A Russian court sentenced American journalist Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in a maximum security prison on Friday. The court found Gershkovich guilty of espionage in a case that the U.S. government and his employer, The Wall Street Journal, have denounced as fraudulent.

While the gender theorists fumble around trying to answer the “What is a Woman?” question, Sarah Huckabee Sanders answered it with a clarion call at the Republican National Convention. Her words were beautifully woven with the purpose of femininity. First, she honored Trump. Second, she lifted the name of God. And third, she emphasized her greatest role as a mother. Dressed in a cherry red dress and exuding pride in her country, Sanders praised Trump as an example of courage under fire while reminding us he is a father of five and grandfather of ten. With confidence and dignity, she modeled wisdom for younger women, which is what mothers are supposed to do. Not only is Sanders America’s youngest governor and the first female to lead “the great state of Arkansas,” but she is also the first mother to have served as White House Press Secretary, where she fielded attacks from the Left with unflinching grace. “America was safer under Donald Trump,” she announced at the RNC, reminding the world what is top-of-mind for women: our safety and security. “The Left doesn’t care about empowering women,” she stated plainly, “Biden and Harris can’t even tell you what a woman is.” That is the God-honest truth. While researching the creation of woman over the past few years, I discovered that not only is being a “man” an action — laying down one’s life to lift the woman at his side — but being a woman is an action too. It is the exact action Huckabee took in May of this year when she signed biological sex into law, defying Biden’s rewriting of Title IX to advance radical gender ideology. The action of womanhood is to speak on behalf of the vulnerable and to course-correct mankind when we are headed in the wrong direction. WATCH: Matt Walsh’s documentary “What is a Woman?” on DailyWire+ The word male in biblical Hebrew, zakar, means to remember who God is, what He says, and live it out. Men are responsible to carry the human family on their shoulders. Part of our purpose as women is to help them walk in that identity. While men lift us, women lift the home and family and stabilize mankind. Together, we pass on the ways of God to the next generation. In her Executive Order to Protect Women and Girls, Huckabee achieved this purpose by revisiting the original meaning of Title IX: to protect women, not harm them. When Title IX was passed into law in 1972, it was a succinct 37 words. Biden’s unilateral rewriting of Title IX resulted in 459,804 nonsensical words that divorce human beings from biological reality and put women at risk. Sanders unapologetically declared, it “turns back the clock on women’s opportunities, erodes student privacy, threatens women’s sports, and erases women,” which we can’t ignore. With unflinching accuracy, she called Biden on the carpet, saying it is “plainly ridiculous” for men to compete in women’s sports, receive access to women’s and girls’ locker rooms and private spaces, and snap away our scholarships. She lambasted this administration for rejecting reality and appeasing their Left-wing base over student’s safety.  “The government should celebrate, not erase, sex differences by providing proper protections for them,” she said, plain and simple–while making it illegal in Arkansas to force the use of inaccurate pronouns. She re-established “male and female” as the one and only definition of sex in her state. It’s refreshing and simple. The result of her measure? Girls in Arkansas don’t have to compete against boys. Their sports are safe; their locker rooms are safe; and their scholarships are safe. In Arkansas, political ideology doesn’t define sex; God does. Boom. That’s a woman for you. Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images Real women know we are worthy of protection. Real women honor God, men, and children. And real women speak up when it matters. The question remains why every Right-thinking governor in the United States hasn’t followed her wise example. What would happen if strong mothers and fathers stood united as a dividing wall between children and gender ideology? What would happen? Our daughters would be safe; our sons’ bodies and minds would be preserved; and children would know they are our first priority. In her speech to the RNC, Sanders lived up to the timeless definition of womanhood exhibited in Proverbs 8:2: “At the crossroads, she [wisdom] takes her stand.” “Ladies and gentlemen, we are not called to stand still in the face of great danger. You and I were put on this earth at a moment in time to charge boldly ahead,” Sanders said. I hope all women will follow her example. If they do, Matthew Arnold’s words will be fulfilled: “If there ever comes a time when the women of the world come together purely and simply for the benefit of mankind, it will be a force such as the world has never known.” What is a woman? We are daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, and grandmothers. We value strong, sacrificial fathers and raise warrior sons. We protect our daughters no matter the cost. And when the world is headed in the wrong direction, we stand up — maybe even wearing a beautiful red dress — and embrace the power of the feminine voice. Let’s not forget that in the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom is a She. * * * Jennifer Strickland is former international model, TEDx speaker, host of the I AM A WOMAN podcast, and an eight-time author, including titles such as Girl Perfect, Beautiful Lies, and her most recent release, I Am a Woman: Taking Back Our Name. She has worked with women of all ages for over 20 years through her ministry, U R More, and passionately aims to educate women, girls, men, and boys about the biblical truth of our identity. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

A top Democrat donor issued a statement on Friday urging President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign as he continues to fall further behind former President Donald Trump in polling. Billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Moritz — who has given nearly $8 million to pro-Biden and anti-Trump political action committees thus far during the 2024 cycle — said that he will not give any more money to Democrats this cycle if Biden remains the nominee. “Sadly, President Biden has a choice — vanity or virtue,” he said in a statement to The New York Times. “He can either condemn the country to dark and cruel times or heed the voice of Father Time. The clock has run out.” “I would vote for Biden, but I would not give another penny to any fund-raising appeals from Democrats,” he added. Major Democrat donors informed the pro-Biden political action committee Future Forward earlier this month that they will freeze $90 million in donations if the president remains in the presidential race. The Times, citing “two people who have been briefed on the conversations,” reported that the frozen contributions include eight-figure donations from multiple people. According to the Times, one donor said Future Forward approached him multiple times about a contribution following Biden’s disastrous debate, but the donor said he and others are “holding off.” A Future Forward adviser reportedly said the Super PAC expected donors who had paused contributions to unfreeze them once the Democrats resolved the uncertainty surrounding Biden’s nomination. The potential blow to Biden’s campaign comes just hours after Biden sought to assuage fears surrounding his mental and physical capabilities by holding a rare solo press conference on Thursday.

The man charged by Tennessee police with criminal homicide over a deadly hit-and-run that left a beloved Nashville restaurant owner dead is believed by authorities to be an illegal immigrant, The Daily Wire has learned.  Police captured 29-year-old Ulises Raigoza Martinez on Thursday and charged him over the death of 42-year-old Matt Carney, the owner of Smokin Thighs, a popular chicken restaurant and bar in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood. On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed a detainer on Martinez, telling The Daily Wire it would be interviewing him immenently to confirm his immigration status.  Carney died earlier this month after spending over two weeks in the hospital. According to police, Carney was attempting to stop Martinez and 31-year-old Adrian Diaz on June 19 from stealing tools out of his vehicle parked outside of the restaurant when they struck him with a Nissan Frontier truck and sped off, leaving Carney seriously injured on the road.  Carney died on July 4 from his injuries. A GoFundMe was set up to fund a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the capture of the men who hit Carney, and to support his wife Molly. The fund has already raised more than $57,000. He was remembered as a pillar of his community in his funeral service at Brentwood Baptist Church last week.  Matt and his wife Molly. (GoFundMe) On Wednesday, ICE confirmed that Diaz, who police say was with Martinez when they struck Carney, was a Mexican national illegally in the United States, and said that he has been deported four previous times. He has an extensive criminal history including convictions in 2014 for aggravated burglary in Tennessee, possession of controlled substances in Indiana in 2019, and illegal re-entry in 2020 in Indiana. He is currently been held in Williamson County Jail and charged with evading arrest and drug possession. Martinez was charged Thursday with five counts, including criminal homicide, tampering with evidence, vehicle theft, criminal impersonation, and evading arrest. He is being held in Davidson County jail and scheduled to appear before a Nashville judge on Monday.  According to court records, Martinez previously had three felony theft charges dismissed in March by Nashville Democrat Judge Jim Todd. There had been a week-long manhunt for Martinez after police named him as a person of interest in Carney’s death. Police attempted to question him on July 10, but he took off in a vehicle with Diaz and 25-year-old Francisco Javier Martinez-Lopez, another illegal immigrant from Mexico.  Eventually, Martinez-Lopez and Diaz were arrested after a foot chase in a wooded area of Brentwood, Tennessee, but Martinez escaped. On Wednesday, Martinez was again spotted near Chattanooga, but again evaded arrest before being arrested Thursday morning in Nashville.  Carney grew up in Adair, Iowa, before graduating from Full Sale University in Orlando and moving to Tennessee. After moving to Nashville, he built up Smokin Thighs from the ground up, with the restaurant first starting as a food truck back in 2012 “Matt will be remembered for his joyful spirit, his loud laugh and his smile that lit up the room,” his obituary reads. “His friends knew him as the life of the party, with his positive attitude, jokes and loyalty to those he loved. He loved big.”

'Americans are watching the Democrats implode'

The Left’s efforts to push a fragile Joe Biden out of the presidential race are probably hitting an apex around now, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly showed up at the old man’s house to “forcefully” ask him to pack it up. Many Democrats are now looking around for political saviors. I’m not sure it’s going to be that easy. Why would any legitimate presidential prospect—outside of Vice President Kamala Harris—consider jumping into the unprecedented chaos of 2024? Right now, Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan or Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, or whoever, can sit back for the next four years, bolster his or her credentials governing purple states, build national profiles, reach out to key constituencies, and put together organizations in important states. Anyone who gets in now would be compelled to make a convincing case in a condensed time frame, relying on Biden’s terrible campaign people, in what is likely the most tumultuous presidential election in more than a century. For another thing, one would need to leapfrog over the very first black/Asian-American/woman vice president in history for the nomination. Is any white Democrat with a bright political future going to rely on a flash anarchic convention to sideline Harris? I’ve never met the woman, but the vice president doesn’t seem to have a temperament that would take kindly to being shoved out of the picture. And, to be fair, her only real job is to step in for the president if he’s unable to perform his duties. Democratic voters, twice, picked her for that task. Then, even if a potential candidate could pull it off, rather than brandishing some fresh and tested political message, that candidate would be thrust into the role of defending the administration’s unpopular record on the border or economy and so on. Does any politician who’s built up credentials as an effective governor want to spend the next three months scaremongering about Project 2025 and the end of democracy? Seems unlikely to me. But I guess you can never know. If Democrats lose the White House this year, the Left’s revisionist history is going to blame the debate debacle for sinking Biden’s reelection efforts. And, indeed, the day the media’s gaslighting of the president’s decline was exposed, it changed the dynamics of the race. The president, though, was already struggling to get his message out and running behind Donald Trump on virtually every important issue. Biden almost certainly pushed for an early debate to reset the race. Boy, that was a disastrous mistake. If he had waited, the media would have continued hiding his failing mental acuity until the campaign ran out the clock. As far as Shapiro goes, it should be noted that the Democratic Party is not exactly a welcoming place for Jews right now. The party’s pro-Hamas faction, which Biden had been trying to mollify since Oct. 7, 2023, is still here. Navigating that issue won’t be easy. With the ejection of Hamas apologist Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., from Congress—and hopefully, soon, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo.—the dynamics might change in 2028. If Dems take a beating—and I’m not as sold on that prospect as others seem to be—perhaps Democrats will try to moderate the national ticket. Sitting it out comes with some risk, of course. Perhaps Harris wins. I happen to believe she’s a weaker candidate than Biden right now. We never really know how the electorate is going to react. In most ways, though, waiting until 2028 makes a lot more sense for any accomplished Democrat. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Why Would Any Legit Dem Presidential Prospect Jump Into This Mess? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the “right thing” of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton.What followed were eight long years of extralegal efforts to neuter candidate, then president, then ex-president, and then candidate again, Donald Trump. The nonstop efforts were all justified as “saving democracy”—albeit by nearly destroying it.In 2015-2016, the Hillary Clinton campaign fueled the lie that discredited ex-British spy Christopher Steele had discovered Trump to be a veritable Russian agent. Hillary did not disclose that she had paid Steele—with checks hidden through three paywalls. The FBI, under Director James Comey, also hired the fraudster. Yet almost nothing in his “Steele dossier” was true. The FBI doctored evidence submitted to a FISA court. Comey leaked to the press confidential documents about his private conversations with President Trump. Comey’s successor, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, lied on numerous occasions to federal investigators. Both former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper repeatedly lied to the nation, saying that Trump was de facto working with the Russians. The result? Trump lost the 2016 popular vote but still won the Electoral College. Next, celebrities and well-funded liberals waged a media campaign to convince the electors to become “faithless.” Left-wing elites begged them to renounce their constitutional duties and instead throw the election to Hillary Clinton. Once Trump was elected, “Russian collusion” was fired up again in hysterical fashion. A special counsel, Robert Mueller, consumed 22 months of the Trump presidency. His investigation team constantly leaked falsehoods about the “walls closing in on” Trump. After nearly two years, Mueller announced there was no evidence of a Trump effort to collude with Russia. Next was the first impeachment of Trump—nearly the moment he lost the House in 2018. Supposedly, Trump had leveraged Ukraine to investigate a corrupt Hunter Biden by delaying foreign aid. Trump was impeached on a strictly partisan vote. But later, no one denied that the drug-addled Hunter Biden had indeed gotten rich from Ukraine, or that Joe Biden had fired a Ukrainian prosecutor looking into his son’s misadventures while still vice president, or that Trump released all the military assistance designated by Congress, or that he included offensive weapons formerly denied Ukraine by the Obama-Biden administration. Next, in 2020, when Hunter’s laptop turned up abandoned at a repair shop and full of incriminating evidence of more Biden family skullduggery, the left struck again. It rounded up “51 former intelligence authorities” to mislead the American people on the eve of the vote that the laptop was likely a fake—once again cooked up by Russian disinformation experts to aid Trump. And once more, that was another complete falsehood. But the lie proved useful to Joe Biden in the debates and campaign. And he won the election. Next, the learn-nothing, forget-nothing left turned to the 2023-2024 campaign. This time, their next extra-legal efforts were twofold. One, they unsuccessfully sought to remove Trump from some 15 state ballots. Two, local, state, and federal courts began to wage lawfare to convict and jail candidate Trump, or at least bankrupt him and keep him off the campaign trail. Three, county and state prosecutors campaigned on getting Trump on charges never filed before against a presidential candidate—and rarely against anyone else as well. The Fani Willis Georgia lead prosecutor met secretly with the Biden White House counsel. Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan team hired the third-ranking federal prosecutor in the Biden Justice Department. Special counsel Jack Smith was found by a court to have been illegally appointed and much of his case was dismissed. On July 14, a shooter nearly killed candidate Trump, nicking his ear after somehow firing a rifle from a rooftop a mere 140 yards away—while undetected by law enforcement inside the very same building below. Prior to the shooting, Joe Biden had boasted to donors that “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” Biden had railed nearly nonstop that a Trump victory would spell the end of democracy—a theme the left had fueled by comparing ad nauseam Trump to Adolf Hitler. Yet here we are in mid-July 2024 and Trump, the Republican candidate, is alive and leads incumbent Biden—either because of, or despite, the crude efforts to destroy him. After nearly a decade of utter madness, can we finally order the FBI, DOJ, and CIA to butt out of our elections? Can a bankrupt media cease whipping up hysteria about a supposed Nazi-like takeover? Can the left stop relying on washed-up British spies, corrupt ex-spooks, and teams of clownish partisan prosecutors? Instead, why not, at last, just let the people choose their own president?(C)2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Can We Let the Voters Decide—Not the FBI, CIA, DOJ, Lawyers, Prosecutors, and Judges? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Our republic averted a national catastrophe by one inch: The tilt of former president Donald Trump’s head, an imperceptible difference in the wind, a slight shake in the nervous hand of the would-be assassin. Change any one of these factors and our country and the world would never be the same.   We should all thank God that Trump—the front-running candidate in the 2024 presidential election—walked away from his rally in Pennsylvania with his life. Trump said during his speech at the Republican National Convention that he shouldn’t be here today. To his credit he acknowledged that he is alive “only by the grace of God.” I won’t presume to say what purpose God had in sparing the former president and sparing America from unthinkable turmoil. But what played out on that Pennsylvania stage was too incredible to believe it was random chance. Trump turned his head the split second before the bullet arrived. Instead of a clean strike, Trump said he felt the shot whiz past and through his ear and then had the good sense to fall to the ground before more shots followed—something he may not have done if the first bullet had missed entirely. The whole thing was so incredible some Trump skeptics have made the outrageous claim that it was staged, even though the nation wasn’t altogether spared from tragedy. Sadly, we mourn the life of one brave firefighter who was killed by the assassin while shielding his family from the bullets. In his convention speech, Trump paid tribute to Corey Comperatore and others who were seriously injured by stray bullets at the rally. Nobody should have to take a bullet for going to a political rally, and we all grieve with the family members whose father, husband, or brother was taken from them. But I shudder to think what would have happened to our country in the ensuing months and years if Trump had died on that stage. The attempted assassination came on the eve of the RNC, before Trump had yet named his vice-presidential running mate. If the attempt on Trump’s life had been successful, the RNC would have been thrown into chaos—if it was held at all. Regardless, the next president of the United States would have been determined by an assassin’s bullet, not by the will of the people. Public trust would have been irreparably harmed, and an already divided nation would have been torn apart at the seams. Instead, Trump left the stage of the rally with his fist raised resolutely to the sky as the crowd cheered and chanted “USA, USA!” The RNC, thankfully, wasn’t marked by anger and a desire for retribution. Instead, it ended with a message of unity, love of country, and gratitude to God for preventing the unthinkable from happening in our republic. Maybe the tragic and near catastrophic events in Pennsylvania will serve as a poignant reminder to all of us that there is a God in Heaven looking down on us who saw fit to spare our nation on that day. That’s not because Trump is perfect or holy, and not because we Americans have been acting like moral and virtuous people deserving of his divine protection. And yet, by God’s grace, the schemes of the wicked were foiled and America as we know it is not yet lost. James Madison, the father of the Constitution, saw God’s Providential hand in protecting America from the time of its founding. Madison wrote, “It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of the Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.” From George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware to the Battle of Baltimore to the Cuban Missile Crisis to the assassination attempt against Trump, America has had its share of close calls over the past 248 years. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, America is “A republic, if you can keep it.” Indeed. As God demonstrated on Saturday, America is a republic, if we can keep it by the grace of God. The post A Republic if You Can Keep It, by the Grace of God appeared first on The Daily Signal.