Much has been made of Biden’s purchase of Rashid Khalidi’s book, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, which argues Israel is a settler colonialist enterprise.  The Forward, a liberal Jewish newspaper, claims that its “abiding relevance is just one reason why American Jews and Israel supporters should … read Khalidi’s book, now.”  It quotes Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, who wrote, “There is no better or more important introduction to this history from the Palestinian perspective than Khalidi’s book.” As to the two million Arab citizens and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, he has nothing useful to say. Not surprisingly, Khalidi’s narratives most often ignore unpleasant facts.  He suggests that the Arabs who populated what became Palestine had long lived there while Jews were recent immigrants. He neglects to mention that a large share of these Arabs were themselves nineteenth century refugees from Egypt, Russia, and other areas in the Ottoman Empire. (READ MORE from Robert Cherry: Progressives Don’t Want to Learn From Their Mistakes) He neglects to mention that it was the Crusades that decimated the Jewish population, which nonetheless rebuilt their numbers so that well before European immigration, they were a plurality of Jerusalem residents.  Moreover, Khalidi neglects to mention the large internal migration of Arabs from the West Bank to the coastal areas during the mandate period.  These migrants married women from their West Bank home villages and often went there to help harvest crops. Thus, the notion that 1948 Palestinian refugees were displaced from their ancestral homelands is a very problematic narrative. Khalidi minimizes the harmful role of the Mufti, Hajj Amin al-Husayni. Khalidi never mentions the pogroms he led in 1921 and 1929, his antisemitic actions while in Iraq, nor why, given his activities in support of Hitler, the Mufti was given a hero’s welcome when he found his way to Egypt after the war.  Moreover, Khalidi substantially understates the violence perpetrated by the Mufti and his supporters to suppress any support for either the 1936 Peel Commission recommendation of a very small Jewish state or the later 1939 White Paper that reversed this position but still allowed a small amount of Jewish immigration to continue. When the Woodhead Commission arrived to examine the prospects for implementing the Peel partition plan, the rebels were instructed “to kill every Arab who communicates with the commission in any form.”  When the Mufti learned that one of the notables planned to testify, he wrote: “Those who go to meet the partition commission should take their shrouds with them.” Khalidi spends little time analyzing why Jewish forces were so victorious during the civil war stage of the 1948 conflict.  He never mentions that the leadership of the volunteer Arab Liberation Army (ALA) was Fawzi al-Qawuqji, a Lebanese Pan-Arabist who had served in Nazi fighting units.  The ALA was without Palestinian leadership and up to 90 percent of volunteers were foreigners.  Without much local support, it was hard to sustain military campaigns. Over 150,000 Arabs fled by the end of March 1948, before Zionist forces began to implement Project Dalet, which Khalidi claims was an ethnic clearing policy.  It was implemented solely to keep open crucial supply lines.  The noted political scientist Meron Benvenisti claimed, “The policy of permanent occupation and destruction of villages was implemented … where Arab attacks had imperiled the lifelines of the Jewish community; the road to Jerusalem and the area around the MAPAM settlement, Mishmar Ha’emeq.”  Benvensti, however, believed that the vast majority of the 380,000 refugees who left their homes by the end of May reflected the impact of the fighting not any ethnic cleansing policy. Khalidi never mentions that the Nakba was defined by Constantin Zureiq as the catastrophe for the victory of any Jewish state on what is perceived as Arab ancestral land.  In 1958, the Nakba was commemorated by radio stations of the United Arab Republic calling on the world’s Arab and Muslim states to hold a symbolic five minutes to mourn the establishment of Israel without any mention of the refugees.  The refugees only become predominant during the 1990s when Arafat has to make the right-of-return central to his negotiating position. When Khalidi discusses the collapse of two-state negotiations, he never mentions the right-of-return.  Moreover, he claims that the second intifada, which began soon after negotiations collapsed, was the result of Ariel Sharon’s provocative presence on the Temple Mount which was the “match to set it off.” Further inquiries, however, strongly suggested that Arafat had planned it. Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said in September 2010 that Arafat had ordered Hamas, as well as Fatah and the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, to prepare to launch “military operations” against Israel.  Mamduh Nofal, former DFLP military commander, recounted that Arafat “told us, now we are going to the fight, so we must be ready.” Palestinian and Arab Citizens of Israel Finally, Khalidi has no interest in examining the situation of the close to two million Arab citizens of Israel.  This population has increasingly become integrated into the fabric of the country; and increasingly embraces the Israeli state.  Indeed, Khalid is unwilling to assess the changing situation of those Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. In his sole reference, Khalidi writes: According to a 2018 European Union report, the contribution of Arab East Jerusalem to the Palestinian GDP has shrunk from 15 percent in 1993 to 7 percent today … Due to its physical isolation and the strict Israeli permit policy, the city has largely ceased to be the economic, urban, and commercial center that it once was. This weakened influence on the West Bank reflects East Jerusalem becoming integrally tied to the Israeli state.  Over the last decade, East Jerusalem’s educational system has replaced the Jordanian curriculum and enables thousands of Palestinians there to attend Israeli universities. At the Hebrew University alone, 710 Arab students from East Jerusalem were enrolled in 2022, compared with only 36 five years earlier. (READ MORE: Supporting the Hamas Fantasy of Israel’s Destruction) Another focus has been bringing jobs to East Jerusalem. The municipality’s Silicon Wadi plan establishes an innovation quarter for hi-tech companies. A total of 200,000 square meters will be devoted to high-tech businesses, 50,000 to hotels, and another 50,000 to commercial space.  Jerusalem City Council member Laura Wharton of the leftwing Meretz party said:  “The thinking here now is to develop high-tech and other industries that will allow people from East Jerusalem to find employment in Jerusalem.”  Not surprisingly, a 2022 poll found that more East Jerusalem Palestinians favor being citizens of Israel than part of a Palestinian state. Khalidi’s Palestinian narratives only concern the refugees.  As to the two million Arab citizens and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, he has nothing useful to say.  Liberal Jews at the Forward and NIF who promote Khalidi’s book say more about their animus to Netanyahu than anything else. Robert Cherry is an American Enterprise Institute affiliate and author of Arab Citizens of Israel: How Far Have They Come (Spring 2025). The post Palestinian Narratives Diverge From Reality appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Ford Motor Company, and other major corporations are backtracking on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and returning to hiring based on merit. Thus, instead of a misguided equity approach, the focus should be increasing the supply of quality black candidates. Make no mistake. A work environment featuring diverse ideas and opinions is highly conducive to success. Similarly, it is important to have a work culture that includes all players on the team. But most often, DEI is focused on prioritizing race and sexual orientation over the applicable criteria of merit. This DEI agenda is problematic. Some people counter that the “E” in DEI implies a commitment to equitable outcomes in addition to equal opportunity. In other words, equality of opportunity is insufficient — certain predetermined outcomes must also be realized. To illustrate this viewpoint, it is commonplace for “equity” to be presented by the iconic image of “equality vs. equity,” where individuals are given boxes of various heights to place all at an equal height to look over a fence to view a baseball game. Though the image has appeal in terms of ensuring a family can watch a baseball game together, applying this concept of equity in education or the business world is not beneficial to either students or individuals in careers. (READ MORE: ‘Antiracism’ is Coming for Medical Science) In K-12 education, equity is leading to a dumbing down of academic standards for black students. For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District has implemented new equity-based grading policies, rewarding A, B, and C grades not based on subject mastery,  but good behavior in the classroom. Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools has done similarly, resulting in a decrease in D and F grades for black students that led to a 4 percent graduation rate increase. In the corporate world, the notion of equity often involves a forced outcome metric of hiring a certain number of black employees, regardless of whether candidates demonstrate they are the best person for the position. As with education, standards are changed to manufacture a certain racial outcome. The hidden assumption of “equity” is that black students or candidates are somehow inferior to others, and thus, the only hope to make gains in hiring is to provide the metaphorical “boxes” under blacks — artificially boosting their qualification based on race — so they can compete in the corporate world. Sometimes described as the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” the idea is both condescending and offensive to blacks. Furthermore, applying the “box” solution to corporate hiring is not appropriate because the priority of any business should be to deliver value to its shareholders rather than racial quotas for its employees. A fundamental flaw of this new definition of equity is it’s backward-focused rather than forward-focused. Some look back on the decades of slavery and Jim Crow and conclude that equity is needed to address not only past discrimination, but also issues they deem to be ongoing and systemic. What’s missing in this assessment is the recognition that while the history of America cannot be changed, incredible gains have been made over the past 60 years since the landmark civil rights legislation of 1964. Black Americans have made sizeable economic progress in both commensurate pay and in building generational wealth through home ownership and investments (i.e., stocks, 401Ks, Roths, etc.). Given this progress in black America, the racism that persists in our country tends to be highly localized with respect to jurisprudence and economic opportunity rather than systemic in nature. While it could be argued this progress is despite systemic racism, the success of black Americans from places such as the Caribbean and Nigeria suggests that cultural factors, rather racial ones, exert a stronger influence on a group’s economic success. But one is still left with the question of how to improve black representation in the business world. The issue comes down to supply. Blacks comprise about 12.5 percent of the U.S. population as of 2024. Thus, the black population is relatively small compared to that of whites, who make up about 66 percent of the population. And despite 88 percent of blacks attaining a high school education as of 2019 (which is about the national average), black college enrollment rates declined from 38 percent in 2010 to 36 percent as of 2022. Furthermore, blacks have the lowest rates of both enrolling and subsequently graduating from four-year colleges within six years — 14 percent, compared to 28 percent for whites. Considering that blacks are only 12.5 percent of the population and graduate from college at half the rate of whites, it is understandable there will be a much smaller pool of qualified black candidates. Thus, instead of a misguided equity approach, the focus should be increasing the supply of quality black candidates. To do that, we need to address the root cause of the low numbers — the poor state of K-12 public education. (READ MORE: Biden, Harris, and DEI (Democrats’ Exquisite Irony)) Rectifying the deficiency of high-quality K-12 education is a vital way to increase the supply of black students who will successfully complete their studies in college and be prepared to compete competitively for sought-after jobs. To ensure a brighter future for black students and the professional black community, high-quality education and high expectations are the keys to success, not an equity agenda. Walter Myers III is a Senior Fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute and an adjunct faculty member at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology. The post Blacks Need High Quality Education, Not a DEI Agenda appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The guys with the long-hair are very worried about the issue of old music. No wonder. With so many classical music concerts, they have received news that there is some guy running around town playing the flute, which is a bland instrument with no distortion or anything. Although it has an elongated shape, the dude uses it to blow, not even to hit things, or make noise, or anything really hard and manly. Finally, it is worth clarifying that in classical music distortion is conceptual, like the origins of the raw material in creative nouvelle cuisine. My junkie neighbor tells me that things are really bad, and that all we need now is for the flute guys to start playing the harp; he ignores the fact that there has already been a harp concert recently only a couple of streets down. And the truth is that it wasn’t all that bad. Since the polyphonic version of Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water that an ex-girlfriend had on her cell phone, I haven’t seen anything quite as thrilling. The metalheads’ concern has been triggered by the arrival in the city of such hostile instruments as the clarinet, the violin, the tambourine, always provocative, and even the xylophone, the wimpiest instrument in the history of music. With the arrival of the xylophone, which especially irritates Pantera fans, the police had to cordon off the area, but even so failed to prevent a group of men sporting Iron Maiden T-shirts from biting the instrument before entering the police van, tearing off several metal bars. The bites from the metalheads, wild but harmonic, propitiated from the xylophone the first notes of Bach’s The Art of the Fugue. Fate is cruel. Classical Music This ancestral style of music originated in the 70’s when Paul Stanley of KISS was in the studio engineering “Detroit Rock City.” In the creative heat, the artist had to tie himself to a backwater in the afternoon and breathe. So, during a cigarette break, Stanley grabbed a keyboard and started killing time composing The Four Seasons, Requiem Mass, and The Firebird in a quarter of an hour. Minor works in Stanley’s career, which were later attributed in a manner as indecent as it was random to Vivaldi, Verdi, and Stravinsky, shortly before winning the Miss Finland contest, gave birth to the golden age of classical music. Stanley has always disassociated himself from this affair. There is a new stream of classical music created with AI applications in their freemium versions and it has become the music for waiting rooms of illegal urological clinics. Instrumentation In a way that my Metallica fan friends can understand, I would say that classical music instruments can be divided into two groups: the ones you don’t listen to and the ones you listen to too much. The former include things like the oboe or the cello, while the latter include clarinets, flutes and piccolos, and of course the xylophone, which used with precision is capable of vibrating the balls of a male flea more than a kilometer away. It is probable that the big bang began with a little angel improvising high-pitched xylophone notes on top of a cloud. It is now fashionable to include in classical music concerts tribal instruments brought from remote jungles that, until the appearance of modern conductors, had no contact with humans. If you want to try it and don’t feel like going to the jungle, try blowing hard through a nutshell. I’m not in a position to promise it, but I’ve heard rumors that the next Guns N’ Roses single, if there is one, will feature a blown walnut solo in homage to the ever friendly Chip and Dale. Triangle As for the triangle, scholars of musical stupidity disagree: my thesis is that, if the triangle is a musical instrument, I am Cristiano Ronaldo. So, most probably, the triangle is a musical instrument. Absurd, yes, but an instrument nonetheless. Anyway, you metalheads don’t recognize it as such because there’s no way you can play Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap with a triangle, unless you put an AC/DC LP in your stereo and use the triangle to hit play. Distortion Finally, it is worth clarifying that in classical music distortion is conceptual, like the origins of the raw material in creative nouvelle cuisine. So if you need distortion to really enjoy any kind of music, the best thing to do is to try playing a Wagner vinyl at full volume, but only after letting the cat play with it for a couple of hours. I’ve tried it and, if the cat’s nails are sharp enough, it will sound like Scorpions on an mp3 player bought on Shein. READ MORE from Itxu Diaz: Make Government Small Again Ten Priorities for Trump’s New Administration The post Classical Music Explained to Metalheads appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

My fellow Armenians, When I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice League’s ability to prosecute my political enemies. I kept my promise. But my son’s criminality is a different matter. Look, folks, I gave you my word as a Biden that my abject lying would never impact my role as a loving father. If you were in my shoes as vice president, you would use your senatorial powers to pardon a loved one who Donald Trump’s hooligans unfairly targeted. I have not abused the power to pardon. And you, too, can have one. Democrat politicians care about many things: shielding kids from gun violence, the right of adolescents to change genitalia, windmills. But we also abhor many things — chief among them tax-cheating millionaires and gun-law abusers. My son, Hunter, is none of those things because I pardoned him. But I didn’t just pardon his tax and gun crimes. I pardoned any crime he may or may not have committed, dating back 10 years when he wielded the Biden name to entice crooked governments to enrich our clan. Now, leaving aside that it makes zero sense to pardon people for crimes they didn’t commit — which is like doing 500 sit-ups to burn off fat from a pizza you didn’t eat — the pardon power is absolute. And seeing that I’ll be puttering around the Oval Office for another few months, the pardon train is chugging into a few more stations. Woo! Woo! Upcoming Pardons I hereby pardon the following people, some of whom Hunter recommended because he’s the smartest guy I know: Dr. Anthony Fauci, who graduated from the same medical school as my wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and who knew full well that the computer virus escaped from a Chinese bioweapons lab. Do you honestly think a sloppily gutted tree sloth dangling in some filthy wet market killed millions of people? No sweat, Tony. I’ve got your back. Former Vice President Dick Cheney. I don’t know when Dick grew blonde hair and transitioned into a woman, but to each his/her own. Dick did a great job hiding January 6th footage from the public and looked smoking hot doing it. I hope Jill doesn’t catch me massaging his shoulders while sniffing his hair. Anyway, I don’t want Trump badgering that buxom warmonger. You’re off the hook, cutie-pie. Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, for that atrocious play-call to pass the football rather than handing it off to Marshawn Lynch — who absolutely would’ve scored from the one-yard line in that Super Bowl XLIX loss. Come on, man. Do you know how much money Hunter lost when the Patriots intercepted that pass? Why do you think he hit up the Chinese Communists for cash? But Hunter forgives you, Pete. The Hawk Tuah Girl. I have no idea who this young woman is — Hunter’s keen on her. I’m told she’s Hailey Welch, who got wrapped up in a crypto scam. Look, folks, if you’re stupid enough to sink millions of dollars into an imaginary coin merely because some bimbo made a bawdy joke, Hunter has access to Santa Claus to sell you, and you deserve to lose every cent. You get a pass, Hailey, but not your idiot investors. California Sen.-elect Adam Schiff. Even though this guy looks like a nightmarish, googly-eyed Pez dispenser, nobody perpetuated the Russia collusion hoax better than Adam, and we need him to scheme against Trump in the Senate unencumbered. I absolve you, Adam. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. I’m not sure if you can charge someone with criminal stupidity, but Sonia’s guilty for suggesting during a recent oral argument that the side effects of taking aspirin equal what a confused, gender-dysphoric boy might experience after being castrated. Aspirin side effects: nausea and heartburn. Castration side effects: permanent infertility and a gaping genital wound. That’s an apples-to-apples comparison if I’ve ever heard one. Sheesh, Sonia, you’re pardoned. Now, leave the incisive legal analysis to Ketanji Brown Jackson. I didn’t lie when I tweeted, “No one is above the law,” earlier this year. Some pimply-faced staffer wrote it on my behalf because when I tried, it read, “Mo wump iz bovine lar.” We Bidens worship truth, even if we rarely tell it. To quote the legal giant Lionel Hutz, “Yeah, but what is ‘truth’? If you follow me.” Here’s the truth: I have not abused the power to pardon. And you, too, can have one if you purchase one of Hunter’s paintings. But you’ll have to act fast because time is running out and supplies are limited. If you follow me. READ MORE from Matt Manochio: Joe and Mika Reconcile With the Don Kamala’s Loss Leaves Obama Seething The post The Power to Pardon appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

from ZeeeMedia: TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

by Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit: The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a high-profile case brought by the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency (PHMPT). The decision mandates the FDA to release the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) file for the […]

A kind person discovered a kitten in their yard. Though tiny, he was already a fearless "warrior." Cougar the kittenSarah KellyLast month, a woman spotted a community cat carrying her kittens across her backyard. Later, to her surprise, she discovered one kitten had been left behind.Hoping the mother cat would return for her lost kitten, the woman waited overnight while keeping an eye on the little one. Despite her efforts to locate the mother, she never reappeared.Realizing it was time to step in, she reached out to her local rescue, Murphy's Law Animal Rescue, for help. He was left behind in a backyardSarah KellyDespite his small size, the kitten, Cougar, was very vocal and had the heart of a big cat."Right away, we had a good feeling about his odds because he was in fairly good condition and took right to the bottle," Sarah Kelly, founder of the rescue, shared with Love Meow. Cougar quickly took to his bottle and had a strong will to liveSarah KellyCougar quickly got used to round-the-clock bottle feeding. Wrapped in a warm towel before each meal, he felt secure, comfy, and loved. With his voracious appetite, he began gaining weight and strength.When his legs were strong enough, he pushed himself up, trying to stand. Once he found his balance, he was on the move. Tiny but mighty; he was already a fearless warriorSarah KellyThough a bit wobbly, Cougar was determined to explore, taking one careful step at a time and steadying himself with his pointy tail. Encouraged by his foster mom's voice, he squeaked and trilled in response as he toddled toward her."He has always had a tremendously bright personality and is so loving." As soon as he felt a spring in his step, he started learning to walkSarah KellyAs his ears unfurled, his hearing sharpened, sparking his curiosity. Though he enjoyed his assortment of cat beds, he delighted in the human bed, waddling across it while sinking his tiny paws into the soft fabric.After each adventure, he plopped onto the cozy blanket for a quick snooze. Sarah Kelly"He's so outgoing—he loves our resident cats and our Great Dane. He's so small but confidently runs around the whole house like he owns it. He's such a happy little dude."With multiple meals a day, Cougar has grown an adorable, round belly, which he loves to flaunt. Cougar loves to eat and shows off his round belly after every mealSarah Kelly"Cougar is wobbling his way into kitten-hood and excited to get the hang of walking, pouncing, and playing."In just a few weeks, he's reached several milestones, mastering the litter box, playing with toys, and sampling his first solid food from a dish. He's even perfected the "kitten look" to get what he wants. Sarah KellyWhenever his foster mom walks in, he dashes over, greeting her with a symphony of meows.With steadier feet, he is fine-tuning his running, jumping, and climbing skills, gearing up to be a playful troublemaker. He keeps up with the older cats and his gentle canine pal, trying to appear twice his size during playtime. He greets his foster mom whenever she enters the roomSarah KellyDespite being left behind, Cougar always had a strong will to live, like a fearless little warrior. Now, he scampers around the house, commanding attention like he's the one in charge. Sarah KellyShare this story with your friends. More on Cougar and Sarah's fosters on Instagram and Murphy's Law Animal Rescue on Instagram.Related story: Kitten Comes Running to Couple and Hops into Their Arms, She Won't Let Them Leave Her

PBS journalists are gearing up for Round Two of President Donald Trump, performing public relations on Thursday evening’s PBS News Hour on behalf of a left-wing documentary (“Separated”) to guilt the incoming administration in holding off its campaign promise to deport illegal immigrants by reminding everyone of the so-called “family separation” policy. Anchor Geoff Bennett: On a recent evening in Washington, moviegoers filled the lobby of a local theater to watch the D.C. premiere of a new film from a renowned documentarian that explores the first Trump administration's family separation policy on the U.S. southern border. I recently sat down with one of the executive producers of the film, "Separated." Jonathan White, Former Office of Refugee Resettlement Official [clip]: Systematic separation of children from parents, officially, it wasn't happening. But it was happening. Bennett never mentioned the documentary is a product of MSNBC Films (Bennett is also a contributor to that left-wing network), though admittedly, neither Bennett nor his guest tried to hide their personal views. Bennett and his guest, left-wing NBC journalist Jacob Soboroff, were on the same wavelength throughout, and the anchor’s own observations were indistinguishable from that of a pro-illegal immigrant activist: Bennett: The new documentary "Separated," is a searing exploration of the first Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, which forcibly separated over 5,000 migrant children from their families who illegally entered the country. Directed by the legendary documentarian Errol Morris, the film is based on a book of the same name NBC News journalist Jacob Soboroff, who's also one of the film's executive producers. One of the things that so often gets lost in conversations about Trump's family separation policy is that harm to children was the point. Jacob Soboroff, NBC News Correspondent: It was the point. Bennett: In fact, one of the civil servants who you speak with in the film says that. It was meant to terrify parents from making that trek from those Northern Triangle countries to the U.S. Soboroff: ….They wanted to hurt kids in order to scare other families from coming to this country and scare Congress into enacting more restrictive immigration laws. It's exactly the way that they drew it up and exactly what they wanted to do. Bennett widened the scope beyond any debate about family separation at the border, to what sounded like a push for open borders (never mind letting murderers in, along with enabling the cheap farm labor suddenly beloved by the left). Bennett: And [Soboroff] connects Trump's policy to decades of punitive immigration laws enacted under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Soboroff: Bill Clinton built the first wave of border walls. George W. Bush exponentially increased the size of the Border Patrol, created DHS in the wake of 9/11. Barack Obama deported more people than any president in the history of the United States of America. They called him the deporter-in-chief. And that's why, like that, Donald Trump was able to take away 5,500 children from their parents in an act that a Republican-appointed judge called one of the most shameful chapters in the history of our country. Bennett went on to use the phrase “state-created orphans,” and the love-fest between the two continued, with Soboroff crediting Bennett himself for challenging then President-Elect Biden during a January 2021 press conference about holding Trump administration officials responsible for the separation policy to account (complete with an archive clip of Bennett challenging Biden). If there was any doubt what kind of audience this tax-funded segment was aired for, Bennett’s concluding promo put it to rest. Bennett: "Separated" has been screened in select theaters across the country and airs on MSNBC on December 7. This segment was brought to you in part by Raymond James. PBS News Hour 7:37:10 p.m. (ET) 12/5/24 Geoff Bennett: On a recent evening in Washington, moviegoers filled the lobby of a local theater to watch the D.C. premiere of a new film from a renowned documentarian that explores the first Trump administration's family separation policy on the U.S. southern border. I recently sat down with one of the executive producers of the film, "Separated." Jonathan White, Former Office of Refugee Resettlement Official: Systematic separation of children from parents, officially, it wasn't happening. But it was happening Geoff Bennett: The new documentary "Separated," is a searing exploration of the first Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, which forcibly separated over 5,000 migrant children from their families who illegally entered the country. Directed by the legendary documentarian Errol Morris the film is based on a book of the same name NBC News journalist Jacob Soboroff, who's also one of the film's executive producers. One of the things that so often gets lost in conversations about Trump's family separation policy is that harm to children was the point. Jacob Soboroff, NBC News Correspondent: It was the point. Geoff Bennett: In fact, one of the civil servants who you speak with in the film says that. It was meant to terrify parents from making that trek from those Northern Triangle countries to the U.S. Jacob Soboroff: Based on the facts that we know, which in this film are firsthand interviews with civil servants who tried to stand up and stop the policy and in fact help the policy reversal, we know what they wanted to do. They wanted to hurt kids in order to scare other families from coming to this country and scare Congress into enacting more restrictive immigration laws. It's exactly the way that they drew it up and exactly what they wanted to do. Geoff Bennett: One of the civil servants who offers a firsthand account is Jonathan White, who worked for the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Jonathan White, Former Office of Refugee Resettlement Employee: And the unaccompanied children program, which I worked in, was essentially hijacked for a purpose for which it was never intended, nor authorized in law. It was a program designed to be a child protection program for children who entered the United States without parents. And it was instead used as a tool to take children from their parents. Geoff Bennett: Since there's no footage of the actual family separations, the film includes narrative vignettes depicting the forced separation of a mother and son who illegally crossed the border. One of the questions I had during this entire process, the family separation process, was like, what about the guards? What about the people who worked at these facilities? What about the civil servants who were really tasked with overseeing this process, separating infants from their parents? How did they grapple with this? Jacob Soboroff: You know, many of them carried out the orders and many of them didn't stand up in protest, but some of them did and they spoke out, and especially within the Department of Health and Human Services. Geoff Bennett: Soboroff says it was career staffers like White and his co-worker Jallyn Sualog who pushed to reverse the policy and later faced the difficult task of reuniting children with their parents, since there was no formal process of tracking family separations Jallyn Sualog, Spoke Out Against Family Separations: When you have a 2-year-old, their assessment form in the system doesn't have that much information. "What's your mom's name?" "Mom." Like, every mom, their name is Mom. Geoff Bennett: And he connects Trump's policy to decades of punitive immigration laws enacted under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Jacob Soboroff: Bill Clinton built the first wave of border walls. George W. Bush exponentially increased the size of the Border Patrol, created DHS in the wake of 9/11. Barack Obama deported more people than any president in the history of the United States of America. They called him the deporter in chief. And that's why, like that, Donald Trump was able to take away 5,500 children from their parents in an act that a Republican-appointed judge called one of the most shameful chapters in the history of our country. Geoff Bennett: So it was the systematic separation of children that was new, the fact that there were these state-created orphans; that was new under Trump? Jacob Soboroff: A hundred percent. And I hear often from people back then and even today saying, well, Obama did this or this happened under Biden, point a finger in every direction. There never was until 2017, when the pilot program was implemented in El Paso, a deliberate and systematic attempt to rip parents and children apart from one another as United States immigration policy. And there hasn't been since. Geoff Bennett: He says the Biden administration failed to take action that might prevent it from happening again. President Biden, he had called the practice of family separations criminal, promised a thorough investigation. To this day, no one has been held accountable. Why? Jacob Soboroff: I remember you in some of those press conferences pressing on this exact topic. Geoff Bennett: During the campaign, you said that practice was criminal. Can you commit, will you commit to making sure that the Trump administration officials responsible for that policy will be held to account? Joe Biden, President of the United States: I will commit that our Justice Department and our investigative arms will make judgments about who is responsible, how they're responsible, and whether or not the conduct is criminal. But there will be a thorough, thorough investigation of who's responsible. Jacob Soboroff: What's been done to this day is absolutely nothing. Nobody's been held accountable for the policy. Some of the people responsible for it are going to be in some of the most senior positions in the incoming Trump administration. Immigration in the eyes of the Biden administration became a political liability. And so they backed away. They backed away from financially compensating these families. They backed away from any idea of a criminal prosecution of people responsible for it. And I think history will remember that. Geoff Bennett: President-elect Donald Trump signaled he would declare a national emergency and use the U.S. military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants when he takes office. There's been so much outrage fatigue since then. Trump has already promised mass deportations. But if we see a policy that is very similar to the family separation policy, I mean, how do you think the American public will respond? Jacob Soboroff: Mass deportation is family separation by another name. It's not ripping away children from their parents at the border, but it is taking parents away from children in their homes and at their schools and in the interior of the country. I think when, they're reminded of what that really means, the American people will respond in the same way that they did to family separation, because it's not about politics. It's about people. Geoff Bennett: What do you want people to take away from this film as they watch it? Jacob Soboroff: That people remember their power and how people stood up in that moment in the summer of 2018 and forced the Trump administration to stop something that was universally condemned. And as we go into yet another Trump administration, where they're talking about doing a policy that would be orders of magnitude greater when it comes to disrupting the lives of immigrants in this country, if indeed it turns out to be family separation by another name again, people still have that power. Man: It troubles me profoundly that it could happen again,. Geoff Bennett: "Separated" has been screened in select theaters across the country and airs on MSNBC on December 7.

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