The illegal immigrant who killed Georgia nursing student Laken Riley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday, but it wasn’t long before an ABC News reporter was in front of a camera claiming that President-elect Donald Trump was the real problem. ABC’s Ike Ejiochi reported on the conviction of Jose Ibarra, who came into the United States illegally in 2022 and was paroled into the country under President Joe Biden’s lax immigration policies. Referring to the violent murder as a “political lightning rod,” he immediately pivoted to accuse Trump of using Riley’s death for his own personal political gain. WATCH: Minutes after the illegal scum who killed Laken Riley was sentenced, Fake News hack @IkeEjiochi was on ABC blaming President Trump. This isn't a "political lightning rod" — it's a TRAGEDY that ONLY happened because Biden-Harris LET this animal roam our country. pic.twitter.com/y0Tp3qpZqg — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 20, 2024 “This death of Laken Riley and the subsequent trial has essentially been a massive political lightning rod here in this country,” he began, adding, “The president-elect campaigning on the death of Laken Riley and pointing to the current administration, saying that their laws and what they’re calling ‘failed policies’ contributed to Laken Riley’s death.” MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ Ejiochi went on to lay out the facts — namely that he entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was paroled, after which he was arrested in New York in 2023 and released — but instead of drawing a connection to the Biden border policies that allowed his parole or the fact that New York is a sanctuary city, he pivoted back to Trump yet again. “It’s important to note that although there is very little evidence indicating a connection between immigration and violent crime, this is still something the — uh — President-elect Trump, several Republicans on the Hill, wanted to essentially plant their flag on and point that to the current Biden administration,” he continued, going on to criticize Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for calling Biden out directly during his last State of the Union address. At the time, Biden responded by mispronouncing Riley’s name while attempting to acknowledge her tragic murder at the hands of an illegal immigrant — and later apologized for using the term “illegal.” Ejiochi concluded by claiming that Trump had been instrumental in helping to “essentially tank” the bipartisan border bill — which, despite some claims to the contrary, would not have secured the border.

“Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski made another stop on the apology tour as she and her husband and cohost Joe Scarborough attempt to do damage control and appease their left-leaning audience after they dared to take a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump. Brzezinski and Scarborough announced during Monday morning’s broadcast that they had met with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago in an effort to reopen the lines of communication after not speaking for a number of years. The move prompted critics on the left to say that they shouldn’t have offered Trump that kind of legitimacy — and critics on the right to wonder why, after they had compared him to Adolf Hitler, Trump would give them the time of day. In the days since the pair have offered several explanations for their decision to meet with Trump — and they have repeatedly assured their audience that they still don’t agree with him on many things — and Wednesday was no exception. “People are really scared,” Brzezinski told The Daily Beast editor-in-chief Joanna Coles and her podcast cohost Samantha Bee. “I’ve been surprised at the backlash,” she said of their meeting. “And the way I look at it is, people are really scared. And it’s one of the reasons we went in there is people are really scared about Donald Trump’s comments that, you know, political adversaries, a lot of people are scared because of what has happened with abortion. These are all issues that are important to me and in some ways personal to me, but definitely personal to the people I really care about.” MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ Brzezinski went on to say that she believed it was part of her job to talk to people who might disagree or even attack her personally and that she felt she had made a mistake in not speaking with Trump over the last several years. “Well, I mean, it’s my job to interview and talk to people I disagree with, feel threatened by or who have hurt my feelings in some way. So here’s how I do it. I do my job. I mean, do I really not go in there because he tweeted about me bleeding badly from the facelift at Mar-a-Lago, I don’t know, eight, nine years ago?” she asked. “I mean, we haven’t talked in seven years. And I will say that’s a problem, too. So I’m worried about myself and how I conduct myself in this media universe that we’re in, taking stock of everything that has happened. I don’t regret anything I’ve said during the campaign, and I stand by it. But I’m also looking at how to do things differently. And I would never turn down an opportunity to gain insider information. Never. So how I handle mean tweets or the personal stuff is that that’s just not something I’m supposed to worry about. That’s my job.”

The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the conviction of disgraced actor Jussie Smollett who was found guilty of filing a false police report in 2019 after claiming he was the victim of a hate crime. The court overturned the ruling because it said he was unjustly prosecuted a second time after he was given a sweetheart deal by George Soros-backed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx that resolved the matter as part of a negotiated settlement. “We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction,” Justice Elizabeth M. Rochford wrote in the opinion. A lawyer for Smollett said in a statement: “We are thankful to the Illinois Supreme Court for restoring order to Illinois’ criminal law jurisprudence.” In January 2019, Smollett claimed he was walking alone at night in Chicago during a polar vortex when two supporters of President Donald Trump — allegedly carrying rope and bleach — recognized him from his role on “Empire” and brutally attacked him while yelling racial and homophobic slurs. MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ Smollett returned to a friend’s home and called the police, still wearing the noose that he said was placed around his neck by his purported attackers. It was later reported that Smollett hired two Nigerian brothers he had previously worked with to stage the attack to raise his profile and hopefully get him a raise on “Empire” and further his acting career. The brothers alleged that Smollett paid them to buy plain red hats that he later claimed were “Make American Great Again” (MAGA) hats, signaling the attackers’ support of Trump. In September 2020, Smollett insisted he was “set up” and continued to claim that he was attacked by two white men wearing MAGA hats. The brothers who said they were paid to stage the attack are black. The Daily Wire reported at the time that Smollett suddenly started claiming he had two witnesses who could prove he did not fake the attack. After Chicago police investigated Smollett’s original claims for two weeks, they suspected he had staged the attack. Smollett was charged with 16 counts of lying to police, but those charges were dropped as part of the plea deal he was given by Foxx. Ashe Schow contributed to this report.

What would you do if a bully from your past reached out to you via social media to apologize? One woman shared a moving post online about her complicated emotions when confronted with this situation. In the sixth grade, a boy had broken her glasses on purpose just to hurt and belittle her in front of their peers. 14 years later, he reached out to her to tell her that he was sorry. In his message, this former bully explained why he felt compelled to apologize after all this time. Apparently, he now had a child of his own — a three-year-old daughter who was about to get her first eyewear. This made him think about how he had once hurt a young glasses-wearer just like his little girl. “He said he couldn’t ever handle the idea of someone doing that to her,” the woman wrote in her post. It’s not always easy to forgive someone who hurt you. Screengrab from TikTok At first, the social media user struggled to forgive her bully, even though he was trying to apologize. After all, this person had made things really difficult for her as a child. However, she knew that it must have taken a lot of personal growth for this man to recognize what he’d done. It was also an incredibly validating experience to see this guy finally admit that he’d treated her badly. “My first instinct was to tell him to get lost, but I realized I was getting what I always prayed for,” the woman said. “I just wanted the people who were mean to me to eventually understand it — even if it took a personal experience to relate to and 14 years to open their eyes.” Screengrab from TikTok After her bully apologized, this lady decided to give him some advice to help him take care of his daughter and her new glasses. After all, she knew what it was like to be that young and already getting used to eyewear. In her post, she shared that “a piece of me healed” during this experience. In the comments section, the woman added that she would never try to force another person to forgive someone who had hurt them. However, she did hope that her story would inspire others! You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post “My Bully From 6th Grade… Just Found Me On Social Media” appeared first on InspireMore.

'I struggled with how to write this message'

Outraged community members took the podium

Colorado will eventually win a natty

'They brought the paddles out, they put him under'

DOGE should determine where it will need to work with Congress

'My party is out of touch'