The people who call themselves the “mainstream media” have a remarkable tendency to take the minority position on an 80-20 issue, most recently on requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls. House Republicans have passed the “SAVE Act,” while Democrats have almost unanimously opposed it. But the American people do not. Gallup pollsters report 84 percent of Americans support requiring photo ID to vote – 98 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of independents, and 67 percent of Democrats. Large majorities of blacks and Latinos back it. Separately, 83% support the SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time. When presented with this information, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) could only toss that old Biden smear out, that the SAVE Act was “Jim Crow 2.0.” So a majority of blacks favor the return of Jim Crow? How, precisely, is asking voters for an ID comparable to segregated schools and neighborhoods and bathrooms and water fountains? Obviously, they’re comparing Republicans here to racist Southern Democrats who tried to deny blacks the right to vote. That was Jim Crow 1.0. Sadly, CNN political reporter Zach Wolf demonstrated how united Democrats are in pushing this blatant lie, except for Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania: “I think Fetterman is the most off-message Democrat in the chamber right now….I think most Democrats would get on board with what Schumer was saying.” Among the Democrats allowing this smear are the groups calling themselves the “independent fact-checkers.” PolitiFact has never evaluated Biden or Schumer for this “Jim Crow 2.0” nonsense. But Democrats can count on PolitiFact to attack Republicans. Amy Sherman put together an article asking “Does the US have stricter ID rules for buying beer than voting?”  Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) pointed out he has to show an ID to buy beer, but Democrats oppose an ID at the polls. "I think it's nuts that we protect our beer in this country more than our ballots in jurisdictions," Steil said. Sherman retorted: “Comparing ID rules for purchasing alcohol and casting a ballot is about as satisfying as a warm beer on a hot day.” Why? Sherman unloaded her carefully selected Democrat experts to lecture against the Republican. The right to vote and the right to drink beer are not the same. "Voting is a right and is a public act," said Barry Burden, University of Wisconsin political scientist. "Purchasing alcohol is a private activity." This gets everything backwards: if voting is an important public act, more important than buying a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon, then why shouldn’t the voting-integrity measure of an ID requirement be more important? Then she added the proof-of-age law doesn't exist to "protect" beer, according to Derek Clinger, a staff attorney at the University of Wisconsin law school. It is meant to prevent underage drinking. “Voter fraud is far more rare than youth alcohol consumption,” she says. Voter fraud isn’t real. “Jim Crow 2.0” is real. Sherman also thinks it’s fine if you call Trump “Hitler.” But she did pounce on Trump on October 23, 2024 for saying on social media that Kamala Harris called him Hitler. She only quoted former Trump aide John Kelly claiming Trump admired Hitler.  The very next day, Harris tweeted: “Donald Trump is out for unchecked power. He wants a military like Adolf Hitler had, who will be loyal to him, not our Constitution.” PolitiFact didn’t update anything. They should be honest and call their site PartisanFact. 

With the Minneapolis unrest off the front pages, immigration enforcement has become an afterthought on the Elitist Media evening news. And yet efforts to obstruct ICE, often violently, persist- whether or not they make the evening news. Case in point, the grotesquely underreported attempted terror attack on ICE’s office in Boise, Idaho. ABC World News Tonight was the only evening newscast to report on this latest instance of extreme leftist violence. Watch the report in its entirety as aired on Thursday, February 19th, 2026: WATCH: @ABCWorldNews is the only broadcast network evening newscast to report on the attack against the ICE office near Boise, Idaho- a reminder that violence against immigration enforcement continues, even if Minnesota no longer dominates the news. pic.twitter.com/Tvycf3VAeP — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 20, 2026 DAVID MUIR: To other news, there's an urgent manhunt at this hour. A suspect accused of stealing an ambulance and then ramming it into a Homeland Security office just outside Boise, Idaho. Here’s Pierre Thomas with what he’s learned tonight. PIERRE THOMAS: Tonight, federal and state authorities in Idaho urgently trying to find the suspect they say stole an ambulance and rammed it into a building housing U.S. Department of Homeland Security offices before then trying to set the building on fire. TRACY BASTERRECHEA: There is no doubt this building would have been burned, putting the lives of first responders and others at risk. THOMAS: According to Meridian police, the suspect fled Wednesday night shortly after 11:00 P.M., after being scared off by first responders and before any fire could be ignited. But police say the evidence suggests a level of premeditation. BASTERRECHEA: The suspect drove the ambulance north through the parking lot and retrieved gas cans that had been staged in nearby vegetation. THOMAS: While motive is not yet clear, police claim that DHS leasing office space in the building has been the subject of controversy regarding the Trump administration's immigration policy. DHS has been warning about a surge in threats against immigration officials. And while no one was injured, police are emphasizing just how dangerous the situation was. David. MUIR: All right. Pierre Thomas from Washington on this. Pierre, thank you. CBS and NBC did not cover this story on their respective evening newscasts, but this doesn’t mean that they weren’t interested in stories featuring an ambulance. They both covered the naked Wisconsin man who stole an ambulance with a patient inside and took it for a joyride.  This lack of interest in ongoing domestic terrorism tracks. Two weeks ago, NBC was the sole network to report on the deranged leftist who wanted to kill Russell Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It bears noting that the CBS Evening News, which the media hall monitors call “MAGA-coded”, has whiffed on both these stories. Viewers tonight learned instead about the Massachusetts man that built a 20-foot-tall snowman. While thankful that ABC covered the Idaho story, we take note of its light substantive touch. The ramming of the building and attempt to set it on fire are reported as separate items. But it turns out the stolen ambulance was full of propellant- gas cans strategically staged en route to the DHS offices. Per ABC’s Boise affiliate KIVI:   Meridian Police confirmed that the ambulance, which had been parked in front of the St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center, was stolen by the suspect before being driven into the Portico North building. Officials say the ambulance belonged to Canyon County Paramedics, and no other individuals were inside the ambulance at the time of the incident. During a press conference on Thursday at 12 p.m., Meridian Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea said that the suspect tried to burn down the building using an "accelerant" but was unable to ignite the fire. "Preliminary investigation indicates the suspect drove the ambulance north through the parking lot and retrieved gas cans that had been staged in nearby vegetation." - Tracy Basterrechea, Meridian Police Chief Also not mentioned in the World News Tonight report: that the individual was masked, and that there may be a link to recent anti-ICE protests in the area. As we've previously reported, the offices at Portico North have been leased out to the Department of Homeland Security, which has been met by swift protest from local advocacy groups. It is not yet known whether this incident is connected. Perhaps this will be written off as mostly peaceful and not fiery, and therefore not warranting coverage. But this omission is yet another in a long trend of the Elitist Media looking the other way at violence committed by violent leftists. It wasn’t that long ago that this would’ve been covered as a violent insurrection against the United States. But things are (D)ifferent now. I leave you with another “peaceful” protest not covered by the Elitist Media: the anti-Israel protests outside the Board of Peace meeting, featuring a dismembered and decapitated effigy of Donald Trump. INSANE: Another "Mostly Peaceful" protest- this one just outside the Board of Peace meeting, features what looks a lot like a dismembered Trump in effigy. pic.twitter.com/Se97ql5D7E — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 19, 2026 If it weren't for double standards, there would be none at all.

New York Times reporter Kellen Browning is a superfan of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) – in April 2025 he celebrated the “monster crowds” the younger leftist generated on her “Fighting Oligarchy” with older leftist Sen. Bernie Sanders. After an embarrassing performance at the Munich Security Conference in which she blanked out, made factual gaffes, and otherwise demonstrated the perils of rarely being challenged by reporters stateside, she called in a Times reporter, who’d been tweeting about her European tour, for a lifeline. He readily obliged with stenography, even admitting it on X: AOC came to Munich to warn about the far-right. Coverage focused on 2028 & verbal missteps. She gave me a call. "Everyone’s got this story wrong, that this is about me running for president," she said…. The story’s headline deck made it clear Ocasio-Cortez was in charge of the story’s framing: “After First Big Overseas Trip, Ocasio-Cortez Expresses Frustrations -- The congresswoman argued in an interview that presidential speculation, which included scrutiny of her slip-ups, had overshadowed her anti-authoritarian message at the Munich Security Conference.” But rather than the substance of her arguments, it was her on-camera stumbles when answering questions about specific world affairs that rocketed around conservative social media and drove plenty of the discussion about her visit, as political observers speculated whether they would make a dent in a potential presidential run in 2028. .... The way her performance was microscopically dissected through the lens of what it meant for a hypothetical White House campaign frustrated Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 36. She said she worried that her message — warning that wealthy world leaders must better provide for their working classes or risk their countries sliding toward authoritarianism — was being lost in all the commotion. So on Monday night, while still in Berlin, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez spoke to The New York Times by phone and tried to underscore that message. …. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez argued that efforts to make clips of “any five-to-10-second thing” from her remarks go viral online, especially in the conservative ecosystem, had been done to “distract from the substance of what I am saying.” What substance? At least Browning remembered the ideological labeling sometimes, even if it was employed more in praise than as a warning label, which is standard procedure for conservative figures. Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and the former head of a group of world leaders known as the Elders, said that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez offered a generational freshness and that her left-wing ideals appealed to Europeans. “I’m not sure America’s ready for that yet,” she said. “But maybe it is.” Still, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s missteps were striking for a politician who is usually quick on her feet and is considered one of the best communicators in politics. In addition to the answer on Taiwan, critics highlighted comments referring to the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” (she clarified online that she meant Atlantic) and suggesting that Venezuela was below the Equator (the country lies just to the north). The journalist commiserated with AOC against political enemies rude enough to notice her painful performance. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s frustration, she said, was that she felt there had been an effort “to shadow and obscure this all through the idea of a horse race….  Online reaction to Browning's clean-up op was scathing. Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald sarcastically parroted Browning on X: So anyway, last night I was sitting around, and a politician called me. She told me to get a pen and write down what she wants me to put in the NYT about her, in response to widespread criticism. So I wrote it down and put it in the paper, while adding my own defenses of her. In the words of National Review’s inimitable Charles Cooke: One could dissect her words for the next ten years straight, with the best of intentions, and still one would not glean anything coherent or useful from them. This wasn’t the fault of “conservative social media” or “rocketing” or “speculation”; it was the fault of Ocasio-Cortez herself, who went to a security conference, was asked questions about security, and fell flat on her face at the first hurdle. 

“Democrats have shut down DHS because they want to endanger our law enforcement officers and ICE agents by making them show ID,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) warns regarding the partial government shutdown led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Democrats have caused a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by filibustering a bill to continue funding it – unless the funding bill contains provisions crippling and endangering U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents working to enforce federal immigration law. Democrats are demanding that the funding bill not only provide funding, but also prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks and require them to wear IDs on their uniforms, which would enable violent, pro-illegal immigration activists to identify and target them. “Republican leadership cannot cave to these radicals,” Rep. Steube says in a X.com post: “Democrats have shut down DHS because they want to endanger our law enforcement officers and ICE agents by making them show ID. “These are same people who say voter ID is racist.  Republican leadership cannot cave to these radicals.” “They’re simply putting that there so that these officers can then be doxed,” Rep. Steube explains in video from an interview embedded in his post: “You’ve seen these officers be doxed all across the nation. They’re staying in hotels and all these people show up at the hotel, find out they’re staying there. And, it’s really happening in Minneapolis and some of these Democrat-run cities. No, absolutely not. They shouldn’t have to be forced to have their IDs.” …. “They want ICE agents to have their IDs, but they don’t want voters who vote in our nation’s elections to have IDs and show that they’re actually citizens of our country to vote in our elections.” “The hypocrisy is beyond the pale,” Rep. Steube says. Democrats have shut down DHS because they want to endanger our law enforcement officers and ICE agents by making them show ID. These are same people who say voter ID is racist. Republican leadership cannot cave to these radicals. pic.twitter.com/dfgOiCFJS1 — Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) February 19, 2026   “@ChuckSchumer thinks protecting federal elections is racist,” Steube says in a separate post on the Senate Democrats’ opposition to Republicans’ SAVE Act requiring voter ID: “This is exactly why the Senate needs to nuke the filibuster. If the SAVE Act is ‘Jim Crow 2.0,’ then so is: - Boarding a plane - Buying alcohol - Cashing a check at a bank - Picking up prescription medication The list goes on and on. 84% of Americans support voter ID. End the filibuster. Pass the SAVE Act.” The SAVE Act has passed the House and, like the DHS funding bill, is being held up in the Senate by a Democrat filibuster. .@ChuckSchumer thinks protecting federal elections is racist. This is exactly why the Senate needs to nuke the filibuster. If the SAVE Act is “Jim Crow 2.0,” then so is: - Boarding a plane - Buying alcohol - Cashing a check at a bank - Picking up prescription medication The… pic.twitter.com/Ab2rrdNPsv — Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) February 12, 2026  

More than two weeks after NewsBusters broke the story and two days after initially trying to explain away why ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg requested to borrow Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet, The View offered up some new excuses for why their co-hosts were in the files. On Thursday’s show, Goldberg’s story completely changed and co-host Joy Behar claimed she only learned that she was at a party with Ghislaine Maxwell from our reporting. The View kicked off the show by talking about the Epstein files, particularly the arrest of Prince Andrew for allegedly sharing confidential files with Epstein. But it was Behar who wanted to get back to clearing their names. In NewsBusters’ original reporting about The View co-hosts being in the files, we noted that Behar was included on a guest list for a “William Astor’s dinner” that was also attended by Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell. According to Behar, our reporting was the first time she heard that Maxwell was at the party. She also lamented that she didn’t know everyone who also attended the Trump wedding she once went to either. And despite previously suggesting Trump was automatically guilty since his name was in the files, Behar found it “very tricky” to assign guilt to people: BEHAR: We’re on the list because we were at a party or a wedding or something that somebody might have been. That's what I found out anyway. GOLDBERG: No, I -- BEHAR: I was at Trump's wedding to Marla. Maybe Epstein was there too. Who knows? So that means I'm not guilty obviously, but these other ones, how are you going to decide who is really guilty and who is not? It’s very tricky!   Joy Behar admits the rest of The View case are "on the [Epstein] list because we were at a party or a wedding or something that somebody might have been. That's what I found out anyway." Whoopi claims the request for Epstein's jet was just a mass plea to private jet owners she… pic.twitter.com/MfUbk2gB09 — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 19, 2026   Behar had previously mocked those who claimed they didn’t know anything about associating with Epstein or his inner circle. Goldberg and co-host Sara Haines didn’t like Behar’s new point of view. “I think it's very clear” and “I don’t think it’s that tricky,” they said, respectively. After initially failing to actually explain why, how, and what she knew about Epstein’s jet getting requested on her behalf, Goldberg had a refined excuse. According to her, she wasn’t aware that there was an issue with the plane at the time: GOLDBERG: If you look, you know why my name is there. Because someone was looking for a plane and that's what people do. They go to all the people would have private planes and say, ‘do you have one?’ SUNNY HOSTIN: And you didn't get on the plane. GOLDBERG: I didn’t get on the plane. I didn't know they were looking for a plane. I had no idea that the plane I was supposed to be on was no longer available. So, I'm named in there like ‘Whoopi Goldberg needs a plane.’ At least that was a more believable excuse than the one she gave two days ago, when she suggested she took a bus from America - across the Atlantic Ocean - to attend the charity event in Monaco. “There were plenty of people that were named on the list that may have not done anything wrong,” argued co-host Sunny Hostin in her defense. Additionally, Haines’s indignation for holding people in the files accountable didn’t seem to apply to her friends. Haines ran interference for Goldberg a couple days ago, but had a change of attitude on Thursday when talking about Prince Andrew. “I don't care who shows up. I don't care who is busted in the files (…) [accountability] needs to be done everywhere,” she declared, before Behar reminded folks they were also in the files.   After helping to downplay and dismiss her View co-host Whoopi Goldberg being in the Epstein files requesting use of his jet, and quipping that Whoopi was too old for Epstein, Sara Haines is now back to indignantly demanding accountability for others. "[Accountability] needs to… pic.twitter.com/Qp8vBNXuhp — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 19, 2026   The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View February 19 11:07:18 a.m. Eastern (…) SARA HAINES: This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. It's an issue of victims and every time -- every time even just talking about it we say, well, the Democrats are saying this, the Republicans -- I don't care about any of them. I don't care who shows up. I don't care who is busted in the file. All I care these victims who have been silenced and continually victimized through no accountability get their moment. And right now they're getting it and some place we have some countries like France, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania. They’re holding public people accountable and it needs to be done. SAVANNAH CHRISLEY: Everyone needs to be held accountable. HAINES: It needs to be done everywhere. (…) 11:11:12 a.m. Eastern JOY BEHAR: We’re on the list because we were at a party or a wedding or something that somebody might have been. That's what I found out anyway. GOLDBERG: No, I -- BEHAR: I was at Trump's wedding to Marla. Maybe Epstein was there too. Who knows? So that means I'm not guilty obviously, but these other ones, how are you going to decide who is really guilty and who is not? It’s very tricky! [Crosstalk] GOLDBERG: I think it's very clear. HAINES: I don’t think it’s that tricky. [Crosstalk] GOLDBERG: If you look, you know why my name is there. Because someone was looking for a plane and that's what people do. They go to all the people would have private planes and say, ‘do you have one?’ SUNNY HOSTIN: And you didn't get on the plane. GOLDBERG: I didn’t get on the plane. I didn't know they were looking for a plane. I had no idea that the plane I was supposed to be on was no longer available. So, I'm named in there like ‘Whoopi Goldberg needs a plane.’ HOSTIN: There are a lot of people who are named - BEHAR: Marilyn Monroe was on the list. GOLDBERG: Yes. Elvis also. HOSTIN: There were plenty of people that were named on the list that may have not done anything wrong. GOLDBERG: Yeah. HOSTIN: But I think that there are a lot of people on the list that are guilty of wrongdoing. BEHAR: Yes, indeed. (…)