Tuesday afternoon, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov drove a rented truck down a Manhattan bicycle path near Ground Zero while yelling “Allahu Akbar.” By the time this jihadist, who had pledged his allegiance to ISIS, was stopped by courageous New York City law enforcement personnel, eight people were dead and nearly a dozen were seriously injured.

Saipov came into the country from Uzbekistan under a diversity visa lottery program. This program has been repeatedly cited by security experts as a magnet for jihadi exploitation.

Fifty thousand people a year are allowed into America through this lottery. Once you are in, you can bring in family members too. After Saipov “won the lottery” seven years ago, several families lost the lottery of life in New York.

What purpose does this “diversity lottery” serve today? There are tens of millions of foreign-born residents living in America. In fact, we are so diverse that English is not spoken in 45% of California households and more than 20% of homes nationwide.

The diversity lottery is yet another example of the Left’s belief that America is flawed and must be “fundamentally transformed” by bringing in people from Third World nations. The name — diversity lottery — says it all. This is not a skills-based program.

By the way, Saipov is not a lone wolf but yet another “known wolf.” Saipov was interviewed by federal agents in 2015 about his ties to Islamic extremists. And the Paterson, New Jersey, mosque he attended had been monitored by the New York Police Department. But left-wing Mayor Bill de Blasio canceled the surveillance program.

Reacting to news of this attack, President Trump said he was ordering the Department of Homeland Security to “step up” the “Extreme Vetting program.” That’s a good start. But more must be done.

Thankfully, conservatives in Congress are trying to end the diversity lottery and enact common sense immigration policies that put our national security and our economic needs first.

If progressives had any common sense, they would immediately join congressional conservatives in suspending the diversity lottery. But I am not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, every left-wing Obama-appointed judge who is trying to make it harder for President Trump to secure our borders and prevent tougher immigration screening should be offered a free ticket to New York to visit the morgue and see the bodies of Saipov’s victims.

The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

After Saipov mowed down bicyclists and pedestrians in what became a “corridor of death,” he aimed his truck at a school bus for special needs kids. Two children and two adults on the bus are among those injured.

Saipov, like all jihadists, is a real monster. Police sources have described him as “pleased” with the attack, bragging about it and “unapologetic.”

One of the earliest incidents that shocked me about the reality of radical Islam was the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. I remember the Marine guards saying that they would be haunted for the rest of their lives by the face of the suicide truck bomber. As they fired at him in a desperate attempt to stop the attack, the jihadi driver was laughing the entire time.

Christians often smile and rejoice at baptisms because they know they will spend eternity in heaven. Jihadists laugh when they kill us because they believe that is their ticket to eternity in heaven.

On Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), hardly a “right-wing extremist,” said this:

“The one thing I like about President Trump, he understands that we’re in a religious war. We’re fighting people who are compelled by their religious views to kill us all. They kill fellow Muslims who don’t agree with their view of Islam…”

Graham is absolutely right. Any politician who can’t grasp this obvious fact should be voted out of office.

But within hours of the attack, Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour tweeted, “Every believing Muslim says Allahu Akbar every day during prayers… Prosecute the criminal not the faith.” She also tweeted, “Acts of terror don’t belong to any faith.”

Tell that to the JIHADISTS, Linda!

Tell that to the Islamic State and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Tell that to Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda.

What do all these groups have in common? They are all co-religionists of one faith.

And since no one runs down strangers yelling “Jesus Saves,” even the most dimwitted among us can figure out that it DOES have something to do with religion.

Good News

As we told you yesterday, leftists in Virginia ran a vicious ad this week portraying a conservative, Caucasian Tea Party supporter trying to drive over minority children, including a Muslim girl.

I am pleased to report that the organization sponsoring the ad has pulled it off the air “given recent events,” referring to the terrorist attack in New York City.

And that is the sad irony here. There is a force in the world that has proudly announced that its fighters should use trucks to mow down innocent people, including children. It has done this in France, England, Germany, Sweden. One of them did it again in New York City.

That force is not political conservatives. It is radical Islamic supremacists.

But I’m willing to bet that if somebody produced an ad showing a Muslim truck driver trying to run down little children on the street and used the ad to attack progressive politicians who support open borders, no TV station in America would dare run that ad.

Russia News

A hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday produced some important news, but it was overshadowed by the events in New York.

According to Politico, executives from Facebook and Twitter told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that a Russian internet troll farm focused its efforts AFTER the election on “fomenting discord about the validity of [Trump’s] election.”

If Russia’s goal was to elect Trump, why did it continue meddling after the election?

Once again, the narrative of Russian collusion has completely changed. Russia’s meddling in the election wasn’t about Clinton or Trump. They were simply meddling and trying to divide us.

As one cybersecurity expert explained:

“[Russia’s] goal is to create confusion and dissent. The target is the U.S. and NATO, not any particular candidate… It went from being a grudge match against Clinton to what they thought was a priceless opportunity to inflict harm.”

Sadly, it is the progressive Left that is buying into Putin’s propaganda and doing the most harm to America. More on that later this week.