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CRACKING ICE
Federal agents are expected to descend upon Charlotte this weekend. The local sheriff is preparing for chaos, he told What A Day in an exclusive interview.
Imagine you’re in charge of police in a major city. You receive a call from a DHS official saying that ICE and Border Patrol agents are coming soon. There’s no word on when the operation begins, or for how long. But you’re fully aware that those agencies left a path of destruction and trauma in Chicago — and your city could become the next battleground in President Donald Trump’s rampage against Democratic cities. How do you prepare?
That’s the unsettling scenario facing Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden in Charlotte, North Carolina, where ICE agents could arrive [ [link removed] ] as soon as early Saturday. “A lot of people could be arrested, a lot of people could be hurt. ” he told What A Day in a phone call this morning. “Or it could be a very organized peaceful operation.”
That may be wishful thinking. Federal agents have shown little restraint during raids, most notably in the Windy City. A few examples: Agents raided a residential building using a Black Hawk helicopter [ [link removed] ] in the middle of the night, chased a teacher through a daycare [ [link removed] ] while students looked on in horror, and were accused of teargassing a 1-year-old girl [ [link removed] ] in a retail store parking lot. (DHS denies that the incident happened at all.)
“They have been very aggressive,” McFadden said of agents’ tactics. “We’re not going to do any enforcement with them. We’re not going to assist them. We just told them that if there is civil unrest … then we would be mindful of how that is approached.”
McFadden has a playbook to deal with Trump’s aggressive tactics. He’s just not sure it will work.
Trump’s top DHS officials have repeatedly shown that they’re less interested in maintaining peace in cities than enacting the president’s sweeping immigration agenda. More communication behind closed doors could minimize the chaos, the sheriff believes.
“My goal is to personally invite them to my office and have a conversation,” he said. “We fight in the media and we fight on paper in the press. If we can just have these conversations, we can maybe come to an agreement, or at least a better understanding.”
McFadden also envisions a network of local officials around the country that could work together to prepare for DHS operations. For instance, federal agents are planning to target [ [link removed] ] New Orleans soon. McFadden plans to call the New Orleans sheriff to give her advice and DHS contacts she may need if the situation gets too chaotic.
“I don’t want to see violence. I don’t want to see people being scared, pushed, and beaten. I don’t want to see that,” McFadden said. “I want to see, you know, humanity.”
BARBIE MOVIE BLOOPERS
Wanna get rich quick? Shoot some tacky videos of “ICE Barbie” Kristi Noem, and you could be set for life.
Chances are you’ve seen those bizarre DHS propaganda videos [ [link removed] ] starring Secretary Kristi Noem in past months, pushing Donald Trump’s radical immigration agenda. One recent ad, in which Noem rides on horseback around Mount Rushmore, has an aesthetic that sits “somewhere between a political campaign ad and a Jeep commercial,” ProPublica astutely observes [ [link removed] ].
“Break our laws, we’ll punish you,” the secretary says in the video, addressing immigrants.
But Noem is seemingly taking it easier on her allies: Some of the $220 million in taxpayer money used to create these videos has gone to a Republican consulting firm — whose CEO is married to top DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, ProPublica reports [ [link removed] ]. Corey Lewandowski, Noem’s top adviser who she’s reportedly [ [link removed] ]very [ [link removed] ] close to [ [link removed] ], also allegedly has extensive ties to the firm.
Aren’t there guardrails to stop that from happening? Yes! There’s normally a competitive bidding process for contractors to cut down on waste and avoid sweetheart deals. But DHS bypassed the process by declaring a “national emergency” at the border, allowing it to grant the awards to anyone it wants.
“It’s corrupt, is the word,” Charles Tiefer, an expert on federal contract law, told ProPublica. “Hiding your friends as subcontractors is like playing hide the salami with the taxpayer.”
McLaughlin claimed that she doesn’t “have visibility” into why Strategy Group, her husband’s company, was selected to make the ads.
“I don’t know who they’re a subcontractor with, but I don’t work with them because I have a conflict of interest and I fully recused myself,” McLaughlin said. “My marriage is one thing and work is another. I don’t combine them.”
WHAT ELSE?
Trump’s new plan to tackle the Epstein files debacle: [ [link removed] ] Make it about the Democrats. Attorney General Pam Bondi assigned Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to investigate the deceased child sex predators’ connections to former President Bill Clinton, Harvard Professor Larry Summers, entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and others. “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump howled on Truth Social.
The Trump administration withdrew a Biden-era plan [ [link removed] ] that would require airlines to compensate passengers if their flights are disrupted by the carrier for several hours. I guess Christmas came early for those airline CEOs!
Vice President JD Vance said he’ll “sit down” [ [link removed] ] with Donald Trump after next year’s midterm elections to discuss a potential 2028 presidential run. What if Secretary of State Marco Rubio throws his hat in the ring? “We can cross that bridge when we come to it,” Vance added. I’d personally love to see these two go at it.
Trump tapped Paul Ingrassia, the 30-year-old lawyer [ [link removed] ] best known for admitting in a private group chat that he has “a Nazi streak”, to become deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration. This is just more proof that in Trumpworld, you can only fall upwards.
Only 29 percent of Americans support [ [link removed] ] ordering the U.S. military to kill suspected drug traffickers without due process, according to a new poll. So far, the Trump administration has killed at least 80 people in 20 strikes in waters near Latin America. One of the victims was a Colombian fisherman: “I never thought I would lose my father in this way,” his 14-year-old daughter told the New York Times [ [link removed] ].
House Democrats are growing increasingly incensed [ [link removed] ] with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after several Democrats voted to reopen the government. House members, of course, don’t have a say in Senate leadership, and it’s unlikely Schumer will heed calls to step aside regardless of where they come from. But some Democrats have a vision for the kind of person who should take his place: “Someone younger, someone who has a reputation of being a tougher fighter,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) told Politico [ [link removed] ].
AI company Anthropic said Chinese hackers [ [link removed] ] hijacked its artificial intelligence to start a “large-scale” cyberattack. The attack, which the company says was “executed without substantial human intervention,” is raising alarms about the dangers of AI. “Guys wake the f up,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted. “This is going to destroy us - sooner than we think - if we don’t make AI regulation a national priority tomorrow.”
Companies are predicting that next year’s job market [ [link removed] ] for college graduates will be the worst it’s been in five years. One of the chief concerns among young people: AI is coming for the jobs they want. In a year, it’s possible that “there just wouldn’t be a person needed to do [some entry-level jobs] anymore,” one college senior told the Wall Street Journal, citing mass layoffs at Amazon. “That’s just wild to me.”
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL…
Voters in Aurora, Colorado pushed out three conservative [ [link removed] ] city council members who agreed with Donald Trump’s false claims that the area was overrun by Venezuelan gang members. Progressives won the seats despite being massively outspent and local media describing progressives as a “dying breed [ [link removed] ]” in the city. “We do have a lot of immigrants and refugees, and we love the culture and community that they bring to our city,” said Amy Wiles, one of the new progressive members.
A Virginia woman won $150,000 in a lottery [ [link removed] ] after using ChatGPT to pick her lucky numbers — and donated the winnings to charity. One of her $40,000 donations to a nonprofit farm which saw a surge in demand after SNAP cuts expired on November 1, came just in time “We needed to purchase more items to make sure that we would have enough for folks,” the farm’s executive director said. “A donation like Carrie’s that is a surprise ... means that we had the ability to meet people where they are with more products.”
A restaurant in Thailand that flooded last week [ [link removed] ] has seen a surge after customers noticed fish swimming in the waters while they dined. Some customers brought their curious children, while others wanted to feel fish nibbling on their feet. It’s basically a restaurant for both humans and fish, if you think about it…
A wildlife photographer inadvertently saved [ [link removed] ] a seal’s life after it jumped onto her boat while being chased by a pod of killer whales off the Seattle coast. In a video, the photographer can be heard saying, “You poor thing,” as the seal looks at her. “You’re good, just stay, buddy.”
Say hello to Vivi, a German Shepherd Poodle mix (adopted from Craigslist)!
“Vivi is a bilingual desert gal who gets biweekly backyard haircuts from dad. Excuse the bad hair day.”
— Michelle
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