Second Biden Official Resigns Over War in Gaza: “I Cannot Be Quietly Complicit”

A senior Education Department official and the department’s only Palestinian American political appointee has resigned over Joe Biden’s response to the war in Gaza.

Tariq Habash, who sent his resignation letter on Wednesday, is at least the second high-ranking Biden administration official to resign in protest over the Israel-Palestine war.

“The actions of the Biden-Harris Administration have put millions of innocent lives in danger, most immediately for the 2.3 million Palestinian civilians living in Gaza who remain under continuous assault and ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government. Therefore, I must resign,” Habash said in his letter.

“I mourn each and every loss, Israeli and Palestinian. But I cannot represent an administration that does not value all human life equally.”

Nearly all of the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip have been displaced due to Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the region. Palestinians were forced to flee to designated “safe zones,” only for Israel to bomb those areas as well. Almost 22,500 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children. Some organizations, such as the nonprofit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, put the death toll at nearly 30,000.

South Africa asked the International Court of Justice in late December for an urgent order declaring that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its nearly three-month assault on the Gaza Strip. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby criticized South Africa’s lawsuit on Wednesday as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”

“I cannot be quietly complicit as this administration fails to leverage its influence as Israel’s strongest ally to halt the abusive and ongoing collective punishment tactics that have cut off Palestinians in Gaza from food, water, electricity, fuel, and medical supplies, leading to widespread disease and starvation,” Habash said in his letter.

Over the last three months, our government has aided in the indiscriminate violence against Palestinians in Gaza—over 22,000 civilians killed, thousands more buried under rubble, and the vast majority displaced from their homes. Despite claims that Israel’s focus is on Hamas, its military actions simultaneously persist across the West Bank where there is no Hamas governing presence, with hundreds of Palestinians killed in the West Bank before October and hundreds more killed since. Additionally, thousands of Palestinians have been detained, arrested, and held without charge or trial—a violation of international humanitarian law. Meanwhile, the President has publicly questioned the integrity of Palestinian death counts frequently used by our own State Department, the United Nations, and numerous humanitarian non-governmental organizations. Our representatives at the United Nations have repeatedly voted against the vast majority of the international community, including vetoing resolutions calling for a ceasefire. And administration leaders have even repeated unverified claims that systematically dehumanize Palestinians.

Habash is now the second Biden official known to have resigned in protest over the administration’s response to the situation in Gaza. Josh Paul, who had worked at the State Department for 11 years, resigned in October, slamming the government for its “one-sided” policy that prioritized Israel at the expense of Palestinian civilians.

“I cannot work in support of a set of major policy decisions, including rushing more arms to one side of the conflict, that I believe to be short-sighted, destructive, unjust and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse,” Paul said in a statement.

Also in October, a director of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights resigned, condemning the organization, the U.S., and Western media for their stance on the war. Craig Mokhiber, who had worked with the U.N. for more than three decades, called the situation in Gaza a “text-book case of genocide.”

“Once again, we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the Organization that we serve appears powerless to stop it,” he said.

Read Tariq Habash’s full letter here.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is apparently willing to sacrifice just about anything for her political career—even her husband’s name.

In a true Selina Meyer move, the former South Carolina governor apparently decided that her then boyfriend’s name wasn’t fashionable enough for her political motivations.

“You may be wondering how ‘Bill’ became South Carolina First Gentleman Michael Haley,” Haley wrote in her autobiographical 2012 book, Can’t Is Not an Option: My American Story.

She then outlines how she suddenly decided he no longer looked like a Bill, opting instead to call him by his second name, Michael, which her friends quickly adopted.

“From that point on, I started calling him Michael, and all my friends did the same. When he transferred to Clemson his sophomore year, my friends became his friends, and before we knew it, he was universally known as Michael,” Haley wrote.

“He looks like a Michael,” she added.

U.S. House candidate Mayra Flores got caught up in a sticky situation on Wednesday when it became apparent that the Mexican-born politician has been ripping and reposting photos of Mexican food from other online accounts, all while claiming it as her own cooking.

The Texas Republican, who is running again for the seat she previously held from 2022 to 2023 representing Texas’s 34th congressional district, was called out in several posts on Twitter that tied photos of self-proclaimed, self-made grub from her Instagram account to other sources online.

“The ranch life with family is the best,” Flores captioned one photo of corn flour gorditas cooking over a wood-burning fire pit, although the photo was posted more than a year earlier to a Guyana tourism Facebook page.

In another post sharing a photo of eggs and tortillas, Flores claimed she was a “proud Latina who knows how to cook,” adding that “homemade Mexican food tastes better from a gas stove.”

Except that photo too was ripped from another source and was originally posted on Facebook in 2021 by Izabal magazine.

Flores has deleted at least one of the stolen photos since online sleuths began taking note.

In a text messaged statement, Flores told the The Texas Tribune it wasn’t her “intention to mislead.”

“The photo simply reminded me of my upbringing in Mexico and childhood,” she added. “I deleted the tweet to clear up any confusion. I actually spend my Christmas at ranch with my In-Laws. Happy New Year!”

When asked to specify which photos she was referring to, Flores told the Tribune to turn its attention toward the border.

It’s a strange twist for a politician who previously accused first lady Jill Biden of allegedly believing you can win over Latinos with food.

“[Democrats] think that by giving us tacos, playing Latin music, that’s all it’s going to take for us to vote for them. It’s not,” Flores told Fox Business in August 2022.

Ron DeSantis wants to bring back an extreme 1950s-era immigration policy that saw the mass deportation of up to 1.3 million migrants.

During a Wednesday night town hall, DeSantis floated the idea of resurrecting President Dwight Eisenhower’s racist-named “Operation Wetback.” That program sparked the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, as authorities employed military-style tactics to deport Mexican immigrants, some of whom had been naturalized.

When asked if every undocumented migrant would be deported, DeSantis said, “Everybody is subject to that.”

“We’re gonna do the Biden eight million, that’s a big task,” he continued, referring to the Republican estimate that eight million migrants have supposedly entered the country during Joe Biden’s time in office. “Eisenhower had a program in the ’50s, so we’re gonna do that.”

Anywhere from 300,000 to 1.3 million people were deported under Operation Wetback, which lasted for three months in 1954. Historians say it is impossible to know exactly how many people were forcibly removed, because some people reentered the U.S. and were deported again.

The policy disrupted families, communities, and U.S. business operations that relied on migrant labor. Tens of thousands of people were sent to random parts of Mexico, where they struggled to find their footing. The conditions in which they were detained and transported were brutal, and thousands of people died from sunstroke and disease.

DeSantis has promised repeatedly to crack down on immigration, often in cruel and inhumane ways. This is the second time he is raising the idea of bringing back Eisenhower’s policy. He also suggested in September that the United States shoot alleged cartel members on sight at the border. DeSantis offered no details on how to actually identify a cartel member by sight alone.

The Florida governor doubled down Wednesday on his terrible immigration policy ideas in an op-ed for the Des Moines Register. He promised to declare a national emergency over immigration, crack down on asylum requests, and to finish building the border wall and make Mexico pay for it. DeSantis also threatened consequences for Mexico and other Central American countries for letting so many migrants reach the U.S. border.

“Florida under my leadership has been a bulwark of immigration enforcement,” DeSantis bragged. “I sent illegal aliens out of Florida’s communities and to so-called ‘sanctuary cities,’ such as Martha’s Vineyard. And I signed the strongest anti-illegal immigration legislation in the country.”

He failed to mention that he has been accused of human trafficking by sending migrants to other states. Massachusetts officials are urging the Justice Department to look into Desantis’s actions.

Many of Florida’s new immigration laws have disrupted businesses, with farmers saying that migrant workers are avoiding the Sunshine State altogether. Backlash has been so bad that even Republican lawmakers have had to admit they messed up.

Six states received bomb threats to their state capitols on Wednesday morning, forcing them to stall their newly opened legislative sessions and evacuate their capitol complexes.

Those states included Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Connecticut, and Montana. No evidence of dangerous items were immediately found, officials said.

“There have been multiple bomb threats to state capitols around the nation. So far Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan & Montana,” said Georgia’s Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling in a statement on X. “Do not jump to conclusions as to who is responsible. There will be chaos agents sowing discord for 2024. They want to increase tensions. Don’t let them.”

While the mass threat against elected officials is certainly a shocking way to begin the year, it’s actually a part of a growing trend. Data reported by the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education, or NCITE, Center indicates that violent threats against public officials have been on the rise since they began collecting data in 2013.

In the last decade, 501 threats against public officials have resulted in federal charges, with 80 percent of those ending in convictions, according to NCITE.

“We have had an astounding number of threats against public servants for the last several years,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told a Republican-controlled congressional committee in September.

“When they are singled out, this can lead to threats of violence and actual violence,” Garland said, referring to the armed attacker who attempted to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office shortly after the federal law enforcement agency seized documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.

“We must not allow that to happen in this country,” he added.

Several of Donald Trump’s biggest fans seem increasingly frantic about a forthcoming list divulging the names of those who traveled on Epstein’s plane and visited his various international estates.

In social media posts and public appearances, several MAGA talking heads have made it clear that Trump’s highly anticipated presence on such a list, which is expected to contain nearly 200 names, is at the front of their minds.

On Tuesday, the former president’s son turned fingers toward Bill Clinton, who has also been photographed alongside the serial rapist.

“Everyone knows Bill Clinton was on Jeffrey Epstein’s [planes] and island a lot. Literally no one is at all surprised that he’s all over the release,” Don Jr. posted on X. “What we want to know is ALL THE OTHER NAMES that the government has been hiding & running cover for. That will actually be revealing!”

InfoWars host and Trump sycophant Alex Jones also made some noise on the issue, apparently having a hard time rationalizing how the known womanizer could have been associated with Epstein.

“I will say this, if it turns out Trump ever went to Epstein Island, I will remove any support from him,” Jones said. “But I know Roger Stone very well, and I know people that know Trump well, a lot of people, I’ll leave it at that. I know women that have dated Trump, prominent women.”

“He gets devoted to one woman at a time, gets totally obsessed with them, totally nice to them,” Jones continued, apparently ignoring the fact that Trump is due for a criminal trial this year on the basis of paying hush money to a porn star with whom he reportedly had an affair.

Other conservatives seemed equally flabbergasted at the anticipated unveiling, attempting to frame a new conspiracy to avoid confronting the reality of Trump’s behavior.

“High chance that the Epstein filings will include Donald Trump’s name. Out of context, the legacy media and TDS sufferers will pretend this isn’t because he gave willing testimony against Epstein when queried and will make believe that it makes him a pervert,” posted X user @Styx666Official to much conspiratorial head-nodding.

That’s compared to the dozens of instances in which Trump was captured in photos and vidos partying alongside Epstein and Maxwell. In one video from 1992, he is seen laughing with Epstein and pointing to young women dancing at a party.* Trump also once described the pedophile peddler as a “terrific guy.”

Other MAGA headliners were so upset by the list that they ceased making any sense at all, including Tomi Lahren, who insinuated that the list includes Trump only as a diversionary tactic.

“So, what do you think they’re going to go after Trump for next to bury the Epstein document dump and all the pedophiles on it?” Lahren posted on X. “Every time they want to cover their tracks, they go after Trump.”

The list of Jane and John Does, which was formed nearly nine years ago after Virginia Giuffre filed a defamation claim against Epstein’s girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, was originally set to be published on Tuesday but has since been postponed until after January 22, according to NewsNation.

Many of the names are expected to be publicly known Epstein associates, including employees of the financier. Other possible names to be unveiled could include Epstein’s victims as well as his clients and perpetrators. The latter will likely include some public figures who have already been explicitly tied to the sex trafficker, including British Prince Andrew and, of course, Donald Trump.

* This piece has been updated with a concrete example of Trump and Epstein being captured on camera together.

It seems that Israel is finally opening up to the idea of a two-state solution to its conflict with Palestine—so long as the second state is on a completely different continent.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition has been secretly speaking with the Democratic Republic of Congo about resettling thousands of Palestinians in the African nation, the Israeli outlet Zman Israel reported Wednesday.

“Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” a senior source in the security Cabinet, speaking anonymously, said.

Netanyahu and his allies floated the idea of sending Palestinians elsewhere last week, but the idea has been vehemently rejected by the international community. Moreover, Congo is unlikely to have the resources necessary to take care of such a massive influx of displaced people. More than half of the country’s population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Food Programme.

Israeli officials have made it increasingly clear in recent days that their plan is to completely eliminate Palestine. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that a way to solve the war was to “encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees.”

Separately, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told reporters Monday that the war was an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza.”

The U.S. State Department slammed the officials’ comments as “inflammatory” and “irresponsible.”

“We have been told repeatedly and consistently by the Government of Israel, including by the Prime Minister, that such statements do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. They should stop immediately,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

But it seems that Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s statements do reflect the policy of the Israeli government. Nearly all of the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip have been displaced due to Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the region. Palestinians were forced to flee to designated “safe zones,” only for Israel to bomb those areas, as well.

South Africa asked the International Court of Justice on December 29 for an urgent order declaring that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in its nearly three-month assault on the Gaza Strip. More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children. Some organizations, such as the nonprofit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, put the death toll at nearly 30,000.

Michigan’s state Republican Party is falling into complete disarray as the Michigan GOP state committee tries to remove its party chair, who claims that such a move is unlawful.

The committee has scheduled a special meeting for Saturday to vote on whether to remove Chair Kristina Karamo. But Karamo argued Tuesday that the meeting has not been lawfully scheduled, and threatened not to abide by the result of the vote.

Karamo has served less than one year of her two-year term. A 2020 election denier and ardent Donald Trump supporter, she ran unsuccessfully for secretary of state in 2022. A few months later, she was elected as the Republican Party’s chairperson.

Her short tenure has been plagued with problems. Her fellow party members have accused her of a lack of transparency and organization, autocratic rule, and even interference with county party business.

In October, Karamo revealed the party was nearly $500,000 in debt. Her opponents slammed her for seemingly failing to do anything to improve the party’s finances.

In a sign of how little support she has from her own Republicans, eight of the 13 district chairs and her own party co-chair signed a letter calling for Karamo’s ousting.

“You were chosen as chairwoman because the majority of the Republican delegates strongly respected your commitment to a new era of transparency, honesty and meaningful involvement on the part of the State Committee,” the letter said. “Regrettably, these policies no longer seem to be a priority in your administration and the Party’s financial stability is quickly deteriorating.”

Karamo pushed back, claiming Tuesday that the meeting had not been called according to party rules. She told the Detroit Free Press that the people who called the meeting “have zero legal authority to conduct business regarding the Michigan Republican Party or its State Committee.”

Under party bylaws, 75 percent of the party must vote against Karamo to remove her. If Karamo refuses to recognize the meeting and its result, it could spark a legal battle over party leadership.

Fox News host Sean Hannity has moved to Florida from New York, citing a desire to be in a state with representatives that share his ideologies.

The far-right anchor announced Tuesday that he was already settled in his new home. He had previously recorded his shows out of his home in Long Island and would go to Fox News’s Manhattan headquarters for live shows.

“I’ve been threatening now to do this for quite a while, but we are now beginning our first broadcast from my new home, and that is in the free state of Florida,” Hannity said on his radio show. “I am out. I am done. I am finished.”

“Finally, for the first time that I can think of in my adult life, I actually have representatives in the state that I’m living in that share my values.”

Florida’s Republican Party controls the state legislature and the governor’s office. This overwhelming amount of power has allowed Governor Ron DeSantis to push through multiple extreme culture-war laws.

Hannity bragged that his new home has “warmer weather, law and order, better education, more freedom, [and] better quality of life.”

The state also has incredibly high insurance premiums as climate change batters the coastline. It has rules restricting everything from what people can wear in public to what books they can read and what bathroom they can use. It has an education system that tries to argue slavery was just a job training program. And DeSantis has antagonized Disney, one of the biggest job creators in the state, setting off a bizarre legal battle.

The move also puts Hannity much closer to Donald Trump. Despite purporting to be a journalist, Hannity appears to be a close adviser and ally to the former president. Hannity appeared onstage at a Trump rally in 2018. Two years later, Hannity helped write one of Trump’s 2020 campaign ads.

One of Donald Trump’s lawyers appeared to accidentally admit that the former president may have engaged in insurrection.

Christina Bobb, a vocal 2020 election denier, tried to argue Tuesday night that voters should be able to elect anyone they want for president.

“The president is elected by the entire nation, and it should be the entire nation who determines who they want for president, whether they are guilty of insurrection or not,” Bobb said during an interview on Real America’s Voice. “It’s up to the people.”

Bobb seems to be arguing that even an insurrectionist should be allowed to run the country, which could be seen as an admission of guilt.

Trump was recently disqualified from the primary ballots in Colorado and Maine, after the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine secretary of state determined that he had engaged in insurrection and was therefore constitutionally ineligible to run for president.

The issue of his eligibility is likely headed to the Supreme Court. Trump appealed the Maine decision Tuesday, and the Colorado Republican Party has asked the nation’s high court to review their state’s decision.

Bobb’s blunder is not the first time that one of Trump’s lawyers, or even Bobb herself, has undermined one of his lawsuits. Bobb signed a sworn statement to the Justice Department in spring 2022 attesting that Trump’s legal team had carried out a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago and found only a few files that needed to be returned to the government.

That, of course, proved to be completely false. Bobb came under intense Justice Department scrutiny and ultimately testified in front of the grand jury in the investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.

In August, two of Trump’s other lawyers also undermined his case. Trump was arraigned in Washington on August 3 for allegedly attempting to overthrow the 2020 election. His defense stems from his claim that he genuinely believed he had won.

But outside the courthouse, attorney Alina Habba confidently stated, “I think that everybody was made aware that he lost the election.”

And just two days earlier, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro decided the best defense is just to admit to everything. Lauro bluntly confirmed that Trump had pressured Mike Pence to delay certifying the votes (which is against the law) and had tried to use fake electors (also illegal).