Karoline Leavitt blasts media for 'shamefully' ignoring horrific stabbing of Ukrainian refugee
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called out the mainstream media for turning a blind eye to the tragic death of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed, allegedly by a repeat offender.
Zarutska's life was cut short after 34-year-old Decarlos Brown allegedly stabbed the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a train in North Carolina on August 22. Brown was later identified by local law enforcement and has since been charged with first-degree murder.
'Many journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny ... but none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer.'
This vicious stabbing was far from Brown's first alleged offense, having previously been arrested for over a dozen other crimes, including convictions for armed robbery and felony larceny.
"This is pure evil on full display," Leavitt said during Tuesday's press briefing. "The most enraging and unacceptable part of this story is that her death was entirely preventable. Decarlos Brown never should have been on that train that night."
RELATED: Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian woman
Press sec on the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska: "Tragically, a public transportation system in a major American city was more dangerous than the active war zone that she left. Her death was entirely preventable." pic.twitter.com/pqPaB3k9Ap
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 9, 2025
In the aftermath of the vicious attack, most outlets "shamefully and intentionally failed to report" on the tragedy, which Leavitt argued was because Zarutska's death was politically inconvenient for the largely liberal media.
"Perhaps most shamefully of all, the majority of the media, many outlets in this room, decided that her murder was not worth reporting on originally because it does not fit a preferred narrative," Leavitt said.
RELATED: Horrific video sparks outrage after young Ukrainian woman is fatally stabbed, allegedly by repeat offender
"Many journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny for defending a subway car from New York City, but none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer," Leavitt added.
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Team Vance fires back at Rand Paul for defending 'foreign terrorists' killed in drone strike
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky took aim at Vice President JD Vance over the weekend for defending the administration's drone strike of alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers. Since then, a source close to Vance told Blaze News that "hypocrites" like Paul are simply suffering from a "debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome."
President Donald Trump's administration greenlit a drone strike in Venezuela last week, claiming to have killed 11 drug traffickers identified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Vance defended the strike, calling it the "highest and best use of our military."
'That pisses off hypocrites like Rand Paul.'
Paul quickly sounded off online, calling Vance's remarks "despicable and thoughtless."
"JD 'I don’t give a s**t' Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the 'highest and best use of the military,'" Paul said in a post on X. "Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial."
RELATED: Republican senator takes aim at JD Vance: 'What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment'
In response to Paul's pushback, a source close to Vance told Blaze News that the Republican senator was "sticking up for foreign terrorists" killed in the strike. At the same time, Paul defended a drone strike executed by Obama in 2015 that killed three Americans in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
"I do think there is a valuable use for drones," Paul said in 2015. "And as much as I'm seen as an opponent of drones, I think in military and warfare, they do have some value."
"The world is so partisan, I tend not to want to blame the president for the loss of life here," Paul said of the Obama strike in 2015. "I think he was trying to do the right thing."
"The vice president believes in the Trump doctrine and using overwhelming force to protect core American interests and save American lives," the source told Blaze News on Monday. "That pisses off hypocrites like Rand Paul, who during his failed run for president defended Obama droning American citizens without due process, but now is sticking up for foreign terrorists thanks to his debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome."
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Paul has since stood by his remarks, noting that he was one of Obama's staunchest critics for using drones against American citizens overseas.
"During my time in the Senate, I have been the foremost critic of drones being used on civilians, especially Americans," Paul told Blaze News. "In 2013, I spoke for nearly 13 hours filibustering Obama's use of drones on American citizens overseas. I have not, however, opposed the concept of using drones in war. That position remains unaltered today."
Paul argued that the recent strike against the Venezuelans was not part of any declared war, which he says "defies our longstanding Coast Guard rules of engagement."
"The recent drone attack on a small speedboat over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat is in no way part of a declared war and defies our long-standing Coast Guard rules of engagement which include: warnings to halt, nonlethal force to capture, and ultimately lethal force in self-defense or in cases of resistance," Paul told Blaze News.
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Is Trump meddling with Mamdani's candidacy?
New York City's Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has soared to stardom within his party, championing socialist policies and promising affordability. Now, President Donald Trump may be attempting to tip the scales.
Trump has reportedly tried to trim down the playing field to weaken Mamdani's chances of winning the general election. Although Mamdani has enjoyed a comfortable lead over the star-studded cast of candidates, consolidating the race would toughen the chances for the 33-year-old socialist.
'Are we a party that rallies behind our nominee or not?'
Mamdani's main challengers include current NYC Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both of whom boast lengthy political careers. Despite this, Adams has trailed significantly behind both Cuomo and Mamdani, sometimes polling in single digits.
Notably, polls show that Cuomo's odds improve against Mamdani if Adams is taken out of the equation.
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In light of this disparity, some reports claimed the White House was weighing offering Adams a position in the administration if he stepped out of the race. One such position included nominating Adams to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, according to the New York Post.
Despite the cushy offer, Adams doubled down on staying in the race and running as an independent.
"Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar, I am in this race, and I am the only one that can beat Mamdani," Adams said Friday.
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Even with the probability of Adams as a spoiler, high-ranking Democrats have refrained from making any formal endorsements in the race. As of this writing, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have all withheld from endorsing the Democratic nominee.
“We have a Democratic nominee,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told reporters. “Are we a party that rallies behind our nominee or not?”
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National Archives has bad news for some of the crooks who received clemency in Biden's name
President Donald Trump declared on March 17 that "the 'Pardons' that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen."
"In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!" the president continued. "The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime."
Liberal fact-checkers rushed to suggest the president was wrong about the Biden pardons — however, a great deal of evidence has come out vindicating Trump's understanding that the pardons were likely unlawful.
'I made the decisions during my presidency.'
Two weeks after the Oversight Project obtained internal emails from the Justice Department indicating that there was a high-level understanding in the Biden administration that many of the commutations autopenned in the former president's name were legally flawed, Just the News received internal Biden White House memos that could similarly spell trouble for recipients.
Mike Howell — president of the Oversight Project, which first exposed the Biden White House's prolific use of the autopen earlier this year — told Blaze News, "We've been right all along, and it's nice to be right again. It's past time to start actually charging these people."
The memos, gathered as part of a Trump White House Counsel probe into Biden's use of autopen signatures for official business, shed additional light on the Biden White House's shifting approach to pardons and the former president's involvement in the process.
A February 2021 draft memo from then-White House staff secretary Jessica Hertz — a final version of which was reportedly not referenced in the National Archives — detailed guidelines for Biden's autopen use "based on precedent from the Obama-Biden administration."
The memo, which was sent early in the Democratic administration to Biden insiders, including then-chief of staff Ron Klain, noted that congressional bills, veto messages, and pardon letters were among the documents the president should personally approve and hand-sign.
It is clear from the liberal use of autopen signatures on pardons and other consequential presidential actions by the Biden White House that this guidance did not stick.
While Biden told news outlets in June, "I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations," a draft memo circulated by Biden's White House Counsel in February 2024 suggested otherwise.
The 2024 draft memo detailed the "general pattern" followed by members of the White House Counsel's Office clemency team when securing approval for clemency, revealing that Biden "previously asked the White House Counsel to discuss the [clemency] candidates with him, although in the last round the vice president’s approval was sufficient to obtain his approval."
RELATED: Biden freed killers with a pen he didn’t even hold
The Trump White House reportedly concluded that this particular memo indicates that Biden was "outsourcing" clemency decisions to Kamala Harris in 2024.
The Trump WHCO's probe also found very little evidence to suggest Biden actually attended four critical clemency meetings in December 2024 and January 2025 and "turned up no record of the president’s briefing books addressing pardons, commutations, or clemency at that time," Just the News reported.
The National Archives apparently has no contemporaneous staff notes confirming Biden was present at the Dec. 5, Dec. 11, Jan. 11, and Jan. 19 meetings where he was later said to have supposedly given "verbal approval" for commutations for federal death row inmates, members of the Biden family, and other unsavory characters.
The Trump White House also found a troubling indication in its review that Biden may have not been sufficiently involved in the controversial commutation of sentences for 37 federal inmates sitting on death row.
In a Dec. 10, 2024, draft memo, then-White House counsel Edward Siskel recommended that Biden grant clemency for the felons; however, the National Archives reportedly proved unable to find a final version of the memo bearing proof of Biden's approval for the commutations that were ultimately granted in his name.
Just the News indicated that the office of Joe and Jill Biden did not respond to a request for comment.
"In June 2022, the Biden White House began deploying the autopen to sign clemency warrants and executive orders in July of 2022. Autopen use skyrocketed from there," former Idaho Solicitor General Theodore Wold, a board member of the Oversight Project, told the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary in June. "We found that of the 51 clemency warrants issued during the Biden presidency, over half — 32 in total — were signed with an autopen."
Wold later emphasized that the "president actually has to make the decision — that cannot be delegated to a staffer or an adviser," but there was no indication "that anyone other than staff were making these decisions."
— (@)
Editor's note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.
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