Christian, Jewish, and other conservative leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to urge the conservative movement and the Republican Party to prevent antisemitism from taking a foothold on the Right. “The conservative movement and the Republican Party cannot flirt with antisemitism,” Pastor Mario Bramnick, president of the Latino Coalition for Israel, declared in remarks Tuesday at The Line Hotel. Bramnick is one of four co-chairs of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. “Wherever it arises on the Left, Right, or in between, we declare in America zero tolerance to any antisemitism in our nation,” Bramnick said. “It is an anti-Christian, anti-American, and anti-Western way of living.” Another co-chair, Luke Moon, opened the gathering by recounting the task force’s history and noting that while “the fight on the Left is still happening,” he warned of “an emergency threat on the Right.” “People who were aligning themselves with the Democratic Socialists of America called for a full boycott—military and otherwise—of Israel,” Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project, recalled. “The Left did not call, ‘Enough!’ Did not stop that road.” He called on conservatives to “build a robust coalition that is willing to take on the challenge we have on the Right.” A third co-chair, Ellie Cohanim, former deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department during the first Trump administration, also addressed the gathering. A Jew who grew up in Iran and immigrated legally to the U.S., Cohanim warned that “where antisemitism rises, freedom falls. Jews are the world’s canary in the coal mine. When hatred of Jews is tolerated, it signals a deeper moral decay, one that inevitably threatens everyone in that society.” She remarked that in the coalition, she saw “Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and all faiths, who refused to let hate divide us.” The fourth co-chair, Victoria Coates, head of The Heritage Foundation’s center for national security, could not attend because she was in Helsinki, Finland. What Is Antisemitism? Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, set forth two tropes as emblematic of antisemitism. “If you look at someone saying that Jewish property is stolen—anything owned by Jews is acquired by fraud or deceit—or should I say, occupation—that is an antisemite,” he said. The other trope involves the claim that “Jews are unfair with everybody else.” Menken said this explains why so many people refer to the Jewish state of Israel by “a European colonialist monicker.” He pronounced “Palestine” with an F at the beginning, adding, “It sounds like a combination of ‘false’ and ‘Frankenstein,’ because it actually is.” Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, attacked the idea that Zionism is a Christian heresy. He attacked those who would claim that “pro-Israel Christians are squeezed by a brain virus,” asking if that would apply to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, or even President Donald Trump. He declared that Americans can offer “no appeasement” to antisemitism, “only a war against this racist hatred against the Jewish people.” Leo Terrell Leo Terrell, senior counsel to Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department, also addressed the gathering. Terrell said the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi are “100% committed” to fighting antisemitism. “Help me help you,” he said. “I’m committed. I’m all in. I will never compromise fundamental rights, the civil rights of Jews in this country.” “We haven’t done enough until everyone is treated equally, and that’s just basic common sense,” Terrell added. The Christian Response Many speakers emphasized their Christian faith, pushing back on the idea that “Christian Zionism” is a “brain virus” or a “heresy.” Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, noted that in much of American Christian culture, “being a good Christian means defending the Jews.” He recalled his parents going to school with survivors of the Holocaust. “Don’t believe the media: America’s Christians stand with Israel,” he said. Reed also cited George Gilder’s book “The Israel Test.” He argued that in every collectivist ideology, such as socialism, Nazism, or communism “because they punish success and they are based on a politics of envy and resentment, they are either antisemitic at the origin or they become antisemitic.” “Any economic system or ideology that is based on the hatred of, the envy of, and the resentment of merit-based success and achievement … will come to hate the Jew,” he warned. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, noted that “80% of what we read about in scripture took place” in Judea and Samaria, the land now euphemistically referred to as “the West Bank.” “If we continue to foster this false idea that there is this land available to the Palestinians, we will continue to foment antisemitism,” he warned. Gerald McDermott, an Anglican theologian who teaches at Reformed Episcopal Seminary, directly addressed the claim that Christian Zionism is a “brain virus.” He noted that the idea that God gave the Jews the land of Israel appears “1,000 times” in the Bible, and is “all over the New Testament.” “It’s a brain virus for Christians not to see it,” he argued. “Unity is never worth preserving if it’s used to protect evil.” A Choice in the Movement Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., the first congressman to wear a kippah on the House floor, warned that conservatives “have a choice in our movement today.” “Are we going to do what the Democrats did” in ignoring the threat, “or are we going to stand up and are we going to punch it right in the face?” The post Conservative Leaders Gather to Keep Antisemitism Out of the GOP, Conservative Movement appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Democrat Delegate Stacy Plaskett of the Virgin Islands could face censure after revelations that she was texting with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 House hearing, and apparently taking cues on questions to ask.  Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., introduced the censure resolution the same day the House voted to release the Epstein files.  In addition to the censure, the resolution also calls for “removing her from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for conduct that reflects discreditably on the House of Representatives for colluding with convicted felony sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing.” It further “directs the Committee on Ethics to conduct a full investigation into the extent of Plaskett’s ties to Epstein and any potential further improprieties.”  Plaskett’s office did not immediately respond to phone and email inquiries for this story.  However, she defended herself on the House floor, noting that Epstein was a constituent and reached out to her after a viral exchange in the hearing. She said the did not represent an endorsement of Epstein. “As a former prosecutor handling the worst felonies and innumerable narcotics cases, I have learned to receive information from sources I do not like to obtain information that helps me get at the truth,” Plaskett said. She said, “Due diligence is not grounds for censure, nor does it have any bearing on a member’s committee standing.” The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released 23,000 pages of documents from the Epstein estate last week that included the text messages.  The texts came during a 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing in which former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified negatively against his former boss.  The questions Plaskett asked seemed to closely follow what was in the text messages from Epstein, who died in a prison cell later that year in what federal officials determined was a suicide.  “Jeffrey Epstein was a predator who exploited minors. The idea that any member of Congress would coordinate with him on official proceedings is beyond comprehension,” Norman said in a statement. “This was not casual contact. These were deliberate communications that shaped part of a hearing designed to attack President Trump. It raises serious questions about judgment, integrity, and fitness to serve.” The censure resolution notes that Epstein’s history was known well before the hearing. It pointed out that Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two charges, procuring a minor for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. He was later charged federally in 2019 for sex trafficking of minors. “Members of Congress owe the American people honesty and ethical conduct,” Norman continued. “No one who turns to a convicted predator for input on how to conduct official business, especially in a congressional hearing, should sit on the Intelligence Committee or any committee, for that matter. This is about restoring trust in an institution that desperately needs it.” censure_plaskettDownload The post Democrat Congresswoman Faces Censure for Texts With Epstein appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Tyler O’Neil, a senior editor at The Daily Signal, has been selected as a finalist for a 2025 Dao Prize in the category of best reporting on DOGE. Winners of the Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism will be announced at a Wednesday night gala held at the Waldorf-Astoria in Washington, D.C. The prizes, which are administered by the National Journalism Center in partnership with the Dao Feng & Angela Foundation, recognize outstanding investigative journalism across multiple categories. This year’s awards put a particular emphasis on government accountability. O’Neil’s reporting on the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, exposed the Left’s stranglehold on bureaucracy. O’Neil’s Daily Signal series, “Your Money, Their Agenda: The Left’s Taxpayer-Funded War on Trump,” is among the finalists competing for a $30,000 prize. “Tyler’s investigative work exemplifies the kind of fearless, facts-driven journalism The Daily Signal is committed to producing,” editor-in-chief Katrina Trinko said. “His series meticulously documented how taxpayer dollars have funded initiatives designed to undermine Trump’s policy agenda, demonstrating that government accountability journalism remains essential in holding power to account.” Dao Prize finalists were selected from submissions judged on five criteria: investigative depth, public interest, fairness and accuracy, style, and impact. O’Neil’s series followed the publication of his latest book, “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government,” which led to multiple congressional testimonies this year and numerous media appearances. “I am honored to be nominated for the Dao Prize for reporting about the Department of Government Efficiency,” O’Neil said. “I researched the impact of left-wing activist groups on the Biden administration before the 2024 election for my book, and that research helped me cover the Trump administration’s efforts to highlight just how corrupt the bureaucracy had been under Joe Biden.” He added, “I appreciate how the Young America’s Foundation and the National Journalism Center are promoting conservative reporting, which often gets overlooked in mainstream American culture, through the Dao Prize. Whatever the judges decide, I am humbled to be considered for this important honor.” The post The Daily Signal’s Tyler O’Neil Recognized as Finalist for Prestigious Dao Prize appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I think most of our listeners, I know I do, favor the current administration, what it’s accomplished. Its miraculous achievements on the border, on energy production, reduction of crime. The “Big, Beautiful Bill” has a lot of good elements in it. Foreign policy has been spectacular. Denuclearizing for the present Iranian theocracy. Having achieved seven or eight ceasefires abroad. Trying to address the war in Ukraine. These are all positive developments. But there are land mines that the Trump administration has to be very careful of. One of them is that, in his success overseas, President Donald Trump has naturally talked about achieving peace with Ethiopia and Egypt, or Pakistan or India, or what we accomplish by taking out the nuclear facilities in Iran, etc. But the elections are not won on foreign policy, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately. They’re won on economics. And the Left, in that vacuum, and that lack of praise for the accomplishments of the Trump administration on energy, on gross domestic product, on the stock market, on deregulation, on tax reform, and what will happen in 2026 when, I think, foreign investment and these new technologies will help, in addition, spur the economy and relieve our worries about inflation and affordability—we have to talk about that. Specifically, he has to talk about the comparison of the Biden administration with both his first term, but more importantly, with what he’s done in the first 10 to 11 months, and what will ensue in 2026 for the things he’s doing now. Very quickly, a second land mine is, why would we want to increase the Chinese student population from the current near 300,000 to 600,000? That’s contrary to the MAGA agenda of “America First.” There are 300,000 Americans that would love to come to college that either can’t afford it or can’t get in because of the competition with over 1 million foreign students—1 million foreign students welcomed by the universities because their governments pay the full bill and they can overcharge them by 10% or 15%. And yet, we know that of the 300,000 students, roughly, here, that 1% or 2% or 3% or 4% engage in active espionage. That’s several thousand—2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000. We know that because when we look at the end result—sophisticated satellites, rocketry, aircraft carriers—they look almost identical to ours. And they are the results of skipping billions of dollars in investment, years of research, and leapfrogging to parity with us by appropriating our technology, in large part, and often, by the presence of so many Chinese nationals. When we were in a race, an existential race, with the Soviet Union, we did not have Russian students here. That would’ve been seen as insane. So, we should be trying to gradually, without provocation, reduce the size of the Chinese nationalist population, not double it. And finally, there’s this question, very controversially, of HB-1 visas. These are the visas that are reserved for people with unique skills that, supposedly, Americans don’t have, but they would be integral to our prosperity, security, and national success. Ph.D.s in computer engineering. Master’s degrees in French language, as a professor. A high-stakes athlete or model, even, to enrich our culture. And nobody objects to that. There’s about 500,000 of these HB-1 visas already. But as part of the negotiations with trade and tariffs and our foreign relations with other countries, we have said that we would like to take in a lot more HB-1 visas. The problem with that is these countries don’t view it the same way as we do. They would like to send their students with bachelor’s degrees or the students themselves would like to come with no singular skills at all—any different than most Americans who graduate with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, finance. In other words, we have plenty of Americans that would be able to do the things that foreign nationals would that we would bring in over the current limit of 500,000. And it’s contrary to the MAGA agenda of America First. So, it’s a contradiction in terms and it will hurt the president. So, I would suggest, very humbly, that we take a second look at doubling the number of Chinese students. We take a second look at doubling the number of HB-1 visas. I would take a second look at the public relations and the communications about the economy. And begin, right now, talking about how it is stronger than perceptions from the Left, especially, and the media. But more importantly, the things that are going on right now by the administration that will improve the economy radically in 2026. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Beware of These Political Land Mines, President Trump appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The U.S. is working alongside Canada and Finland to build more special ships capable of operating in the Arctic—a critical region that has drawn increased attention from Russia and China.   “The Trump administration is taking a monumental step forward to protect the Arctic against our enemies,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday at the signing of a “Joint Statement of Intent” alongside officials from Canada and Finland.   “The Arctic is the world’s last, most wild frontier, and our adversaries are racing to claim a strategic position, and its rich natural resources, for their own,” Noem said. “If we give up that high ground, then we will condemn future generations to permanent insecurity, and we’re not going to let that happen on our watch.”   The agreement signed Tuesday affirms a commitment from the U.S., Canada, and Finland to work together to increase cooperation in the region through the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort Pact, which the three nations signed in November 2024.   Through the agreement, the three nations are sharing information, technology, and working together to develop the means and necessary tools to operate in the region. Now, the Trump administration is reaffirming and strengthening that agreement.  In 2026, the U.S., Finland, and Canada will pursue industrial cooperation and workforce development as the nations build more icebreaker ships to navigate Arctic waters.   Currently, the U.S. only has a handful of operational ships that are capable of cutting through the Arctic’s icy waters, and the U.S. and NATO only have a combined 47 total icebreakers and ice-capable patrol vessels, compared to Russia’s 57 vessels, according to a recent Heritage Foundation report.   “To thrive in the Arctic, we need icebreakers. But if we’re going to get those icebreakers that we need, we need to secure our supply chains, and we need to invest in bringing our manufacturing back home to our American shores,” Noem said.   The Arctic holds vast resources, including oil and natural gas. The shortest trade route between Northern Europe and the Asia-Pacific runs through the Arctic Ocean, making safe access to the region an important economic advantage.   “Russia has intentionally sought to counter NATO’s growing involvement in the Arctic,” according to The Heritage Foundation, raising concerns that Russia may seek to block NATO countries‘ access to trade routes through the region. China is also seeking to operate in Arctic waters and is pursuing a shipping route from China to Europe.   The ICE Pact is “not just a symbolic agreement, it’s one that is delivering tangible results for all of our countries. It’s powering our economies. It’s strengthening our collective Arctic defense, and it’s bringing us one step closer to rebuilding our icebreaker fleets,” Noem said.   In October, President Donald Trump signed an agreement to build 11 new icebreakers. The first four will be built in Finland and up to seven more will then be constructed in U.S. shipyards.   “This partnership with [other] countries is extremely strategic and efficient in the fact that there will be continued construction while they train our workforce and build shipyards here in the United States to repurpose our shipbuilding activity and industry back in the United States,” Noem said.   The post US Working With 2 Key Allies to Combat Russia Threat in Arctic  appeared first on The Daily Signal.