REUTERS—President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a National Guard member had died after being shot in an ambush by an Afghan national near the White House, an attack that drew accusations from his administration of Biden-era immigration vetting failures and prompted a sweeping review of asylum cases. .@POTUS announces that U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom of Summersville, West Virginia, one of the National Guardsmen savagely attacked yesterday in Washington, D.C., has just passed away.May God be with her family ? pic.twitter.com/BEbAOxmJme— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 27, 2025 Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds and her fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life,” Trump said, as investigators conducted what officials said was a terrorism investigation after Wednesday’s shooting. The FBI searched multiple properties in a widening probe, including a home in Washington state linked to the suspect, who officials said was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the U.S. in 2021 under a resettlement program. Agents seized numerous electronic devices from the residence of the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, including cellphones, laptops, and iPads, and interviewed his relatives, FBI Director Kash Patel told a news conference. U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro said the suspect drove cross-country and then ambushed the Guard members while they were patrolling near the White House on Wednesday afternoon. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom of the National Guard — a hero who volunteered to serve DC on Thanksgiving for people she never met and gave the ultimate sacrifice. May she rest in peace. It is now time to avenge her death and secure… pic.twitter.com/g6e0PhhD7Z— Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) November 27, 2025 “I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation that the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation’s capital, in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard, who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force,” Trump said in a Thanksgiving call for U.S. military service members. Trump said the suspect’s “atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country.” War Secretary Pete Hegseth called Beckstrom an “American hero, at home with the LORD.” An American hero, at home with the LORD.RIP, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom.May our nation kneel in prayer for her family. https://t.co/u8VNBGcpRt— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) November 27, 2025 Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, the gunman shot one member who fell and then shot again before firing multiple times at the second member. The gunman was wounded in an exchange of fire with Guard members before he was arrested. He was in hospital under heavy guard on Thursday, and Trump said he was in serious condition. The alleged assailant, who lived in Washington state with his wife and five children, appeared to have acted alone, said Jeff Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. (On the Reuters side, reporting by Leah Douglas, Jana Winter, Phil Stewart, Ted Hesson, Lucia Mutikani, Jasper Ward and Tim Reid; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Jeff Mason, Steve Gorman; Writing by Julia Harte, Rod Nickel and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Ross Colvin, Deepa Babington and Diane Craft. The Daily Signal’s Katrina Trinko also contributed.) The post Trump Announces Death of National Guardsman After Shooting appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In 2006, a few days before Christmas, doctors announced my wife had six months to live. She had, they said, a rare form of cancer that had spread to her lungs. There was really nothing that could be done. We had a one-year-old and I had been told my job was coming to an end the same day of the diagnosis. Thankfully, it was a misdiagnosis. Not only did I keep my job, but I kept my wife. Ten years later, doctors informed my wife they suspected she had a genetic form of lung cancer. Had my wife not been misdiagnosed in 2006, they would not have known about her lung cancer in 2016. My wife has stage four lung cancer. It is genetic. There is no cure. Nine years ago, she was given two years to live. She is still here. Thankfulness can be a very abstract concept. We are grateful for things. We are thankful for things. We thank people. Often our gratitude comes from random events, seeming accidents and happy coincidences. We don’t often think about a man upstairs guiding our lives, let alone history. Things happen. We are thankful for dodging bullets, unanswered prayers, answered prayers and the kindnesses of random strangers, family and friends. As we become more successful in life, it is often harder to be thankful for small things. Small things loom large when we are small, starting our career before life explodes into family, debt, career, success and income. Then, many of the acts of kindness, gratitude and thankfulness shrink. A twenty-dollar bill is immeasurably larger and a great act of kindness to a struggling twenty-something than to a well-off forty-something. But it is still an act of kindness. The thankfulness just changes based on where one is in life. Two months ago, my wife fell down the stairs on the way out to church. She broke her foot. She has been healing from the break only to get hospitalized with an illness. The week after she got out of the hospital, my father got put into the hospital. I am thankful for my sisters who live closer to my parents than me who could tend to them while I tend to my wife. I am thankful for the doctors and the offers of help. I am way more thankful as I get older for the prayers of others than when I was young. “I’ll pray” is as much a Southernism as “bless your heart” and asking how someone is when you really are not interested in the answer. It is what you say, but it’s not necessarily what you mean. I say it when I mean it, and I am more appreciative as I get older when people really do it. This last month has been a whirlwind for family health, work, professional growth and setbacks. The friend’s casserole or the neighbor covering dinner is far less meaningful now than their heartfelt prayers. Thankfully for all of them, the sacrifice of time to make room in prayers for other people than self is what I am more thankful for as I age. We live in extraordinary and bizarre times. We have, right now, as you read this, a robot roaming Mars and a massive telescope in space beaming back incredible images of the edge of space. Online and on television, we have clowns performing for our attention, votes, support, opposition or clicks. Sorting through it all can generate anxiety and a desire to unplug from it all. Why tune in when it is more pleasant to tune out and not think about things? But thinking and engaging is a civic and necessary virtue. When we do, we should at least consider the small things for which we are thankful, from the small acts of kindness to the random events that just happen. I am thankful for the surprises in life that make me appreciate life still with my wife. In these overwhelming and extraordinary times, do not fail to be thankful. There is still so much to be thankful for. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post There Is So Much to Be Thankful For appeared first on The Daily Signal.

REUTERS—From battlefields in Afghanistan to a scenic home in the Pacific Northwest, Rahmanullah Lakanwal had followed a promising path before Wednesday, when U.S. authorities say he shot two National Guard soldiers blocks from the White House. Lakanwal, 29, drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington, said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., at a news conference on Thursday. He lived in Bellingham, a coastal city near Canada’s border, with his wife and five children. Pirro said he ambushed the two National Guardsmen on Wednesday as they patrolled near the White House. Armed with a powerful handgun, a .357 Magnum, he shot one Guardsman who fell, and then shot them again, before firing multiple times at the second Guardsman, Pirro added. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro (@USAttyPirro): "Two uniform guardsmen were ambushed in a brazen and targeted attack. A lone gunman opened fire without provocation, ambush style…"FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash): "It is an ongoing investigation of terrorism." pic.twitter.com/Ob9qwSEcNH— CSPAN (@cspan) November 27, 2025 Lakanwal was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other Guardsmen before he was arrested and taken to hospital, where he remains under heavy guard. The authorities have not given an update on his condition or a motive for the attack. Pirro said Lakanwal faces three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and a charge of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. He will also be charged with murder in the first degree if the Guardsmen, who are currently in critical condition, do not survive their injuries, she said. Earlier on Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the U.S. government plans to bring terrorism charges against Lakanwal and seek a sentence of life in prison “at a minimum.” AG Pam Bondi says she will pursue the death penalty for the Afghan suspect if the two troops do not survive. pic.twitter.com/ria1kju6nL— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 27, 2025 Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era immigration program to resettle thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war and feared reprisal from Taliban forces who seized control after the U.S. withdrawal. More than 70,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. under the program. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have confirmed that he worked with U.S. partner forces in Afghanistan, according to FBI Director Kash Patel. Pirro and Patel blamed the Biden administration for improperly vetting Lakanwal. U.S. ATTORNEY JEANINE PIRRO: "This is what happens in this country when people are allowed in, who are not properly vetted.""This was not just an attack, it was a direct challenge to law and order in our nation's capital." pic.twitter.com/zOWXsQ0DmB— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 27, 2025 According to a federal law enforcement dossier seen by Reuters, Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23, three months after Trump took office. Lakanwal had no known criminal history, according to the dossier. He had no documented record of traveling in or out of the U.S. since his arrival in 2021, and he had imported a shipment of household goods from Afghanistan in February. After working through Wednesday night, investigators seized cellphones, laptops, iPads, and other electronic devices from his house in Washington state, according to Patel. (Reporting by Julia Harte and Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Nia Williams) The post What We Know About Afghan National Suspected of Shooting Two Guardsmen Near White House appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is my new hero. Duffy is promoting a “civility” campaign that urges passengers to be polite and dress up rather than wear sweatpants and slippers when they fly. If everyone dresses better, everyone will behave better, Duffy offered. It’s an idea that could bring smiles to the friendly skies around the Thanksgiving holiday. During a press conference at Newark Liberty International Airport Monday, Duffy was wearing a suit and red tie. This was an outfit that answered the question: What would President Donald Trump wear? The good news: Duffy did not propose a business-attire dress code that would be enforced on board. Duffy ticked through the litany of air travel woes—long lines, brawls at baggage claim, flight delays and cancellations often due to bad weather—that have resulted in an uptick in incivility. According to the Department of Transportation, there has been a 400% increase in outbursts on planes since 2019. Clearly, the flying public has been getting surly. One in five flight attendants report experiencing physical incidents on the job. There’s no law Congress can pass to make people behave more courteously, Duffy acknowledged, but maybe dressing up will encourage fliers to act more adult. Duffy offered commonsense advice, which he noted most people already observe. Don’t take your shoes off. If you’re watching a movie, wear headphones. Say please and thank you. Because lines will be longer, “Come a little early.” Passengers who give themselves more time are more likely to arrive at their destinations with a good attitude, Duffy added. Confession time: I love to fly. I love going places. I love coming home. I love people watching in airports. I love to see what people are wearing. In the terminal, I eavesdrop shamelessly. It’s one of my favorite things about travel. Sadly, too much of the chatter in airports these days is about how awful flying is, how irksome the airlines have become and how infuriating people find nightmarish cancellations and even minor delays. And yet, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the percentage of Americans who fly keeps expanding. In 1971, fewer than half of Americans had ever flown, and only 1 in 5 had flown in the last year. In 2023, fewer than half had flown in the last year, and while 85% of Americans had flown in their lifetimes. It seems the more people fly, the less of an occasion flying becomes. I don’t wear cocktail dresses when I fly, but I try to dress well and comfortably. Duffy’s crusade tells me that I can do better. At the Newark presser, FAA administrator Bryan Bedford took pride when he said, “This week is our Super Bowl.“ (Not that passengers should act like they’re at the Super Bowl.) The government, Bedford cautioned, will not hesitate to use its enforcement authority for those who break rules. I’ve seen how that works. Many years ago when there was shuttle service between Washington, New York and Boston, I was on a flight that ended with a fellow passenger being walked off the plane in handcuffs. There was a $10 dispute, and he would not pay his full fare on the credit card trolley, which was the standard way to pay on that shuttle. I can only imagine what his legal bills were. He probably didn’t realize that passengers don’t have the same rights on a plane that they enjoy on a sidewalk. So there is one advantage to all those viral videos of air rage episodes: They end with the consequences. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Flying Public Is Getting Surly. Don’t Let It Ruin Thanksgiving appeared first on The Daily Signal.

THE DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—FBI Director Kash Patel said during a Thursday press conference that the agency has searched the Washington state home of a gunman accused of ambushing two National Guardsmen and a location in San Diego, California. West Virginia National Guardsmen Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom were allegedly shot with a Smith and Wesson revolver at the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington, D.C., by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who entered the United States in September 2021. Patel provided reporters an update on how the investigation was proceeding. Full update from this morning’s press conference. The @FBI is investigating yesterday’s attack on our National Guard members as an act of terrorism. As we speak, our teams continue to work around the clock following every lead and turning over every stone. We will provide updates… pic.twitter.com/dTf5V6HMCm— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) November 27, 2025 “Partnering with the D.C. United States attorney’s office, we have also executed multiple, multiple search warrants to include the subject’s last known residence, which is in the state of Washington,” Patel said. “The search warrant was executed on that house last night or early this morning and it’s an ongoing process. All the individuals found in the house have been interviewed and some interviews remain ongoing.” “We will not stop until we interview anyone and everyone associated with the subject, the house and every piece of his life,” Patel continued. “There’s also subject interviews, relations conducted in San Diego pursuant to our ongoing investigation. So as the judge noted, this is a coast-to-coast investigation being led right here in Washington D.C.” Lakanwal allegedly shouted “Allahu akbar!” before opening fire on the National Guardsmen, journalist Julio Rojas reported. One National Guardsman who was on the scene who didn’t have a firearm stabbed Lakanwal with a pocketknife, while another fired multiple shots that struck the suspected gunman, according to Rojas. “I spoke to [CIA Director] John Ratcliffe and [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth. We’re investigating his background to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America. That’s what a broad-based international terrorism investigation looks like,” Patel told reporters. Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The post FBI Searched DC Shooting Suspect’s Home in Washington State, Location in California appeared first on The Daily Signal.