National News

A Duluth, Georgia, man was arraigned Tuesday on charges he threatened to commit sexual violence against two Republican U.S. senators, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced.
U.S. Capitol police and the FBI said they launched an investigation in January after Robert Davis Forney, 25, of Duluth, Georgia, called the offices of two U.S. senators and left threatening voicemails.
On Jan. 9, he allegedly called the office of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and left a voicemail threatening sexual violence against him and his family, authorities said. The next day, Forney called the office of U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, and left a voicemail also threatening sexual violence against her, according to the charges.
FBI-Atlanta agents later arrested Forney. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Georgia on June 10. On Tuesday, he was arraigned before a federal magistrate judge on federal charges of communicating threats in interstate commerce.
“Threatening our elected officials and their families is an act of violence that undermines our entire democracy,” U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said. “Political discourse and disagreements never justify resorting to vile attacks against our nation’s leaders.”
In response to concerns raised by constituents, a spokesperson from Fischer’s office said, “The senator appreciates Nebraskans’ concerns and their kind words. She is continuing to do her job on their behalf.”
An FBI and U.S. Capitol Police investigation is also ongoing. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bret Hobson and Brent Alan Gray are prosecuting the case.
“Targeting public officials with threatening messages is a serious federal crime,” FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown said. “There is no place for political violence or threats of violence in the United States. We will not hesitate to arrest and charge others who engage in similar criminal conduct.”
This is not the first time Cruz has been the target threats. On June 14, 2024, anti-Israel protestors gathered outside of his Houston home for the 23rd time. For six months, anti-Israel protestors came to his home “just about every Sat morning at 7 am and most Fri nights until 10 or 11 pm,” Cruz said. “They scream, disturb the peace & wake the neighbors. No matter how much these antisemites cheer Hamas, I will stand with Israel,” The Center Square reported.
One month after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, another Hispanic Republican Texan, U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, was targeted, The Center Square reported.
Her McAllen office was vandalized twice by pro-Hamas activists after she expressed support for Israel. Spray painted messages in red paint read, “Israel kills Jews too,” “Monica murders,” and “You can’t escape your crimes Monica.”
In response, she said: “Let me be crystal clear: These acts of vandalism will never intimidate me, silence me, or stop me from opposing antisemitism and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.
It remains unclear what Forney’s motivation was.
Politically motivated violence has continued as some Democratic lawmakers are accused of assaulting and calling for violence against ICE agents, a Minnesota Democratic lawmaker and her husband were assassinated, and a North Carolina lawmaker was urged to resign after posting an image of a beheaded President Donald Trump. The president has so far survived two assassination attempts.

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, joined 29 other Democratic senators to introduce a bill granting all Americans access to in-vitro fertilization procedures.
IVF is a “procedure that involves fertilizing an egg with sperm in a laboratory dish,” according to Yale Medicine.
The Protect IVF Act seeks to allow patients to have access to IVF services, doctors who provide IVF treatment and insurance companies that will cover IVF.
To enshrine this into federal law, the legislation prevents states from outlawing IVF. Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled to temporarily suspend IVF procedures.
Addressing this concern, Rosen said, “No family should have to fear losing access to IVF.”
“The Protect IVF Act ensures that Americans — regardless of where they live — can access the medical care they need to build their families. This bill defends both reproductive freedom and basic human dignity,” the senator added.
This will be the second time the bill has been introduced. In 2024, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, brought forth this piece of legislation. However, the bill never made it out of the Senate.
Upon introducing it another time, Duckworth said if President Donald Trump cares about protecting IVF, he should tell Republicans to support her bill. If he doesn’t, she said Republicans’ “pro-IVF talk” will be “lip-service from people who have no interest in actually taking any meaningful action to protect IVF access.”
In February, Trump signed an executive order that aimed at lowering the cost of IVF.
When the original bill was introduced, pro-life groups, such as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, had concerns about it. The organization came out against the legislation, calling it a “sweeping-anything-goes bill that would even codify a right to human cloning and genetic engineering of human embryos.”
On the other side, organizations such as RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association supported the bill last year. RESOLVE said many people who struggle with infertility want to pursue medical treatment to build families, but face “many obstacles.” The organization called the bill a “pro-family” piece of legislation.
RESOLVE is supporting the 2025 legislation, along with other organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and Indivisible.

Federal funding to a number of major American cities is once again in jeopardy as the federal government looks to tighten its purse strings.
On Monday, five cities announced they were filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the freezing of funding for the Securing the Cities counterterrorism program, which is intended to protect cities from large-scale security threats such as nuclear or terrorist attacks.
Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle have joined Denver in the lawsuit.
“National security is not a Democratic or Republican issue. It’s an American one, and losing this funding makes America less safe,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. “You wouldn’t think we would need to go to federal court to explain why it’s important to protect citizens from terrorism, but here we are.”
There are 13 cities that are a part of the program, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and the Washington, D.C. area. Under the program, the cities are provided resources, equipment and training.
“In Denver, this funding has previously been used to conduct security sweeps and monitor critical infrastructure,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “Equipment funded through the program, Securing the Cities, is used in routine daily operations by Denver Police, Denver Fire, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, and Colorado State Patrol.”
The Securing the Cities program was first started in 2007 as a response to terror attacks like 9/11. Denver joined the program during an expansion of the program in 2018.
The criminal complaint filed by the cities alleges President Donald Trump overstepped his authority by freezing funding to the program. That freeze first started on Feb. 21, with all reimbursement requests since then being ignored by the Department of Homeland Security.
On May 14, DHS officially notified the cities in the program that they “must pause … all radiological and nuclear detection equipment purchases” due to supposed “funding constraints.”
This “unconstitutional” funding freeze has already “impaired public safety,” the lawsuit alleges.
Since May 14, Denver has paused all new expenditures except paying staff.
This is Denver’s third lawsuit against the Trump administration since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Its first lawsuit came after $24 million in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Shelter and Services” grants were rescinded because of the city’s so-called “sanctuary city” policies.
Then, in May, Denver sued over the administration’s threat to withhold up to $600 million in federal transportation grants over noncompliance with DEI and immigration directives. The city received a preliminary injunction in that case.

Taxpayers spent $56 billion on Medicaid last year for able-bodied adults abusing the program, according to a new report released by the White House Tuesday.
The report claims that 44% of able-bodied Medicaid recipients without children worked less than 20 hours a week in 2024, using 11% of the government’s annual Medicaid funds.
The White House stressed the need for more stringent work requirements for adults on Medicaid, citing studies that link unemployment to drug abuse, poor mental health and suicide.
“We find substantial evidence that work is beneficial and unemployment is harmful for individuals across a range of domains,” the report says. “The mechanisms include not only the value of earned income and employee benefits but also the social interaction, structure, and sense of purpose that come from working.”
Underscoring this argument, the report notes that there were 6.5 million able-bodied, childless Medicaid recipients of working age who reported making no income in 2024.
Medicaid work requirements have been a disputed issue in Congress this year as Republicans seek to make President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” law. Republicans are looking to cut fraud and abuse from the Medicaid program to find money for Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda, citing the upswing in fraud within the program in recent years.
The Republican’s funding package currently sits in the U.S. Senate, where leadership is ironing out details for their version of the legislation. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, released his portion of the bill Monday. His committee has jurisdiction over Medicaid.
The Finance Committee’s text goes farther than the House of Representatives in its work requirements for Medicaid recipients. While the House’s version excuses parents with dependent children of any age from logging work hours, Crapo amended this provision to only exempt parents with dependent children under the age of 15.
The White House’s report specifically flags California and New York as the highest spenders of federal Medicaid funds, using one-third of the program’s total funding in 2024. The report suggests these two states cost federal taxpayers $13.5 billion and $6.4 billion in 2024, respectively.
Representatives from districts in New York and California have opposed the Republican budget package, citing issues with caps to the state and local tax deduction (SALT). Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Nick Lalota, R-N.Y, Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Young Kim, R-Calif., previously stated that they will band together to sink the legislation in the House if the Senate amends the SALT provision in any way.
With razor-thin Republican majorities in both chambers, the White House previously got involved in lobbying efforts to pass the legislation through several key votes over the past few months.
However, Trump has been relatively quiet as the Senate internally works out details of the bill. The president has been occupied by worsening tensions in the Middle East, even leading him to abruptly cut short his trip to the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada this week.

The Senate Finance Committee’s tax and health care additions to Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar policy megabill include deal-breaking changes that have thrown congressional Republicans in disarray.
Released Monday evening, the committee’s revisions to the House-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) include making key provisions of the expiring 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, rather than the House’s 10-year extension.
That includes the $15,000 maximum standard deduction for single filers and $30,000 for joint filers; the 20% Qualified Business Income deduction; and the doubled child tax credit of $2,000, though both parents now need a Social Security number to claim it and the four-year $500 boost in the House version is reduced to $200.
The committee also expanded the House’s new tax cuts for eligible seniors, increasing the $4,000 deduction to $6,000, but as with the child tax credit, taxpayers would need a social security number to claim it.
Fulfilling Republican Senate leaders’ wishes, the bill additionally makes three key business tax credits permanent – full reimbursement for new capital investments like machinery and equipment, an expanded deduction for corporation’s interest on debt, and immediate deductions for companies’ research costs. It makes the TCJA’s tax incentives for investments in disadvantaged communities, known as Opportunity Zones, permanent as well.
These costly extensions — coupled with an additional $1 trillion to the House’s $4 trillion debt ceiling increase and much slower phaseouts for renewable energy subsidies — have disgusted spending hawks like Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Roy, who reiterated Monday his demands for all Inflation Reduction Act energy subsidies to end, said he “will not vote for this [bill]” if it returns to the House in its current form. Paul concurred Tuesday.
“I voted for the tax cuts in 2017 and I’d do it again. In fact, I want to make them permanent,” Paul said on X. “But raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion without real spending reform? Count me out.”
Fiscal hardliners aren’t the only lawmakers feeling gypped. Blue-state Republicans in the House feel betrayed as well due to the Senate Finance Committee changing their hard-fought state and local tax (SALT) provisions.
Under the Senate version of the OBBBA, the current $10,000 SALT deduction cap would be made permanent rather than rise to $40,000 as the House version stipulates. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and others have indicated, however, that the SALT provisions are a placeholder that will likely change in further negotiations.
“Everyone knows this 10K number will have to go up. And it will,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said on X.
The Senate Finance Committee’s changes to the OBBBA’s health care portions have upset a third delicate compromise House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made with initial GOP holdouts in his chamber.
To help finance tax cuts permanence — the House version had only budgeted for a 10-year tax cuts extension — the committee reduced the maximum tax on Medicaid providers states can levy to 3.5%, down from the House’s 6%. Some Republicans worry that this change could harm small and rural hospitals.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called the plan to keep energy subsidies while defunding rural hospitals “absolutely insane” in a media interview Tuesday.
“The Senate wants to KEEP bunches of Green New Scam subsidies. And pay for it by defunding rural hospitals. All terrible ideas,” Hawley followed up in a social media post.
Though the OBBBA skirts the Senate filibuster due to rules of the budget reconciliation process, Thune may not have a majority vote if the new changes alienate too many Republicans. Even if 51 senators get on board with the final version of the bill, it still must pass the House again before reaching the president’s desk. Republican leaders have set a self-imposed July 4 deadline, which seems increasingly unlikely but still remains possible.

President Donald Trump broke from a meeting with his national security team Tuesday to share a series of social media posts signaling trouble for Iran.
The president announced control over Iranian airspace and knowledge of where Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader, is being held while also calling for an “unconditional surrender.”
Trump claims Khomeini is “safe” for now but wouldn’t rule out killing the leader.
“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Israel has conducted five days of bombings inside of Iran an an attempt to destroy facilities housing its nuclear program and other military infrastructure. Iran has retaliated, bombing Israel, including civilian locations.
Before the president’s post on the Iranian leader’s whereabouts, he touted complete control over Iranian airspace.
“We have complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured ‘stuff.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA,” Trump posted.
It is unclear if the president was referring to U.S., Israeli, or a combination when talking about “we.”
Achieving control over Iranian airspace could be key to any U.S. involvement in carrying out missions to eliminate nuclear capabilities inside the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian Fordow nuclear site, located deep below a mountain, may only be penetrated by a Massive Ordinance Penetrator, also called a bunker buster. Currently, Israel is not equipped with a bunker buster and a B-2 bomber used to drop the explosive device.
The posts come as Trump swiftly returned to the White House early Tuesday morning, ahead of schedule, from the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada.
Upon returning to the White House early Tuesday, the president said he would head to the situation room. He argued that returning to the White House allowed him to learn more.
Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One earlier Tuesday that he wasn’t looking for a ceasefire but is seeking “a real end” with the Islamic Republic “giving up entirely” on their nuclear weapons program.
The president underscored previous comments regarding Iran not having nuclear weapons.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple – you don’t have to go too deep into it. They just can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters.
“I’m not too much in the mood to negotiate [with Iran],” Trump told reporters. “An end, a real end, not a ceasefire, real end.”
Trump posted an ominous message to Iran and its people Monday afternoon, warning them to evacuate.
“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” the president posted to Truth Social.
He followed the warning with another post, reiterating that Iran should not have nuclear weapons.
“AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including the fact that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” he posted later.
As the conflict enters the fifth day of fighting, Israel Defense Forces announced that it had “eliminated” another top Iranian military commander.

The accused Minnesota shooter bought a Buick sedan and electric bike from an individual he met at a bus stop as he worked to escape authorities before being cornered and arrested near his home in Green Isle, Minnesota, according to a 20-page affidavit filed regarding 57-year-old Vance Boelter.
Boelter has been charged with stalking and killing Minnesota House Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman and her husband along with the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and his wife. The Hoffmans are expected to make a full recover.
The affidavit shed light on the activities that led to and included the shooting of four people – two who were killed – early Saturday in what has been described by authorities as an assassination of elected officials.
Boelter allegedly texted his family members including his wife and children at 6:18 a.m. on Saturday, writing “Dad went to war last night … I don’t wanna say more because I don’t wanna implicate anybody.”
He also allegedly then texted his wife, writing “words are not gonna explain how sorry I am for this situation … there’s gonna be some people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don’t want you guys around.”
The affidavit detailed that two handguns, $10,000 and passports for Boelter’s wife and children were found in the car with them.
Boelter’s SUV included a fake plate with the letters “POLICE” on the back from items he purchased at Fleet Farm. It also included a Garmin GPS device with the addresses of the politicians whose homes he went to along with the addresses of at least two other state officials.
It also included an address to a home he shared with a roommate, which authorities then searched and found notebooks with the names and addresses of Minnesota politicians.
Another notebook included the websites of three companies that sold silicone masks like the one he was allegedly wearing when he showed up at the homes of the individuals he is accused of shooting.
A receipt showed that Boelter allegedly bought a flashlight, tactical rifle case, ammunition and the materials used to make the license plate.
The affidavit also detailed what security cameras saw at the homes where he is accused of the shootings.
Many of the items described were found outside of the Hortmans’ home after Boelter allegedly fled to elude police.

A cell phone service provider agreed to pay $500,000 to resolve allegations it illegally charged 1,300 U.S. troops in Guam who ended phone service contracts after getting military relocation orders.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that Teleguam Holdings LLC, operating as GTA, must pay $500,000 to settle allegations that it violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
“Servicemembers will not be penalized because of their patriotic service to our country,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We will vigorously prosecute companies that refuse to abide by federal law that protects our great men and women in uniform who actively serve to protect our Nation.”
GTA will provide $450,000 to service members, including double damages to those who paid the company’s early termination charges. The company will also pay a $50,000 civil penalty. Furthermore, GTA will change its policies to ensure that eligible military service members can end their cell phone service contracts without illegal early termination charges, according to the DOJ.
GTA denied wrongdoing in the agreement. The company does not concede that the “subsidy fees,” which it contends were charged to customers to recover the balance remaining on subsidized devices, violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. GTA said that it created its subsidy fee policy specifically to comply with the SCRA.
“GTA’s position is that it did not have any policy that would have charged eligible servicemembers a termination fee for canceling a commercial mobile service contract in the circumstances described in the SCRA,” according to court records.
The company agreed to a settlement to avoid the cost of litigation, according to court records.
The charges at issue were “subsidy fees” or “balance recovery costs” for each month remaining on two-year contracts at the time of termination and the required repayment of contract incentives. Prosecutors alleged that GTA required military customers to pay a “subsidy fee” of $20 per month of the remaining contract when they terminated their contracts early. Prosecutors said the “subsidy fee” was an early termination charge. Prosecutors also alleged that GTA required some qualified terminating servicemembers, including those who submitted qualifying retirement or separation orders, to pay a $30 per month “balance recovery cost” for each month remaining on their contracts. Prosecutors said that constituted an unlawful early termination charge.
GTA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Center Square on the agreement with prosecutors.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., launched an investigation into Planned Parenthood’s use of federal funds for abortions and transgender care for minors.
The investigation comes as the Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision on transgender care for minors in the coming weeks.
A 2024 report found Planned Parenthood performed 402,230 abortion procedures and cancer screenings made up 426,268 of the organization’s services from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023. During that period, federal funds made up the largest share of Planned Parenthood’s revenue at 39% of total revenue.
The report also lists that Planned Parenthood completed 77,858 “other procedures,” which includes “transgender services.”
In a letter to Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO, Greene said these services include providing cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and surgical referrals.
As chair of the House oversight’s DOGE subcommittee, Greene is launching the investigation to track what services receive federal funding at Planned Parenthood.
“As a recipient of nearly $800 million in federal funds in fiscal year (FY) 2023, and the second largest provider of gender hormone therapies in the United States, the Subcommittee is concerned that Planned Parenthood may be commingling federal funds and using them for unpermitted purposes,” Greene wrote.
Federal funds appropriated to Planned Parenthood come through Title X of the Public Health Services Act, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Greene asked for public and private financial statements regarding federal funds used at Planned Parenthood since 2020 along with a litany of questions related to the kinds of transgender care and abortion services provided through Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Center Square.
The investigation comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to make a landmark decision on transgender treatment for minors in U.S. v. Skrmetti. The case challenges laws in Tennessee and Kentucky which ban puberty blockers, sex-change surgeries and hormone therapy.
The challenged law bars health care providers from performing “a medical procedure if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex,” the Tennessee law reads.
The government filed suit alongside a group of parents with transgender children in Tennessee, arguing it violated the equal protections clause in the Fourteenth Amendment.
The group also argued that a categorical ban on treatments for transgender minors is inconsistent with protecting an important government interest because it is not substantially related to the state interest of protecting minors from possible physical or emotional risks due to medical treatments.
In oral arguments on the case, the high court appeared poised to uphold Tennessee’s ban on transgender treatments for minors.
Conservative justices of the court appeared unwilling to reverse the state law and preferred to leave the decision up to state legislatures and elected officials.
“If the Constitution doesn’t take sides, and there’s strong, forceful scientific policy on both sides in a situation like this, why isn’t it best to leave it to the democratic process?” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.
Justice Samuel Alito also took issue with the outcomes of expanding transgender medical treatments in Europe.
“There is no evidence that gender-affirmative treatments reduce suicide,” Alito said referring to a 2024 European report on the expansion of transgender medical treatments in Europe.
The liberal justices of the court appeared to support the argument for the transgender families. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson equated the court’s decision to Loving v. Virginia, which struck down Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage.
Jackson said the decision in Loving v. Virginia considered whether the state had “rational basis” to treat interracial marriages differently from other marriages. She warned against applying the same principle of rational basis to Tennessee’s law with transgender care for minors.
“I’m worried that we’re undermining the foundations of some of our bedrock equal protection cases,” Jackson said.
Greene set a deadline of June 20 to receive funding documents and testimony from Planned Parenthood on its abortion and transgender treatment practices.
In the meantime, the nation’s highest court is expected to issue the consequential Skrmetti decision before the end of its term.

Silence from leadership of North Carolina’s Democrats was broken Monday evening by the state party chairwoman’s statement on a lawmaker who promoted a sign reflecting pursuit of the decapitation of President Donald Trump.
Anderson Clayton, chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, drew comparisons to Republican candidates in 2024 and their comments. She labeled the outrage manufactured, said it was hollow against the backdrop of what happened in Minnesota on the same day, and said it was an attempt to change the narrative of No Kings protests.
It was, in fact, a No Kings protest in Raleigh where Rep. Julie von Haefen, D-Wake, got the image to share with her followers that started a discussion that has drawn in members of Congress on both sides of the country.
In the final hours of Monday evening, Clayton said, “The NCGOP spent the last year bankrolling the campaigns of Mark Robinson and Michele Morrow after they both repeatedly called for political violence. Morrow wanted to execute everyone from Barack Obama to our Governor Roy Cooper. On the campaign trail, Robinson loudly declared that ‘some folks need killing’ and mocked Paul Pelosi on social media after someone tried to assassinate him. This manufactured outrage over a photo in a reel to take advantage of the recent tragedy in Minnesota rings incredibly hollow and is a desperate attempt to change the narrative after tens of thousands of North Carolinians who took to the streets this weekend to denounce their agenda.”
Von Haefen on Saturday made a social media post and affirmed she in fact did produce it via another post on Sunday. The first post on Saturday morning was an image of a woman holding signage with the image of a bloody, used guillotine; the words “In these difficult times, some cuts may be necessary”; and a prop on one end of the handle representing a beheaded Trump. The other end also had a head, a German Nazi Party swastika scrawled across the forehead.
Later Saturday, the nation learned of the shootings in Minnesota that claimed the lives of a Democratic member of the House of Representatives and her husband, and injured a state senator and his wife.
Minutes after The Center Square on Sunday sought authentication from her office, von Haefen posted to Facebook, “Yesterday, I posted a video on social media containing crowd photos from the No Kings protest in Raleigh. One of the images of a protestor holding a sign was inappropriate, and I later edited the video to remove the photo.
“Let me be clear: I condemn political violence in all forms. My focus remains on bringing people together and fighting for the values that matter to North Carolinians. Like so many, I was horrified by the violence in Minnesota. There is no place for that kind of extremism in our democracy, no matter the target, no matter the party.”
Von Haefen did not offer an apology. She terminated her X account.
Her caption on Saturday morning said, “No Kings Protest in Raleigh. Amazing turnout all across the Triangle today, including this event at the Capitol hosted by Wake Democrats and North Carolina Democrats.” There were hashtags for an expletive, no kings and Raleigh.
Context helps on the No Kings protests. There were more than 1,700 scheduled across the country, including 27 in the Tarheel State. Democrats flooded them and have rallied on the branding of Trump as authoritarian and kingly. He’s renowned for bold posturing, creative deal-making, and enforcement of federal law.
Republicans counter that the previous four years of the White House, and the governorship in North Carolina, are examples of authoritarian leadership. For example, nationwide Democrats held primaries then sent forward a presidential ticket requiring not a single primary vote; and the cognitive skills and if in fact President Joe Biden led the White House has been questioned even by journalists once thought left-leaning.
And on the state level, the primary example is former Gov. Roy Cooper’s 362 executive orders over eight years that included closures of churches, schools and businesses; mandates for everyone to stay home during COVID-19; and the resulting loss of jobs, businesses and setbacks in educational growth by children.