Raw Story

Leaders at the ACLU on Tuesday joined other rights advocates and elected Democrats in condemning US President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Memphis with a Monday order he signed beside Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

“When military troops police civilians, we have an intolerable threat to individual liberty and the foundational values of this country,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, in a statement.

“President Trump may want to normalize armed forces in our cities, but no matter what uniform they wear, federal agents and military troops are bound by the Constitution and have to respect our rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, and due process,” Shamsi continued. “State and local leaders must stay strong and take all lawful measures to protect residents against this cruel intimidation tactic.”

While Lee expressed his gratitude to Trump for the order, some other elected officials in Tennessee have spoken out since Trump previewed his plans for Memphis on “Fox & Friends” last Friday.

The Associated Press reported on local opposition Monday:

“I did not ask for the National Guard, and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young told a news conference Friday while acknowledging the city remained high on too many “bad lists.”

Young has also said that now the decision is made, he wants to ensure he can help influence the Guard’s role. He mentioned possibilities such as traffic control for big events, monitoring cameras for police and undertaking beautification projects.

At a news conference Monday, some local Democrats urged officials to consider options to oppose the deployment. Tami Sawyer, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk, said the city or county could sue.

State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86), whose district includes parts of the city, declared, “We need poverty eradication, not military occupation!”

Denouncing Trump’s targeting of Memphis on MSNBC, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said that “having the National Guard here is unnecessary and it is a stunt. It’s just a Trump show, to show his power and his force.”

“I think this may be the first representation of his changing the Department of Defense to the Department of War, because he likes to put the National Guard at his direction, as his being the great warrior, into cities and going to war,” he added.

According to a White House fact sheet, Trump’s memorandum tasks Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with requesting Lee “make Tennessee National Guard units available to support public safety and law enforcement operations in Memphis,” and further directs Hegseth to “coordinate with state governors to mobilize National Guard personnel from those states to support this effort.”

The order also “establishes a Memphis Safe Task Force tasked with ending street and violent crime in Memphis to the greatest possible extent, including by coordinating closely with state and local officials in Tennessee, Memphis, and neighboring jurisdictions to share information, develop joint priorities, and maximize resources to make Memphis safe and restore public order.”

Trump has already deployed the National Guard to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, California, and threatened to do so in Chicago, Illinois, where his deadly “Operation Midway Blitz” targeting immigrants is already underway.

“Expanding military involvement into US civilian law enforcement is dangerous and unwarranted,” Tanya Greene, US program director at Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday. “The Trump administration’s continued deployment of military forces in cities with populations primarily comprised of people of color, like Memphis, risks exacerbating violence against immigrants, unhoused people, and poor people in general.”

“While communities desperately need food, affordable housing, and healthcare,” she added, “hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on these deployments.”

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace unleashed on FBI Director Kash Patel for what she called a "sick, twisted and cruel" way of destroying the FBI.

On Tuesday, Wallace welcomed New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush, who exposed the FBI for going after an agent who was blamed for being part of an investigation he had nothing to do with. Another was shoved out at a time his wife was facing cancer and having an adverse reaction to chemotherapy.

Last week, three fired FBI agents filed a lawsuit against the FBI and Kash Patel. On Tuesday, two more are seeking solutions to fight back against their firing.

Chris Meyer and Walter Giardina, both decorated combat veterans with years of service in the FBI, are now also suing after their firing, too. These agents were likely the two that the previous three supervisors mentioned fighting for in the previous lawsuit, Thrush said.

"Last month, Mr. Patel summarily fired Mr. Meyer and another top agent in the Washington, D.C., field office who had been targeted by the right, Walter Giardina," the report said. "Mr. Patel did so after being told that the terminations were unlawful and that pushing out Mr. Giardina, who was caring for his dying wife, would be 'inexcusably cruel,' according to a lawsuit filed by three F.B.I. supervisors also dismissed by Mr. Patel."

"There's a special provision in the law that allows FBI agents who are veterans to have due process, whereas if they had not been veterans, they could be fired without cause," said Thrush.

They requested due process as part of an official investigation before they were fired, but they were denied it.

"You know, these were not folks who were aspiring in the political arena or wanted to make a lot of money or wanted to even trade in these jobs for more lucrative private sector gigs. They wanted to spend their entire career in the bureau," Thrush said.

Thrush noted that Walter Giardina was a midshipman who graduated from the Naval Academy.

"One of the phenomena of Trump's two terms, and he's done it a lot more quickly in a second term because of the purge that he ordered, is to run out of the FBI, the very human beings that could most likely make him a successful president," said Wallace.

She pointed out the exchange between Patel and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in which the senator asks about key people being taken off of jobs involving terrorism and trafficking to deal with deportations. Patel claimed he cared about those issues, but those experts working on the cases are the ones being shoved out.

"And there's something so cynically tragic about depriving the FBI — like the people in charge of stopping and catching the people that trafficked children and women and international drug cartels. I mean, to take the people who would wear capes if it didn't give them away and run them out of the agency for which he could get the most credit for doing a good job and the things he says he cares about is so sick and twisted and tragic," said Wallace.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) refuses to back down from her criticism of the slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk — and MAGA personalities have responded with fury.

After Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA who was renowned for youth engagement and a number of controversial positions about race, religious freedom, and civil rights, was assassinated during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Omar criticized the media rush to whitewash his beliefs, saying on Zeteo News, "There is nothing more f----- up to completely pretend his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so." She also reposted a comment calling Kirk a "stochastic terrorist."

The right-wing activist rage over Omar was further amplified after she was confronted by far-right Trump confidante Laura Loomer and an associate, ignoring their demands for an apology.

"Moments ago, @IlhanMN fled into her office after @LoomerUnleashed and @TheCharlesDowns asked her if she would apologize for resharing a video calling Charlie Kirk a 'terrorist' following his assassination by a radical leftist," Loomer posted on X. "Omar’s refusal to apologize for embracing political violence is a clear sign that she MUST be removed from her Congressional committees, and MUST be CENSURED immediately."

Many of the commenters cheered on the new push by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) to censure Omar and strip her of committee assignments.

"Rep. Nancy Mace introduces a resolution on the House floor to remove Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar from all of her Committee Assignments. This must pass!" wrote bodybuilder and MAGA commentator Ian Jaeger.

"Nancy Mace just officially filed a Resolution that will REMOVE Ilhan Omar from her committee assignments and censure her! EVERY LAST GOP REP. NEEDS TO BE ON BOARD!" wrote Texas-based MAGA activist "Gunther Eagleman."

"Ilhan Omar is officially in DANGER of being kicked off her committees and CENSURED for justifying Charlie Kirk's assassination," wrote right-wing internet personality Nick Sortor. "Rep. Nancy Mace just filed filed the resolution to make it happen. ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD SUPPORT THIS! Somali Rep. Omar has ZERO BUSINESS having power over our country."

Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director James, has named right-wing influencer and so-called "Trump Whisperer" Laura Loomer in a lawsuit contesting her abrupt firing, for which "The Justice Department gave no reason," reports The New York Times.

Comey, who was working on cases involving Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean "Diddy" Combs when she was fired from the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York in July, "calls her firing ... illegal," the Times reports.

The lawsuit, in which Comey seeks her job, back pay and legal fees, names several defendants, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Office of the President and Loomer. Loomer called for Comey's firing via a successful social media campaign.

After Comey was let go, Loomer took a victory lap for what she deemed "a pressure campaign."

“This comes 2 months after my pressure campaign on Pam Blondi to fire Comey’s daughter and Comey’s son-in-law from the DOJ,” Loomer boasted in a X post, referring to Bondi.

On Monday, Will Sommer, senior reporter at The Bulwark, posted on X, "One NSC official stood between what appears to be a wildly corrupt deal involving the UAE, AI chips, and China. Then Laura Loomer intervened and got him fired. (She says it had nothing to do with the chip deal)."

“Laura is more trouble than she’s worth,” a White House official told The Free Press in July.

In the lawsuit, Comey said that the U.S. attorney, Jay Clayton, was unable to provide her with a reason for her termination.

“All I can say is it came from Washington,” Clayton told her, according to the lawsuit. “I can’t tell you anything else.”

Ex-Trump associate Lev Parnas warned that Donald Trump’s recent NATO letter amounts to a dangerous signal to Vladimir Putin. In a weekend essay, Parnas argued Trump’s demand that NATO impose massive tariffs on China until the Ukraine war ends reads less like foreign policy and more like a real estate shakedown. He claimed Trump is echoing Kremlin talking points by calling it “Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s war” and using inflated casualty numbers. According to Parnas, the letter proves Trump isn’t serious about NATO or democracy, but about leverage—sending Putin the message: “I got your back.”

Watch the video below.

Ex-ally says Trump’s NATO letter sends dangerous “I got your back” signal to Putin roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms

MAGA is criticizing the Emmys for snubbing Charlie Kirk, a conservative podcast host and Turning Point USA founder, who was shot and killed last week during a speaking event at a Utah university.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday attacked Hollywood and reshared a Hollywood Reporter article, apparently upset over how Kirk was not mentioned during the award show acceptance speeches Sunday night, Politico reports.

“Hollywood claims they’re all about free speech,” Cruz wrote on social media. “And yet not even ONE of them could muster a word about @charliekirk11 being assassinated because of his speech.”

Cruz turned his attention to Hannah Einbinder, who won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and declared, “F--- ICE and free Palestine!”

The event mainly dodged politics and avoided Kirk's name, Politico reports.

And MAGA wasn't happy.

“The Emmys made ZERO reference to Charlie Kirk who was assassinated... This is the Hollywood left,” a user on X with more than 36,000 followers wrote.

Another conservative voice on X called Hollywood "evil" and "a joke," saying "it ignored a political voice with a major media presence who was gunned down just 5 days earlier."

"Charlie Kirk lost his life debating in the open for all to see and challenge. These clowns get paid millions to tell partisan “jokes” to their partisan audiences while losing money for their employers," a Salem Radio network affiliate posted on X, calling the show "insulting."

Cruz and other MAGA lawmakers have criticized people who have spoken out against Kirk's rhetoric, even calling for the firing of people who spoke out against right-wing extremism.