TRUMP WINS: It Just Passed — 352 to 72 — Hakeem Jeffries Just Caved
Color me shocked. We just got a healthy dose of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, and with an issue that is really important in terms of saving taxpayer dollars and holding people accountable.
The House made the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division permanent this week by a margin of 352 to 72. More than 140 Democrats voted yes, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries among them. Every single vote against it came from the same party. That is not a bipartisan moment. That is a surrender, and the roll call is the receipt.
Understand what these members just conceded. For six years, anyone who pointed at the pandemic money and said out loud that hundreds of billions were being stolen got the full treatment — conspiracy theorist, austerity ghoul, secretly out to gut the safety net. The line was that fraud was a rounding error invented by Republicans who wanted an excuse to cut programs. Then the Government Accountability Office put the number between $233 billion and $521 billion a year. Every year. The low end of that range exceeds the entire federal education budget. And now the same caucus that spent years calling this a right-wing talking point has voted, by a two-to-one margin within its own ranks, to make the office that prosecutes it a permanent fixture of the Justice Department.
Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald: "Today’s record health care fraud charges and arrests makes clear that there is no case too big, no scheme too complex, and no hiding place too remote for our fraud-fighting team. In just 14 days, 455 defendants have been charged across… pic.twitter.com/qRmbso8X5h
They didn’t do it because they changed their minds. They did it because the division started producing, and the production is politically unanswerable. Nearly nine hundred thousand suspect PPP borrowers flagged and suspended. Four hundred fifty-five defendants charged in a single two-week health care sweep. Actual arrests, actual indictments, actual recovered dollars — the kind of thing that fits in a thirty-second ad in a swing district. There is no way to vote against that at home. Ask any member who did and watch him explain it in October.
Which brings us to left-wing Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin, who managed the rare feat of voting yes while whining about it. He described the bill as roughly the least offensive scrap of legislative driftwood to wash up during what he characterized as Republican chaos. Read that again. A constitutional law professor (sort of), a man who has delivered a thousand sermons about stewardship of public institutions, cannot bring himself to say that prosecuting people who steal from taxpayers is a good thing. He has to sneer his way through the concession. That’s not principle. That’s a man who knows his base will punish him for agreeing with this administration about anything, including theft.
And it clarifies what the 72 holdouts were actually voting on. Not fraud — nobody in that chamber is for fraud. They were voting against the idea that a Republican Justice Department should be the one holding the file, because the file has started to point in uncomfortable directions. When Vice President Vance referred Tim Walz and Keith Ellison to the division over Minnesota’s program scandals, the objection wasn’t that the underlying allegations were fabricated. Minnesota has spent two years cycling through one grift after another, in programs the state was supposed to be watching. The objection was that someone finally looked. That’s the whole disagreement. Democrats are fine with anti-fraud enforcement in the abstract and allergic to it the moment it walks into a blue-state welfare bureaucracy.
This is what limited government actually looks like in practice. Not a speech about spending. Not a doomed amendment. A prosecutor, a case number, and a defendant who took money meant for the elderly and the poor and spent it on himself. Every dollar stolen from a federal program is a dollar that didn’t reach someone who needed it — which is precisely why the people who claim to care most about those programs should have been leading this fight for twenty years. They weren’t. They fought it, until fighting it became untenable, and then they filed in behind it while holding their noses.
Take the win, and remember the number. Three hundred fifty-two to seventy-two. When the other side finally votes your way on something they called a lie for six years, that’s not a compromise. That’s the argument being over.
Letitia 'No One's Above the Law' James Just Got Sued And You Won't Stop Clapping
Letitia ‘No One’s Above the Law’ James Just Got Sued And You Won’t Stop Clapping
New York Attorney General Letitia James loves to sermonize that “No one is above the law,” but her record shows she really means “No one named Trump is above my political agenda.” Her entire campaign was a single-issue crusade built on the promise to “Get Trump,” and she delivered by filing a bizarre, victimless “fraud” case against him that even the banks involved openly rejected. Not one financial institution claimed harm. Not one lender said they wouldn’t do business with him again.
But that didn’t stop Judge Arthur Engoron—whose bias was obvious from the bench—from imposing an eye-watering, politically convenient fine of nearly half a billion dollars. It was so grotesquely disproportionate that an appeals court finally tossed it in August, delivering a much-needed reality check to James’s lawfare spectacle.
That’s Letitia James in a nutshell—always pushing the ethical limits, always using the weight of her office to intimidate anyone she marks as a political foe. Bullying isn’t an unfortunate byproduct of her approach; it is her approach.
So it’s hardly shocking that a school board chair in New York is now suing the attorney general, accusing James of threatening to oust board members who refused to bow to the progressive orthodoxy on allowing biological men into women’s sports:
The alleged threats came in a “guidance letter” [from James] that warned of the removal of any school board member who uses the wrong pronoun for a trans person, or if they allow students to publicly speak out at school board meetings about their fears and discomfort with student trans athletes using the wrong locker room for their biological sex.
A plaintiff in the suit, Massapequa Union Free School District Board Chair Kerry Wachter, alleged she was told that James’ office instructed her to mute and dismiss any board meeting speaker that expressed views opposing trans athletes in girls’ locker rooms and sports.
Massapequa Union Free School District Board Chair Kerry Wachter, alleged she was told that James' office instructed her to mute and dismiss any board meeting speaker that expressed views opposing trans athletes in girls' locker rooms and sports.
Wachter says James’ intimidation tactics are designed to intimidate her and others into silence:
“They’re saying if we allow this discussion in our board meetings, she can come in and remove us from the board,” Wachter told Fox News Digital. “They want me to stop public comment and stop them from speaking.”
Wachter added that trans students were not being directly named in any board meetings, and conversations were only based around the feelings and concerns of female students.
James claimed that school board members can be removed when “they willfully neglect their duty or violate legal protections for students in their districts.” She went on to add that the state’s Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) bars harassment and bullying.
Nevertheless, Attorney Kim Hermann from the Southeastern Legal Foundation has a note for James – There is an important constitutional principle known as the First Amendment.
“The First Amendment here reigns true, and so whether or not you have these state laws, a state cannot come in and just erase the First Amendment out of the Constitution,” Hermann said, per Fox News. “Whether or not statements and discussions about transgender and these different policies actually violate those state laws is absolutely irrelevant for what we’re talking about in this lawsuit.
James has shown time and again that she’s not an impartial public servant but a partisan enforcer, eager to weaponize her office against anyone who lands on her enemies list. She doesn’t just stretch her authority — she twists it into a political bludgeon.
If there’s any justice left in New York, this lawsuit will stick and finally force some accountability. Frankly, it’s long past time someone pushed back.
‘Squad’ Democrat Arrested for Protesting Israel’s Netanyahu at U.N.
‘Squad’ Democrat Candidate Arrested At Netanyahu Protest
A New York Democrat was arrested Thursday during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the United Nations.
Darializa Avila Chevalier was charged with disorderly conduct outside United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, according to police cited by Bloomberg.
Avila Chevalier defeated five-term Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat in June’s primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District.
The district includes parts of Harlem and the Bronx and strongly favors Democrats in the general election.
Her victory removed the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and handed Mayor Zohran Mamdani another political win.
Mamdani endorsed Avila Chevalier, who campaigned against continued American support for Israel during its war against Hamas.
The protest unfolded as Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly and defended Israel against accusations over its Gaza campaign.
Jewish Voice for Peace organized a demonstration outside the building that drew about 200 participants, according to Reuters.
Wearing matching white shirts, protesters carried messages including “Fund people not bombs” and “Free Palestine.”
Some participants sat on First Avenue and blocked traffic while police ordered them to clear the roadway.
Several moved to the sidewalks, but others stayed seated as officers arrived and began making arrests.
Reuters initially reported at least 30 arrests, while CBS New York later cited police sources estimating about 100.
Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist overwhelmingly favored in the race for a House seat representing part of New York City, was arrested while protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations. https://t.co/aR3PCM0d5Y
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 24, 2026
Avila Chevalier defended her participation and called Netanyahu a war criminal in a statement to City & State New York.
She said she would not allow him to walk through the city without facing public opposition.
The Democratic nominee also accused Israel of killing or injuring more than 64,000 children in Gaza.
That figure was her claim, and the reports reviewed for this article did not independently establish it.
“Netanyahu belongs at the Hague,” Avila Chevalier said in another statement after her arrest, according to Bloomberg.
New York City Council member Chi Ossé was arrested at the protest and denounced American financial support for Israel.
“I’m sick and tired of my taxpayer dollars going towards an active genocide,” Ossé told PIX11.
The demonstrations also drew entertainers, including actors Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder, who police took into custody.
Police sources also identified whistleblower Chelsea Manning, comedian Caleb Hearon, and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher among those arrested, CBS reported.
Some protesters chanted against Netanyahu while police secured their hands with zip ties and escorted them to buses.
Supporters of Israel also gathered nearby, and CBS reported that confrontations between opposing groups sometimes escalated into fistfights.
Inside the General Assembly, dozens of delegations walked out as Netanyahu began speaking, while others applauded him.
Netanyahu sharply rejected allegations of genocide and criticized Mamdani during his address to the world body.
“Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century,” Netanyahu said, according to Bloomberg.
He also argued that Jewish residents no longer feel safe in New York under Mamdani’s leadership.
Mamdani has called Netanyahu a war criminal and previously suggested arresting him if he visited New York.
The mayor later acknowledged that city officials lack authority to execute an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.
That court issued a warrant in 2024 alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Gaza.
Israel disputes the allegations, and neither Israel nor the United States is a member of the court.
Israel says its military campaign targets Hamas after the terrorist group’s October 7, 2023, attack.
The attack killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in the kidnapping of 251 others, according to Israeli authorities.
Gaza health officials report tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, with their overall tally combining civilians and fighters.
Avila Chevalier’s victory reflected that divide, as her campaign challenged Espaillat’s support for the longtime American ally, The Washington Post reported.
Mamdani-backed candidates Brad Lander and Claire Valdez also won New York congressional primaries in June.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
