A federal judge stopped War Secretary Pete Hegseth–at least temporarily–from censuring Sen. Mark Kelly for his role in a video telling American soldiers to refuse illegal orders.

Judge Rich Leon, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, on Thursday ruled in favor of Kelly, D-Ariz., a retired Navy captain, who had joined five other Democrat members of Congress telling service members to refuse “illegal” orders, without giving a clear definition of illegal.  

Hegseth had moved to reduce Kelly’s Navy rank and retirement pay as a consequence. Judge Leon issued the order in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., blocking the move.

“Today a federal court made clear Pete Hegseth violated the Constitution when he tried to punish me for something I said,” Kelly said in a post on X.

“This is a critical moment to show this administration they can’t keep undermining Americans’ rights. I also know this might not be over yet, because Trump and Hegseth can’t admit when they are wrong.”

President Donald Trump slammed the Democrat video as “seditious behaviors, punishable by death.” He called them “traitors.” 

Leon’s opinion said Kelly had the First Amendment right to make the comments in the video.  

Leon acknowledged, “military service members enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protections given the fundamental obligation for obedience and discipline in the armed forces.” 

The post Judge Weighs in on War Department Censure of Sen. Mark Kelly Over Video appeared first on The Daily Signal.

U.S. — Following his inspiring appearance at TPUSA's All-American Halftime Show and increased popularity among Christian conservatives, musician Kid Rock was notified that his 1999 hit song "Bawitdaba" would be added to hymnals in churches across the country.

Gallup announced that it will end its long-standing practice of publishing presidential approval ratings. The polling company had done so for about eight decades, according to The Hill. The end […]

The post Gallup to End Polling the President's Approval Rating After More Than 80 Years appeared first on The Western Journal.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright met with Venezuela's "acting President" Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas on Wednesday.

The post Venezuelan Socialists Roll Out Red Carpet for U.S. Energy Secretary appeared first on Breitbart.

Russia launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities in overnight attacks, officials reported on Thursday.

The post Ukraine Claims Russia is ‘Hesitating’ Over Next Round of Peace Talks appeared first on Breitbart.

Details have emerged in the case of a former NFL player accused of beating his girlfriend to death earlier this month.

The post VIDEO: Ghastly Details Emerge as Prosecutors Weigh Death Penalty for Ex-NFL Player Darron Lee appeared first on Breitbart.

Sen. Josh Hawley accused Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison of having knowledge of massive welfare fraud in his state yet enabling the fraud to continue.

“I should call you prisoner because you ought to be in jail,” Hawley, R-Mo., told Ellison in a heated exchange during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday.

Hawley specifically pressed Ellison on an alleged conversation the attorney general had with leaders of the Minneapolis nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which orchestrated a massive fraud scheme.

The organization claimed to be working with caterers and restaurants to provide meals to schoolchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the group was found to have submitted fake invoices and meal count sheets while receiving more than $250 million in federal child nutrition assistance.

In November 2025, the Department of Justice announced one of the individuals involved in the fraud scheme had been sentenced to 10 years in prison “for his role in the $300 million Feeding Our Future case, the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the United States.”

Hawley claimed the leaders of Feeding Our Future met with Ellison at the end of 2021 and asked the attorney general for “help in getting investigators off their backs.”

“They complained to you for upwards of an hour about state investigators going after them, and they begged you to help them, and you agreed to it, amazingly, and we know you did because it’s all caught on tape,” Hawley said.

Hawley proceeded to read a portion of what he claimed was a transcript of the meeting between Ellison and the representatives of Feeding Our Future.

“You said to them, ‘Send me the names of all these folks who are investigating [Feeding Our Future] … and I’ll take that list, and I’ll call the person over at Education who’s investigating them,’” Hawley read.

Ellison accused Hawley of “cherry-picking quotes” from the conversation.

Hawley repeatedly asked Ellison why he helped Feeding Our Future.

“I didn’t help them,” Ellison responded, adding, “my team assisted with the information that led to the prosecution and conviction of these people.”

“No, you didn’t, you didn’t lift a finger to prosecute them,” Hawley retorted.

“Yes, we did,” Ellison responded, noting it was a federal prosecution, which Hawley called “BS.”

Hawley also accused Ellison of taking $10,000 from Feeding Our Future, referring to reports that Ellison received $10,000 in contributions from members of the organization.

“That’s a lie,” Ellison shot back.

The exchange continued before Hawley told Ellison he should resign.

The Daily Signal contacted Ellison’s office for a response to Hawley’s accusations. Brian Evans, Ellison’s press secretary, told The Daily Signal that Ellison already addressed the meeting Hawley referred to in an op-ed for the Star Tribune published in April 2025.

In the op-ed, Ellison wrote that his “door is always open” to his constituents. The attorney general explained that in 2021 he “took a meeting in good faith with people I didn’t know and some turned out to have done bad things. I did nothing for them and took nothing from them.”

The explosive exchange between Hawley and Ellison comes after fraud cases in Minnesota made major headlines at the end of December and into January.

Content creator Nick Shirley released a 42-minute video over the Christmas holiday claiming to show day cares in Minnesota that had no children but had received millions of dollars in government funding. Following the release of the video, the Trump administration devoted additional resources to Minnesota to investigate fraud. Federal investigations remain ongoing in Minnesota.

One federal prosecutor estimated the amount of welfare fraud in the state to have exceeded $9 billion.

The post ‘You Ought to Be in Jail’: GOP Senator Accuses Minnesota Attorney General of Enabling Fraud   appeared first on The Daily Signal.

An absolutely deranged and unhinged black supremacist and leftist agitator in Portland, Oregon, allegedly decided to do a drive-by shooting with a realistic-looking airsoft gun on live-streamers standing outside an […]

The post Graphic Videos: Unhinged Anti-ICEer Attacks Live Streamers, Grabs Realistic-Looking Airsoft Gun, and Gets Face Full of Pepper Spray, Then Loses Her Job, Too appeared first on The Western Journal.