On the latest episode of “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” we don our foreign policy glasses and celebrate the freedom of two Americans formerly held as political prisoners in Moscow, while criticizing the potential release of over a dozen Russian hackers and a plea deal for two terrorists involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks. For an administration that bragged, “The adults are back in charge,” it certainly doesn’t feel like that’s the case. A male boxer posing as a woman almost breaks a female athlete’s face in an Olympic boxing match as equity is proclaimed at the top of LGBTQ+ activists’ lungs. Renewed scrutiny of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s prior gender policies and proposals has raised transgender policy once again onto the stage in the 2024 presidential election. Matt Sharp, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm focusing on protecting the constitutional rights of Americans, joins us to give an update on state legislation over the last decade and a quick checkup on the parental and women’s rights movements. Jerry Lopez, @IndySpanglish on X, stops by for another exciting installment of “Awful Tweets,” everyone’s favorite weekly segment mocking the worst social media posts on the internet—made possible by generous submissions from listeners and viewers like you! Catch the live radio show and livestream weeknights at 7 p.m. EDT on The Daily Signal’s YouTube, X, or Facebook. The post WATCH: ‘The Olympic Woman-Beating Finals’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The San Francisco Bay Area represents a microcosm of California’s mockable form of untethered-from-reality leftism. That matters for America in 2024. Not only is Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee a Californian, she’s also a product of Bay Area politics. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris has suddenly become that presumptive nominee, it’s worth examining the kind of politics she will stand for if elected. Harris launched her 2020 presidential campaign in her hometown of Oakland, California. So, she hasn’t exactly hidden from her ties to the Bay Area and the East Bay. “Oakland is a place that definitely tests people,” then- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf  said of Harris and her connection to the Bay Area on CNN before that rally.  “But it also has the right values, values that honor diversity… When you come up in Oakland, you’re a fighter, and you’re a fighter for the right things,” Harris’ fellow Democrat said. Maybe Oakland does create great fighters, but are those who run the Oakland that Harris touts actually fighting for the right things? I, too, was born in Oakland. However, unlike me, Harris was firmly enmeshed in Bay Area politics, from which she launched her national political career. She wasn’t just a bystander or passerby to the politics of the city, but an active participant in the political machine that has dominated Bay Area politics for half a century. Elite media outlets, which have been showering endless, uncritical praise on Harris since Democrat party bosses selected her to replace President Joe Biden atop the ticket, have noted her connection to the Bay Area. They’ve unsurprisingly avoided mentioning why that’s concerning. Axios recently published a piece that explained “how the Bay Area shaped Kamala Harris.” The article highlighted how Harris made her way through Bay Area politics and ingratiated herself with wealthy San Francisco donors. It said little about the Bay Area’s political dysfunction. Harris worked in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office—which handles cases in Oakland and a few other East Bay cities—before getting an appointment to the California Medical Assistance Commission that almost certainly was because of her, um, connection to Democrat Willie Brown, then speaker of the California State Assembly and a future San Francisco mayor. Alameda County has been one of America’s bluest counties—if not the bluest one—for some time. As notorious as San Francisco has become with its homelessness and drug problems, with the retail crime epidemic and business closures, it’s not quite as fully ensconced in a doom loop as Oakland. Oakland has every imaginable advantage of climate and geography. The weather is immaculate—I know, I’m biased, but it is—and the city has a major port that is practically a tax gold mine. Yet, Oakland always seems to be on the verge of full-on implosion. With the departure of the Oakland A’s, a Major League Baseball team, at the end of this season, the city will lose its third and last major sports franchise in a decade. The loss is symbolic of a city that feels like a collapsing settlement at the edge of the Roman Empire on the eve of the Dark Ages. It’s worth noting that without the last-minute sale of the dilapidated Oakland Coliseum, the city was looking at a budget shortfall of over $100 million. The sale hardly solves the long-term problem. Oakland is pondering doling out reparations to black residents, but a reparations panel said it needed $5 million just to draw up a plan. This is a city that’s used to treating taxpayers like a piggy bank for grifting. Of course, Oakland has been associated with high crime rates for decades, but following the mayhem of 2020 the challenge became acute. In 2021, the Oakland City Council in effect voted to defund its already beleaguered police department. Crime exploded. Bay Area media insists crime is down from its peak—just as the media tried denying there was any crime spike at all—but it’s pretty laughable to think that the city has overcome the problem. One issue with looking only at the raw, official crime numbers—which have been called into question—is that many Oakland residents have given up and don’t report crimes at all. Several high-profile incidents highlight the problem of slow police responsiveness and the feeling of general anarchy. In early July, a mob of 80 to 100 looters barged into an Oakland gas station and convenience store and stripped the business bare. According to the New York Post, the mob originated nearby at a so-called sideshow, which is essentially lawless street racing that’s become common in Oakland. It was bad enough that the store was hit by looters, but what made it worse is that the police took nine hours to respond, according to the owner. The dispatcher initially listed the looting as a Priority 2 situation and told the caller to report the crime online. Only after a video was sent to the police was the looting upgraded to a Priority 1 incident and officers dispatched, the Post reported. This is hardly the only high-profile criminal incident or sign of out-of-control crime in the city in just the past year. A mass shooting involving several gunmen left 14 people wounded or injured at a Juneteenth sideshow near Lake Merritt. One alleged shooter was arrested, but the others got away. The first In-N-Out fast food restaurant to close down shuttered in March because of crime. The location was “busy” In-N-Out said, but the company feared for the safety of customers and employees. In May, I wrote about how traffic lights at an intersection were removed and replaced by a stop sign because thieves were constantly pillaging copper wire used for the signals. A nearby homeless encampment was the likely source of the thieves, but the city apparently was unwilling to come up with a long-lasting solution. One business owner said in an interview with a local CBS affiliate that he felt like the city was “giving up on us.” Various road maintenance issues fester because of crime and are a common feature of Oakland. The New York Post reported in June that a road in an East Oakland neighborhood had been left unpaved for weeks because the construction crew didn’t feel safe. Oh, and pirates—yes, pirates—are a major problem in the waters around Oakland. The pirates reportedly come from the city’s myriad homeless encampments. Police have made a few arrests, but the problem now seems endemic in Oakland’s harbors. What have political leaders been doing to rectify these problems? Seemingly nothing. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, a Democrat, not only is the subject of a recall effort by voters. She’s also under investigation by the FBI, which raided her home in June.  Thao has done little to clear up questions about the raid, but she did blame “right-wing forces” in the Bay Area for targeting her. Right-wing forces. In Oakland. Yeah, that checks out. It’s not just Thao who has been a disaster. Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, another Democrat, also is the target of a recall effort by voters, who say she is egregiously soft on crime. A top prosecutor quit in 2023, saying that “victims deserve better.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused Price of failing to use state resources to confront out-of-control crime under her jurisdiction. Newsom too is a Democrat. Although it may be true that Thao and Price are particularly bad at their jobs, there’s a larger problem in Oakland than a few incompetents in high places. This is about the overwhelming dominance of left-wing political ideology and the long-term effects of one-party rule. For generations, there has been no effective counterweight to the Democrat Party in the Bay Area. While leftist politicians get recalled from time to time, the general trend remains because of a lack of alternatives to what the Democrat Party is peddling. The Oakland political environment from which Kamala Harris emerged is one in which one-party rule and left-wing ideological dominance are a given.  It’s an environment in which crime, dysfunction, and anarchy are expected while politicians play a detached game of thrones to see who will reign over the chaos. The post Kamala Harris’ Oakland Is a Disaster appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Vice President Kamala Harris has commenced her nascent presidential campaign with a $50 million ad campaign presenting the candidate as a “fearless” prosecutor who “put murderers and abusers behind bars.” But according to the website from her prior presidential campaign, her tough-on-crime rhetoric has a significant loophole: She’s committed to doing all she can to prevent criminals who identify as transgender from ever setting foot in prison. Despite her reinvention as a female Rudy Giuliani, Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign website indicts not criminals, but the supposedly bigoted American criminal justice system. “Our criminal justice system is deeply flawed, infected with bias, and in urgent need of reform,” her website said. “That’s why Kamala became a prosecutor: to be a voice for people who needed an advocate and to make changes to the system from within.” (That’s quite an admission in itself.) Her campaign pledged to begin incentivizing “states to significantly reform or end the cash bail system,” as well as enacting policies that “re-envision public safety” (a code phrase for defunding the police) and “drastically limiting the number of people we expose to our criminal justice system.” When Harris unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019-2020, she sought to give people who identify as transgender a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Her website recounted the troubles of trans-identifying inmates before stating, “Kamala understands the best way to address the issue is to seek alternatives to incarceration to prevent trans individuals from being incarcerated in the first place. Kamala would also push to significantly reform our sentencing laws to further reduce sentences.” Of course, exempting people from prison due to their membership in a discrete group violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. But successive waves of administrations, of both parties, have ignored the constitutional limitations of government. When confronted with a legal roadblock to his plans, the current president defiantly says, “Watch me.” Suppose a President Kamala Harris takes her hand off the Bible next January and hears of a trans-identifying school shooter such as Audrey Hale. Her private notebooks show that Hale, the 28-year-old who killed six people in a Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., in March of 2023, went by the male name “Aiden” on the day of her death and believed dying in a blaze of glory would allow her to be reborn with a male body that would attract dark-skinned girls in heaven. Although Hale perished in the shooting, suppose she had lived. Would Harris take any special measures to assure Hale’s comfort? It is not as out of the question as it may seem. Days after the shooting, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed her heartfelt sympathy for LGBTQ activists. “Our hearts go out to those of the trans community as they are under attack right now,” she said. The Biden-Harris administration has implemented policies that, if trans-identifying people must go to jail, they go to the prison of their chosen gender: Males go to female prisons and vice versa. What about someone like “Julia Grace Egler”? The 16-year-old Florida male, who identifies as female, allegedly killed his mother, 38-year-old Kelley McCollom, because she did not approve of his transgender transition. “Egler cited long-standing conflicts with her mother, including disagreements related to her gender transition, as well as disapproval of her mother’s relationship with [22-year-old boyfriend, Matthew] Szejnrok, as motives for the crime,” said Palm Bay, Florida, police Lt. Virginia Kilmer. Yet the 16-year-old reportedly transitioned at least as early as 2015, apparently no later than the age of seven. And police say the mother’s social media posts seemed uniformly supportive of the transition, referring to Egler as “my daughter.” “Welcome home,” Egler told his mother before opening fire with a .38 caliber revolver, killing her on the evening of July 6. He ran out of bullets and attempted to stab Szejnrok to death before adding an extra bullet and shooting the man in the head, purportedly after the victim made a plea for death. He now faces two counts of first-degree murder, as well as possibly being tried as an adult. How would Harris deal with a 28-year-old trans-identifying man who changed his name from Collin to Mia Bailey? Bailey killed his parents—Joseph, 70, and Gail, 69—and shot at his brother this summer in Washington, Utah. He, too, cited a strained relationship with those relatives and others in his family. Yet he has expressed no remorse, “I would do it again. I hate them,” Bailey told police. He now faces 11 felony charges. This is but the tip of a criminal iceberg. The Dallas Express recounts other trans-identifying criminals, including: Anderson Lee Aldrich, a biological male who identified as nonbinary, killed five people at an LGBTQ club in Colorado in 2022. Maya McKinney, a biological female who identified as a man, killed one person at a Denver-area charter school in 2019. Eight others were injured in the incident. Snochia Moseley, a biological female who identified as a man, killed three people outside a Maryland warehouse in 2018. Whatever Harris would do, her stated policy of trying to exempt one class of people from prison betrays a soft-on-crime ideology. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, the Republican nominee for vice president, has pointed out that Harris had time to write a letter congratulating social media “influencer” and Bud Light destroyer Dylan Mulvaney on his transforming his self-image from an adult male to an underage girl, yet said nothing about the victims of criminal aliens. “I send you my warmest greetings as you celebrate your 365th day of living authentically,” Harris, the sitting vice president of the United States, wrote to the transgender idol last year. At the same time, Harris has not uttered the name of Laken Riley or others killed by illegal immigrant gangs. She has expressed little sympathy for those killed by the fentanyl crisis the Biden-Harris administration’s open-borders policies have created. One might call such priorities, for lack of a better word, “weird.” Border Czar Kamala Harris found the time to write a letter to Dylan Mulvaney, yet hasn't found any time to say even a single word about Laken Riley. I find it very weird that Kamala is so cold and heartless about the American kids dying because of her open border policies. pic.twitter.com/m7ppD8kDUH— JD Vance (@JDVance) July 29, 2024 Harris’ preferential transgender amnesty policy also signals her core commitment to codifying a two-tiered justice system. The Biden-Harris administration has meted out yearslong jail sentences to elderly pro-life grandmothers and peaceful demonstrators, while exempting convicted criminals who are part of the Left’s “Coalition of the Ascendant” from the consequences of their antisocial actions. What consequences will that inflict on America in a Harris administration? Originally published by The Washington Stand We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Would ‘Fearless’ Prosecutor Harris Have Kept Transgender Nashville Shooter Out of Prison? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Google is being accused of doing its part to “memory-hole” one of the most serious incidents in American politics in decades – the attempted assassination of former president, now presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Google’s search engine is leaving out relevant results in the autosuggest feature, thus decreasing the likelihood of users learning more about the event, and importantly, the investigation into it. Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican who is a member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has announced a probe into this behavior, blasting Google at the same time for yet again engaging in censorship of conservatives, and, demonstrating “willful discrimination against President Trump and users of (the) search engine.” For these reasons, Marshall wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai to tell him that he should show up before lawmakers and testify about the company’s conduct. The importance of this type of censorship is all the greater since, as the senator notes, Google is the largest search engine in the world. We obtained a copy of the letter for you here. But now, according to him, it has turned into “a propaganda wing of the Biden-Harris Administration and the radical Left.” The senator sees this as a form of election interference, accusing Big Tech in general of bias in favor first of the Clintons, then Biden, and now Kamala Harris. He also described Google’s censorship of information about the assassination attempt as proving that there is “no low” the giant won’t stoop to. Google is claiming that no “manual action” has been done recently to affect search results and that it has a policy of “protections against autocomplete predictions associated with political violence” – yet people searching for “failed assassination attempt” got suggested results concerning former presidents Reagan, Ford, Bob Marley, and even Archduke Ferdinand – but not Trump. “If the autocomplete function is truly reflective of the recent searches completed on Google, the self-learning algorithms should have easily adjusted their autocomplete function during a massive increase in search queries over the last two weeks,” Marshall stated. Another Republican has addressed the situation. Congressman Matt Gaetz spoke about “autocomplete irregularities” on Google and wants the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide any documents that might show another case of collusion has happened, this time around the attempted assassination. We obtained a copy of the letter for you here. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Lawmakers Marshall and Gaetz Call for Probes into Big Tech’s Alleged Censorship of Trump Assassination Attempt, Seek Google and DHS Testimony appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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Google is redirecting users searching for former President Donald Trump’s name toward news about Vice President Kamala Harris in what appears to be another search term switcheroo, an MRC Free Speech America search found.  The MRC findings corroborate reports from X owner Elon Musk and others who noted that when users search for “donald trump” or “trump rally,” the banner with news results listed Harris’s name.  When MRC researchers searched for the terms “donald trump” on Tuesday, Google displayed what is described as a “knowledge panel” about the former president including his name and fomer title. The search giant followed up with a news panel labeled “News about Harris·Trump” banner. “Harris keeps calling Trump and Vance ‘weird.’ Here’s why,” read a headline by the Associated Press piece shown second. As if that was not enough, Google highlighted a Washington Post headlined, “Trump, with a history of sexist attacks, again faces a female opponent” in the third result. A Wednesday search for the term “trump rally” prompted news panels favorable to Trump’s opponent. “Kamala Harris rally in Atlanta,” reads the title of the first news panel. When MRC researchers searched for the terms “kamala harris,” Google results showed a knowledge panel of her name and the fact that she is the vice president of the United States followed by a news panel labeled “Kamala Harris visit to Georgia.” Trump’s name is not mentioned in either the first or second Google news panels in the resulting search.  “Google is reliably shameless,” MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider said of the anti-Trump censorship. “It consistently manipulates data to achieve its political goals. Yet again it appears to be altering its algorithms to feed the American people a positive narrative about one candidate while disseminating terrible accusations against the other.”  Earlier this year, Gemini, Google’s AI bot, repeatedly refused to generate images of white people when prompted. For example, when asked to produce images of popes it reportedly produced images of an Asian female pope. The bot also reportedly portrayed U.S. revolutionary soldiers as Asian women and Vikings as black. Kris Ruby, AI researcher and CEO of Ruby Media Group, told Fox News host Jon Scott on Fox Report that AI algorithms are given parameters and rules of what it is and is not allowed to produce in order to eliminate information deemed “toxic.” “"So the issue with the outputs is the input rules and when people are saying make me this photo, draw me this photo, what they don’t see is the parameters and the rules that dictate what is allowed to be made and what isn’t,” Ruby said.   “After a baseline for toxicity is defined, technology companies use safety labels, filters, and internal scoring to shape the digital world,” Ruby told Fox News Digital. "When it comes to AI censorship, whoever controls the definition of toxicity controls the outcome. Every model action (generative AI output) will fundamentally stem from how toxicity is defined. Your version of toxicity shapes the world around you.” It appears Google changed the results it produced for searches of “trump rally” on August 1 after backlash on social media.  Earlier this week, Google appeared to change its algorithm after it was called out for not including Trump’s name in it’s autocomplete options in searches beginning with “assassination attempt on.” Methodology  MRC researchers searched for “donald trump” and “kamala harris” using an algorithm to automate the process in a clean environment.  A “clean environment” allows for organic search to populate results without the influence of prior search history and tracking cookies. MRC searched “trump rally” in a private window using Google search without being logged into a Google account. To determine bias, our researchers analyzed Google’s search results for inconsistencies. Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

News broke Wednesday night of the plea deal involving three 9/11 terrorist masterminds. What seems like a notable story was quickly swept under the rug by the evening and Thursday morning newscasts of ABC, NBC, and CBS as they refused to connect President Biden to the actions of his administration on the matter.  As the news broke of a plea deal between the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks and the Department of Defense, CBS’s Charie D’Agata on Evening News and CBS Mornings conveniently left out the Biden Administration: The Pentagon just announced the three men, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa al Hawsawi, will plead guilty to some charges as early as next week as part of plea agreements in the military commissions process. They've been held at Gitmo for years with the U.S. accusing the Al Qaeda terror suspects of plotting the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.     There has been great pushback from many Americans, but especially the families of those who were lost in the attacks. As NBC’s Andrea Mitchell noted on Today with no reference to Biden, “Ashley Bisman was just 16 when she lost her father, Jeff Goldflam, on 9/11. She says the suspected plea deal does not seem like justice…House Speaker Mike Johnson is denouncing the plea deal as a slap in the face to the 9/11 families.” ABC was the only network to mention Biden, however, they failed to attach any blame to him with, White House correspondent Mary Bruce reporting, “The White House said the president played no role in this deal reached instead by military prosecutors. Biden directing his aides to consult with Pentagon lawyers about it.” That makes little sense, as Bruce had previously recalled, “Last fall, president Biden rejecting a set of demands that inform the basis of plea negotiations.” Any Republican president would have called to defend all aspects of his administration's actions, and this should be applicable for Biden as well. With one of the worst American tragedies attached to the issue as well, Biden should have played a bigger part in the discussion, and the anger of thousands of Americans should not be limited to two minute news segments quick to move past the story. Yet again, a disappointing show from the major broadcast networks. The transcript is below, click “expand” to read: CBS Evening News 7/31/2024 06:35:19 PM EST (...) NORAH O`DONNELL: Now to some breaking news, the Department of Defense revealing tonight that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of plotting the September 11 attacks, has agreed to a plea deal. CBS`s Charlie D'Agata is at the Pentagon and has new details -- Charlie. CHARLIE D'AGATA: Yeah, Norah, this was just released moments ago from the Department of Defense. It reads in part, “9/11 defendants Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other 9/11 dependants - - defendant's excuse me, have reached pretrial agreement that will, as reported by The New York Times allow them to escape the death penalty. In exchange, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, would plead guilty and serve a sentence of life in prison. Now, any plea deal to spare him and his two accomplices from that death penalty is likely to enrage the families of those Americans who died on 9/11. The case against these alleged terrorists has dragged on for more than a decade. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a U.S.-educated engineer, is accused of coming up with the idea of flying hijacked airplanes into buildings. He and his co-defendants have been in custody for more than 21 years, most of that at Guantanamo Bay. Norah. NORAH O`DONNELL: Charlie D'Agata, still so many questions. Thank you. (...) CBS Mornings 8/1/2024 07:09:36 AM EST (...) KRISTINE JOHNSON: Other headlines here, the Defense Department says the man accused of plotting the September 11th attacks and the two accomplices have reached a plea deal. It is a controversial twist in this long running case, as Charlie D'Agata reports now from the Pentagon. Charlie, good morning. CHARLIE D'AGATA: Good morning to you. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, also known as KSM, and two other defendants have reached a pretrial agreement as we understand it that will, according to multiple sources, allow them to escape the death penalty. In exchange, they would plead guilty for their roles in planning and supporting the September 11th attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people. KSM, a US-educated engineer is accused of plotting the idea of flying hijacked planes into buildings. They have been in custody, locked up for 21 years, mostly, at Guantanamo Bay. Now, there have been years of legal delays and wrangling due to questions over evidence gathered, while the men were subjected to, quote “enhanced interrogation techniques” or torture.” Any deal to spare them the death penalty will enrage the families of 9/11 victims. They`re expected to enter those pleas as early as next week. Nate. NATE BURLESON: Charlie, thank you. (...) NBC Nightly News 7/31/2024 7:07:21 p.m. Eastern LESTER HOLT: Just in tonight, word that the accused mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices, have reached plea agreements. Courtney Kube is tracking this at the Pentagon. Courtney, what more do we know? COURTNEY KUBE: Well, Lester, the Pentagon just announced the three men, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi will plead guilty to some charges as early as next week as part of plea agreements in the military commissions process. They've been held at Gitmo for years with the U.S. accusing the Al Qaeda terror suspects of plotting the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Now, the details of the plea agreements are still unknown, but they are expected to plead guilty to lesser charges that could spare them the death penalty. Sentencing may not come for months, but they'll likely appear at a hearing in Guantanamo in the coming days, Lester. HOLT: Courtney Kube tonight, thank you. (...) NBC’s Today 8/1/2024 07:08:12 AM EST SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Also this morning, we are learning more about the plea agreements that will allow the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, and two of his accomplices, to avoid the death penalty. It's a decision that is not sitting well with some of the families of the victims. NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell with the details this morning. Andrea, good morning. ANDREA MITCHELL: Good morning, Savannah. This is a major development. It comes almost two decades after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Pentagon officials say the mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and two other top Al Qaeda operatives, will plead guilty to charges as early as next week at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay. It comes 16 years after they were first charged in the worst terror attack in U.S. history. [Cuts to video] MITCHELL: Today, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and two accomplices, are expected to enter a plea deal with the U.S. military. According to officials, the three defendants are set to plead guilty to some unspecified charges, as early as next week at Guantanamo Bay.  The New York Times sending a letter from prosecutors to 9/11 families, not independently verified by NBC News, reports the men have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges, in exchange for a life sentence, avoiding a death penalty trial at Guantanamo, where they were first charged by the military in 2008.  Once the number three man in Al Qaeda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, known as “KSM,” was captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2003. Four years later he testified he was responsible “for the 9/11 operation from A to Z,” as well as the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.  According to a 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report, the CIA waterboarded Mohammad 183 times, a now-outlawed technique widely considered torture. Also entering the plea agreement, KSM's accomplice, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. The FBI says he was the main money man, sending credit cards and tens of thousands of dollars to the hijackers.  The third defendant, Walid bin Attash, was a former body guard for Osama bin Laden, and is suspected by the FBI of planning the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, that killed 17 American sailors.  Ashley Bisman was just 16 when she lost her father, Jeff Goldflam, on 9/11. She says the suspected plea deal does not seem like justice. ASHLEY BISMAN: The saying with 9/11 is, "Never forget," and, unfortunately, the victims were forgotten today. [Cuts back to live] MITCHELL: House Speaker Mike Johnson is denouncing the plea deal as a slap in the face to the 9/11 families. Savannah? GUTHRIE: Alright. Andrea Mitchell in Washington, thank you. (...) ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir 7/31/2024 06:37:26 PM EST DAVID MUIR: We turn now to the breaking headline. The accused mastermind of the 9/11 terror attack and two co-defendants have reached a plea deal. Authorities say they will now plead guilty to multiple charges, including the murder of 2,976 people, reportedly to be spared the death penalty. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind, and the two alleged co-conspirators, have been held at Guantanamo Bay for years now. ABC's chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce with the details, just now coming in. MARY BRUCE: Tonight, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, and two other defendants, striking plea deals with prosecutors. The New York Times reporting they struck that deal to avoid the death penalty. In addition to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi have agreed to plead guilty.  The Times reporting war court prosecutors sent a letter to family members of the victims of the attacks, saying “in exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet.” All three are currently being held in Guantanamo Bay, where they are expected to remain for the rest of their lives. The Pentagon has not released details of the deal publicly, but the trials of the 9/11 conspirators has been delayed for years. Last September, President Biden rejected a set of demands that had formed the basis of the plea negotiations. Some of the victims' families had expressed outrage when word came, last year, that a plea deal was in the works.  [Cuts back to live] Now, tonight, I am told that the president and the White House played no role in this process. The president has now directed his team to consult, where appropriate, with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter, David. MUIR: Mary Bruce live at the White House with the breaking news. Mary, thank you. (...) ABC Good Morning America 8/1/2024 7:07:57 AM EST (...) REBECCA JARVIS: We turn to the plea deal reached with three men who plotted the 9/11 attacks including the accused mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Our chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce has the details. Good morning, Mary. MARY BRUCE: Good morning, Rebecca. Well, this morning the man accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks and two of his accomplices will now avoid the death penalty, pleading guilty in exchange for life sentences instead. As you can imagine, this news is being met with mixed emotions by the families of the victims. But prosecutors say this deal was the best way to bring finality and justice to the case.  [Cuts to video] This morning the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and two of his accomplices have agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences, avoiding the death penalty. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, reaching a deal with military prosecutors to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges. A letter from prosecutors to family members of the victims of the attack saying, "In exchange for the removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet.” Prosecutors writing “that the news will understandably and appropriately elicit intense emotions and be met with mixed reactions amongst the thousands of family members who lost loved ones.” But saying “it is our collective reasoned and good faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case.” But some families of the victims already outraged. DAN D’ALLARA: The government is failing us. BRUCE: Dan D’Allara lost his twin brother John in the world trade center. Like many others, he wanted the defendants to face trial and the death penalty.  DELAURA: To take it off the table now, a lot of people are outraged. BRUCE: Others like Patrick White, whose cousin Lewis Knacky was a passenger on United 93. Said this was the result they were hoping for. White telling ABC News, “I’ve made my peace with it.” The deal approved by the top military official overseeing the war court at Guantanamo Bay comes after years of negotiations. The authorities allege that Mohammed came up with the idea to use planes as weapons, helping Osama Bin Laden plan the hijackings, trainings, and targets. Captured in 2003, Mohammed was subjected to 183 rounds of water boarding and other forms of torture while in CIA custody before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006. Those torture tactics causing more than a decade of delays in his military trial, with proceedings focused on whether the torture contaminated the evidence. Last fall, President Biden rejecting a set of demands that inform the basis of plea negotiations. Now, the White House said the president played no role in this deal reached instead by military prosecutors. Biden directing his aides to consult with Pentagon lawyers about it.  [Cuts to live] Now, Mohammed and the other two men have agreed as part of this deal to answer questions from the victims' families regarding their roles and reasons behind their involvement in the September 11th attacks. The three men could submit their pleas in open court as early as next week. Robin? ROBIN ROBRTS: All right, Mary appreciate your reporting on this. (...)

A brave Chick-fil-A employee in Georgia risked his life and bravely thwarted an armed robbery last month. Riveting video shows the fast-food worker fighting off the suspected robber for three minutes. The intense confrontation occurred around 4:30 a.m. July 1 at the Chick-fil-A in Stone Mountain, Georgia, which is about 30 minutes northeast of Atlanta.The worker was able to get the suspect in a headlock and shoved him into the back room.A delivery driver for the Chick-fil-A restaurant was preparing for his workday when 51-year-old Tommie Lee Williams used a rock to smash through the drive-thru window, according to the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.The masked burglary suspect is seen on surveillance video — which you can view on the Facebook page for the sheriff's office — escorting the employee into the back area of the restaurant. Williams is seen pointing a gun at the worker and instructing him to open the safe in the back room. The sheriff's office noted that the suspect told the victim "he was going to die if he didn’t open the safe" and pointed a handgun at him. However, the employee informed police that he did not know the safe's combination.Suddenly, the employee saw an opportunity and lunged at the gun. What ensued was a violent altercation that lasted minutes. The worker was able to bearhug the suspect so he couldn't aim the firearm at him. The Chick-fil-A employee also landed several punches and elbows. However, the alleged robber smashed the worker with the gun. During the turbulent tussle, the gun fell to the floor as both men continued to wrestle each other.The worker was able to get the suspect in a headlock and shoved him into the back room. The suspect is seen on video choking and kicking the employee. Soon the suspect broke free and retrieved the firearm from the ground, after which the pair struggled for the gun. The suspect then retreated to the kitchen, which is out of view of the surveillance camera. Police said Williams fled the restaurant through a rear exit door and escaped before police arrived at the crime scene. Detectives identified a vehicle seen in the area that they tied to Williams. Law enforcement officials obtained warrants for Williams, and officers with the U.S. Marshals and the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department arrested him Wednesday.Williams faces charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault, burglary in the second degree, kidnapping, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and criminal damage to property in the second degree. Williams was booked at the Gwinnett County Jail. A bond amount was not immediately listed in online jail records.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Texas police arrested a homeowner after he said that he shot and killed a home intruder, but their investigation found inconsistencies. The Corpus Christi Police Department said 56-year-old Douglas Watters called 911 on Sunday at about 7:51 a.m. and said he had shot a home intruder who tried to break into his home with a woman as his accomplice. Police said Watters was upset with them for taking so long to respond to his call.When they arrived at his home, they found a 48-year-old man dead. Watters told police that he had shot the man about seven minutes before calling police, but officers said the state of the body did not match up with his claims. A senior officer said that the body appeared stiff and pale, indicating that it had been dead for hours longer than Watters said. Investigators said that medics who arrived at the scene confirmed the body had been dead for several hours. At the home, they found a pump-action shotgun with an unspent shell and one spent shell, according to their report. A medical examiner's report found that the man had been shot twice in the left torso underneath his armpit. Police arrested Watters the next day on a murder charge. He is being held on a $500,000 bond. Officers said it was difficult to walk through the home because it was so cluttered. They also said it appeared to be abandoned and without electricity. A man interviewed by police told them that Watters owned the house but didn't live there. KIII-TV reported that Watters owned several homes in the county. Police said Watters was upset with them for taking so long to respond to his call but they claimed to have arrived only 13 minutes after he notified them. Video of the home and the man's booking photo were published on KIII's news video on YouTube. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!