Chris Wright, nominated to lead the Department of Energy, received a generally warm welcome from senators of both parties at his Senate committee confirmation hearing Wednesday—despite raucous protests from climate activists. Wright is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a natural gas company based in his home state of Colorado. Wright made clear in his opening statement before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that he sees energy—no matter its source—as the safeguard of America’s economy and defense. “Energy is the essential agent to change that enables everything that we do,” said Wright. “A highly energized society can bring health, wealth, and opportunity for all.” At various points throughout the hearing, climate activists in the audience erupted into shouts, accusing the senators of asking softball questions, and placing the blame for the wildfires in Southern California on energy executives such as Wright. They were quickly escorted from the hearing. That was in sharp contrast with the general friendliness offered to Wright by most of the Democratic senators. One of the warmest welcomes Wright received was from Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., who joked about a friendly argument the two had at a dinner party. “We were almost legendary, probably 12 or 13 years ago, at a fancy Easter dinner in the middle of the day. We got rather heated about some of the issues around energy,” said Hickenlooper with a smile.  “And I think what was interesting was, my wife was very worried about our hosts and us being invited back. Whereas, I don’t think Chris and I took any offense at all.” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told The Daily Signal that personal relationships like that with Democratic senators are likely what made the process smoother than tense hearings, such as the one Tuesday for Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary. “Obviously, he had a personal relationship with Hickenlooper. He was very respected and in his personal relationship, they had civilly disagreed and came away with a great deal of respect for each other.” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told the Daily Signal that the friendliness of Wright’s hearing was the result of his strong character. “I think it’s more a reflection on the quality of the nominee, Chris Wright,” Daines said.  “It’s not easy to get bipartisan outcomes on the Department of Energy and Natural Resources Committee, having served on the committee for many years. And he demonstrates that we have a very thoughtful, pragmatic results-oriented scientist in Chris Wright to be the secretary of energy, and I think they realize he’s not an ideologue. He’s a pragmatist.” However, some committee members were more hostile. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii—who on Tuesday had attacked Hegseth with accusations of drunkenness and sexual impropriety—also took a hostile tone with Wright, asserting that he attended a meeting of oil executives with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump last April, at which Trump supposedly requested $1 billion from them in exchange for oil-drilling leases on federal lands. Wright fired back at Hirono, saying that the meeting was “quite a bit different than what you described” and that “the president put forward no such deal.” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., also pressured Wright, albeit with a softer tone, asking Wright what the viable sources of energy are for the United States. Wright replied that “every source of energy that either today, or through technological innovation, can be a growth engine for affordable, reliable, secure energy,” would count in that category, after mentioning natural gas, geothermal energy, and nuclear power. Cortez Masto admonished Wright for not having mentioned solar power, but applauded his openness to energy sources beyond fossil fuels. This general spirit of compromise continued throughout the hearing. At one point, Hickenlooper asked Wright about his view of climate change. “If [climate change] goes faster than [the current rate], do you think we should have a strategic plan, like, ready?” the Colorado lawmaker asked. Wright responded, “I’ve studied and followed data and the evolution of climate change for at least 20 years now. It is a global issue. It is a real issue. It’s a challenging issue, and the solution for climate change is to evolve our energy system.”  In Wright’s view, the only path to a cleaner energy future is by developing improved technology and alternative sources of energy.  “I’ve worked on that most all of my career,” he added. “In nuclear, in solar and geothermal, and new battery storage technology now.” “Do I wish we could make faster progress? Absolutely. Are the things we can do … to accelerate development of new energy technologies that are really the only pathway to address climate change? Absolutely.” The cordial nature of the hearing may have come from an awareness on Democratic senators’ part of the extent to which President Joe Biden’s aggressive position on emissions controls and climate policy contributed to Trump’s victory in November.  In Wright, Trump has chosen an Energy Department nominee who—at least on Wednesday—was capable of finding compromise with the Democratic Party. If confirmed, Wright will have to deal with Biden’s legacy on energy policy, as the sitting president recently instituted bans on offshore drilling by executive order. Daines told The Daily Signal that he’s confident that those bans will be rescinded by Trump to clear the way for Wright. “I’m confident that President Trump, whether it’s through executive orders—or through Congressional Review Act actions from Congress—that we will reverse many of these radical and far-reaching actions that President Biden is taking,” the Montana lawmaker said. The post Climate Protesters Aside, Energy Nominee Gets Mostly Warm Reception From Senate Panel appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Bondi v Crazy Mazie Exactly What We'd Expect

America’s first gender-deluded congressman apparently believes it’s his job as a public representative to make his sexual dysphoria the problem of impressionable young children. A viral video shows “transgender” Rep. Tim “Sarah” McBride (D-Del.) telling elementary school kids it’s “society’s” fault that people considered him a boy when he “knew” he was “really a girl.” Watch Congressman Tim McBride, who pretends to be a woman, read the book "I am Jazz" to young children. He tells kids that it's "society's" fault that people thought he was a boy and because his parents loved him, they let him pretend to be a girl. pic.twitter.com/3mj2qPlK0i — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 13, 2025 In a classroom reading event sponsored by the so-called “Human Rights Campaign,” children circled McBride prepared for a session of sexual confusion. The congressman proceeded to open the picture book, I Am Jazz, a story that celebrates a Kindergartner who was castrated with the help of his parents because he wanted to be a girl.  “I have a girl brain, but a boy body,” he began. (Wrong. His brain still has XY chromosomes.) “This is called ‘Transgender.’ I was born this way,” the book of lies continued.  (No. It’s called Gender Dysphoria. Nobody is born “trans.”) But the propaganda didn’t stop there. “Then, one amazing day, everything changed. Mom and Dad took me to a new doctor who asked me lots and lots of questions. Afterward, the doctor spoke to my parents and I, and I heard the word ‘transgender’ for the very first time,” the book described. McBride continued to recite Jazz, who praised his parents for letting him “wear girl clothes to school and grow my hair long.” Jazz, a real-life TLC personality, is now a neutered adult who suffers from depression. But McBride advertised his story as an inspiring “message” for the underaged audience to emulate.  “I don’t mind being different. Different is special,” he read aloud. Therein lies the problem: Narcissistic adults preying on society’s most vulnerable to validate their need to feel “special.”  Of course, that is when he closed the book and made the story about himself.  “I’m like Jazz,” McBride proclaimed.  “When I was born, the doctors and my parents… they all thought that I was a boy,” to which one little girl responded by asking “Why?”  “Because society… people around them told them that was the case,” he answered.  The congressman then praised his parents “who loved me” for eventually capitulating to his delusion. “I was finally able to be myself,” he told the class, who will now go home thinking “love” means being lied to.

From all angles, it seems Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has left Team Democrat for Team MAGA. Last week, he announced a list of important policy changes Meta would adopt, including ditching its biased fact-checkers in favor of a community notes system like X, lifting censorship filters on subjects like gender and immigration, and bringing back civic content. On top of that, UFC president and CEO (and longtime friend of Donald Trump) Dana White joined Meta’s board. The parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and Threads also announced that it would be terminating its DEI hiring practices, as the acronym has “become charged” and is “understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others.” Now Meta has taken its conservative makeover to new heights with a recent directive ordering all tampons and sanitary pads to be removed from men's bathrooms. Dave Landau and the “Normal World” crew discuss the 180-degree transformation of a company that was the epitome of woke before the election. ¼ Black Garrett can’t help but roll his eyes at the obvious political pandering of Mark Zuckerberg. He points to the CEO’s recent comment that an election is a great time to “get the pulse of the people” as evidence that Meta’s transformation is motivated solely by staying in the good graces of whoever is in power. “He’s literally just going, ‘Hey, what do you guys like? I’m gonna do that.’ ... He has no personal principles,” he tells Dave and Angela Boggs. While Meta is getting a lot of attention for the changes it’s adopting, it’s no trailblazer. Dave lists a series of other companies that are essentially doing the same thing by nixing their DEI programs: Amazon, McDonald’s, American Airlines, Boeing, Jack Daniels, CAT, Tractor Supply, Harley, John Deere, Lowe’s, Nissan, Toyota, and Walmart. “You've designed a plane so the doors are ripping off, wheels won't come out when they land, and [Boeing] is like, ‘Look, at least we're not racist,”’ Dave laughs. To hear more of the team’s commentary, including their hilarious personal stories about interacting with DEI hires at various companies, watch the episode above. Want more 'Normal World'?To enjoy more whimsical satire, topical sketches, and comedic discussions from comedians Dave Landau and 1/4 Black Garrett, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The Food and Drug Administration announced a ban on the use of Red No. 3, a dye used in thousands of food products that had been approved for over a hundred years but is linked to cancer. The decision comes days before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his health and human services secretary. Kennedy has long criticized artificial additives in the U.S. food supply. 'The FDA cannot authorize a food additive or color additive if it has been found to cause cancer in human or animals.' The dye was first approved for use in foods in 1907, but a study in the 1980s found that ingesting high dosages led to higher incidence of cancer in laboratory rats. Environmentalists have called for its ban for decades while critics of the efforts say they're just another example of government overreach. "The FDA cannot authorize a food additive or color additive if it has been found to cause cancer in human or animals," read a statement from FDA deputy director for human foods Jim Jones. "Evidence shows cancer in laboratory male rats exposed to high levels of FD&C Red No. 3."The dye has been banned in Australia, Japan, and in some countries in the European Union. “At long last, the FDA is ending the regulatory paradox of Red 3 being illegal for use in lipstick, but perfectly legal to feed to children in the form of candy,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The additive was banned for use in cosmetics in 1990. The red dye ban so close to the inauguration led some to accuse the administration of trying to undermine the efforts of RFK Jr. in order to take credit for his efforts before he can get into the office. Democrats in California had previously penned legislation banning additives, including Red No. 3, in food products. "We know they are harmful and that children are likely eating more of these chemicals than adults," said Susan Little of the Environmental Working Group in 2023. "It makes no sense that the same products food manufacturers sell in California are sold in the EU but without these toxic chemicals."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

In a conversation Wednesday with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R) blew up Democrats' preferred narrative about Army veteran Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the Pentagon, along with the egalitarian conceit that women can or should perform all roles in the U.S. military. Luna, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 2009 to 2014, earning the Air Force Achievement Medal along the way, highlighted Democrats' desperate efforts to twist Hegseth's past comments regarding women in the military into supposed disqualifiers during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. "Pete never said that he never wanted women to serve in the military," said Luna. "In fact, it's quite the opposite." Hegseth has long emphasized the need to maintain high standards for combat, even if that means fewer female service members on the battlefield — something he reiterated in his opening remarks, stating, "Our standards will be high, and they will be equal, not equitable." "It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. … We've all served with women, and they're great," Hegseth told the titular host of "The Shawn Ryan Show" in November. "But our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where, traditionally — not traditionally, over human history — men in those positions are more capable." As Luna indicated, Democrats were more than willing to distort Hegseth's views on the matter. Blaze News previously reported that Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) asked the two-time recipient of the Bronze Star at his hearing Tuesday, "Should we believe you think the two women in this committee who served in the military made our military less capable?" 'There are different standards for women and men.' "No, their contributions are indispensable," Hegseth said of the former female service members. "My comments are about having the same standards across the board." Luna noted further that gender equity in terms of representation in various roles in the military is problematized not only by physical disparities between the sexes but also by the social and psychological realities that have manifested naturally as a result of these objective differences over the course of eons. "There are certain rules that women should not be subjected to in the military," said Luna. "So in a lot of foreign countries, you will see there will be women-only sniper teams and/or women-only teams that will see certain combat. Now, I preface this by saying that there was a study that was done, and it shows that when women were placed in harm's way ... the natural instinct for men was to protect that woman. And that's the right thing to do. That's that 'toxic masculinity' that the left tries to attack us with all the time." "That's human nature," said Beck. "We're born with that." Luna noted that while a noble instinct, it could undermine the work of co-ed teams. The congresswoman provided the hypothetical of a female service member taking fire, then suffering an injury on a special forces team. Luna suggested that whereas if the injured party was a man, his comrades would likely maintain focus on the mission, in the case of a woman, the men on the team might instead feel compelled to rush to her defense. "It could ultimately result in ... more casualties, more people getting hurt, and then also jeopardize the success of the mission," said Luna. "And so I think when we're looking at military policy as a whole, we need to take these things into consideration." — (@) Recognizing that Hegseth is a prime target for demonization because he is a white, Christian male, Luna seized upon the opportunity and the relative safety of her identity to push the point home, stressing that men and women are not interchangeable and there are certain roles for which women should be ineligible. "There are different standards for women and men. That's just a fact," said the congresswoman. "It doesn't mean that women aren't as good as men. I think there's been cases where women can be better snipers than men are." After a RAND-led and Congress-ordered study determined that women were not only "injured at significantly higher rates than men" but were "failing at noticeably higher rates" than their male counterparts — the ACFT pass rate for women enlisted in the regular Army was 52%, whereas the pass rate for men was 92% — the Army jettisoned its gender-neutral Army Combat Fitness Test in 2022 and lowered standards for female soldiers. After stating that women should not be required to register for the draft — something former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) pushed for with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) before voters rejected him at the ballot box — Luna underscored once again, "Women should not be placed in certain combat roles in the military." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

President-elect Donald Trump's Office of Management and Budget director nominee, Russell Vought, faced his confirmation hearing before the Senate on Wednesday.Vought, who previously served in the same position in Trump's first term, fought off several attacks from Senate Democrats, who accused him of a spectrum of offenses, including giving “really good bureaucratic answers” that they felt did not answer their questions.'I know that I did not find any outrage on the Democratic side with regard to President Biden's actions.'Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) kicked off the hearing by complaining about the expedited timeline to approve Vought's appointment, claiming his record "raises serious concerns."Peters repeatedly claimed Vought violated the law, stating that he previously withheld funding that Congress appropriated.“You designed the plan to abuse the National Emergency Act to circumvent laws passed by Congress by moving military construction money to build a border wall,” Peters said.Vought fired back, calling it a "mischaracterization" and insisting he never broke any laws. He argued that the administration used the transfer authority that Congress provided the executive branch.“It was specifically a transfer authority that Congress had given the president in the underlining appropriation,” he responded.Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) accused Democrats of being "hypocritical" for not showing any outrage when President Joe Biden ignored a Supreme Court decision to prevent his federal student loan debt cancellation program. "Do you find it hypocritical if you're somebody who's introduced legislation to forgive student debt and now is lecturing you about the executive overreach powers?" Moreno asked Vought."I know that I did not find any outrage on the Democratic side with regard to President Biden's actions on that. I'll just leave it at that," Vought responded.Several Democratic senators, including Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire and Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, tried to claim that Vought and the Trump administration may try to withhold emergency funding from political rivals, such as California as it battles destructive fires.Peters pressed Vought about whether he would comply with a congressional subpoena, claiming he did not in the past.Vought responded, "As you know, the president [Trump] was being impeached at that time. The Office of Legal Counsel instructed the appointees of the executive branch, because their agency council were not going to be allowed to participate in those proceedings and therefore protect privileged information, not to go to the Hill.""So, of course, I will come to Congress if subpoenaed," he concluded.Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) defended Vought."I don't think this committee wants to discuss who is and who isn't willing to be able to come for hearings when last year, for the first time in 20 years, the Biden administration refused to come for the global threats hearing," Lankford said.Lankford slammed U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray for refusing to attend the hearing."I understand what happened during the impeachment time. That was a very unique moment that I hope is not repeated again, obviously, but this committee certainly has not had response from the Biden administration actually coming and appearing for this committee or delivering documents," he added.Trump nominated Vought in November, commending the former director for knowing "exactly how to dismantle the deep state and end weaponized government."Trump noted that, during his first term, Vought and the administration "cut four Regulations for every new Regulation," calling it "a Great Success!""We will restore fiscal sanity to our Nation, and unleash the American People to new levels of Prosperity and Ingenuity," he added.Vought responded to Trump's nomination, stating, "There is unfinished business on behalf of the American people, and it's an honor of a lifetime to get the call again."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

RFK Jr.'s Warning Heeded - FDA to Ban Cancer-Linked Red Dye No. 3 in U.S. Foods

Ivy Beleaguered: J.D. Vance HUMILIATES Yale Professor Who Claims Pete Hegseth Will Destroy America

'Pure Savage!' GOP Rep Uses His Phone to Test Witness' Claim SSA Telework Improved Customer Service