In a Sunday interview on the Joe Concha Tunnel to Towers Foundation radio show, Media Research Center (MRC) President David Bozell shared the MRC's "Worst Quote of the Year" for 2025: former MSNBC contributor Matthew Dowd's shocking remarks during breaking coverage of conservative activist Charlie Kirk's September 10 assassination at Utah Valley University. Before Kirk's death was confirmed, Dowd speculated the shooter might be a supporter "shooting their gun off in celebration," then labeled Kirk divisive for "hate speech," implying "hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions." "Matthew Dowd suggested that Charlie could have been shot by one of his supporters waving a gun in the air in celebration," Bozell said. "As if that's what we all do in conservative conspiracy meetings, we get our guns and fire them in the air willy-nilly." Bozell slammed the comments as reckless victim-blaming, stressing journalists should stick to facts in breaking news instead of mocking elitist journalists for their stereotypes of conservatives.  Bozell linked this to the broader issue of how Big Tech news aggregators push elitist media stories to our newsfeeds. Bozell revealed MRC's new "crawler" tool found in the month of November Apple News, which has 124 million monthly users,  included only 1 neutral or right-leaning news source out of 560 top stories.  Listen to the full interview here.  

The world of liberal late night comedy got even more liberal in 2025 with the inauguration of a new Republican president. According to a new Media Research Center study, the late night hosts told 12,011 of their 13,097 political jokes about conservatives, which comes out to 92 percent, up from 82 percent last year.  From January 6 through December 19, MRC analysts analyzed all six of the daily late night talk shows: Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and After Midnight until its June 12 cancellation.  A complete breakdown of all 13,097 jokes can be found here, but detailed below is a summary of all six shows, both collectively and individually. Late Night 2025 Findings: 818 Episodes Of the remaining jokes, 982 (7 percent) targeted the left and 104 (1 percent) were directed at people, groups, or institutions not associated with either side. This was the first time in the history of the MRC joke count study that liberal jokes failed to reach quadruple digits. Additionally, 593 unique targets were joked about, 392 of which were on the right, 173 of which were on the left, and 28 of which were non-partisan.   This year’s top ten featured only one Democrat. The list included Donald Trump (7,045), Elon Musk (644), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (371), Pete Hegseth (322), Melania Trump (225), Joe Biden (220), JD Vance (217), MAGA/Trump supporters (144), Republicans (135), and Eric Trump (134). When the hosts did decide to joke about Democrats, it was often done in a way that lamented that the party and its leadership were allegedly too cowardly and or incompetent to effectively stand up to Trump. This made the comparisons between equivalent liberal and conservative targets relatively close. For example, jokes about GOP leadership barely outnumbered those about Democratic leadership 99-92 (Mike Johnson: 97 and John Thune: 2 vs. Chuck Schumer: 79 and Hakeem Jeffries: 13). The hosts also told 92 generic Democratic jokes. Additionally, generic conservative jokes outnumbered generic liberal ones 43-35. Real America’s Voice’s Brian Glenn was the most joked-about conservative media personality at 24, while CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was the most joked-about liberal media personality at 8. In terms of media organizations, Fox News led with 90, while CBS and Paramount led all liberal outlets with 12 in another example of blue-on-blue criticism, given CBS settling its 60 Minutes lawsuit with Trump and the cancellation of Colbert.   ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live!: 156 Episodes Note: 24 episodes from June 23-August 21 were guest-hosted. All numbers below are cumulative. ABC’s resident insult hurler did not let a September suspension stop him from being the most liberal of the liberal comedians and setting multiple firsts in the history of MRC late night joke studies.  In 2025, Kimmel became the first host to not be cancelled partway through the year to fail to reach triple digits in his liberal joke count, only telling 87 (3 percent) of his total about the left. By contrast, 3,046 (97 percent) of his 3,144 total jokes were about the right. That left 11 non-partisan jokes. Kimmel targeted 161 conservative individuals, groups, or organizations in 2025 compared to only 25 liberal and six non-partisan ones. Kimmel’s second historical tidbit was that his 2025 was the first time a host had zero left-wingers in his top. That list included Donald Trump (1,668), Elon Musk (158), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (99), Melania Trump (89), Pete Hegseth (88), Eric Trump (63), JD Vance (57), MAGA/Trump supporters (49), Donald Trump Jr. (44), and Republicans (40). Joe Biden (26) was Kimmel’s most joked-about Democrat at 16th overall. Kimmel ended up telling 40 jokes about GOP congressional leaders (Mike Johnson: 39 and John Thune: 1) and only four about Democrats (Chuck Schumer: 3 and Hakeem Jefferies: 1) Generic jokes about Republicans outnumbered those about Democrats 40-6, while those about conservatives outpaced liberals 10-4. Newsmax’s Carl Higbie was Kimmel’s most joked-about conservative media personality at 11 while MS NOW’s Al Sharpton was joked about once. When it came to media outlets, jokes about Fox News outnumbered those about CBS 25-2.   CBS: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: 152 Episodes While the news that CBS will be ending Colbert’s show in 2026 hit liberals hard, it did end up making Colbert’s group therapy sessions more valuable to them. For everybody else, it was another year of The Late Show being The DNC Show.  In 2025, Colbert told 2,510 of his 2,732 (92 percent) of his political jokes about conservatives. By contrast, he only told 188 (7 percent) about liberals and 34 (1 percent) about non-partisan targets. Colbert also went after 156 conservative, 66 liberal, and 19 non-partisan targets in the last year. Colbert’s top ten featured only one liberal. It consisted of Donald Trump (1,458), Elon Musk (106), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (95), Pete Hegseth (85), JD Vance (52), Melania Trump (43), Republicans (28), Joe Biden (27), Eric Trump (26), MAGA/Trump supporters (22), and Kristi Noem (22). Colbert’s jokes about Republican leadership outnumbered those about Democratic leadership 14-8 (Mike Johnson: 14 vs. Chuck Schumer: 6 and Hakeem Jefferies: 2) Colbert also told 10 generic jokes about Democrats, while telling four generic jokes each about liberals and conservatives. Fox’s Rupert Murdoch (5) was the most joked about conservative media personality while CBS’s Gayle King and Olivia Nuzzi tied for three for those on the left. Fox News and Colbert’s CBS bosses tied at 7 for the most joked about news outlets.   CBS: After Midnight: 63 Episodes Note 1: After Midnight was cancelled on June 12. Note 2: The May 20 episode was guest-hosted by Lisa Gilroy. Gilroy told zero political jokes. CBS’s short-lived experiment to bring something new to the late night comedy scene with its pseudo-game show fizzled away in June when Taylor Tomlinson decided to devote herself to stand-up full-time. While liberals and industry insiders lamented the departure of late night’s only full-time female host, the rest of the country can be assured that the Luigi Mangione fangirl no longer has a network show.  In 2025, Tomlinson told 135 of her 146 jokes (92 percent) about conservatives. Tomlinson told 11 jokes (8 percent) about liberals and zero about non-partisan targets. Similarly, she joked about 28 separate people or organizations, 23 of whom were on the right. Tomlinson’s top ten featured only one left-wing target. The list included Donald Trump (55), Elon Musk (19), Edward “Big Balls” Coristine (6), Kash Patel (6), Pete Hegseth (6), Democrats (5), JD Vance (5), Mark Zuckerberg (5), MAGA/Trump supporters (4), Eric Trump (4), and George Santos (4). Zuckerberg is considered a right-leaning individual due to the late night hosts’ dislike of his role in Trump’s inauguration and for backing down on META’s partnership with the fact-checking websites. Tomlinson told zero political jokes about the four Congressional leaders. She also told zero and one generic jokes, respectively, about Republicans and conservatives while telling one generic joke about liberals. Real America’s Voice’s Brian Glenn and The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro tied for Tomlinson’s most joked-about conservative media personality with two, while no liberal media personality was joked about. On the other hand, The New York Times and CBS were each joked about once, while no conservative media outlet was ridiculed.   NBC: Late Night with Seth Meyers: 141 Episodes Due three times a week “Closer Look,” Seth Meyers gets more jokes in per episode than his fellow hosts, but beyond all the elaborate metaphors and analogies is a man who is most explicit about turning the late night comedy show into another version of an MS NOW program.  Meyers told 3,013 jokes in 2025, and 2,721 (90 percent) were about conservatives. That left 277 (9 percent) about liberals and 15 (1 percent) about non-partisans. Meyers also targeted 127 conservatives, 50 liberals, and 9 non-partisan people or organizations in 2025.  Three Democrats made Meyers’s top ten this year. The list included Donald Trump (1,885), Elon Musk (134), Joe Biden (100), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (57), JD Vance (53), Rudy Giuliani (42), Pete Hegseth (34), Bernie Sanders (29), Chuck Schumer (27), and Fox News (27). In a good example of progressive comedians attacking liberal politicians for allegedly being too weak, jokes about Democratic leadership outnumbered those about Republican leadership 31-19 (Chuck Schumer: 27 and Hakeem Jeffries: 4 vs. Mike Johnson: 18 and John Thune: 1). Meyers’s contempt for the Democratic Party made it so that jokes about Democrats outnumbered those about Republicans 24-21. Generic jokes about conservatives outnumbered the ones about liberals 6-3. Tucker Carlson and former Fox colleagues Jesse Watters and Laura Ingraham tied for the most joked-about conservative media personality with four, while CNN’s data guru Harry Enten led liberal media personalities with five as well. Fox’s aforementioned 27 led conservative organizations, while the White House Correspondents Association led liberals with four. Meyers’s condemnations of the WHCA were yet another example of left-on-left criticism for the latter’s decision to cancel Late Night writer Amber Ruffin’s performance at the association’s dinner in April.   Comedy Central: The Daily Show: 144 Episodes For the third year in a row, The Daily Show did not have a permanent host, instead relying on the returning rotation of Jon Stewart, Desi Lydic, Jordan Klepper, Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, as well as new rotational host, Josh Johnson. Johnson was the most unbalanced host in terms of his right-left percentages, while Stewart was the most balanced. Perhaps more than any other show, The Daily Show’s jokes about the left were from the left making the comparisons between analogous liberals and conservatives actually disadvantage liberals on multiple instances.  All told, Daily Show hosts told 2,624 political jokes in 2025. Of these, 2,321 (89 percent) were about conservatives. That left 274 jokes (10 percent) about liberals and 29 about non-partisan targets (1 percent). At the same time, The Daily Show ridiculed 180 conservative, 86 liberal, and 11 non-partisan different targets. The Daily Show’s top ten featured two left-leaning targets. They were Donald Trump (1,128), Elon Musk (139), Pete Hegseth (101), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (86), MAGA/Trump supporters (46), Republicans (42), Chuck Schumer (38), Democrats (37), Stephen Miller (29), Melania Trump (29), and Fox News (29). Hosts told 44 jokes about Democratic leadership (Schumer: 38, Jefferies: 6) and 21 about Republican leadership (Mike Johnson: 21) The Daily Show’s generic jokes about liberals outnumber those about conservatives 23-20. RAV’s Brian Glenn was the most joked about conservative media personality with 12, while CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was the most joked about liberal media personality with 3. FNC’s 29 jokes led conservative media outlets, while CNN’s four led all liberal media. NBC: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: 161 Episodes Jimmy Fallon hosted the most number of shows in 2025 but also told the fewest amount of jokes amongst the hosts who were not cancelled halfway through the year. However, the inauguration of a Republican president meant that Fallon’s percentage of jokes about conservatives skyrocketed this year and was comparable to the other hosts.  In 2025, Fallon told 1,438 total political jokes. Of which, 1,278 (89 percent) were about conservatives, while 145 (10 percent) were about liberals, and 15 (1 percent) were about non-partisans. Fallon also joked about 108 conservatives, 51 liberals, and seven non-partisans. Fallon’s top ten featured three Democrats. The list featured Donald Trump (851), Elon Musk (88), Joe Biden (40), Melania Trump (36), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (32), JD Vance (22), Eric Trump (16), Donald Trump Jr. (15), Bernie Sanders (12), and Democrats (10). When it came to congressional leaders, Fallon only joked about Mike Johnson and Chuck Schumer and told five about each man. Additionally, Fallon told four jokes about Republicans this year, two about conservatives, and one about liberals. Fallon largely stayed away from joking about media personalities, telling one joke about Rupert Murdoch in 2025 and two each about Fox and CNN. *** NewsBusters has been keeping an extensive joke count since the start of 2023. Since then, the comedy shows have told 85 percent, or 31,013 jokes about conservatives out of a total of 36,356. This includes 15,492 (50 percent) about Donald Trump.

The Department of Homeland Security is running an end-of-year Christmas special to further incentivize illegal aliens to self-deport. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the department will be tripling the cash incentives from $1,000 to $3,000, urging illegal aliens to leave the country on their own. Illegal aliens who choose to self-deport through the CBP Home App will receive this bonus through the end of the year and may be eligible to re-enter the country legally in the future. 'We'll buy your ticket.'"Well, it's home for the holidays season," Noem said on "Fox & Friends" Monday. "Not only are we returning those kiddos back to their families that Biden lost, we also are saying that if you voluntarily want to go home now to your country, if you're in this United States of America illegally, we will give you $3,000 through the holidays to send you home," Noem added.RELATED: Fly home or get caught: Trump’s TSA feeding ICE names before takeoff to nab illegal aliens 'without apology' Photo by ALEX BRANDON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Since President Donald Trump took office in January, an estimated 1.9 million migrants have self-deported and another 622,000 have been removed by law enforcement. Noem is looking to boost those numbers, noting that illegal aliens who self-deport may have a future path to legal residency unlike migrants who are deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other law enforcement agencies."We'll buy your ticket, give you $3,000 to go home, and that includes people that have not been detained, maybe have interacted with us, are detained and don't have criminal charges against them," Noem said. "Raise your hand! We'll help you get home. We'll facilitate it, and you might get the chance to come back to this country the right way someday."RELATED: 'Disastrous program': Trump administration pauses 'diversity' visa Brown University shooter used to enter United States Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images"If you wait until we interdict you and detain you and arrest you and have to deport you ourselves, you'll never get the chance to come back." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A professor at the University of Washington was punished for having the audacity to poke fun at the school's moral exhibitionism. Stuart Reges, a professor at UW's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, fought back and, on Friday, secured a decisive victory.Reges ruffled feathers at the university where he has worked for decades by including a parodic land acknowledgment in his 2022 course syllabus.'The Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land.'According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the outfit that represented Reges, the university recommended in its "best practices" guide that instructors incorporate an "Indigenous Land Acknowledgment" in their course syllabi, providing the following as an example statement: "The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations."In a December 2021 faculty email thread, one of Reges' colleagues referred to an article that characterized land acknowledgments as "moral onanism." Reges said in response that he was uncertain about the value of making such statements and noted that he might include a mock statement in his syllabus.Sure enough, the professor included the following land acknowledgment on the syllabus of his winter 2022 computer science course: "I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington."Administrators at UW's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering punished Stuart Reges over his failure to conform, which they claimed had caused a "disruption to instruction" but had in reality enraged only ideologically delicate members of the faculty and the school's DEI student committee.RELATED: 'Enough white guys already': The war on white men because of DEI in the working world exposed in damning report Stuart Reges. Courtesy of Twinkle Don't BlinkThe director of UW's computer science department, Magdalena Balazinska, ordered Reges to remove the statement because it was supposedly "offensive" and generated a "toxic environment."According to court documents, when Reges refused to remove his dissenting statement, Balazinska unilaterally removed it, then apologized to Reges' students, detailing ways that they could file complaints against their professor.'Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted.'In addition to inviting students to switch out of Reges' computer programming course and into a "shadow" class section taught by a different professor, university administrators launched a years-long disciplinary investigation into Reges.In July 2022, Reges sued Balazinska, then-UW President Ana Mari Cauce, and other school officials, accusing them of violating his First Amendment rights."University administrators turned me into a pariah on campus because I included a land acknowledgment that wasn’t sufficiently progressive for them," Reges said at the time. "Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted, even if it lands you in court."U.S. District Court Judge John Chun, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, dismissed Reges' lawsuit last year, claiming that "the disruption caused by Plaintiff's speech rendered it unprotected."Reges appealed and found a court that viewed his case differently.In a 2-1 decision on Friday, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel disagreed with and reversed the Biden judge's ruling, remanding the case for further proceedings.Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, writing for the majority, noted, "Debate and disagreement are hallmarks of higher education. Student discomfort with a professor's views can prompt discussion and disapproval. But this discomfort is not grounds for the university retaliating against the professor. We hold that the university's actions toward the professor violated his First Amendment rights."Bress, an appointee of President Donald Trump, highlighted the long-standing debate over the value, factual basis, and political nature of land acknowledgments as well as Reges' sense that they are part of "an agenda of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' that treats some groups of students as more deserving of recognition and welcome than others on account of their race or other immutable characteristic."While acknowledging the right of members of the UW community to speak out against Reges and his views, Bress stressed that "Reges has rights too. And here, we conclude that UW violated the First Amendment in taking adverse action against Reges based on his views on a matter of public concern."Will Creeley, the legal director of FIRE, said that the ruling "recognizes that sometimes, 'exposure to views that distress and offend is a form of education unto itself.'""If you graduate from college without once being offended, you should ask for your money back," added Creeley.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An illegal alien truck driver, accused of causing a fatal crash, was reportedly released from custody after authorities failed to follow up with a case for prosecution.'How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public's safety ahead of politics?'Kamalpreet Singh, an Indian national who illegally entered the U.S. in 2023, is accused of causing a deadly multi-vehicle wreck on a Washington freeway on December 11. The Department of Homeland Security stated that the Biden administration released Singh into the country despite his illegal entry. He obtained his commercial driver's license in California, according to Fox News. Singh allegedly rear-ended a Mazda driven by Robert Pearson, a 29-year-old American. The Mazda was pushed into a Peterbilt truck, causing the car to catch fire, Fox News reported.Pearson died at the scene. Singh and the driver of the Peterbilt were not injured. The semitruck driver reportedly spent just one day in King County jail before being released after posting $100,000 bond. The news outlet claimed that the bond money was returned to Singh after the arresting authority, the Washington State Patrol, failed to pursue a case for prosecution. A WSP spokesperson told Blaze News, "In the course of our investigations, we have found [an] additional detail and needed to withdraw the original complaint so we can refile in the near future with that additional detail included. The case remains under active investigation."RELATED: Border Patrol nabs 49 illegal aliens with commercial driver’s licenses Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesWhile Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer against Singh, it was not honored due to the state's sanctuary policies. "These demented and dangerous sanctuary policies have deadly consequences," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "Robert Pearson would still be alive today if the Biden administration hadn't released this illegal alien into our country. How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public's safety ahead of politics?"The DHS noted several recent crashes allegedly caused by illegal aliens. RELATED: Illegal alien bus driver who can't speak English allegedly kills American while 'distracted by a video on his phone' Photo by: Peter Titmuss/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesThe department stated that Washington also ignored ICE's detainer against truck driver Juan Hernandez-Santos, despite the criminal illegal alien being accused of causing a multi-vehicle pileup on December 4.Rajinder Kumar, an illegal alien from India, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment after allegedly causing a crash in Oregon that resulted in the deaths of two people.DHS also highlighted a detainer against Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India who was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide, and Partap Singh, who allegedly caused a crash in California that left a 5-year-old with critical and life-altering injuries.Kamalpreet Singh, Harjinder Singh, and Partap Singh are not believed to be related to one another.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The FBI never intended to reinstate Special Agent Steve Friend and is guilty of “gross misconduct” for violating “nearly every significant term” of a whistleblower settlement agreement signed by the Department of Justice in August, his attorney says — including failure to pay nearly $425,000 in back salary, pension, annual leave, and other benefits..Attorney Kurt Siuzdak of Madison, Conn., filed a protected whistleblower disclosure Wednesday with U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), alleging multiple breaches of contract and bad faith. The complaint also alleges vindictiveness, citing how Friend’s firing was leaked to the New York Post a day before Friend himself was notified by FBI Director Kash Patel.‘May God have mercy on your soul.’“The FBI and its executive leadership have committed gross misconduct by immediately breaching the settlement agreement that was approved by the FBI and signed by the senior counsel to the Deputy Attorney General Vance D. Day,” Siuzdak wrote.“Despite leaking to the press, Mr. Friend was fired for ‘veiled threats,’” Siuzdak said. “However, the fact is that since signing the settlement agreement on August 26, 2025, the FBI has breached the agreement and refused to abide by any terms of its settlement agreement with Mr. Friend.”Friend was summoned to the FBI’s Daytona Beach Resident Agency on Saturday, Dec. 13, and was handed a termination letter signed by Patel.Friend spent the previous five days at the Daytona office without any assigned duties, without a restored security clearance, service weapon, current credentials, or a bureau cell phone, Siuzdak said. The FBI also assigned someone to guard Friend while he was in the building, Siuzdak said. Left: Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend at the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing in May 2023. Right: Friend and former Special Agent Kyle Seraphin at the premiere of the film “Police State” at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.Photos courtesy of Steve Friend“The FBI took no action to reinstate until 74 days after the settlement agreement’s deadline had passed,” Siuzdak said. “Then, Mr. Kash Patel personally terminated Mr. Friend five days later …”In the termination letter, Patel accused Friend of “unprofessional conduct and poor judgment” for his social media activity, including appearances on various podcasts offering opinions on FBI operations and slamming Patel and other senior leaders.Patel drew specific attention to Friend’s Dec. 5 appearance on “The Kyle Seraphin Show,” hosted by the former FBI special agent from Texas.Pipe-bomb patsy?The men discussed the ongoing controversy over the bureau’s handling of the Jan. 6 pipe bombs case and the Dec. 4 arrest of Brian J. Cole Jr. as the alleged bomber. Cole was charged in federal court with planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee building and near the Republican National Committee building on the night of Jan. 5, 2021.Both men expressed the view that Cole, 30, of Woodbridge, Va., is not the pipe bomber. The FBI arrested the wrong person to cover up alleged law enforcement involvement in the placing of the pipe bombs, they said. They noted that Cole is likely autistic and operates on the level of a 16-year-old, according to his grandmother.“Whatever the motivation is, if you’re doing another put-up job on this guy — I think we spelled out a pretty compelling case that this probably ain’t the guy — then may God have mercy on your soul,” Friend said. The alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber (left) stops and sits down at a bush next to the Congressional Black Caucus Institute the night of Jan. 5, 2021. A Capitol Police counter-surveillance officer (right) peers at something under the same bush just minutes before he discovered the pipe bomb at the nearby Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6. U.S. Capitol Police CCTV “I’m going to end with this. I’m going to bring out my inner [Emperor] Commodus,” Friend said. “You better pray to Gaia or Vishnu or whatever your maker is that @RealSteveFriend is never in a position to be an instrument of God’s wrath. Because I will be merciful.”“I won’t give you a trial and a hanging,” Friend said. “I’ll allow you to breathe every breath that your body will have for the rest of its natural life inside of a box. And then when it ultimately fades to black, that’s when real wrath begins.”‘Kash Patel should be more concerned with his agency arresting the actual perpetrator of the January 6th pipe bombs.’The firing was leaked in advance to Caitlin Doornbos of the New York Post, who sent Friend a text at 7:05 p.m. Eastern Dec. 12. In it, she made reference to the whistleblower advocacy group Empower Oversight dismissing Friend as a client on Dec. 5 — and suggested his latest podcast comments could cost him his job.“I am writing a piece about them [Empower] firing you following the ‘wrath of God’ comments you made on Kyle Seraphin’s podcast that were apparently about FBI Director Kash Patel,” Doornbos wrote, according to a copy of the text obtained by Blaze News. “I have reporting that suggests these comments may also have put your employment with the FBI in jeopardy, and I’m wondering if you would like to respond?”In an emailed letter, Empower told Friend it was terminating its legal representation because he did not abide by the firm's advice not to speak about the FBI on social media. Empower founder Jason Foster and President Tristan Leavitt told Friend, “We are aware that, contrary to our previous advice, you once again commented publicly on FBI matters today, risking further adverse administrative action by the FBI.”Empower is “no longer willing or able to expend further time and resources representing your interests or providing counsel moving forward,” read the letter, provided to Blaze News by Friend, who said he waived attorney-client privilege.The Post story on Friend’s firing was published the next day, less than two hours after Friend reported to the Daytona office to be given his termination letter.‘Deranged rant’The story described Friend’s Dec. 5 podcast commentary as a “deranged rant,” “hot rhetoric,” an “outburst,” and “disturbing remarks.” The discussion about Cole being an alleged patsy to hide possible government involvement in placing the pipe bombs was described as a “bogus cover-up.” Friend’s ongoing social media commentary amounted to “bashing the FBI and weighing in on conspiracy theories.”Friend said because the FBI was in breach of the settlement agreement, he did not consider himself an employee when making podcast appearances in recent months. “I always issued a qualifier that I was speaking on my own behalf and not a representative of any government entity,” he said. “It was a joke with the audience. I called myself a hobbyist podcaster.”The remarks made on the Seraphin show were not intended as a threat, Friend said. He defended the comments in a statement to Blaze News.“I stand by my remarks,” Friend said. “It isn’t a threat to say that public servants who willfully rob American citizens of their God-given liberty in order to advance their careers or earn positive media attention deserve to go to jail.” Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at a Dec. 4 press conference to announce the arrest of Brian J.Cole Jr. in the Jan. 6 pipe-bombs case. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images The termination “was clearly an effort by the FBI director to besmirch my reputation to distract from his failures,” Friend said. “Kash Patel should be more concerned with his agency arresting the actual perpetrator of the January 6 pipe bombs than retaliating against me for pointing out they didn’t.”Friend was first suspended from his job as a special agent in the Daytona Beach Resident Agency on Sept. 19, 2022, under President Joe Biden’s FBI director, Christopher Wray. He had previously lodged complaints with supervisors that the FBI’s plans to use SWAT teams to arrest a misdemeanor Jan. 6 suspect presented serious issues. He refused to take part.‘The FBI had no real intent to reinstate Mr. Friend.’“I expressed that I have an oath of office,” Friend said during an interview at his Florida home in October 2022. “And while I’m aware that an arrest warrant is a legal order from a judge, I have an oath to protect the Constitution.”Friend said he was troubled when he was reassigned from investigating sexual trafficking of minors and young adults to working on the Joint Terrorism Task Force doing Jan. 6 casework. The Bureau broke with normal case management protocols by opening what ended up being nearly 1,600 criminal cases stemming from the protests and rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.“They’ve chosen to open hundreds of cases and then spread them around the country,” Friend said in 2023. “That gives the impression that domestic terrorism is a nationwide threat, when really, the numbers the FBI is touting stem from one incident on one day.”Friend resigned from the FBI in February 2023, a day before he was set to give transcribed testimony to the Republican-led U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. On May 18, 2023, he was among three FBI whistleblowers who testified before the select subcommittee about the retaliation against whistleblowers by the FBI for lawful, protected disclosures they made to Congress.Relationship soursInitially, Friend was part of an ad hoc group of Patel supporters who regularly communicated with the “Government Gangsters” author and co-host of “Kash’s Corner” on Epoch TV. The group ramped up activity after Patel was announced as President Donald Trump’s choice for FBI director in November 2024.The group also included Seraphin, then-suspended Special Agent Garret O’Boyle, and George Hill, retired FBI national security intelligence supervisor, and others. After gaining Senate confirmation in February, Patel sent the men a text that read, “I couldn’t have done this without you.”Patel planned to bring O’Boyle and Friend into the bureau with him, Friend said, but that never happened. As Patel was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he credited the group with helping put him across the finish line, according to a text message obtained by Blaze News.After his nomination was announced by President Trump on Nov. 30, 2024, O’Boyle sent congratulations along with the statement, “Thank you, Kash, for what you’ve done for us.” Patel responded, “Thank you guys, you made this happen.”“Thank you guys for your relentless friendship and mission love,” Patel wrote in a January text. “You guys made this possible.”After the February Senate confirmation vote, Friend texted Patel, “Congratulations Director.” Patel responded, “Thank you guys. … Now we all go to work.” A group of whistleblowers formed an ad hoc group to advise Kash Patel as he prepared for confirmation hearings to become FBI director. The men are now at great odds.Images courtesy of Steve Friend and Kyle SeraphinAs 2025 wore on and the bureau had not publicly announced plans to settle with O’Boyle and other suspended FBI whistleblowers, or offer any of the men a job, the men began criticizing their former ally Patel and his new deputy director, Dan Bongino.Friend said Bongino offered to hire him in March. Friend said he talked about some kind of staff position, either as an agent or a special government employee.Friend texted Bongino a reply on March 4, “Thank you for this opportunity. I’m honored to support you. Count me in.” Bongino wrote, “Excellent. I will be in touch.” That was the last Friend ever heard about it, he said.On Aug. 21, Patel announced that the FBI had reached settlement agreements with 10 whistleblowers represented by Empower Oversight. The announcement caught some of the whistleblowers, who said they had not yet agreed to anything, off guard.Friend signed his settlement agreement on Aug. 26. It was also signed by DOJ senior legal counsel Vance Day.‘I couldn’t have done this without you.’Friend said under the agreement, he is owed $450,000 in back pay and $61,431 in reimbursement for medical coverage. The FBI was required to reinstate him by Sept. 19. By that date, the FBI was to pay the back salary and insurance reimbursement, cancel his indefinite suspension, reinstate Friend’s security clearance, and “rescind and expunge employee’s removal and all related records concerning misconduct or poor performance,” the agreement said. Former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend speaks at a Collier County Republicans event in Naples, Fla.Photo courtesy of Steve FriendThree days before it fired Friend as a client, Empower received some updates from the FBI. Friend began receiving deposits on Oct. 9, which the FBI said were salary. Friend says he had no idea what the payments were for, that he never received a pay/leave statement, and that he could not access his Employee Personal Page at the FBI National Finance Center. The FBI told Empower that Friend’s access to pay statements was restored Dec. 2.The FBI further said it was processing paperwork to enroll Friend in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. As for the back pay and reimbursement, the FBI said, “Backpay calculations are pending for all employees.” None of the whistleblowers have thus far been paid their back salary.During his five days in the Daytona office, Friend was assigned an FBI vehicle but was refused an FBI gas card, he said. Regulations prohibit personal use of FBI vehicles, so without any job duties, Friend parked the vehicle at his house.“The vehicle served only to block his driveway and as a reminder that the FBI had no real intent to reinstate Mr. Friend,” Siuzdak wrote.The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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