FBI Director Kash Patel Speaks Out on “Hate-Filled Ideology” of Minneapolis School Shooter

Calling it a “barbaric attack”: As we continue to investigate yesterday’s barbaric attack from Robert Westman, the male subject, our teams have gathered information and evidence demonstrating this was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology. Some updates: -Subject left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references both in his manifesto and written on his firearms -Subject expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing “Israel must fall,” “Free Palestine,” and using explicit language related to the Holocaust -He wrote a an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine (Patel). We know all of that, but according to the New York Times, the “Motive Is a Mystery.” David Strom of Hot Air: OH COME ON! Whenever a shooting happens that Democrats want to downplay, they deny the obvious. The motive of the shooter was a mystery! We have been treated to this gaslighting once again…. All the Best People™ and the supposedly authoritative experts are insisting that we may never know the motives of the transgender-identified mass shooter who left a manifesto, videos including explicit threats to Trump, discussions of Queer ideology, hatred of Christianity, and a desire to strike out at his perceived enemies (Hot Air).

New York Times Twists Coverage of Brutal Act of Murder in Minneapolis

Here’s how “America’s paper of record” framed the evil act at the Parish of the Annunciation: Ms. Westman, 23, lived in a three-story brick building in a complex in Richfield, a suburb just south of the church… As a 17-year-old, she filed a court document to change her first name, to Robin from Robert. It was also signed by her mother. The document noted that Ms. Westman “identified as female and wants her name to reflect that identification.” On social media, some conservative activists have seized on the shooter’s gender identity to broadly portray transgender people as violent or mentally ill… The right-wing uproar over Ms. Westman’s gender identity echoed the politicized reaction to a 2023 mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, which was carried out by a former student whom the police said was transgender… In a news conference, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a Democrat, urged the public to avoid scapegoating transgender people…  (New York Times). Matt Taibbi: They strained to put “her” in the headline, referred to those who paid attention to the gender issue as “right-wing” and “conservative activists,” and told you Jacob Frey, “a Democrat,” urged against scapegoating. All this, while insisting others “politicized” the shooting. It’s the most glaring example I can remember of a news organization apologizing for its own reporting (Racket).

Press Secretary Leavitt Presses the Point Home: “For 13 consecutive years, Chicago has had the most murders of any US city”

In her news conference Tuesday. Scott McClallen for Townhall: Independent reporter Brandon Tatum asked Leavitt what Trump’s administration will do to stop violent crime in Chicago. “Anybody with a connected brain stem knows that Chicago’s crime is out of control, and young black men are getting killed, laying dead in the middle of the streets every single day in Chicago,” Tatum asked. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump’s administration wants to make American cities safe again….  Leavitt … started listing Chicago crime statistics. • For 13 consecutive years, Chicago has had the most murders of any US city. This is JB Pritzker’s legacy. • For seven consecutive years, Chicago has had the highest murder rate among US cities with more than 1 million people in 2024. • Just last year, Chicago’s murder rate per capita was three times higher than Los Angeles and nearly five times higher than New York City. That’s more than double the murder rate in Islamabad and nearly 15 times more than Delhi. • Out of Chicago’s 147,899 reported crimes this tear, there have only been arrests in 16% of them. •There have been more illegal guns recovered in Chicago than in New York City and Los Angeles combined • The number of reported motor vehicle thefts last year was more than double the number in 2021. • And Chicago has also, just like D.C., come under scrutiny for over discrepancies in its homicide reporting. “He should put politics aside” and call Trump, Leavitt said (Townhall).

Next Up in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown: Chicago

And Chicago’s socialist Mayor Brandon Johnson will be bristling every step along the way. New York Times: The Trump administration is making plans for an immigration crackdown in Chicago that would involve 200 homeland security officials and the use of a naval base outside the city as a staging area, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times. The request to use a Naval Station in Illinois, drafted in recent days by the Homeland Security Department, suggested that the Trump administration was planning a sustained operation, potentially for the month of September….. “I think Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York,” Mr. Trump said last week after he deployed hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington and his administration tried to make the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration the emergency police commissioner (New York Times). John Sexton of Hot Air: What seems clear at this point is that Chicago is going to see, at a minimum, a major influx of ICE personnel who will be making lots of arrests of criminal illegal aliens in the city. They may be starting as soon as next Tuesday. Mayor Johnson and Gov. Pritzker can complain about that, an no doubt they will, but immigration enforcement remains a federal issue and is not under his control. If the National Guard does show up it would likely be similar to their role in Washington, DC, i.e. they would be there to make a visual law enforcement presence in high traffic areas, but would not be arresting anyone (Hot Air).

As California Gov. Newsom Blusters, Border Czar Homan Presses Back: “Embarrassment to the Position He Holds”

Newsom knows his state is an on of the top exhibits in failing on public safety and homelessness—and is trying to make up for lost time. He’s announced an effort for California Highway Patrol to partner with local police departments (Newsom). He’s also directed his authorities NOT to work with ICE and DHS. Bob Hoge for Red State: Tom Homan isn’t known for mincing words—he tells you like he sees it, whether you like it or not. Thursday was no exception for the border czar as he laid into extremist CA Gov. Gavin Newsom for his incendiary rhetoric regarding Donald Trump’s efforts to bring order to our lawless cities. On Wednesday, Newsom accused the president of using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as his “private police force.” Homan let him have it: “Newsom is an embarrassment to the position he holds. Hard stop,” Homan told reporters. “If he had an ounce of integrity, he’d be calling President Trump and thanking him for making LA safer. He’d be calling the head of ICE and thanking them for the thousands of criminals, public safety threats they’ve taken off the streets of California” (Red State).

Los Angeles Bans Pacific Palisades “Disaster Tours”

They don’t want the public to see the ruins and the reminder of the delays in recovery. Daily News: The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, Aug. 27, approved a resolution effectively barring the operation of so-called “disaster tours,” or bus tours operating in fire-impacted areas of Pacific Palisades. In a unanimous vote, council members authorized the Department of Transportation to restrict tour bus operations across roughly 16 square miles…. In June, City Councilwoman Traci Park introduced a motion calling for such restrictions. Park represents the 11th Council District, encompassing L.A.’s coastal neighborhoods such as the Pacific Palisades, Venice, among others. Pacific Palisades reopened to the public June 14. Soon after, Park said her office received reports of commercial tour operators conducting “disaster tours.” The Palisades Fire displaced tens of thousands of residents from their homes, destroyed 6,837 structures and killed 12 people (Daily News).

Latest CBO Report: Tariffs Could Reduce Debt by 4 Trillion Over the Next Decade

It has free traders and debt hawks alike doing some serious thinking. Or at least it should. That’s the argument from Hugh Hewitt. First, a line from the report: “We project that increases in tariffs implemented during the period from January 6, 2025, to August 19, 2025 will decrease primary deficits (which exclude net outlays for interest) by $3.3 trillion if the higher tariffs persist for the 2025‒2035 period,” Phillip Swagel, CBO’s director wrote. “By reducing the need for federal borrowing, those tariff collections will also reduce federal outlays for interest by an additional $0.7 trillion. As a result, the changes in tariffs will reduce total deficits by $4.0 trillion altogether” (CBO). Hugh Hewitt: Free traders should be scratching their heads as they review all the data, including that in this CBO “Update.” Inflation has not spiked. Growth has not plummeted. The revenue from tariffs is enormous. An international trade war has not broken out…. The big question is whether free market folk will reconsider their rejection of the president’s trade policies. Doubtful, that…. Numbers are numbers, however, and $4 trillion in deficit reduction means $4 trillion less in national debt. For the debt hawks out there who are also free traders, the CBO “Update” deserves your attention, regardless of whether legacy media notes it (Fox News).

Bolton Probe Takes a Turn

“Vengeance” or “retribution” were the themes the word that dominated the early coverage of the FBI’s visit to former NSA John Bolton’s home. But things have taken a turn. Ed Morrissey: It turns out that the FBI had good reason to re-open a probe into Bolton, after the Joe Biden Department of Justice shut down an initial investigation. A mole working from an unidentified spy agency provided evidence that Bolton had used unclassified systems to transmit classified data, mainly as a means to gather material for the book he published over the objections of the US intel services. The New York Times began its backpedal overnight: “The United States gathered data from an adversarial country’s spy service, including emails with sensitive information that Mr. Bolton, while still working in the first Trump administration, appeared to have sent to people close to him on an unclassified system, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive case that remains open…..”  This brings us to the search warrant. The FBI, which has jurisdiction over domestic counter-intelligence, needed to validate the intel provided by the mole in question. They searched his home to find out whether the material the mole provided matched material in Bolton’s possession (Hot Air).

Fani Willis Get Stinging Rebuke From Georgia State Judge

Fani Willis is the scandal-plagued Fulton County district attorney who was disqualified and removed from prosecuting her election interference case against President Trump. New York Sun reports: The order by a Georgia state judge, Robert McBurney, that the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, come clean about records relating to her prosecution of President Trump — including the contents of a phone used by her secret lover and handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade —  marks another courtroom setback for the embattled and disqualified prosecutor. The ruling — that Ms. Willis has 14 days to furnish the requested documents — punctuates a saga that began two years ago as an open records request by a conservative legal organization, Judicial Watch. The group is seeking from Ms. Willis “all documents and communication sent to, received from, or relating to Special Counsel Jack Smith” and “all documents and communication sent to or received from the United States House January 6th Committee…. ” Judicial Watch’s president, Tom Fitton, says in a statement that “Fani Willis can’t be trusted. Every time we go back to court there are new excuses and new documents that she said never existed. And now we find that entire universes of records may have been ignored” (New York Sun).

As America Flirts With Socialism, Anti-Communist Film Festival Looks to Remind Americans of Legacy of Marx

Mark Judge his heading it up, doing a series of articles for Hot Air teasing the films that best tell the story of 20^th century’s embrace of Communism. In “The Lives of Others” about the East German Stasi Judge see’s parallels to today’s left in the use of shame: One of the themes that is central to communism, and which has been adopted by the Western left, is shame. As journalist Laura Williams has described it, “If someone looked like he might challenge the Communist Party’s legitimacy or control, the Stasi systematically destroyed his life. They used blackmail, social shame, threats, and torture. Careers, reputations, relationships, and lives were exploded to destabilize and delegitimize a critic. Some forms of harassment were almost comical: agents spread rumors about their targets, flooded their mailboxes with pornography, moved things around in their apartments, or deflated their bicycle tires day after day. Others were life-altering: Individuals labeled as subversives were banned from higher education, forced into unemployment, and forcibly committed to asylums. Many suffered long-term psychological trauma, loss of earnings, and intense social shame as a result of Stasi lies” (Hot Air).