• Washington Post anti-Hegseth story is biased with bad sourcing; news at 6: War Secretary Pete Hegseth did not say “kill them all” upon seeing shipwrecked drug smugglers clinging to the wreckage of their decimated speedboat, but readers of The Washington Compost were meant to think he did. Hegseth says he did order the initial “lethal kinetic strike” against the speedboat in question on September 2, but the order for a follow-up strike — intended to clear wreckage from the waterways, not to kill survivors — was given by Admiral Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley. Even The New York Times was unwilling to play along with WaPo’s story, going so far as to exonerate Hegseth of the second strike. Two details should have made it clear to all Americans that this story was fraudulent: it came from The Washington Post, and it relied on anonymous sources.

• Tennessee’s special election tea leaves: In recent weeks, a special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District garnered increasing national attention as polling indicated that a radical leftist Democrat was seeing surprising support in a deep-red state. The seat was vacated by former Rep. Mark Green this summer. Tuesday’s election results show that Tennessee remains strongly red, as Republican Matt Van Epps easily defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn nearly 54% to 45%. Van Epps’s margin of victory is less than Green’s in 2024, which raises concerns among some Republicans that this is an omen for the GOP’s prospects in next year’s midterms. However, there is an important caveat: This was a special election, which generally sees lower voter turnout than national elections.

• House investigates Walz: There is growing criticism of Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s abysmal handling of a massive fraud scandal involving the state’s Somali migrant community. The House Oversight Committee announced it has opened an investigation. “[Governor] Walz was warned about massive fraud in a pandemic food-aid program for children, yet he failed to act,” Chairman James Comer explained. “Instead, whistleblowers who raised concerns faced retaliation,” he added. “Because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals — including Somali terrorists — stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered.” The Treasury Department also announced it has opened its own investigation into the scandal to determine whether any of these taxpayer funds went to the terrorist organization al-Shabaab.

• Trump warns of land strikes on drug cartels: It’s not just drug-trafficker boats in the Caribbean Sea that are targets for potential U.S. military strikes. On Tuesday, Donald Trump warned that “very soon,” U.S. missile strikes will target drug-trafficking operations on land in some South American countries. “We’re going to start doing those strikes on land too,” Trump explained. “The land is much easier, much easier, and we know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live, and we are going to start doing that very soon.” While not going into any detail, Trump added, “Anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack, not necessarily just Venezuela. I hear Colombia is making cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants, and they sell us cocaine.” Rather than backing off following dubious claims of “war crimes” after a recent boat strike, Trump is doubling down, sending the message that he will give no quarter to drug cartels.

• Illegal immigrant on a California CDL kills American newlyweds: William Micah Carter and his new wife, Jennifer Lynn Lower, were killed in late November in Oregon after Indian national Rajinder Kumar jackknifed his 18-wheeler and blocked both lanes of the highway. Tom Lower, father of the bride, said the couple had been married for 16 days. Kumar entered the country in 2022 by crossing the unsecured southern border in Arizona. That same year, the Biden administration sued the state of Arizona to stop it from using shipping containers to fill gaps in its border wall. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California gave Kumar work authorization and a commercial driver’s license in 2023. Today, Kumar has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and is being held in an Oregon jail. ICE has placed a detainer for Kumar with the local jail, which is unlikely to be honored due to Oregon’s sanctuary policies.

• Afghan migrant charged with threatening suicide bombing in TX: Mohammad Dawood Alokozay has been charged by the Justice Department for a TikTok video in which he threatened to bomb the Dallas area, ranted against “infidels,” and revealed that the Taliban was dear to him. Alokozay, an Afghan immigrant, admitted that he was the man in the video. When another TikTok user asked Alokozay why he had come to the United States, he said it was to carry out a suicide attack on Americans. Attorney General Pam Bondi reported that Alokozay was admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration. The Islamic attack on National Guardsmen by an Afghan migrant last week has renewed public attention on the issue of unvetted migrants. Tuesday night, a Delaware undergrad student, Luqmaan Khan, was arrested on accusations of a premeditated attack on the University of Delaware Police Department.

• Trump doesn’t want Somalis: In response to the growing scandal involving Somali immigrants in Minnesota defrauding taxpayers via government services, Donald Trump criticized Gov. Tim Walz but focused on Somalia, calling it “barely a country” where “they just run around killing each other.” He also blasted Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, observing, “For years, I’ve watched her complain about our Constitution.” Expanding on the issue, Trump stated, “Ilhan Omar is garbage. She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage.” He added, “These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, ‘Let’s go, come on. Let’s make this place great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you.” Furthermore, “Somebody said, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks.”

• Dells donate money for Trump accounts: Building on the Invest America Act platform, Michael and Susan Dell are contributing $6.25 billion from their charitable funds to invest in 25 million American children 10 and under. Dell’s contribution adds $250 per child to Trump’s plan, approved by Congress earlier this year, of $1,000 each in an investment account. To be eligible, families must live in zip codes where the median income is less than $150,000, which should cover 80% of kids 10 and under. Another bonus to these accounts is that anyone can donate to them: parents, grandparents, friends, etc. If you start an account for a two-year-old now and annually add $250 until they turn 18, they’ll end up with about $8,000, assuming a 7% annual return. If you leave the money in the account for the person’s whole life until they’re 65 without contributing a dime, they’ll have $3,500,000.

• Judge orders ICE to stop warrantless arrests in DC: Obama-appointed Judge Beryl Howell issued a stern decision on Tuesday, telling the Trump administration to stop the warrantless arrests of illegals that she says is a practice in the District of Columbia, despite the administration’s claims to the contrary. Howell’s 88-page opinion explains that the term “alien criminals” is not PC because being in the country illegally is not a crime but a civil violation. Howell’s injunction stops the administration from arresting alien criminals without a warrant unless escape is believed likely. Howell also took issue with Homeland Security’s policy of making arrests on “reasonable suspicion,” insisting that illegals can only be arrested by the legal standard of probable cause. Once again, Democrat-appointed judges seem much more concerned with the legal rights of illegal aliens than the welfare of American citizens.

Headlines

• Holiday shopping turnout jumps to 202.9 million people during Thanksgiving weekend (CNBC)

• Trump doubles down on voiding Biden autopen actions (Fox News)

• Trump admin to withhold SNAP funding from 21 blue states if they don’t provide data (Washington Examiner)

• Over 90% of college students think “words can be violence” after Kirk assassination (Christian Post)

• Canada euthanized a record 16,499 people last year (PJ Media)

• Humor: MRI confirms President Trump has incurable advanced-stage patriotism (Babylon Bee)

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