Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave a rousing speech to military leaders during a conference on Tuesday.

During his speech, he highlighted the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from the military while wiping out the woke leftist influence that crept into its ranks under the Biden administration. 

“This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics,” Hegseth said. “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions, no more debris, said before, and we’ll say again, we are done with that sh*t.”

Hegseth argued that “upholding and demanding high standards is not toxic,” but that “endangering subordinates with low standards” and “promoting people based on immutable characteristics or quotas instead of based on merit,” are examples of toxic leadership.

The secretary asserted that America’s military must be strong and lethal to protect its interests and security. “To ensure peace, we must prepare for war,” he said. “From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: Warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win. Unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit. Not because we want war, no one here wants war, but it’s because we love peace.”

Hegseth explained that the top priority “is to be strong so that we can prevent war in the first place.”

He further emphasized that “As history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it. That’s why pacifism is so naive and dangerous.”

“Either you protect your people and your sovereignty, or you will be subservient to something or someone. It’s a truth as old as time. Since waging war is so costly in blood and treasure, we owe our Republic a military that will win any war we we choose,” Hegseth added.

The secretary outlined more rigorous training standards for service members. “If the Secretary of War can do regular hard PT, so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops,” Hegseth said. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the Halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are.”

The secretary asserted that “whether you’re an airborne ranger or a chairborne ranger, a brand new private, or a four-star general, you need to meet the height and weight standards and pass your PT test.”

Each service member will be required to take a physical training test twice per year while meeting height and weight requirements, according to Hegseth.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s military.

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Well, they did it. Even after President Donald Trump telegraphed that they were walking into a trap by shutting the government down, Democrats slammed the red button anyway. How’s the messaging on that going? Let’s just say it’s not going very well. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) kicked off a “Stop the Republican Shutdown” live stream overnight, and it may be the least-watched political event in modern history. 

As morning approached, the live stream was creatively renamed “Stop the Republican Shutdown Pt. 2,” with various Democrats rotating through to shake their fists at the sky. When “transgender” Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) took the podium, a whopping 38 people were tuning in. 

In a country of around 320 million people, those viewership numbers seem…less than ideal. 

They aren’t surprising, though. There is no rational argument to be made that Republicans are responsible for this shutdown. A clean continuing resolution, which means it did not cut anything, passed the House, and Democrats blocked its passage in the Senate (with two Democrats crossing the aisle). Had they not filibustered, the government would be open today. That’s as clear-cut a chain of responsibility as you can get, and it seems Americans aren’t very interested in their mental gymnastics. 

None of this is setting up well for Democrats. When I wrote on Tuesday that they are walking into a trap, I wasn’t being hyperbolic. 

SEE: Democrats Are Walking Into a Trap

It was written in bold letters, rhetorically speaking, that Trump would take full advantage of any shutdown to cull the bureaucracies. With one now underway, hundreds of thousands of government workers, almost all of whom are Democrats, can be fired with little or no recourse. Meanwhile, very little will happen that Americans will notice other than a few bathrooms closing and some interns being laid off, leaving Republicans no real reason to make any real concessions. 

Just how badly are Democrats losing the narrative war? Even The New York Times is framing this shutdown as their fault because there’s no other rational way to frame it. 

Maybe there’s some genius brewing behind the scenes, but this entire gambit seems like one big self-own to me. In the end, Democrats aren’t going to get their NPR funding and healthcare for illegal immigrants, but they could lose a big part of their bureaucratic power base, all so that Jeffries and company can go on YouTube to speak to 38 people. The best I can say about that strategy is that it exists. 

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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The University of Delaware now faces a backlash after the college’s TV network allegedly celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk by thanking his killer at the end of a broadcast and then tried to cover it up.

It allegedly occurred during the credits section of “The Biweekly Show” on UD’s STN49, which is under the direction of the University’s Communications Department. The message in the credits read “Special thanks to Charlie Kirk’s Killer.”

READ MORE: Proof Charlie Kirk’s Voice Just Got Louder: College Republicans Warn Their Universities, Enough Is Enough

MORE: ‘Target Practice USA’: Disgusting Charlie Kirk Assassination Sign Posted at ASU

Executive Director of the Delaware GOP Nick Miles shared a screenshot/clip of what aired and wrote, “@UDelaware’s STN49, advised by the Comms Department, aired ‘The @BiweeklyShow’ with that credit. After students noticed, it was deleted and reuploaded. I’m told the department wanted it to ‘go away quietly.'”

“No accountability, just a cover-up,” he added. “It was produced under faculty oversight, funded by the University, and greenlit through a sanctioned program. Who approved this, and what consequences will follow?”

As of this publication, there has been no response yet from the University of Delaware as to what originally aired.

SEE: TPUSA Confirms Insane Number of Death Threats After Chilling Video of What Charlie Kirk Feared Resurfaces

ALSO: Watch: Greg Gutfeld Goes Off on Co-Host After She Tries to ‘Both Sides’ Violence After ICE Shooting

In a statement, the Delaware Republican Party has demanded accountability for the “violent messaging” during the broadcast of the program.

In a recent episode of The Bi-Weekly Show, an SNL-style program produced under the University’s supervision, the end credits included a “Special Thanks to Charlie Kirk’s Killer.” After students began drawing attention to it, the video was quietly deleted and reuploaded with the reference removed. Sources indicate that the department sought to have the matter “go away quietly.”

“This program operates under faculty oversight, with taxpayer-funded resources, and carries the University’s stamp of approval,” said Nick Miles, Executive Director of the Delaware Republican Party. “For something like this to make it on air is both disturbing and unacceptable.”

“As an alumnus of the University of Delaware, I find this especially troubling,” said Gene Truono, Chairman of the Delaware Republican Party. “When I was a student, there was a level of civility and respect that would never have allowed something like this to be broadcast. The University owes its students, parents, and alumni real answers. Our state’s flagship university must take immediate action to investigate this incident, identify who allowed it, and ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. Silence and cover-ups cannot replace accountability.”

The Delaware Republican Party emphasized that political bias and calls to violence have no place in taxpayer-supported institutions. The Party is calling on the University of Delaware to launch a transparent investigation, release the findings to the public, and implement measures to prevent future incidents.

Dark times indeed when students, a university, and leftists from every profession celebrate murder. 

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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The Green Bay Packers badly mismanaged the clock at the end of the overtime period in their game against the Cowboys on Sunday night, nearly resulting in a loss instead of a tie.

The Packers, trailing 40-37, drove the ball down to the Dallas 12-yard line with 32 seconds remaining and called a timeout. From there, things fell apart. Packers QB Jordan Love threw a pass to rookie Matthew Golden, only to have the receiver tackled immediately by Trevon Diggs for a three-yard loss.

The Packers then called their final timeout with 28 seconds remaining.

On the next play, a 2nd and 13 from the 15-yard line, Love threw to running back Emmanuel Wilson, who, like Golden, lost yardage after being tackled in-bounds.

Now, with the clock ticking and no way to stop it except for hurrying to the line and kneeling the ball, the Packers shockingly proceeded to get ready to run a play and snapped the ball with only six seconds remaining, leaving themselves in a position where they would either win the game on a touchdown pass or lose it on an incompletion.

Thankfully, for Green Bay, the ball bounced off the back of a Dallas linebacker with only one second remaining on the clock. Kicker Brandon McManus came out and kicked the field goal everyone thought the Packers were going to kick immediately after Wilson’s ill-fated catch. The Packers managed to tie a game they had a shot to win had they managed their offense better in the red zone.

“We moved the ball well,” Love said after the game. “Obviously, the sad part is we didn’t get to take any shots to the end zone until that last play. I think we had a good play called, and they didn’t play the way they were going to play, like they had defended the play before that.

“I think there’s a lot of stuff we still have to clean up. Just throwing the ball in bounds in a running-clock situation right there. There is stuff that we’ve got to figure out and be better at right there in those situations.”

An understatement for sure. Packers coach Matt LaFleur was more blunt in his assessment.

“Obviously, the play call sucked,” LaFleur said.

“The operation was just way too slow,” LaFleur added. “I don’t know if our guys didn’t know we were in two minutes or what. But ultimately, the communication has got to get better. . . . That’s the bottom line.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) shared a study that showed that left-wing terrorism had reached a “30-year high,” and criticized Democrats for using rhetoric such as “Hitler” or “fascist.”

In a post on X, Fetterman included a screenshot of an Axios article titled “Study: Left-wing terrorism climbs to 30-year high.” Fetterman noted that “political violence is always wrong,” and called for everyone to “turn the temperature down.”

“Unchecked extreme rhetoric, like labels as Hitler or fascist, will foment more extreme outcomes,” Fetterman said. “Political violence is always wrong — no exceptions.”

“We must all turn the temperature down,” Fetterman added.

Per Axios, research from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) found that during the “first six months of 2025,” far-right violence, which has usually “been more frequent,” had decreased significantly.

The CSIS “compiled and analyzed a data set of 750 domestic attacks and plots” that had occurred between January 1, 1994, and July 4, 2025. Researchers found that out of the attacks that occurred since 2016, “left-wing extremists” were responsible for more than 40 of those attacks, while right-wing extremists were responsible for 152 attacks “over the same period”:

• The data showed that left-wing extremists have carried out 41 attacks since 2016, compared with 152 from the far right over the same period.

• Left-wing violence has killed 13 people over the past decade — far fewer than the 112 deaths from right-wing attacks and 82 from jihadists.

• But at least five left-wing plots or attacks have already been recorded this year, compared to just one right-wing attack.

The study comes after Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, while taking part in a question-and-answer event with students at Utah Valley University.

Breitbart News reported that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) revealed that “bullet casings in the rifle” that the alleged Kirk assassin used “were etched” with messages including, “Hey fascist! Catch!”

In the aftermath of the Kirk’s assassination, Democrats such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom have continued to attack Trump administration officials, such as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, as being a “fascist.”

On Saturday, we wrote about how Democrat so-called “leaders” in Oregon were preparing to go full Useful Idiots in response to President Trump authorizing troop deployment to Portland after months of violence and rioting at the city’s ICE detention center.

As we’ve also noted, Portland has been the scene of much anti-ICE activity over the years, with it picking up during the first Trump administration and ramping up more after the second one got underway. In June, for instance, the feds crushed an Antifa-led attack on the ICE facility, which reportedly involved the violent agitators “breaking out the glass front doors, breaching the building, and trashing the outside.”

More recently, however, the Portland “protesters” have taken it to a troubling new level, including bringing in a guillotine while playing a song with the lyrics “We got the guillotine, you better run” in the background.

SEE ALSO: Antifa Might Have Cooked Its Own Goose

But while Democrats in Oregon have indeed been gaslighting over the near-nightly occurrences of unrest and chaos in Portland, it was a Democrat senator from another state who accidentally revealed his cowardice and lack of regard for the safety and well-being of an American city experiencing a leftist extremist invasion in an astonishing back-and-forth on X.

It all started when Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) weighed in on Trump’s announcement by proclaiming that Portland was not a war zone.

“There is no war zone in Portland, Oregon, and the American military should not deploy to American cities unless another country were attacking us,” Schatz suggested. “Calling an American city a war zone should alarm everyone.”

Understandably, this did not sit well with journalist Andy Ngo, an expert on the Antifa movement who has been viciously targeted by the group over his on-the-ground reporting on their activities in blue cities like Portland and Seattle.

“Do you want to go with my colleagues to the ICE facility in Portland that has been under siege since June?” Ngo, who is a senior editor at The Post Millennial, replied. “Can you livestream it so that the video tells the story, not your lies?”

Instead of directly answering the question, Schatz reemphasized his original point:

If there’s a narrow and well explained and justified law enforcement mission then I don’t necessarily oppose that. But saying there is a war in the United States has specific legal and civic implications that should concern us all.

At this point, another X user stepped in to point out to the senator that he had not said whether he’d be willing to go to Portland to see for himself. Then, this happened:

Screengrabs were snagged of it, just in case he tries to delete it later:

Schatz later tried to make himself look better, but instead only made himself look even worse:

Translation: I’m willing to try and score political points with my base from the safety of my smartphone or laptop as I make claims that I refuse to try and personally substantiate by visiting the city myself.

This is Democrat fecklessness and weakness on steroids.  And unfortunately, Schatz isn’t the only one:

I’d say shame on these guys, but they apparently don’t have any.

Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.

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There’s a high-stakes meeting set for Monday afternoon at the White House: President Donald Trump will sit down in the Oval Office with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (as well as with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)) to hash out how to avoid a government shutdown with the Tuesday night funding deadline on the doorstep. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt joined “Fox & Friends” Monday morning to highlight the administration’s position on the matter — and underscore the fact that if there is a shutdown, that’s on the Democrats. 

Leavitt noted:

“Let me be very clear about the president and the White House’s position: All we are asking for is a common-sense, clean funding resolution — a continuing resolution — to keep the government open. This is a bill that keeps the government funded at the exact same levels as today, just adjusted for inflation. So there is zero good reason for the Democrats to vote against this, especially when the Democrats have voted for this 13 previous times, as recently as March. And so, this is the reasonable and common-sense thing to do. The president is giving Democrat leadership one last chance to be reasonable, to come to the White House today to try to talk about this. And now is not the time to try to get political points against Donald Trump; now is the time to do right by the American people and keep the government funded. Our most vulnerable in our society and our country will be impacted by a government shutdown. Everybody knows this, and that’s why Republicans and the president want to keep the government open, and we welcome Democrats to join us in that effort.”

RELATED: Fetterman Has Some Sage Advice for Schumer on a Government Shutdown

Trump Agrees to Meet Schumer and Jeffries to Stave Off Shutdown That Trump Just Might Want

She continued:

“The leverage is in the president’s hands because the overwhelming majority of the American public wants to keep the government open — I mean, it’s not even close. Democrats and Republicans — Independents across the country — want the government funded, because they want our military and our troops to be paid. They want TSA agents and Border Patrol to be paid. They want food assistance programs for women and children and impoverished communities to continue going out the door. All of that will come to an end if Democrats vote against this clean CR that Republicans are proposing. And might I just add: Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are on the record multiple times in their past political lives stating that they, too, believe a government shutdown is bad. In fact, I quote, Chuck Schumer, just last year, in 2024, said, ‘A shutdown would mean chaos and pain and needless heartache for the American people.’ Well, we hope that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats won’t cause chaos and pain and heartache. We want our country to continue to be funded. We want our government to be open so we can continue doing the business of the American people.”

The White House also sent out an email Monday morning, pointing out that the Democrats’ reluctance to agree to a clean CR is putting veterans, seniors, and public safety at risk:

As Democrats bring the nation to the brink of a government shutdown, they jeopardize critical funding for veterans, seniors, law enforcement, and many others. As Democrats threaten to disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, organizations across the country are urging them to follow through on their word, join with President Donald J. Trump and Republicans, and keep government functioning for the people it serves.

Included in the email were testimonials from numerous groups supporting continued funding/avoidance of a government shutdown, including:

• American Federation of Government Employees
• Americans for Prosperity
• AMVETS
• Independent Women’s Voice
• National Association of Police Organizations
• National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
• Parents Defending Education

Leavitt is right to note where the leverage sits at the moment. That places the Democrats in a bit of a pickle, and they’re going to have to decide if their priority is thwarting President Trump or keeping the government services they so fervently champion funded. 

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The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Friday that China is leading the effort to prevent the United States from regaining control of Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

The SCMP reported that Yue Xiaoyong, special envoy to Afghanistan from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, held a meeting with delegates from Russia, Pakistan, and Iran on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City on Thursday.

After the meeting, the four nations issued a joint statement urging “respect for Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.”

The statement opposed military bases controlled by anyone the four signatories blamed for the “current situation,” which primarily means the United States. China, Russia, Pakistan, and Iran did not seem inclined to limit themselves from establishing a military presence in Afghanistan, if they so desired.

The airfield at Bagram was constructed by the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It became a key element of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The U.S. took control of the long-abandoned facility in 2001, after overthrowing the first Taliban government.

American forces refurbished and expanded the base, providing it with enough runway space to handle large cargo planes, a prison complex, and various amenities, including fast-food restaurants.

President Donald Trump has been strongly critical of his predecessor Joe Biden for abandoning Bagram during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2021. Senior military leaders told Congress they strongly advised Biden to retain control of Bagram and conduct evacuations from there, rather than the more vulnerable Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Terrorists bombed the Kabul airport during the chaos of Biden’s withdrawal, killing over 100 people, including 13 U.S. service members.

During his trip to the United Kingdom last week, Trump said he wanted the United States to regain control of Bagram, and he was not shy about explaining why.

“One of the biggest airbases in the world, we gave it to them for nothing. We’re trying to get it back, by the way, okay? That could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back,” Trump told reporters. By “they,” he meant the Taliban junta that took control of Afghanistan after Biden’s withdrawal.

“But one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. So a lot of things are happening,” he said.

“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!” Trump warned in a subsequent post on Truth Social.

Bagram is about 43 miles from Kabul, and about 500 miles from Afghanistan’s border with the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China. Among the facilities located in the XUAR is China’s secretive nuclear weapons testing facility at Lop Nur.

Trump later told reporters aboard Air Force One that Bagram was “one of the most powerful bases in the world in terms of runway strength and length.”

“You could land anything there,” he said.

Trump made his comments a few days after White House envoy Adam Boehler had a meeting with Taliban officials. The Taliban praised the meeting as a sign that Washington has “opened its doors to Kabul.”

Taliban Foreign Ministry official Zakir Jalaly quickly dismissed the idea of giving Bagram back to the United States, however.

“The Afghans have not accepted a military presence in history, and this possibility was completely rejected during the Doha talks and agreement, but the door is open for further interaction,” he said.

“Recently, some voices claim that we are in talks with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to negotiate the return of Bagram Airfield, or that we are seeking a political settlement after failing to take it by force. We assure the people of Afghanistan that no agreement over even an inch of our soil is possible,” said Fasihuddin Fitrat, chief of staff for the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense.

The reclusive Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, reportedly scheduled a cabinet meeting in Kandahar to discuss the future of the Bagram airbase. 

This would seem unnecessary if the answer to Trump’s demand is firm and unyielding refusal, but Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid insisted no discussions are underway to make a deal for access to the base.

“Afghans will never surrender part of their country to another government. If the Trump administration makes a bad move, it will face a bad reaction from us,” Mujahid said.

Rocker Bruce Springsteen is down on Democrats, telling Time they’ll remain irrelevant and ineffective if they don’t find someone who can “speak to the majority” of America.

“We’re desperately in need of an effective alternative party, or for the Democratic Party to find someone who can speak to the majority of the nation,” Springsteen told the outlet. “There is a problem with the language that they’re using and the way they’re trying to reach people.”

Springsteen, who campaigned for Kamala Harris in 2024, Joe Biden in 2020, Hilary Clinton in 2016, and Barack Obama in 2012 and 2008, was merely echoing a report released by the left-wing think tank Third Way earlier this year. The memo wanred that the langue Democrats used was confusing voters, turning off potential supporters, and alienating others. Third Way created categories of language Democrats should dump:

• Therapy-speak
• Seminar Room Language
• Organizer Jargon
• Gender/Orientation Correctness
• The Shifting Language of Racial Constructs
• Explaining Away Crime

John Nolte took the banned phrases and provided normal people translations:

• incarcerated people [thugs]
• justice-involved [thug]
• dialoguing [chat]
• triggering [telling a truth]
• microaggression [offending a thin-skinned fascist]
• body shaming [funny fat jokes]
• subverting norms [behaving like a Democrat]
• systems of oppression [opposing merit]
• cultural appropriation [eating with chopsticks while you watch Super Fly TNT and your kids run around in sombreros playing Cowboys and Indians]
• the unhoused [smelly homeless people]
• food insecurity [coming up short at the end of the month because you wasted your food stamps on Entenmann’s and Dr. Pepper]
• housing insecurity [about to be a smelly homeless person because you bought weed and Entemann’s before paying the rent]
• person who immigrated [foreigner]
• birthing person [woman]
• pregnant people [women who are pregnant]
• cisgender [normal person]
• deadnaming [he’ll always be Bruce Jenner to me]
• heteronormative [no one really knows what this means]
• BIPOC [the minorities]
• LGBTQIA+ [the gays and whatever]
• involuntary confinement [justice]

Elected Democrats actually tried to pivot away from the aforementioned Orwellian language and leaned into swearing in speeches and TV appearances.

None of appears to be working. Indeed, nearly a year after suffering a historic presidential election defeat Democrats are still underwater with voters on myriad major issues, including the economy, crime, immigration, gun control, and political extremism. Voters trust Republicans on those issues.

Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump.Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter and instagram@jeromeehudson

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it will no longer preempt the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show on its many ABC affiliates across the country starting on Friday night.

In a statement shared on X, the media group announced that it will “end its preemption of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the show will return this evening on Sinclair’s ABC affiliates.”

“Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience,” the statement read. “We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming.”

READ MORE: TPUSA’s Andrew Kolvet Sounds Off on Jimmy Kimmel’s Return Monologue: ‘He’s an Unrepentant Liar’

ABC Reinstates Jimmy Kimmel, but Nexstar Is Saying ‘Nope’

“Over the last week, we have received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives,” it added. “We have also witnessed troubling acts of violence, including the despicable incident of a shooting at an ABC affiliate station in Sacramento.”

“These events underscore why responsible broadcasting matters and why respectful dialogue between differing voices remains so important,” it continued. “In our ongoing and constructive discussions with ABC, Sinclair proposed measures to strengthen accountability, viewer feedback, and community dialogue, including a network-wide independent ombudsman. These proposals were suggested as collaborative efforts between the ABC affiliates and the ABC network.”

Sinclair also made it clear that its decision to preempt Kimmel’s show on its 40 affiliates after the host lied about Charlie Kirk’s murder was made with no influence from the government. 

“Our decision to preempt this program was independent of any government interaction or influence,” the statement read. “Free speech provides broadcasters with the right to exercise judgment as to the content on their local stations. While we understand that not everyone will agree with our decisions about programming, it is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content.”

“As a company rooted in local stations, Sinclair remains committed to serving our communities with programming that reflects their priorities, earns their trust, and promotes constructive dialogue,” it added. “We look forward to continuing to work with ABC to deliver content that serves a broad spectrum of our communities.

Nexstar, which also preempted the late show due to Kimmel’s lies about the suspected killer of Kirk, has yet to make a public announcement on whether they will follow suit with Sinclair or continue to not air the late-night talk show on its dozens of affiliates.

SEE: Sinclair Delivers Big Statement on Kimmel Suspension With What They’ll Be Airing in His Slot Instead

ABC Preempting’ Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ Indefinitely After Vile Comments About Charlie Kirk’s Murder

As RedState reported, initially, it was only Nexstar and Sinclair who announced after Kimmel’s vile actions that they would “indefinitely” suspend his show. Then ABC said it was following suit with Kimmel’s show being preempted “indefinitely.”

Days later, ABC caved and said he would be back on air on Tuesday, and now Sinclair has followed, both doing so with no formal apology from Kimmel for the lies he told. This is disappointing, but I can’t say it’s totally surprising. 

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