The good news: Bible reading is up across every demographic in America in 2025. The bad news: certain politicians and activists are using those hallowed words as partisan narrative building to launder radical ideology into the language of faith. They aren’t coming to the Word. They’re mining it. James Talarico is the most prominent current offender. The Democrat nominee for Texas Senate — think “pick me” Pastor Pete — has made a habit of weaponizing the Lord’s Divine Writ to sanctify progressive politics. On Joe Rogan’s podcast, he even used the Annunciation to justify abortion. “I say all of this in the context of abortion. Before God comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary’s consent … Go back and read this in Luke.” Okay — I did. In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus … The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Mary responds: “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Mary’s humble, faithful acceptance of a unique divine calling — the Incarnation of God Himself — is not a theological permission slip for abortion on demand. The exegetical gymnastics required to arrive at this conclusion are impressive, to say the least. But Talarico isn’t doing theology. He’s doing politics. And Talarico is not unique in his weaponization of scripture. Progressives have swarmed any comment section touching immigration, social policy, or religious liberty, and you’ll find the same three or four Bible verses deployed like rhetorical grenades (they think they’re so creative). “What happened to love thy neighbor?” “Jesus was an immigrant.” “There isn’t a single Christian who’s actually read the whole Bible.” The angry agnostics thought they had us there! Their words are meant to sting. They’re also increasingly incorrect. I am on day 198 of the Bible in a Year with Father Mike Schmitz. Every morning, I sit with passages and prophets most material heretics never touch — astonished at the sheer magnitude of wisdom and meaning within those pages. And I can tell you: what’s being weaponized in op-eds and cable hits is a fraction of a fraction of what’s actually there. Today, it was Isaiah that stopped me cold. Isaiah’s taunt against the king of kings of Babylon — and by extension Lucifer himself — reads: “How the oppressor has ceased! How his insolence has ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, that struck down the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution … Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come … ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the sound of your harps; maggots are the bed beneath you, and worms are your covering. How you have fallen from heaven!” It is visceral, sweeping, and devastating. It is the story of what happens when a being given every gift and capability turns those gifts towards pride and domination; when free will is used for evil. There is a reason we don’t hear that passage quoted by the activists cherry-picking Scripture for social media. It doesn’t fit the narrative. It never does. What I’ve found, page by page, is that the Bible is far stranger, far harder, and far more demanding than the domesticated version, either Nationalist or Progressive, being peddled by its political appropriators. It doesn’t bend easily to any agenda — it’s harsh. It can also drastically improve your life if you let it. But it resists those who approach it not as the living Word of God, but as a rhetorical arsenal. Reading it completely — and understanding it — is its own form of resistance. It’s how you know when you’re being lied to. It’s how you develop the intellectual grounding to defend the faith, not just feel it. And in an era when leaders and loudmouths are increasingly mocking Christianity, that groundedness isn’t optional; to me, it’s essential. For myself, reading the Bible has been transformative. Father Mike doesn’t just read the text – he explains the scripture, makes it digestible, and allows me to apply these teachings to my life in a way that has made each day lighter. It’s changed how I think, how I argue, how I deal with shortcomings, and frankly, how I respond when someone online tells me I’ve never opened a Bible. I have. I’d recommend you do the same.

Unlike regular Delta customers, members of Congress get to bypass security lines — until now. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Delta is suspending its “red coat” high-level concierge services and “courtesy escorts” amid the partial government shutdown. Those services allow members of Congress to bypass general TSA lines, among other perks. “Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta,” the airline said in a statement. “Next to safety, Delta’s No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment.” The partial government shutdown has led to lengthy airport security wait times and delayed paychecks for federal TSA agents. As a result, employee callouts have increased, and more than 400 workers have quit since the shutdown began. Business Insider reports that the majority of TSA agents earn salaries from $40,000 to $75,000 and many live paycheck-to-paycheck. Several GoFundMe accounts have been started by communities, as well as individual TSA employees, to help make ends meet during the funding crisis. Elon Musk even stepped in to offer to pay TSA agents’ salaries during the shutdown. When the Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the news, the author claimed, “Delta is suspending its special congressional desk service for members of Congress until the shutdown is over.” Delta was praised for the decision, but several hours later, the author offered a correction. “Elite services for Members of Congress that have been temporarily suspended include specialty services such as airport escorts and red coat service. The Capital Desk, a reservations line, remains open.” Delta did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire. Members of Congress have also taken steps to hold themselves accountable for shutting down the government. On Monday, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) called out Senate Democrats for blocking his resolution to halt lawmakers’ pay until an agreement on funding was reached. “I tried to bring the bill yesterday on the floor, but got objected to by the Democrats,” he said. During the record 43-day government shutdown last fall, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) called for Congress to pass the No Budget, No Pay Act. He calls funding the government one of the most basic jobs of Congress. “The American people elected us to come together, look at what we’re collecting in revenues, and put together and pass 12 appropriations bills that use those dollars effectively,” he said. “The last time Congress passed all 12 appropriations bills on time was nearly three decades ago. Congress has failed, time and time again, to do one of its basic duties.” The legislation did not pass the Senate.

On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in a small run-down courtroom in Adams County, Ohio, sat a man in an American flag suit, American flag sunglasses, a marijuana-shaped ring, and a legendary rap catalog. It was Afroman’s defamation trial and he was determined to win. Afroman, real name Joseph Foreman, went from drinking Colt 45s and living his life to fighting what he calls “crooked cops” after he was sued by seven Adams County Sheriff’s deputies for defamation and humiliation. The deputies claimed Afroman defamed them and used their likeness for profit after the rapper dropped numerous viral songs about cops who raided his home. The judge found the rapper not liable for defamation or invasion of privacy regarding his music videos and Afroman is still celebrating what he calls a “win for free speech.” Afroman told me that responding to the cops with rap videos was the most American thing he could do. “There’s one power I have, and I’m not giving it up,” Afroman told The Daily Wire, wearing the same American flag suit he wore in court. “I have the freedom of speech. So after they kick down my door, disconnect my cameras, steal my money … with my freedom of speech, I will address all of these issues.” “I’m a classic American. I’m a soul brother. I walk with a stroll. I play soul music. You know, all of that is America,” Afroman said. “The fist that everybody throws up. That’s American. You know, rap music — It’s American, man.” “Lemon Pound Cake” and “Will You Help Me Repair My Door” are two of the botched-raid inspired songs racking in millions of views on YouTube. The lyrics are catchy with verses detailing what Afroman saw on the footage of the raid from his surveillance cameras. The pre-chorus of “Lemon Pound Cake” details an officer caught on camera checking out the cake on Afroman’s counter. Afroman said writing the songs was no different than writing his classic track. “I’ve been writing about my pain for years, you know, ‘Because I Got High’ wasn’t funny until I put it on paper. It kind of made it funny, you know what I’m saying?” “Because I Got High” is Afroman’s most popular song and was even nominated for a Grammy in 2002, and now his lemon pound cake track is entertaining the internet. Afroman said the words to the viral soundtracks came easy to him once he sat down to write in the same kitchen that was raided. “I like my kitchen. I never thought I’d like my kitchen because I used to hate washing dishes as a boy. So the kitchen was like my favorite and my worst. I loved it when it was time to eat, but I hated when it was time to clean up. You know?” Afroman said. “But I wrote it right here on my kitchen table.” Don’t let Afroman’s outdated profile on X fool you, right now it reads “2024 Presidential Candidate,” but he has fans asking about his intentions for 2028. “If America needs me to be the president, I’ll be the president. If America needs me to be the vice president, I’ll be the vice president. If America just needs me to be a good citizen, I’ll be a good citizen,” Afroman said. Afroman is from California but says he plans to stay in Ohio, despite the cop saga. How did Afroman end up in Ohio? He says it was all because of a woman. “I try to be smart, but I have my, you know, side effects,” Afroman said.  “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” Under oath or from his kitchen on a podcast, Afroman doesn’t lie. His lyrics tell it like it is, and his lifestyle is unapologetic. His freedom of speech court win catapulted the singer back where he belongs — in the spotlight. Since the trial wrapped, Afroman has nearly 28 million views on his videos related to the 2022 raid, and the rapper turned chess player, turned courtroom sensation, is grateful for every one of them. “Don’t forget about your boy, Afro. I’m putting a record out here in a little bit, but I just like the good vibes it’s giving everybody right now.”

There are only so many ways Democrats can spell out, in the most explicit possible terms, what they plan to do if and when they retake control of the federal government. They’ve spent the last year celebrating the murder of conservatives, raising hell over the most basic voter-ID laws imaginable, and most recently, sabotaging the nation’s airports in order to prevent ICE from doing its job — a plan that may very well work, given that Republicans seem interested in caving at the moment, once again. In short, Democrats are preparing a government that would treat Americans as foreigners in their own country. But just in case their plan somehow wasn’t obvious, here’s Senator Chris Murphy, the Democrat from Connecticut, to spell it out.  Listen carefully to his answer here: Senator Chris Murphy: “The people we care about most, the undocumented migrants” He actually said that pic.twitter.com/FsEPmWs81U — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 24, 2026 Source: MS NOW/EndWokeness/X.com It’s the “undocumented Americans” that Democrats “care about most,” according to Chris Murphy. Yes, “undocumented Americans.” Simply by virtue of entering this country — illegally, in almost every case — these people become Americans, according to one of the leaders of the Democrat Party. And more than that — they become the most important Americans of all. Democrats will prioritize their interests over the interests of you and your family. And they won’t even pretend otherwise. That interview aired in the final months of Joe Biden’s presidency. It’s only recently surfaced on social media, and for good reason. Democrats are now clearly preparing to wage an all-out war on Americans if they retake Congress and the White House. They’re planning a campaign of retribution against conservatives that will make the Biden years look tame by comparison. This isn’t a guess. They’re saying it openly, in a variety of different contexts. In some cases, they’re rewriting history to justify the purge that they’re planning. Now, it probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone to hear that I believe it’s very important to study history — not the propaganda you’re taught in public schools, but actual history. We talk about various historical topics on the show all the time. I also have another monthly show, “Real History,” on Daily Wire. And there are a few reasons for this. First of all, it’s interesting, as a factual matter. Secondly, as the famous quote goes, “those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.” On top of that, if you’re familiar with American history, then it’s easier to spot political propaganda, particularly from the Left — which has committed itself to rewriting the past. It’s also easier to see through this propaganda and determine what the Left is really after. So here’s a very transparent example of what this means, in practice. Late last week, The New Republic — which is one of those outlets on the Left that claims to be highly intellectual, like the Atlantic — outlined an elaborate plan to harass and imprison Donald Trump and his advisers, once Trump leaves office. This is the Left’s new-and-improved game plan for a new wave of lawfare against Donald Trump. Instead of talking about ways to improve the lives of American citizens, they’re still fixated on retribution. The article is entitled, “There Will Be No Post-Presidential Peace for Donald Trump.” For the most part, the article feels like it could’ve been written ten years ago, except for the fact that it drops the whole Russian collusion hoax, which is too embarrassing for Democrats to talk about anymore. (That’s why no one on the left mourned Robert Mueller, by the way; he was their hero when they thought he was useful to them, but when he failed to take down Trump, they completely forgot he existed). But the author of the New Republic article does mention the infamous “Emoluments Clause,” which used to be all the rage on the Left, as you may remember. He also drones on about “international law” as if it’s a real thing. He suggests that government attorneys should be disbarred if they worked for the Trump administration. And there’s even the suggestion that ICE officers should be punished in a future administration, for the crime of doing their jobs. But the best paragraph of all, for my money, is this one. Again, this was published in The New Republic, which is allegedly an award-winning magazine on the Left. A rundown of the Trump administration’s scandals and crimes resembles, with shocking likeness, the grave, sweeping charges laid out in the Declaration of Independence against the last American king. “He has excited domestic insurrections against us,” the Founding Fathers wrote about George III in 1776. Is there any better way of describing Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021? He supported a violent mob aiming to overthrow the government; he maintains a similar disrespect for the institutions of American democracy to this day. If you have no familiarity with American history, then this paragraph might make some degree of sense. After all, the Declaration of Independence condemned the British King for causing “domestic insurrections.” And according to The New Republic, Donald Trump basically committed an insurrection as well because he delivered a speech. Therefore, we can conclude that the Founders themselves would have endorsed a campaign of violent payback against the Trump administration. The main problem with this argument becomes very clear when you take a look at what the Founders were talking about when they referred to “domestic insurrections.” Contrary to what modern Leftists believe, the Founders were not attacking King George for delivering a speech to his followers, in which he urged his followers to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Instead, the Founders were attacking King George — and other British officials — for encouraging slave revolts in the colonies. In particular, the colonists were furious over Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation in 1775, which was issued by the British officer as the colonists were becoming increasingly frustrated with British rule. Lord Dunmore declared martial law and promised freedom to every slave (or indentured servant) who ran away from his owner and joined the British Army. By some estimates, thousands of slaves took Dunmore up on that offer. It was, in the literal sense, a domestic insurrection. It was nothing like what Donald Trump did on January 6. So take a moment to appreciate the irony here. In order to construct an extremely convoluted plan to “get Donald Trump,” the so-called “thought leaders” on the Left are now taking the side of the American colonists who were upset that the British government was encouraging slaves to run away and become free. Put another way, in order to “defeat the MAGA movement” once and for all, they’re saying that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 are the moral and legal equivalent of telling black slaves that they should run away and become free. But they don’t actually realize they’re saying any of this, because they don’t understand American history. They certainly don’t care about what the Founders said or what they believed. Their only objective, as always, is to destroy their political opponents. And they will lie about anything in order to achieve that objective. If you spend any amount of time studying history, it becomes very obvious that they do this all the time. And if your children are in public schools, the same thing is happening there. What we’re witnessing here is the launch of what Democrats are calling “Project 2029,” after the infamous Project 2025 that became an instant obsession on the Left.  But there’s a big difference between Project 2025 and Project 2029. The former was a policy document from a conservative think tank, which discussed plans to roll back taxes, promote the nuclear family, and eliminate propaganda from public schools. Democrats pretended that Project 2025 was our nefarious plan to do horrible things to them, but it was actually a pretty standard document. By contrast, Project 2029 is explicitly a plan to imprison and bankrupt Donald Trump and everyone who works for him (or supports him). So once again, Democrats were projecting, in other words. They’re doing exactly what they claimed that the Right was doing. Here’s the governor of Illinois, who’s now on Ozempic, apparently, to explain: Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks about a Democratic “Project 2029” in which members of the current Trump administration, along with federal agents, will be criminally and civilly prosecuted. “Whatever it is that we can do. It may be that you cannot criminally… pic.twitter.com/0bj1dVyUyf — AF Post (@AFpost) March 19, 2026 Source: @AFpost/X.com The New York Times woman with the tie is eager to hear that federal agents will be “criminally prosecuted” — for what, exactly? They don’t say. When the Russiagate hoax was in full swing, they at least had some kind of fake criminal charges in mind — like “obstruction of justice” or something like that. But now they don’t even have that.  Think about how extraordinary that is. These people spent several years talking about prosecuting Donald Trump during his first term. Then Trump left office, and they followed through on their threats. They began several prosecutions against the former president in state and federal court. They didn’t spend any amount of time thinking about what voters actually wanted, or how Donald Trump resonated with so many people. Instead, they spent all of their creative energy bringing charges that made absolutely no sense — to the point that, when Donald Trump was convicted in New York, no sane person in the country even pretended to care. No matter how many times Kamala Harris read the script about Donald Trump being a “convicted felon,” it didn’t matter. And now, after all of that — after losing the presidency in large part because of their lawfare — they’re not simply doubling down. They’re openly admitting that, in their next campaign of retribution, they aren’t even going to use a pretext. They’re just going to throw people in prison — or worse. About a year ago, I did a monologue on the rise of assassination culture in this country. We talked about how Democrats were trying to murder Elon Musk, how they celebrated the murder of a healthcare insurance CEO and glorified his killer, and how they threw money at a black teenager who was accused of murdering a white high school student at a track meet. Charlie Kirk also talked about assassination culture on his show, back in April of 2025. In particular, Charlie cited a report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, or NCRI. They’re a nonprofit based in New Jersey that focuses on analyzing threats on social media. And their report showed that, on the Left, a growing number of people weren’t simply celebrating political violence. They were openly calling for it. That’s why, according to U.S. Capitol Police data, threat investigations have more than doubled since 2017, from 4,000 per year to more than 9,400. (Of course, you don’t really need a report for this — we all know it’s true.) Now, one year later, NCRI has updated its report. They ran a survey where they asked about 2,000 people to first provide their political ideology, and then to state whether they saw a justification for violence against certain political figures. NCRI then filtered out about 1,000 of those respondents because they finished the survey too quickly or failed various attention checks. (Which should tell you something about how unreliable polls tend to be.) Here’s what they’ve found:  Justification for the murder of Donald Trump has increased from NCRI’s original study in April 2025, from 56% to 67% among Left-of-Center respondents. … This tolerance for violence appears to have grown on the right as well, with 54% of Right-of-Center respondents expressing justification for murdering New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. … Support for political murder is associated with pessimistic assessments of America’s trajectory. … Support for political murder is about 15% higher among females than among males. … Overall, nearly two-thirds of all respondents (66%) endorsed some level of justification for murdering either or both Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump. … The broader pattern points to belief in American decline amplified by social media especially among youth as a central driver of this change. Here’s the data on the people who want Trump dead, to give you an idea. Source: Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) According to the chart, 67% of “left-of-center” respondents gave “some or more justification for murdering Donald Trump.” 58% of “centrists” did the same. And incredibly enough, 42% of “right-of-center” respondents gave a justification for killing Trump. The survey also found a strong correlation between justifying Trump’s murder and Mamdani’s murder, indicating a broader trend towards political violence in this country — one that’s noticeably stronger on the Left, particularly among women who spend a lot of time on social media, and who perceive that America is on the decline. It’s mostly what you’d expect — except perhaps for the fact that women are actually more likely than men to call for political violence. This is a finding that, if true, would obviously represent a major victory for the feminist movement. For generations, they’ve sought to erase every feminine instinct and to replace those instincts with a crude knock-off of masculinity. And that appears to be what’s happening. Women are now posting on social media and giving interviews in which they beat their chests about how bloodthirsty they are. It’s almost as if feminism has made women much less happy and much less pleasant than they’ve ever been at any other point in American history. Watch: POLITICAL VIOLENCE: This is where the Democrats and their willing accomplices in the drive-by media have led their constituents. The bloodlust is palpable. https://t.co/uAepEC5yzx — @amuse (@amuse) September 29, 2025 Source: @amuse/X.com While several of the women in that clip obviously skew older, this trend isn’t limited to the elderly. It’s not simply a phenomenon in which old people are mouthing off. YouGov ran a similar survey, just two days after Charlie Kirk’s murder. They asked, “Is it ever justified for citizens to resort to violence in order to achieve political goals?” Here’s what they found: Source: YouGov/The Economist Nearly one-third of self-described liberals, ages 18 to 39, answered yes. That’s the highest of all the demographics they surveyed. And again, you don’t really need a survey to establish this. You can just browse TikTok and look at videos like this one, with millions of views: Unhinged tiktoker says he’s declaring war on Republicans and Republicans deserve to be shot and die pic.twitter.com/0UNvSRHQHZ — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 21, 2025 Source: @libsoftiktok/X.com In one significant way, it’s reminiscent of the effort to ban Alex Jones from every social media platform, including YouTube, Apple, Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter. Back then, we were told that Alex Jones was an exception to the rule — and that Democrats wouldn’t try to ban everyone else they disagreed with. NPR reported that “the ideas that Jones shares are particularly noxious.” Guess what? Within three years, they all banned the president of the United States, as well as thousands of his followers. Political violence works the same way. Once Democrats believe they’re justified in killing one person for political reasons, the floodgates open. They’re not going to stop with Brian Thompson or Charlie Kirk or Donald Trump. With each assassination (or assassination attempt), they grow more and more committed. They will expand their efforts to murder their opponents until they have no opponents left or until someone stops them. There will be no “return to normalcy.” They want you dead. Justifiably, we spend a lot of time on this show criticizing Republicans — particularly Republicans who aren’t advancing basic legislation like the SAVE Act, which needs to pass if we want to have fair elections in this country. It’s not an overstatement to say that many Republicans would rather do absolutely nothing and lose control of Congress in November than undertake the difficult but necessary work of passing legislation. But at the same time, from a purely practical perspective, politicians who do nothing for you are still better than politicians committed to destroying your life and the lives of everyone you care about. And in America, according to every indication we have at the moment, those are your choices right now. Democrats have decided that, in lieu of appealing to the interests of American voters, they’re going to import foreigners who are beholden to the Democrat Party, and then begin a violent crackdown against anyone who disagrees with them. That’s their agenda for 2029. They’re making it very clear. They’re no longer going to pretend to care about “appealing to Americans,” or democracy, or any of that. Instead, they’re going to appeal to “undocumented Americans,” which is to say, foreign invaders who aren’t American at all. Democrats want to punish you, steal from you, and put you in prison, all for the benefit of foreigners who will vote Democrat in every election. And it would be a fatal mistake — in the sense that it could result in the end of Western civilization — for us to assume that these people will be as passive as the FBI was, after the murder of Charlie Kirk. They won’t be. They will be ruthless. And for that reason alone, they must never be allowed to hold power again.

A surface radar detection system used by air traffic controllers to monitor movements on runways did not alert before an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Sunday night, a crash that killed both pilots and injured crew members and dozens of passengers. As authorities continue to investigate the deadly crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday that LaGuardia’s “Airport Surface Detection System — Model X” (ASDE-X) did not alert air traffic controllers before a fire truck drove onto the runway in front of Air Canada Express Flight 8646. The detection system uses radar and satellite technology to provide controllers with “detailed coverage of movement on runways and taxiways” and is “equipped with visual and aural alarms that will alert controllers of possible runway incursions or incidents,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration. On Sunday night, however, LaGuardia’s surface detection system failed to notify controllers of the looming disaster on runway 4, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters. Quoting the analysis from a replay of the detection system, Homendy said the system did not alert controllers because the fire trucks on the ground were in close proximity and were “merging and unmerging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track.” Homendy said the truck that collided with the jet did not have a transponder. While surface detection systems can track vehicles without transponders, Homendy said that transponders help the effectiveness of the system. “In order for ASDE-X to work well, you have to know where ground vehicles and aircraft are, and in this case, that ground vehicle did not have a transponder,” she said. “And it would’ve been helpful — when you have a radar target, it does not provide you with the information that you need like it would for an aircraft as a controller.” The NTSB chairwoman added that when investigators watched a replay of what the detection system showed controllers, it did not show any “blobs”— which represented the emergency vehicles — move in front of the plane, indicating that the system failed to accurately track the fire trucks. The NTSB also revealed on Tuesday that there were two controllers on duty at the time of the deadly crash, which Homendy said was consistent with normal operating procedures for many airports, including LaGuardia, for the midnight shift. The midnight shift at LaGuardia begins at 10:30 p.m. and ends at 6:30 a.m. The Air Canada jet crashed into the fire truck at approximately 11:40 p.m. The NTSB chairwoman said that officials would look into whether it “makes sense” for LaGuardia to operate with just two air traffic controllers on the midnight shift, or if the airport should change its procedures. Homendy cautioned reporters about “pointing fingers at controllers,” arguing that there are many factors officials still must investigate before pinning the blame on air traffic controllers. Audio from the air traffic control tower revealed one of the controllers saying that he “messed up” after the collision. Another controller replied, “No man, you did the best you could.” According to the NTSB, 25 seconds before the crash, truck 1 requested air traffic controllers to allow it to cross runway 4 as a group of emergency vehicles were responding to an issue with another jet on the tarmac. Twenty seconds before the end of the radio correspondence, “the tower cleared truck 1 and company to cross runway 4 at Taxiway Delta.” When the truck was cleared to cross, the Air Canada jet was 100 feet from the ground as it approached runway 4. Nine seconds before the radio transmission was cut off, however, the air traffic controllers told truck 1 to stop, just one second before the Air Canada jet’s landing gear was heard touching down on the runway.