To the dismay of many who love America and her founding principles, Abdul El-Sayed, a radical leftist Muslim activist, won the Michigan Senate primary last week.

The Democratic Socialists of America-backed ideologue, who was exposed in 2018 for promising driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, is as progressive as they come. Between supporting unrestricted abortion, Medicare for All, and aggressive gun control — while openly opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and previously pushing to defund the police — El-Sayed is a conservative’s worst nightmare.

But BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales believes he just became an even bigger problem.

“This part actually scares me,” she admits.

On this episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara pulls back the curtain on El-Sayed’s controversial campaign finances.

According to a Fox News Digital review of campaign finance records, Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign received more than $115,000 from at least 41 individuals who currently work for, previously worked for, or have held leadership roles with the Council on American-Islamic Relations — which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates and formally designated or labeled as such by the governors of Texas and Florida.

Additionally, El-Sayed’s father-in-law — a top donor to a Super PAC that supports El-Sayed’s campaign — is a leader of an Islamic organization that the federal government has identified as having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“This is the Democrat Party now. They are just embracing this,” says Sara. “It is not just socialism and communism. It is terrorism too.”

To hear Sara’s deep dive into El-Sayed’s donors and organizational ties, watch the episode above.

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To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Abdul el-sayed, Communism, Michigan, Sara gonzales, Blazetv show, Democratic party 

In 2023, a hacking group called Scattered Spider executed an unprecedented hit on Las Vegas, using a relatively simple yet shockingly effective technique. Now, group members are the prime suspects in another shockingly high-profile cyberattack.

The group attacked MGM casinos in 2023, seemingly gaining access after phishing for credentials. In response, the Bellagio, Aria, Cosmopolitan, and Excalibur casinos shut down large parts of their networks after the breach was discovered in an attempt to cordon off the access.

The FBI has warned about these scams since 2007.

“Slot machines stopped working, electronic transfers of winnings slowed down, and key cards for thousands of hotel rooms no longer functioned,” Ars Technica wrote at the time.

Later that same year, Caesars Entertainment described a social engineering attack that led to data theft from its customer rewards program.

An outsourced IT support vendor provided unauthorized access, and the breach wasn’t discovered for weeks.

Now, that same method, called “vishing,” has been used to penetrate another massive target: Wall Street.

Several major Wall Street firms faced the attacks, which use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls. The problem is that the technique, which became possible some 20 years ago, is pretty much immune to any cybersecurity measures the affected funds are able to implement. In fact, the basic idea behind the exploit goes back some 50 years to when early hackers used “phone phreaking” to coax key info from unsuspecting targets.

RELATED: This throwback app is competing with Big Tech — using a business model out of the 1980s

Zak Bennett/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Among the attacked firms was Citadel, the financial services company that manages over $70 billion in assets. While Citadel has not publicly offered any inside information on what happened, another firm that was attacked, Point72 Asset Management, offered some bread crumbs by saying no customer information was stolen, per Reuters.

Two Sigma, the private hedge fund responsible for $75 billion in assets, provided the most detail when it said it caught the attempt before any information was compromised.

“Our security team responded quickly to an attempted vishing campaign targeting Two Sigma and other investment managers, and we have no indication of any impact to our data or our systems,” a spokesperson said, according to Briefs Finance.

Scattered Spider has been linked to Russian-speaking hackers called AlphV/BlackCat, using VoIP calls to trick IT workers into bypassing multifactor authentication.

Employees can relatively easily be tricked into granting access or providing login information to major institutions and chains.

The phone-call tactic is still widely used due to its effectiveness.

RELATED: Is this the number-crunchers’ come-to-Jesus moment?

Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The FBI has warned about these scams since 2007, warning citizens to answer “vishing” attempts at accessing their personal information “with a healthy dose of skepticism.”

Businesses are warning of “social engineering” as a practice of manipulation that can affect gatekeepers of sensitive information.

Cloudflare has categorized these phone-call breach attempts along the same lines as a fake delivery truck driver or a cyber attack. In most cases, these attacks aim to get the victim to divulge either login credentials or sensitive financial information.

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​Wall street, Hacking, Citadel, Phishing, Tech 

A high-ranking law enforcement official in New York state and her husband have been arrested after prosecutors alleged they helped their son flee the scene of a shooting that targeted a suspected rival gang member in a getaway vehicle.

Jennifer Lackard, 49, was employed as the deputy commissioner of wellness for the Mount Vernon Police Department.

‘It is stunning that this public official would jeopardize her position and reputation to be involved in this alleged conspiracy.’

Lackard and her 20-year-old son, Chase Lackard, were arrested around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday following the execution of a search warrant at the family’s Bronx apartment, according to WCBS-TV.

Jennifer Lackard pleaded not guilty.

James Lackard, Jennifer’s 47-year-old husband, turned himself in to the 44th Precinct station house in the Bronx around 8:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the New York Post.

WCBS reported that the trio was charged with attempted murder, three counts of attempted assault, six counts of weapons possession, one count of conspiracy, and one count of reckless endangerment.

Court records show that Jennifer Lackard and her son each were released on $75,000 bail, and the father — James Lackard — was held on $300,000 bail, according to the New York Post.

A newly unsealed indictment states that the family participated in a coordinated shooting attack outside the Bronx Criminal Courthouse around noon June 29.

WABC-TV reported that the parents drove their son to the courthouse in their tan Chrysler Pacifica, and Chase Lackard fired a semiautomatic gun out of the vehicle’s window.

Prosecutors said Chase — a reported member of the Slutty Gang — was targeting a member of a rival gang, the Sex Money Murder crew.

However, prosecutors said the shooter missed the target, and nobody was injured in the alleged attack.

The indictment said Chase Lackard sent a text message instructing his mother to pick him up in the front of the courthouse.

Jennifer Lackard asked her son what time to be there, according to the indictment.

“You can’t just sit directly outside. It has to be timed right,” she texted, ABC News reported, citing the indictment.

The mother drove the family back to their home, according to the indictment.

RELATED: Cop torches career after home invasion, physical attack on former lover — and his girlfriend — plus threat to burn down house

ABC News, citing the indictment, reported that Jennifer Lackard’s “son changed his clothing “to avoid identification.”

Prosecutors said the shooting was caught on surveillance video.

According to ABC News, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark stated:

These defendants allegedly conspired with each other to drive from their Bronx residence to the Hall of Justice for the purpose of shooting someone. Despite multiple shots being fired, thankfully no one was hit.

It is stunning that this public official would jeopardize her position and reputation to be involved in this alleged conspiracy.

Jennifer Lackard was terminated from her position with the Mount Vernon Police Department.

The City of Mount Vernon said in a statement, “Effective immediately, the City of Mount Vernon has terminated Mrs. Lackard’s employment.”

“The allegations are unrelated to her duties with the Mount Vernon Police Department and do not stem from any conduct associated with the Department or the performance of her official responsibilities,” the statement read.

Lackard was paid a salary of $138,219 last year, according to online payroll records.

The Mount Vernon Police Department said in a statement that it was aware of the criminal history of Jennifer Lackard’s husband.

“As part of the hiring process, information regarding her husband’s prior criminal history was disclosed and reviewed and deemed not to be disqualifying for her civilian position,” the statement said.

The Mount Vernon Police Department stated that it will not comment on the situation any further because it is an active investigation.

The Journal News reported that Jennifer Lackard founded the Ivy House Center for Self-Sufficiency, a former nonprofit substance abuse and mental health outpatient treatment center in North Carolina, in 2007.

However, the center was forced to close in 2012 because James Lackard was arrested on drug charges.

WCBS-TV reported that a 2012 federal indictment shows James Lackard previously served 52 months on a drug conviction before later pleading guilty in another federal drug case.

Meanwhile, Chase Lackard reportedly has a history of encounters with police.

According to the Journal News, Chase Lackard has pending criminal cases in the Bronx and Manhattan.

The Journal News reported:

In November 2024 he was arrested after being shot in the leg by an NYPD officer when he allegedly pointed a gun at officers following a fight in the Soundview neighborhood. Three months earlier, he was arrested on gun charges in Manhattan. In 2023 he was shot in the chest during a gang-related fight on an MTA bus in the Bronx.

The NYPD stated that Jennifer Lackard has no criminal history in New York City.

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​New york, Attempted murder, Nypd, Crime, Mount vernon, Arrests 

The existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre claimed that “hell is other people.” Former Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera is among the bleeding hearts who believe that hell is Haiti — at least now that the Trump administration is repatriating its people.

Then

President Donald Trump identified Haiti in a January 2018 meeting as one among various “s**thole countries.” This was, after all, then a failed state plagued by violence, haunted by rumors of cannibalism, and still reeling from a deadly earthquake.

‘Ridiculous.’

There was tremendous backlash over Trump’s remarks — not only from the Haitian government and the United Nations’ human rights office but from Democrats and the liberal media.

Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D) were among the many concern-mongers who claimed that Trump’s vivid characterization of Haiti as a less-than-ideal nation was “racist.”

In addition to similarly attacking Trump, celebrities ran a PR campaign for the Caribbean nation, portraying it as a paradisiacal place.

Conan O’Brien, for instance, aired a one-hour special showcasing Haiti’s perceived beauty — a special that included refutations of Trump’s “s**thole” comment from Haitian natives along with repeated emphases that the island nation was a “beautiful country.”

RELATED: Pets of Springfield, rejoice! DHS is coming for suspended-status Haitians after Biden judge takes ‘the L’

In subsequent months, others, including Bill Maher, jumped on the bandwagon, donning apparel that stated, “HAITI IS GREAT ALREADY.”

Unfortunately, the situation deteriorated in Haiti before it got better — simultaneously confirming Trump’s initial framing and prompting the liberal media to ramp up its gaslighting campaign.

When confronted — a couple of years after Haitian President Jovenel Moise’s assassination — with reports that criminals had taken over the country’s capital, freed thousands of felons from jail, engaged in systematic rape, forced the prime minister to resign, and threatened genocide, NBC News, for instance, reassured its viewers in 2024 that contrary to claims by “right-wing pundits,” the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country did not also have a problem with cannibalism.

Now

The Trump administration announced in July 2025 that it was terminating Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status, having determined that the Caribbean nation no longer meets the conditions for special status, in part due to improvements in domestic safety and stability.

While the administration recognized that the country still suffers a “lack of functional government authority” and that “gang violence in Haiti persists,” then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that “the environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home.”

This revocation of Haiti’s special status — which has shielded roughly 350,000 Haitians from removal — faced multiple legal challenges; however, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled in the administration’s favor in June.

Now that the Department of Homeland Security is “going after” Haitian migrants with suspended special statuses, the usual suspects have jettisoned their “HAITI IS GREAT ALREADY” framing and adopted the president’s previous understanding of the Caribbean country as a loathsome place.

Geraldo Rivera, who asked Trump in 2018 to apologize for his “unfortunate” remarks about Haiti and other third-world nations, wrote on Sunday — in the wake of reports about the deportation initiative under way — that “expelling Haitian immigrants is sending them straight to hell.”

Rivera was widely criticized for joining the chorus of liberals against the repatriation campaign.

Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck wrote in response, “Didn’t the entire media and Democrats in DC swear that Haiti was amazing and wonderful and perfect when Trump called it a hellhole? Trump then said okay, then sounds like they can go back and now the framing switches to, ‘it’s hell on earth, you can’t send them back!’ Ridiculous.”

Mike Howell, the president of the Oversight Project and Blaze News contributor, alluded to Rivera’s previous concern-mongering over Trump’s “s**thole,” then asked, “What happened[?]”

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​Bill maher, Department of homeland security, Geraldo rivera, Hillary clinton, Robby starbuck, Temporary protected status, Trump administration, Donald trump, Haiti, Politics 

When Biden’s White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly downplayed Americans’ frustrations over high milk and egg prices, she helped solidify the voter anger over affordability that directly contributed to the Democratic Party’s electoral damage in 2024.

BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre is concerned the conservatives are now making the same mistake.

“Conservative pundits and influencers are repeating the exact same mistake, telling consumers that everything’s fine and only economic illiterates would think grocery, gas, and housing costs are too much,” says MacIntyre.

But this is disastrous messaging, he warns — especially heading into midterm elections.

“Elections aren’t won by lecturing voters that their problems are imaginary. This is politics 101,” MacIntyre says. “Professional political actors adopting this strategy months before midterms is both bizarre and dangerous.”

The reality is, most Americans are still struggling in the current economic climate.

“Conservative pundits may produce charts, cite aggregate statistics, and explain that certain indicators look healthy, but none of that will save the GOP any more than it saved the Democrats who insisted that Bidenomics was working,” says MacIntyre.

Right now, he explains, “food, health care, child care, education, insurance, housing, electricity, and gasoline remain punishingly expensive.”

While MacIntyre understands that honesty with voters about the current economic situation is a death sentence for politicians, downplaying the predicament isn’t helping either.

“There’s only so much Trump can do about the structural inflation and accumulating debt. He can, however, avoid taking actions that make the problem worse,” he says, pinpointing the ongoing conflict in Iran as a major contributor to America’s economic strife.

But when Americans complain that the war is driving up gas prices and forcing the U.S. to borrow or print tens of billions of dollars to pay for it, they’re called “stupid or selfish” by “the very same pundits” who support the war, he explains.

MacIntyre speculates that these politicians will “blame any disastrous midterm results on the people who oppose the conflict, but the political reality is obvious.”

“The central issue is not that voters have developed a sophisticated position on Iran. Many of them probably care very little about the strategic details. What they do care about is that everything costs more. Telling them that they lack economic literacy has roughly the same electoral appeal as shooting a puppy on live television,” he says.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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To enjoy more of this YouTuber and recovering journalist’s commentary on culture and politics, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Affordability crisis, Auron macintyre, Gas prices, Housing costs, Iran, Midterm elections, Blazetv show 

Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) lost the Republican primary in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District on Thursday to newcomer Charlie Hatcher.

The loss comes after the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC spent $2 million against Ogles as retribution for his opposition to green energy subsidies. Ogles was also affected by redistricting, with over 80% of voters in the redrawn district previously belonging to another.

‘Communist Democrats defeated Andy Ogles tonight in Tennessee, but we cannot let them win in November.’

Hatcher did not respond to requests for comment.

“Last night, the radical left successfully employed a strategy to influence a Republican primary,” Ogles told Blaze News. “The night before early voting began, a California Green Energy PAC publicly disclosed a four-week, $2 million spending campaign all to defeat a Trump-endorsed America First conservative.”

“Republicans across the country should take notice. If the left can spend millions to meddle in Republican primaries in Tennessee, they’ll do it in every red state where they think they can buy the outcome,” Ogles said. “While last night’s outcome wasn’t what I hoped, Charlie is a good man, and I will do whatever I can to help him be successful.”

Ogles served in the House of Representatives for two terms. He introduced the Remigration Act bill in June, aiming to expand denaturalizations and deportations.

“Tennessee’s 5th District just proved once again that standing in the way of America’s energy future comes with a hefty political price,” ITC Chairman Tom Matzzie said in a statement provided to Blaze News. “This is our second upset in as many primaries — first Chip Roy, now Andy Ogles — and we will continue to punish members of either party who want to play politics with American jobs, energy security, and utility prices.”

“The entire map is in play, and we will take this fight across the country through November.”

RELATED: Liberals in MAGA clothing run covert campaign against Trump-backed candidate

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Invest in Tomorrow’s campaign ran advertisements attacking Roy (R-Texas) as insufficiently MAGA. Roy lost his primary to state Sen. Mayes Middleton.

Matzzie previously held positions at MoveOn.Org, in John Kerry’s presidential campaign, at the Democratic National Committee, and at the AFL-CIO.The White House directed Blaze News to the president’s Friday Truth Social post when reached for comment.

“Last night was another good night for Endorsements, 8-1,” Trump wrote. “The 1 was a person who I remained loyal to even though he had virtually no chance of winning, and was running against a Great ‘Trump’ Candidate.”

Hatcher served as Tennessee’s commissioner of agriculture for seven years and received Gov. Bill Haslam’s endorsement in July. The primary winner positioned himself as a Trump ally and voice for rural Tennesseans during the campaign.

“Congressman Andy Ogles lost tonight because a super PAC bankrolled by left-wing California Democrats spent $2 million to raid the Republican primary. These leftist Democrats include a San Francisco billionaire who gave $12 million to Kamala Harris and has pledged to spend ‘whatever it takes’ to elect Gavin Newsom,” the Freedom Caucus Fund said in a statement.

That San Francisco billionaire is Ripple Labs co-founder Chris Larsen, who donated $6 million to the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC between February and June 2026, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures. During the 2024 campaign, Larsen donated millions to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. Larsen is worth nearly $13 billion.

The Freedom Caucus Fund spent over $560,000 to defend Ogles against Invest in Tomorrow’s campaign, according to a spokesperson.

“This same super PAC is pledging tens of millions to take out conservative pro-Trump Republicans in the House and Senate this November. Their goal is to destroy President Trump’s America First majority in Congress, install Hakeem Jeffries as speaker, and reinstate Biden’s Green New Scam that President Trump and the House Freedom Caucus eliminated in the Big Beautiful Bill.

“Communist Democrats defeated Andy Ogles tonight in Tennessee, but we cannot let them win in November.”

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​Andy ogles, Democratic national committee, Green energy subsidies, House freedom caucus, White house, Tennessee, Politics