Fox News announced Thursday that California-based reporter Bill Melugin has been “promoted” to congressional correspondent. He might as well have stayed in Los Angeles covering the Kardashians, for all the reality show-level drama and hijinks on display last week on Capitol Hill. From boozing to busts, from calls for rebellion to cavorting with convicted pedophiles, members of Congress turned the greatest legislative body in the world into a pre-Thanksgiving feast of family dysfunction.Before we dig into the details, I offer a caveat: There are 535 members of Congress between the House and the Senate. A vast majority toil mightily in the service of their constituents and nation. Their workday is never-ending. A couple years ago, I broke bread with a freshman member of Congress who said in his eight months in Washington he had never left Capitol Hill. A veteran, high-ranking congressman came into a meeting so exhausted it took praying over him to resuscitate him. We were told another congressman had exactly seven minutes to hang out with us, and sure enough he was in and out with the efficiency of a cat burglar. Over and over, we saw reminders that members of Congress are people, regardless of party.But golly! Where do we start? How about with the Democrats? Del. Stacey Plaskett: Texting Buddy of Jeffrey Epstein We learned that Del. Stacey Plaskett, delegate from the Virgin Islands, was texting back and forth with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 anti-Trump hearing. Epstein was coaching her on what to ask President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, complimenting her for a “good job,” even discussing her habit of chewing on her cheek. Plaskett tried to pass off the revelation as merely accepting a call from a “constituent.” Sure … and Bonnie and Clyde were just out for Sunday drives. As The Daily Signal’s Oliva Pero reported, Plaskett and Epstein have a history going back to the Virgin Islands. She was general counsel for the government agency that gave Epstein’s companies hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks. She got the maximum donations from Epstein in her three campaigns before Epstein died. She went personally to his Manhattan home to hit him up for donations. I wonder how Plaskett liked the brush strokes on Epstein’s painting of Bill Clinton wearing Monica Lewinsky’s dress? Oh, and she was personally named in a lawsuit filed by six Epstein victims accusing Virgin Island government officials of helping facilitate Epstein’s activities. At least to Plaskett, money talks louder than Epstein’s victims. Rep. Jasmine Crockett: Confusing Jeffrey Epsteins Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, demonstrated again why she is more reality show dumpster fire than serious legislator. Crockett loudly shredded Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin for having taken donations from Epstein. One problem: Zeldin quickly pointed out that the donation came from an entirely different Jeffrey Epstein. Amazingly, when called out by CNN (of all outlets) for this, Crockett declared, “I never said it was that Jeffrey Epstein.” You have to applaud the shamelessness. It’s not just false accusations Crockett has to worry about. The Daily Signal’s Fred Lucas reports the Texas congresswoman is facing investigation for “inconsistent financial disclosure statements regarding investments.” Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick: Illegally Cashing in on COVID-19? Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., was charged last week with 15 federal counts of swiping $5 million in COVID-19 money and using it for her congressional campaign and personal benefit. Her family owns a health care company. According to the Justice Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency overpaid the company millions in disaster relief funds through a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract, and Cherfilus-McCormick and co-conspirators simply pocketed the cash. Not for long. Within two months, Cherfilus-McCormick had herself a $100,000 3-carat diamond ring and soon a seat in Congress. She denies any wrongdoing. If convicted, the congresswoman faces 53 years in prison. And to think she could have made her millions in politics the old-fashioned way: insider stock trading. Eh, Rep. Nancy Pelosi? The Capitol Hill Six: Calling for Mutiny A half-dozen Democrat House members and senators conspired to urge the military and intelligence community to defy orders from Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025 “Don’t Give Up the Ship?” Closer to “Take Over the Ship.” Oh, they say “illegal orders,” but as The Daily Signal’s Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell reported Monday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin admits she is “not aware” of a single illegal order given by the president. The Heritage Foundation’s Cully Stimson also detailed how one of the conspirators, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., was asked four times by Fox News’ Martha MacCallum what illegal orders Trump has given, and he hemmed and hawed like a randy teenage boy being asked his intentions by his date’s father. Stimson, himself a 30-year judge advocate general, laid out not only the danger of this reckless call for the military to defy orders, but the absurdity. He’s right. Think about it: Six members of Congress, all military and intelligent vets, openly call for the military to rebel against its civilian command. But to Democrats, flag-waving grannies and a dude in a Viking costume constitutes an “insurrection.” Crazy Isn’t Always Partisan Yes, it was a crazy week for Democrats on Capitol Hill. But Republicans have nothing to boast about. They had their own week of hijinks and high drama. We’ll get to that in part two. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Congress’ Week of Crazy, Part One: A Legislative Body or a Dysfunctional Family Drama? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

THE DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Special counsel Jack Smith’s team pressed forward with secretly seeking phone records for Republican members of Congress, even after being warned it exposed them to “litigation risk,” internal emails show. Emails released Tuesday by Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of. Wisconsin reveal prosecutors weighing which members of Congress to target with subpoenas as part of the “Arctic Frost” investigation, which became Smith’s 2020 election case against President Donald Trump. “As you are aware, there is some litigation risk regarding whether compelled disclosure of toll records of a Member’s legislative calls violates the Speech or Debate Clause in the D.C. Circuit,” former head of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section John Keller told prosecutors in a May 2023 email greenlighting the subpoenas. Smith’s subpoenas for nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers requested “detailed records for inbound and outbound calls, text messages, direct connect, and voicemail messages” between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021. Smith obtained nondisclosure orders hiding the requests from members, which were approved by Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee. A grand jury subpoena for House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan obtained by the Biden DOJ requested records from a nearly two year time period. “Even putting aside the government’s potentially meritorious argument that the calls over the relevant period–especially unsolicited incoming calls–would not constitute protected legislative acts, given my understanding of the low likelihood that any of the Members listed below would be charged, the litigation risk should be minimal here,” Keller wrote to prosecutors. Though prosecutors already had some member call records from a subpoena to Rudy Giuliani, they reasoned that seeking their records directly “would allow us to understand who else may have called these Members.” Prosecutors also considered issuing subpoenas to Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, according to emails. They mixed up Sen. Tim Scott with Sen. Rick Scott, mistakenly placing the former on their initial list of targets, per the emails. “The closer you look, the more brazen Jack Smith’s actions become,” Grassley said in a statement. “These records show Smith and his merry band of partisans operating on a legally weak foundation by intruding on Members of Congress who were involved in core constitutional functions. Ultimately, the Biden DOJ threw the Constitution to the wind in seeking information about my colleagues.” The Senate deal to end the government shutdown included a provision that would allow lawmakers whose phone records were seized to sue for $500,000 per violation. The House of Representatives voted unanimously to repeal the provision on Nov. 19, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has defended it. Smith’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Originally published by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The post Jack Smith’s Team Knew They Might Face Legal Challenges for Secretly Seeking Senators’ Phone Records 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’d like to talk about insurrection chic. By that I mean this phenomenon of the Democrats in particular, and maybe the Left in general, it’s talking about ways of undermining the jurisdiction of our own federal government. I don’t know what their model is. Is it Jefferson Davis, who ordered South Carolina State Troops to fire on the federal fort at Fort Sumter in 1861 that ushered in the Civil War? Or maybe it’s George Wallace, huh? Standing in the doorstep of the University of Alabama, saying, “We’re not going to, here in Alabama, obey state law on segregation and racial discrimination.” Or maybe, did you ever see the movie “Seven Days in May” (1964) about an officer, General Scott? I think he was played by Burt Lancaster. And he said, basically, we’re going to nullify the presidential directives and not abide by a treaty of the federal government—try to, essentially, overthrow the government. This is very ironic because the Left lectured us on insurrection, insurrection, insurrection, even though special counsel Jack Smith never charged President Donald Trump with insurrection. But what’s going on now is quite scary. And it’s not new. In the first term, we had a number of four-star retired admirals and generals who violated Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It said even retired flag officers were subject to the statute that says you shall not disparage the president of the United States. Yet, they called him Mussolini. They said that he was analogous to the people at Auschwitz, he was a liar. We had one officer who said, the sooner the better, Trump should be removed. We have elections for that. We don’t talk like that. We had two lieutenant colonels that said they bragged that the 101st Airborne would beat the Secret Service and force Donald Trump to get out of the White House. It’s pretty awful. Now, lately, it’s getting very scary. We’ve had—the mayor of New York says that federal law essentially doesn’t exist in the city of New York. When he takes over, it’s international law. And that he will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under diplomatic protection, as a foreign dignitary visiting the U.N. What’s he going to do? Order the NYPD to stop the Secret Service that may be protecting Netanyahu when he arrives as a guest? We had Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago say that he was not going to obey federal law. In fact, he was going to oppose it. That wasn’t just—I don’t know—theoretical because when Immigration and Customs Enforcement was trapped, a convoy of ICE agents were trapped, the Chicago area police force did not come to their aid, by explicit orders not to. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass said that city officials are conspiring, working to tip off illegal aliens against the efforts of the federal government, to stop them. In California, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who had called the president of the United States the most vile creature in the world, the worst creature in the world, a vile creature, and who tore up the State of the Union address on national TV, she said that state law enforcement might arrest federal officials who were enforcing the immigration statutes. What? Would that be a shoot-out? Or what would that be? It’s getting very, very scary. And then, most recently, we had a number of Democratic Congress people and senators say in a video that they were addressing soldiers, and they said, you have the right to disobey an order, if it’s unlawful. They never gave one example of any order, of any order, that Donald Trump or any member of the administration or any senior officer had issued anyone that was deemed illegal. What was the point of that? What was the point of telling 1.3 million soldiers that are now on active duty that you have the right to disobey a superior’s order? Did they quote Article 90 and 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice? No. It outlines specifically the very, very, very, very rare conditions under which a soldier can say, “What you ordered me is unlawful.” And you know what they are. They’re things like using violence in an improper way against another person or desertion. But there’s no example that they can give. None at all. We have 600 jurisdictions in which blue cities and states say that the federal law no longer applies in their jurisdiction. That’s sort of neo-Confederate nullification that’s prompted the Civil War. And you know, when Jefferson Davis, when he ordered South Carolina troops to fire on Fort Sumter, all he was doing was saying that the federal government is at war with the state. That’s what our mayors are doing in these blue jurisdictions. Do they believe that that is a principle that they would extend to everybody? No. If a county in Utah said, “We’re conservative, we don’t believe in the”—I don’t know—“the Endangered Species Act. We’re not gonna stop construction for a newt.” Would they say, “That’s fine, you can nullify federal law”? No, they wouldn’t. If somebody in Montana said, “I don’t like federal gun registration, it just hampers the people in our county. It doesn’t apply here,” would the Left say, “Yes. That’s what we do with immigration. Congratulations”? No. So, what’s going on? Why are they nullifying federal law? Why are they advising protesters in Portland how to avoid arrests by federal authorities? Why are they telling people in all of these blue jurisdictions that they will appeal to a higher authority, the United Nations? Mayor Johnson says he’ll call in the U.N., the Commission on Human Rights. Is he going to abide by that commission that in the past has had members like, I don’t know, Communist China, North Korea, Iran? Is that who he thinks have a higher authority than the Constitution? Does he understand the president of the United States was elected by a majority of the population who voted? So, this is getting very, very scary. And why are they doing it? The Left has no power in the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of government. Their agenda is one that most people do not want. And they want to create as much Teslas. In the past, that has included firebombing Tesla dealerships. That has involved street protests that turned violent against ICE. That has involved social media celebrating assassins and violence. And now it’s the nullification of federal laws that, in the Constitution, take precedent over local and state laws, when federal officers are trying to protect federal property, as they are now, and enforce federal statutes, as they are now. In other words, the Left is neo-Confederate and insurrectionary. And it should stop before we get into 1861, again. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Insurrection Chic—Democrats’ Dangerous New Fad appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The FBI and DOJ are seeking to interview six Democrat members of Congress about a controversial video they participated in urging members of the military and intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.” A Justice Department official, spoke on condition of anonymity to Reuters and claimed the FBI interviews sought to determine “if there’s any wrongdoing, and then go from there.” The video, which was released last week, featured two sitting U.S. senators and four members of the House of Representatives, a majority of whom were veterans. The members of Congress who participated in the video were Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.; Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.; Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.; Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Co. Last night, the FBI's Counterterrorism Division appeared to open an inquiry into me in response to a video President Trump did not like.The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place. He believes in weaponizing the federal…— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 25, 2025 President Donald Trump, who is the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces, decried the lawmakers’ statements in the film writing on November 20 on Truth Social, “It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET.” The Department of War then announced on November 24 that it had “received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly, USN (Ret.),” adding, “In accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. § 688, and other applicable regulations, a thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions, which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.” Kelly for his part declared that he would not be “silenced” or “intimidated” in a recent interview.  “Secretary Hegseth’s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President’s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death. If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution,” Kelly posted on X on Monday. With the potential law enforcement interviews and further public comments, the Trump administration appears to be doubling down on its criticism of the Democrat lawmakers. Donald Trump can try to intimidate me, but it’s not going to work. My job is to defend the Constitution and hold any president accountable. pic.twitter.com/FzfW8qQz5f— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) November 25, 2025 “The despicable video urging @DeptofWar troops to ‘refuse illegal orders’ may seem harmless to civilians — but it carries a different weight inside the military,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted Tuesday morning on X. “In the military, vague rhetoric and ambiguity undermines trust, creates hesitation in the chain of command, and erodes cohesion. The military already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders. It does not need political actors injecting doubt into an already clear chain of command,” Hegseth continued. “As veterans of various sorts, the Seditious Six knew exactly what they were doing — sowing doubt through a politically-motivated influence operation. The @DeptofWar won’t fall for it or stand for it,” the War secretary concluded. The Daily Signal has reached out to the offices of the members of Congress who participated in the video for comment. The post Democrats Who Urged Military to ‘Refuse Illegal Orders’ to Be Interviewed by FBI appeared first on The Daily Signal.

REUTERS—The FBI has requested interviews with six Democrat members of the U.S. Congress who in a video message told members of the military they can legally refuse to carry out unlawful orders, a Justice Department official told Reuters on Tuesday. The move comes a day after the Pentagon threatened to recall Sen. Mark Kelly, a Navy veteran and one of the six lawmakers, to active duty potentially to face military charges over what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described on social media as “seditious” acts. President Donald Trump, who critics have said has sought to harness the power of the government to try to stifle dissent, accused the six Democrats of sedition and said in a social media post that the crime is punishable by death. “THE TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW, NOT ROAMING THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THAT WHAT THEY SAID WAS OK. IT WASN’T, AND NEVER WILL BE!” Trump said in a Saturday Truth Social post. “IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID!” The Justice Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the FBI interviews with the lawmakers were to determine “if there’s any wrongdoing, and then go from there.” The FBI is headed by Trump appointee Kash Patel. >>> Victor Davis Hanson: Democrats Who Told Military Not to Obey ‘Illegal’ Orders Are ‘Not Being Honest’ In statements on Tuesday, the Democrats described the FBI move as an effort by the Trump administration to intimidate them into silence. “The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA officer and one of the six Democrats, said on X. “This is not the America I know, and I’m not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country, and our Constitution.” We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025 The lawmakers have said their video statements accurately reflected U.S. law. American troops swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution, not the president, and under military rules must follow “any lawful general order or regulation.” The other Democrats who appeared in the video released last week include U.S. Reps. Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan, all military veterans. The four House Democrats in a joint statement accused Trump of using the FBI as a tool to intimidate members of Congress and vowed that they would not be silenced. Kelly did not respond toa request for comment on Tuesday. The video did not refer to any specific illegal order, but many Democrats have expressed concerns— echoed privately by some U.S. military commanders—that the Trump administration is violating the law by ordering strikes on vessels purportedly carrying suspected drug traffickers in Latin American waters. The Pentagon has called the strikes justified because drug smugglers are considered terrorists. Democrats have also questioned the legality of Trump’s use of military forces in American cities. After urging members of the military to refuse “illegal orders” from the Trump administration, Slotkin said earlier this week she is not aware of any such orders. “Do you believe President [Donald] Trump has issued any illegal orders?” ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked her. “To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal—but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela,” Slotkin said. The probe was reported earlier by Fox News. There is no charge of sedition under U.S. law for civilians, though the charge of “seditious conspiracy” carries a maximum penalty of 20 years. Several leaders of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol were convicted of that crime before Trump pardoned them. For troops, the Uniform Code of Military Justice includes a section on sedition, with possible penalties including death. (On the Reuters side, reporting by Jana Winter; additional reporting by David Morgan, Bo Erickson and Jasper Ward; writing by Joseph Ax; editing by Scott Malone, Lisa Shumaker, Will Dunham and Daniel Wallis. The Daily Signal’s Elizabeth Mitchell contributed to this report as well.) The post FBI Probes Congressional Democrats Who Warned Military About Illegal Orders appeared first on The Daily Signal.