Swamp Draining: FBI Fears Mass Firings over J6 Probe

And maybe even the next coronavirus that comes along.

Two of the sexiest existential threats – AI and nuclear weapons – are coming together.

On her eponymous Saturday afternoon show, MSNBC host Katie Phang accused "convicted felon" President Donald Trump of "indiscriminately" arresting "black and brown" immigrants and "dehumanizing" them with detention without due process rights while MSNBC contributor Paola Ramos (and daughter of Jorge Ramos) said Trump views deporting (illegal) immigrants as a "new chapter in the war on terror." Phang also took at shot at Latinos who voted for Trump, scoffing: "It's what I say is the 'find out' part for those folks that voted for him thinking, 'It won't happen to me or my family.'" Rewinding to the beginning of the segment, she tagged Trump as a "convicted felon" and claimed he was waging a "terror campaign" against illegal aliens before asking where all the additional detainees would be kept: "Convicted felon President Trump's terror campaign through heightened mass deportation efforts has led to an increase in arrests while deportation flights remain at typical pre-Trump levels. So with more arrests, the federal government has to house those in custody somewhere. But where?" After a clip of President Trump announcing that up to 30,000 of "the worst criminal illegal aliens" can be held at Guantanamo Bay if there are problems with returning some to their home countries, Phang brought aboard Ramos and accused the President of wanting to "dehumanize" detainees: "The continued dehumanization of migrants is the goal here, right?" Ramos declared that "that's exactly right," and fretted:     [W]hat scares me, at least, is that history tells us that when, as Americans, we sort of enter this paranoid state that we're in, we do have a tendency to turn a blind eye on the violations that happen in Guantanamo Bay, you know. We have a tendency to turn a blind eye on the human rights violations, the abuses, and all of the darkness that has happened, there, and that is exactly where we are. So our job is to ensure that we don't turn a blind eye, you know, that we don't allow history to repeat itself. Ramos then argued the images of ICE raids, troops going to the border, and Guantanamo Bay housing illegal immigrants are all meant to illicit feelings of "entering this new chapter in the war on terror" will illegal immigrants on bar with Islamic terrorists. Phang then accused ICE of being "indiscriminate" in detaining "everybody who's black and brown" people, and of depriving detainees of due process: [ICE raids] are indiscriminate in terms of who they're picking up and who they're detaining. They're actually -- it's the reverse of due process, right? It's "I'm going to take everybody who's brown and black, and then I'm going to make you prove that you're a U.S. citizen," versus ICE saying, "I know you're not a U.S. citizen, and I'm here to be able to take you."you." She soon added: When you put them all in Guantanamo, and you put it in an overtaxed system like this government that doesn't even know what they're doing with them, you're putting women, children, men indiscriminately together, in this facility -- you don't let lawyers that don't get to go there, Paola. You don't just get on a plane and you're a lawyer and you're just there. It's almost impossible to be able to provide them with any type of due process. Transcript follows: MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show February 1, 2025 12:29 p.m. Eastern KATIE PHANG: Convicted felon President Trump's terror campaign through heightened mass deportation efforts has led to an increase in arrests while deportation flights remain at typical pre-Trump levels. So with more arrests, the federal government has to house those in custody somewhere. But where? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [on 01/29/25]: Today I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay. Most people don't even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad, we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. PHANG: Joining me now is Paola Ramos, MSNBC contributor and the author of Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America. Pao, my friend, necessary conversations. Let's get straight to it. Guantanamo Bay -- a place that you and I know well, having been in Miami and in Florida. Maybe a lot of people don't know. There's the military facility, but then they also have a separate detention facility for migrants, and, listen, the military facility -- they kept the detainees after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but we're hearing -- and we know -- the vice president of the National Immigration Law Center saying, "report upon report on conditions" in those detention facilities "that don't provide basic health care," they "shackle women when pregnant," and they haven't had "protections for communicable diseases such as Covid." I mean, Pao, the continued dehumanization of migrants is the goal here, right? PAOLA RAMOS: That's exactly right. I think the first thing that comes to mind when you mention Guantanamo -- when you mention the report -- is "war on terror," and that is precisely the point. That is what Donald Trump wants us to think about. Look, I think if you take a step back, you know, and you look at all of these images that we have been bombarded with just this week, Katie, you know, you see the ICE raids -- you see troops deploying to the border. You see images of military planes carrying migrants and now the image of Guantanamo Bay. The point is precisely to get this country to believe that we are entering this new chapter in the war on terror.  (....) 12:32 p.m. Eastern RAMOS: And so the point that we are in right now is for Donald Trump to continue to condition Americans to believe that story and to now believe that the next iteration of that story means to defeat them and to defeat them, meaning the terrorists. So I think what Guantanamo Bay brings up -- what scares me, at least, is that history tells us that when, as Americans, we sort of enter this paranoid state that we're in, we do have a tendency to turn a blind eye on the violations that happen in Guantanamo Bay, you know. We have a tendency to turn a blind eye on the human rights violations, the abuses, and all of the darkness that has happened, there, and that is exactly where we are. So our job is to ensure that we don't turn a blind eye, you know, that we don't allow history to repeat itself. PHANG: You know, Paola, I think what's so important to underscore here is these ICE raids that are happening right now. They are indiscriminate in terms of who they're picking up and who they're detaining. They're actually -- it's the reverse of due process, right? It's "I'm going to take everybody who's brown and black, and then I'm going to make you prove that you're a U.S. citizen," versus ICE saying, "I know you're not a U.S. citizen, and I'm here to be able to take you." Furthermore, the "illegal" moniker that is being put on migrants has now been completely distorted because folks who had temporary protected status, for example, from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, people like that now have lost that status through the revocation of that that was afforded to them under the Biden administration. And that means that they are now here illegally. When you put them all in Guantanamo, and you put it in an overtaxed system like this government that doesn't even know what they're doing with them, you're putting women, children, men indiscriminately together, in this facility -- you don't let lawyers that don't get to go there, Paola. You don't just get on a plane and you're a lawyer and you're just there. It's almost impossible to be able to provide them with any type of due process. (....) 12:36 p.m. Eastern PHANG: It's what I say is the "find out" part for those folks that voted for him thinking, "It won't happen to me or my family." 

ESPN broadcaster Stephen A. Smith has been making the rounds on political podcasts, and now, a 2028 Democratic primary poll has put him in the running for the presidential nomination. Jason Whitlock of “Fearless” isn’t surprised. “When I read Stephen A. Smith’s book,” he begins, “the first thing I did was come on this show and say, ‘Hey man, this dude is planning to run for president. That’s the only reason why you write a book like this.’” While others thought Whitlock was crazy and that Smith would never get the votes for it, he reasons that if someone like Kamala Harris could end up in the running for president, then anyone can. “Kamala Harris, who got her start in politics as Willie Brown’s side piece and who puts together word salads — incomprehensible word salads is like her signature — and her cackling. No qualifications for the job, and you think they couldn’t run Stephen A. Smith for president? Are you kidding me?” Whitlock says. “Don’t think they couldn’t install Stephen A. Smith as president. You think Stephen A. Smith is running from political show to political show to political show just for, ‘Hey, he likes being on TV'? There’s a purpose involved,” he continues. “This is what they do when they want to install someone as president. Some might combat Whitlock’s prediction with the belief that America is not stupid enough to vote in an ESPN broadcaster, but again, he disagrees. “Yes, we are,” he says, citing Obama’s presidency as proof. “Newsweek put him on the cover and called him the first gay president because he put the ‘Q’ in pride month, or the trans in pride month. He put the transgenderism thing on the agenda. He normalized and mainstreamed same-sex marriage, and black people worship him.” “The delusion and the worship, the racial idolatry is so strong with the left that no one can deal with the truth of what Barack Obama was and what he did and what he represented,” he continues. “And you think Disney, Bob Iger, the people backing Stephen A. Smith, think they can’t get you to worship Stephen A. Smith? Are you kidding me?” Want more from Jason Whitlock?To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

A former official at the Federal Reserve has been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to funnel U.S. economic secrets to the People's Republic of China.John Rogers, 63, of Vienna, Virginia, first joined the Division of International Finance at the Federal Reserve Board in 2010. As a senior adviser with a Ph.D. in economics, Rogers had access to a wide range of sensitive economic information, including proprietary data, plans to target China with tariffs, briefing books for FRB governors, and Federal Open Market Committee deliberations, according to a DOJ press release.It was not long before Rogers apparently began sharing this confidential information with Chinese officials. Beginning in 2013, Rogers allegedly received an email from one Chinese operative, and within a year, he took the first of several all-expenses-paid trips to the communist country. During these trips to China, Rogers taught "classes" that seem to have been highly suspect since they were held in hotel rooms and attended by only one or two people, the Washington Post reported. The DOJ press release further indicated that these class attendees were actually Chinese intelligence and security officials "who posed as graduate students at a PRC university."Considering how much of the U.S.' foreign debt is carried by China, "the data Rogers shared with his co-conspirators could allow China to manipulate the U.S. market, in a manner similar to insider trading. Gaining advance knowledge of U.S. economic policy, including advance knowledge of changes to the federal funds rate, could provide China with an advantage when selling or buying U.S. bonds or securities," the DOJ press release said.The alleged Chinese co-conspirators have not been named.In addition to allegedly passing along sensitive information, Rogers also allegedly printed confidential Federal Reserve documents and other intelligence or laundered it through his personal email account in violation of FRB policy. In one particular instance, a colleague apparently chastised Rogers for using his personal email account but still shared with him a book marked "Nonpublic Information FOR YOUR USE ONLY DO NOT DISSEMINATE."Rogers allegedly sent the book along to his personal email account anyway.In February 2020, an inspector general at the FRB made inquiries about Rogers' trips to China and communications with Chinese officials. When asked whether he had ever shared any sensitive information with anyone outside the FRB, Rogers reportedly replied, "Never."The following year, Rogers left the Federal Reserve. By 2022, Rogers had moved to Shanghai and reportedly received at least one more communication from a Chinese contact, offering yet another all-expenses-paid trip, this time to teach a "class" in Qingdao. There is no indication that Rogers responded.Rogers' residence in China was apparently quite lucrative nonetheless. In 2023, he began working as "a part-time professor at a Chinese university," which the Post identified as Fudan University. For that part-time gig alone, Rogers received nearly $450,000 in compensation, the indictment claimed.'Let this indictment serve as a warning to all who seek to betray or exploit the United States: Law enforcement will find you and hold you accountable.'On Friday, Rogers was arrested in Virginia and charged with conspiracy to commit economic espionage and making false statements. He is currently being held without bond and is scheduled for arraignment Tuesday.His attorney, Jonathan Gitlen, claimed that Rogers "denies the allegations as set forth in the indictment" and will be making additional statements "at a later date," according to the AP.In their respective statements, DOJ and FBI officials did not hold back their dismay at the accusations against Rogers, and emphasis has been added to each of their statements to draw attention to the severity of Rogers' alleged crimes."As alleged in the indictment, Rogers betrayed his country while employed at the Federal Reserve by providing restricted U.S. financial and economic information to Chinese government intelligence officers," said Kevin Vorndran, assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division at the FBI."The Chinese Communist Party has expanded its economic espionage campaign to target U.S. government financial policies and trade secrets in an effort to undermine the United States and become the sole superpower," added David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington field office. "Today's indictment represents the FBI’s unwavering commitment to protect U.S. national security interests and U.S. jobs and bring to justice those who are willing to betray their country for personal gain.""President Trump tasks us with protecting our fellow Americans from all enemies, foreign and domestic," said U.S. Attorney Edward Martin Jr. for the District of Columbia."Let this indictment serve as a warning to all who seek to betray or exploit the United States: Law enforcement will find you and hold you accountable."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a secret vote on Tuesday on whether to advance Tulsi Gabbard's nomination to serve as director of national intelligence, according to Politico. The closed-door vote is set to take place less than a week after Gabbard's fiery confirmation hearing on Thursday. Despite Gabbard's disciplined performance, it's unclear if the nominee has the votes to clear the committee.After witnessing the incredibly effective pressure campaign from MAGA allies, it seems that senators are trying to further insulate themselves by holding a secret vote for Gabbard. The Senate Intelligence Committee is composed of 15 senators, eight Republicans and seven Democrats. Assuming all Democrats vote against Gabbard, she will need every GOP vote on the panel to clear the first hurdle. That being said, Gabbard was grilled by both Republicans and Democrats, most notably about her past support of NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The bipartisan disapproval of Gabbard's past stance on Snowden may pose a threat to her confirmation being advanced. Despite some of the holdups, Gabbard is not the first of President Donald Trump's nominees to face pushback from Republicans.Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was slated for a tough confirmation battle after Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa began lobbying against him. While there was backroom pressure to tank Hegseth, Trump and his base led a profoundly effective pressure campaign and secured his confirmation. Hegseth was narrowly cleared in the Senate after Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky voted against Hegseth. After witnessing the incredibly effective pressure campaign from MAGA allies, it seems that senators are trying to further insulate themselves by holding a secret vote for Gabbard. 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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