'Here's Something You Must Understand About the Left'

Townhall 

Scott Jennings delivered the keynote address at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's 2026 Texas Policy Summit on Friday, revealing the one thing conservatives must know about the left: "They hate success. They hate it when people make it on their own. They hate it when you don't need them."

He went on to describe the left's efforts to persuade Americans to rely on Democrats, citing issues ranging from transgender policy debates to criticism of the American Founding as racist, as well as opposition to the traditional nuclear family. He also referenced Charlie Kirk, noting his work in opposing left-wing movements and helping lead a generation toward conservatism.

"Here's something that you must understand about the left," Jennings said. "They hate success. They hate it when people make it on their own. They hate it when you don't need them."

"Think about what they teach our kids. That America was founded on racism. That our country is rotten at its core. That capitalism is evil. That hard work is for suckers. That merit is a dirty word. That the nuclear family is oppressive, especially to women. That faith is for idiots and rubes for people who are from Kentucky and Texas," he continued. "They run people for the United States Senate who think there are six genders. And that we can solve the climate crisis by taking away all of your bacon. Is it any wonder that Charlie spent his life on college campuses trying to reach young people? He saw what was happening."

"I think when that shooter pulled the trigger and killed my friend in Utah, he thought he was ending a movement," Jennings said. "He thought if he killed Charlie Kirk, he could kill what Charlie stood for. That the rest of us would get the message. That we would heed the warning. Silence yourselves, or we will do it for you. I think that's what he thought. Certainly, what the people who cheered on the assassination thought. And make no mistake, there were thousands who cheered it on."

"But in trying to silence one voice, I think they created thousands," he said. "In trying to end a conversation that day, I think they started millions. And that is the thing we learned about faith and freedom. You can't kill them. You can try to suppress it, and you can try to silence it. But it always finds a way. Like water finding cracks in a dam."

The U.S.–Israel Alliance is a Strategic Bargain

The U.S.–Israel Alliance is a Strategic Bargain

One ally holds the line — for all of us.

Rod D. Martin for Frontpage Magazine

Aid to Israel is not charity. It is one of the most profitable strategic investments the United States has ever made — and a prototype of Trump’s vision for the rest of our alliances.

There is a small but vocal strain of “America Only” commentary that endlessly repeats a falsehood: “We get nothing from our aid to Israel.”

Au contraire, mon frère.

The truth is, America’s alliance with Israel is not a favor or a handout. It is a major pillar of American strength. It’s a strategic investment, an extraordinarily inexpensive way for the United States to buy intelligence, military innovation, strategic reach, regional leverage, and a reliable democratic ally in the most dangerous and unstable region on earth.

Even if you strip away every moral, cultural, religious, historical, and civilizational consideration — and there are many — the U.S.-Israeli alliance would make overwhelming sense on the coldest possible national-interest grounds.

Israel is not merely an ally. It is a force multiplier. It makes American power cheaper, smarter, and more effective than it could be otherwise.

And that points to something larger still. Israel is not just a valuable ally. It is the prototype of Trump’s vision for the rest of our alliances. A competent, heavily armed, technologically sophisticated regional partner that can handle the ordinary threats in its own neighborhood without direct American intervention. That allows the United States to support with depth, integration, and intelligence, while retaining the ability to apply decisive power when the threat is too large for any local state, or even several acting together, to handle alone.

This worked in the 12-Day War. Donald Trump wants to make it work in Europe and Asia as well, standing up our allies as partners, not dependents.

That is certainly how NATO should work, but too often has not. That is how Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia should work, and increasingly do. That is what a sane American alliance system looks like: not dependence, but partnership; not protectorates, but pillars. Pillars capable of securing their own regions under normal circumstances, so America doesn’t have to do all the lifting, defend everywhere at once, and spend itself into oblivion.

In a world like that, America becomes dramatically stronger. America can concentrate force. America can choose its moments. America can remain the arsenal, the backstop, the guarantor, and the finisher — without also serving as the “policeman of the world.”

Netanyahu’s Israel is the proof of that concept.

Israel Handles Threats Before America Has To

America spends an average of $3.8 billion a year on Israel, or one-fiftieth (1/50) of what we’ve sent Ukraine. Hardly any of that leaves the United States: almost all of it goes to U.S. defense contractors for joint U.S.-Israeli projects. The critics speak as if America is “giving” Israel money. “Partnership” is the correct term, and we’re picking up our share of the bill.

In Washington terms, $3.8 billion is a rounding error, a fraction of our spending on Ukraine and barely more than one-third (1/3) of what we spend on Somali daycare fraud (“Learing Centers”) in Minnesota alone (and wait ’til you see Gavin Newsom’s California!).

By stark contrast, the money we send Israel actually buys something.

One of the least appreciated benefits is this: Israel often acts quickly when America would otherwise be forced to act later, but at a far higher cost.

When Israel destroyed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons program in 1981, the whole world howled. But for America to do the same thing would have risked a global war with the Soviet empire. When Israel destroyed Syria’s reactor in 2007, it did the world a similar favor, as became even more apparent once the country fell into civil war. Israel’s repeated covert and overt actions against Iran’s nuclear program, weapons pipelines, terror networks, and proxy infrastructure have likewise delayed, degraded, or disrupted threats that otherwise would have required war ten to twenty years sooner.

The contribution is not theoretical. Israel kills terrorists. Israel degrades missile programs. Israel disrupts arms transfers. Israel penetrates enemy networks. Israel destroys strategic threats before they mature. And every time it does, America benefits.

The alternative is not some peaceful vacuum. There are no vacuums in geopolitics. There are only spaces one power controls until another power fills them.

When America retreats, Iran advances. When America hesitates, Russia probes. When America grows confused, China arrives with money, ports, telecom networks, surveillance systems, and diplomatic cover. That is the actual choice-set. The world does not freeze while Washington holds seminars and struggle sessions.

Israel helps prevent that outcome in the Middle East by being the one country in the region both willing and able to confront the West’s enemies on a daily basis. And because Israel does so with its own soldiers rather than ours, the United States spends far less blood and treasure.

This is the point the anti-Israel Right keeps missing. They speak as if support for Israel “drags” America into war. In fact, a strong Israel is essential to keep America out of unnecessary wars. Indeed, in all of history, only in the last year have U.S. and Israeli forces felt the need to fight side by side in any offensive war.

Israel handles threats locally, with local knowledge, local stakes, and local force. It absorbs pressure that would otherwise move outward. It is not a drag on American power or wealth: it costs less than a single U.S. submarine every year. It is a substitute for American power in precisely those contingencies that should be handled regionally if at all possible, and without an American footprint.

That alone is worth the investment.

Israel Is an Irreplaceable Weapons Laboratory

Now add the military-technological side, which is sure to prove even more important in the decade ahead.

America’s defense-industrial base is formidable, but it has too often suffered from sclerosis: bloated procurement, slow acquisition cycles, doctrinal lag, bureaucratic caution, and peacetime assumptions in a wartime age. Trump and Hegseth are making a difference. But it’s a big aircraft carrier to turn.

Israel has the opposite problem. It lives under immediate threat. Missiles actually fall there, as much in peacetime as not. Drone swarms are not hypothetical. Electronic warfare is not a panel discussion. Interception economics are not an abstraction.

That pressure produces innovation. And America benefits immensely.

Iron Beam, Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow, Trophy, advanced drone warfare, cyber-defense architectures, signals intelligence integration, electronic attack, layered missile defense — these are not merely Israeli assets. They are part of the U.S. strategic ecosystem. Some feed directly into American capabilities. Others offer combat-proven lessons American planners would be fools to ignore.

And — a bit louder for those in the back — all these technologies are joint projects with the United States and essential to U.S. defense.

Iron Beam and related directed-energy systems are revolutionary. The historic problem of missile defense has always been cost asymmetry: the attacker spends little; the defender spends much. Israel is helping crack that equation. Once the cost per intercept falls from hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to $2 or $3, the entire offense-defense balance changes: indeed, every modern missile or drone becomes obsolete. The risk of nuclear war drops to nearly zero. 

As Bad As Swalwell’s Scandal Is, Luna Warns It’s About to Get Much Worse: ‘He May Go to Jail’

RedState 

Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13) dropped a series of explosive allegations against embattled Congressman Eric Swalwell, warning that the California Democrat’s spiraling sexual misconduct scandal could land him behind bars.

It's a sensational claim, yes. But the fact that Swalwell has so spectacularly imploded that he was forced to resign so swiftly suggests we're dealing with a different kind of situation here.

Luna hinted at the issues Swalwell is facing regarding an alleged video circulating on social media of the disgraced lawmaker interacting with someone she has described as a sex worker.

As RedState's Sister Toldjah reported earlier, Luna wondered on X about the person who may have filmed the video, asking, "Eric, why don't you tell us a little about who was filming the video of the female sex worker?"

---

All Eyes Turn to Swalwell's Bestie, Sen. Ruben Gallego, As Scrutiny Intensifies

The 'Who Knew What and When' Phase of the Swalwell Scandal Begins

---

In a bombshell appearance on Fox News with host Jesse Watters, Luna indicated that she had received “forensic reporting” confirming the video is real. Worse, she indicates she knows a little more about the person behind the video than she initially let on.

"I do think that he has serious criminal problems on his hands, and I do think that he might end up in jail," Luna said.

"Not only did I receive forensic reporting showing that you know, that infamous video of him in the hotel room was indeed him — it was not AI-generated — but I'm also being told that ... more stuff is going to be dropping in the next 24 hours, and that also potentially the individual that recorded that video in the hotel room was a female and she was underage," the congresswoman claimed.

Watters' reaction says it all. It's a pretty shocking claim. Though he correctly points out that the video has not been confirmed by Fox, and any context for it is pure speculation at this point.

"If what you're saying is true," Watters said. "That is very, very, very bad news."

Swalwell announced his resignation from Congress earlier today, after multiple women — including a former staffer — accused him of sexual misconduct and assault, with one alleging he raped her twice while she was too intoxicated to consent.

In addition to the bombshell claims, Luna contends that Swalwell's behavior had been known to the media for years, yet they did little to investigate and report it to the public.

"I will say many people on the Hill knew about this, many reporters have come forward ... saying that they had heard stories about this," she contends, later adding, "they knew about it, they did not report on it."

You mean the media that covered up the Biden autopen/mental incapacity scandal would keep the criminal behavior of a Democrat under wraps? Wild.

"Now we're looking at the criminal activity, and I stand by what I said, because I saw again, the forensics report of that video, and if that is true, I would suggest that the Manhattan DA look into that," Luna concluded the segment.

The Manhattan DA's office has already initiated an investigation into the sexual assault allegations.

Just when you thought Swalwell's scandal couldn't get any uglier, Luna claims, there's "more disgusting stuff" on the horizon? It's hard to believe it could get much worse.

A Madman and Irishmen

 

As the Straits of Hormuz grow calmer, Ireland begins to explode. 

Clarice Feldman | April 12, 2026 | American Thinker

As the administration's trap is closing on the Iranian government (at least the fourth level of it, which is all that has not been eliminated by the IAF and U.S. forces) Irishmen are blockading major roads and streets in Ireland. Only the Guinness tankers are being let through.

Ostensibly, the dispute is over the rising cost of fuel, which will bankrupt farmers and truckers. However, if you’ve been paying attention, the rebellion goes deeper, to the high taxes, third-world immigration, and the highhandedness of the government.

Under the guise of the idiotic net-zero policies, the Irish government has been using the tax revenues which will destroy agriculture and transport to destroy their own people. Fuel costs could go down by 50% if the high taxes on them were eliminated, but then how to provide housing and other generous benefits to the immigrants who are destroying what had been a high-trust, low-crime Irish culture?

But the “madman,” of course, is our president, who, unlike his predecessors, was unwilling to allow the fanatical rulers of Iran to continue nuclear weapons development and directly and through proxies threaten the entire world.

Peter Hague wins the meme of the week for me:

Decades from now international relations students will be studying a form of the “mad man” theory of deterrence where you deliver threats while standing next to a man dressed as the Easter Bunny, to convince adversaries you’re utterly off your rocker and capable of anything.

If Iran’s leaders thought Trump was bluffing, they'd certainly have reason to change their view as he made clear days after his Easter statement on the White House balcony:

@realDonaldTrump The Fake News Media has lost total credibility, not that they had any to begin with. Because of their massive Trump Derangement Syndrome (Sometimes referred to as TDS!), they love saying that Iran is "winning" when, in fact, everyone knows that they are LOSING, and LOSING BIG! Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti Aircraft apparatus is nonexistent, Radar is dead, their Missile and Drone Factories have been largely obliterated along with the Missiles and Drones themselves and, most importantly, their longtime "Leaders" are no longer with us, praise be to Allah! The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may "bunk" into one of their sea mines which, by the way, all 28 of their mine dropper boats are also lying at the bottom of the sea. We're now starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz as a favor to Countries all over the World, including China, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, and many others. Incredibly, they don't have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves. Very interestingly, however, empty Oil carrying ships from many Nations are all heading to the United States of America to LOAD UP with Oil. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

As for the proxies Iran counted on to provide their ring of fire -- they, too, have been unavailing.

@hahussain

If you haven’t noticed, the Houthis have parted ways with Iran. Saudi Arabia has successfully bought them. Their contribution in 5 weeks of war on Iran was less than 5 missiles on Israel.

Hamas is crushed, can only issue statements thereafter.

The Iraqi militias cost their politicians a lot of popular support and credit. Now the anti Iran faction in government is emerging on top.

Only in Lebanon Hezbollah remains stronger than the Iran regime is in Iran. This is why Tehran is insisting on adding Lebanon to the ceasefire to keep its its property.

In fact, just as Iran demanded that the ceasefire must include Lebanon, in 24 hours, Israel completed 200 devastating strikes on Hezb’allah in Lebanon. 

This weekend, Vice President JD Vance, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff are meeting with a 70-man team from Iran. There’s the General Committee, chaired by Qalibaf, president of the Shura council, a political committee, chaired by Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, a Military Committee chaired by Ahmadinejad, an economic committee chaired by Hemmati, president of the central bank, and a legal and human rights committee. What’s not represented? The army and the terrorist Revolutionary Guard.

There are growing reports of internal divisions in Iran, between the psychotic fanatical and the sociopathic fanatical forces. Indeed, some have suggested the team consists of so many -- 70 -- people because they all fear mere participation in these talks will end in their assassinations and want to be out of the country so as not to be targeted. 

Going into the meeting, Iran was clearly counting on its control over passage on the Strait of Hormuz to save it. 

Wisely, Greg Gutfeld didn’t think that would work:

Iran is like a desperate “hostage taker.”

You hear ‘they’re in control, they have the Straits of Hormuz.’ That’s their hostage.

They’re holed up in a bank demanding three large pizzas, a helicopter, and a personal phone call from Sydney Sweeney! It’s all a face-saving exercise. 

That’s what this theater is right now.

As the talks began, the president announced operation “Opening and Clearing the Strait of Hormuz,” which certainly knocked the wind out of the Iranian delegation’s puffery.

David Wurmser explained why that bluff will be unavailing:

All along the only “victory“ that Iran has had was both closing the straits of Hormuz and asserting the fact of sovereignty over it by being the one who has to agree to allow a ship to pass through.

It was also Iran’s path economic survival. With about 140 ships on average passing through the streets a day and two million dollars being charged per ship by Iran, that translates into over $100 billion a year. That is how much the Iranian economy has lost in this war. This was their compensation for it. 

All of a sudden, the United States without coordination with Iran opens a passage during the Straits. This stripped Iran first of a economic necessity, because it is difficult to imagine them economically surviving a loss permanently of 100 to 150,000,000,000 to their GDP, and annulled its sovereignty over the Straits, and of its only claim to have gained a “victory“ over what had been the status quo ante in Feb 2026.

Namely its Ace card has just been stripped from its hands in all respects.

So they really only have one of two choices. The first is to accept it and admit now that they have not achieved anything in the war that they can point to and to accept the fact that they will lose over 100 billion in revenue per year from this,

Or second, they will have to violate the cease-fire to shut the straits, in which case they bear the onus of the collapse of the cease-fire.

Basically President Trump has trapped them.

There was a lot of chatter that reopening the strait was difficult because Iran didn’t know where all the mines were located, and no one had any minesweepers available. Almost as soon as the chatter was repeated by bien pensants everywhere, it became clear that it was an apparent effort to stall compliance with our demand. Trump announced we’d begun clearing out the mines, and U.S. warships crossed the Strait without notification to Iran, permission to do so, or payment of tolls. 

Almost simultaneously with the passage of our ships, we learned that sanctioned Iranian cargo ships Behnavazz and Betha had picked up loads of sodium perchlorate in China and were heading home, the suggestion being that the country still has some solid-fuel missile factories somewhere that were not destroyed. Whether or not that assumption is correct, I doubt they’ll make landfall in Iran because the USS Bush, USS Ford, and USS Boxer are due to converge in the Middle East just as the ceasefire ends.

So many contradictions and hypocrisies ..

So many contradictions and hypocrisies ...

Most of these problems are the work of the left.

Stephen Helegsen for American Thinker 

While "two things can be true at the same time", I cannot for the life of me ignore the head-shaking situations that we Americans find ourselves in that seemingly contradict each other.

The first is especially timely: We are able to send a team of four people to the dark side of the moon and then retrieve them in the vastness of the ocean after their trip, yet we cannot seem to look our neighbors in the eyes and talk to them about politics.

Staying with communication, we can message with our smartphones and even by a wristwatch, but we are unable or unwilling to sit down at the same table and speak to each other respectfully and honestly in 'analog' fashion.

We teach our children that God loves us and that He is on our side when we decide to go to war, but millions of people have no problem in keeping Him sequestered from our daily conversation, out of our courtrooms, want Him off our coinage and nowhere near our classrooms.

We can wax on about the tragic deaths of war victims but can somehow justify the aborting of millions of fetuses as simply "the mother's right to choose."

In America, we believe that the safety and security of the individual is paramount, but then we willingly acquit or release those who have been arrested for abusing the rights of others, claiming they just need some rehabilitation and that jail sentences are "extreme and cruel punishment." And when it comes to our protective services like the police, we have no problem in accusing them of being thugs with guns, all bent on accosting innocent citizens.

We can speak of the need to cure poverty, but we ignore its root causes and instead, fund programs that do not lift people out of it.

We support "political rights" abroad but turn our backs on those at home who disagree with the power elite.

We are willing to fund foreign wars but will not provide a living wage for our service members.

We do a pitiful job of educating our children. We do not test their abilities enough nor do we prepare them to enter the "real world" that exists beyond their social media chatrooms.

We read too few books, speak too often in talking points and have forgotten how to write a simple letter in cursive.

We have become a "bubble culture," choosing to reside in ideological bubbles in ghettos with other bubble-bound political kinsmen. We have lost our ability to truly socialize one-on-one and to talk with anyone who does not agree with us.

We are addicted to mediocrity and to a pop culture that prefers the banal and the salacious to the serious.

In short, we who should be reaching for the stars of our own inner selves have become like inert ball bearings in a pinball machine just waiting for the flipper to send us careening towards the next shiny object in the hopes of scoring a few points. And, yes, two things can be true at the same time, but if those two things are equally powerful and in constant opposition to each other, they will eventually cancel each other out.

Maybe, just maybe, it's time for all of us to revisit Lewis Carroll's poem "The walrus and the carpenter" from "Through the looking glass" for some inspiration and guidance: “The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes -- and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings — And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings.”

And for those who say that that is an exercise in frivolity and a complete waste of time, I would counter by saying that we have nothing to lose in a world full of Jabberwocky already masquerading as serious discourse.

Stephen Helgesen is a retired American diplomat specializing in international trade. He has lived and worked in 30 countries over the course of 25 years under the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush administrations.

Image: Wikimedia Commons, via Picryl // public domain

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W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

posted by DarkGoldenMan

Welcome to the W³P Daily News Open Thread. 

Post whatever you got in the comments section below.

This feature will post every day at 6:30am Mountain time. 

 

Iran Now Threatening U.S. Navy With Speedboats: They Should Ask the Cartels How That Works

RedState 

Iran is once more feeling their oats concerning President Trump's recently imposed blockade on Iranian ports. There's just one problem: Iran's oats bin is all but empty, and all they have left with which to oppose American aircraft and warships are what they call "fast attack ships," and what the rest of the world calls speedboats. The rest of the Iranian Navy is now new residential real estate for fish. 

Once again, Iran's mouth is writing checks its butt can't cash. Monday morning, President Trump took to his Truth Social platform to call them out.

The president writes:

Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated - 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, “fast attack ships,” because we did not consider them much of a threat. Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea. It is quick and brutal. P.S. 98.2% of Drugs coming into the U.S. by Ocean or Sea have STOPPED! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT

The president is correct in that Iran's speedboats are not a threat in the sense that their larger ships were before they became fish habitat. They shouldn't be dismissed altogether, though. Unlike the drug-smuggling boats President Trump compares them to, these boats may well be carrying heavy machine guns and possibly a few shoulder-fired, portable surface-to-air missiles. While the boats themselves are just as susceptible to being converted to flying parts by American explosives as the drug cartels' boats are, they should not be approached without some caution.

That doesn't mean we can't continue dealing with these boats as we have with the cartel's boats. This problem can be admirably solved with the appropriate use of high explosives.

On the higher level, though, this serves as an admirable illustration of just what dire straits (hah) Iran finds itself in. The United States has nuclear aircraft carriers, a wealth of fast, modern surface ships, and both strategic and tactical aircraft in the area. Iran's air defenses are so degraded that our Cold War-era B-52s and A-10s can roam Iranian skies with near-impunity. And they are opposing us, in this new blockade of Iranian ports, with motorboats. Armed motorboats, perhaps, but motorboats of a type you would not be surprised to see operated by a happy family on any big American lake on any given summer Sunday afternoon.

Whoever Iran has manning these boats may want to talk to the people operating the cartels' smuggling boats, for tactical advice. There's just one problem: The cartel's boat crews are all in new lodgings in Davy Jones' locker. And they didn't have A-10s patrolling overhead, cannon loaded, ready to turn any Iranian speedboats into scrap with one quick BRRRRT. 

Iran can't keep this up much longer. They are scraping the bottom of the barrel now. What will they be doing in another week?

Promethean Action Follows the Money in the Background of the Iran Conflict

A generally good summary into some of the financial issues happening in the background of the dire Straits of Hormuz.

Susan Kokinda highlights UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer declining to join an American blockade and claims Britain has lost control of the choke point. She details financial actions targeting Iranian money flows, including UAE arrests of IRGC-linked money changers, Treasury Secretary Bessent using Patriot Act Section 311 against a Zurich bank, and scrutiny of London-based crypto exchanges and Santander UK. She cites a UK military chief admitting Britain’s war planning has lapsed since the Cold War and links fuel disruptions and protests to the conflict, concluding Trump has forced a hidden imperial system into the open.  WATCH:

DNI Tulsi Gabbard Releases a Statement with Document Release from Two Silos

Conservative Treehouse 

It’s worth remembering how the IC silo process was used to manipulate proprietary claims by government agencies. These setups are intentionally designed this way, and none of the reasons behind them are good.

The CIA Whistleblower Complaint and subsequent Intelligence Community Inspector General investigation and report, falls under the work product of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.  The IC IG is quasi-independent but works for the ODNI.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard is releasing direct stakeholder information from within the ODNI with the release as noted – SEE HERE.  This is the background information that led to the impeachment effort.  The DNI is the Executive Branch.

The transcript of ICIG Michael Atkinson was held within another branch of government, within the Legislative Branch, and as a consequence DNI Gabbard needed to gain permission from the House Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), another silo, in order to review the testimony that came as an outcome of the ICIG complaint and investigation. SEE HERE and SEE HERE.

DNI Gabbard then needed to request the release of the HPSCI transcripts [legislative branch] to her DNI office [executive branch] where all three aspects of the ICIG activity can then be examined and reviewed in full context.

The DNI then requests the HPSCI to permit declassification and public release.  HPSCI reluctantly agrees.  DNI declassifies then returns the transcripts to the HPSCI for public release – while simultaneously the DNI office declassifies and releases the baseline ICIG investigative material so the public can have context.

The resulting outcome is a combined work product from five silos (HPSCI, DNI, CIA, ICIG, NSC) along with a statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and a summary of what all the combined materials show:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard releases never-before-seen documents exposing a coordinated effort by elements within the Intelligence Community (IC), including a former Inspector General (IG), to manufacture a conspiracy that was used as the basis to impeach President Trump in 2019.

During his preliminary investigation into President Trump’s July 2019 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former IC IG Michael Atkinson did not follow standard IG procedures and relied upon politicized, manufactured narratives – only conducting interviews with four individuals: the Whistleblower, the Whistleblower’s friend who was a co-author of the January 2017 Russia Hoax Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) and close colleague of disgraced former FBI Agent Peter Strzok, and two character references who had zero firsthand knowledge of the July 2019 phone call.

Despite a lack of any firsthand evidence, IC IG Atkinson proceeded to take actions to weaponize the Whistleblower process and exceed his statutory jurisdiction by ignoring Department of Justice guidance and relying on only second-hand testimony to ensure the whistleblower complaint was released to Congress, referred to the FBI, and leaked to the propaganda media.

Then-House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chairman Adam Schiff and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi used this false, second-hand narrative to create media intrigue and ultimately spark the basis to impeach President Trump in December of 2019.

“Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States,” said DNI Gabbard. “Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth. And this, along with the politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress, are egregious examples of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community. Exposing these tactics and showing how they undermine the fabric of our democratic republic furthers the critical cause of transparency and accountability and will help prevent future abuse of power.”

Review the documents released here and see below for a summary of newly declassified materials:

Today’s release includes investigative materials used by then-IC IG Atkinson (here) and a review of two transcripts from IC IG Atkinson’s closed-door testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (here and here), which were withheld from the House Judiciary Committee during the sham impeachment trial and kept locked in a safe until House Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford led the vote to release these transcripts on Tuesday, March 24, 2026.

♦ NO FIRSTHAND EVIDENCE: The Intelligence Community Inspector General’s preliminary “investigation” into the whistleblower complaint relied on politicized actors and second-hand evidence. Newly declassified documents expose how IC IG Atkinson relied upon second-hand information from the self-declared “Democrat” whistleblower [Ciaramella] and two biased witnesses to justify his determination that the whistleblower compliant was of “urgent concern,” “appears credible,” and must be reported to Congress. IC IG Atkinson also ignored concerns by the whistleblower’s supervisor about a rushed complaint.

The Whistleblower [Eric Ciaramella] confirms he/she had no firsthand knowledge of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Zelensky.

In an initial form submitted by the Whistleblower, he/she claimed, “I do not have direct knowledge of private comments or communications by the President.”

New witness interviews released today show that IC IG Atkinson’s public claim that “other information obtained during [his] preliminary review…supports the complainant’s allegation” was false and hid the fact that neither the Whistleblower’s nor the key witness’ allegations concerning the President’s phone call were informed by direct, firsthand knowledge.

WITNESS 2 admitted that upon reading the transcript of the call he/she “would not have been able to get from ‘point A to Z’ the way the Whistleblower did” and described that he/she lacked the “granular detail” that the Whistleblower had to justify filing the complaint.”

WITNESS 2 admitted that he/she had to “read between the lines” of what was being said, and that his/her perception of quid pro quo “became clear” only “in hindsight.”

The Whistleblower’s superior, a senior officer in the National Intelligence Council (NIC), told IC Inspector General investigators that he/she, “did not like how the [Whistleblower] handled the filing of the report,” saying that he/she felt that he/she was “looped in right at the time of the crash.”

IC IG Atkinson’s 14-day preliminary investigation was intended to assess apparent credibility, but instead became the basis of a flawed, mischaracterized account that House Democrats peddled to launch a sham impeachment, even though the IC IG never conducted a formal or complete investigation.

In his own words, IC IG Atkinson recognizes that his conclusions were based on a “preliminary investigation,” noting that “I haven’t done an investigation to determine whether they actually, in fact, took place…that all of the alleged actions actually took place.”

♦ ANTI-TRUMP RUSSIA HOAX CO-AUTHOR AS KEY WITNESS: IC IG Atkinson relied on testimony from a co-author of the 2017 Russia Hoax ICA to support the Whistleblower’s allegations that there was some form of wrongdoing by President Trump.

Last year, DNI Gabbard revealed evidence that President Obama directed the creation of the January 2017 Russia Hoax ICA. This served as the basis for what was essentially a years-long coup against the duly-elected President of the United States, subverting the will of the American people and attempting to delegitimize Donald Trump’s presidency.

WITNESS 2 – who was one of the key sources for the Whistleblower ahead of filing a complaint – admits in a witness interview to being a “co-author of the 2017 ICA” which used manufactured and manipulated intelligence to create the false narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to the benefit of President Trump.

WITNESS 2 also admitted to having worked alongside now-disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok who inserted political bias into FBI investigations about President Trump based on the manufactured Russia Hoax.

WITNESS 2 further exposed political bias when explaining that he/she “routinely deals with issues on a daily basis that are contrary to [his/ her] personal beliefs,” and “stated that [he/she] is disappointed everyday by policy decisions and statements made by political figures.”

♦ WHISTLEBLOWER’S PARTISAN BIAS, LIES CONFIRMED: The Whistleblower [Eric Ciaramella] admitted he/she lied to the Inspector General about speaking to Democrats in Congress ahead of submitting allegations of wrongdoing by President Trump to the IC Inspector General. While media widely reported on this detail in 2019, the pre-complaint meeting with Congress has never before been confirmed by the Whistleblower.

In October 2019, after the media began to report that the Whistleblower had spoken with Congress ahead of submitting the “Disclosure of Urgent Concern Form,” the Whistleblower called the IC IG to admit that he/she had, in fact, spoken with Congress.

IC IG Atkinson admits in newly-declassified testimony that his investigative team “did ask the complainant who else knew about the disclosure” and the complainant withheld from the investigative team, within the 14-day window, that he/she alerted HPSCI Democratic staff.

[Whistleblower Eric Ciaramella pictured left with U.S. President Barack Obama]

Whistleblower interviews reveal the political biases of the Whistleblower, in his/her own words:

The Whistleblower states he/she is a “registered democrat.”

The Whistleblower claims to have “worked closely with Vice President Biden…travelled with Biden to Ukraine and was part of conversations where LUTSENKO corruption was discussed.”

The Whistleblower also claims to have become “the target of right-wing bloggers…and conspiracy theorists.”

Yet, IC IG Atkinson ignored this and insisted during his testimony to HPSCI, “I also want to make it clear that I never considered the whistleblower to be politically biased.”

Despite public reports that the Whistleblower worked with Vice President Biden on Ukraine matters, inquiries into the Whistleblower’s bias and motive were blocked during the 2020 impeachment trial.

♦ IC INSPECTOR GENERAL WEAPONIZED THE WHISTLEBLOWER PROCESS: Newly declassified documents confirm that IC IG Atkinson failed to conduct basic due diligence and willfully exceeded his statutory jurisdiction to mischaracterize the President’s phone call with Zelensky as an “urgent concern” to Congress.

• From Day 1, IC IG Atkinson knew that a transcript of President Trump’s call existed. And yet, he never, throughout the entire preliminary investigation, requested access to it.

• IC IG Atkinson sent a criminal referral to the DOJ on this matter, despite only relying on second-hand knowledge to support his claims.

• The DOJ later assessed the allegations raised by the Whistleblower and IC IG and found no basis for a criminal case, concluding that based on the facts and applicable law, there was “no campaign finance violation” and “no further action was warranted.”

• After the DOJ reviewed the whistleblower complaint and determined there was “no urgent concern,” IC IG Atkinson ignored their determination and proceeded to transmit this faulty whistleblower complaint to Congress without completing a fulsome investigation, despite the allegations being made based on second-hand information.

• On September 3, the DOJ provided Office of Legal Counsel guidance to IC IG Atkinson that the complaint did not rise to the level of “urgent concern” because the alleged conduct does not relate to “the funding, administration, or operation of an intelligence activity” under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence. As a result, the statute does not require the Director to transmit the complaint to the congressional intelligence committees.

• On September 9, the IC IG ignored this guidance and the Acting Director of National Intelligence to pen a letter to inform the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the existence of the “urgent concern” complaint.

• As was reported at the time, IC OIG altered the whistleblower form within months of the July 2019 phone call to no longer require firsthand knowledge as a prerequisite for reporting complaints.

• IC IG Atkinson sought unprecedented assistance from other Inspectors Generals to carry on this investigation “if [he] was stopped, [he] wanted to see whether other inspectors general could proceed.” In particular, he contacted the IGs at the Departments of State, Justice, and Defense.  {SOURCE}

IC IG Michael Atkinson pictured below

Hopefully everyone can see the construct above and how IC IG Michael Atkinson worked with his former DOJ colleague Mary McCord who was at the time working for HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff.

Ask the right questions.

Michael Atkinson moved from his position as legal counsel for the Asst Attorney General of the DOJ-NSD (Mary McCord) to the position of IC IG effective May 17, 2018.   The ICIG position is a nomination by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI):

Who was the person in 2018, at the height of the Mueller investigation, who told President Trump to nominate Michael Atkinson as Intelligence Community Inspector General?

Who told Trump to appoint Atkinson?

Find that person and you will find a person who was directly working against the interests of President Trump.

Why does this matter?…

…. Because this is not a random nomination and random appointment.  ICIG Michael Atkinson was intentionally moved into the position of ICIG in order to carry out an impeachment effort.

This was not happenstance. This was intentional.

At the conclusion of his impeachment trial, President Trump fired IC IG Michael Atkinson.

Simultaneous with the Senate acquittal during the failed impeachment, and following the firing of IC IG Michael Atkinson, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence suddenly dropped their block on the nomination of John Ratcliffe to be the Director of National Intelligence.

DNI John Ratcliffe was confirmed by the SSCI on May 21 and sworn in on May 26, 2020.