14 Women Still Held Hostage by Hamas in Gaza

Virginia Allen /

Female hostages continue to be held in Gaza. Fourteen of them are believed to be alive; five are dead but their bodies haven’t been returned to Israel, according to The Times of Israel. 

Negotiations are ongoing to free these women and over 100 men thought to be alive as hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. In November, Hamas agreed to release 105 hostages in a prisoner exchange with Israel. Most of those released were women and children. 

In a video shared on social media ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, actor Gila Almagor, former Supreme Court of Israel President Dorit Beinisch, and other women call for the release of the hostages. 

The video surfaced the same day the United Nations released a report on its investigation into sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and perpetuated against hostages. 

Pramila Patten, the U.N.’s special representative for sexual violence in conflict, led a team to Israel and the West Bank for the two-week investigation. Patten and her team reviewed 5,000 photos and 50 hours of footage of Hamas terrorists’ attacks Oct. 7 in southern Israel, according to the U.N. report

The goal of the investigation was to identify potential instances or indications of sexual violence. So, what did the U.N. team find? 

“Based on the information it gathered, the mission team found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity,” the report says. 

The report continues: 

In the context of the coordinated attack by Hamas and other armed groups against civilian and military targets throughout the Gaza periphery, the mission team found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations during the [Oct. 7] attacks, including rape and gang-rape in at least three locations, namely: the Nova music festival site and its surroundings, Road 232, and Kibbutz Re’im. In most of these incidents, victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses.

The mission team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations. Although circumstantial, such a pattern may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

The U.N. report concludes that “true prevalence of sexual violence during the [Oct. 7] attacks and their aftermath, may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known.” 

Below are the names and faces of the 14 female hostages believed to remain alive in Gaza.

Naama Levy

Noa Argamani

Romi Gonen

Arbel Yehoud

Carmel Gat

Eden Yerushalmi

Doron Steinbrecher

Liri Albag

Daniela Gilboa

Shiri Bibas

Karina Ariev

Agam Berger

Emily Tehila Damari

Amit Esther Buskila

Listen to this week’s edition of the “Problematic Women” podcast to learn more about the U.N. report on sexual violence connected with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. 

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After He Blew Whistle on Gender Treatments for Minors, Federal Government Came After Him - The Daily Signal

After He Blew Whistle on Gender Treatments for Minors, Federal Government Came After Him

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen /

Dr. Eithan Haim was completing his surgical training at Texas Children’s Hospital in the spring of 2023. On a Friday morning in June, just before graduation, a knock came on Haim’s door. 

“I open it, [and] standing outside there are two federal agents with [the Department of] Health and Human Services,” Haim recalls.

The surgeon says he was told he was under investigation in a case involving medical records. Just one month earlier, Haim had worked with journalist Christopher Rufo to blow the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and its gender treatments for minors. 

In 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, took steps to ensure that hospitals in Texas weren’t performing such procedures. As a result, the Texas Children’s Hospital announced that it had stopped doing the gender procedures on kids; inside the hospital, Haim says, he was seeing a different story. 

The hospital “took away all the public-facing indications that the program was still active,” Haim says, adding that “the hospital is telling the public this program no longer exists, but within the hospital, they’re prioritizing it to the highest level.”

“So the directors of the program that supposedly did not exist were speaking at the hospital’s most prestigious lecture series seven months after that statement [in which] they said they were shutting it down,” the surgeon says.

After the federal government launched its investigation of Haim, he decided to come forward and identify himself as the whistleblower at Texas Children’s Hospital. 

Asked where the investigation against him stands now, Haim says he doesn’t know, and adds that the federal government has “nothing.”

“But what’s going to happen now is we’re going to do everything we can, [with] every fiber of my being, to hold them accountable,” Haim says. “We’re never going to stop until we succeed. So they thought they were going to intimidate me. They thought I was going to bend the knee to their evil ideology, like most doctors would have done. But as they were coming to find out, they had knocked on the wrong door.”

Haim joins this episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain why he is so passionate about defending minors from these dangerous medical procedures and standing against what he sees as the federal government’s intimidation tactics. 

Listen to the podcast below:

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Heritage Foundation President Unleashes Fiery Pro-Life Speech - The Daily Signal

Heritage Foundation President Unleashes Fiery Pro-Life Speech

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter /

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts encouraged America’s pro-life activists not to be downtrodden by recent pro-life losses, but to continue to fight on. “Democrat leaders are crowing, while too many Republican leaders are cowering from the fight,” Roberts declared in his recent speech at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C.

The conference was dominated by pro-life students, and Heritage’s president spoke about the significant need for these “students for life.” He told them that they will become the next generation of parents, teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and even legislators and presidents who will be needed to promote a pro-life nation.

In his fiery speech, Roberts highlighted the fight the pro-life movement is facing for human dignity and freedom, saying that it is a fight not merely against a party or policy but “against evil itself.”

The left’s idea of human inequality—that some people count and some people don’t—doesn’t come from the media, the government, or even Planned Parenthood; “it comes straight from hell,” he said.

Watch the full speech:

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Mayorkas, Biden, and Our Unsecured Border - The Daily Signal

Mayorkas, Biden, and Our Unsecured Border

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter / Terence Jeffrey /

There seems to be at least one impenetrable barrier connected to this country’s southwest border. It’s the one that stands between Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and an accurate assessment of what’s actually happening there.

In September 2020, the last month of that fiscal year, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered 54,771 aliens trying to illegally enter the United States across the southwest border. That brought the fiscal year’s total to 400,651, according to the numbers published by the Border Patrol.

In September 2021, the Border Patrol said it encountered 185,515 aliens trying to illegally cross the southwest border—bringing the fiscal 2021 total to 1,659,206.

That was more than four times the total for fiscal 2020.

One of the major events of fiscal 2021 took place on Jan. 20, 2021, when Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump as president.

On Sept. 21, 2021, Biden’s homeland security secretary testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. In that hearing, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., asked Mayorkas a yes or no question.

“You have repeatedly stated that our borders are not open, they are closed,” Johnson said. “Do you honestly believe that our borders are closed?”

“Senator, I do, and let me speak to that,” said Mayorkas.

Rather than let Mayorkas keep speaking, Johnson took a moment to contrast the situation at the border under Trump to the situation under Biden.

“We were serious about border security until your administration took office,” Johnson said. “You stood before this committee and said that you would enforce the laws. You have not done that.”

So, what happened to the flow of illegal immigrants that the Border Patrol encountered trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in the months after Mayorkas testified in September 2021 that the border was closed?

In fiscal year 2022, the number of illegal immigrants encountered by the Border Patrol at the southwest border climbed to 2,206,436—more than five times the 400,651 encountered in 2020.

On Nov. 5, 2022, six weeks after fiscal 2022 ended, Mayorkas testified before the House Homeland Security Committee. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., asked him: “Secretary Mayorkas, do you continue to maintain that the border is secure?”

“Yes,” said Mayorkas. “We are working day in and day out to enhance its security, Congressman.”

This apparently meant that “yes,” the border was already secure, but the Biden administration was working to make it even more secure.

What happened at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2023? The Border Patrol encountered another 2,045,838 trying to illegally cross it. That, again, was more than five times the 400,651 encountered in fiscal 2020—before Biden took office.

In the first four months of the current fiscal year—October through January—the Border Patrol said it has encountered 753,824 aliens trying to illegally cross the southwest border. If that rate persists, the Border Patrol once again will encounter more than 2 million illegal border crossers in fiscal 2024.

On July 26, 2023, Mayorkas testified before the House Judiciary Committee. “I am immensely proud to be here to discuss the work of the United States Department of Homeland Security,” he told the committee in his written statement.

Then, under questioning from Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., Mayorkas declared: “Congressman, we are very proud of our efforts to secure the border.”

Although Mayorkas claims to be proud of the efforts his department has made to secure the southern border, those efforts—according to the data published by his own agency—have inspired a fivefold increase in the number of those encountered by the Border Patrol trying to illegally cross that border.

On Feb. 13, the House of Representatives moved by a one-vote margin (214-213) to approve two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

The second article says in part: “Alejandro N. Mayorkas knowingly made false statements to Congress that the border is ‘secure,’ that the border is ‘no less secure than it was previously,’ that the border is ‘closed,’ and that DHS has ‘operational control’ of the border (as that term is defined in the Secure Fence Act of 2006).”

Biden himself, it turns out, didn’t agree with his homeland security secretary’s assessment that the border was secure.

On Jan. 19, Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asked Biden: “What do you say to House Republicans who are trying to impeach Mayorkas, sir?”

“I don’t get it,” said Biden.

Heinrich then asked: “Do you think it is unconstitutional? … And do you not think that the border is secure, sir?”

“No, it is not,” Biden responded. “I haven’t believed it for the last 10 years. And I’ve said it for the last 10 years. Give me the money.”

Perhaps Biden should have hired a homeland security secretary who agreed with his assessment that the border is not secure.

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6 Big Failures of Biden’s Presidency - The Daily Signal

6 Big Failures of Biden’s Presidency

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter / Terence Jeffrey / Jarrett Stepman /

The state of the union is feeble.

That’s what many Americans believe as President Joe Biden is set to make his fourth, and perhaps final, State of the Union address Thursday evening.

Regardless of what he says in the speech, the reality of Biden’s tenure is that the American people are not only uneasy but deeply pessimistic about the country’s future.

Why are Americans so down about the state of the union?

They’re down not only because of a crumbling confidence in the country’s most powerful institutions, but because of the failures of the man sitting in the Oval Office.

Here’s my roundup of what I think are the six most prominent failures of the Biden presidency so far.

The Worst Border Crisis in US History

This is the most obvious failure of the Biden administration, a failure that gets to the heart of what this administration and the modern Left are all about.

At the federal, state, and local levels, the Left works to ensure that the concept of citizenship becomes meaningless—outside of paying taxes. 

But it’s at the federal level where the most damage can be done. And the Biden administration has done all it can to ensure the flow of illegal aliens continues, knowing that once they’re allowed into the country most are likely here to stay.

The first thing Biden did when he became president was strip away the border security measures of the previous administration. His administration continued to tear away at every measure that would allow for effective enforcement.

From disbanding the successful “Remain in Mexico” policy that ensured that asylum-seekers would have to wait in Mexico for their asylum claims to be processed to ending the public health measure called Title 42, Biden has proved his unwillingness to enforce U.S. immigration laws.

Biden didn’t just immediately throw open the door for a wave of illegal immigration, his administration subtly ensured that illegal immigration would directly benefit his party.

For instance, the president issued an executive order directing the Census Bureau to count noncitizens in the reapportionment numbers, a nice bonus for Democrat-led sanctuary states to make up for citizens who fled their policies.

The result of all this has been predictable, but still astounding in its scope.

According to a Fox News report late last month, about 7.2 million illegal border crossings have occurred since Biden became president. This is a higher number than the population of 36 different states.

In every year of the Biden presidency, a new annual record for illegal border crossings has been set. Judging by the early numbers, 2024 will keep up the pattern.

It’s become such a disaster that even a few Democrat mayors and governors have begun to grouse. City budgets are being strained and radically shifted to cater to the newcomers.

All thanks to Biden.

The DEI Bureaucratic Cultural Revolution

The Biden administration has made it clear that its bureaucratic priority—no matter what Cabinet department—is always advancing “equity.”

Administration officials aren’t doing this by ensuring that Americans will be treated equally under the law. Instead the goal is the opposite: to wholly racialize the American republic and to turn us into warring “oppressed” groups clawing for scraps from the federal government.

From advancing critical race theory, to promoting gender transition for minors, to obliterating American history on public land, the Biden administration has empowered the bureaucracy to turn “diversity, equity, and inclusion”—or DEI—into a kind of ideological state religion.

An executive order Biden signed last year, called “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” highlights how his administration aims to make this transformation complete.

Writer and filmmaker Christopher Rufo spoke about this order at the time and summarized the president’s policy. It’s worth quoting at length:

First, he’s creating internal cadres of DEI officers. This is really important for shaping the culture, the personnel, and the budgeting process in the federal government, which controls trillions of dollars of public resources. Second, he’s using this initiative to justify funding third-party political activists under the guise of so-called underserved communities or faith and community organizations. And third, he’s doubling down on the weaponization of civil rights law, this time with some very interesting and very modern twists. He’s pushing left-wing ideology, even regulating things like the use of artificial intelligence, and this entire package is justified through this really intricate but unfortunately widespread statistical and linguistic manipulation.

Biden is doing his best to ensure America in the future will be permanently ruled by people who act and think like those who run Harvard University.

Weaponized Agencies

Not only is the federal bureaucracy working relentlessly to promote DEI and the cultural revolution, but it’s also been outright weaponized to attack political opponents of the regime.

In 2022, I warned about the massive expansion of the Internal Revenue Service. It wasn’t hard to see how this would quickly be abused.

Sure enough, the IRS stepped up its policy of unannounced home visits, a tactic later abandoned because of pressure from Congress. Even more disturbingly, before the policy was ended, the IRS made an unannounced visit to journalist Matt Taibbi’s house the same day he testified to Congress about the cozy connection between the Biden administration and Big Tech companies.

It isn’t just the IRS that’s the problem.

The Department of Justice and the FBI have also been weaponized against Americans who disagree with the Biden administration’s preferred political narratives.

The DOJ put out a memo in 2021 essentially saying that parents protesting at local school board meetings were potential domestic terrorists. A House committee later found no justification at all for this conclusion.

This looked more like a smear campaign to silence opposition.

More recently, the FBI moved to investigate traditional Catholic pro-life groups as potential domestic terrorists.

“I’ve made it very clear that, in my view, the evidence shows that, the FBI, for example, in the last couple of years has been weaponized,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a November interview with The Daily Signal.

“We have the evidence to show it,” Johnson said. “They have, in some cases, targeted people of faith. They’ve targeted conservative Catholics and concerned parents at school board meetings and all the rest. The evidence is very clear that that’s happened.”

This is happening as the Justice Department has remained mostly silent while hundreds of pro-life pregnancy centers have been targeted for arson and vandalism by pro-abortion extremists.

Debt, Inflation, and the Cost of Living

The constant message from the Biden administration has been that the U.S. economy is the best ever and that it’s been creating jobs like never before. Never mind the fact that widespread COVID-19 lockdowns that the administration promoted were the reason so many jobs were lost to begin with.

But the administration hasn’t been able to hide from inflation and attendant cost-of-living increases, which are eating away at the savings and finances of countless Americans.

Biden’s message has been to blame private companies for the price surge and to focus on “shrinkflation,” in which products are reduced in size and quantity to mask price increases.

Administration officials even enlisted “Sesame Street” characters to promote this idea, another good reason to be more skeptical of public funding for PBS.

But breakfast cereal companies and grocery stores didn’t just decide to raise prices to be mean to customers. In fact, if anything, “shrinkflation” helps to disguise the deeper issue.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices paid by business and consumers alike have increased 18% on average since Biden took office in January 2021,” Heritage Foundation economics expert EJ Antoni wrote in February.

The reason for this is that Congress and the Biden administration not only spent trillions of dollars on COVID-19 emergency aid but kept the spigot going afterward.

By the way, much of that COVID-19 emergency went down the drain, as billions of dollars were reportedly wasted or stolen.

“An Associated Press analysis found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent,” The Associated Press reported in June. “Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid.”

The spending issue isn’t just Biden’s, though he’s certainly done nothing to stem it. 

Long-term bipartisan failure has crippled the finances of the United States. This isn’t just causing prices to go up now. Federal spending threatens the future prosperity of Americans for generations to come.

Global Instability as Military Recruitment Collapses

The Biden administration faces multiple foreign policy crises across the globe. 

The shambolic and embarrassing departure from Afghanistan led to absolutely no accountability for those who conducted it. This is the administration’s MO.

Worse, we’ve now hit year two of the war between Russia and Ukraine, at which the U.S. and other allies have thrown tens of billions of dollars with no resolution. 

The Middle East—incredibly stable during the Trump administration—looks to be closer to all-out war as Iran and its proxies attack Israel. And China has been disturbingly aggressive in its actions toward the United States.

With all of this happening, the Biden administration seems to have no grand strategic plan other than to insist, loudly, that “we are the United States of America.” This maximalist, but soft approach seems to be particularly dubious when combined with a military both dwindling and demoralized.

The military hasn’t been immune to the “woke-ification” of the federal bureaucracy. Far from it. The DEI virus is hollowing out American military strength, just as it poisons the rest of our society.

The Biden administration has prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion and related LBGTQ initiatives for the State Department and the military.

The Biden administration insists that DEI efforts are necessary to increase military recruitment and the effectiveness of the military, but the truth seems to be the opposite. The military now spends an increasing amount of time on DEI training and less on honing its warfighting capabilities.

In addition, the military services have seen a historic collapse in recruitment rates for the all-volunteer forces, especially among whites.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reported last month: “In fiscal year 2018, 44,042 new recruits to the Army—or 56.4% of the total—were white, according to data obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. That number collapsed to a low of 25,070—or 44% of the total—in fiscal year 2023.” 

A significant increase in other groups hasn’t occurred to even come close to making up for the drastic recruitment shortfalls.

Yet, the Biden administration seems to have no other idea of how to fix this than to continue saying “diversity is our strength” until morale improves.

Still No Return to ‘Normalcy’

This one is the hardest to define, but in some ways is the most damning failure of the Biden presidency. Biden campaigned in 2020 on the message that he would restore normalcy and confidence in the presidency and the country.

Instead, Biden has used his time in office to portray his opponents as extremists (while acting like an extremist himself), has called his likely 2024 rival an “insurrectionist” as political allies attempt to arrest the former president, and has left many Americans feeling pessimistic and downright hopeless about the future.

It seems we’ve sunk deeper into a malaise than during the administration of President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.

It doesn’t help that serious questions haven’t been answered about the president’s health and competency. The few times Biden has been asked to address this issue, his response is to caustically lash out at reporters who suggest he may be slipping mentally. 

And questions also have arisen about whether Biden is really the man running the show at all.

Biden has been the highly partisan face of an irresponsible regime that is dedicated more to the cultural revolution than effective national leadership in troubled times.

That’s not the resume of a “uniter in chief.”

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Taxpayers to Pay $3M for Mayorkas Impeachment Defense - The Daily Signal

Taxpayers to Pay $3M for Mayorkas Impeachment Defense

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter / Terence Jeffrey / Jarrett Stepman / Fred Lucas /

The Department of Homeland Security so far has spent $3 million of taxpayer money to defend embattled Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas against impeachment by the House of Representatives, according to documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.

The DHS contract with a law firm was to cover the cost of a failed attempt to stave off a House impeachment, as well as to defend President Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary in a possible Senate trial.

As first reported Wednesday by the New York Post, Heritage’s Oversight Project obtained 56 pages related to the impeachment process from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Procurement Operations. The $3 million total is enough to employ 70 Border Patrol agents, the Post reported.

The Oversight Project is the watchdog arm of The Heritage Foundation, also the parent organization of The Daily Signal.

The Republican-controlled House voted 214-213 last month to impeach Mayorkas on two articles related to the crisis at the southern border. A Senate trial to determine whether Mayorkas is guilty and should be removed may not occur, however, because Senate Democrats and three independents who normally vote with them just outnumber Senate Republicans.

One article of impeachment alleges that Mayorkas has failed to secure the southern border or to enforce immigration laws while executing policies that incentivize illegal immigration. The other article alleges that Mayorkas breached the public trust and knowingly made false statements to Congress.

DHS signed a contract with the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP to provide “legal support for the Office of the Secretary and Office of General Counsel (OGC) as outlined in the Statement of Work,” the documents say, adding:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of the Secretary and Office of General Counsel (OGC) require legal representation and legal advice regarding possible consideration in the House of Representatives of articles of impeachment and a possible trial in the Senate if the House votes to impeach the secretary [Mayorkas]. Representation of DHS and its officials will be in their official capacities as DHS employees. DHS may require expert assistance concerning the constitutional, legal, and historical framework and historical precedent applicable to impeachment of a Cabinet official and advocating DHS’s interests to Congress.

“Counsel may provide expert advice on the impeachment process, related congressional investigative practices, laws impacting the process, and impeachment proceedings within the House of Representatives,” the documents add.

“Counsel may provide expert legal advice to DHS and OGC during impeachment proceedings in the Senate. As part of counsel’s legal advice and guidance, counsel shall review all relevant material and advise the witness of their legal rights and obligations, in coordination with OGC,” the documents say, referring to DHS’ Office of General Counsel. “All preparation for the impeachment proceedings must be completed prior to the date of any scheduled impeachment trial.”

The description of the contemplated work goes on to say: “Counsel should have extensive experience and knowledge in the congressional oversight process, especially the House of Representatives impeachment process and Senate impeachment trials.”

Although the contract doesn’t specify a lawyer, Debevoise & Plimpton’s David O’Neil worked for House Democrats’ impeachment managers in one of the impeachment cases against then-President Donald Trump.

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Congressman to Bring Abortion Survivor to State of Union Address in Response to Pro-Abortion Biden Guest - The Daily Signal

Congressman to Bring Abortion Survivor to State of Union Address in Response to Pro-Abortion Biden Guest

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter / Terence Jeffrey / Jarrett Stepman / Fred Lucas / Mary Margaret Olohan /

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Rep. Bob Good is bringing an abortion survivor and pro-life activist to the president’s State of the Union address as his guest on Thursday night.

The Virginia Republican’s choice of guest is a response to President Joe Biden’s guest, Kate Cox, the woman at the center of pro-abortion uproar in recent months.

“President Biden’s State of the Union guest Kate Cox is the first woman to sue for the right to kill her child since Roe v. Wade was overturned,” Good told The Daily Signal. “By inviting her, the president is reaffirming his commitment to advancing federal legislation to legalize the abortion of babies up to the moment of birth.”

Good’s guest, Ryan Bomberger, is a pro-life activist whose mother was tragically raped, but chose to carry him to term and put him up for adoption. Good described Bomberger’s mother as “courageous” in her decision not to abort her son.

“Ryan, his biological mother, and adopted parents are a testament to the simple proposition that life has value at every stage,” Good explained. “Ryan’s presence at the State of the Union sends the message that pro-life members of Congress will continue to fight for the opportunity for every human being to live out their God-given purpose.”

Bomberger is the co-founder and chief creative officer of his pro-life organization, the Radiance Foundation, “a faith-based, educational, life-affirming 501(c)3 nonprofit organization” that “affirms that every human life has God-given purpose.”

“I’m the 1% used to justify 100% of abortions,” he told The Daily Signal. “I was conceived in rape, but adopted in love.”

“Planned Parenthood and their political allies don’t like my storyline, because it shatters their narratives of fear,” he added. “I am proof that triumph can rise from tragedy.”

Cox became a media sensation when she asked the Texas Supreme Court to give her permission to abort her unborn baby, a baby that had a genetic condition known as trisomy 18. Pro-abortion advocates hail Cox as the first pregnant woman to sue for the right to abort her baby since the 1973 Supreme Court abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, according to The Texas Tribune.

Trisomy 18 is a condition in which a baby had an extra copy of chromosome 18, making it highly likely that the baby would die in the womb or shortly after birth—though some babies with trisomy 18 do survive, such as the daughter of former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn.

Cox’s lawyers argued that by not aborting her baby, Cox was jeopardizing her health and future fertility.

After an Austin, Texas, judge sided with Cox, ruling that she could abort her baby, the Supreme Court of Texas temporarily put that ruling on hold. Cox then traveled out of state and aborted her baby, and shortly afterward, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Cox would not have qualified to abort the baby under Texas’ medical exceptions to the state’s abortion laws.

“Her story is incredibly powerful, devastating,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said of Cox in a press briefing earlier this year. “And it speaks to the moment that we are in now, when we talk about women having the right to make these deeply personal decisions about their health care that was taken away by the Supreme Court.”

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School Choice’s Texas-Size Victory - The Daily Signal

School Choice’s Texas-Size Victory

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter / Terence Jeffrey / Jarrett Stepman / Fred Lucas / Mary Margaret Olohan / Jason Bedrick /

Republican primary voters in Texas sent a clear message on Super Tuesday: “We want school choice!”

The Texas House of Representatives last year failed to pass a school choice bill even after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, repeatedly called the lawmakers back into special session. Twenty-one Texas House Republicans joined with all House Democrats to defeat the school choice proposal.

In response, Abbott took a page out of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ book. If the Legislature wouldn’t support school choice—which had the support of 88% of Texas Republican voters—then he would find a new Legislature.

When the Iowa Legislature voted down Reynolds’ education savings account proposal in 2022, she endorsed nine pro-school choice candidates who were challenging anti-school choice incumbents. Eight of them won.

The following year, the Iowa Legislature quickly passed the Republican governor’s school choice proposal, becoming the first state that year (and the third overall) to enact a universal school choice policy.

In Texas, Abbott endorsed 16 challengers to incumbents who had opposed his school choice proposal. Five others—likely seeing the writing on the wall—did not seek reelection. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Wednesday: “Abbott-backed challengers appear to have beaten six incumbents, with four more headed for runoffs. Six incumbents appear to have survived.”

Additionally, in open races without incumbents, Abbott-endorsed candidates won in four races, while two are headed to runoffs. None lost.

The school choice movement also may claim victory. The American Federation for Children’s associated super PAC, the AFC Victory Fund, engaged in 13 of 16 races Tuesday involving incumbents who oppose school choice. Ten of the 13 won or forced the incumbents into runoffs.

“School choice opponents in the Texas House played stupid games and won stupid prizes,” said school choice activist Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children. “This week’s election was a mandate for school choice in Texas.”

Both Reynolds and Abbott recognized something that the Republicans who oppose school choice had missed: The GOP base increasingly has embraced the issue of school choice, so much so that it is now a litmus-test issue. As DeAngelis and I observed in 2022:

For Republicans, school choice has emerged as a litmus-test issue on par with being pro-life. Indeed, GOP primary voters in Texas displayed higher support for a pro-school-choice ballot proposition (88 percent) than a pro-life one (83 percent). Likewise, recent polling of Republicans in Oklahoma found even higher levels of support for school choice (78 percent) than for pro-life policies (68 percent).

In recent primaries, GOP voters threw their support to candidates who supported choice, even if it meant tossing out otherwise conservative incumbents. […]

Candidates endorsed by American Federation for Children Action Fund and its affiliates won their primaries or advanced to runoffs in 38 of 48 races in TexasArkansasIdahoGeorgia, and Nebraska so far this year.

Conservative parents have had it with government-run schools that put boys in the girls’ locker rooms and porn in the school libraries; indoctrinate students by dividing everyone into “oppressors” and “the oppressed” based on immutable characteristics; segregate students by race; teach that there is an infinite number of genders; and keep secrets from parents about their children’s mental and emotional health.

Parents recognize that school choice policies give them an immediate escape hatch when their local district school adopts woke policies. School choice also gives them more negotiating power with the local school board and school administration, because it means they are no longer a captive audience.

That’s why, all across the country, Republican primary voters have been replacing incumbents who have lost touch with the base on this core issue with challengers who support empowering families with school choice.

Opponents of school choice have been doing everything they can do to reverse this trend. As education columnist Tony Kinnett detailed Monday in The Daily Signal, teachers unions poured money into the Texas Republican primary races to protect incumbents who oppose school choice:

The two largest Texas teachers unions, the Texas State Teachers Association and the Texas Federation of Teachers, and at least two associated PACs have spent $343,239 on Republican primaries between 2018 and 2024.

Zeph Capo, president of the Texas Federation of Teachers, urged teachers in a March 1 letter to vote for 16 Texas House GOP incumbents who have taken union donations and “stood against Gov. [Greg] Abbott’s voucher push last year.” […] Sixteen House incumbents have received between $3,000 and $25,000 for their primaries so far this year from various PACs and union-associated organizations.

(The Daily Signal is The Heritage Foundation’s news and commentary outlet.)

Yes, those were the same 16 Republican incumbents whom Abbott had opposed.

One of them was incumbent state Rep. Glenn Rogers, who outspent GOP primary challenger Michael Olcott by about 3-to-1, yet Olcott beat Rogers by a margin of nearly 2-to-1.

Likewise, incumbent state Rep. Hugh Shine outspent challenger Hillary Hickland by 6-to-1, but Hickland beat Shine by a margin of 53% to 39.5%.

Perhaps the most-watched legislative race of the night concerned Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican who bragged about getting the teachers union endorsement in 2022. Although Phelan significantly outspent his opponent, he captured only 43% of the vote. He’s now headed to a runoff against GOP challenger David Covey, who garnered 46% of the vote.

The prospects that Texas will adopt a robust school choice proposal improved significantly with Tuesday’s results. “It looks like we will have the votes for universal school choice in Texas next session,” DeAngelis said.

The school choice momentum continues.

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Ads Target Biden Admin’s Efforts to Curb New Gas-Powered Vehicles - The Daily Signal

Ads Target Biden Admin’s Efforts to Curb New Gas-Powered Vehicles

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter / Terence Jeffrey / Jarrett Stepman / Fred Lucas / Mary Margaret Olohan / Jason Bedrick / Samantha Aschieris /

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers trade association released two new advertisements on Wednesday about the Biden administration’s efforts to drive gas-powered vehicles off the roads and replace them with electric vehicles.

The ads, which are part of the association’s “seven-figure issue campaign raising awareness” in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, aim “to inform consumers about the Biden administration’s policy agenda rushing to ban sales of new gas vehicles,” a press release says. 

Chet Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, said that President Joe Biden “has been clear since 2020 that he intends to use his agencies to eliminate sales of new gas cars.”

Thompson noted that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department are currently “finalizing regulations that would force our country most of the way there.”

Thompson is referring to the EPA’s tailpipe emissions proposal and the Corporate Average Fuel Economy proposed standards from the Transportation Department’s National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

“On top of that, EPA is considering authorizing California’s ban on sales of new gas, diesel, and traditional hybrid vehicles—a policy that, if approved, would be imposed on Americans in more than a dozen states,” Thompson said. 

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers first launched the campaign in February, which included two television advertisements.

“The Biden administration is trying to eliminate gas cars and push EV adoption faster than consumers want and faster than our infrastructure can handle,” Thompson said.

“This agenda is bad for families, bad for our economy, bad for U.S. manufacturing jobs, and unconscionable in terms of U.S. energy and national security,” said Thompson, who added:  

The American people need to know the truth about these policies and their endgame now, while the regulations are still being decided. The time to call the president, his agencies, and congressional leaders to push for better policy that protects consumer freedoms is now.

The White House did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about Thompson’s statement or the advertisements. 

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State of Delusion: Biden’s Address Will Expose Wide Divide Between President and Reality - The Daily Signal

State of Delusion: Biden’s Address Will Expose Wide Divide Between President and Reality

Virginia Allen / Virginia Allen / Noah Slayter / Terence Jeffrey / Jarrett Stepman / Fred Lucas / Mary Margaret Olohan / Jason Bedrick / Samantha Aschieris / Ryan Walker /

President Joe Biden on Thursday night will address a joint session of Congress and the American people to persuade voters that his many failures are actually successes.

Don’t buy it.

He will continue a campaign of gaslighting around his administration’s increasingly dangerous border catastrophe, his unaffordable and anemic economy, and his disastrous foreign policy that puts us all at risk. Biden will attempt to persuade us of the strength of his union—but he’s living in a state of delusion, and his primetime speech will make that painfully clear.

The reality of life in Biden’s America has become so far detached from the messaging coming out of his White House, it’s hard to imagine any address will change the minds of voters who have lost faith in the president. But we know he will try.

Here’s what you can expect to hear from Biden—and the hard truths he will continue to ignore:

First, he’s sure to deflect on his role in creating the border crisis. And this issue may best highlight the growing divide between the president’s dishonest view of his administration and the reality Americans face every day.

Biden will claim the historic number of illegal immigrants allowed in the country on his watch has nothing to do with him. He will tell you the humanitarian disaster caused by his blatant encouragement of illegal immigration is not his fault. He will blame Congress for a crisis of his making—a truly Orwellian touch. 

The reality? Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas began intentionally and systematically dismantling all semblance of border security within hours of taking the oath of office. Before he was even sworn in, during Democratic debates, he promised to give free health care to illegal immigrants and oppose deportation. As soon as he got to the Oval Office, Biden ended almost all of former President Donald Trump’s policies that deterred mass illegal immigration, such as “Remain in Mexico”; halted construction of the border wall; and turned on a flashing “open” sign that remains on to this day. 

The result has been an unmitigated disaster. More than 9 million people have illegally entered the country on Biden’s watch—that’s more than the population of most states, and doesn’t include the 1.7 million people we know have evaded authorities altogether. His incoherent position on the border is overcrowding and overwhelming our schools and health care system, fueling a fentanyl crisis that’s destroying families in every state, and giving criminals free rein across the country—with deadly results.

Unfortunately for Biden, the American people already blame him for the crisis. Almost 70% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the border, and immigration is now the top concern of a plurality of voters. For the first time ever, a majority of Americans support a border wall. That is Biden’s legacy on the border.

We also know Biden will try to persuade Americans that “Bidenomics” is working, that the crime and decay in our cities are nothing to be concerned about, that the military is strong, and that Republicans are a threat to democracy. 

Here’s the truth: The president’s economic agenda has led to nothing but strife for average families. Real wages are down, prices are up, and credit card debt is at a record high. A staggering 60% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Even Democrats admit the “Bidenomics” campaign is failing.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan majority of Americans think we have a crime crisis; Biden’s Pentagon is overseeing a historic recruitment shortfall and plunging public confidence; and our enemies have watched as Biden’s administration repeatedly fumbles on the world stage

Lastly, in perhaps his most cynical gambit, Biden will try to persuade you that Republicans are an existential threat to our democracy. He will make this claim just days after the Supreme Court unanimously overruled activist judges and officials from his own party who were trying to kick his chief rival off the ballot. The irony is stunning, and would be comical if it wasn’t so insulting. 

The State of the Union is an opportunity for every president to highlight his successes. But when an administration has so little success to promote, the only thing left to do is deceive and deflect. Instead of taking responsibility for his own dismal record, Biden will desperately attempt to rewrite history while using the federal government against his rivals.

Don’t be fooled. Biden is living in a state of delusion while the rest of us live in reality—far worse off than we were when he took office. No matter what he says in front of Congress on Thursday night, the real state of his union is weak, woke, and weaponized against those who dare to speak out.

Luckily, the American people will have the opportunity to respond in November. 

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com, and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.