Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) signaled on Tuesday his interest in running for governor of Arizona. “Today, I filed a statement of interest to run for Governor of Arizona in 2026,” Biggs wrote. Today, I filed a statement of interest to run for Governor of Arizona in 2026. See my full statement below. pic.twitter.com/8swWhm7pYC — Andy Biggs (@andybiggs4az) January 21, 2025 A closer look: From The Arizona Republic: He currently represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, which stretches across Maricopa and Pinal counties, including parts of Gilbert, Chandler, Queen Creek and Apache Junction. On Tuesday he filed a formal statement of interest in running for governor with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. That allows him to start gathering signatures to qualify for the 2026 ballot. The announcement sets up a fight between Biggs and Karrin Taylor Robson, the businessperson Trump has encouraged to run for governor. Trump passed over Robson in 2022, the last time she ran for governor, instead endorsing Republican Kari Lake. Lake went on to lose that year’s election and, more recently, lost a bid for U.S. Senate. SCOOP: Congressman Andy Biggs files statement of interest to run for Arizona governor in 2026. pic.twitter.com/fiwWK79jiR — Cameron Arcand (@cameron_arcand) January 21, 2025 BREAKING Congressman Andy Biggs has filed to run for Governor of Arizona in 2026 pic.twitter.com/AKbtJCeFvX — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 21, 2025 Per Axios: Biggs chaired the Freedom Caucus from 2019 to 2021 and was among the Republican House insurgents who ousted Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Before getting elected to Congress in 2016, Biggs served in the Arizona Legislature, including as Senate president, and practiced law. Biggs’ candidacy could trigger a fight for Trump’s endorsement. Karrin Taylor Robson, who lost the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, is expected to run again next year, and Trump has already suggested a possible endorsement, telling her during a speech in Phoenix last month: “Are you running for governor? I think so, Karrin, because if you do, you’re going to have my support, OK?” Trump’s stated support for Taylor Robson rankled many of the president’s supporters. State Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, founding chair of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, wrote on X that he’s proud to endorse Biggs. If Biggs runs for governor, the Republican primary to replace him in the deep-red 5th Congressional District could get crowded. Already, former state Rep. Travis Grantham announced his candidacy later on Tuesday.

Promises made, promises kept! Once again, President Trump has just delivered on another big campaign promise, pardoning and freeing Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. ROSS ULBRICHT IS FREE! Thank you @realDonaldTrump for keeping your promise! https://t.co/fjMqPBN2TK — Rothmus (@Rothmus) January 22, 2025 Here is the official post from President Trump on his TruthSocial: And now in the “that didn’t age well” file, here is Fox News pointing out that President Trump failed to deliver on his promise because he didn’t do it on “Day One”: President Trump did not pardon or commute the prison sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the anonymous marketplace website Silk Road, despite his promise on the campaign trail to free him on “day one.” Ulbricht was convicted because his website, which was founded in 2011 and used cryptocurrency for payments, was used to sell illegal drugs, even though he did not sell any of the illicit substances himself. After being sworn into office on Monday, Trump issued several executive actions, including efforts to reduce immigration, designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move to resume federal executions and pardoning or commuting sentences to time served of people convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. But Trump’s first day back in the White House came to an end with Ulbricht still behind bars without a pardon or commutation from the president, who pledged to do so last spring. In May, Trump delivered a speech at the Libertarian National Convention to a hostile crowd of boos in an attempt to win over Libertarian voters. Libertarians believe government investigators overreached in their case against Silk Road and generally oppose the War on Drugs. While the attendees were not favorable to Trump for most of the event, they did give a big cheer when he said he would commute Ulbricht’s sentence to time served, as the crowd chanted “Free Ross” in the hopes that the then-presidential candidate would take action if elected to allow the Silk Road founder to return home to his family after more than a decade behind bars. How is Day 1.5 instead, Fox? Good enough for you? I think Ross is ok with it. BREAKING: ROSS ULBRICHT HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN PARDONED BY DONALD TRUMP pic.twitter.com/GS1AYuctws — Churl Bistros (@0xChurl) January 21, 2025 If you want to understand just how much they weaponized Government against this man, here is the 2015 ICE press release explaining all the things they believe he did wrong: Ross Ulbricht, aka “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was sentenced Friday in federal court to life in prison in connection with his operation and ownership of Silk Road, a hidden website designed to enable its users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services anonymously and beyond the reach of law enforcement between January 2011 and October 2013. The sentenced was announced by Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Ulbricht was found guilty Feb. 5 of each of the seven charges he faced, following a four-week jury trial. U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest imposed the sentence May 29. “Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people,” said Bharara. “Ulbricht went from hiding his cybercrime identity to becoming the face of cybercrime and as today’s sentence proves, no one is above the law.” According to the evidence presented at trial, statements made during other public proceedings, including the sentencing, and other court documents: Ulbricht created Silk Road in January 2011, and owned and operated the underground website until it was shut down by law enforcement authorities in October 2013. Silk Road emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet, serving as a sprawling black-market bazaar where unlawful goods and services, including illegal drugs of virtually all varieties, were bought and sold regularly by the site’s users. While in operation, Silk Road was used by thousands of drug dealers and other unlawful vendors to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services to more than 100,000 buyers, and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars deriving from these unlawful transactions. Ulbricht deliberately operated Silk Road as an online criminal marketplace intended to enable its users to buy and sell drugs and other illegal goods and services anonymously and outside the reach of law enforcement. Ulbricht sought to anonymize transactions on Silk Road in two principal ways. First, Ulbricht operated Silk Road on what is known as “The Onion Router,” or “Tor” network, a special network of computers on the Internet, distributed around the world, designed to conceal the true IP addresses of the computers on the network and thereby the identities of the networks’ users. Second, Ulbricht designed Silk Road to include a Bitcoin-based payment system that served to facilitate the illegal commerce conducted on the site, including by concealing the identities and locations of the users transmitting and receiving funds through the site. The vast majority of items for sale on Silk Road were illegal drugs, which were openly advertised as such on the site. As of Sept. 23, 2013, the Silk Road home page displayed nearly 13,000 listings for controlled substances, listed under such categories as “Cannabis,” “Dissociatives,” “Ecstasy,” “Intoxicants,” “Opioids,” “Precursors,” “Prescription,” “Psychedelics,” and “Stimulants.” From November 2011 to September 2013, law enforcement agents made more than 60 individual undercover purchases of controlled substances from Silk Road vendors. These purchases included heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and LSD, among other illegal drugs, and were filled by vendors believed to be located in more than ten different countries, including the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Austria, and France. The narcotics distributed on Silk Road have been linked to at least six overdose deaths across the world. These overdose deaths include: Jordan M., a 27-year-old Microsoft employee who was found unresponsive in front of his computer, which was logged onto Silk Road at the time, and died as a result of heroin and other prescription drugs that he had ordered from Silk Road; and Preston B., from Perth, Australia, and Alejandro N., from Camino, California, both 16-years-old, died as a result of taking 25i-NBOMe, a powerful synthetic drug designed to mimic LSD (commonly referred to as “N-Bomb”), which was purchased from Silk Road. Additional victims include: Bryan B., a 25-year-old from Boston, Massachusetts and Scott W., a 36-year-old from Australia, who both died as a result of heroin purchased from Silk Road; and Jacob B., a 22-year-old from Australia, who died from health complications that were aggravated by the use of drugs purchased from Silk Road. In addition to illegal narcotics, other illicit goods and services were openly bought and sold on Silk Road. For example, as of Sept. 23, 2013, there were: 159 listings under the category “Services,” most of which offered computer hacking services, such as a listing by a vendor offering to hack into social networking accounts of the customer’s choosing; 801 listings under the category “Digital goods,” including malicious software, hacked accounts at various online services, and pirated media content; and 169 listings under the category “Forgeries,” including offers to produce fake driver’s licenses, passports, Social Security cards, utility bills, credit card statements, car insurance records, and other forms of false identification documents. Using the online moniker “Dread Pirate Roberts,” or “DPR,” Ulbricht controlled and oversaw every aspect of Silk Road, and managed a staff of paid, online administrators and computer programmers who assisted with the day-to-day operation of the site. Through his ownership and operation of Silk Road, Ulbricht reaped commissions worth more than $13 million generated from the illicit sales conducted through the site. Ulbricht also demonstrated a willingness to use violence to protect his criminal enterprise and the anonymity of its users, soliciting six murders-for-hire in connection with operating the site, although there is no evidence that these murders were actually carried out. Ulbricht, 31, of San Francisco, California, was convicted of the following seven offenses after a four-week jury trial: distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the Internet, conspiring to distribute narcotics, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in false identity documents, and conspiring to commit money laundering. In addition to the life sentence prison term, Ulbricht was ordered to forfeit $183,961,921. In imposing the sentence, Judge Forrest said: “There must be no doubt that lawlessness will not be tolerated. There must be no doubt that no one is above the law – no matter one’s education or privileges. All stand equal before the law. There must be no doubt that you cannot run a massive criminal enterprise and because it occurred over the Internet minimize the crime committed on that basis.” Bharara praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its New York Special Operations and Cyber Division, as well as the outstanding investigative work of the following agencies:DEA’s New York Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force, which comprises agents and officers of DEA, IRS, New York City Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York State Police, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service, Office of Foreign Assets Control, and New York Department of Taxation. Bharara also thanked the HSI Chicago-O’Hare office for its assistance and support, as well as the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Office of International Affairs. Additionally, Bharara praised the foreign law enforcement partners whose contributions to the success of the investigation and prosecution have been invaluable, namely, the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police of the Republic of Iceland, and the French Republic’s Central Office for the Fight Against Crime Linked to Information Technology and Communication. The prosecution of this case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Serrin Turner and Timothy T. Howard are in charge of the prosecution, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Magdo is in charge of the forfeiture aspects of the case. But….is that accurate? Overblown? Weaponized Government run amok? The case may be confusing and hard to follow if you don’t understand everything that happened here, or if you don’t understand the role crypto and Bitcoin played — and I don’t confess to understand it all either — but I do know that I trust Thomas Massie and here is Thomas Massie saying what they did to Ross Ulbricht is the worst violation of the 8th Amendment to our Constitution he has ever seen: If you’d like to dig in even more, you can see mountains of evidence in support of Ross here: https://freeross.org I know two things: (1) I trust Thomas Massie, and (2) I don’t trust a Government weaponized against the people. We need much more Libertarianism in our country and much less weaponized Government, of that I am certain. Congratulations Ross!

Worship: adoration or devotion comparable to religious homage, shown toward a person or group of people. And this is what the Left are obsessed with. Anything less than complete adoration of their favorite protected classes feels like oppression to them. Reminds me of a popular quote: When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. And so the whole Trump crew were in for a huge shock when they attended church at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday morning. The DEI loving, homosexual embracing ‘Bishop’ Budde got up and gave her woke liberal speech. “Have mercy” she pleaded, for degenerate and illegal citizens. What she’s saying is “give them special privileges.” Why? Because they’re better than the rest of us, right? Has she forgotten about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? The victim cards this ‘bishop’ throws down are an abomination. We don’t fall for that anymore. She needs to be cast out. Yeah, I said it. Zero tolerance for unbiblical leaders in the church. NEW: Trump, Melania, JD Vance, and Usha were indirectly dressed down by Bishop Budde at the National Prayer Service — instead of an uplifting sermon it was a long-winded reprimand of Trump’s actions and shaming him for his admin’s goals. It was a politically weaponized service pic.twitter.com/1FvSEz9BEj — Autism Capital (@AutismCapital) January 21, 2025 Daily Mail reports: President Donald Trump was left in disbelief as he was forced to listen to a woke bishop deliver a stunningly negative sermon calling for him to show ‘mercy’ to illegal immigrants and transgender children. On the first full day of Trump’s presidency Marianne Budde, the left-wing Episcopal Bishop of Washington, unleashed a wild lecture claiming trans kids were ‘fearing for their lives’ due to him being in the Oval Office. Trump sat stony-faced in the front row, next to First Lady Melania Trump, as the prelate told him illegal immigrants were not criminals and he shouldn’t deport those with children. Bishop Budde, 65, addressed Trump directly in a highly political speech from the pulpit during a traditional inaugural prayer service at Washington National Cathedral. She told Trump: ‘I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country that are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.’ The liberal clergywoman then asked Trump to have mercy on illegal immigrants. She said: ‘The people who pick our crops, and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals, they might not be citizens or have the proper documentation. ‘The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.’ Trump maintained his calm and appeared to look on slightly wearily after a full day and night of Inauguration festivities. But some other members of the congregation seemed uncomfortable as they listened to the bishop’s diatribe. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde: “The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors…may I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.” pic.twitter.com/iXaHJrPsof — CSPAN (@cspan) January 21, 2025 Unimpressed. And probably furious. I was, listening to this filth. The entire Trump squad is unimpressed as a far-left activist bishop lectures them on showing “mercy” to LGBT children and illegal immigrants. This may be my new favorite video. pic.twitter.com/NfKKaD8fpM — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 21, 2025 Well, at least there’s one good thing that came from this story about a mental bishop. And that is, it gives me an excuse to use this clip from Monty Python: There, that’s better.

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know this is not the typical story I cover here. I don’t do the “secret military tribunals” reporting… I don’t claim Hillary was secretly executed at GITMO…. I don’t run any of those Fake News articles. Sure, they get clicks but that’s not what we do here. We report on the TRUTH, without censorship.  But we don’t make stuff up or run with rumors or hyperbole just because it sounds interesting. Which is why over 5+ million people each month trust us to bring them the REAL news. Sure, we all make mistakes here and there, but in general if we print it here, you can take it to the bank! So this is not the typical type of story I would run, but I’m running it purely for two reasons only…. And the first is because of who it comes from: my good friend Jovan Hutton Pulitzer. In fact, I really need to get Jovan back on my show for another interview, because it’s such an absolute treat getting to talk with this man. He is a wealth of knowledge and he has a very similar philosophy as I do — he doesn’t run with crap rumors or hyped up stories.  He only deals in logic and facts and truth. Which is why seeing him post this caught my attention in a big way: TOMORROW #WriteItDown 7 AM CST – SPACE FORCE MILITRAY TRIBUNALS BEGZIN! Get The Inside Scoop and Look AT The Proof Over Time! #SpaceForce #MilitaryTribunals #Trump2025 https://t.co/KDayhxE3GN pic.twitter.com/pU4QFFswPz — JovanHuttonPulitzer (@JovanHPulitzer) January 21, 2025 If anyone other than Jovan would have posted that, I would have scrolled past it so fast you’d see smoke, but when I see @JovanHPulitzer on the post, I stop and pay attention. I’m not sure if he’s just saying he’s going to do a show at 7am tomorrow morning to talk about this topic or whether he’s saying the Military Tribunals begin tomorrow, but I have read and re-read this post and I can’t find a way to read this other than the latter. So there you go. We’ll all watch together and see what happens, but you might be getting the inside scoop before everyone else! The other reason I’m running this story is because of Catherine Herridge and the fact that she’s been posting up a storm about literally being at GITMO investigating the Military Trials. We ran this report last night: Catherine Herridge Is Suddenly In Guantanamo Bay Investigating Military Trials! So perhaps Jovan's post in a vacuum still may not have captured my attention quite as much, but knowing that Catherine Herridge essentially corroborated it yesterday, now I'm connecting dots. And now it suddenly doesn't sound far-fetched at all. In terms of reliable sources, I'll take Jovan Pulitzer and Catherine Herridge all day long! Here was that full report in case you missed it: Catherine Herridge Is Suddenly In Guantanamo Bay Investigating Military Trials! Things are moving at an absolutely BREAKNECK pace today.... I knew they would, I warned everyone weeks in advance, but it's still quite incredible to watch! And it's not all just President Trump. It's like an entire machine has suddenly been set in motion. We have things like "Joe Biden" suddenly revoking "Devolution" and EO 13961: DEVOLUTION OVER? “Joe Biden” Revokes Most of Executive Order 13961 And then we have former CBS reporter Catherine Herridge suddenly in Guantanamo Bay suddenly investigating military trials. What incredible timing! You mean to tell me for the past four years we've all talked about Military Tribunals happening at Guantanamo Bay, and Derek Johnson has shown the military airplane flight paths going to and from Guantanamo on a daily basis....and now on the day of President Trump's Inauguration Catherine Herridge is suddenly down there covering it all? Do you believe in "coincidences"? How about the mother of all coincidences? It started with this: Umm are you all seeing this? Herridge is at GITMO today, looking into the military trials. She says “there is so much secrecy around this entire base”, and that she would like to show us more, but cannot due to “national security”. Wtf is going on? pic.twitter.com/34GRtAyLOc — Clandestine (@WarClandestine) January 21, 2025 Full screen video player here: Catherine Herridge is at GITMO today, looking into the military trials! She says “there is so much secrecy around this entire base”, and that she would like to show us more, but cannot due to “national security”. Wtf is going on? pic.twitter.com/ubN77LRXug — Noah Christopher (@DailyNoahNews) January 21, 2025 FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE: Catherine Herridge: We’re on our way to GITMO. I’m traveling this beach to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We’ve just arrived at the airport, and now we’re taking the ferry over to Camp Justice. That’s home to the military trials and the military courts. Of course, the big case is the 9/11 prosecution. There is so much, um, secrecy, uh, around this entire base. There are a lot of things that we would like to show you, but they’re off limits. They’re restricted for national security reasons. Striking to me is that so many Americans don’t even realize that the detention camps are still open. The military trials have still not, and I just thought it was time to check it again from AIC to really see what was happening here. As the Trump Administration begins its first 100 days in office, we are at Guantanamo Bay, and we’ll be reporting from here at Camp Justice. We’ll be inside the courtrooms. We’ll have updates on the status of the military trials as well as the detention camps. This new Administration is going to have to make some hard choices about the future of this operation. And then she added this: Herridge decides that the day Trump is inaugurated, she is going to be in GITMO, reporting on the status of the upcoming “military trials”. She says that the Trump administration is “going to have to make some hard choices about the future of this operation”. How interesting pic.twitter.com/2aiHgjfTlp — Clandestine (@WarClandestine) January 21, 2025 Full screen video player here: Catherine Herridge decides that on the day Trump is inaugurated, she is going to be in GITMO, reporting on the status of the upcoming “military trials”. She says that the Trump administration is “going to have to make some hard choices about the future of this operation”. How… pic.twitter.com/fKX6DcKSlL — Noah Christopher (@DailyNoahNews) January 21, 2025 FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE: CATHERINE HERRIDGE: As the Trump Administration begins its first 100 days in office, we are at Guantanamo Bay and we'll be reporting from here at Camp Justice. We'll be inside the courtrooms. We'll have updates on the status of the military trials, as well as the detention camps. This new Administration is going to have to make some hard choices about the future of this operation.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday that the state must pay the federal government $2.1 billion over the next decade. According to WBUR, the “Baker administration mistakenly used federal pandemic funds to cover unemployment benefits.” Healey succeeded Baker in 2023. Massachusetts must pay feds $2.1B after mistakenly using pandemic funds to cover unemployment benefits https://t.co/2IPtHIeyZT — Fox News (@FoxNews) January 21, 2025 WBUR reports: Gov. Maura Healey, who succeeded Baker in 2023, and her deputies unveiled details of a settlement they reached with the outgoing Biden administration Friday in which the Bay State will repay most but not all of the amount it owed due to the error committed years ago. The settlement saddles the state with a major new cost at a time when budget-writers are grappling with a series of other headaches and the unemployment insurance system already faces fiscal problems. Healey announced in the summer of 2023 that her team discovered the Baker administration improperly used about $2.5 billion in federal pandemic relief funds to cover jobless benefits that should have been paid by the state. With fees and interest, the total liability surpassed $3 billion, according to Healey’s office, who said talks with with the U.S. Department of Labor reduced the amount owed to $2.1 billion over the next 10 years. Massachusetts must pay the federal government $2.1 billion over the next decade after the Baker administration mistakenly used federal pandemic funds to cover unemployment benefits, officials said Monday.https://t.co/v1mG6xubka — 7News Boston WHDH (@7News) January 20, 2025 “It is incredibly frustrating that the prior administration allowed this to happen, but we are going to use this as a moment to come together with the business and labor community to make meaningful reforms to the Unemployment Insurance system,” Healey said, according to CBS News. In deal with feds, Mass. will have to pay back $2.1 billion misspent by Baker administration https://t.co/jVcNwX0MOI — Boston.com (@BostonDotCom) January 21, 2025 Per CBS News: The agreement was finalized with former President Joe Biden’s administration, just before President Donald Trump took office. The National Federation of Independent Business said that small businesses in the state are already being “crushed” by unemployment insurance taxes. “It is incomprehensible that the state made a monumental error, and it’s Massachusetts small employers that are required to today foot the $2.1 billion bill,” Christopher Carlozzi, the group’s Massachusetts state director, said in a statement. Healey said businesses won’t see a hike on unemployment insurance rates through at least 2026. Whether they go up in the future depends on what the state does to reform the unemployment insurance system, she said. The system is expected to be giving out more money than it takes in by 2028.

A widespread winter storm is reportedly expected to bring even more heavy snowfall and ice in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.