Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Republican vice presidential candidate, spent three hours and 15 minutes on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, roughly 20 minutes longer than former President Donald Trump, discussing a variety of political and non-political topics.

Vance and Rogan talked about censorship, foreign policy, illegal immigration, religion, and much more during the lengthy sit-down.

Here are the top takeaways:

Rogan and Vance compare politics and religion

Vance and Rogan made numerous comparisons between political and religious beliefs. Vance got started by comparing liberal yard signs that begin “in this house, we believe” to the creed declared at Catholic mass.

“There’s almost a similar cadence between the Christian creed and what these guys are doing with this hyper-woke stuff,” he said. “And then there’s the rallies, and then there’s, of course, the various rituals, and it absolutely is a religious faith.”

Rogan agreed with the idea and brought it up at other times, saying it pops up in matters such as climate change and transgender ideology.

“A lot of this, you can call it a mind virus or whatever it is, but it does make people behave religiously,” Rogan said. “So it’s like they’re ignoring all of these signs because it doesn’t line up with this ideology that they prescribe.”

Vance says most Harris voters are good people

Vance criticized much of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, saying she would be dangerous on foreign policy, would likely involve the United States in new wars, and would not stem illegal immigration. However, he also said it’s important not to demonize her voters.

“This is what really bothers me about what Biden said,” Vance said. “Most Americans who vote for Kamala Harris are fundamentally good people. I believe that. And you’ve got to try to find the people who are reasonable and talk to them. That’s why I talk about the importance of regaining trust.”

He was referring to Biden’s comments regarding Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, where the president blasted a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage,” arguing that the “only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”

The remark has become a controversy in the Democratic campaign’s final days, with the White House releasing a statement that the president referred to the “hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage.”

Vance slams Washington Post after non-endorsement

Vance agreed with Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos that the press must regain the electorate’s trust. However, he said it won’t be done through the opinion pages.

“The problem with the Washington Post is not that their editorial page has been insufficiently conservative,” he said. “It’s that their entire journalism department is fundamentally engaged in Democratic political activism.”

He said the paper has effectively become a “propaganda outlet of the Democratic Party.”

The paper did not endorse Harris after backing the Democratic candidate in every election for decades, leading to controversy both inside and outside the newsroom. Vance said he’d like to see Bezos move the paper in a more neutral, truth-seeking direction on the news side.

“If they don’t do that, to me, this is just window dressing,” he said.

Vance jokes that Biden wants Trump to win

Returning to the “garbage” comment controversy and some of Biden’s other gaffes, Vance wondered aloud if the president wants his former nemesis to win and joked that he’d like to hang out with first son Hunter Biden.

“I would bet $100 that Hunter Biden is voting Donald Trump for president,” Vance said. “I might bet $20 on his dad voting for Donald Trump for president, especially after the garbage comment. That guy is trying to help Donald Trump.”

Vance brought up the time the president briefly donned a Trump MAGA hat, and Rogan agreed, speculating that Joe Biden is upset he was ousted from the race in a “coup.”

Vance outlines three issues he says elites don’t want discussed

Vance has argued that Democratic politicians are trying to silence ordinary people and gave a few examples at the end of the episode.

“There are three issues where you are not allowed to challenge the establishment,” he said. “One is trade. You have to be pro-free trade. Everything is good. Let as many Chinese slave labor-made products into your country as possible even if it destroys native industries … Number two most important issue is immigration, and the number three most important issue is foreign policy.”

He said people such as former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, are still trying to rework the world in America’s image, a project he said should have ended with the Iraq war.

“I think we should’ve learned that Iraq that we can’t turn to everybody into the United States of America, nor should we want to,” he said. “But these guys can’t quite give up on it. It’s just a powerful psychological motivation.”

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s upcoming rally at Madison Square Garden will feature, among others, speakers Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump is planning to hold the rally in New York City on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET.

Other speakers include former Democratic Hawaii Congresswoman turned Republican Tulsi Gabbard, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The total list provided by the campaign includes 30 names.

As Election Day gets closer, both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Trump have been ramping up their campaign stops.

Harris held a rally in Houston, Texas, Friday with music star Beyonce, while Trump recently got the endorsement of country singer Jason Aldean in Georgia.

Trump went on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast Friday and the episode already has over 10 million views.

Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing’s capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton.

A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week.

The three Americans and one Russian should have been back two months ago. But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing’s new Starliner astronaut capsule, which came back empty in September because of safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.

SpaceX launched the four — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin — in March. Barratt, the only space veteran going into the mission, acknowledged the support teams back home that had “to replan, retool and kind of redo everything right along with us … and helped us to roll with all those punches.”

Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission went from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. Those four will remain up there until February.

The space station is now back to its normal crew size of seven — four Americans and three Russians — after months of overflow.

Youth sex trafficking and its myriad cruelties tripled under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a report in TheFreePress.com.

TheFreePress.com described some of the harms inflicted on youth migrants under the lax policies set by Biden’s border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas’ tenure:

Sex-trafficking victims often suffer horrific abuse, as I discovered when I spoke to Landon Dickeson, the 36-year-old executive director for Bob’s House of Hope in Denton, Texas, the only shelter for male sex-trafficking victims ages 18 and up in the country. Dickeson says they’ve seen teens from Central and South America who have been so tortured by their traffickers they can barely function.

Dickeson described caring for teens who have brain damage from being so heavily drugged—teens who have had their fingernails pulled out, and lemon juice poured on wounds. When I asked to interview one of their migrant residents, Dickeson said they simply weren’t in any condition to speak to anyone, much less a reporter. “We think the cartels and gangs use torture as a control method for the males,” said Dickeson. “They’re not going to fight back if they chain their victims to a radiator, beat them up frequently, or drug them.”

The abuse and prostitution may be forced on young migrants who are indebted to smugglers and their affiliated trafficking gangs in the United States. If they cannot pay their debts, their families can lose farms and homes to the banks that hold the loans.

The rising number of youth sex-trafficking cases were posted at the Department of Health and Human Services when TheFreePress demanded the data under the Freedom of Information Act. The agency is responsible for checking and issuing Certification and Eligibility Letters to the children and youths who first request aid after escaping sex traffickers.

The agency issued 1,143 letters in 2021, 2,226 letters in 2022, and 2,148 letters in 2024 under the welcome policies set by border chief Alejandro Mayorkas. The agency has not posted any data since the first week of September 2023.

The incomplete data adds up to 5,517 letters since October 2020, or an average of 1,8,37 letters per year.

Under President Donald Trump, the number of letters averaged 562 per year — or just one-third of the record reached under the guidance of pro-migration progressives.

The number of child cases under Biden and Mayorkas is three times their adult caseload, according to the agency data.

Mayorkas’ easy migration policies were unchallenged by Harris when she “ran away” from the border issue in 2021 as Biden tried — weakly — to get control over Mayorkas and his business backers. She also endorsed Mayorkas’ overall policies in her campaign’s economic platform.

There is likely to be some fraud in the process — like in the “U Visa” for crime victims — because it allows youths to be treated as refugees and put on a fast track to the very valuable prize of citizenship.

But there is much evidence that many of the 540,000 “Unaccompanied Alien Children” welcomed by Mayorkas either volunteer for abusive work or are forced into abusive work. At least 50 percent of the UACs are older teenagers or are young men who pretend to be younger than 19.

Federal investigations into sexual trafficking of UACs under President Donald Trump were stymied when then-Sen. Kamala Harris added language to a spending bill that barred information-sharing with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Federal agencies have done little to stop the sex trafficking, whistleblowers told TheFreePress:

Deborah White, another whistleblower who worked at the same [government-funded] shelter, testified that migrant children were handed over to improperly vetted sponsors who used fraudulent IDs and different addresses to procure numerous unrelated children. “I had multiple cases that I reported on,” said White, meaning she reported suspicious sponsors to her supervisor. “One in particular where we sent 329 children to one address: two garden apartment [buildings] in Houston, Texas.” The supervisor, White told The Free Press in an interview, took no steps to investigate further, but instead told White that she wasn’t moving migrants out of the facility quickly enough.

Amid the youths’ sexual torture, prostitution, and trafficking, progressives have happily thrown charges of bigotry and racism at the Americans who want their border laws enforced.

Trump “has been tapping into a long and tawdry history of US nativism by fearmongering about immigration for some time now. He keeps at it because bigotry and racism offer some of the essential glue that binds his coalition together and makes it such a robust and incendiary political force,” claimed Timothy O’Brien, the senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, in March 2024.

“Immigration has always been a building block of US … economic might,” he added.

Part of that migrant-enabled “economic might” comes from the covert employment of child migrants. In February 2023, the New York Times described the scale of workplace abuse, complete with photographs and captions:

Cristian works a construction job instead of going to school. He is 14 … Carolina packages Cheerios at night in a factory. She is 15 … Wander starts looking for day-labor jobs before sunrise. He is 13.

But the newspaper stopped following the child-labor issue it touched on Mayorkas and his Extraction Migration economic policy.

Similarly, the New York Times has posted intermittent articles about the sexual abuse of migrants — but it does not allow the coverage to taint the progressives’ claim to be the good guys in migration policy or the establishment’s narrative that the United States is a “Nation of Immigrants.”

In general, editors at establishment media sides prefer to hire pro-migration reporters to cover the migration beat. In turn, those reporters focus their empathy on migrants’ preferences — and also hide the myriad harms and economic distortions caused by their favored policie.s

In September 2023, federal agencies and Houston police announced they had arrested 10 human traffickers:

“Numerous young girls will no longer be raped, sexually exploited and beaten by the individuals arrested during this operation thanks to the efforts made by our partners at the Houston Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations and the agencies who make up the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance,” said FBI Houston acting Special Agent in Charge David Martinez.

“Tragically, hundreds more underage sex trafficking victims won’t be rescued because we do not know about them. Without the public’s help, tormented sex trafficking victims remain in the clutches of manipulative criminals who seek only to enrich themselves at the expense of vulnerable juveniles.”

The successful operation got minimal media coverage. Mayorkas’ DHS press office did not announce the arrest. But five days later, however, the media office announced a new service to help migrants apply for benefits.

Weirdly, Mayorjkas repeatedly describes himself as a moral champion for migrants because of his migrant parents, his sympathy for migrants, and his support for “equity” between Americans and foreigners.

In May 2023, Mayorkas explained his pro-migration motivation during a graduation speech to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy:

My drive has been defined by a very clear purpose. My mother’s and father’s life journeys were defined by displacement. My mother was twice a refugee, first from war-torn Europe and, 19 years later, with my father, my sister, and me from the communist takeover of Cuba … They are the primary engine of my drive, and the primary reason why I work so hard, my purpose.

In Syria, 37 militants affiliated to the extremist Islamic State group and an al-Qaeda-linked group were killed in two strikes, the United States military said Sunday.

Two of the dead were senior militants, it said.

U.S. Central Command said it struck northwestern Syria on Tuesday, targeting a senior militant from the al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group and eight others.

They say he was responsible for overseeing military operations.

They also announced a strike from earlier this month on Sept. 16, where they conducted a “large-scale airstrike” on an IS training camp in a remote undisclosed location in central Syria.

That attack killed 28 militants, including “at least four Syrian leaders.”

“The airstrike will disrupt ISIS’ capability to conduct operations against U.S. interests, as well as our allies and partners,” the statement read.

There are some 900 U.S. forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors, mostly trying to prevent any comeback by the extremist IS group, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of territory.

U.S. forces advise and assist their key allies in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, located not far from strategic areas where Iran-backed militant groups are present, including a key border crossing with Iraq.

Ryan Wesley Routh, the alleged would-be Trump assassin, set up a sniper’s nest near the former president’s golf course and hid there for nearly 12 hours before the apparent ambush attempt, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Routh’s cellphone pinged to the spot on the edge of Trump International West Palm Beach starting from 1:59 a.m. Sunday, the federal criminal complaint said.

His gun barrel was spotted by a Secret Service agent about 1:30 p.m. — while Trump was on the links 300 to 500 yards away.

In the sniper’s nest, agents found a digital camera, two bags and a loaded SKS-style rifle with its serial number scratched off and unreadable, according to the complaint.

SKS-style rifles are not manufactured in Florida and the weapon was either brought in from another state or country, the complaint reads.

Moments after the Secret Service agent fired at Routh, a witness saw the suspect speeding away from the golf course in a Nissan sport utility vehicle with stolen license plates.

Routh was later caught by authorities on I-95.

According to the complaint, Routh was convicted in 2002 in Greensboro, North Carolina, after he was found with a weapon of mass death and destruction.

He was later convicted in 2010 of multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, per the complaint.

When Arlington National Cemetery reportedly told Gold Star families whose children were killed in the disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan that former President Donald Trump could not accompany them to mark the third anniversary of their children’s deaths, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stepped in.

Gold Star parents Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, the parents of SSGT Taylor Hoover, one of the 13 servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate in Kabul, contacted Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and informed him that the cemetery had given the families a specific time to honor their children, but it did not work for all of them, and in addition told the families that Trump could not accompany them, The Daily Caller reported.

McCaul then contacted Johnson. McCaul recalled, “When Darin and Kelly contacted me, I was furious to hear their request to have President Trump join them to commemorate the anniversary of Taylor’s death was being stymied, along with several of the other family members of U.S. servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate. I immediately asked what I could do to help and reached out to Speaker Johnson to see what he could do. Thankfully, Speaker Johnson and his team acted quickly and were able to get the situation resolved. But something like this should never have happened. Gold Star families have already suffered enough.”

“The Speaker of the House had to get involved. Reps [Darrell] Issa (R-CA), [Brian] Mast (R-FL), and Chairman Mike McCaul were instrumental in assisting in the Gold Star families,” another source told the Caller.

“After the Speaker’s call, the situation shifted significantly. It was only three days before the ceremonies, and Arlington National Cemetery waited until the last minute to confirm key components of the event with the families.”

“Arlington Cemetery officials claimed the families didn’t want any media, photography, or videography at Section 60, contradicting what the families had actually requested. The families were fine with the media, designated by the Trump team, but Arlington kept pushing back, obstructing the process,” the source added.

“This would have not happened without Speaker Johnson.”

“We, WE extended the invitation to President Trump,” Darin Hoover stated.

“We are the ones that asked him to come. We are the ones that asked him to assist in laying a wreath for our son, and for the shooting for, Sergeant Canals and for Cole. We’re the ones that asked that. President Trump didn’t come to us. His team didn’t come to us and say, hey, this would be good for business. Business? No. President Trump has stood by us from day one. He has been compassionate. He has been loving. He’s been understanding. He’s taking the mantle of our outrage a little bit. Because to be quite honest with you, being very frank, we haven’t heard diddly squat from the current administration in three years.”

Former President Donald Trump’s penchant for derisive nicknames has apparently rubbed off on current White House staffers, who refer to the presumptive Republican nominee as “Hitler Pig.”

The “Hitler Pig” sobriquet is used frequently to describe Trump and generally by younger, tech-savvy, aides to President Biden, according to Politico.

White House staffers and campaign aides first started using the term after Trump dined with rapper Kanye West and notorious Holocaust skeptic and white nationalist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago estate two days before Thanksgiving in 2022, according to the outlet.

The moniker is usually deployed when the 77-year-old former president makes outrageous comments, such as when he appears to praise the murderous Nazi dictator.

“Hey, did you see what Hitler Pig said?” Biden aides will say in those situations.

Some on social media mocked the nickname.

“White House nickname for Trump is ‘Hitler Pig.’ How humorless and pathetic is that?” Marc Thiessen, former President George W. Bush’s speechwriter, wrote on X.

“‘Pig Hitler’ is funnier though,” another user chimed in.

Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita argued that the nickname is more of a reflection of the White House staffers that use it.

“[Politico] thinks this is funny it’s actually more a representation of what a rag they’ve become and the level of s–t that works in the White House ‘Hitler Pig,’” he wrote on X.

The New York Police Department has parked its subway robot just four months after introducing it to the public.

Mayor Eric Adams first announced the AI-backed security robot in April 2023 to combat rising crime rates in New York City.

At a press conference in September, Adams described the robot as “part of the fabric” of the future of subway safety and “a good investment.”

The 420-pound, 5 foot 3 inch egg-shaped K5 police robot patrolled the 42nd Street subway station but its Times Square deployment has ended.

“The K5 Knightscope has completed its pilot in the NYC subway system,” a spokesman for the NYPD told The New York Times.

The publication shared photos of the robot parked in an empty storefront in the station, gathering dust.

Paid for by forfeiture funds, the robot cost $12,500.

Adams said that the robot was costing the city just $9 per hour.

“This is below minimum wage. No bathroom breaks. No meal breaks,” Adams said when he first unveiled the new technology.

The city had been leasing the robot from Knightscope, a California-based company, for a seven-month pilot program.

For the first three months of the contract, the robot was being prepared for patrol.

The remaining four months allowed the NYPD to test it out.

The K5 could record video and included a button that members of the public could press when they wanted to contact the NYPD, though it’s unclear if anyone actually took advantage of the feature.

MTA passengers told the New York Post that they thought the K5 was a waste of money and resources.

“I think the robot is just to scare people,” Alexandria Reese said.

MTA employee Nick Linnear said he didn’t think the robot was a good idea as he favored actual cops patrolling the subway over machines.

“We need police – not robots,” he told the New York Post.

New York City native Joseph Williams did not hold back on his opinion of the robots.

“It’s bulls**t. Straight bulls**t. It’s a waste of taxpayer money,” Williams said.

Queens resident Rafael Escotto questioned how much the K5 robot actually contributed to public safety.

The huge robot couldn’t climb stairs and officers were tasked with serving as its human chaperones.

“Can they apprehend someone? Can they save someone who falls on the tracks? I wonder where the money goes,” he said.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she will seek reelection in 2024, despite stepping down from her leadership position last Congress.

‘Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery,’ Pelosi wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday.

‘Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote.’

San Francisco is experiencing a major crime wave including smash-and-grab robberies and carjackings.

Now more than ever our City needs us to advance San Francisco values and further our recovery. Our country needs America to show the world that our flag is still there, with liberty and justice for ALL. That is why I am running for reelection — and respectfully ask for your vote.…

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) September 8, 2023

In August, the San Francisco Police Department said the city had nearly 1,670 car break-ins over 30 days, and there have been nearly 10,000 thefts from vehicles in the city so far this year.

Signs can be seen throughout the city warning residents and tourists not to leave anything inside their cars, but the crime rate has remained stubbornly high.

Pelosi, who was the first-ever woman speaker, was first elected to represent the people of San Francisco, California, in 1987.

It was unclear whether the former speaker would seek reelection after her husband Paul Pelosi was attacked in their California home last fall.

A man entered their house saying he was looking for Pelosi, and then hit Paul over the head with a hammer. The incident was captured on police body camera footage.

But Pelosi said the attack on her husband wouldn’t impact her decision about whether to run for reelection.

Last November, after Democrats lost the majority in the House, Pelosi decided to step down from her leadership role.

She passed the baton to now-House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Her announcement for reelection comes as there is heightened concerns about the age of politicians in general.

83-year-old Pelosi is one of the longest-serving members of Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, suffered two bizarre ‘freezing’ episodes in recent weeks during public press conferences.

His latest episode has led to renewed calls for term limits in the House and Senate – even from those within the walls of Congress.

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., said term limits would help restore ‘human decency’ for elderly politicians like McConnell and Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, who is also suffering public health scares.

GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley called the Senate the ‘most privileged nursing home in the country’ after McConnell’s recent episode.

‘What I will say is, right now, the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country,’ she said last week. ‘I mean, Mitch McConnell has done some great things and he deserves credit. But you have to know when to leave.’

Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan will step down later this summer, after nearly a decade in the position, he informed staff on Monday.

Ryan, in a memo to the newsroom, said he would step down in August to head up a new project on public civility at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

Ryan said the project has the support of Jeff Bezos, who purchased the Post in 2013 and hired Ryan to lead it.

In an interview with the newspaper, Ryan said he was concerned that “the decline in civility is threatening the foundation of our democracy,” and his relationship with Bezos “could not be closer.”

Patty Stonesifer, the founding chief executive of the Gates Foundation, will take over as interim CEO, the newspaper reported.

Ryan’s departure comes amid a time of ongoing strife between the Post’s masthead and its employees union, as well as broader challenges facing large news publishers in terms of readership and financial health.

The Post eliminated nearly two dozen newsroom positions in January, citing the current “economic climate.”

A month earlier, Ryan was shouted at by members of the Post’s employees union during a town hall event during which he addressed the planned layoffs.

Ryan told the Post his departure had “nothing to do with that” saying “I firmly believe there is a sound model for successful journalism and The Washington Post is well positioned to do that.”

A former aide to president Ronald Reagan, Ryan was a founding executive at Politico before Bezos hired him to run the Post.

Macy’s, Costco and other big chains say shoppers are pulling back at their stores and changing what they buy. That could be a red flag for the US economy.

Macy’s (M) on Thursday cut its annual profit and sales forecast after customer demand slowed in March.

“The US consumer, particularly at Macy’s, pulled back more than we anticipated,” Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said on an earnings call Thursday. Customers “reallocated” spending to food, essentials and services, he said.

Same-store sales at the Macy’s sank 8.7% last quarter, while the higher-end department store Bloomingdale’s dropped 3.9%.

Macy’s stock was flat during early trading Thursday.

The company was the latest retailer to highlight shifts in customer demand.

Costco (COST) finance chief Richard Galanti said last week that that some customers were switching from pricier steaks and beef for cheaper meats like pork and chicken. This is a trend that has been common in previous recessions, he said.

Macy’s and Costco appeal to middle and higher-income shoppers, and their results show a pullback among that demographic.

These shoppers have bought most of the clothing, electronics, furniture and other goods they want over the past three years during the pandemic. Now, many are now spending discretionary income on travel and other services they were not able to find during the pandemic. Some airlines and hotels are posting record bookings.

That change is hurting many retailers.

“Macy’s significant earnings guidance reduction underscores the challenges facing retailers given a softening consumer spending environment and shifts in budgets toward services,” said David Silverman, a senior director at Fitch Ratings.

Lower-income shoppers also have less money to spend on discretionary purchases and are slowing down.

Dollar General (DG) said its core lower-income customers were passing up discretionary products like home goods and clothing. The company slashed its outlook on weak customer demand, sending its stock falling 20% during early trading.

“The macroeconomic environment is more challenging than the [company] had previously anticipated,” Dollar General said in a statement. It’s “having a significant impact on customers’ spending levels and behaviors.”

Not all retailers are struggling, however.

Some retailers are benefiting from the shift to food and essentials, such as Walmart (WMT).

The company can reach a wide swath of shoppers, and around half of its sales come from groceries and other non-discretionary products. Walmart said wealthier households have been shopping in its stores more frequently.

Former President Trump slammed his onetime press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday, accusing her of providing the “wrong” poll numbers during an appearance on Fox News.

“Kayleigh ‘Milktoast’ McEnany just gave out the wrong poll numbers on FoxNews. I am 34 points up on DeSanctimonious, not 25 up,” Trump said in a Truth Social post, using his nickname for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

“While 25 is great, it’s not 34,” he added.

“She knew the number was corrected upwards by the group that did the poll. The RINOS & Globalists can have her. FoxNews should only use REAL Stars!!!”

McEnany, who is now a co-host of Fox News’ “Outnumbered,” told host Jesse Waters on Tuesday night that polling in Iowa showed DeSantis “closing the gap” on the former president, after the Florida governor formally announced his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination last week.

It was not immediately clear which poll Trump and McEnany were referencing. A recent survey from Emerson College Polling showed the former president leading DeSantis by 42 points among Iowa voters.

DeSantis rallied supporters outside of Des Moines on Tuesday, as he kicked off a four-day campaign swing through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Trump is set to arrive in the Hawkeye State later this week.

Conservatives Condemn Trump

When Kayleigh McEnany was Press Secretary under Trump, MAGA loved posting videos of destroying the regime propagandists. Now she’s “milk toast.” Christina Pushaw went from BASED to traitor. This is garbage. Those of you going along with it have no honor.

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) May 31, 2023

https://twitter.com/hollandcourtney/status/1663730860238192644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1663730860238192644%7Ctwgr%5Ef9a31176752e7168100fbb43b9bf39cf0e598741%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediaite.com%2Fpolitics%2Fthis-is-pathetic-conservatives-condemn-trumps-unhinged-rant-against-kayleigh-mcenany%2F

Kayleigh is the kindest person and was the best press secretary to ever step foot in the White House. There is ZERO excuse for degrading or belittling her to this degree over a few points. I am upset, and at a loss for words. This erratic behavior is concerning. pic.twitter.com/nmksKn28Z8

— Kambree (@KamVTV) May 31, 2023

Kayleigh is the best https://t.co/EHeYu2HJKb

— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) May 31, 2023

President Joe Biden on Sunday slammed Republican demands in negotiations to resolve the US debt ceiling standoff as “unacceptable” but said a solution can still be found before a disastrous default.

Speaking at a press conference just before leaving to return to Washington from the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Biden said Republicans’ latest demands for spending cuts as a condition for raising the US government borrowing authority were “frankly unacceptable.”

“It’s time for the other side to move from their extreme positions,” he said.

Biden said he would talk directly with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during his Air Force One flight on Sunday back to Washington and said “we can reach an agreement.”

However, he cautioned that he could not “guarantee that they wouldn’t force a default by doing something outrageous.”

Biden said that he was looking into an obscure constitutional clause in the 14th Amendment, which states that the validity of public debt “shall not be questioned” — and potentially authorizing the president to circumvent Congress and raise the debt ceiling himself.

“I think we have the authority. The question is could it be done and invoked in time,” he said, noting the likelihood of legal challenges to this and the rapidly approaching debt deadline.

The Treasury Department says that the government could run out of money and default on its $31 trillion debt as early as June 1 if Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives, does not authorize more borrowing.

Biden had planned to travel from Japan to Papua New Guinea and Australia but cut short the Asia trip due to the debt talks.

‘Hostage’ accusation

The debt ceiling raise is usually an uncontroversial annual procedure but this year the increasingly hard-right Republican Party has turned the threat of default into a powerful lever to try and force Biden to accept spending cuts. Biden accuses his opponents of putting the US economy at risk for political point scoring.

Discussions were at an impasse over the weekend in Washington, as both sides traded accusations.

“We’re making 0 demands to avoid default. You’re the only ones with a hostage,” tweeted White House spokesperson Andrew Bates, accusing Republicans of seeking to trigger a recession in the world’s leading economy.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that McCarthy was being strong-armed by his party’s pro-Donald Trump wing, which is “threatening to put our nation into default for the first time in our history unless extreme partisan demands are met.”

McCarthy, however, tweeted Saturday to say the White House was the one “moving backward.”

“Unfortunately, the socialist wing of the Democrat Party appears to be in control — especially with President Biden out of the country,” he said.

Biden said that McCarthy was likely waiting for him to join in before the talks could be revived.

“My guess is he’s going to want to deal directly with me,” Biden said.

Spending and taxing

More borrowing is required imminently by the US government just to meet expenditures already agreed to in the current budget.

Failure to strike a deal to lift the debt ceiling would leave Washington unable to pay its bills and trigger an array of economic shockwaves worldwide — including, the White House says, a US recession.

With the 2024 election campaign underway and Biden potentially facing Trump again, Republicans have seized the opportunity to paint the Democrats as responsible for the country’s gargantuan debt — which in reality has built up over decades.

Republicans say the debt ceiling can no longer be raised without harsh measures to reduce the deficit. These include slashing social spending and restricting access to Medicaid, the subsidized program providing health care for the poor.

Biden has countered with a plan to reduce some spending but also to raise new revenue by increasing taxes on the richest Americans and corporations which currently enjoy huge tax breaks. Republicans are refusing to accept any tax increase as part of a deal.

“That’s what we continue to have a significant disagreement on, on the revenue side,” Biden said in his press conference.

He cautioned that the 14th Amendment was not a magic bullet, since he could not be sure about his ability to invoke it before the government ran out of money.

“We have not come up with unilateral action that could succeed in a matter of two weeks or three weeks. That’s the issue. So it’s up to lawmakers,” he said.

Fox News laid off its entire investigative unit of reporters one month after the cable news company settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, Rolling Stone reported.

Last month, Fox News settled Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million. Six days later, the cable news company cut ties with Tucker Carlson.

Carlson’s attorneys reportedly sent Fox News a letter that accused the company of agreeing to fire Carlson as part of its settlement with Dominion, among other things.

However, the electronic voting company has continually denied playing any role in Carlson’s firing.

“As the Fox principals who negotiated the settlement well know, Dominion made no demands about Tucker Carlson’s employment orally or in writing,” a Dominion spokesperson told the Daily Caller. “Any claims otherwise are categorically false and a thinly veiled effort to further damage Dominion. Fox should take every effort to stop these lies immediately.”

A Fox News spokesperson also said reports about Dominion’s role in Carlson’s firing are “categorically false.”

Still, the company let go of its entire investigative unit on Friday, with more layoffs potentially on the way, according to Rolling Stone.

“Yes, [layoffs] have happened,” one staffer told the outlet. “And continue to happen.”

Another Fox employee told Rolling Stone the laid-off reporters are the “sacrificial lambs,” of the Dominion settlement.

“The rank and file journalists are getting let go meanwhile upper management are sitting pretty while they are the execs responsible for the Dominion debacle,” the Fox employee said. “We are the sacrificial lambs.”

“The outrage is that Suzanne Scott and Maria Bartriomo keep their jobs,” one staffer added. “Meanwhile the journalists get let go. We are in shock.”

Another former Fox “talent” suspects the cable news company is trying to “get money off the books before June 30,” due to the Dominion settlement.

“I think producers, management, et cetera [are being laid-off],” a former Fox talent told Rolling Stone. “They are trying to get money off the books before June 30. They have to save money because of the [Dominion] lawsuit.”

However, the New York Daily News reported that a source said the investigative unit layoffs have “nothing to do with Dominion.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are “extremely upset and shaken” after being involved in a “near-catastrophic” paparazzi chase in New York City on Tuesday night.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who were traveling with Markle’s mom, Doria Ragland, were frighteningly pursued by photographers after leaving the Ziegfeld Theater — where the former actress was honored by Gloria Steinem at the Women of Vision Awards — in Manhattan.

The trio left the event in an SUV around 10 p.m., and were immediately followed by around 12 paparazzi, we’re told.

They eventually decided to ditch their original vehicle and jump in a yellow cab in hopes of evading photogs.

A source claims that one cameraman hit a car while another almost ran over an NYPD officer during the “near-fatal” chase.

“It started off with 12 paparazzi, then ended up with four chasing [Meghan, Harry and Doria],” the insider tells us. “Their security tried their best to lose [photographers].”

Once in the taxi, Harry used his cellphone to record the ensuing melee.

We’re told security was also recording to gather evidence.

Paparazzi were confronted by uniformed police officers, but ignored warnings and continued chasing the trio, we hear.

A rep for the Sussexes told Page Six Wednesday: “Last night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Ms. Ragland were involved in a near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.

“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety.”

Our source calls the incident “absolutely shocking” and says Ragland, who is 66 years old, was particularly “terrified” by the ordeal.

“Everyone is still upset, to say the least. It was horrific,” the source tells us.

We hear the “Suits” alum, her mother and her husband are still in NYC following the harrowing occurrence.

It is unclear when they will be heading back to their home in California, where they live with 4-year-old son Prince Archie and 1-year-old daughter Princess Lilibet.

The incident occurred hours after Harry was told that UK police are not for hire amid his legal battle with UK government regarding security for him and his family.

The offer to pay for his police protection would create a situation where “wealthy individuals could ‘buy’ Protective Security from specialist police officers,” according to the UK Home Office.

The Duke of Sussex’s police bodyguards were removed after he stopped being a working royal in 2020, the year he and his wife left England for a new life in the US.

Since then, he has argued it is not safe for him to return to the UK with his family without police protection.

Markle, for her part, recently hired Kim Kardashian’s former bodyguard to keep her safe.

Harry recently traveled to his home country solo for dad King Charles III’s coronation.

Markle decided to skip the event, choosing instead to stay in California to celebrate Archie’s birthday.

Special counsel John Durham’s long-awaited report on his investigation into the Trump-Russia report states the FBI and DOJ had no proper basis to launch the controversial investigation.

Durham’s 306-page report, which he described as “sobering,” cast doubt on the idea that the FBI should have ever even launched its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into allegations of collusion between former President Donald Trump and the Russian government during the 2016 election. The special counsel concluded: “Based on the evidence gathered in the multiple exhaustive and costly investigations of these matters, neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”

Durham also highlighted the double standard in how the FBI investigated election-related matters tied to Trump versus Clinton.

The report found that “upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia, the FBI swiftly opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation” and that at the direction of since-fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, since-fired Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok “opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately.” Durham noted that “Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump.”

The special counsel concluded that “the matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information” and that the FBI launched this Trump-Russia investigation without “any significant review of its own intelligence databases” and without “collection and examination of any relevant intelligence from other U.S. intelligence entities.” The investigation was also launched without conducting any interviews of “witnesses essential to understand the raw information” the FBI had received, as well as without using “any of the standard analytical tools typically employed by the FBI in evaluating raw intelligence.”

The report asserted that if the bureau had taken these basic steps, “the FBI would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject.”

The special counsel also highlighted that “FBI records prepared by Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.”

Beyond the specific problems with the launch of the Trump-Russia investigation, which soon transformed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s sprawling investigation, Durham also detailed how differently the FBI handled similar Clinton-related controversies.

“The speed and manner in which the FBI opened and investigated Crossfire Hurricane during the presidential election season based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence also reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign,” Durham wrote.

In one instance, FBI headquarters and Justice Department officials “required defensive briefings to be provided to Clinton and other officials or candidates who appeared to be the targets of foreign interference.” In another, the FBI “elected to end an investigation after one of its longtime and valuable confidential human sources went beyond what was authorized and made an improper and possibly illegal financial contribution to the Clinton campaign on behalf of a foreign entity as a precursor to a much larger donation being contemplated.” And in a third example related to investigating the Clinton Foundation, both senior FBI and DOJ officials “placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election.”

Durham called this “markedly different from the FBI’s actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from” her own problematic use of a private email server.

“Unlike the FBI’s opening of a full investigation of unknown members of the Trump campaign based on raw, uncorroborated information, in this separate matter involving a purported Clinton campaign plan, the FBI never opened any type of inquiry, issued any taskings, employed any analytical personnel, or produced any analytical products in connection with the information,” Durham wrote. “This lack of action was despite the fact that the significance of the Clinton plan intelligence was such as to have prompted the Director of the CIA to brief the President, Vice President, Attorney General, Director of the FBI, and other senior government officials about its content within days of its receipt.”

Durham noted that “it was also of enough importance for the CIA to send a formal written referral memorandum” to since-fired FBI Director James Comey and to Strzok for their consideration and action, with the special counsel noting the investigative referral provided examples of information the Crossfire Hurricane fusion cell had “gleaned to date.”

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report in December 2019 criticized the Justice Department and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against former Trump campaign associate Carter Page, for concealing potentially exculpatory information from the FISA court related to collusion denials by a number of Trump associates, and for the bureau’s reliance on the Democratic-funded dossier by British ex-spy Christopher Steele.

The DOJ later told the FISA court it believed at least some of the Page FISA warrants were “not valid.” FBI Director Christopher Wray agreed there had been at least some illegal surveillance and said he was working to “claw back” that FISA information.

The new report by Durham did not include new criminal charges.

Trump’s Response

Former President Trump celebrated the findings in the report in a post to his Truth Social account Monday afternoon.

‘WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!’

‘In other words, the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA!’ the former president continued.

FBI’s Response

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the agency touted what it said were “dozens of corrective actions” already implemented as a result of the Durham investigation.

“The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the FBI said.

“This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect,” it added.

Chicago residents are furious that the city is planning on housing migrants in their neighborhood and are demanding politicians relocate the illegal immigrants somewhere else. The angry residents have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the city of Chicago from housing migrants at a shuttered high school in the area.

The city of Chicago has planned to turn the shuttered South Shore High School into a respite center for illegal immigrants. The city plans to house 250 to 500 migrants at the high school. Currently, Chicago is temporarily housing hundreds of migrants in police stations across the city.

The high school is currently being used by the Chicago Police Department as a training center. The residents wanted the former high school to be transformed into a community center.

On May 4, residents of South Shore railed against the relocation of illegal immigrants into their community during a meeting with local politicians.

“What’s important is that we really establish this is humanitarian crisis, and we are here,” Chicago chief engagement officer Nubia William told the indignant crowd, according to WTTW.

An outraged resident fired back, “How could you do that without consulting us?”

An attendee said, “I am concerned with safety in the area.”

Another local citizen asked, “Where is the money coming from? Migrants don’t pay taxes. I understand helping people, but you have to start with your own home. Why don’t we have those resources with what’s happening here.”

Another added, “All of a sudden we have deep pockets for people who don’t pay taxes. I understand helping people, but you start with your own home.”

Someone yelled during the fiery meeting, “Put them on the North Side.”

“We are not inhumane to people’s plight. But we are looking at the reality of the world we live in and we think it’s irresponsible to take a people whose community is already in disarray and place additional people without resources,” explained Brian Mullins of the Black American Voter Project.

A resident in the Democrat-dominated area demanded, “Build the wall. Make a border.”

One person in the crowd was holding a sign that read: “Build the wall 2024.”

President Joe Biden overwhelmingly won Cook County by capturing 74% of the vote against Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

The frustrated residents of the deep-blue Chicago neighborhood have filed a lawsuit to prevent the city from housing illegal immigrants at the high school. A temporary injunction was issued.

Chicago residents are told that 250 illegals are coming to their neighborhood

This is how they reacted: pic.twitter.com/YDRIBhqCxg

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 11, 2023

In January 2019, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared that the Windy City “must be a sanctuary city.”

“We’ve got to stand up to the Trump administration’s racist, anti-immigrant terror and make sure every Chicagoan is safe, regardless of citizenship status,” the Democratic mayor of Chicago proclaimed.

However, Lightfoot issued an emergency declaration on Tuesday in response to illegal immigrants being transported to her city. The declaration was made on the same day that 48 migrants were sent to Chicago by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Lightfoot claimed that the city’s resources are “now stretched to the breaking point.”

“We should all understand that this crisis will likely deepen before we see it get better, so as we move forward, the City of Chicago will have to bring additional locations online to prepare for the arrival of more individuals and families and to relieve Chicago Police Department districts,” Lightfoot’s office said in a press release. “The City of Chicago is in the midst of a national humanitarian crisis, and through a unified effort in accordance with its values as a welcoming city, Chicago is doing everything it can to respond to the urgency of this matter. The City has continued to call on federal and state governments to support the new arrival mission with much-needed additional funding and resources for emergency shelter and resettlement, as there are not enough resources currently to meet the need.”

Lightfoot previously labeled Abbott a “racist” for transporting migrants to Chicago.

Lightfoot will be in office until May 15, when progressive Democrat Brandon Johnson replaces her as mayor of Chicago.

Johnson has already vowed to double down on Chicago embracing illegal immigrants.

Johnson’s campaign website bragged that his administration would “ensure law enforcement does not [cooperate] with ICE to arrest, detain or deport our migrant neighbors.”

“Chicago is a sanctuary city. As such, we must always resist attempts to pit communities against each other and extend this sanctuary promise to everyone who needs it in our city – both long-time residents and newcomers alike,” Johnson’s site stated.

Johnson made several far-left campaign promises regarding immigration:

• Increase dedicated funding to immigrant protection and integration, including the Immigrant Legal Protection Fund.
• Leverage the collective brain trust of community groups, leaders, multiple city agencies to develop a comprehensive city plan for asylum seekers and other new arrivals.
• Build permanent housing for all unhoused, including asylum seekers, by passing the Bring Chicago Home ordinance and enacting other pieces of the $1 billion Better Chicago Agenda.
• Ensure that migrant and refugee parents and families have a voice in their children’s education by appointing members to a Chicago Board of Education Non-Citizen Advisory Board.
• Work with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly in Springfield to pass legislation that will allow all parents and taxpayers to vote in school board elections, regardless of citizenship status.
• Recruit and train enough teachers and clinicians to provide the capacity to support migrant and immigrant children, including bilingual professionals.
• Enact a new city funding formula that accounts for language needs and the needs of migrant and refugee students.

Abbott said on Wednesday that Texas had transported more than 17,000 migrants to sanctuary cities, including 1,600 to Chicago.

Lightfoot claimed this week that Chicago received over 8,000 illegal immigrants since August 2022. She added that the migrants are currently being housed in seven shelters and three respite locations in Chicago.

The brand partnership between Bud Light and social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney appears to have alienated both conservatives and leftists as members of the latter group criticize the brand for halfheartedly recanting support for the self-described transgender social media star.

Several reports indicate that Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, has hemorrhaged sales after executives partnered with Mulvaney, a man who claims to be a woman and chronicled his purported gender transition on social media.

Executives for the beverage firm have offered vague apologies, downplayed the extent of the campaign, and even hired veteran Republican lobbyists in various attempts to win back disgruntled conservatives.

The superficial attempts to back away from Mulvaney, on the other hand, appear to have angered members of the LGBTQ movement, who are now demanding that Anheuser-Busch support the ideology or face another boycott effort from the other side of the political spectrum.

Jay Brown, a senior vice president at the Human Rights Campaign, wrote a letter to Anheuser-Busch last week asking the firm to release a statement explicitly supporting Mulvaney and to implement transgender inclusion training for executives. “In this moment, it is absolutely critical for Anheuser-Busch to stand in solidarity with Dylan and the trans community,” the document said, according to a report from The Hill. “However, when faced with anti-LGBTQ+ and transphobic criticism, Anheuser-Busch’s actions demonstrate a profound lack of fortitude in upholding its values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Stacy Lentz, a co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, widely considered the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ political movement, said in an interview with Newsweek that Anheuser-Busch had “missed an opportunity to stand by their commitment to the trans community by pandering to and giving into transphobic outcries.” She predicted that “as a brand they will be extinct in a few years if they are not fully on the side of equality,” citing the left-wing values broadly held by young Americans.

Activists hosted a demonstration two years ago outside of the Stonewall Inn during which they poured beverages distributed by Anheuser-Busch into a nearby gutter. The protests were meant to criticize donations the company provided to lawmakers who sought to limit the spread of radical gender theory. Anheuser-Busch responded to the criticism at the time by noting that the company has “received a perfect 100% score from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for LGBTQ Equality.”

Lentz expressed sympathy for Mulvaney and contended that the influencer, who has received several brand deals from other corporations, was “caught in the middle of a horrible firestorm.”

John Casey, a contributor with The Advocate and a public relations executive, meanwhile wrote in an opinion piece for the LGBTQ publication that Anheuser-Busch “poured alcohol all over an extremist’s fire” rather than rising “to the defense of a transgender woman” and defending “a noble campaign that sought to reflect acceptance.”

“Maybe the worst thing the company did was leave Mulvaney all alone, twisting in the wind, abandoning any kind of defense of her. That is an utterly repugnant reflection of the brand,” he commented. “It’s not Kid Rock and Ted Nugent who should be boycotting Bud Light. It should be us.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview this week that people should stop blaming public health officials for mistakes that were made during the pandemic.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour asked Fauci what he thinks he and the scientific community “got wrong” with the policies that they pushed for and implemented.

“What are the real takeaways, the real lessons for public health?” she asked.

“I think we have to get away from the blame game because so many of the things that you have mentioned were unknowns at the time,” Fauci responded. “It’s so easy.”

“This is really big time Monday morning quarterbacking here, which is what it is,” he claimed. “So, rather than have a blame game, and that’s one of the things that we have to stay away from because there were things that happened and it was a moving target and there were things that you did not know at the time and you had to, out of necessity, make a decision.”

WATCH:

“We have to get away from the blame game,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci. Shutdowns were necessary, he adds, but some “schools stayed closed far too long.”

That said, he says the school where his daughter taught shut down for two weeks and “they didn’t do too badly.” pic.twitter.com/DlPnWShomj

— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) April 28, 2023