Raw Story

Many right-wing media outlets are vigorously defending the mass layoffs of federal government employees being pushed by the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (which is not yet an official agency authorized by Congress). And they are claiming that the Trump/DOGE efforts will save taxpayers a lot of money.

But Fox News' Jesse Watters is urging Trump and DOGE to spare a personal friend who is a military veteran facing a layoff.

On a Wednesday, February 19 broadcast of Fox News' "The Five," Watters asked Trump to be "less callous" with the mass firings, noting that his friend Chris is working for the U.S. Defense Department and at risk of being laid off.

Watters told his colleagues, "He punched out after 20 years, and (is now) working for the Pentagon. And he's only been there a few months, so he's probationary, and he just found out he’s probably going to get laid off. He's going to get DOGE’d."

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

The right-wing Fox News host went on to say, "This guy is not a DEI consultant. This guy is not a climate consultant. This guy is a veteran. So when you’re talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you’re going to go out there and kill enemies, and put your life on the line for this country, you should not be in the same category as people that are doing DEI."

The Trump administration and DOGE are targeting a wide range of government agencies for layoffs. According to the Washington Post, as many as 200,000 probationary-level federal government workers may lose their jobs.

The New Republic's Hafiz Rasid said of the Fox News host, "Watters is only upset because someone he knows personally was affected by Trump and Musk’s mass firings. Otherwise, he’d continue to cheer on the arbitrary cuts across the federal workforce. What he and the rest of right-wing media don’t realize is that plenty of other federal workers like Chris have lost their jobs or will soon."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) offered a dose of cordiality Thursday afternoon to his colleague, former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) amid reporting he will not seek another term in office.

Murphy, while speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper, took a shot at McConnell over his moral convictions, arguing that he bears much of the responsibility for the GOP allowing Trump to remain the central figure in the party and set him up to run for his second term.

"I want to get your reaction to Mitch McConnell announcing he's not going to seek re-election," said Tapper. "I know you've disagreed with him on a number of policy fronts and strategic pursuits by the conservative movement. He is one of the few Republicans saying anything challenging at all about President Trump. How do you think the Senate will be different without him there?"

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

"Well, listen, I appreciate the votes that Mitch McConnell has taken," said Murphy. "I appreciate the fact that over the last four years, he was willing to reach out to Democrats. We got the bipartisan gun bill done in 2022 that has reduced gun violence rates in this country by 20 percent, because Mitch McConnell wanted to do something in a bipartisan way on the issue of violence in this country."

Nonetheless, Murphy continued, "Nobody's going to forget the fact that after the riots in 2021, he had the chance to vote to impeach Donald Trump and deny Trump the chance to be back in the White House. Had Mitch McConnell decided to vote for impeachment, enough Republicans would have followed him to get that number above the requisite two-thirds."

"So his legacy is going to be very mixed," Murphy added. "He is the reason why Donald Trump is president today, albeit with a record that also includes a lot of bipartisan accomplishment that he helped make possible during the Biden administration."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy got booed in California on Thursday morning when he attacked the high-speed rail project that Californians have wanted for decades.

Duffy attacked the project as wasteful spending and said it was headed toward a “compliance review."

“President Trump has thought about this project, he’s talked about this project, and I think he was kind when he said that this project has been mismanaged,” Duffy told reporters.

ALSO READ: A new ugly streak in American politics

A video of the conference showed jeers under Duffy's comments. Initial boos were replaced by chants of “Build the rail! Build the rail!”

At another point, the crowd chanted, “We pay taxes, we want trains!”

Duffy yelled at the crowd that they should be complaining to Gov. Gavin Newsome and the Democratic legislature.

See the moment in the videos below or at the link here.

- YouTube youtu.be

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board expressed serious concerns over President Donald Trump's concessions to Russia on Ukraine this week, writing that he "tilts toward a Ukraine sellout."

In recent days, Trump — who has cozied up with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election — has backed off the longtime stance the U.S. has held in solidarity with Europe to protect Ukraine from the yearslong, brutal Russian invasion, falsely suggesting Ukraine started the war and offering up "peace" proposals that one-sidedly give all concessions to Russia.

"Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky replied on Wednesday that Mr. Trump was living in a 'disinformation space,' which may have been imprudent but was accurate," wrote the board, which has also been outspoken against Trump's recent economic policies. "Mr. Trump escalated on Wednesday, as he usually does, calling Mr. Zelensky a 'dictator,' and suggesting Ukraine’s leader snookered the U.S. into supporting a war 'that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.' Mr. Zelensky 'refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’'"

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

None of this is true, the board wrote.

"The war began not because Mr. Putin had legitimate security fears — but because the aging former KGB agent wants to reassemble most of the Soviet empire he saw crumble as a young man," continued the board. "Ukraine has delayed elections while it is operating under martial law and fighting a war for survival. Its constitution allows this, and Britain under Nazi siege didn’t hold an election during World War II. Was Churchill a dictator? Ukraine’s democracy is fragile and would be stronger if it could affiliate with Western institutions like the European Union. The only dictator in the war is Mr. Putin, who poisons exiled Russians on foreign soil and banishes opponents to Arctic prison camps. Call us when he holds a free election."

The board reiterated their gripes with former President Joe Biden's foreign policy, including following through on the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that Trump initially brokered. Nonetheless, "Americans may have a similar reaction if they see Russia emerge triumphant and realize this wasn’t the peace they had in mind."

The way forward, the board concluded, is "making clear to Mr. Putin the arms and pressure he’ll face if the Russian doesn’t wind down the war to accept a durable peace. As it stands now, Mr. Trump’s seeming desperation for a deal is a risk to Ukraine, Europe, U.S. interests — and his own Presidency."

Fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids began to spread the day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time. Posts on social media and Reddit claimed that ICE had already been spotted in the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff, where Latino immigrants began to settle in large numbers in the 1970s and have profoundly shaped the culture of the vibrant community.

That same Tuesday morning, an X account with over 17,000 followers named GlomarResponder made an ominous post. “Yeah, I’m in a courthouse wating [sic] on warrants,” GlomarResponder wrote. “Turns out there’s a lot of bitch work to be done to make mass deportations happen.” One day prior, GlomarResponder had posted that he “Can confirm all of those,” regarding a list of cities where ICE was expected to begin deportation operations the next day. “May have a betting pool to see who can guess which one I’m at on any particular day, based on the news,” GlomarResponder wrote.

These were but the latest posts that GlomarResponder has made over the years that suggest the operator of the account is an ICE employee. GlomarResponder has also routinely expressed blatantly racist and anti-immigrant views. Through an extensive review of GlomarResponder’s X posts, publicly available documents, and other social media profiles and posts, the Texas Observer has identified the operator of GlomarResponder as James “Jim” Joseph Rodden, a 44-year-old who works as an assistant chief counsel for ICE in the Dallas area. Rodden represents the agency in immigration court hearings where judges decide whether an individual is removed from the country.

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

Since GlomarResponder was first created in 2012, the account has posted hateful, xenophobic, and pro-fascist content. “America is a White nation, founded by Whites. … Our country should favor us,” GlomarResponder wrote last month. “All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb fuck,” the account posted in September of last year. “Freedom of association hasn’t existed in this country since 1964 at the absolute latest,” GlomarResponder wrote four months prior, further clarifying the post was referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a reply to a comment. “I’m not a commie, I’m a fascist,” GlomarResponder posted a couple weeks later. “Fascists solve communist problems. Get your insults right, retard.”

In August, GlomarResponder posted: “‘Migrants’ are all criminals.” Two months later, GlomarResponder shared an image that reads: “It is our holy duty to guard against the foreign hordes.” Some GlomarResponder posts evoke anti-immigrant violence: “Nobody is proposing feeding migrants into tree shredders,” the account posted in March 2024. “Yet. Give it a few more weeks at this level of invasion, and that will be the moderate position.” And in January: “My WWII vet grandfather didn’t get a chance to kill asians, so he volunteered for Korea. He’d be asking for a short term job with ICE kicking doors and swinging a baton.”

Rodden’s ICE employment is confirmed by federal court records, background interviews, and Observer courtroom visits.

A resident of Frisco, Rodden has previously lived in Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia, and North Carolina, according to county voter registration, private data broker sites, and property records. Rodden attended Penn State and Wake Forest University law school. A James J. Rodden possesses a license to practice law in Washington, D.C., which allows representation of ICE in Texas immigration court and was granted within a year of Rodden’s graduation from Wake Forest. In court filings, Rodden has claimed to have worked in federal government for a number of years prior to his ICE job. What appears to be his LinkedIn lists prior employment as a U.S. Border Patrol agent, a United States Marine Corps armorer, and a litigation clinic student at a federal public defender’s office. The Marine Corps confirmed Rodden’s service and final rank of corporal, and the Federal Public Defender’s office in Greensboro, North Carolina, confirmed his prior employment. The Border Patrol’s parent agency declined to confirm Rodden’s prior employment and denied a public records request, citing privacy and national security concerns.

The evidence that Rodden operates the GlomarResponder account includes an overwhelming number of biographical details that GlomarResponder has shared over years that align with information about Rodden, including employment history, locations lived, characteristics of a spouse, involvement in a lawsuit against the federal government, height and fashion preferences, penchants for specific phrasing, and a variety of specific interests and hobbies. The Observer confirmed these details about Rodden through other social media profiles, public records, private data broker sites, open-source investigative tools, interviews, and attendance of court hearings in which Rodden was representing ICE.

Rodden did not respond to multiple Observer requests for comment, which detailed the findings of this story, sent to his ICE email address. A call to a phone number associated with Rodden reached a man who declined to confirm his identity before hanging up. When approached in a public hallway outside the Dallas immigration court and asked to confirm receipt of the emailed requests, Rodden said only to “call [his] press office.”

An ICE spokesperson declined to confirm Rodden’s employment, and the agency declined to release personnel records for Rodden without his written permission. The spokesperson wrote in an email: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not comment on the substance of this article pending further investigation, to include whether the owner of the referenced ‘X’ account is a current employee. Notwithstanding, ICE holds its employees to the highest standards of professionalism and takes seriously all allegations of inappropriate conduct.”

In November 2021, a group of federal employees filed a class action lawsuit, styled James Joseph Rodden, et al. v. Dr. Anthony Fauci, over the federal employee vaccine mandate that required all federal workers to receive the COVID vaccine to keep their jobs. Per the lawsuit, Rodden was an “Assistant Chief Counsel at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” a position the Observer was able to confirm Rodden still occupies by attending Dallas immigration court and noting his name on a schedule circulated by the Dallas ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, where attorneys are generally referred to as assistant chief counsels.

On September 6, 2023, GlomarResponder wrote: “I’m party to a lawsuit where preventing transmission was the justification for a shot mandate,” referring to the COVID-19 vaccine. He later lamented, on December 12 that year, that the lawsuit had been vacated.

Lawsuit filings reveal that Rodden took a blood test as part of providing evidence of naturally acquired immunity to COVID, and a briefing submitted on behalf of Rodden and his co-plaintiffs in a similar case argues that the vaccines are “less efficacious than natural immunity in preventing reinfection.”

In posts on X, GlomarResponder has made statements that echo what Rodden asserted in the court filings. In 2023, GlomarResponder wrote that he found out he had had COVID when he “got a blood test for a lawsuit” and that his immunity was found to be “better than that of the multi-shot morons.” In a recent response to a post that described the vaccine mandate as “insane,” GlomarResponder wrote that “some of us not only said so at the time, we sued them over it.”

On January 21 of this year, the same day that GlomarResponder claimed to be waiting for warrants at a courthouse, Rodden was scheduled to be at the immigration courthouse in downtown Dallas, according to a weekly schedule document from ICE. Later that week, the Observer witnessed Rodden working at a deportation hearing, where he was representing the government agency. At this hearing, and another hearing in early February, Rodden wore a three-piece suit, cufflinks, and a watch—items GlomarReponder has posted about wearing—and appeared to be approximately 6’2”, corresponding to the height that GlomarResponder has disclosed in posts on X. He also maintained a cleanly shaved head, something GlomarResponder has recommended as “wisdom” to men who are going bald.

During the January court hearing the Observer attended, Rodden repeatedly used his phone at moments that corresponded to times GlomarResponder made posts. At the February hearing, the Observer saw Rodden scrolling through the X app on his phone and drafting a post at 1:14 p.m. The profile photo that appeared while Rodden drafted the post resembled that of GlomarResponder, which posted at 1:15pm.

Over the years, GlomarResponder has also made a number of posts that closely align with the posts of a Facebook account with the profile name Jim Rodden. James Rodden often goes by “Jim,” according to multiple sources, and the Facebook profile has posted in the Wake Forest Law Class of 2012 group, corresponding with education information on the James Rodden LinkedIn profile (which uses the first name “Jim” in the URL). James J. Rodden also appears in the list of 2012 Wake Forest law graduates. GlomarResponder has posted multiple times about Wake Forest and the city where it is located, Winston-Salem.

The Jim Rodden Facebook profile has been tagged in a post by an account appearing to belong to Rodden’s wife, and the Facebook has posted both specific text and uncommon images that align with those posted by GlomarResponder.

On June 8, 2023, GlomarResponder wrote that “They tried to force a needle in my arm, and threatened to take food out of my family’s mouths. I don’t take kindly to threats. I have responded by spending a significant portion of my time and treasure on lawsuits.”

A year prior, the Jim Rodden Facebook account posted: “This is your periodic reminder that anyone who is trying to force a needle into my arm, or my son’s arm, can fuck directly off forever with the ‘my body, my choice’ bullshit.” This post, along with many others, was either deleted or made private after the Observer contacted Rodden for comment.

The Facebook account has posted about opposition to “red flag laws” that can restrict a person’s ability to purchase a gun, used an image depicting the “Appeal to Heaven” flag that has become associated with far-right Christian nationalism for a profile banner photo, posted about the Comedian from the comic book series The Watchmen, shared an image of the Mexican wrestler Blue Demon, used an image of the character Kratos from the video game series God of War as a profile picture, and used multiple images of the insignia for the rank of Corporal in the Marine Corps for various profile pictures. On X, GlomarResponder has also posted critically about red flag laws, repeatedly posted the phrase “Appeal to Heaven,” posted about how he thinks the Comedian is “based,” shared the same image of the wrestler Blue Demon as the Facebook account (within 24 hours), posted about Kratos and the God of War video game series, and posted about how he had attained the rank of Corporal when he left the Marines, which corresponds with the final rank Rodden attained before leaving the Marines.

The Facebook account also features a banner image depicting an M1942 “Frog Skin” camo flag with an atypical cracked-skull Marine Raiders emblem that was updated in November 2023. In July 2024, GlomarResponder posted the same photo. The flag is an uncommon variant that was previously sold on a website called Paid to Raid but is no longer listed among their products. Reverse image searches for the photo of the flag do not turn up any other exact matches outside of Paid to Raid’s webstore.

The Observer also matched other publicly available information about Rodden with biographical details revealed in GlomarResponder posts. County property records and university documents confirm his prior residence in Northern Virginia and North Carolina and attendance at Penn State, where he participated in marching band according to the Linkedin profile. This is consistent with GlomarResponder’s posts that the account operator attended Penn State, worked at an office in Northern Virginia, and was in marching band. James Rodden appears in a 2003 Penn State yearbook.

GlomarResponder has also posted repeatedly about being an armorer, serving in the Marines, and working for Border Patrol, which correspond with Rodden’s LinkedIn.

According to the Register of Deeds’ office of Forsyth County, North Carolina—reached by phone—James Rodden got married in August 2009. (Forsyth County is where Wake Forest is located.) His wife’s maiden name, confirmed by the clerk, aligns with public records and private data broker information that help confirm Rodden resides in Frisco.

A Facebook profile sharing his wife’s name made a post in August about a family dog, Freya, in which the account tagged the Jim Rodden Facebook account. The Facebook account has described the dog as a “Working Line German Shepherd,” also referred to generally and by the account as “GSD,” specifically from the Czech lineage of the breed. According to the Facebook and a LinkedIn profile matching her name, as well as publicly available corporate information, Rodden’s wife is a horseback jumper trainer and owner of Clear Round Jumpers. Her Facebook account features posts about an interest in dressage. The account’s profile picture, originally shared in a post by a Collin County horse training facility’s Facebook page that tagged the apparent Facebook of Rodden’s wife, is of a woman with red hair and no visible tattoos.

GlomarResponder has posted that the account operator’s wife is a “hunter / jumper trainer” who is competent at “dressage” and has red hair and no tattoos. The account has also posted several times about having a female dog and training German Shepherds—referring to them as GSDs, positively describing the virtues of the “average working line shep,” and posting that “Czech [GSDs] are also very good dogs.”

On X, GlomarResponder has posted about meeting a spouse at age 27 and getting married before age 30. That aligns with Rodden’s August 2009 marriage record in Forsyth County, North Carolina, where Rodden owned property according to public records. Private data brokers also place his wife at the same North Carolina address as Rodden at this time. “At 28, am I the old guy in the class?,” reads an April 2009 post made by the Jim Rodden Facebook account in the Wake Forest Law Class of 2012 Facebook group.

On Facebook, Jim Rodden has liked and replied to mixed martial arts photos and videos posted by a Frisco MMA gym.

GlomarResponder has claimed to be under consideration for a federal appointment that would require Senate confirmation, which the Observer could not confirm. The account has also suggested that some of its posts may be misrepresentations to purposely mislead those who wish to uncover the operator’s identity.

“If you’re reading my anon Twitter account, some personal details may be misdirection,” GlomarResponder wrote on August 17, 2024.

But the alignment of biographical details, political viewpoints, interests, and the use of the same images across accounts is so specific that open-source intelligence experts who reviewed the Observer’s findings said the evidence linking Rodden to GlomarResponder (and another account, devildog_jim, used for forum posting) is unlikely to be coincidental.

“We asked two of our analysts with more than 20 years of combined experience in open source intelligence to review the identification,” said Bjørn Ihler, founder and CEO of Revontulet, a private counterterrorism intelligence and research company. “They found it to be thorough, well-supported, and worthy of public attention. They agree that the evidence linking James Rodden to the online accounts in question is strong, with significant biographical consistencies spanning over a decade. … The depth of the investigation leaves little room for doubt.”

An attorney expressing racism, xenophobia, and fascist politics would raise questions about their ability to act fairly and impartially in legal proceedings, such as in Rodden’s capacity representing ICE in immigration removal hearings, said Cyrus Mehta, a New York-based immigration attorney with over 30 years of experience.

“A government lawyer who vilifies people that he opposes in court, and puts that out under the radar, would clearly be engaging in conduct that’s prejudicial to the administration of justice,” Mehta said.

Mehta said such conduct could violate the Rules of Professional Conduct for the District of Columbia Bar—which declined to comment for this story—through which James J. Rodden holds his license. According to Mehta, such rules are common in bar associations and have been used to charge and sanction attorneys.

For context, Mehta noted, there’s also a rule in the Code of Federal Regulations regarding private attorneys that says it’s “in the public interest for an adjudicating official or the board to impose disciplinary sanctions against any practitioner” who engages in “conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice or undermines the integrity of the adjudicative.”

As of publication time, Rodden is still scheduled to represent the government in immigration court.

Kyle Phalen, an independent researcher, contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note: Exiting extremism can be a difficult process. If you or someone you love is caught up in hate or extremist politics, there are free resources that can help. Life After Hate and Parents for Peace are two non-profit organizations that operate help lines and provide support to help individuals and families recover from extremism.

Police in Huntington Beach, California, arrested former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe after he spoke out at a city council meeting to protest a library plaque that references President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

Kluwe’s arrest came Tuesday after his timed remarks to the all-Republican city council came to a close and he stepped toward the seven-member body to engage in what he called an act of “peaceful civil disobedience." Kluwe, an outspoken LGBTQ+ advocate and staunch Trump critic, was one of several residents at the meeting who took issue with the plaque they challenged as a “propaganda statement,” the New York Post reported.

A viral video shows Kluwe delivering his remarks before a group of law enforcement officers quickly stepped in to take down the eight-year Vikings veteran, who was then dragged out by his arms and legs.

“Unfortunately, it’s clear that this council doesn’t listen, so instead I’m gonna take my time to say what MAGA has stood for these past three weeks,” Kluwe told council members. “MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for resegregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans.”

Kluwe went on to call say: “MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that’s what it is.”

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

As a crowd cheered behind him, Kluwe added that he would then “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.”

A council member can be heard yelling “Get out!” as Kluwe is arrested and carried out while some attendees cheered.

Kluwe, a Philadelphia native, “was cited and released after he spent four hours in custody on Tuesday,” according to the New York Post.

He later told the OC Register that his protest was directed more toward the general public than the city council.

“This was done not with the intention of changing the council’s mind, because I don’t think those minds can be changed,” Kluwe told the publication. “It was done so that people who are watching and people who will watch understand that this is important enough to get arrested for. That it’s important to stand up and speak truth to power and to do so in a way that other people can emulate.”

Watch the clip below or at this link: