02b U.S. Politics – Progressive

COVID-19 is still a threat, but getting a vaccine is harder for many people– www.sciencenews.org

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Traveling across state lines in search of an available shot. Scrambling to get a doctor’s prescription. Showing up for a pharmacy vaccination appointment only to be denied. Those are some of the stories people have been describing to journalists and on social media as they share whether or not they could get the latest COVID-19 vaccine, updated to better match coronavirus strains in circulation.

This reality contradicts Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s testimony in a Sept. 4 congressional hearing that everybody can get the vaccine. In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration placed restrictions on who is eligible for the COVID-19 shot. Previously, the Moderna and Pfizer formulations were available for anyone 6 months and older, with Novavax OK’d for those 12 and up. Now, the FDA has stated, those 6 months to 64 years old can receive the vaccine only if they have a medical condition that increases the risk of severe COVID-19 disease.

House passes two bills overhauling DC sentencing policies– thehill.com
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The House passed two bills on Tuesday to assert congressional control over the District of Columbia’s sentencing policies, the first portion of a slate of legislation coming to a vote this week aimed at overhauling Washington, D.C.’s criminal justice system.

The first bill is the D.C. Criminal Reforms to Immediately Make Everyone Safe Act, or DC CRIMES Act, which would prohibit the District’s local officials from changing sentencing laws and restrict the ability of local judges to be more lenient with younger criminals.

And the second bill, H.R. 5140, lowers the age for which youth offenders can be tried as an adult for certain criminal offenses, changing the threshold to 14 years of age.

The DC CRIMES Act passed 240-179, while H.R. 5140 passed 225-203.

Republicans are set to vote on several other bills relating to D.C. crime later this week as they carry on Trump’s crusade against crime in the nation’s capital after his 30-day takeover of the city’s police force expired.

The DC CRIMES Act amends the D.C. Home Rule Act to prohibit the council from enacting any changes to sentencing laws, as well as changing a provision that allows for lighter sentences for some convicts younger than 25 — lowering the threshold to 18.

Schumer And Jeffries Flat Out Reject Mike Johnson’s Partisan CR– www.politicususa.com
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House Republicans offered up a seven-week CR that would keep the government open until November 21 and contains some funding for additional security for lawmakers, but did nothing to restore Obamacare subsidies or replace planned Medicaid cuts.

Johnson is planning a vote in the House on Friday on his CR.

The lack of anything in the CR to address healthcare meant that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outright rejected it.

Schumer and Jeffries said in a joint statement:

The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis. At a time when families are already being squeezed by higher costs, Republicans refuse to stop Americans from facing double-digit hikes in their health insurance premiums.

By refusing to work with Democrats, Republicans are steering our country straight toward a shutdown. President Trump called the play last week when he told Congressional Republicans to jam a partisan spending bill down the throats of the American people without Democratic support.

Instead of governing, Republicans are once again taking orders from Donald Trump, hurting the American people and recklessly marching our nation to the brink of a shutdown.

Sen. John Fetterman Calls Out Democrat Party Over Violent Rhetoric– wltreport.com
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Democrat Sen. John Fetterman is calling out his own party for spewing out hateful propaganda that incites violence.

During an appearance with Fox News‘s Bret Baier and Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, Fetterman took aim at the radical left’s dangerous rhetoric.

“Do not ever, ever, ever compare anyone to Hitler,” Fetterman warned.

He went on, “If you do, then you will incite somebody to say, well, now I feel like I have to stop, to stop that and take them out.”

Watch:

Transcript from RealClearPolitics:

BRET BAIER: Well tonight, in our Common Ground segment, a conversation on bringing the nation together, or trying to, to restore civility in politics. Joining me, Pennsylvania Senators Dave McCormick and John Fetterman. Pennsylvania, by the way, is one of only three states with a Democrat and Republican split in the U.S. Senate. Senators, thanks for being here. You all called me. Usually we reach out. You wanted to do this together. Why?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Well, I mean, we thought it was just a great idea. I think it’s an important idea right now. I mean, the trauma after the Charlie Kirk assassination, and now, as things continue now, it’s like, I feel like it’s important that people can witness, you know, a Democrat and a Republican having a conversation after this. It’s absolutely horrific, and it’s entirely necessary to allow people to grieve for that. I mean, everyone’s seen the video.

SEN. DAVE MCCORMICK (R-PA): Yeah, it’s just the, the heartbreak, you feel for Charlie Kirk’s family, Eric and their children, and all the students across the country, the people across the country that were huge followers. And I think the Senator and I agreed that, and we, we do agree that there, there’s just no place in this country, for political violence. It, it’s absolutely something, it runs counter to the very idea of free, free speech and freedom, and that when you see, dangerous rhetoric, like fascist and Nazism and authoritarianism, that’s a, and, and the end of democracy, that’s a, that’s a permission. That takes us down a path where the inevitable next step is, is violence, and, and that’s what we see.

BRET BAIER: And Senator Fetterman, you’ve talked about that recently, calling somebody Hitler, calling somebody Nazis.

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Exactly, this idea, it’s like, do not ever, ever, ever compare anyone to Hitler. If not, go online and you can read up on exactly what he’s responsible for, you know, 75 to 80 million lives lost in World War II, and you don’t compare him to anyone. And if you do, then you will incite somebody to say, well, now I feel like I have to stop, to stop that and take them out.

Fox News Hosts: Universities Turn Students Against Christians– crooksandliars.com
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Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy spread false information about Charlie Kirk’s shooter and then blamed college education for making students hate Christians and conservatives.

Rachel Campos-Duffy is one of the most prolific spreader of lies and hyperbolic conspiracies on Fox News. Her husband has been taking a page out of her book as Demented Donald’s Transportation Secretary.

I want to point something else out. You heard the family members say that this man became more political, this young man became more political in recent years.

What did he do in recent years?

He went to college. That’s where kids are getting radicalized, it’s not just online. Our campuses are where a lot of radicalization, hate and intolerance starts from.

And so when he says it’s an attack on all of us, I’m going to say this, no, it’s an attack on conservatives.

It’s an attack on Christians.

Man in custody after allegedly damaging Charlie Kirk memorial at Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix– boingboing.net
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I recently ventured to the Charlie Kirk memorial at the Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix Arizona. I was there on Sunday afternoon, so I missed the arrest that happened earlier in the day. While I was there I did see some presence of officers and cars from the Phoenix Police Department, but hadn’t yet heard about the events that happened earlier Sunday morning. — Read the rest

Both the Left and the Right are Targeted by Political Violence. Who Perpetrates It? – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com
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Conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s gruesome killing last week was both a striking visual of our nation’s intensifying polarization and, by some counts, a catalyst for it to intensify more. Even before a suspect had been identified, there was a knee-jerk reaction among some Republicans to blame the Democratic Party for his death. Some even called for retribution.

Importantly, we do not yet—and may never—know the motive, or constellation of motivations, that drove Kirk’s alleged shooter, who has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. But we do know that targets of political violence exist across the political spectrum.

Consider some of the recent events of political violence:

  • Just three months ago, Democratic Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were assassinated in their home. Another member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and his wife were also repeatedly shot and wounded; the suspect apprehended for these crimes had a list of dozens of potential targets, including other Democrats and abortion rights advocates.
  • In August, a law enforcement officer died amid a shooting that was directed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the shooter had blamed his depression on the Covid vaccine.
  • In May, two staffers of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, were fatally shot; the suspect in that case previously expressed strong opposition to Israel’s aggression in Palestine.
  • In April, the residence of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was set on fire in what prosecutors are calling an attempted murder. The fire took place a few hours after Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat, celebrated Passover.
What If Kathy Hochul Is Violating New York's Climate Law ...

What If Kathy Hochul Is Violating New York's Climate Law ...

New York Gov Kathy Hochul Endorses Radical Socialist Zohran Mamdani for NYC Mayor– slaynews.com
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has endorsed far-left Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race.

After three months of silence, Hochul is now throwing her weight behind a radical candidate who has openly attacked police, pushed communist communal homes schemes, and made controversial remarks about Israel.

In a Sunday evening post on social media, Hochul declared:

“New York City deserves a mayor who will stand up to Donald Trump and make life more affordable for New Yorkers. That’s @ZohranKMamdani.”

The move is a major boost for Mamdani, the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist from Queens.

Mamdani shocked the political establishment in June by defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other rivals to capture the Democrat nomination.

He now holds a commanding double-digit lead in the polls ahead of November.

 

Bill Ackman took a Wall Street tactic to an Ivy League fight in ...

Bill Ackman took a Wall Street tactic to an Ivy League fight in ...

Billionaire Bill Ackman convened stormy Israel ‘intervention’ with Charlie Kirk, sources say– thegrayzone.com
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A month before Charlie Kirk’s killing, billionaire pro-Israel moneyman Bill Ackman arranged an intervention in the Hamptons during which sources say he and others “hammered” Kirk for the conservative leader’s growing criticism of Israeli influence in Washington. Kirk came away fretting about Israeli “blackmail,” sources say, as he contemplated a Catholic conversion.

On September 11, one day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, billionaire pro-Israel moneyman Bill Ackman took to Twitter/X to trumpet his relationship with the late conservative operative. “I feel incredibly privileged to have spent a day and shared a meal with @charliekirk11 this summer. He was a giant of a man.”

The Grayzone has spoken to five people with intimate knowledge of Kirk’s meeting with Ackman, which was held in early August. According to one source, Kirk was left upset after the gathering turned into an “intervention” where he was “hammered” for his increasingly skeptical views on the US special relationship with Israel, and for platforming prominent conservative critics of Israel at his TPUSA events. 

Fed Budget at a Crossroads as 2024 CR Nears Expiration

Fed Budget at a Crossroads as 2024 CR Nears Expiration

Republicans Are Forcing A Government Shutdown And Trump Will Be Blamed– www.politicususa.com
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The White House thinks that the current government funding debate can be won just like the last one was in March. They believe that nothing has changed, and they can pass a bill to keep the government open by putting Senate Democrats up against a deadline with no negotiations.

The political climate has changed.

The White House doesn’t see it, which is why Trump and his party are about to step on the rake and smack themselves in the face with a government shutdown.

Punchbowl News reported:

The House Republican leadership plans to put a bill on the floor this week to keep the federal government open through Nov. 20, a strategy aimed at giving appropriators another seven weeks to hash out a broader spending deal for the FY2026 bills.

Republicans are saying the CR will be “clean” — free of partisan policy riders.

But as we’ve reported, the GOP proposal doesn’t include any of the Democrats’ demands. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have said they can’t vote for any CR unless it includes health care-related provisions.

It’s not clear if Democrats are demanding that Republicans renew enhanced premium subsidies for Obamacare or restore OBBB Medicaid cuts. Rather, Schumer and Jeffries have simply called on Republicans to negotiate.

House of Representatives | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica

House of Representatives | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica

House GOP leaders move to extend block on tariff termination votes– www.politico.com
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House Republican leaders are moving to again head off votes trying to cancel much of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff regime.

A procedural measure Republicans on the Rules Committee advanced Monday night would extend until March 31 a block on efforts by Democrats and several Republicans to end the national emergencies underlying Trump’s sweeping tariffs — including on Mexico, Canada, Brazil and his “liberation day” levies from April.

It would also block “resolutions of inquiry,” measures that can be used by the House to compel the release of information from the executive branch.

The House is set to vote Tuesday on the measure, which also tees up several D.C. crime- and governance-related bills for floor debate.

GOP leaders have struggled to keep their ranks in line on tariff-related votes. On Monday, their bid to strangle a Democratic-led effort to end Trump’s Brazil levies succeeded only narrowly, 200-198.

Socialism: A national 'bluff'

Socialism: A national 'bluff'

Poll: Capitalism is out … and socialism is in– www.politico.com
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The socialist brand is on the rise, according to recent polling, fueling the left flank of the Democratic Party to argue its ideology is becoming more mainstream.

Shortly after Gallup released data showing Democrats and independents are cooling toward capitalism, a progressive organization is out with a poll finding that more than half of likely Democratic voters prefer socialist-aligned figures like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani to establishment politicians like Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jefrries and Nancy Pelosi.

Democratic voters also view elected officials who describe themselves as democratic socialists about as positively as those who identify as Democrats, and they prefer democratic socialism to capitalism when written definitions of each are read aloud to them, according to the poll conducted by Data for Progress and shared first with POLITICO.

“What the mainstream of the party wants is both democratic socialism as a value system and democratic socialist politicians,” said Gabe Tobias, executive director of the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, a political nonprofit organization that funded the survey with the magazine Jacobin and the Berlin-based democratic socialist group Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Though Democratic voters are warming to socialism, the ideology is toxic to most Republicans and many independents, making it difficult for socialists to win in battlegrounds. Even within the Democratic Party, some voters are skeptical about the electability of democratic socialists in swing areas, a reality Sanders faced during his two unsuccessful presidential runs.

Vance urges people to go hard against anyone ‘justifying or celebrating’ Charlie Kirk’s killing – live | Charlie Kirk shooting– www.theguardian.com
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To close out as guest host of Charlie Kirk’s podcast, JD Vance went hard against what he called the far left and an increased tolerance for violence on it, saying the administration would be working to dismantle those who celebrate Kirk’s death and political violence against their opponents.

Vance said that after he left Kirk’s family in Arizona, he read a story in the Nation, a leftwing publication, where the author detailed Kirk’s views and, he said, took a quote about a supreme court justice out of context to imply it applied to all Black women.

The magazine was not a “fringe blog” but a “well-funded, well-respected magazine whose publishing history goes back to the American civil war. George Soros’s Open Society Foundation funds this magazine, as does the Ford Foundation and many other wealthy titans of the American progressive movement,” Vance said, hinting at the organizations the administration might target in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder. Vance later mentioned that the foundations that helped fund the magazine are tax-exempt, a sign that the government could go after that status.

“Charlie was gunned down in broad daylight, and well-funded institutions of the left lied about what he said so as to justify his murder,” Vance claimed. “This is soulless and evil, but I was struck not just by the dishonesty of the smear, but by the glee over a young husband’s and young father’s death.”

Vance said Erica Kirk asked his wife, Usha, for advice on how to tell her children that their father had been murdered on the vice-president’s visit to escort Kirk’s remains back to Arizona. As she was asking for that advice, Vance said, “there were people dancing on that father’s grave”.

Never Forget: Four Black Schoolgirls Killed In Birmingham Church Bombing– crooksandliars.com
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Under the Trump administration, any teacher who would dare teach this in a history class would be fired.

History:

On September 15, 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Carol Denise McNair (11).

With its large African American congregation, the 16th Street Baptist Church served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., who once called Birmingham a “symbol of hardcore resistance to integration.” Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, made preserving racial segregation one of the central goals of his administration, and Birmingham had one of the most violent and lawless chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

The church bombing was the third in Birmingham in 11 days after a federal order came down to integrate Alabama’s school system.

GOP responds to Charlie Kirk’s death with anything but gun control– www.dailykos.com
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Conservatives have come up with a host of measures they want taken to avenge right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder—none of which include gun reforms.

Most of the proposals are retributive, with Republicans blaming the nebulous “left” for Kirk’s death and demanding that the “left” face punishment for it.

President Donald Trump—who was so distraught by Kirk’s death that he was seen happily dancing the next day at a Yankees game—said he wants to target progressive groups, claiming without evidence that they “contributed to this atrocity.”

Congressional Republicans seemed happy to help Trump in that endeavor, with Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and nearly two dozen other House Republicans demanding that GOP Speaker Mike Johnson create a new committee to investigate progressive groups that they baselessly accused of being responsible for Kirk’s death.

“In the wake of numerous attacks on our way of life, the destruction of the rule of law, and the murder of innocent Americans, prominent and unknown alike, we must take every step to follow the money and uncover the force behind the NGOs, donors, media, public officials, and all entities driving this coordinated attack,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Johnson, specifically referencing right-wing boogeyman George Soros and the Southern Poverty Law Center as groups they want to see investigated.

The Problem Is Donald Trump, Not Social Media Or Lonely White Men– www.politicususa.com
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After a white conservative was shot, many of the prominent white people in politics and media rushed to blame a variety of excuses when they found out that the shooter was a white young man from a Republican family.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, where Kirk was killed, thinks that the problem is social media.

Cox has become a media darling by criticizing the platform that made traditional media increasingly irrelevant.

Gov. Cox said on Sunday:

I believe that social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years. There is no question in my mind — ‘cancer’ probably isn’t a strong enough word. What we have done, especially to our kids, it took us decades to realize how evil these algorithms are.

Cox isn’t totally wrong. Studies have shown that social media is bad for mental health and that the mental health of individuals improves when they stop consuming social media.

Morning Joe on Kirk Killer: ‘Motives Almost Shouldn’t Matter’– www.newsbusters.org
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In a public forum, a left-wing activist is shot while advocating for the right of men who identify as women to compete in women’s sports.

The suspected shooter has a conservative ideology, and is in a romantic relationship with a woman who is an activist working to prevent men from competing against women.

Think Morning Joe would argue that the shooter’s motives don’t really matter, and that we should focus instead on other issues? Rhetorical question.

But when the tables are turned . . .

Utah Governor Spencer Cox, someone Morning Joe has praised, has stated that Tyler Robinson has a “leftist ideology,” and was in a romantic relationship with a male transitioning to female. And at the moment Robinson allegedly shot him, Charlie Kirk was discussing shootings by trans people.

So, shouldn’t we delve deeply into Robinson’s motives, and consider their cultural and political implications?

Nope, says MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire. On today’s Morning Joe, MSNBC’s Lemire argued that Tyler Robinson’s motives “almost shouldn’t matter.” Isn’t Lemire a “news” reporter? Facts don’t matter?

Kirk’s death reinvigorates Republicans’ redistricting race– www.politico.com
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President Donald Trump’s already brass-knuckled push for red-state redistricting is taking on an increasingly apocalyptic valence among MAGA stalwarts following the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Inside an Embassy Suites ballroom in suburban Indianapolis this weekend, Sen. Jim Banks’ inaugural Hoosier Leadership for America Summit drew hundreds of attendees who came to hear from next-generation MAGA figures ranging from Alex Bruesewitz, a top Trump adviser and longtime friend of Kirk’s, to GOP strategist Alex DeGrasse.

The summit marked the first official MAGA gathering since Kirk’s death and served as both a Kirk memorial and redistricting rally, unfolding amid an increased security footprint and ubiquitous police presence throughout the conference center.

Between musical interludes featuring Jason Aldean’s “Fly over States” and “Try That In a Small Town,” MAGA leaders spoke of “demons” at work behind the shooting of Kirk and the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska and “the righteous versus the wicked.” An attendee who posed a question to Banks wondered whether Kirk’s killing “lifted the veil between good and evil.”

“This isn’t a political battle anymore,” said Bruesewitz, who spoke to the crowd with visible emotion about his friendship with Kirk dating back to their teens, and recalled their last dinner together in South Korea just days ago. “It’s a spiritual battle.”

All of it presaged a coming national political hardening on the right with Kirk’s killing as the raison d’etre. More than any other issue at the conference, Kirk’s death seeped into the rationale for mid-decade redistricting.

Johnson criticizes Omar on Kirk comments: ‘Clearly’ has ‘no idea what she’s talking about’– thehill.com
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments in the wake of the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.

Omar, who said she was “mortified” at Kirk’s murder in an interview with Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan on Thursday, called conservatives who blamed the left for the shooting “full of s—.”

“She clearly has no idea what she’s talking about,” Johnson told Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.” “She has not followed Charlie. She’s playing into this characterization of him that the left has been advancing.”

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. The alleged gunman, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody by the FBI on Thursday evening.

The slaying was condemned by lawmakers across the political spectrum, with many noting the recent wave of political violence in the United States. Omar herself spoke of the “trauma” that assassinations of political figures can have on loved ones.

“It was really mortifying to hear the news, to see the video,” the Minnesota congresswoman told Zeteo. “All I could think about was his wife, his children — that image is going to live forever.”

Omar, however, pushed back on Republican lawmakers who have pointed fingers at left-wing rhetoric in assigning blame for the shooting. The 42-year-old also expressed concerns about her security.

“And, you know, you have people like Trump, who has incited violence against people like me,” Omar said, noting the president’s 2019 comments that she should leave the United States and return to her home country of Somalia. “And so, you know, these people are full of s‑‑‑, and it’s important for us to call them out while we feel anger and sadness.”

CBS Drifts Further Toward Right-Wing State Television– www.truthdig.com
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After President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem complained on X that several minutes of her Aug. 31 “Face the Nation” interview had been “shamefully edited … to whitewash the truth,” CBS News announced that its flagship Sunday morning program will no longer edit its interviews, except for “legal or national security” reasons.

According to the Associated Press, CBS said it had edited the interview, which ran 16 minutes and 40 seconds in its original form, for length, and posted the full interview on its website and YouTube. As the AP correctly noted, Noem “made a series of unproven accusations about Ábrego García” in the portion of the interview that was cut. This is a pattern of behavior by the administration with respect to Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran refugee who had been illegally deported to the CECOT concentration camp in his country of origin.

In the context of the recent capitulations by CBS News and its parent company Paramount in the face of Trump administration demands, the announcement is noteworthy — and dangerous.

Democratic Voters Want their Leaders to Stop Running From Zohran Mamdani – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com
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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani marching in a Labor Day parade on September 6, 2025 in New York City.Michael Nigro/AP

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

Zohran Mamdani hadn’t been Regina Weiss’ first choice for mayor of New York City. She’d ranked city comptroller Brad Lander number-one on her primary ballot in June, and told me she wished that the 33-year-old Democratic Socialist state assemblymember brought a bit more experience to the job. But Weiss, who volunteers with Indivisible, was happily supporting the Democratic nominee now, and expected to begin canvassing for him soon. What she couldn’t understand, she told me, as she waited for the candidate to take the stage with Sen. Bernie Sanders at the “Fighting Oligarchy” town hall in Brooklyn on Saturday, was why some of the biggest names in her party weren’t doing the same.

“I’ve never seen this before—I’ve never seen the Democratic leadership not endorse the Democratic candidate,” she said. “It’s so ugly, it’s so cowardly, it’s so stupid. The Democrats are basically in the crapper when it comes to enthusiasm. You’ve got this guy—the Democratic candidate for the biggest city in the country—and they’re not endorsing him.”