What if, this Thanksgiving, we offered a small tribute to global warming and the relative abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? An apparently scandalous idea. Global elites and their media partners insist that these forces promise catastrophe. Yet sound thinking demands the opposite conclusion.

Fifty years ago, the story was reversed. In the 1970s, major outlets warned of a coming ice age. Some scientists called for immediate action to stop the planet from plunging into widespread glaciation.

Abundance is not an accident. It reflects a climate far friendlier than the one our ancestors endured — and a modern economy powered by fuels that make global agriculture possible.

The fear of cold had at least a historical basis. Unlike today’s speculative climate models, past civilizations suffered through genuine cold-driven crises.

The Little Ice Age, from roughly 1300 to 1850, brought centuries of persistent chill. Historical accounts describe crops withering, growing seasons collapsing, and communities starving as food systems failed. The Thames froze solid. Frost fairs became a tradition because the cold was relentless. Entire regions fell into poverty and instability.

People living through those centuries would have welcomed the warmth we enjoy today.

Modern Americans rarely think about that history as they prepare Thanksgiving meals sourced from every climate zone on Earth. Our abundance depends on a long supply chain anchored in one fundamental reality: Plants grow best in warmth, not cold.

Warm periods fed civilizations

Warm eras have repeatedly aligned with human flourishing. During the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, farmers cultivated crops in regions that are too cold for them now. Warmer temperatures didn’t bring disaster; they supported prosperity.

The present is no exception. Earth has quietly greened since the late 20th century. Satellite data shows expanding vegetation, especially in arid regions. The drivers are straightforward: increased carbon dioxide and a slightly warmer global climate.

CO2 is not a toxin. It’s plant food — an essential input for photosynthesis. Higher concentrations allow crops to use water more efficiently and grow more robustly. This is one of the greatest environmental improvements of the past century, though you would never know it from the coverage.

RELATED: ‘Green Antoinettes’ live large, preach small

Julia Klueva via iStock/Getty Images

The other indispensable ingredient is modern fertilizer, made largely from natural gas. High-yield crops require nitrogen, and synthetic fertilizers supply it.

Energy-dense fuels — coal, oil, natural gas — power nearly every part of modern agriculture. Irrigation pumps, fertilizer plants, harvesters, delivery trucks, and refrigeration systems depend on them. Remove these fuels, and global food systems collapse. The return of famine would be swift.

A simple truth

Climate alarmists warn that warming will devastate global food security. Actual yields say otherwise. For 40 years, production of wheat, corn, rice, and other staples has climbed dramatically. Most food shortages today result from war or corrupt governance, not climate.

Earth’s climate has always shifted. Mega-droughts, severe floods, heat waves, and cold snaps have occurred throughout history. Treating every anomaly as evidence of imminent collapse ignores the long record of natural variability.

So as Americans gather around Thanksgiving tables, remember a simple truth: The feast depends on warmth, carbon dioxide, and the affordable energy that moves food from field to plate.

This abundance is not an accident. It reflects a climate far friendlier than the one our ancestors endured — and a modern economy powered by fuels that make global agriculture possible.

​Opinion & analysis, Thanksgiving, Global warming, Climate change, Climate change alarmism, Carbon dioxide, Food, Abundance, Scarcity, Cold, Human flourishing, Progress, History 

Extraterrestrial life boils down to three possibilities: pure myth, flesh-and-blood invaders from the stars, or spiritual entities slipping through cosmic rifts to toy with our souls.

There’s a growing body of belief in the latter — that UFOs and aliens are actually demonic entities masquerading as extraterrestrials in order to deceive humanity.

Presbyterian minister and “Cultish” contributor Colin Samul, who was an occult practitioner before his conversion to Christianity in 2005, falls into this body of belief. “My conclusion, and the conclusion of even a lot of secular researchers like Jacques Vallée, is that what we’re dealing with is not interplanetary but … interdimensional — that is, it’s coming from another realm into this realm,” he told Steve Deace in a fascinating interview about the undeniable connection between ufology and occultism.

“The spirit world that we see in scripture that interpenetrates with this realm fits exactly with what we observe in the [UFO/alien] phenomenon,” he said.

But long before he was a Christian and knew scripture well enough to make this claim, it was already clear to Samul that aliens and UFOs were spiritual in nature. As someone who was deep into New Age rituals, Eastern mysticism, and psychedelic experimentation, Samul could see firsthand that “the UFO subject is tightly bound to the New Age and the occult.”

“I mean, you cannot separate them,” he told Deace.

After his Christian conversion, Samul “put a plug” in his interest in all things extraterrestrial and focused exclusively on growing in his newfound faith. But 20 years and a seminary degree later, the topic re-emerged unexpectedly. In 2017, the New York Times published a bombshell front-page article titled “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program.” It revealed a secret Pentagon initiative (AATIP) that studied UFOs/UAPs for a decade — complete with leaked Navy videos of bizarre aerial encounters.

This mainstream coverage marked a pivotal modern watershed, elevating ufology to national security legitimacy for the first time in decades.

Samul, an ordained minister who used to practice contacting extraterrestrial beings, knew that he was exactly the kind of person who might speak into this national surge in interest in the otherworldly. He dove headfirst into UFO research and related communities but with Christian theology as his guiding light. He described it as being “an embedded reporter from a Christian perspective.”

A few years later, Samul found himself hosting and producing “Cultish’s” 10-part Alien Revelations series on UFOs, disclosure, and spiritual connections — a program Deace says is “an outstanding, must-listen-to” series.

In it, Samul argues that aliens and UFOs are really just “a pathway of initiation into the occult that uses this pop-level meme of space invaders to get people’s attention.” But it never stops at the belief that extraterrestrial life exists. The inevitable next question is: What can these otherworldly beings teach us? And that is precisely what occultism is at its core — the search for hidden knowledge via contacting unearthly realms.

While leading experts in the field of ufology often frame this pursuit of alien knowledge in scientific terms, their rhetoric almost always takes a turn toward the spiritual.

In Deace’s words, it “starts off very Star Trekian” but “ends up very occultic,” as the sciencey vernacular of whistleblowers and spokespeople eventually gives way to more ethereal terms, like “higher consciousness” and “summoning.”

The reason for this, says Samul, is because ufology at its core has “always been” about supernaturalism. That’s why the majority of UFO eyewitness accounts have religious undertones to them, with people reporting “conscious connections,” feeling like they were “one” with a craft, or experiencing “divine” energy emanating from a UFO. Further, people who claim to have been abducted by UFOs often return with alleged “psychic abilities,” believing they can telepathically receive messages from their abductors.

But the connection between ufology and occultism gets even weirder. Aleister Crowley — arguably the most famous occultist in modern history, a man who nicknamed himself “the Great Beast 666” and is widely dubbed “the wickedest man in the world” for his rituals of sex, drugs, and blood sacrifice — claimed to have contact with otherworldly beings. Once, he sketched a picture of one of these beings. Crowley’s drawing portrayed an entity named “Lam” as a bald, gray-skinned being with a large, elongated head, small slit eyes, no mouth, and a vaguely fetal form — eerily resembling modern “gray alien” tropes.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that Jack Parsons — Crowley’s devoted protégé and disciple — went on to become a rocket scientist who channeled his occult obsessions into pioneering solid rocket fuel and co-founding NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

Deace puts it in simple terms: “One of the most important advents of engineering in modern human history came from a disciple acolyte of arguably the most infamous occultist satanist in Western history.”

In 1947, Parsons and his fellow Crowley-pupil L. Ron Hubbard, who would go on to found the Church of Scientology, performed a months-long occult experiment called the Babalon Working. Through a series of sex magic rituals, the sinister duo claimed to “birth” the incarnate Thelemic goddess Babalon, who they believed was Marjorie Cameron — an occult artist and actress. When she returned home from the Babalon Working, where she was dubbed “the Scarlet Woman” — the human embodiment of the goddess Babalon – Cameron claimed a UFO was hovering over her house.

1947 also happens to be the same year the modern UFO era kicked off. Kenneth Arnold’s “flying saucer” sighting unleashed a frenzy of reports — over 800 in the U.S. alone — capped by the infamous Roswell crash.

Occult filmmaker Kenneth Anger, who worked with Cameron, claimed that Parsons and Hubbard’s Babalon Working “pierced the veil” of the cosmos, allowing UFOs to enter Earth’s realm. Even the Collins Elite — a secretive U.S. government group — viewed the uptick in UFOs as fallout from Parsons’ and Hubbard’s occult practices.

In other words, says Deace, the theory is that UFOs and aliens are “the culmination of several different fronts of occultic activity” that created “a successful ritual that … opened a door to some form of interdimensional portal.”

To hear more on this theory, watch the full interview above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Steve deace, Steve deace show, Blazetv, Blaze media, Extraterrestrial life, Aliens, Ufos, Uaps, Space aliens, Colin samul, Demons, Angels, Spiritual warfare, Christianity 

Every November, America pauses to thank its veterans. As Thanksgiving approaches — and as we mark Veterans and Military Families Month — it’s worth remembering that real gratitude does not begin in ceremonies. It begins in living rooms, workplaces, and communities willing to listen.

When I returned from Iraq, I believed my mission was complete. I had led soldiers through chaos during the invasion of Baghdad and made it home alive. What I didn’t expect was the second battle: reintegration. Purpose felt less defined. Connection felt harder to find. The uniform came off, but the transition demanded its own kind of discipline.

Service doesn’t end on the battlefield. It continues in the boardroom, the classroom, the town hall — and at the dinner table.

Like many veterans, I learned that coming home isn’t an ending. It’s a transfer of duty.

Service that spans generations

That duty is carried not just by veterans but by the families who stand behind them. A spouse manages a household while absorbing the worry that never quite fades. A child learns resilience from absence. A parent hopes each phone call means his son or daughter is one day closer to coming home — and able to stay.

My son is now a second lieutenant in the Army. Watching him begin his own journey reminds me that service does not stop at the edge of a battlefield. It moves through generations. Families carry it alongside us.

The meaning of gratitude

Thanksgiving offers a natural moment to reflect on gratitude — not the polite version, but the kind that demands something from us.

It demands employers who recognize leadership potential behind a résumé gap.

It demands communities willing to listen before advising.

It demands fellow veterans who know that strength includes accepting help, not just offering it.

Most of all, it demands that Americans see military families not as supporting characters but as central figures in the story of national resilience.

RELATED: Thankful for a capitalist Thanksgiving

skynesher via iStock/Getty Images

What we owe the next generation

The wars of the last two decades lasted longer than anyone expected. Their consequences will last even longer. We owe it to the next generation — including my son’s — to show that a nation’s strength is not measured only by how it deploys its forces, but by how it welcomes them back.

As we close Veterans and Military Families Month and gather around Thanksgiving tables, we can honor veterans in a simple but meaningful way: not by assuming we understand their experience, but by inviting them to share it. Not by thanking them once a year, but by offering them roles in which their judgment, discipline, and experience make a difference.

Service doesn’t end on the battlefield. It continues in the boardroom, the classroom, the town hall — and at the dinner table.

​Opinion & analysis, Thanksgiving, Military families, War, Veterans, Duty, Gratitude, Children, Spouses 

The suspect in custody after the shooting of two National Guard troops near the White House is an Afghan national who entered into the U.S. only four years ago, according to a CBS News report.

A massive law enforcement response followed the shooting in Washington, D.C. Initially the troops were reported as having died from their injuries, but the FBI later said they were hospitalized in critical condition.

‘The animal that shot the two National Guardsmen, with both being critically wounded, and now in two separate hospitals, is also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price.’

Multiple law enforcement sources said the suspect was identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, according to CBS. He also reportedly entered the U.S. on a Biden administration program called Operation Allies Welcome after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Law enforcement sources told NBC News that he used a handgun in the attack.

Reporter Julio Rosas also confirmed the details.

A White House correspondent for NTD News said she and her cameraman witnessed the incident just before 2:15 p.m.

“National Guard shot near the White House. … I was in an Uber to work, with my cameraman, and heard multiple shots fired as we passed Farragut West,” Mari Otsu wrote on social media.

“A member of the National Guard fell while others rushed onto the scene,” she added, with a video included. “Area still on lockdown and Secret Service being deployed.”

President Donald Trump issued a statement about the incident from his Truth Social account.

“The animal that shot the two National Guardsmen, with both being critically wounded, and now in two separate hospitals, is also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price,” he wrote. “God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement.”

RELATED: MS NOW reporter gets obliterated for unbelievable comment about shooting of National Guard

Photo by Drew ANGERER / AFP via Getty Images

Dept. of War Sec. Pete Hegseth said that 500 additional National Guard troops were going to be sent to D.C. in light of the shooting.

“This will only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington, D.C., safe and beautiful. The drop in crime has been historic. The increase in safety and security has been historic,” Hegseth said to reporters in the Dominican Republic.

“But if criminals want to conduct things like this, violence against America’s best, we will never back down,” he added. “President Trump will never back down. That’s why the American people elected him.”

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​National guard shooting, Suspect in dc shooting, Rahmanullah lakanwal, Dc troop shooting, Politics 

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said an FBI official threatened to open a criminal investigation on one of his staff over his persistent investigation and questioning on the Jan. 6 pipe bombs.

An FBI official threatened to open a criminal investigation on one of Massie’s staff “if we didn’t straighten up [and] play ball,” Massie told Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker in an interview broadcast on Matt Kibbe’s “Free the People” podcast and posted to X.

‘Even he understood that was not a good look. Probably illegal.’

“I’m going to say this here on camera because it’s important. … He said … ‘We’re going to investigate one of your staff for fraud,’” Massie quoted the unnamed FBI official as saying. “And he told another one of my staff this: ‘If you guys don’t straighten up, you know, if you want to play hardball, if this is how you want to play it’ or something like that, ‘this member of your staff is going to get criminally investigated for fraud’ — a very specific threat.”

Massie declined to identify the official he says levied the threat, but said he did complain about it to FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

“I told Bongino, I said, ‘One of your guys is threatening my guys with an FBI investigation if we don’t do what you want.’ And he [Bongino] said, ‘I’ll take care of that.’ ’Cause even he understood that was not a good look. Probably illegal.”

Massie said he later received a “non-apology” text from the official that said, “‘I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.’”

“He didn’t apologize. He was unrepentant, let’s say, really.”

Massie has been the most aggressive member of Congress investigating the pipe bombs found behind the Capitol Hill Club at 12:43 p.m. on Jan. 6 and under a park bench on the southwest side of the Democratic National Committee building 22 minutes later. In the same interview with Baker, Massie also disclosed that recent Blaze News reporting has caused him to be “99% certain” that some U.S. Capitol Police officials had a role in the planting of the pipe bombs found on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I went from 90% certain that some Capitol Police were involved in the Jan. 6 pipe bomb to 95% certain, and now I’m at 99% certain after this new story that you put out this week,” Massie told Baker.

“I’m doing this on probability. The probability may even be higher than that.”

His comments reflect Blaze News’ recent reporting on a former Capitol Police officer who was an apparent forensic match to the bomb suspect, follow-up reporting on the manner in which the second device was discovered by plainclothes Capitol Police officers, and the stonewalling the congressman charges that he faced from Capitol Police in the course of his own investigation. Assistant Police Chief Ashan Benedict, whom Massie named as having specifically blocked his investigation, retired last week.

The Kentucky Republican also expressed frustration that FBI Director Kash Patel seems to have made little more progress than his predecessor, Director Christopher Wray. In an interview with Fox News earlier this month, as well as a follow-up with independent reporter Catherine Herridge, Patel promised that major developments are incoming, but was scant on details.

A CBS story published Tuesday cited three unidentified sources stating that the FBI had cleared the police officer who appeared to match a forensic gait analysis of the bomber, citing “an alibi: video of her playing with her puppies at the time the devices were placed.” Blaze News has sought to obtain independent confirmation of the FBI’s clearance based on the alibi.

Blaze News reported Nov. 8 on a forensic match to a former Capitol Police officer, based on a computer analysis of the hoodie-wearing alleged pipe bomber’s manner of walking compared to that of the person. The algorithm rated the person as a 94% match, while the intelligence analyst who ran the study for Blaze News put the match closer to 98%. The person has since denied any allegations, through her attorney.

FBI photos

Blaze News reported Nov. 18 that two Capitol Police counter-surveillance special agents sent out to look for more explosives after the discovery of the Capitol Hill Club device were seen on video going to the DNC building and to a nearby bush on the side of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute building.

Independent video investigator Armitas discovered that the hoodie-wearing suspect identified in 2021 as the pipe bomber stopped at the bush along a sidewalk on the north side of the CBCI building at 7:47 p.m. Jan. 5. The suspect sat cross-legged at the shrub and appeared to rummage through a backpack before leaning into the bush as if attempting to place something underneath.

The bomb suspect then stood up and walked back to the DNC bench, where a pipe bomb was placed at 7:54 p.m., according to choppy video released by the FBI.

‘He had a handler, who would often interrupt and answer questions for him.’

When Capitol Police dispatch warned of the Capitol Hill Club bomb at 12:43 p.m., two plainclothes Capitol Police special agents took a nearly six-minute drive to reach the Capitol Hill South Metro Station, one block from the Capitol Hill Club bomb scene. They then walked to the DNC building, passing the park bench the pipe bomb sat next to.

The agents continued walking until they reached an alley leading to the side of the CBCI building. Their movements were not captured on video because four Capitol Police security cameras that would have shown the DNC crime scene were turned away at key moments or pointed in another direction by default.

Massie’s office released video in July 2023 showing a man in dark clothing and a ball cap approaching a U.S. Secret Service SUV sitting in the driveway of the DNC building as part of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ security detail. Harris was inside the building when the pipe bomb was discovered.

Blaze News reported in January 2024 that this man was the plainclothes Capitol Police officer who discovered the pipe bomb under a bush at the foot of a park bench at the DNC building.

Following that story, Massie told Blaze News he was determined to interview the agents, but did not get much cooperation from Capitol Police. Massie referred to the agents as “man-bun guy” and “backpack guy” (the one who discovered the bomb).

‘Weirdest meeting’

The Capitol Police never made “backpack guy” available to the Massie, but on Jan. 30, 2024, they did eventually send his partner, accompanied by his commander, Benedict, to speak with the congressman in a meeting that was not recorded or transcribed.

“So they came over to my office, but not ‘backpack guy,’” Massie said. “’Man-bun guy’ came over, and he had a handler, who would often interrupt and answer questions for him.”

Two congressional investigators sat in on the meeting alongside Benedict, the police officer, and Massie. The congressman later described the interview as the “weirdest meeting in the world.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said an FBI official threatened a criminal investigation of his staff if he didn’t “play ball” on the Jan. 6 pipe bomb investigation.Photo courtesy of Free the People

“In the conversation with the counter-surveillance officer in my office, Ashan Benedict would frequently interrupt the officer, answer before the officer could reply, or qualify the officer’s answers,” Massie told Blaze News. “There was an effort by our committee staff to get Benedict to sit for a transcribed interview, but he successfully evaded that effort.”

Massie said he still wants to interview the officer who actually found the bomb, as well as his partner and Benedict. “Those need to be transcribed interviews. They need to be sworn in. I feel very strongly about that,” he said. “But the reality is the FBI should be doing these things.”

Massie said that after he reposted the Blaze News article on the gait analysis, Bongino called him to complain about two early persons of interest mentioned in the piece.

One of those men, named in FBI reports as Person of Interest 3, lived directly next door to the Capitol Police officer who was the subject of the Nov. 8 Blaze News article. The FBI’s Special Operations Group conducted surveillance on Person of Interest 3 in Falls Church, Va., for two days in January 2021, but surveillance was suddenly canceled, before any law enforcement officer ever questioned the man.

Massie said Bongino told him, “‘That’s a dead lead. … We investigated that lead and … there’s nothing there. There’s no there there.’ So that’s why they quit looking at it. … At that point I said, ‘But you guys weren’t — you never did suspect him. The FBI never did suspect him. … His build doesn’t match. There’s no way it could be him. Your guys were looking for somebody else.’”

Whistleblower concerns

A current FBI supervisory special agent on Nov. 10 filed a whistleblower protected disclosure with Massie and U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), alleging the termination of surveillance at the Falls Church condominium complex was improper and cut off a suggestion by a surveillance team member that Person of Interest 3 be questioned face-to-face at his doorstep.

Person of Interest 3 and Person of Interest 2, his alleged houseguest on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, had not been questioned by the FBI when surveillance was terminated. Interviews took place six days later, according to FBI reports included in the whistleblower disclosure. An FBI agent pretending to be a Metro Transit police officer interviewed Person of Interest 3 over the phone, a congressional source told Blaze News.

The whistleblower’s “concern was that the investigation that went to Falls Church, Virginia, that got them to the doorstep of the person that [Blaze News] identified through gait analysis as possibly somebody that might have been the person in the hood,” Massie said.

“There were suggestions made to the people in charge of the investigation about how to follow up on those leads,” Massie said. “And it was just dropped after two days of surveillance. And he [the whistleblower] provided supporting documents to that effect.”

Capitol Police block off the intersection of 1st and C streets in response to discovery of a pipe bomb at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police

Massie said Bongino made reference to the FBI conducting a meeting to address the whistleblower disclosure. “He didn’t say, ‘We’re trying to find the whistleblower,’” Massie said. “But my Spidey sense went off, and I almost said to him in that moment, ‘You better not be trying to find the whistleblower, because law protects that individual.’ But I didn’t say it.”

Massie said he thought about this when recalling the threat he said his staff received from the FBI official.

“I have to tell all the listeners this because this is the context in which I’m worried for the whistleblower,” Massie said. “If they’re willing to retaliate against a congressional office, which has speech or debate immunity and a lot of other protections, they may be willing to retaliate against the whistleblower.”

The whistleblower’s attorney, Kurt Siuzdak, sent a letter to Massie and Loudermilk on Nov. 13, warning that if the FBI attempted to out the whistleblower, it would violate the supervisory agent’s protections under the law. Massie shared the letter on social media.

“Identifying the whistleblower serves only one purpose,” Siuzdak wrote, “which is to allow FBI management to retaliate.”

In a Nov. 13 post on X, Bongino accused Massie of throwing “BS bombs” and denied that the FBI sought to identify or retaliate against the Nov. 10 whistleblower. A Blaze News request to Bongino for further comment went unanswered.

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​January 6, Pipe bomb, Fbi, Fbi whistleblower, Thomas massie, Dan bongino, Matt kibbe, Capitol police, Dnc, Rnc, Capitol hill club, Congressional black caucus institute, Barry loudermilk, Politics 

Ashan M. Benedict, the assistant U.S. Capitol Police chief who a congressman alleges prevented two special agents involved in the discovery of a pipe bomb at the Democratic National Committee building from testifying before a U.S. House panel, has retired from the department, Blaze News has learned.

Rumors of Benedict’s retirement came one day after Blaze News published an investigation showing unexplained activity by the Capitol Police officers who discovered that bomb, who were overseen by Benedict. The announcement surprised some at the Capitol Police because his contract with the department was set to expire at the end of the month, on Dec. 1. Benedict came to the Capitol Police on Dec. 4, 2023, as assistant chief for protective and intelligence operations, which includes counter-surveillance teams. He later became assistant chief for standards and training operations.

‘They never looked for a third or fourth or fifth pipe bomb.’

Before he joined the USCP, Benedict was the DNC pipe-bomb incident commander for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In that post, he oversaw ATF’s response to the J6 pipe-bomb threat.

Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan distributed a bulletin Monday, Nov. 24, announcing Benedict’s retirement after less than two years with the USCP. Word had already circulated around the department on the Wednesday before that Benedict was leaving, two sources told Blaze News.

Word of Benedict’s retirement started percolating a day after Blaze News published an investigation showing the two USCP counter-surveillance agents who discovered the DNC bomb on Jan. 6, 2021, seemingly acting in a suspicious manner. The cops parked their car that afternoon and walked straight past a pipe bomb to another location, which Blaze News’ investigation discovered that the pipe-bomb suspect visited the night before. Then the officers returned to the DNC building, where one of them discovered the device.

Pipe-bomb suspect, construction worker, and police at a bush next to Congressional Black Caucus Institute.Photos by U.S. Capitol Police

“I went from 90% certain that some Capitol Police were involved in the Jan. 6 pipe bomb to 95% certain, and now I’m at 99% certain after this new story,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told Blaze News last week in an interview with Steve Baker broadcast on Matt Kibbe’s “Free the People” podcast and posted to X.

“I’m doing this on probability. The probability may even be higher than that.”

The officers were not seen searching any other areas for explosives in any of the extensive video available and reviewed by Blaze News, and they did not continue searching after the DNC device was found at 1:05 p.m. on Jan. 6.

The USCP has since confirmed that one of its agents found the pipe bomb near the DNC park bench, but there is no video showing that because key cameras were turned away from the DNC building at the time. The fact that the DNC bomb was discovered by plainclothes Capitol Police officers, and not merely a pair of passersby, was not made public until Blaze News broke that news in January 2024.

Following that story, Massie told Blaze News he was determined to interview the agents, but did not get much cooperation from Capitol Police. Massie referred to the agents as “man-bun guy” and “backpack guy” (the one who discovered the bomb). By this time, the agents were under Benedict’s command.

Key cameras that cover the Democratic National Committee building were turned away during bomb discovery and disposal.U.S. Capitol Police

The Capitol Police never made “backpack guy” available to Massie, but on Jan. 30, 2024, they did eventually send his partner, accompanied by Benedict, to speak with the congressman in a meeting that was not recorded or transcribed.

“So they came over to my office, but not ‘backpack guy,’” Massie said. “’Man-bun guy’ came over, and he had a handler, who would often interrupt and answer questions for him.”

‘They just kind of wander off. Their job was done. They had found the second pipe bomb.’

Two congressional investigators sat in on the meeting alongside Benedict, the police officer, and Massie. “In the conversation with the counter-surveillance officer in my office, Ashan Benedict would frequently interrupt the officer, answer before the officer could reply, or qualify the officer’s answers,” Massie told Blaze News. “There was an effort by our committee staff to get Benedict to sit for a transcribed interview, but he successfully evaded that effort.”

Massie asked the agent who sent him and his partner to the DNC building, as opposed to some other high-visibility potential target.

“How did you know to go look there?” Massie said he asked. “And it wasn’t a real good answer, something like, ‘That was my sector’ or something. You know, ‘We’re assigned sectors, and that’s just the sector that I look in.’”

According to the January 2025 report of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, three two-man Capitol Police counter-surveillance teams were dispatched to look for other bombs after discovery of the Capitol Hill Club device.

Massie said he showed a video to the men, depicting the slow, nonchalant response from the Secret Service, Metropolitan Police Department, and Capitol Police to the discovery of a bomb that potentially could have killed them all.

‘He never told me about this other bush.’

“Look, there’s pedestrians still walking around, and this is allegedly a pipe bomb,” Massie said. “And that’s when his handler [Benedict] stepped in and said, ‘Well, you don’t want to alarm people when you have a lot of crowds. You know, when you find a bomb or something, you can’t yell, ‘Bomb!’ You gotta just play it cool.’”

Video showed there were no crowds near the DNC bomb site. Occasional pedestrian traffic continued on the sidewalk within feet of the bomb, and vehicle traffic was not immediately stopped on nearby streets. Commuter trains continued to rumble over the adjacent train trestle for 15 minutes after discovery of the bomb.

Massie said his next question “elicited the oddest body language I’ve ever seen in a meeting and no real answer.”

“Well, so then you obviously went looking for another pipe bomb, right?” Massie recalled. “You found two of them within 30 minutes. You must believe the whole place is riddled with them if you’re finding them this quickly.

“I actually knew part of the answer. I watched the video of where he went after,” Massie said. “They just kind of wander off. Their job was done. They had found the second pipe bomb. They never looked for a third or fourth or fifth pipe bomb, and they didn’t have an answer to me for why the search for pipe bombs was over once they found the second pipe bomb. No answer. Weirdest meeting in the world.”

Massie said he still wants to see the officer who actually found the bomb and interview him, his partner, and Benedict under oath for transcribed interviews. “Those need to be transcribed interviews. They need to be sworn in. I feel very strongly about that,” he said. “But the reality is the FBI should be doing these things.”

“How did they know exactly where to look, including the place [Congressional Black Caucus Institute bush] where the pipe bomber tried to place a bomb?” Massie asked. “It was police, it was Capitol Hill Police that found these bombs, and they got there. But … I hope they went and bought lottery tickets after finding these, after going to these two locations.

“But when you take them all together, and the fact that I got to interview these, it’s at least one of these guys [who discovered the bomb], and he never told me about this other bush,” Massie said. “He didn’t have answers for why they didn’t look for more bombs after they found the second one. And then we’ve got the ATF person in charge of the bomb stuff happening on Jan. 6 is now at Capitol Police handling the interview?”

Sources have said the two special agents, who are known to Blaze News, are still with the Capitol Police. The one who discovered the bomb is now the Capitol Police’s liaison to the FBI — the agency charged with investigating the pipe bombs. His partner, who accompanied Benedict to meet with Massie, still works in the intelligence section.

Benedict’s retirement is just the latest disclosure in two months of developments in the long-unsolved pipe-bomb case.

Questions and requests for comment sent to Benedict and the two officers were not returned in time for publication.

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​Politics, January 6, Pipe bomb