DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign reportedly seeks to frame her as a law-and-order candidate, however, the deep-pocketed donors propelling her candidacy have a history of supporting efforts to reduce the power of law enforcement. Harris’ close advisers have settled on a strategy of highlighting the vice president’s career as a district attorney and attorney general in California, according to CNN. Despite the Harris campaign’s plans, many of the donors backing her have opposed efforts to empower law enforcement and supported organizations that advocate for defunding the police. “Not only does Kamala need to defend her support of [President] Joe Biden’s failed agenda over the past four years, she also needs to answer for her own terrible weak-on-crime record in California,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “A vote for Kamala is a vote to allow illegal immigrants from all over the world to invade our country, a vote to defund the police, abolish [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], and bail violent criminals out of jail.” The Soros Connection George Soros, the self-admitted architect of a plan to overhaul America’s criminal justice system by installing prosecutors with a more lenient view on crime, and his son Alex both endorsed Harris for president shortly after Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, The Wall Street Journal reported. In addition to electing so-called reform prosecutors, the Soros philanthropic network has also pumped millions into anti-police groups, including some that have called for reduced spending on law enforcement. Open Society Foundations, which George Soros founded and Alex Soros took over in 2023, donated tens of millions to anti-police groups in 2021, including Black Lives Matter-aligned organizations that call for defunding the police and the New Venture Fund for the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability, which publishes materials on both defunding and abolishing the police, Fox News Digital reported. Soros also supported campaigns in Minneapolis to abolish its police department following the death of George Floyd. Democracy PAC and Democracy PAC II, political action committees funded and controlled by the Soros family, have spent tens of millions this election cycle to help get Democrats elected and gave millions to Democratic super PACs that worked to get Biden elected in 2020, Federal Election Commission records show. Many of the prosecutors supported by Soros have come under fire from people living in their jurisdiction for their approaches to criminal justice. Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who received support from Soros-aligned groups, was recalled in 2022 after city residents accused him of not prosecuting crimes like burglary, car thefts, and murder, as well as for releasing repeat offenders who went on to commit additional crimes. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, who Soros spent millions supporting through his California Justice & Public Safety PAC, faces a tough reelection bid amid criticisms of his handling of crime, which included opting not to prosecute crimes like trespassing, resisting arrest, making criminal threats, drug possession, or loitering to commit prostitution. Netflix, Nonprofits, and Criminal Justice Reform Nonprofit head Quinn Delaney and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, major Democratic donors who announced their support for Harris shortly after Biden ended his reelection effort, joined Soros in working to elect Gascon and Boudin. Delaney, alongside three other California-based donors, poured millions into electing the two prosecutors in 2020, Politico reported. Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin donated $1.75 million to support Gascon, according to Deadline. Hastings donated $7 million to a pro-Harris PAC, the largest donation he has ever given a candidate, Business Insider reported. Delaney, meanwhile, pumped $1 million into a pro-Harris super PAC that she ran in 2020 and has been identified as a “key backer” of Harris post-dropout by The New York Times. Delaney and Hastings have also thrown their wealth behind opposing ballot measures in California that would have empowered law enforcement. Hastings and his wife in 2020 spent $2 million opposing California Proposition 20, which would have increased penalties for property crimes, as well as $1 million in support of a ballot measure that would have abolished cash bail, according to Forbes. Delaney, on the other hand, in 2024, donated to a committee opposing a California ballot measure that would have increased penalties for retail theft, Politico reported. Delaney heads the Akonadi Foundation, an Oakland-based nonprofit that focuses on “ending the criminalization of people of color,” according to its website. Akonadi runs a program called “All In For Oakland,” which works to remove police officers from schools and close juvenile prisons and donates funds to Black Lives Matter-affiliated organizations. While Harris’ campaign is reportedly prepared to present her as the law-and-order candidate, the vice president presented as a reformist during her time in the Senate. Harris told “The View” in 2020 that the defund the police movement was about “reimagining how we do public safety in America,” adding that “we have confused the idea that to achieve safety you put more cops on the street instead of understanding to achieve safe and healthy communities, you put more resources into the public education system of those communities, into affordable housing, into home ownership, into access to capital for small businesses, access to health care regardless of how much money people have,” The Sacramento Bee reported. Harris, in a 2020 radio interview, praised the defund the police movement, saying that the “whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities,” according to CNN. She also praised Los Angeles’ move to cut its police department’s budget by $150 million during an interview a day prior. Golden State Cash Karla Jurvetson, another wealthy Californian whom The New York Times reported is throwing her support behind Harris, was labeled by a Republican operative as a “major funder of the squad and just about every politician on Capitol Hill who wants to defund the police” due to her political contributions to left-wing members of Congress, according to The New York Post. She is also a donor to Color of Change PAC, a committee that works to defund police departments, The Washington Free Beacon reported. Jurvetson was the 24th-largest individual Democratic donor during the 2020 election cycle, giving a considerable sum to Harris at the time, according to Influence Watch. Andrea Dew Steele, yet another Californian Democratic donor, has been hard at work laying the foundation for Harris’ campaign since before Biden even dropped out, The New York Times reported. Dew Steele, who is a personal friend of Harris and served on her national finance committee in 2020, has spent the past few weeks funneling donors to Democrat-aligned groups in preparation for a possible Harris campaign. “We were trying to make sure that we were ready for this moment,” she told The New York Times. “I was just trying to prepare the ground.” Dew Steele is the founder of Emerge America, an organization dedicated to electing women to office at all levels of government. The group has backed several liberal prosecutors, including Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton and former Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins, both of whom received backing from Soros’ network, as well as San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, who declined to prosecute many of those who were arrested in her city during the 2020 George Floyd riots, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. “The prosecutor exercises the greatest discretion and power in the system. It is so important,” Dew Steele told Politico in 2016, speaking about Soros’ strategy of funding left-wing prosecutors. “There’s been a confluence of events in the past couple years and all of the sudden, the progressive community is waking up to this.” Many of the prosecutors funded by Soros decline to prosecute what they deem to be low-level crimes like drug possession, vandalism, or trespassing. “I applaud Emerge America for working to get more women in law enforcement positions,” then-California Attorney General Harris said in 2015, when the group first launched, according to MSNBC. “Having served for eight years as San Francisco’s District Attorney and now as the Attorney General of California, I can tell you that women’s voices are desperately needed in the criminal justice system.” Susie Tompkins Buell, another prominent donor whom The New York Times reported has come out in support of Harris, and Delaney both serve on Emerge America’s advisory board. The vice president’s proximity to the defund the police movement persists in her staffing decisions with Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s spokesperson, having tweeted “defund the police” on June 3, 2020. Harris has spent much of her career threading the needle between appeasing leftists and not making an enemy of law enforcement, according to The Wall Street Journal. In 2020, for instance, Harris distanced herself from her past as a prosecutor at the urging of her sister, CNN reported. The Harris campaign did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Jurvetson could not be reached for comment. None of the other donors named above responded to requests for comment. Originally published by Daily Caller News Foundation The post Billionaires Bankrolling Kamala Harris’ Tough-on-Crime Campaign Wanted to Defund Police, Install Soros Prosecutors appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Smurfing At Work

Monday's CBS Mornings interview of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) was unsurprisingly a shallow conversation intended to promote the governor and her book True Gretch, as well as give her a chance to prattle on about the apparently numerous positive expectations surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Co-host Vladimir Duthiers began by fan-girling about Whitmer’s accomplishments and her book, weirdly declaring his excitement about the governor’s “leather and lipstick” outfit on the cover picture and exclaiming, “I love that. It’s your armor.” Duthiers followed up with a question about Whitmer’s potential as a vice presidential pick for the Democratic ballot: "So, let me ask you. You are seen as a potential vice presidential pick even though you're co-chairing her campaign. This is a yes or no question–have you been asked by the campaign to provide any documentation for that effort?" Just like Maryland Governor Wes Moore, she responded with the appropriate reassurance that she was “not a part of the vetting” and would “stay as governor until the end of my term at the end of 2026.”     Whitmer continued with over-sentimental descriptions for the Democratic Party, proudly predicting that their national convention would be a “convention of happy warriors” who “see one another, we uplift one another, we can find the joy in doing the work and helping people,” demonstrating the “stark” contrast with the Republican Party.  Co-host Nate Burleson asked the governor for her thoughts on suggestions that a successful vice presidential candidate would necessarily be a white man, an idea which she immediately shot down as “baloney,” pointing to the all-female chief executives in her own not so successful administration. But to her, all that mattered was “when you show up and listen to people…every person matters, every person's important. We gotta show up. We gotta build a future so that every person can see prosperity and a brighter future in this country.” She elaborated by insisting Harris “knows how to solve problems and get things done and that's really, I think, gonna be very evident after convention and then you'll see a much broader communications strategy.” Yet, in light of the economic disasters Harris would inherit from President Joe Biden’s administration, many prominent economic figures, including Steve Forbes, have expressed concerns about a potential Harris presidency only exacerbating the economic crisis. Duthiers later pressed Whitmer on the fact that “more than 100,000 Michiganders voted uncommitted in the Democratic primary to protest President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.” She defaulted to a previous response, densely repeating, “I think the greatest superpower that any one of us can have is the ability to listen, the ability to show up.” Whitmer continued bay saying, “The only universal truth, right now, is that everyone is hurting,” and congratulated Harris for “meeting with Bibi Netanyahu and reaffirm[ing] her support for Israel,” even though the vice president had notably boycotted the Israeli prime minister’s address in front of Congress. Ironically enough, Whitmer placed significant emphasis on the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), even though Democrats have taken up arms against the alleged racists who dared attribute the title to the vice president: We need more people of color in places of–where all decisions are being made. We need more women. Diversity can be such a great strength. Companies that value that have greater profits. So it's in all of our interests to make sure that, as we make really hard decisions, there's diverse empowered representation. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: CBS Mornings 7/29/2024 07:37:33 AM EST VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Election day is now just 99 days away. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign says it has raised $200 million in the week after President Biden stepped aside from the race. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer serves as the co-chair of the Harris campaign, so who better to have here studio? She turned her battleground state blue in 2022, with Democrats taking control of the governorship, the state house, and the Senate, successes she’s hoping to build on for Vice President Harris.  Governor Whitmer's author of the recent New York Times best seller True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between. Governor, good morning. You're on the cover in leather and lipstick. I love that. It's your armor. GOVERNOR GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): That’s my armor. Yes. DUTHIERS: So, let me ask you. You are seen as a potential vice presidential pick even though you're co-chairing her campaign. This is a yes or no question–have you been asked by the campaign to provide any documentation for that effort? WHITMER: I have communicated with everyone, including the people of Michigan, that I'm gonna stay as governor until the end of my term at the end of 2026. So… DUTHIERS: So you have not been… WHITMER: I am not a part of the vetting.  DUTHIERS: …been–you’re not part of the vetting at all. And is there a scenario where you would potentially decide to be on the ticket with the vice president? WHITMER: You know what, the vice president has got a great group of people from whom she's gonna pick her running mate. And I know that I can be the best ally on the ground in Michigan as a co-chair of this campaign, as well. So, that is my focus, and I've communicated that with everybody, so… DUTHIERS: Alright. So–so–so what's happening now is, she has to hit a physical deadline, for example for the state of Ohio, to be on that ballot. Is there a logistical deadline that she has to meet in choosing a vice presidential running mate so that she can be on that ballot on August 7th? WHITMER: Well, everything's truncated, and she's gonna make that decision probably in the next six, seven days. I would imagine we'll know who her running mate is, and we'll get ready for convention. I think what you'll see is a convention of happy warriors. Talked a little about this in the book, but it's really, I think, high-stakes election, but we also see one another, we uplift one another, we can find the joy in doing the work and helping people. And that's really, I think, what the stark choice is in front of us. NATE BURLESON: Now, speaking of her running mate, you know, some politicians, political pundits, even voters say she has to choose a man–not only that, a white man, if she wants to win this election. Do you agree with that? WHITMER: (Laughs). I don't agree with that. I'll tell you this–in Michigan, myself, my secretary of state, my attorney general, all the chief executives in Michigan are women. And every one of us was told there may be too many women on the ticket. Baloney. We've proved that wrong in the swingiest of swing states.  And, I think, when you show up and listen to people, which is part of, I think, my philosophy–and I know that Vice President Harris shares that–every person matters, every person's important. We gotta show up. We gotta build a future so that every person can see prosperity and a brighter future in this country. BURLESON: Right about that. MICHELLE MILLER: Is that the playbook strategy to improve her numbers in battleground states, which recent polls have her trailing Trump in some of them? WHITMER: Yeah, I think the–you know, we are seeing on the ground a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. People are wanting to be a part of this moment and see the opportunity. We also know that it is–in Michigan, we don't clutch our pearls when we're down two points and we don't celebrate when we're up two. This is gonna go down to the wire. It’s gonna be a close race and we can't–we can’t forget that. MILLER: Quarter of a million dollars almost raised in less than a week, I mean, well, a week, here we go. But no television ad campaign on the national level. What is taking so long? WHITMER: Well, obviously, we've got a new standard bearer. And part of the focus is gonna continue to be getting ready for convention, where we can show people across the country that a Harris administration means your life's gonna get better. It means more money in your pocket. She knows how to solve problems and get things done and that's really, I think, gonna be very evident after convention and then you'll see a much broader communications strategy. BURLESON: Abortion is a major issue in this election, and it's something that you write about in this book, a very personal episode that happened when you were younger. And you write about the time spending more than a decade working on overturning a restrictive abortion law in Michigan. You know, what did you learn during that process about yourself and your fellow politicians? WHITMER: You know, well, you know, this book really is ten things I've learned in my life that I have used to navigate some of the toughest years anyone could imagine being governor and being governor of Michigan, with plots and pandemics and violence and demonstrations. And so, this, I think, chapter is really about never giving up.  BURLESON: Yeah. WHITMER: I lost a fight to protect women's right to access healthcare in 2013. I shared the fact that I had been raped when I was in college. It was hard to do, and it's a story that I know so many people in this country–it resonates with. BURLESON: You felt defeated afterwards. WHITMER: I did. I was so depressed. But hundreds of people started reaching out. Ten years later, as sitting governor with a Democratic legislature, we were able to repeal that very law, on that ten-year anniversary. So these fights are worth having. We can win them. We never give up, and that's why this book–putting some light out into the world in a heavy time was what my agen–what my–what my goal was. DUTHIERS: More than 100,000 Michiganders voted uncommitted in the Democratic primary to protest President Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. How does the vice president, in part of that same administration, obviously, get those voters on board, because Michigan is key? WHITMER: The biggest thing that–I think the greatest superpower that any one of us can have is the ability to listen, the ability to show up.  DUTHIERS: Yeah. WHITMER: It’s part of what the lessons are in the book, but it's also how Vice President Harris–I think that's her philosophy, as well. She had that meeting with Bibi Netanyahu and came out–reaffirmed her support for Israel, but also recognized the humanitarian crisis that is playing out everyday. The pain that Arab Americans are feeling, and Muslim Americans, and Palestinian Americans, as well as Jewish… BURLESON: It’s a huge demographic in Michigan, by the way. WHITMER: Right, as well as Jewish Americans.  BURLESON: Yeah. WHITMER: The only universal truth, right now, is that everyone is hurting. And acknowledgment of that, I think, was so important, and I'm grateful that she did it. We've gotta continue to show up on the ground in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and the handful of states that are gonna be on the bubble and decide this thing. But I know that that's her philosophy, too–learning to listen. MILLER: You know, floating the idea of a dual-woman ticket, people say sexism is simply too great in this nation. But you write about facing sexism in your book and how you battled against it. What advice would you give to the vice president on her campaign and to other politicians and women in general? WHITMER: Well, you know, I'm always thinking about my daughters. I dedicated the book to my girls, Sherry and Sydney. I'm always thinking about what I do, how I show up every day, creates space for others. In the book, I talk a little about my phenomenal attorney general, Dana Nessel, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. When one of us owns our space, we give license and legitimacy to other women who are.  We need more people of color in places of–where all decisions are being made. We need more women. Diversity can be such a great strength. Companies that value that have greater profits. So it's in all of our interests to make sure that, as we make really hard decisions, there's diverse empowered representation. I talk about my chief medical officer in the middle of the pandemic, a woman named Joneigh Khaldun, a black woman who was also an E.R. Doc. She was the reason that we prioritized outreach and we fixed the fact that in the early days of Covid 40 percent of our deaths were people of color–were black Michiganders. After our work, it fell down to under 14 percent, which is what the true population representation is. It matters. DUTHIERS: Real quick, governor, are you running for president in 2028?  WHITMER: (Laughs). DUTHIERS: Yes or no? WHITMER: I don’t know what I’m doing in 2028. [Laughs] DUTHIERS: Come back and see us.  WHITMER: Thank you.  DUTHIERS: Governor Gretchen Whitmer, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it. True Gretch is available right now. (...)

Despite reported warnings from the Secret Service to avoid outdoor rallies, former President Donald Trump will return to the site of his attempted assassination in order to honor the fireman who was shot and killed. 'What a day it will be — fight, fight fight!' The Washington Post reported Tuesday that sources within the Secret Service confirmed that the department had recommended to the Trump campaign to avoid outdoor rallies after it failed to provide competent security. Despite the apparent request, Trump said he will return to Butler, Pennsylvania, to honor the life of Corey Comperatore. The former fire chief was shot and killed while trying to protect his family at the assassination attempt. “I will be going back to Butler, Pennsylvania for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighting hero, Corey, and those brave patriots injured two weeks ago. What a day it will be — fight, fight fight! Stay tuned for details,” Trump wrote Friday. He also said in a separate post on Truth Social that he would continue his outdoor rallies and that the Secret Service would substantially step up its security detail. The Secret Service has been heavily criticized after more and more evidence supports suspicions that its officers had numerous opportunities to thwart the assassination attempt. After taking responsibility but initially refusing to step down, Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the Secret Service Tuesday. On Friday, the former president made his first appearance without a bandage on his ear at a rally on Friday evening in West Palm Beach, Florida. Comperatore's wife, Helen, told the New York Post that President Joe Biden tried to call her to offer his condolences but that she refused the call because her husband would have wanted her to do so. Trump has helped raise millions of dollars to help his family. "I support Trump. That’s who I’m voting for, but I don’t have ill will towards Biden,” she added. “He didn’t do anything bad to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did.” Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

As a final show of force, the Alphabet Mafia hijacked the Olympic Games, turning the opening ceremony into a grotesque and blatant mockery of Jesus Christ. The Paris Olympics opened with a pornographic re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci’s interpretation of the Last Supper, the meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his crucifixion. The Paris Olympics will be remembered as a celebration of the destruction of the religion that powered Western civilization.Drag performers, including a man with his genitals exposed, gathered for a feast whose main course was a nude man painted blue. “For the ‘Festivities’ segment, Thomas Jolly took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting to create the setting,” producers of the Olympics said in a written statement. “Clearly, there was never an intention to show disrespect towards any religious group. Jolly is not the first artist to make a reference to what is a world-famous work of art. From Andy Warhol to The Simpsons, many have done it before him.”There’s nothing new about mocking Christianity. We just hadn’t seen it done so blatantly on the world’s largest stage. Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s designer, made history. Gay and Jewish, the 42-year-old French actor and director thumbed his nose at the religion and savior he reviles while pretending to promote inclusivity and depict a Greek god. “The idea was to depict a big pagan celebration, linked to the gods of Olympus and thus the Olympics,” Jolly told reporters on Sunday.I’m not buying Jolly’s rationalization. The idea was to punch, trigger, and humiliate Christians. Jolly planted a “mission accomplished” flag at the Olympics. The Alphabet Mafia won the culture war. Christians are the world’s punching bag, the easiest and safest target for public ridicule. Our values and worldview have been forced into the closet by the five families of the Alphabet Mafia: the ADL, BLM, NAACP, LGBTQIA+, and feminists. The Paris Olympics will be remembered as a celebration of the destruction of the religion that powered Western civilization.Christians organized sports. The YMCA – Young Men’s Christian Association – organized sports worldwide. There would be no modern-day Olympics without the YMCA. The YMCA was founded in 1844, some 52 years before the 1896 Olympics.Modern sports culture has disavowed its religious and patriotic origins.Snoop Dogg, while wearing a Baphomet necklace, carried the Olympic torch. A pornographic rapper and pimp carried the Olympic torch. Why? How? Other than being a Lakers fan, what is Snoop’s connection to any Olympic sport?LeBron James was chosen to be the flag-bearer for Team USA. How? Why? James routinely kneeled during the national anthem because George Floyd, a career criminal, died of a drug overdose while being restrained by law enforcement. James has spent the last decade demonizing America, painting the country as irreversibly racist. The Team USA women’s basketball team excluded its most compelling and transformational player, Caitlin Clark, because she’s white, heterosexual, and avoids enthusiastically worshipping black lesbians.Flavor Flav, the minstrel rapper, has somehow become the mascot for the Team USA water polo team. The Alphabet Mafia owns the sports world. No one who has been paying attention should be surprised that the Olympic opening ceremony attacked Jesus Christ. The world is upside down.

It’s been over two weeks since Trump’s near assassination, and we still don’t know how a 20-year-old with no military or law enforcement background was able to weasel his way around the Secret Service. According to Steve Friend, a former FBI agent who’s now come forth as a whistleblower, the FBI won't produce a result in its Trump Assassination Attempt Probe because that's not the goal of the bureau. “The FBI loves to hide behind ‘we can't reveal sources and methods,’ ‘it's an ongoing investigation,’ ‘we're just going to drag this out as long as we possibly can until people either lose interest or there's something else that we can get our hooks into that's going to do better for us in the headlines,”’ he tells Jill Savage and the “Blaze News Tonight” panel. FBI Whistleblower EXPOSES Corruption at Shady Agency in NEW Interview www.youtube.com “I don't have any confidence in them to actually carry forward an honest and forthright investigation of any kind because they've demonstrated themselves to be just a politically partisan organization, particularly as it pertains to Donald Trump,” he continues. “Director Wray's testimony yesterday ... appeared to be more forthright than he's been in any previous congressional hearings,” says investigative journalist and Blaze Media correspondent Steve Baker. “Did you get that impression, or do you see something else?” Friend speculates that Wray’s increase in candor is likely due to the fact that the Secret Service is under fire this time rather than the FBI. “I think there's a lot of attention really being thrown at the Secret Service at this point. I think he, at that point, gave a little bit of an exhale,” he explains. “By and large, Christopher Wray has just done the exact same thing all the time, and I think it's derivative of one, he's a politically partisan guy, but secondly, he's not an outcomes guy.” The American people “want to see an effective investigation actually transpire, where we get all the answers. [Wray] doesn't see that as success; he's about the process — process itself is success.” “How do you describe Christopher Wray?” asks Jill. Wray “made $9.2 million a year before he was brought in as the FBI director, and he gave that up for a $200,000 a year job for a 10-year appointment where he'd have to live apart from his family,” Friend says. “That's what his sacrifice was for — ‘the cause’ — and the cause was bringing cultural Marxism to its full fruition within the FBI.” “You can see it in the hiring standards. ... They're bringing in people, at this point, who are 50 pounds overweight describing themselves as woke, and then most recently, you had somebody hired by the Washington field office who is an actual heroin addict,” he explains. “Do you think this is a lost cause at this point?” asks Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson. “Well, the agency itself, I think, is a lost cause because the reforms that are necessary to bring it back from the brink are so drastic,” such as “[reducing] its footprint from a headquarter standpoint,” “[getting] rid of the intelligence branch entirely,” “[getting] back to actually doing criminal investigations” and “not [concerning] themselves with intelligence gathering on the American people,” says Friend. But there’s one simple thing that the federal government could do to make the FBI effective again: “take the guns away.” “The origin of the FBI was an unarmed investigative agency,” Friend explains. “It can return to that, and it can do what Christopher Wray says that it is always intending to do and that is aid local law enforcement.” To hear more of the interview, watch the clip above. Want more from Blaze News Tonight?To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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