Veterans flood Democrat’s office with supportive calls as backlash grows over ‘illegal orders’ video
A Democratic congresswoman and former Air Force captain who joined five other lawmakers in a viral video advising service members they could refuse illegal orders from a president shared a slew of voicemails backing her stance. The video released by six Democrat lawmakers who are veterans drew sharp rebuke from President Donald Trump, who called them “traitors,” and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who asked Navy Secretary John Phelan to formally review one senator’s comments in the clip. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, who represents Chester County and Reading, shared a mashup of numerous messages praising her and her colleagues for “standing up” for military members at what the lawmakers involved said was a tenuous time to be serving the public. DEM SENATOR WHO BASHED HEGSETH’S QUALIFICATIONS STANDS BY DOD SEC WHO OVERSAW BOTCHED AFGHAN WITHDRAWAL Several callers were not constituents, including veterans from as far away as Fairbanks, Alaska. Others said they hailed from Philadelphia, Reading, West Chester, Phoenixville and Berwyn, Pennsylvania, along with Baltimore, Maryland; Carlsbad, California; and beyond. They identified themselves by their military record as well, including Marine vets, infantry vets, a wounded warrior, a Gulf War vet and descendants of World War I, World War II, Vietnam and Korea. “I am not a constituent,” one said. “I am a veteran.” CALIFORNIA DEM TELLS HEGSETH HE’S AN ‘EMBARRASSMENT’ TO THE US, SHOULD ‘GET THE HELL OUT’ OF THE DOD “Thank you for standing firmly with our service members,” another said. “I just want to tell her I appreciate her comments, and they’re right,” a third caller said. Addressing the video’s quotes directly, another veteran expressed gratitude that Houlahan was “letting them know it’s OK to question orders that seem wrong or illegal.” JEFFRIES BECOMES HIGHEST-RANKING DEM TO CALL FOR HEGSETH TO RESIGN “I’m with you. I’m behind you.” “You have support and gratitude from citizens across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Thank you. That’s all I can tell you. Thank you very much. You’re making the commonwealth very proud. I am so proud of all six of you for making that video,” several callers added in an edited, composite excerpt. “I will continue to speak up for you because you continue to speak up to me,” another told Houlahan. SEN. TILLIS OPENS UP ABOUT ROLE IN PETE HEGSETH’S CONFIRMATION AFTER HEGSETH’S EX-SISTER-IN-LAW’S ALLEGATIONS In response, the White House said Democrats like Houlahan were unable to list any examples of unlawful orders given by Trump or the Pentagon when they were asked. “Because there have been none,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “It should deeply concern all Americans that elected Democrats are publicly urging the military to openly defy the chain-of-command and the commander in chief’s lawful orders to subvert the will of the American people,” she said. On Tuesday, Houlahan said the FBI reached out to the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, who maintain order in the Capitol galleries, requesting interviews with lawmakers in the video. “President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress,” Houlahan said. “No amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution.” REPUBLICAN MILITARY VETS IN CONGRESS ARE ON A MISSION TO GET HEGSETH CONFIRMED “We will never be bullied. We will never give up the ship,” she said, quoting a line from the video spoken by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich. The most prominent lawmaker in the video, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., has since been subject to an impending investigation by the Pentagon, according to documents. Kelly, a retired Navy combat pilot and astronaut, is in the distinct category of “retired” — requiring 20 years of service — rather than “former,” a status that allows the Pentagon to recall him for disciplinary action that could include loss of rank or other penalties. FOX NEWS POLITICS NEWSLETTER: FORMER ARMY CAPTAIN WARNS DEMS’ ‘UNPATRIOTIC’ VIDEO COULD SPARK CHAOS Hegseth branded Houlahan, Kelly and the others the “Seditious Six,” and his office released a statement saying that all “service members are reminded that they have a legal obligation under the UCMJ to obey lawful orders and that orders are presumed to be lawful.” “A service member’s personal philosophy does not justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order,” the War Department said. Houlahan spent two years on active duty in the Air Force from 1989-1991 and the rest of her career in the Reserves until separating in 2004. Her father was a Naval aviator and she was born at the Naval Air Station Patuxent base in St. Mary’s, Maryland. Five of the six lawmakers in the video also reportedly received bomb threats to their offices since the release of the video. Slotkin, Houlahan and Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., received threats to their Capitol Hill offices, while Rep. Maggie Goodlander, the wife of Obama National Security Adviser Jacob Sullivan, was subject to a bomb threat at her local office in Concord, New Hampshire, according to Newsweek.
Dem House hopeful getting yanked from governor’s office during attempted sit-in goes viral ahead of election
The Democratic Party hopeful in Tennessee’s upcoming special election, Aftyn Behn, is going viral due to a 2019 incident when she was working as a political organizer and was forcibly removed from Democrat Gov. Bill Lee’s office during an attempted sit-in. The 2019 incident came before Behn entered elected office in 2023 by winning a special election to take over the state’s District 51 seat. Prior to her entrance into the Tennessee state legislature, Behn worked as a political organizer for numerous far-left activist groups, such as “No Kings” protests co-organizer Indivisible, Enough Is Enough Tennessee and the Tennessee Justice Center. During her work with Enough Is Enough, which the conservative Capital Research Center says was established to target Tennessee lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct, Behn participated in a sit-in in Lee’s office, which resulted in a video recording of her skating past officers to get inside before they ran after her and yanked her out of the office. TENNESSEE CANDIDATE BLASTS DEM OPPONENT’S ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ TWEETS CALLING TO DISSOLVE NASHVILLE POLICE The sit-in was aimed at pressuring the governor to demand the resignation of a state representative who had been accused of, but not charged with, sexual assault allegations, according to News Channel 5 Nashville. Behn appears to be heard wailing in the video as she gets yanked out of the governor’s office after reportedly being told she could face arrest. A subsequent social media post by local news outlet The Tennessee Holler showed Behn on day two of the attempted sit-in, lying with a blanket and pillow in front of the governor’s office weeping. “HAPPENING NOW: Aftyn Behn Of Enough Is Enough Tennessee weeps after being roughly tossed out of Governor Bill Lee’s office by troopers,” the post says. Fox News Digital reached out to the Behn campaign for comment on the viral video but did not receive a response. Republican National Committee spokesperson Delanie Bomar pointed out that Behn “is the same woman who says she hates Nashville and wants to burn down police stations,” arguing she is “wildly unfit for office, and this video is further proof of that.” With the Tuesday special election for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District looming, Behn has been the brunt of numerous attacks for her radical past. ‘FULL-BLOWN BATTLE’ BREWING IN DEM PARTY AS MAMDANI-STYLE CANDIDATES RISE IN KEY RACES One of those attacks stemmed from past comments Behn made on a podcast, claiming she “hated” the city she is trying to represent, Nashville. Others include radical calls to “dissolve” police departments and previous justification for violent riots and burning down police stations. When pressed over the weekend about her anti-police positions in the past, Behn dodged the question three different times. She claimed the attacks on her comments about hating Nashville were “obviously taken out of context” and are just part of an attack campaign against her because Republicans are scared. “I do not hate country music. I was conceived after a George Strait concert,” Behn quipped during an interview on the “Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar” podcast. “It just shows — The New York Times reporter — that there’s a 48-page dossier of me, which includes clips,” she said. “I had a podcast back in the day called G.R.I.T.S. – Girls Raised In The South – and I was lamenting about, you know, the things that are wrong with our city. Obviously taken out of context, obviously hyperbolic, and I don’t feel that way at all.” Behn added that she thinks the attack ultimately backfired, and shows her opponent is “digging deep.” During the “Breaking Points” interview, Behn tried to dispel the criticism that she hates the district she is trying to represent by arguing that she has spent “the past decade” of her life “pouring blood, sweat and tears into my city and my state to make it better for working people.” However, that working-class campaign message also has been challenged by Behn’s past ahead of the special election. The state representative, for example, voted no in 2024 on a bill that would have resulted in a $400 million tax cut for certain Tennessee small businesses, including potential refunds of up to $1.5 billion. Among her other anti-tax cutting actions, Behn rallied against Republicans’ H.R. 1, the so-called “big, beautiful bill.” The bill, which extended President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, could have meant a nearly $4,000 increase for taxpayers in her district if it had not passed based on economic analyses. Lee called the move the “single largest tax cut” in the state’s history. Behn also voted against a statewide budget bill earlier in 2025 that would have added tens of millions to the state’s rainy day fund, which would have effectively padded the state’s coffers so that, in times of low revenue, taxes won’t need to be increased so much. That same budget bill would have also allocated millions for volunteer fire departments, senior centers, emergency medical services, teacher bonuses and other public safety funding.
Former Democratic presidential candidate talks about the future of his party after off-year election success
The Democrats enjoyed a series of wins across the country in the off-year election, taking governors’ races and key positions in several state and local elections. Despite the successes, the party’s future still appears unclear, as more centrist candidates won in Virginia and New Jersey, while more leftist candidates scored victories in places like New York City. Jason Palmer, a former Democratic presidential primary candidate and co-founder of TOGETHER!, argued the future of the party is “very much up for debate” — but not for long. He said he believes things will be clear within the next year and predicts the 2025 victories could lead to Democrats using split messaging, meaning candidates and platforms would be chosen based on their potential voters. “I think what’s going to end up happening is that the Democrats are going to become a bigger tent and take in different candidates in different regions based on the politics of those regions,” Palmer told Fox News Digital. “So, you’ll see people that are more like Beshear in Kentucky across the Midwest, you’ll some people more like Mamdani all throughout Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, etc., but the Democratic Party will have different messages for different parts of the country in the 2026 election.” ‘FULL-BLOWN BATTLE’ BREWING IN DEM PARTY AS MAMDANI-STYLE CANDIDATES RISE IN KEY RACES The former presidential candidate, who ran in the 2024 election cycle, said that his party is making a mistake in its messaging on billionaires and business. “Well, personally, I think they’re going too far anti-billionaire in their approach. America is a country where people can make of themselves what they want, and most of the people that are billionaires in America did not inherit their wealth,” Palmer said. “Business building is a core part of what makes America great, and I don’t think the Democratic Party should be bashing business builders. I think we should be pro-entrepreneurship and pro-mission-driven entrepreneurship, especially,” he added. While Palmer discussed the possibility of split messaging, he believes there is one issue that both Democrats and Republicans can get behind: conscious capitalism. He sees public benefit corporations (PBC) as the way of the future as young people search for meaning. “I think conscious capitalism is where our economy is ultimately going,” he said. “More and more young people want to work at purpose-driven companies, and they’re okay with them being for-profit companies.” MEET THE NEW ‘SQUAD’: THE NEXT GENERATION OF TRUMP-ERA PROGRESSIVE CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES When asked about what is driving young people’s need to find meaning through their work, Palmer said that he believes purpose-driven work has come to replace religion for many. While he himself is a Quaker, Palmer said he sees young people pulling away from organized religion and towards something else. “I think a lot of people are trying to get their purpose through work, and there are a lot of companies that provide that purpose and that family feeling, basically,” Palmer said. In order to implement conscious capitalism as actual policy, Palmer suggested a two-step taxation process in Washington, D.C. This would allow corporations that have mission-driven principles and release impact metrics to pay a lower rate than companies that go completely for-profit. With less than a year to go before the 2026 midterms, Palmer’s message to Democrats is to “look for younger candidates to run in purple districts all across the country.” He also shared that he plans to release a list of young candidates who he is endorsing. He said the people on his list are in their 20s and 30s and have entrepreneurial backgrounds and believe in “conscious capitalism.”
Mike Johnson: US-Israel alliance ‘really important’ for multiple reasons, antisemitism should be ‘called out’
House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the U.S.–Israel alliance as a strategic necessity in the Middle East and said antisemitism must be “universally rejected.” He made his comments as Republicans confront widening divisions over U.S. support for Israel and how the party should respond to rising antisemitism. During an interview on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” in response to what Miller called a “schism” in the GOP over Israel, Johnson said he wished “everybody would acknowledge the importance of that relationship,” noting many Americans view support for Israel as rooted in “scripturally based, biblical reasons.” “But even if you don’t accept that,” he continued, “you have to look at this objectively and say it’s really important to have that ally and partner in that corner of the world, and it’s the only stable democracy in the Middle East. It’s a tinderbox. MIKE PENCE: NO PLACE FOR ANTISEMITISM IN AMERICA TODAY, TOMORROW OR EVER “You can make all sorts of arguments of why this is a really important friendship and alliance. But the antisemitism stuff ought to be universally rejected and called out. And I’m very insistent about that,” Johnson told Miller. “We got to love everybody and certainly the Jewish people.” A small but increasingly vocal number of House Republicans have begun to break with the party’s traditional pro-Israel stance, most notably Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. ISRAEL’S STRIKES IN QATAR TRIGGERS RARE US REBUKE, TESTS TRUMP’S GULF DIPLOMACY Greene, who announced she will resign from Congress in January 2026, has been a vocal critic of U.S. policy toward Israel and called for cuts to military aid to Jerusalem. Massie has long opposed U.S. military aid to Israel and criticized the influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups, particularly AIPAC, on American foreign policy.
Pope Leo to travel to Turkiye, Lebanon on first foreign trip
NewsFeed Pope Leo XIV spoke about his upcoming first foreign trip as pontiff, a day before he is set to depart to Turkiye and Lebanon “to visit the beloved peoples of those countries rich in history and spirituality”. Published On 26 Nov 202526 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Georgia judge drops election interference case against Trump
BREAKINGBREAKING, Judge Scott McAfee in the southern state of Georgia rules that the case against Trump ‘is hereby dismissed in its entirety’. Published On 26 Nov 202526 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share A Georgia prosecutor has dropped pending charges against Donald Trump over allegations of 2020 election interference by the United States president and his allies. Judge Scott McAfee granted the request to terminate the prosecution on Wednesday, putting an end to the last set of criminal charges against Trump. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “This case is hereby dismissed in its entirety,” McAfee wrote. Trump faced four indictments in 2024, while he was out of office. Only one of the cases, in New York, proceeded to a trial. He was found guilty of falsifying business records in relation to a hush money payment to an adult film actress and sentenced to “unconditional discharge”, escaping any penalty like fines, probation or jail time. Two sets of federal charges against him — one over allegations of election meddling and another containing accusations of mishandling secret government documents — were dropped after Trump was re-elected president in November of last year. The prosecution in the Georgia case had already faced a setback when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the case for having a romantic relationship with one of her top deputies. The case in Georgia centred on a call by Trump with the state’s top election official Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 vote in which he said he wants to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the election. Trump had rejected the victory of his would-be successor, former President Joe Biden, falsely alleging that widespread voter fraud was behind the results. Advertisement In 2023, Willis charged Trump and 16 of his allies who challenged the election result in the state with racketeering and a string of crimes related to the vote. The US president – who made a stunning come back to the White House earlier this year – has always denied any wrongdoing in the cases against him, calling them a politically motivated “witch hunt”. This is a breaking news story. More details to come… Adblock test (Why?)
US ranchers whiplashed by Trump’s beef policies
It has been a whiplash-inducing month for the American rancher, one of United States President Donald Trump’s most steadfast voting blocs. Starting with an October 19 quip from Trump that the US would increase beef imports from Argentina to the ensuing rancher backlash against the announcement of an investigation into the hyperconsolidated US meatpacking industry and the dropping of tariffs on Brazilian beef, ranchers have found themselves caught between the president’s desires to appease both them and the American consumer in the face of high beef prices. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list US ranchers have enjoyed rising cattle prices, largely the result of the lowest herd numbers for beef cattle since the 1950s. Other factors constricting supply include the closure of the Mexican border to live cattle due to concerns over screwworm and steep tariffs on foreign beef. Cattle prices paid to ranchers are separate from consumer beef prices, which, as of September, were $6.32 for a pound (453 grams) of ground beef, an 11 percent rise from September 2024 when they were $5.67 a pound. The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not release economic data, including the consumer price index for last month, because of the government shutdown. Trump had no patience for the typically loyal ranchers objecting to his plan to import more Argentinian beef, which they saw as a threat to their recent economic gains. “If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years – Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that,” Trump wrote in an October post on his Truth Social platform. Advertisement While Corbitt Wall, a commercial cattle manager and market analyst, is clear that he “totally supports Trump and everything he does”, he also saw hubris and a misunderstanding of the cattle industry by the president. “There was not a person in the cattle business on any level that was not insulted by that post,” he told Al Jazeera. Wall religiously follows prices across the cattle trade from ranch to slaughterhouse and has watched the futures market for cattle slide down by more than 15 percent since Trump’s October 21 announcement. Futures prices dictate what ranchers can expect to sell cattle for down the line and sway current sale prices as well. For ranchers’ sake, Wall said he hopes Trump leaves the cattle market alone. “He doesn’t live in this world, in this cattle world, and doesn’t realise the impact that a statement can make in our business,” Wall said. Years of rough seasons Oregon rancher David Packham said that while cattle prices have jumped in ranchers’ favour, many are still struggling in the face of years of rough seasons. Years of drought across the country raised feed costs for all and pushed some ranchers to sell off cattle. Sticker prices on farm equipment from tractors to pick-up trucks have ballooned as well, especially on the back of supply chain challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are expected to rise further on account of Trump’s tariffs. Packham said he has regularly sold cattle at a loss and doesn’t want consumers to think ranchers are living high off the hog. “I’m looking at a 40-year-old tractor that I use on a daily basis just to keep putting off replacing it, making repairs, although it’s difficult to find parts for now, just to keep it limping along because I couldn’t afford $100,000 for a new tractor,” Packham said. “When I say we’re not really making a whole lot of money, it’s because we have all this loss carryover.” Cattle are sold at Nevada Livestock Marketing in Fallon, Nevada [Courtesy of Corbitt Wall] Packham was a registered Republican until Trump’s first term. The president’s Argentina comments and the subsequent chaos for the cattle industry have propped open a door for ranchers critical of Trump, but they represent a minority within the community, he said. “I’m noticing more and more of them [ranchers] that had been cautiously neutral, that are now kind of like me and just saying, ‘You know what? No. This is bulls***. He’s a train wreck,’” Packham said. ‘Perennial issue’ One action ranchers can support, however, is Trump’s November 7 announcement of a Department of Justice investigation into the big four US meatpackers – Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef – “for potential collusion, price fixing and price manipulation”. Advertisement Historically, ranchers looking to sell cattle have held little negotiating power as the four companies control more than 80 percent of the market. However, a prior Department of Justice investigation into meatpacker price-fixing was started under the first Trump administration in 2020 due to a gulf created by falling cattle prices and rising consumer beef prices. The investigation continued under President Joe Biden’s administration but was never publicly concluded. According to Bloomberg News, the investigation was quietly closed with no findings just weeks before Trump announced the November antitrust probe. James MacDonald, a research professor in agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland, views the administration’s antitrust investigation announcement as “entirely for political consumption”. “It is a perennial issue that p***es off ranchers, and you can gain some political ground by attacking the packers,” MacDonald said. Packham would prefer the new investigation to come at a different time and said that given the squeeze from the tight cattle market, packers are operating under slimmer margins and not from a position of absolute power. On Friday, Tyson announced the closure of a Nebraska beef-processing plant that employed more than 3,000 people. MacDonald called the decision a “shock” indicative of the depths of the US beef shortage. The current low cattle inventory in the US came from years of drought, which wiped out grazing lands and slowed herd rebuilding. Replenishing the cattle supply chain is a years-long process. “That’s sort of a fact and a fundamental, and it’s not going to change for a while,” MacDonald said. MacDonald also doesn’t believe the increased Argentina imports will ease this shortage
Mumbai AQI at 184: Air pollution chokes Maximum City; is BMC looking to implement GRAP-4 measures?
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Mumbai on Wednesday(as of 10 am) recorded an AQI of 157 at Bandra Kurla Complex, 230 at Borivali East, 182 at Byculla, 202 at Chakla-Andheri East, 162 at Chembur, 141 at Ghatkopar, 276 at Mazgaon, 178 at Kandivali, and 223 at Malad West.
FRESH controversy for Kunal Kamra: Comedian’s T-shirt mocking RSS goes viral, BJP warns of..
Fresh controversy has erupted between comedian Kunal Kamra and BJP, after he shared a photo on social media wearing a T-shirt that allegedly mocked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Goddess Kali’s idol vandalised, dressed as Mother Mary in Mumbai’s Chembur; arrested priest makes shocking claims, says ‘appeared in dream and instructed…’
A priest at a temple in Mumbai’s Chembur was arrested after Kali Devi’s idol was vandalized and dressed as Mother Mary. Devotees were left shocked when they arrived for darshan and found goddess Kali idol resembling Mother Mary.