Raw Story

MAGA loyalists were unhappy Monday after discovering the replacement for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), oil and gas executive Alan Armstrong, had made a political contribution to one of President Donald Trump's adversaries.

Armstrong was slated to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to talk about the plans to appoint him to potentially serve the rest of Mullin's remaining term in the Senate as Mullin takes over to lead the Department of Homeland Security, The Daily Beast reported.

Although the details of the discussions were not immediately released, the conversation was expected to touch on Armstrong's $5,800 donation to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). Kinzinger had voted to impeach Trump and the donation came around that time, according to NOTUS.

Stitt has also reportedly floated the idea of two other people replacing Mullin, including Stitt's own senior advisor Dustin Hilliary and oil and gas magnate Harold Hamm.

Some of Trump's MAGA allies were furious over the move to potentially bring Armstrong to Capitol Hill.

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer was enraged over the development.

“Has anyone told President Trump that the Governor of Oklahoma is bringing a Never Trumper who donated to a rabid anti-Trump Congressman who voted to impeach him after J6 to meet with him?” Loomer wrote on X. “Hey @SenMullin what do you think about your Never Trump replacement? Now would be a good time for you to speak up!”

Roger Stone, longtime political consultant and staunch ally of President Donald Trump, had a similar reaction.

“Alan Armstrong the Oklahoma Oil Man RINO Governor Stitt wants to appoint to the vacancy in the US Senate gave thousands of dollars to Trump enemy Little Adam Kinzinger AFTER the Jan 6 Fedsurrection,” Stone wrote on X.

Stone also added that Stitt should select Hamm to replace Mullin.

"RINO Oklahoma Gov Stitt should appoint Harold Hamm instead of Adam Kinzinger Megadonor Alan Armstrong to Oklahoma's vacancy in the US Senate," Stone wrote on X.

Co-founder of Students for Trump, Ryan Fournier, had a similar sentiment.

"Gov. Stitt is pushing for Alan Armstrong to replace Mullin in the Senate. Armstrong donated thousands to Never-Trumper Adam Kinzinger after he voted to impeach Trump," Fournier wrote on X.

Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was confronted in public Saturday over his handling of the criminal probe into Jeffrey Epstein and potential co-conspirators, with one heckler issuing Bongino an especially brutal nickname, as seen in a clip of the confrontation that went viral on Sunday.

Details of the event Bongino was confronted are sparse, though the conservative news website The Gateway Pundit reported Sunday that it took place Saturday evening. Far-right lawyer and Army veteran Ivan Raiklin also confirmed details of the incident after refuting claims that he had been the one to confront the former FBI deputy director. Bongino has also shared at least 10 posts on social media Sunday morning mocking the group that apparently confronted him.

In the video, an unidentified individual recording the encounter approached Bongino and immediately began insulting the ex-FBI official.

“You’re a pedophile protector!” the individual can be heard shouting. “A pedophile protector, pedophile protector!”

A visibly angry Bongino fired back and could be heard shouting “go volunteer to do something!"

“I was a cop for nine years, you’re a pedophile protector, f-----!” the individual said, using a homophobic slur. “You’re a pedophile protector, f--- you, dude, f--- you!”

Raiklin was initially attributed as having been the one to confront Bongino by several prominent X users, an attribution he refuted several times.

“I wasn't the one who said that nor caused the scene,” Raiklin wrote in a social media post Sunday. “It was some former cop.”

Another clip of the encounter filmed from a different angle – shared by the far-right extremist group Oath Keepers – shows Bongino lashing out at the group, shouting “you didn’t do s—!”

Donald Trump’s impulsive weekend decision to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the nation’s airports to do the jobs of TSA agents not being paid by the administration, put his border czar on the spot on CNN.

Early Sunday morning, the frustrated president said ICE would pulled from their jobs grabbing immigrants off the street to help out at airports plagued by TSA sick-outs and that Homan would be responsible for getting it done.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Tom Homan, who inherited former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s duties after she was fired, was pressed by host Dana Bash over training for agents who have no airport security experience .

According to Homan, it is a “work in progress” and details are still be worked out before the Monday deadline.

“Are ICE agents even remotely trained to handle security at airports?” the CNN host asked.

“Ice agents receive high-level training,” Homan insisted. “And, you know, ICE agents are assigned at many airports across the country already. They do a lot of investigation, criminal investigation on smuggling reports. But, you know, there's, I mean, there's a lot TSA agents covering exits, you know, people that enter through the exits. You know, certainly a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit that makes people don't go through those exits entering the airport, through the exits. That stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to, to reduce those lines. “

“I don't see an ICE agent looking at an x-ray machine because they're not trained in that,” he admitted.

After the Trump official elaborated, “So hopefully we'll have all those answers here by this afternoon, but we're working on it. And when we deploy tomorrow, we'll have a well-thought-out plan to execute,” the skeptical CNN host asked, “With respect, if you're doing this in 24 hours, how well thought out could it possibly be?”

“Again, ICE has been at airports across the country for a long time. It's just expanding those things,” Homan pushed back. “Look, it does it –– how much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit, to make sure no one comes through that exit? And we're talking about security options. And these officers are well-trained in security and they're well-trained in identification. And we're going to do what we can to help TSA move those people through the line.”

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With just a month until a key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act spying power expires, US House Speaker Mike Johnson was planning to try to push through reauthorization legislation next week, but the Louisiana Republican leader is now reportedly delaying the vote while “still dealing with a dozen or so Republican members who want reforms.”

Privacy advocates and lawmakers across the political spectrum have long called for reforms to FISA’s Section 702, which empowers the US government to surveil electronic communications of noncitizens located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information, without a warrant.

Citing three unnamed sources familiar with discussions in the House of Representatives, Politico reported Friday that “with a GOP hard-liner revolt over warrantless surveillance threatening to tank the legislation,” Johnson “will instead work through the remaining issues over the upcoming two-week recess and try to put the extension on the floor the week of April 14.”

Welcoming the development, Demand Progress executive director Sean Vitka said in a statement that “Speaker Johnson is backing away from his plan to ram through a FISA reauthorization vote next week because he knows his members don’t want it and the American people don’t want it.”

“Republicans, Democrats, and independents all overwhelmingly want Congress to take serious action to protect privacy—in particular against AI and data brokers—and oppose any efforts to rubber-stamp the government’s warrantless mass surveillance powers as is,” Vitka continued.

“Before any vote on reauthorizing FISA,” he added, “Congress must first enact real protections for Americans’ privacy, in particular by closing the data broker loophole to prevent the government from circumventing the courts and independent oversight through the purchase of Americans’ private location, web browsing, and other sensitive information.”

Various bills, including the bipartisan Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act introduced last month by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), would close the loophole that agencies use to buy their way around the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which is supposed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Demand Progress has endorsed that bill, and on Thursday partnered with the Project On Government Oversight and over 130 other artificial intelligence and civil rights groups for a letter urging Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to impose “much-needed privacy protections against government agencies’ warrantless mass surveillance of people in the United States.”

President Donald Trump and his pro-spying deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, have fought for a “clean” reauthorization, but the GOP has slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. In the House, Johnson can only afford to lose two votes, and in the Senate, most bills require at least some Democratic support to get to the president’s desk.

The conduct of Trump’s second administration has fueled calls for reform. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a Thursday statement that “as the Trump administration continues to run roughshod over our Constitution, we cannot continue to give them a further opening to sacrifice our civil liberties in the name of national security. We cannot give Stephen Miller a blank check to conduct domestic surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

“I have been working on essential reforms to FISA across administrations, and I have not wavered—whether it is a Democratic or Republican president,” she noted. “This has always been a bipartisan issue for good reason. Americans across political parties care deeply about privacy and not being surveilled. Congress has a duty to protect those fundamental constitutional liberties. Any attempt to push forward a ‘clean’ reauthorization of Section 702 will put our private, sensitive data at risk.”

Jayapal stressed that “this Trump administration has been particularly brazen in its use of domestic surveillance to suppress our constitutional rights and dissent. In just the last six weeks, the administration has blacklisted Anthropic for refusing to stand down on its requirement that its technology not be used for the mass surveillance of Americans, and we learned that the Department of Justice surveilled me—and likely many other members—while reviewing the Epstein files, seeking justice for survivors.”

“In Minnesota, federal immigration agents have surveilled and intimidated US citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to document agents’ unlawful actions,” the congresswoman noted. “It is time to reform FISA, ensure our Fourth Amendment protections are guaranteed, and stop the government surveillance of Americans.”

President Donald Trump made a shocking joke that left people in the Oval Office visibly uncomfortable on Thursday during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

A reporter asked Trump why he didn't tell U.S. allies, including European and Asian countries, such as Japan, that he was planning joint military strikes with Israel on Iran.

Trump's response shocked the room — and left some people nervously laughing.

"One thing, you don't want to signal too much when we go in," Trump said. "We went in very hard and we didn't tell anyone about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?"

Two men were charged Monday on suspicion of using weapons of mass destruction and supporting the Islamic State after throwing a bomb near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Gracie Mansion.

Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi were arrested Saturday night after authorities alleged they tried to detonate two explosive devices, according to The New York Times. One of the explosives reportedly tested positive for TATP, which is a highly volatile material that has been used in terrorist attacks over the last 10 years.

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said that one of the suspects said they were apparently plotting an attack worse than the Boston Marathon bombing.

"They admitted to authorities that they had traveled to New York City to watch ISIS videos, and that their actions that day were partly inspired by ISIS,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters.

Rebecca Weiner, NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, said the arrests were consistent with what authorities have seen, as “younger and younger individuals are radicalizing.” The attack was “very much in keeping with the trend we were seeing with ISIS inspired adherence,” she said.

The improvised explosive devices were detonated in isolation by officials, CNN reported. The materials were now under FBI investigation.