwhelming cheers. “Every last one of them.”

“Every last one of them,” he emphasized. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery, okay? Who am I, as a government, or anyone else, to tell you what you should put in your body? Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body? I don’t have that right. Your body, your body is a gift from God.”


“What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God. I don’t have that right. Government does not have that right. They want you to believe they have that right. And unfortunately, you know, they've been successful,” he added.

BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler is thoroughly impressed.

“Dr. Ladapo, it sounds almost revolutionary to hear a public health official speak like this, because most of them don’t,” she tells Ladapo.

“I mean, tell me what this means. Does this mean even for public schools there will be no vaccine requirements for children to attend?” she asks.

“Society’s gotten people to believe that, ‘Oh, actually, you know, governments do have that right.’ They don’t have that right. They don’t have that right. It’s time to reclaim that right. That’s a right from God who gave us our bodies, these vessels that house our souls. So, yes, public schools, absolutely, everything,” Ladapo answers.

“It’s just an unethical policy inherently,” he adds.

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Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Florida’s fight for medical freedom targets vaccine mandates



Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo made a major announcement concerning mandatory vaccinations during a press conference on Wednesday, which was met with enthusiastic applause from the audience.

'They do not have the right. Do not give it to them.'

Ladapo began his speech by praising Governor Ron DeSantis (R) for resisting government overreach during the COVID era.

He then revealed a significant win for medical freedom, stating that the Florida Department of Health and DeSantis would work in partnership to end "all" vaccine mandates in Florida law.

The crowd reacted to Ladapo's announcement by standing up and bursting into applause.

"Every last one of them," Ladapo clarified. "Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery."

"Who am I as a government, or anyone else — or who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body?" he continued.

"Your body is a gift from God. What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God. I don't have that right. Government does not have that right. They want you to believe they have that right. And unfortunately, they've been successful."

RELATED: Where’s the outrage?! This whistleblower's vaccine injury lawsuit demands national attention

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Ladapo noted that nearly every state has vaccine mandates.

"They do not have the right. Do not give it to them. Take it away from them," he declared. "And we're going to be starting that here in Florida."

He emphasized the importance of allowing Americans to make informed decisions about vaccines.

Ladapo explained that the Florida Department of Health has the power to initiate the process by eliminating rules established under the previous administration that required certain vaccines.

"It'll be wonderful for Florida to be the first state to do it," he said.

RELATED: Study: COVID-19 vaccination is 'strongly associated with a serious adverse safety signal of myocarditis'

Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Also during the Wednesday press conference, DeSantis unveiled the establishment of the Florida Make America Healthy Again commission, which will be chaired by first lady Casey DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins (R).

DeSantis referred to Florida as the “national model for medical freedom.”

"The Florida MAHA commission will prioritize reforms that empower Floridians, reduce regulatory burdens, and hold actors accountable for their conduct, while fostering incentives for healthy living and innovation," he stated during the press conference.

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Former insider exposes Big Pharma's dark side — and fights for health freedom for all



Leslie Manookian, now the president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund, was at the top of her career on Wall Street when she decided to leave it all behind for something more meaningful.

“I would say a big breakthrough moment for me was when the CEO, the CFO, the head of investor relations, and the head of R&D of one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world came into our office to reassure us about their stock,” Manookian tells BlazeTV host Nicole Shanahan.

“Their stock was plummeting in the stock market. It was down 25% or 30%. And they were going and visiting with their biggest investors to reassure them that their new blockbuster drug was OK,” she explains.

“The problem was that rumors were trickling out from their phase three trials, which is the last phase of clinical trials that a drug goes through before it can apply for licensure from the FDA, that this drug was killing people,” she says.


Manookian tells Shanahan that when the CEO brought up this issue in a meeting, he looked at her across the table and said, “A few people have died. It’s very, very rare.”

“And he said without missing a beat, ‘The bad news is the FDA is going to make us put a black box warning on our packaging. The good news is we still think we can do seven billion in peak sales,’” she recalls.

“What was the drug for?” Shanahan asks.

“Let’s just say it’s a household name,” she answers. “Everybody knows this company at this point in time, and it was about 25 years ago.”

That led Manookian to leave her career behind to focus on health freedom.

“The reason I started Health Freedom Defense Fund was because going way back, I’d been in the Health Freedom space for 25 years now, or 20 years at that point. And as soon as 2020 opened, I was absolutely certain as much as I could be that what was happening was some kind of an operation in order to mandate vaccines and lockdowns and all these other things,” she tells Shanahan.

“It was a perfect script given everything they’d put in place for over 20 years to facilitate an authoritarian response to a so-called public health emergency,” she continues, adding, “And so I founded Health Freedom Defense Fund, because I wanted to be able to fight back.”

Now, the successful nonprofit seeks to rectify health injustice through education, advocacy, and legal challenges to unjust mandates, laws, and policies that undermine our health freedoms and human rights.

“You don’t wear a mask on an airplane because of Health Freedom Defense Fund,” Manookian explains. “We’re the organization that challenged and defeated the federal travel mask mandate in 2022.”

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Zachary Levi on Hollywood’s hidden corruption — and ‘egregious’ vaccine mandates



Actor Zachary Levi made waves in Hollywood last year when he came out against vaccination and in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump — and now he’s taking it even further.

Levi, who is well aware which way Hollywood leans and how they treat you when you’re leaning the wrong way, is taking matters into his own hands and launching a $100 million Hollywood studio of his own.

The studio is called Wyldwood Studios, and it’s located in Austin near many other Hollywood escapees, like Woody Harrelson and Joe Rogan.

“I went into Hollywood, and it was very broken,” he tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable.” “When I got my first look behind the curtain and I saw how all the sausage was made in Hollywood 25 years ago, I was like, ‘God, I don’t know how to do this. This is so broken.”


“The value structure is entirely upside down. They’re not valuing the product, and they’re not valuing the people making the product. They’re valuing the bottom line. So it’s profit over people and not the other way around. You’ve got to value people over profit,” he adds.

That’s when God called him to make a change.

“So, what God called me to do wasn’t, it’s not just go fix the broken Hollywood system,” Levi tells Stuckey.

“Part of this was inspired by all of the stuff that happened with vaccine mandates in Hollywood, too, right? And just, like, your desire for freedom and autonomy?” Stuckey asks.

“I guess on some level,” Levi responds. “I just think that what we need across the world is we need to be able to live actually truly free lives, to be able to have actual liberty and autonomy within your life. Like, I’m more libertarian than anything else in that regard.”

“I don’t think anybody should have been mandated to get the vaccine. Certainly, I can only speak for my industry, and there were lots and lots and lots of people that were mandated,” he continues. “Through fear, through coercion, that was forced on a lot of people. And I think that was egregious.”

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After 77 years, In-N-Out is moving to Tennessee — here's why



During the pandemic, In-N-Out was among the very few companies that immediately stood up against the tyrannical measures to force the vaccine on unwilling citizens.

In a statement sent to ABC7 News in San Francisco at the time, the burger chain indicated that it would “refuse to become the vaccination police for any government.”

“We fiercely disagree with any government dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronize their business. This is clear governmental overreach and is intrusive, improper, and offensive,” the company’s statement said.

“There were so many pressures and just hoops we were having to jump through. You know, ‘You’ve got to do this, they have to wear a mask, you have to put this plastic thing up between us and our customers,’” Lynsi Snyder, president of In-N-Out Burger, tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on “Relatable.”


“But that was definitely where we held the line. ... We’re not policing our customers,” she continues.

After its refusal to bow down to the vaccine mandates, In-N-Out was “shut down for a brief moment,” but Snyder believes “it was worth it.”

Now, In-N-Out is building an office in Franklin, Tennessee, a place that did not see the same authoritarian response.

Snyder is moving herself and her family to Tennessee along with it.

“Number one priority is really keeping the company the same company that my grandparents started as,” she tells Stuckey. “I want the legacy to continue.”

“We don’t want to be in every state, and we don’t want to ever compromise our values and standards and the cornerstones that my grandparents laid down,” she continues, adding, “so it’s really just keeping those priorities at the forefront when we make decisions.”

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