On Monday afternoon, President Trump held a briefing alongside senior military officials and CIA Director John Ratcliffe about the daring, unprecedented mission to rescue two American heroes trapped behind enemy lines in Iran. He also took questions from the press corps, including one from The New York Times on whether escalating attacks on Iran would constitute war crimes and another from Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing “critics” who believe Trump’s tough talk is proof he’s mental unstable. Times White House reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs barely got a word out before the President demanded to know which outlet he represented: “Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international law.” New York Times reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs: “Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international law.” Trump: Who are you with? Who are you with?” Kanno-Youngs: “I’m with The New York Times. Zolan from The New York Times. Are you… pic.twitter.com/qsnwyBTdJk — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 After sharing he’s “Zolan from The New York Times,” Trump began tearing into him: “Uh-huh. The failing, the failing New York Times. Circulation way down at The New York Times.” Kanno-Youngs finished his question amid the cross-talk: “Are you concerned — are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes?” Trump demurred: “No, not at all. No, no, I’m not. I hope I don’t have to do it. But again, I just said 47 years they’ve been negotiating with these people, they’re great negotiators.” When Kanno-Youngs restated his question, Trump torched The Times for siding with and believeing the “mentally...disturbed” and “sick of mind” people in the Iranian regime should be allowed to have nuclear weapons (click “expand”): KANNO-YOUNGS: [Inaudible]. But why would that attack not violate international law? TRUMP: And because they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, and if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that will happen because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and afraid of Iran. We’re never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And if you think it’s okay for people that are sick of mind, that are tough, smart and sick, really sick ideological, you know, from — from a policy standpoint, from a standpoint, any which way you want to say mentally, these are disturbed people. If you think I’m going to allow them and powerful and rich to have a nuclear weapon, you can tell your friends at The New York Times not going to happen. KANNO-YOUNGS: Even if it means violating international law? Even if it means violating international law? TRUMP: Quiet, quiet, quiet. You no longer have credibility with The New York Times because The New York Times said, ‘oh, Trump won’t win the election.’ And I won in a landslide. I won every swing state. New York Times said, ‘oh, Trump won’t win the election.’ New York Times has no credibility. The credibility they have is it used to be all the news that’s fit to print a great — the Old Gray Lady, it was great. But they’re running on past fumes and you can’t keep doing that. You have to be able to give the correct news. And people like you who I know are fake. You’re fake. A few minutes later, AFP’s Danny Kemp asked this in light of Trump’s Truth Social post about calling the Iranians “crazy bastards”: “[W]hat is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues?” AFP’s @DannyCTKemp: “You called — yesterday in your Truth Social, you called the Iranians crazy bastards.” Trump: “True.” Kemp: “What is your response to critics who say —” Trump: “I don’t care about critics.” Kemp: “— what is your response to critics who say that it is your… pic.twitter.com/YT9Q7t3q4F — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 Trump had a surprisingly short answer, but he made it count in this latest cheap shot at his mental stamina: “I haven’t heard that, but if that’s the case, you’re going to have to have more people like me because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything for many years until I came along. So, if that’s the case, you’re going to have to have more people [examined].” Towards the beginning of the Q&A, ABC’s chief White House correspondent and Biden regime apple polisher Mary Bruce wondered if Trump’s threats to blow up Iranian infrastructure sites would be “punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime.” Trump replied Iranians are willing to put up with a lot “in order to have freedom” from the “violent, horrible world” they’ve been trapped in for 47 years, including threats of being killed for simply protesting the government: ABC’s @MaryKBruce: “You’ve said Iranians would be mad if you stopped these attacks, but why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure to — to cut off their power? Wouldn’t that be punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime?” President Trump: “They would be… pic.twitter.com/cIIhnD6ePq — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 In addition to blasting reporters for lacking the courage ordinary Iranians have, he mocked the left’s refusal to side with Iranians while screeching about so-called “women’s rights” and rights for “gays” in America (click “expand”): And a lot of the — the news doesn’t talk about they talk about, oh, women’s rights. You want to see women’s rights, you’re not going to see it there. It’s amazing when I see some of the stupid people like AOC plus three, all that group they talk about, oh, freedom for Iran. They don’t tell you the real facts. Women, men, gays. How about gays for Iran? They kill the gays, they throw them off buildings. So, I wonder what — what’s going on? I can only say this. They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardizes, because their life is in much greater danger. They want freedom for Iran, but it’s very hard for them to protest. I actually tell them, I said, don’t go out. I fully understand. Nobody in this room would go out. I don’t think there’s any because frankly, it’s not a question of bravery. We’re all brave, right? You’re brave. I’m brave. We’re all brave, but we’re also intelligent. If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time, and you’re looking here and you’re seeing and you’re looking here, you’re out of there. I don’t care who you are.  On the substantive side, Fox’s Mark Meredith wondered whether anyone in the administration advised against the rescue mission: Fox’s @MarkPMeredith: “Was everyone on board with the operation or were there people that were trying to talk you out of going through with the operation this weekend?” Trump: “Not everybody was on board.” Meredith: “Somebody else within?” Trump: No. There was military people,… pic.twitter.com/dYCQdUrZXo — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 Trump made sure to CNN’s Kristen Holmes knew she was with “fake news” before she asked about the importance of Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz to a deal (and a subsequently lengthy answer), but he cut right to the chase with CBS’s Weijia Jiang: WATCH: President Trump nukes Jim Acosta’s girlfriend, PBS White House correspondent Liz Landers... Landers: “How is it taking care of the Iranian people if you’re bombing their energy infrastructure?” Trump: “Yeah, who are you with? Who are you with?” Landers: “PBS.” Trump:… pic.twitter.com/TLiYusnGQP — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 The Washington Post’s Natalie Allison brought up Trump’s Truth Social post in which he said “glory be to God” in the war as a segue to whether “you believe that God supports the United States actions in this war and have you sought His direction.” The Washington Post’s @Natalie_Allison: “You said, ‘glory be to God in this conflict.’ do you believe that God supports the United States actions in this war and have you sought His direction?” President Trump: “I do, because God is good and I — because God is good, and God… pic.twitter.com/oUBNaAUYvu — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 Skipping ahead to after Kemp’s question embracing the left’s worldview that Trump is mentally ill, Politico’s Dasha Burns restated Kanno-Young’s question, but did so without the war crimes bit: “You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as targeting, including power plants, bridges. You’ve mentioned those. Are there certain kinds of civilian targets, though — I’m thinking, schools or hospitals that you would say is off limits?” Politico’s @DashaBurns: “You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as targeting —” Trump: “Yeah.” Burns: “— including power plants, bridges. You’ve mentioned those.” Trump: “Very little is off limits.” Burns: “Are there certain kinds of civilian targets, though —… pic.twitter.com/XUoEkboYO9 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 The final question of the Q&A went to The Hill’s Julia Manchester, who drew a lengthy and newsy answer from the President about his recent complaints about NATO: .@TheHill’s @JuliaManch: “You voiced your displeasure with NATO in the past. Is there a danger to the U.S. not being the de facto of the leader of the alliance and then other powers within the alliance then getting the decision making when it comes to wars and nuclear weapons?”… pic.twitter.com/mHJBhqIBzo — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 Just hours before the Briefing Room appearance, Trump took questions at the White House Easter Egg Roll, where tore into Liz Landers, formerly of taxpayer-funded PBS: WATCH: President Trump nukes Jim Acosta’s girlfriend, PBS White House correspondent Liz Landers... Landers: “How is it taking care of the Iranian people if you’re bombing their energy infrastructure?” Trump: “Yeah, who are you with? Who are you with?” Landers: “PBS.” Trump:… pic.twitter.com/TLiYusnGQP — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2026 To see the relevant transcript of the April 6 briefing (including even more Q&A), click here.

On Monday’s CNN This Morning, the panel on the Audie Cornish-hosted program started with more accusations of U.S. war crimes from panelist Sarah Fitzpatrick of The Atlantic and Kim Dozier, a CNN Global Affairs Analyst. Fitzpatrick said the US will be “turning off incubators for babies,” while Dozier claimed the US is about to violate the Geneva Conventions like Russia had in Ukraine. Furthermore, at the end of the hour-long morning show, a discussion ensued between Cornish and Fitzpatrick, which worried almost only about the “cost” of the rescue mission of a U.S. Military pilot. In the opening salvo of the show, Cornish asked if the original “sense” of the U.S. and Israel’s desire to preserve the infrastructure of Iran had shifted, and Fitzpatrick turned to the "ramifications" of possible strikes.   WATCH: On Monday's CNN This Morning, The Atlantic's Sarah Fitzpatrick decried the "death of expertise" amid the war, as she accused the U.S. Military and Sec. @PeteHegseth of not receiving or ignoring information on possible "legal" and "military ramifications" of some strikes. pic.twitter.com/FeKxkMgTSC — Nick (@nspin310) April 6, 2026   Fitzpatrick said military and security officials “choose not to strike certain targets because it's just not worth it” because “it might be a war crime.” She also implied that Secretary Hegseth either has not received or has ignored information about targets, not just what the "legal ramifications could be but the national security and the military ramifications.” Fitzpatrick said the US would be “turning off incubators for babies and things like that” if they carried out strikes. Unsurprisingly from a The Atlantic employee, Fitzpatrick was upset with what she described as “the death of expertise” amid this war.    In the same panel discussion, CNN Analyst Kim Dozier turned to claim the US might violate the Geneva Conventions, like Russia has in the years-long failure of their “special military operation” in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/YQATc6sXtu — Nick (@nspin310) April 6, 2026   Dozier, one of the other panelists, now turned to Hegseth’s comments of “no mercy, no quarter,” something she also discussed in a prior show, to turn to claim the U.S. might violate the Geneva Conventions like Russia has in their years-long failure of their “special military operation” in Ukraine: DOZIER: You can, militarily, under the Geneva Conventions, hit some parts of the power grid if they're purely for military purposes. (...) But if you do it on an extended basis, and you add in things like desalination plants, which is what Trump is threatening to do, that gets you straight into the territory of war crimes. The U.S. helped write the update of the Geneva Conventions after World War II to go against this kind of action. Thank you Dozier for demonstrating what the death of expertise looked like! While they were busy trying to claim Trump was going to commit war crimes, they ignored or were ignorant of the fact that the U.S. had weapons that could disrupt power but not destroy the power plants; weapons such as graphite bombs, which uncoil long filaments of metal wires which as designed to be deployed over power lines and cause them to short circuit. The lines being much easier to replace than an entire power plant.   In the final segment of the show, the panel finally had a large discussion on the pilot rescue mission in Iran. Cornish and Fitzpatrick took the moment to worry about the “costs” of the rescue. https://t.co/oIQ7XLcufC pic.twitter.com/aROc5ZQkqe — Nick (@nspin310) April 6, 2026   In the final segment of the show, the panel finally had a large discussion on the pilot rescue mission in Iran. Cornish and Fitzpatrick took the moment to worry about the “costs” of the rescue. Cornish started: “And so, I don't - I am glad that this mission was successful. The question is, are we putting ourselves in the position to have to do more of these?” Fitzpatrick almost worried only about the “costs”: Absolutely. And what are the potential costs? I mean, we're all so happy that this worked out, but had this not, it could have been a huge loss of life. Think about how many people were involved in this operation. I mean, this is in a substantial - any time you go into, you know, enemy theater, you are exposing yourself. But also the enemy is learning a lot about what you do and how you do it. So, it's not without cost here. Discussions like these on CNN This Morning reflect why there was, as Fitzpatrick called it, a “death of expertise.” The transcript is below. Click "expand": CNN This Morning April 6, 2026 6:09:04 AM Eastern (...) AUDIE CORNISH: Before, there was a sense that the U.S. and Israel wanted to preserve something of Iran's infrastructure. Do I have that right? SARAH FITZPATRICK: Absolutely. CORNISH: Is that shifting? FITZPATRICK: Absolutely. And I - but I think we see it to  the points that we've been making here, in a quarter reckless way, in a way that's not really thinking strategically about what are going to be the ramifications of doing this. I was with a former NSC official over the weekend, and they were explaining that sometimes you choose not to strike certain targets because it's just not worth it - one, it might be a war crime. And in these cases, I think this is a very legitimate question to be a thing about. What kind of information is Pete Hegseth getting about what targets they're choosing and what the legal, not just the legal ramifications could be but the national security and the military ramifications.  And I've spoken to so many officials who say, like, infrastructure like this for the whole population, when you are going to be turning off incubators for babies and things like that, that is a much, much more serious question to have. And that should be a topic of discussion with expertise. I think this - we're also seeing in this war kind of the death of expertise. Where are the experts who are coming in and saying, this may not be legal or this may not be the right thing? I don't think those people are getting - CORNISH: Right. And with that initial strike that landed on a school. There was like, oh, what's - Okay, maybe it's the early start now. We're deep in. And you have even people like Ann Coulter saying online, I really wish legal experts hadn't screamed bloody murder about every little thing Trump did, so they could speak with authority now that he's actually committing war crimes. KIM DOZIER: Yes. Hegseth saying that no mercy, no quarter towards the forces. And also now talking about, you know, there are international criminal court judgments against Russia for doing this in Ukraine. You can, militarily, under the Geneva Conventions, hit some parts of the power grid if they're purely for military purposes. CORNISH: Right. DOZIER: But if you do it on an extended basis, and you add in things like desalination plants, which is what Trump is threatening to do, that gets you straight into the territory of war crimes. The U.S. helped write the update of the Geneva Conventions after World War II to go against this kind of action. CORNISH: And never mind that they're struggling with the Strait of Hormuz right now, right? So, as you try to expand knowing Iran will retaliate in every direction. (...) 6:55:45 AM Eastern CORNISH: And just to let people know, inside that mission you had the airman hiding in the mountains, as we mentioned. And he had a pistol. He had a tracking beacon. And then the U.S. launches this rescue, multiple agencies, right. And special ops and Navy SEALs. And so, I don't - I am glad that this mission was successful. The question is, are we putting ourselves in the position to have to do more of these? FITZPATRICK: Absolutely. And what are the potential costs? I mean, we're all so happy that this worked out, but had this not, it could have been a huge loss of life. Think about how many people were involved in this operation. I mean, this is in a substantial - any time you go into, you know, enemy theater, you are exposing yourself. But also the enemy is learning a lot about what you do and how you do it. So, it's not without cost here. CORNISH: Trump has said to Axios that the U.S. military had beeping information about the officer's location, the tracker he mentioned. And that after a radio message, officials suspected he might be Iranian captivity and that the Iranians were sending false signals to try to lure U.S. forces into a trap. Is that a thing? BECCA WASSER: Well, deception is always a thing in any military operation. And in fact, this is very much what the us was doing with the CIA essentially having a false decoy mission over in a different part of geography in order to safely secure the airmen. (...)

On the Easter edition of CNN's State of the Union, host Jake Tapper used the guise of Easter Sunday to present what he called a "special conversation" with the Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, who turned out to be Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. The 11 and a half minute sit-down turned out to be what many will surely consider one of the more disgraceful left wing media spectacles in quite a while. Tapper promoted it like this at the top of the show: "Easter sermon. In a deeply divided America, one senator shares his faith on Christianity's holiest day." Tapper started out innocently enough with an actual legitimate question, followed by a righteous sounding answer. TAPPER: I'm sure you encounter quite a bit, uh, African American members of your church. Baptists who are more socially conservative than you, who say I'm with you on the hunger. I'm with you on the kindness, but Laken Riley was murdered by an undocumented immigrant, and I see nothing compassionate about having him in this country. Or they talk about abortion, or they talk about, other things that maybe are not in line with your politics. How do you confront that? WARNOCK: Oh, we're Baptists and there's a range of, of beliefs and perspectives, in this house and I welcome them all.... I preach to Democrats, Republicans and Independents, Libertarians every Sunday. And I think that we need to, we could all use a little bit more grace these days. Grace for people who don't share our point of view. But in his answer to Tapper's next question, it appears that grace went right out the window. TAPPER: Do you pray for the President? WARNOCK: Oh, absolutely. He needs a lot of prayer. TAPPER: What do you pray for? What do you ask God? WARNOCK: I affirm his humanity as I affirm the humanity of, of, of anybody and everybody. But part of that prayer, is about accountability.  I have to be honest about what he's doing. His kind of unabashed, unvarnished bigotry, the cruelty that he is unleashing on American streets through his version of ICE.  Those things have to be condemned. And so for me, prayer and prophetic speech, which holds power accountable, those two things go hand in hand. I am not about to be the Chaplain blessing that which is ungodly and unjust. This returns the subject to Laken Riley, that ICE must be condemned, but somehow illegal immigrants who rape and murder women aren't as immoral as ICE agents. Weren't those crimes "ungodly"?  Tapper then asked about Trump voters who feel the president was chosen by God for a mission. (He left out the whole "survived an assassination by inches" part.) This set Warnock off into a rant about slavery: TAPPER: There are a lot of religious leaders who go to the White House and not only pray for the President, but make a show of suggesting that that he was chosen by God for this mission. WARNOCK: Yeah, they're wrong. And there were Christians who thought that slavery was, you know, somehow Godlike, American chattel slavery. And they justified it, and they used scripture to support their position.  Comparing support and admiration for President Trump to supporting and justifying slavery? And Tapper says nothing? Well, not quite nothing. He moved on to a gratuitous charge against three Republicans over Muslims. TAPPER: We've seen some really ugly expressions of anti-Muslim bigotry from Republican politicians. Randy Fine, Andy Ogles, two members of Congress, Senator Tuberville. Just bigotry outright. Muslims shouldn't be in this country, et cetera. There was apparently no time for specifics on the conservative criticisms of Islam and whether it's compatible with democracy and religious freedom. The softball had been tossed and the Reverend responded.  WARNOCK: It's hate. I mean, we should we shouldn't play around with this stuff because it's dangerous and it's deadly. This this kind of hate, this kind of bigotry.  Tapper lightly touched on antisemitism, on both sides:  TAPPER: There's also been a real outbreak in anti-Semitism, not just on the right, but also on the left. How concerned are you about that? The anti-Semitism within the Democratic party or the Progressive movement? WARNOCK: We have to condemn hate, including anti-Semitism, wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. And I've been clear about this across the years. We have to condemn it.  Tapper did not ask Sen. Warnock about his Georgia colleague Sen. Jon Ossoff being endorsed by Hasan Piker, who's rabidly anti-Israel and thinks America deserved 9/11. Republicans are pushing that, so CNN is allergic to it. Not quite the whole story. In 2022, Fox News reported that Warnock worked at a church for a decade while it repeatedly hosted former New York City Professor Leonard Jeffries (uncle of Hakeem Jeffries) who was ousted over anti-Semitic and Black supremacist teachings. In 2020, The New York Post reported on a 2018 videotaped sermon where he blasted Israel and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Also in 2020, The IPT documented the contents of a letter blasting Israel and co-signed by Warnock. I guess Jake Tapper never heard of any of this. A simply disgraceful display on "unvarnished bigotry" all around. 

Over the past few days, Fox News has continued to keep their viewers informed about the problem of illegal aliens committing violent crimes in the U.S. that MS NOW and CNN viewers don't get to hear about. Several shows not only recounted that, in the sanctuary county of Fairfax in Virginia, three out of four murders from this year were allegedly committed by illegals, but the far-left D.A., Steve Descano, recently sought only five year sentences for a pair of illegals who committed a murder in 2024. On Friday's America's Newsroom, fill-in anchor Aishah Hasnie recalled: Okay, a progressive prosecutor in Northern Virginia is back in hot water. Fairfax County D.A. Steve Descano is facing some backlash over some sweetheart deals given to migrant murder suspects, cutting down decades long sentences to just five-year terms. Unbelievable. Fox reporter Bill Melugin further filled viewers in: Fairfax County, Virginia, has been all over the headlines in recent weeks, and not for a good reason. Three out of the four murders that have happened in that sanctuary county so far this year have allegedly been at the hands of illegal aliens. And now we have a new jaw-dropping headline -- you just mentioned it. The progressive commonwealth attorney in Fairfax County has given a pair of illegal immigrants, both convicted of murder, a sweetheart plea deal that will give them only a max of five years in prison rather than potentially decades. After reading  a statement from Descano's office defending the move, Melugin noted the staggering proportion of murders committed by illegals in Fairfax County: Three separate illegal aliens have already been charged with murders in Fairfax County so far this year. One is accused of stabbing Stephanie Minter to death at a bus stop last month, a second is accused of hacking a man to death in his home with a machete, and a third is charged with beating his three-month-old daughter to death. He then read a statement by DHS complaining about the newly enacted sanctuary policies by Governor Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). On the same day's Fox News at Night, reporter Christina Coleman informed viewers that Fairfax County had repeatedly ignored detainers for one of the perpetrators in spite of his criminal history: One of the two self-admitted murderers is this man -- Maldin Anibal Guzman -- a Honduran national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 and was ordered moved by an immigration judge just the next year. ICE says it lodged multiple detainers against him, starting three years ago, but the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center declined to honor them, leading to even more criticism of the county's so-called "soft on crime policies," immigration laws and progressive leaders. Appearing on Saturday's Fox Report, former federal prosecutor Jonathan Fahey recalled that two of the three illegals suspected of recent murders had entered the U.S. during the Joe Biden administration. He further asserted that Fairfax County's D.A. has a history of going soft on illegal aliens to spare them from being deported. Fox host Jon Scott then read a statement from Friday by Cheryl Minter, whose daughter Stephanie was one of the more recent murder victims, as she called for the D.A. to be recalled and removed from office. Fox had previously given significant coverage to the story of Stephanie being stabbed to death at a bus stop by an illegal alien who had avoided getting a substantial prison sentence despite being arrested 30 times. A judge had also blocked the Donald Trump administration from deporting him in 2018, forcing his release. Transcripts follow: Fox's America Reports March 24, 2026 1:18 p.m. Eastern JOHN ROBERTS: In Virginia, the family of a 41-year-old mother, stabbed to death last month allegedly by an illegal immigrant, is demanding accountability from Democratic officials. The family says those officials failed to protect their daughter. Stephanie Minter's suspected killer came into the country in 2012 and went on to rack up dozens of arrests. Joining us now is Marc Thiessen -- Fox News contributor and former speechwriter to George W. Bush. So she was stabbed February 23 at a Fairfax County bus stop. (...) And they believe in letting people like Abdul Jalloh back on the street. Let's put up his rap sheet, which is rather lengthy. So he entered the U.S. illegally in 2012 -- his criminal history 2014 to 2026 -- charged with second degree murder, rape -- the charge was dropped. Assault, guilty of one charge -- he was charged three times. Malicious wounding. Here's the former attorney general of Virginia, Jason Miyares. EX-ATTORNEY GENERAL JASON MIYARES (R-VA): Her killer had been arrested 30 prior times. He was in this country illegally. (editing jump) He was a ticking time bomb, and that time bomb went off, and Stephanie was the casualty. Stephanie Minter did not have to die. ROBERTS: Not only that, but the Fairfax County commonwealth attorney, Steve Descano, was warned about Jalloh by the Fairfax County Police Department which said: "Mr. Jalloh is one of the repeat and violent offenders we discussed. ... I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon. ... Unfortunately, based on numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of (if), but rather when he will maliciously wound or worse again." A warning that completely fell on deaf ears. (...) So what's really interesting about this whole case is that, eight years ago, ICE had this guy in custody holding him for deportation. Listen to what DHS said: "ICE arrested Abdul Jalloh on November 27, 2018. He was in custody for 702 days, until ICE was forced to release him following a judge's ruling that he could not be removed to his home nation of Sierra Leone. ICE can only detain illegals for the purpose of removal. Without third country removal, there was no possibility for this criminal to be removed or further detained." So the judge ordered his release. And had that judge not ordered his release -- if he had have been deported, Stephanie Minter would still be alive today. (...) America's Newsroom April 3, 2026 10:07 a.m. Eastern AISHAH HASNIE: Okay, a progressive prosecutor in Northern Virginia is back in hot water. Fairfax County D.A. Steve Descano is facing some backlash over some sweetheart deals given to migrant murder suspects, cutting down decades long sentences to just five-year terms. Unbelievable. Bill Melugin is live with the details from our Washington news room. Hi, Bill. BILL MELUGIN: Aishah, good morning to you. Fairfax County, Virginia, has been all over the headlines in recent weeks, and not for a good reason. Three out of the four murders that have happened in that sanctuary county so far this year have allegedly been at the hands of illegal aliens. And now we have a new jaw-dropping headline -- you just mentioned it. The progressive commonwealth attorney in Fairfax County has given a pair of illegal immigrants, both convicted of murder, a sweetheart plea deal that will give them only a max of five years in prison rather than potentially decades. Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano's office tells Fox News, quote, "The plea agreement was the only way to ensure that the defendants were incarcerated. ... Since the victim's body was found in a creek the next morning there was no DNA or (any) physical evidence at the scene. All witnesses in this case were terrified to come forward or assist with prosecution." But it doesn't stop there. Three separate illegal aliens have already been charged with murders in Fairfax County so far this year. One is accused of stabbing Stephanie Minter to death at a bus stop last month, a second is accused of hacking a man to death in his home with a machete, and a third is charged with beating his three-month-old daughter to death. DHS is reacting, saying, quote, "Of the four defendants in Fairfax County murder trials this year, three are illegal aliens. Governor Spanberger must end her sanctuary policies that allow these illegal aliens onto our streets and work with DHS to protect the citizens of the commonwealth." (...) Fox News at Night April 3, 2026 11:17 p.m. CHRISTINA COLEMAN: One of the two self-admitted murderers is this man -- Maldin Anibal Guzman -- a Honduran national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 and was ordered moved by an immigration judge just the next year. ICE says it lodged multiple detainers against him, starting three years ago, but the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center declined to honor them, leading to even more criticism of the county's so-called "soft on crime policies," immigration laws and progressive leaders. (...) JONATHAN FAHEY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: With three out of the four murders this year in Fairfax County of what -- 1.3 million people -- three out of the four being committed by illegal aliens, two of those three came in under the Biden open borders, and two of those -- yeah, two of those three also had prior arrests that should have been deported. But what makes it even worse, at the very end of last year, Steve Descano released an MS-13 member who was charged with a malicious wounding offense in Fairfax County -- two days later, he kills another person -- or is charged with killing another person in Reston, Virginia. (...) Fox Report April 4, 2026 4:17 p.m. FAHEY: And the situation in Fairfax is so bad -- like you said, three out of the four murders this year by illegal aliens. Two of those three had prior arrests for violent crime, so therefore they should have been turned over to ICE and weren't. But it gets even worst because, last December, this same commonwealth's attorney dismissed a malicious wounding charge against an MS-13 member, and, instead of turning them over to ICE to be deported, he was released back in the community in Reston, Virginia, and committed a murder within two days -- or is charged of committing a murder within two days of being released. So this is a pattern and practice of Fairfax County, and the plea deal with these two people -- and, again, one of them is an illegal alien -- is really part of the same pattern and practice. You see it with sex offenders, you see it with the most serious offenders -- and this commonwealth's attorney on his website talks about how he puts -- he gives more favorable plea deals to illegal aliens than citizens because he doesn't think they should face the consequences of deportation. He doesn't consider that in sync with the values of Fairfax County, which is remarkable to me. JON SCOTT: Yeah, you're talking about Steve Descano -- the prosecutor for Fairfax County. Cheryl Minter -- her daughter was murdered, and she says this about Descano. She's trying to get him recalled, and she says: "He's as dangerous as the criminals themselves. He's releasing the criminals back on the street. He needs to be put out of office." This after her daughter, Stephanie Minter, was murdered. You think there is the appetite among residents of Fairfax County? FAHEY: Yeah, you know, I want to say I hope so, but, you know, Fairfax County, the Democratic party is so strong, and think they still support him despite this. And the case she's talking about -- this individual had dozens of prior arrests for violent crimes, for stabbings -- and almost all of them were "nolle prossed," which in Virginia means they were dismissed.

During the Easter edition of CBS News Sunday Morning, the not-so right-wing network dedicated four minutes and four seconds to the war in Iran. But despite the United States pulling off a daring rescue of an airman from Iranian territory the day prior, only 43 seconds, less than a quarter of the of the airtime was about the successful operation. Instead, they chose to interview a former Obama advisor, bash President Trump, and suggest the United States was committing war crimes for the remainder of the segment. It was obvious that CBS was trying to salvage a pre-recorded segment that was designed to bash Trump because all mentions of rescue operation appeared to be grafted onto the front. A voice over of host Jane Pauley giving a general run down of the operation preceded a soundbite of Pentagon correspondent David Martin simply describing a video of aircraft participating in the search: PAULEY (voice over): As we've told you, the missing American airman injured when his F-15E was shot down over Iran, on Friday, has been found. In a social media post, President Trump said the aviator is expected to be just fine. The two-day rescue involved U.S. Special Operations Forces and travel deep into hostile territory. We're also told the CIA was heavily involved. (On screen] Once again this morning, we turn to David Martin, with a look at events in Iran. [Cuts to video] MARTIN: American aircraft flying low and slow over Iran, searching for a downed aviator and taking fire from the ground. In all, the successful rescue of an American airman from deep behind enemy lines only garnered 43 seconds, from a segment that was over four minutes long. That’s less than a quarter. Martin then hard pivoted to whining about Trump talking tough against America’s enemy and clutching his pearls over the destruction of a bridge used by the IRGC (Click “expand”): MARTIN: The airman was rescued, but the U.S. is being drawn deeper in and the commander in chief is posting strike videos and sounding more bellicose than ever. TRUMP: We're going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong. MARTIN: So far, the U.S. has struck mostly military targets, like this ammo depot, which triggered a massive explosion. But it also hit Iran's biggest bridge, a civilian target, which U.S. officials said was used to transport missiles. The President threatened much worse if Iran does not come to terms by Monday night. TRUMP: If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.   In a segment about the war in Iran that lasted 4 minutes and 4 seconds, CBS News Sunday Morning sprinted through an update about the rescued airman (43 seconds) to spend the rest of the time bashing Trump. They didn't speak to anyone who supported the war, but they did speak with… pic.twitter.com/HOcOTppIUM — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 6, 2026   The expert Martin cited to suggest America was going to be committing war crimes under Trump? Tess Bridgman, a former advisor to President Obama, the president who drone-striked so many Afghan weddings it became a meme: BRIDGMAN: Well, electrical generating plants power hospital, they power schools, water sanitation facilities, the things that you need to sustain basic day-to-day living for a civilian population. MARTIN: [Voice over with picture of Bridgman with President Obama’s hand on her shoulder] Tess Bridgman was a legal advisor to President Obama’s Security Council. BRIDGEMAN: Obliterating all power plants, threatening coercive actions against the civilian population to try to bring a government to the negotiating table; those kinds of things are flatly illegal. Martin’s second expert cited against Trump for a former Trump official, Eliot Abrams. He too didn’t like the idea of cutting off power to the IRGC: MARTIN: Eliot Abrams, who served as special representative to Iran in the first Trump Administration, says punishing the Iranian population would undercut the American cause. ABRAMS: We want the Iranian people on our side. I’d rather see us go after regime targets, assets they use to repress the American people, not assets Iranians use to live their daily lives. While CBS was busy trying to claim Trump was going to commit war crimes, they ignored or were ignorant of the fact that the U.S. had weapons that could disrupt power but not destroy the power plants. Weapons such as graphite bombs, which uncoil long filaments of metal wires which as designed to be deployed over power lines and cause them to short circuit. The lines being much easier to replace than an entire power plant. Of course, the final expert CBS spoke with to suggest Trump was failing in his mission was the president of a think tank who argued that things weren’t gong well since the uranium was yet to be seized (Click "expand"): MARTIN: It also seems far removed from the reason President Trump went to war. TRUMP: All I want to do make sure they don't ever have a nuclear weapon. MARTIN: Has he done that? DAVID ALBRIGHT: Unfortunately not. MARTIN: David Albright is president of the Institute for Science and International Security, and a leading expert on Iran’s nuclear program. ALBRIGHT: The most important part that remains is the highly enriched uranium. And that has not been destroyed or taken by the United States or Israel. When asked about the future of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the doomsayer Albright claimed: “The way things are going now, I don't think we're going to see the end of it.” CBS would rather sprint through an American success story that saw the U.S. military set up an airfield just outside Iran’s second largest city, control their air space and ground traffic for hours so we could land multiple fixed-wing planes, and leave without sustaining an lost personnel, all so they could smear the U.S. and suggest we’re losing. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: CBS News Sunday Morning April 5, 2026 9:07:31 a.m. Eastern JANE PAULEY (voice over): As we've told you, the missing American airman injured when his F-15E was shot down over Iran, on Friday, has been found. In a social media post, President Trump said the aviator is expected to be just fine. The two-day rescue involved U.S. Special Operations Forces and travel deep into hostile territory. We're also told the CIA was heavily involved. (On screen] Once again this morning, we turn to David Martin, with a look at events in Iran. [Cuts to video] DAVID MARTIN: American aircraft flying low and slow over Iran, searching for a downed aviator and taking fire from the ground. The airman was rescued, but the U.S. is being drawn deeper in and the commander in chief is posting strike videos and sounding more bellicose than ever. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong. MARTIN: So far, the U.S. has struck mostly military targets, like this ammo depot, which triggered a massive explosion. But it also hit Iran's biggest bridge, a civilian target, which U.S. officials said was used to transport missiles. The President threatened much worse if Iran does not come to terms by Monday night. TRUMP: If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously. TESS BRIDGMAN: Well, electrical generating plants power hospital, they power schools, water sanitation facilities, the things that you need to sustain basic day-to-day living for a civilian population. MARTIN: [Voice over with picture of Bridgman with President Obama’s hand on her shoulder] Tess Bridgman was a legal advisor to President Obama’s Security Council. BRIDGEMAN: Obliterating all power plants, threatening coercive actions against the civilian population to try to bring a government to the negotiating table; those kinds of things are flatly illegal. MARTIN: Eliot Abrams, who served as special representative to Iran in the first Trump Administration, says punishing the Iranian population would undercut the American cause. ELIOT ABRAMS: We want the Iranian people on our side. I’d rather see us go after regime targets, assets they use to repress the American people, not assets Iranians use to live their daily lives. MARTIN: It also seems far removed from the reason President Trump went to war. TRUMP: All I want to do make sure they don't ever have a nuclear weapon. MARTIN: Has he done that? DAVID ALBRIGHT: Unfortunately not. MARTIN: David Albright is president of the Institute for Science and International Security, and a leading expert on Iran’s nuclear program. ALBRIGHT: The most important part that remains is the highly enriched uranium. And that has not been destroyed or taken by the United States or Israel. MARTIN: Does Iran still have a path to a nuclear weapon? ALBRIGHT: As long as it has this highly enriched uranium, it does have a path. MARTIN: The path of Iran's highly enriched uranium is believed buried inside this mountain complex, and President Trump seems willing to leave it there. TRUMP: We have it under intense satellite surveillance and control. If we see them make a move, even a move, we'll hit them with missiles very hard again. MARTIN: The U.S. can bomb the complex to make the uranium even harder to get to, but that is not the entire stockpile. ALBRIGHT: It's a big question about where is the rest. Because the rest is enough for at least two or three nuclear weapons MARTIN: Will this war leave Iran more or less determined to get a bomb. ABRAMS: I think this leads them to believe that they need a nuclear weapon. I don't think they're going to do this tomorrow morning, I think they'll return to it over time, if the regime survives. MARTIN: Have we seen the last of Iran's nuclear program? ALBRIGHT: The way things are going now, I don't think we're going to see the end of it.