The general assumption among most in Washington, D.C. is that Republicans are headed into a tidal wave of Democratic wins in November. While the Senate remains a close call, most assume the House majority will be lost by a wide margin. But not all assumptions in politics go the way that the consultant class expects. The Daily Wire reached out to the man who had the experience of knowing what it takes to win the majority for Republicans — Kevin McCarthy, the 55th Speaker of the House. Here are his frank, honest thoughts on the 2026 election — what Republicans need to do better, how they need to talk in a challenging political climate, and what they can do to stave off a blue wave. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and content. Daily Wire: Should Republicans have done this redistricting push a lot earlier? Should they have done this years ago? Kevin McCarthy: I think we should have done it years ago when the Democrats started it. Remember what the Democrats did when Eric Holder left. This is all he focused on. They did it in Illinois, and we kind of just sat back. I remember when I first went to the State House in California, my very first bill on the very first day was to change redistricting. So you actually had competitive lines. You couldn’t do the things that the Democrats were doing. And now I think it’s really bad when you let politicians pick the voters. I like competition. I like the idea of winning fairly at the end of the day. The day I became Republican leader, Nancy Pelosi became Speaker. Four years later, we had a five-seat majority. I ended up winning five more seats in California, and I didn’t have to redraw lines. I got better candidates and came up with better ideas. This is taking over entire states and saying only one party – the California voters decided that they wanted a commission, and then Gavin Newsom, for his own political favor, went against where 61% of them voted in the Constitution. Daily Wire: Well, there was that whole period where everybody was doing this independent commission thing, and there was this whole, “Oh, we’re going to take it out of the hands of politicians and we’re going to have these lines drawn according to some kind of fake nonpartisan sort of perspective.” But now it just seems to be complete open warfare. The Virginia experience is just the worst of it. McCarthy: Well, think about this. That Governor [Abigail] Spanberger, she said when she’s in Congress, “you shouldn’t redraw,” right? Yes. She gets elected and runs as a moderate and she’s become further left than Mamdani to raise taxes, to redraw the lines, to prepick. I mean, it’s so absurd that it really shows you that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And remember what Carville has recently said. He said, “First of all, the Democrats shouldn’t tell the voters, but when they win, they should pack the Supreme Court, make Puerto Rico a state, do the redistricting, because they know the public doesn’t agree with what they’re doing.” Daily Wire: The cycle and the history is obviously against Republicans, especially in the House, which everybody has basically written off. What are the three things that you think Republicans and the House in particular should be doing differently? McCarthy: First of all, you study history. So the party in off-year elections usually doesn’t do as well. If you look at New Jersey and Virginia, how those gubernatorial races go, it kind of gives you some indication. If Democrats win both, they usually flip. If Republicans win one, we flip. But there are some things internally that upset me that Republicans should be doing differently. First, the use of discharge petitions. Now, a discharge petition is 218 people sign a discharge petition, your bill automatically comes to the floor. If you’re in the majority, that’s simply saying, “I’m going to turn the floor over to the Democrats.” They should stop allowing that to happen. They have passed more discharge petitions in three weeks than happened in 30 years. They let a discharge petition authored by a squad member just pass. Too many retirements; we’ve now set a new record. So that’s another indication. You’re not just running for higher office; you don’t like the job. They’re fighting with the Republicans in the Senate too much. So what they’re doing in this is they’re setting every indication to the public that they can’t win or they can’t govern. They should stick together. They should put an agenda together and they should stop recessing. Now, the Senate stayed in when the Democrats shut down the government, but the members of the Republicans in the House left. Think about this. The voters gave you 24 months to be in the majority, and you just took two months of that and didn’t use it. If I was in the minority and I stopped the majority from being able to govern, that’s a victory. You could be in there passing bills that are 80 / 20 every day of the week. You gave up your majority for two months when you only have 24 months of it. This is the part that upsets me. And then I watched, like the week before, they fought on things that were never going to fly in the Senate, and they took up so much time with that. I want to see things that shift in the voters’ minds that they want to have you be in the majority. So you know what? Focus on the economy, focus on crime, and you can divide the Democrats on this and really show the public who they want to be governing. Daily Wire: The complaints that you said are all complaints that I’ve heard from members, particularly leaving town. Why does that happen? Who in the architecture of power thinks that’s a good idea? McCarthy: I don’t know, because I would not have allowed that to happen. Because if you’re given this power for a short time, the public’s going to judge you on how you use it. If you’re in a sporting event, if you’re in a basketball game in the last seconds, are you going to quit? Are you going to set up and take that shot? You want to show the public that, even if the Democrats are doing derelict things, that if you’re in charge, you don’t walk away. You put them in their place, and then you go show simple bills out there, and the Democrats vote “no,” you vote “yes,” and show the public the difference. I give the Senate credit. They stayed in session. Daily Wire: The other one I hear a lot from members is frustration with the Senate, that they feel the Senate has expectations and priorities that aren’t aligned with theirs. I literally had a member last week saying, “The Senate’s going to screw us over on this particular thing again.” And my question is, why don’t Republicans in the House and Senate understand that voters in this midterm are going to vote based on you as a unit? McCarthy: It’s always the old argument. The Senate is the enemy. The other party is my adversary; they get mad at us. You’re 100% correct. The public is not going to sit back and say, “Oh, it was the Senate. Oh, it was the House.” They could say, “Republicans, you were in charge. What job did you do?” Recently, I watched as the Democrats shut down the government, and when the Senate passed the bill over to the House, the House Republicans voted no, and then a month later voted for the exact same thing by voice vote. But what they did there was take the shutdown. It’s a difficult job and a hard job to lead, but if you only take advice from the Freedom Caucus, you’re only going to end up in one or two places: in a cul-de-sac or in the minority. You’ve got to understand the rules of the House are different than the rules of the Senate, but that’s why you’ve got to work together, achieve as many conservative aims as you can, pass that, and come back for what you didn’t get the next day. But fighting with each other lets the Democrats sit back and say, “They’re the problem,” instead of highlighting and putting the Democrats in a weaker position, or having them vote against popular bills. Daily Wire: The conversation around affordability has been one that Republicans seem really frustrated by. In part, I understand their frustration because the Democrats basically aren’t actually offering any kind of agenda when it comes to affordability. They’re just giving a nod to the term. But when it comes to the Republican answer to that, they just haven’t seemed to hold on to anything in particular. What do you think is the best response to affordability concerns that isn’t just sort of what the White House has been saying, which isn’t arguing till they’re blue in the face, things are not as unaffordable as the media is making them out to be? McCarthy: You’ve got to literally show it. And what I always love is members going out directly in their district, showing it, going to the store, and showing the successes. The tough part is that, when they passed the One Big Beautiful Bill, it didn’t go into effect until later, and now you’re seeing some of the outcomes. Okay, your fuel prices are higher. Admit that, but they’re going to come down as the war ends, but show the other things of the growth that you’ve been able to do. And don’t let the Democrats just say something. This is where you put items on the floor. I love the Trump Accounts where you’re literally looking toward the future for your kids. Daily Wire: By the way, haven’t they done a crap job of talking about those? It’s weird. It’s actually awesome. I mean, the flexibility you get with it is great. McCarthy: They’re going to transform not just your family, but the country. I would be holding booths to sign kids up in your district. I would be doing it on the weekends when you’re going to the grocery store, “Parents, let me help you sign this up. Let me explain what it is.” I’d be holding brochures. I’d go to the Little League games, right? Not all of you on the team will get an athletic scholarship. It’s going to transform people’s lives. And I would go into the heart of every part of the district. I would go into the part that I did the worst in the polls, and I would be on the sidewalk handing out the card. I care about your kids. You may not have voted for me. That’s okay. I care about your kids having a better future. And you know what? People would like what they hear. Daily Wire: You still have to explain compound interest to them. McCarthy: Well, remember, Albert Einstein said there’s only one miracle in this world, the compound of interest. Daily Wire: So when it comes to the energy side of things, Republicans have obviously had success in the past, becoming the party of “we are going to drill baby drill.” We’re going to make American energy the centerpiece of everything. I don’t hear a lot from Republicans about the energy question right now because we are in the midst of this Iran conflict. What do Republicans do to get back on a good footing on energy? McCarthy: That’s 100% true. The price has gone up because of what happened; you have to take it head-on. You can’t avoid it. Talk about it. Talk about where it was before Iran, and we’re watching what’s happening hopefully today. The president’s getting an agreement there. The price dropped 10% just on the barrel today — show people how it’s going to get better, but also the strength of where America is in the energy sector of what we’ve been able to accomplish already. Because I will tell you in California, even when the price of a barrel of oil was low, it was really expensive because the Democrats were just adding taxes to it. And I think proposing an ability when the price is up, having a holiday on the tax, offering ideas and solutions to make it better for people. Daily Wire: The Iran War question, you said that they have to talk about it and they have to lean into it. I’ve seen members who clearly don’t want to talk about it. What would your message be to the conference right now about the fact that you cannot divorce yourself from this? This is actually a central question to the election, and you’ve got to embrace it with both arms, and understand I’ve got to talk about this because otherwise my opponent is going to completely wreck me on this stuff. McCarthy: The one thing I’ve learned from everyone is that people respect you if you’re honest, authentic, and straightforward. They could disagree with you, but they understand your handling of the situation: that this is temporary, that this is for the better of the future of where America is going to be. And what you’re able to show is, talk about Venezuela too, talk about very quick successes. And that has a lot to do with energy. That transforms and resets geopolitics because China relied so much on it. And because of our policies, we are stronger in this from that point. Daily Wire: The Democrats have an extremism problem. They like to depict Republicans as having an extremism problem. Most of the extremism problem among Republicans or perhaps even adjacent people is podcasters as opposed to candidates. When it comes to the Democrats though, they’ve got this situation in Maine, this El Sayed guy, they’ve got Mamdani obviously, and they’ve got a lot of crazy people who are running in various places across the country who might end up just accidentally winning. What do Republicans do now to make that extremism and radicalism an issue before those people actually end up in office and suddenly people wake up to the fact, “Oh wait, did we just elect a guy who’s really crazy on a bunch of things?” McCarthy: Yeah, and you look at Virginia, you could have a Spanberger who runs as a moderate and then governs as one of the most extreme leftists. So I think you show that as an example. What I’m really worried about in this campaign are Republicans who have won in districts that Trump carried from six to 12 points because they really didn’t have to do much and somebody else was electing them. If they sit back and think, “Oh, someone’s running against me, but no one knows who that is,” they’re going to have a wake-up call this election because it’s just like a tide. Sometimes the waves are with you, and sometimes the waves are against you. This is where you have to lean in. You have to have the ability to communicate with your district. You have to have an agenda where you show your record and what you’ll do if the public trusts you with another two years. So don’t lean back and wait for election time. You should be walking door to door now, listening, and then finding solutions. Daily Wire: I’m going to ask you about Senate races because you pay attention to those, too. How do you feel about Maine? How do you feel about Michigan? And how do you feel about Texas? McCarthy: I’m concerned about Texas because that shouldn’t be competitive. Otherwise, Republicans are going to spend a lot of money on a safe seat, which will make us weaker everywhere else. We want to be on the offense, right? We want the Democrats to be spending a lot of money in Georgia. We want them to be spending a great deal of money in any Democrat seat that we want to be on offense. But if we’re spending money in places that should be safe, we have less to go around. Now, thankfully due to President Trump, we have a money advantage here for the House and the Senate. Maine, look at the Democrats. This is the problem that Schumer’s going to have. Schumer picks the sitting governor. She has to back out because the progressives have taken over. So if the Democrats are going to get behind an individual that has a Nazi symbol tattooed on their chest and they think that’s okay, I don’t understand. I don’t want to see Republicans fighting among themselves. Do they want the majority? Susan Collins is with us the majority of the time, and she comes from a state that is going to have some independence, rightfully so at times. But if we’re spending a lot of money in Alaska, in Texas, in Iowa, we have an open seat there. Let’s not forget, Obama won Iowa both times. It could be very competitive. When I came in as leader, we only had one congressional seat there, Republican. We now have all four. That hasn’t happened since the 1950s. It’s going to be competitive. I’d like to see us more on offense in North Carolina. In Ohio, we have an appointed senator, and they took their old candidate and spent lots of money. It’s going to make it competitive there. We want to be able to win Michigan. I think we got a good candidate in Michigan. They’re internally fighting. I see Stevens, the appointed Schumer person, get booed at the Democratic Convention, only because they’ve gone so far left. So let’s not let that sit just with the Democrats. Bring that out to the public because those Democrats sitting in the convention are probably not the same as the mass Democrats throughout that state. They’re going to realize, “This party has left me.” Daily Wire: The Fox News and Daily Wire audience sees the radicalism of all of these various people. But the dominant legacy media, which is still dominant to a certain extent, can whitewash all the way until November. And we just saw this play out with Mamdani, for example. Condé Nast and New York Magazine were running pieces, “We’re not sure about this Mamdani guy,” the skepticism, that kind of thing. As soon as it became clear he would be the nominee, they started doing profiles of him. “Oh, he’s going to the U.S. Open today. Look at him smiling with all these people and doing Instagram shots and stuff like that. Isn’t he fun? Bon Appétit did a thing about Mamdani talking about his favorite hand food in New York. The point is they still have a lot of power. How can we get this Republican party currently to understand that they’ve got a much higher hill to climb than I feel like a lot of the people who are the satisfied voters who came out for Trump, who are tuning into Fox and places like that and that feel like, “Oh yeah, these guys are all radicals, the voters will reject them” and feel that without an honest understanding of what average voters are seeing. McCarthy: That’s some of my greatest fears. That’s people waiting till the end when the campaign comes. You’ve got to start explaining that now. And you ought to use the majority to put the bills on the floor that show who voted against it and how it’s just common sense and how far they’ve gone. I mean, listen to Barney Frank. Look, he’s close to the end of his life and he’s one who believes the Democrats have gone too far Left. And remember what a progressive he was in his own Democratic Party. Now, regardless of what you think of Barney, he was very smart. I remember I served on Financial Services with him. I could disagree with him, but that man was smart. But then you have Obama out there praising Mamdani… Daily Wire: So here’s a question about that. Do you think he’s scared of his base? McCarthy: Yes. Daily Wire: He doesn’t have to do that. So it seems to me that he does that because, on some level, he is scared of what he sees happening within his own former coalition. McCarthy: Exactly. He wants to hang out with the mayor to try to get a positive reaction from him. That’s very sad. I think he just doesn’t want people looking at what his library looks like. Daily Wire: When you survey the Republican scene here, you’ve got the dollar advantage, you still have the majority, you still have these thin margins. What should their priorities be for the next couple of months to start doing what you’re talking about on setting up the messaging that they’re going to have to run on in the fall if they’re going to have any hope of preventing — the kind of tidal wave that will take years to crawl out of as opposed to a backlash that you could recover from fairly quickly? McCarthy: Now, even if the Democrats have a great advantage, like in the election, I don’t think they’ll win that big of a seat margin because they’re still disliked. They have no agenda and redistricting has made fewer competitive races. So it won’t be like 2010, where we beat 63 Democrats. But the first thing you have to do is meet with yourselves and say, no more internal fighting. No longer do we turn the floor over to the Democrats. No longer do we question whether our rules come up and we’re only going to put bills on the floor that are 80 / 20 and is positive for our agenda moving forward and we’re going to stop taking breaks. We’re going to make a pledge to the American public that you trusted us with this, and we’re going to deliver for you. And if you keep trusting us, we’ll even deliver more. Daily Wire: Last question: Does Spencer Pratt have any hope in Los Angeles? McCarthy: I would tell you this: the demographics, I thought no, but he has tapped into something, and not as a Republican. His messaging … okay, I was calling a friend who was a big Democrat, and the person at his house was Spencer Pratt, and he had three or four other Democrats over, and they had just been to an event for Spencer Pratt. They are so frustrated with homelessness that they can’t rebuild their houses, so they’re willing to try something new. And Spencer Pratt, he was just going to go and do what he can, but he’s tapping into something that’s pretty exciting.

Feds swarmed MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, executing a massive drug bust and taking an alleged narco queen into custody. Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, announced Operation Free MacArthur Park in a post shared via X, explaining that agents were targeting what amounted to an “open-air drug marketplace.” Operation Free MacArthur Park Federal agents have taken control of MacArthur Park to execute federal arrest and search warrants targeting the notorious open-air drug market there. We are going after street dealers and suppliers of massive amounts of fentanyl and… pic.twitter.com/sozcSCGo5u — F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) May 6, 2026 “We are going after street dealers and suppliers of massive amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine. Over the last 24 hours, federal and local law enforcement have started arresting 25 defendants charged in a federal criminal complaint with possessing and distributing dangerous narcotics, including fentanyl and methamphetamine,” Essayli added. “The park’s #1 drug trafficker, a Calabasas resident, is in federal custody and faces possible life imprisonment. The other defendants arrested today also face decades in federal prison.” The New York Post gave additional details on the bust, reporting that Drug Enforcement Agency officers had also conducted a raid on the home shared by Mallaly Moreno-Lopez, a known “narco queen,” and her boyfriend Jackson Tarfur. After surrounding the suspected stash house, they called the occupants to come outside. When no one did so, officers crashed through the door  — and DEA officers reported finding occupants attempting to flush narcotics down the toilet at the time of the raid. Both Moreno-Lopezand Darfur were taken into custody. Video taken at the scene showed just how massive the operation was. BREAKING: Major drug bust taking place right now across from LA’s MacArthur Park. pic.twitter.com/tsCNh9UxmK — Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) May 6, 2026 Dr. Mehmet Oz, serving in President Donald Trump’s administration as the 17th administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, commented on the amount of fentanyl that was seized: “MacArthur Park has become a cemetery. The thought that 190,000 doses of Fentanyl was seized should scare you. Fentanyl is used in the operating room, before you know it you can’t breathe but fortunately we’re there with a tube.” Dr. OZ: MaCarthur Park has become a cemetery. The thought that 190,000 doses of Fentanyl was seized should scare you. Fentanyl is used in the operating room, before you know it you can’t breathe but fortunately we’re there with a tube …. @DrOz pic.twitter.com/OMIb9CjSae — Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) May 6, 2026 Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche praised the joint operation, including both DEA officers and members of the Los Angeles Police Department, saying that they’d succeeded in wresting control of MacArthur Park from the drug dealers. “To the drug dealers poisoning the streets of Los Angeles: your safe haven is gone,” he said. Agents from @DEAHQ and officers from the @LAPDHQ have taken back MacArthur Park. To the drug dealers poisoning the streets of Los Angeles: your safe haven is gone. pic.twitter.com/dNaVDitSTM — Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) May 6, 2026

A suicide note possibly written by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unsealed by a federal judge on Wednesday. The handwritten note, which is unsigned, undated, and unverified, was found by Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. It had been sealed as part of Tartaglione’s case. The former police officer faces charges related to multiple murders. Parts of the message are indecipherable. “They investigated me for month – found NOTHING!!!” the note reads in part. “It is a treat to be able to choose ones time to say goodbye.” “Watcha want me to do – bust out cryin!!” “NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!” A federal judge has released a suicide note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein that was sealed for years as part of the criminal case of his cellmate “They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!!” the note begins, adding that the result was charges going back many… pic.twitter.com/rNOOzErXDw — Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) May 6, 2026 U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas of the Southern District of New York ordered the document unsealed, siding with a request from The New York Times. The Department of Justice said in court filings that it did not know whether the note is authentic. “There appears to be a strong public interest in the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death as described in the unsealing motion,” the DOJ said, according to CNN. The unsealing comes after the release of batches of the “Epstein files” connected to Epstein’s sex trafficking case. Large batches of records have been released in stages over the past year due to legal and congressional pressure, but many remain redacted and disputed. The rollout has been controversial, and no verified “client list” has been revealed. The disclosures have drawn attention to Epstein’s past associations with prominent figures. President Donald Trump, who was photographed with Epstein years before his arrest, has said the two had a falling out and that Epstein was later barred from Mar-a-Lago.

GENEVA/MADRID, May 6 (Reuters) – A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and marooned since Sunday off the coast of Cape Verde left for Spain on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, after three people, two of them seriously ill, were evacuated. The MV Hondius, with nearly 150 people on board, is expected to dock in Spain’s Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, within three days, Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia said, adding that those still on board were not presenting any symptoms of the disease. Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, Garcia told a press conference in Madrid. The 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid, she said. The duration of the quarantine will depend on when they potentially had contact with the virus, she said, adding that it has a 45-day incubation period. Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died in the outbreak. A total of eight people – including a Swiss citizen who has returned home and is being treated in Zurich – are suspected to have contracted the virus, with three of them confirmed by laboratory testing, the World Health Organization said. Argentina’s health ministry will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of the cruise ship hit by the outbreak, it said in a statement. Officials are reconstructing the itinerary of the Dutch citizens who traveled in Argentina and Chile and later developed hantavirus symptoms on the cruise, the statement said. No associated cases have been found in Argentina. EVACUATIONS South Africa confirmed it had identified among the victims the Andean strain of the virus, which can, in rare cases, spread among humans through very close contact. Argentina’s health ministry said it would send Andes virus RNA and guidelines for diagnosis and treatment to laboratories in Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. “This is the only (hantavirus) strain that is known to cause human-to-human transmission, but such transmission is very rare and … only happens due to very close contact,” South Africa’s health ministry said. Nevertheless, some Tenerife residents said they were worried about the ship docking there. “People are scared,” said Margarita Maria, 62, adding that the boat should go elsewhere in Spain. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that the three people evacuated from the ship on Wednesday were on their way to the Netherlands. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said these people included a Dutch person, a German, and a Briton, and that they would be transported to specialized hospitals in Europe. One of the aircraft transporting two patients from Cape Verde to Amsterdam was scheduled to refuel in Morocco, but Morocco refused to allow the aircraft to land, and the plane was refueled at the airport in Gran Canaria, Spain’s health ministry said. While in Gran Canaria, the on-board doctor reported a problem with the patient’s life support system, and the patient is now connected to the airport’s electrical supply, awaiting the arrival of a new aircraft to continue the journey, the ministry said. Two of those evacuated presented acute symptoms, the ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said. The third person was closely linked to the German passenger who died on the ship on May 2. The Dutch ministry said that person was possibly infected with the virus. The ship set off from the southern tip of Argentina on April 1 and traveled to some of the most remote places on earth, including the British island of Saint Helena. The Dutch government said in a letter to parliament that around 40 people disembarked at Saint Helena, including the Swiss national who has since developed symptoms. Cape Verde had been intended as the ship’s final destination, but the archipelago nation off West Africa has not allowed the passengers to come ashore because of the outbreak. ‘VERY, VERY DIFFERENT TO COVID’ Since the start of the outbreak, the WHO has said the risk to the wider public from a virus usually transmitted by rodents is low, and it stressed on Wednesday that this remained the case. “So when we say close contact (for human-to-human transmission), we mean very close physical contact, whether it’s sharing a bunk room or sharing a cabin, providing medical care, for example, (that is) very, very different to COVID and very different to influenza,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management, told Reuters. Van Kerkhove said the WHO was working with countries to follow up with passengers who left the boat at Saint Helena in the south Atlantic, before it reached Cape Verde. South Africa has identified 65 people who have been in contact with confirmed or suspected hantavirus cases, and other countries have identified 12, the WHO’s South Africa representative, Shenaaz El-Halabi, told Reuters. ‘OUR DAYS HAVE BEEN CLOSE TO NORMAL’ Passenger Kasem Hato told Reuters the ship’s captain was keeping passengers updated and that those on board had been advised to limit close contact with other passengers and use hand sanitizer regularly. “People are taking the situation seriously but without any panic, trying to keep social distancing and wearing masks to be safe,” he said. “Our days have been close to normal, just waiting for authorities to find a solution, but morale on the ship is high and we’re keeping ourselves busy with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks, and that kind of things.” (Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov, Nellie Peyton, Tim Cocks in Johannesburg, Emma Pinedo and David Latona in Madrid, Bart Meijer and Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Madeline Chambers in Berlin, Makini Brice in Paris, Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, Catherine Cartier, Jennifer Rigby in London, Javi West Larranaga in Gdansk, Leila Miller in Buenos Aires; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Clement Bonnerot; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Robbie Corey-Boulet, Gareth Jones, Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel)

An illegal immigrant who was allowed into the country by the Biden administration went on to land a job at a Wisconsin nursing home, where he allegedly sexually assaulted elderly residents, including one who has severe dementia, The Daily Wire has learned. The Fitchburg Police Department said last month that it received a report that an employee of Dimensions Living “may have assaulted vulnerable residents.” Following an investigation, authorities charged 23-year-old Julio Morales-Jarquin, of Nicaragua, with two counts of second-degree sexual assault of an elderly victim on April 29. In one instance, a worker at the facility said they found Morales-Jarquin one night with a dementia patient who was completely naked, according to WMTV. The report said the patient is also in hospice care. A staffer reported encountering the illegal immigrant exiting the bathroom with his pants down, and Morales-Jarquin seemed to be “caught off guard,” according to WMTV. When the colleague asked what he was doing, he claimed that he was helping the patient get dressed. Morales-Jarquin admitted that he touched the patient inappropriately and that he engaged in sex acts with her around February or March, according to the report. He also allegedly took pictures and videos of another patient’s intimate area, and later deleted those images from his phone. A patient who was over 60 years old told a detective that she had sex with Morales-Jarquin, and that she didn’t really give consent but gave in after he kept asking, WMTV reported. Morales-Jarquin later claimed that the patient consented to his actions. Another resident said that Morales-Jarquin had tried kissing and touching her inappropriately before she told him to stop and leave, according to WMTV. Since Morales-Jarquin’s arrest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer requesting that he be transferred into federal custody. The Department of Homeland Security has criticized Dane County policies in the past regarding cooperation with federal immigration authorities, arguing that such policies can complicate efforts to take custody of inmates who are illegal immigrants. In some cases, the county gives ICE officers just 30 minutes’ notice before releasing an illegal immigrant inmate, according to DHS. In a previous email to ICE, Dane County stated that “if you want the subject held, you must provide a court document signed by a judge,” adding that if federal authorities didn’t show up within 30 minutes of a phone call, “the subject will be released without delay.” (DHS) The Biden administration released Morales-Jarquin into the country in 2023 through its signature humanitarian parole program. The Trump administration ended the parole scheme in April 2025. The program allowed more than 500,000 “poorly vetted aliens” from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to fly into the country and stay and work for a two-year period, according to DHS. In Morales-Jarquin’s case, he overstayed his welcome. “This dirtbag was released into the country by the Biden Administration,” Acting Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire. “DHS is calling on sanctuary politicians in Dane County, Wisconsin to NOT release this criminal from jail back onto the streets to commit more crimes.” “We need Wisconsin sanctuary politicians to cooperate with us to remove criminals from our country,” Bis added.