A drunk Ohio couple allegedly forced their way into a cruise ship cabin to attack three people, including striking a 9-year-old child, according to authorities. A cruise passenger said two words to the pair that sent them into a fit of rage, police said.

Police said Ohio residents 29-year-old Gannon Jacox and his 28-year-old girlfriend, Brooklyn Hicks, were arrested on Saturday when the cruise ship they were traveling on docked at Port Canaveral – a cruise, cargo, and naval port in Brevard County, Florida.

‘If you can’t hold your liquor, then you definitely shouldn’t be out in public causing a scene like this and injuring random people, including a child!’

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey announced in a statement on the department’s official Facebook page that he believed the incident was fueled by “alcohol combined with an apparent lack of common sense.”

The pair were “apparently arguing loudly after taking advantage of some adult beverages” during the cruise trip, Ivey said.

The statement said a fellow cruise passenger asked them to “quiet down,” and Hicks “apparently didn’t like the request, so she decided to go confront them.”

The statement said Jacox walked over to the squabble and began recording with his cell phone, then instructed his girlfriend to “beat them up!”

Police said Jacox and Hicks “pushed” their way into the cruise ship cabin of the alleged victims, where a 9-year-old child was staying.

Sheriff Ivey stated that a “fight ensued” and Jacox hit all three people in the room, including a 9-year-old child.

“Hicks was just swinging, hoping one would land,” Ivey added.

Ivey said Jacox suffered a “pretty gross injury to his eye,” which was “either caused by one of the victims or friendly fire from the Haymakers his girlfriend was throwing!”

The sheriff pointed out, “Thankfully none of the victims were seriously injured in this ridiculous escapade!”

Sheriff Ivey added, “So what’s the moral of the story…if you can’t hold your liquor, then you definitely shouldn’t be out in public causing a scene like this and injuring random people, including a child!”

Ivey joked, “You know the deal folks, break the law in Brevard County, and I promise you the lodge will have a reservation with your name on it!”

RELATED: Mother and her adult son allegedly beat up 65-year-old woman on cruise ship amid argument

jgroup via iStock/Getty Images

Jacox was arrested and charged with burglary with battery and child abuse without great bodily harm. Meanwhile, Hicks was arrested and charged with burglary with battery and battery-touch/strike.

Both suspects were transported and booked into the Brevard County Jail.

On Sunday, Jacox was released on a $31,000 bond, jail records show. On Monday, Hicks was released on a $6,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jail records show that both suspects are scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 15.

Authorities did not name the specific cruise ship where the incident reportedly happened.

Citing the Port Canaveral cruise ship schedule for Aug 15, the New York Post reported, “Four cruise ships docked at Port Canaveral on Saturday — Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas, Disney’s Disney Treasure, and Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras and Carnival Freedom.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Florida, Florida man, Cruise fight, Crime, Wayne ivey 

Sadly, the people who want to see the United States destroyed don’t just live outside our borders.

“There’s a lot of people in the United States that would also love to see us fail,” says BlazeTV host Nick Freitas.

When people think of America’s enemies within, George Soros is often the first person who comes to mind — and for good reason. The “philanthropist” has funneled tens of billions of dollars into radical left-wing causes that weaken law and order, national sovereignty, and traditional Western institutions.

But Freitas says there’s another American who trumps even the mighty Soros.

According to DataRepublican, Neville Roy Singham — the American multimillionaire software entrepreneur who sold his company in 2017 before relocating to China — “funneled $278 MILLION into a network of ~2,000 organizations that push pro-China, anti-American propaganda across five continents.”

Even though Singham has funneled far less money into destructive causes than Soros, his open Marxist ideology and close alignment with the Chinese Communist Party make him, according to Freitas and co-host Christian Hines, number one on the list of America’s fifth columnists.

Singham, says Hines, is “a just full-blown Marxist in bed with the CCP and is funding effectively an entire propaganda campaign to destroy the United States from within and huge wedge issues in America in order to agitate for leftist causes.”

“He’s not a progressive. He’s a communist,” he declares.

To show just how extreme Singham is, Freitas points to a video of him speaking at a conference he co-sponsored in Shanghai in November 2025 — an event that had the blessing of the Chinese Communist Party. At the conference, the American-born Singham released a 172-page report claiming the United States and the West did not win World War II — the Soviet Union and China did — and that it was a “fascist lie” for the West to take credit.

He went on to say that if people want the new world order proposed by President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party, they must undo the “ideological damage” caused by the Western story of World War II.

To hear more, watch the video above.

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK40 for $40 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​China, Chinese communist party, George soros, Marxist ideology, Neville roy singham, Nick freitas, Blazetv show 

H.L. Mencken believed in free speech “up to the last limits of the endurable.” Apparently, that makes him a cuck nowadays.

Mencken was a self-described “extreme libertarian” with little respect for authority. In 1926, when Boston banned an issue of his magazine, the American Mercury, over a mildly bawdy story called “Hatrack,” Mencken went to Boston, sold a copy himself, and got arrested for his trouble.

Are we still rational? Some days I have my doubts.

“Hatrack,” by Herbert Asbury — who later gave us “The Gangs of New York” — concerned a prostitute who took her Catholic customers to the Protestant cemetery and her Protestant customers to the Catholic cemetery.

Scandalous stuff, once upon a time.

Yet as absolutist as he professed to be, Mencken did not believe freedom of speech meant license to say anything to anybody under any circumstances. Although he rejected Catholic doctrine, he told an interviewer he had no right to plant himself outside a cathedral after High Mass and harangue Catholics as they emerged.

Write against Catholicism? Sure. Ridicule it? Mencken made a career of worse. But deliberately press his contempt upon people who didn’t ask for it? There he located one of “the last limits of the endurable.”

I thought about Mencken’s observation while reading responses to my column last week about Shiloh Hendrix, the Minnesota woman convicted of disorderly conduct after Sharmake Omar followed her with a camera, challenged her to repeat the N-word, and got exactly what he asked for. I say Hendrix behaved badly but Minnesota’s prosecution was needless. Whatever one thinks of the “fighting words” doctrine, her exchange with Omar did not look much like an “imminent breach of the peace.”

One reader informed me that I was “100% wrong” because “the founding fathers told you so.”

No, they didn’t. Sorry, dude. Not even close.

James Madison certainly understood that liberty carries abuses with it. In his “Report of 1800,” attacking the Sedition Act, Madison wrote that “some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of every thing,” especially a free press. Better to tolerate a few “noxious branches” than prune so aggressively that you destroy the good fruit along with the bad.

RELATED: Shiloh Hendrix took the bait — prosecutors took it too far

maurusone/iStock/Getty Images

That is a formidable warning against political censorship. It is not an argument that nothing done with words may ever come within reach of the law.

Joseph Story was even more on point. Story was not technically a founder, but Madison appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1811. In his 1833 “Commentaries on the Constitution,” Story considered the proposition that freedom of speech and press meant an absolute right to say or publish anything “without any responsibility, public or private.” He called that “a supposition too wild to be indulged by any rational man.”

Are we still rational? Some days I have my doubts.

Nor did the Supreme Court in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire simply declare open season on offensive words. The rule the justices upheld applied to words with a “direct tendency to cause acts of violence” by the person to whom they were addressed. The question was not whether somebody’s feelings had been hurt, but whether, in context, the words were likely to provoke an immediate breach of the peace.

You may think that rule was wrong. You may think Chaplinsky should be overruled. Fine by me. But it was not a hate-speech law in embryo.

Conservatives, of all people, should be capable of making certain distinctions. We are right to oppose political censorship, government pressure on social media companies, and “online safety” schemes — especially Trojan horse laws like Britain’s Online Safety Act and whatever American variants politicians devise — that smuggle censorship into law under the vocabulary of “harm,” “misinformation,” and “protection.”

But the answer shouldn’t be to pretend public order no longer matters.

We used to understand “ordered liberty.” The adjective was not decorative. A free society protects political dissent, unpopular opinions, vulgarity (to a point), and plenty of behavior decent people would rather not endure. It also recognizes that rights can collide and that threats, intimidation, harassment, breaches of the peace, and invasions of privacy do not become sacred merely because somebody accomplished them with his mouth.

Hadley Arkes warned conservatives about precisely this temptation in the Claremont Review of Books. In recoiling from the left’s habit of policing speech according to subjective injury, conservatives risk adopting a relativism of their own: No distinctions. No judgments. Words are words. Speech is speech. Context is irrelevant.

That posture may sound wonderfully resolute, but it merely saves us the trouble of thinking. Don’t fall for it.

RELATED: Saint Anthony Fauci’s index of forbidden questions

Nyia Sissac/Washington Post/Getty Images

Human beings use words to persuade, deceive, threaten, provoke, comfort, command, insult, and warn. Threats are words. Extortion is words. Perjury is words. Fraud very often is words. An argument is made with words. So is an epithet. Pretending all of those acts are morally identical does not make us more devoted to liberty. It makes us less capable of judgment.

Which brings me back to Shiloh Hendrix. She is a grown woman who behaved badly. Omar followed her with a camera, confronted her, and challenged her to repeat the N-word. He also behaved badly — but she took the bait. He posted the video. She was doxxed, condemned, defended, and turned into a national cause. Then Minnesota prosecuted her.

I still think that was needless. Omar wanted a viral video, not a fistfight. He got one, and the internet delivered its judgment with its Customary Restraint and Good Sense™. I still want Hendrix to win her appeal.

Arkes emailed me after my first column appeared and put the matter more succinctly: “It’s a matter of context.” Exactly. Thanks, professor!

Madison warned against destroying freedom while pruning its noxious branches. Story warned that liberty did not mean immunity from all responsibility. Mencken believed in freedom up to “the last limits of the endurable.” Arkes warns conservatives not to answer left-wing censorship by surrendering moral judgment altogether.

Public order requires us to look squarely at what Hendrix did, what Omar did, and what the state did afterward. Making distinctions does not weaken the case for free speech. It is the case for ordered liberty — which we need now more than ever.

​Fighting words, Free speech, H.l. mencken, Hate speech, James madison, Joseph story, Opinion & analysis, Ordered liberty, Shiloh hendrix, Hadley arkes, Disorderly conduct, First amendment 

Longtime Democratic leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz was declared the victor in the controversial primary race for Florida’s 20th Congressional District.

The former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee announced that she would run in the 20th District after she was redistricted out of her previous seat.

‘The voters of this district deserve a representative who shares their daily life and will fight for them — not another outsider who parachuted into the race when it became convenient.’

The issue was immediately contentious to the Democrats who wanted to see the historically black district be represented by a black person.

“Our party cannot credibly denounce the dismantling of black political power by Republicans while treating one of Florida’s few remaining majority-black districts as a political opportunity for an incumbent seeking a safer seat,” read an official statement from nearly all DNC members in Florida from May.

Despite the furor, Wasserman Schultz easily won the primary Tuesday and will go on to face Florida Republican Brent Andersen in the general election for the seat.

Andersen emphasized the outrage in a statement to Blaze News after her victory.

“I live in this district with my family. Debbie Wasserman Schultz does not. She is a career Washington politician who only decided to run here after redistricting made her old seat more competitive,” Andersen said in the statement.

“For decades, District 20 has been represented by people who actually live among the communities they serve,” he added. “The voters of this district deserve a representative who shares their daily life and will fight for them — not another outsider who parachuted into the race when it became convenient. That’s the choice they will have in November.”

Andersen describes himself as a conservative businessman and a dedicated community servant on his website.

RELATED: Harry Reid torches the ‘worthless’ DNC and incinerates Debbie Wasserman Schultz

CNN noted that Schultz was the only white candidate to run in the primary against four other Democrats.

Schultz was also blamed by some top Democrats for the devastating loss in 2016 to President Donald Trump.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Debbie wasserman schultz, Florida, Congressional race, Midterm elections, Politics, Election 

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is not long for Congress, now that he has been soundly defeated in the Republican primary.

Polls had barely closed on Tuesday when results came pouring in from the 7th Congressional District of Florida, showing signs that Mills was in deep trouble. By about 8 p.m. ET, the race had been called for the challenger.

Mills is currently the subject of a criminal investigation at the Department of Justice.

With nearly 94% of expected votes counted, challenger Ryan Elijah was declared the winner, stomping Mills 47% to 34.3%. Elijah will now face Florida Democrat Bale Dalton in November.

Mills was first elected in 2022 with a margin of victory of 15 points. He likewise secured re-election in 2024 with a comfortable 13-point margin.

Neither the Elijah campaign nor the Mills campaign immediately responded to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Rep. Cory Mills gives wild explanation for messages to Miss United States as hearing ends in frustration

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel

This loss likely did not take Mills by surprise.

Earlier this month, a Victory Insights poll warned that Mills’ numbers were “extremely concerning” for the incumbent. Then on Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) emphatically stated, “I have not endorsed Cory Mills, and I do not support Cory Mills.”

Mills is also embroiled in a mess of scandals, many of which were first reported by Blaze News. He has been accused of stolen valor, converting to Islam, meeting with a Syrian leader once labeled a terrorist, and even of threatening a beauty queen with revenge porn.

As Blaze News reported a year ago, Mills allegedly bombarded Lindsey Langston, then the reigning Miss United States, with threatening messages after she ended their three-year relationship in February 2025. Following their break-up, he allegedly sent messages such as:

“May want to tell every guy you date that if we run into each other at any point. Strap up cowboy.” “You want to date or be with someone else. Be my guest. But they need to know well in advance that if we cross paths, I don’t care this week, this month, or this decade. They better damn well know it’s coming every time.” “I can send him a few videos of you as well.”

The sextortion allegations and other forms of alleged harassment convinced a Florida judge to grant Langston a restraining order against Mills back in October.

Additionally, in late July, news broke that Mills is currently the subject of a criminal investigation at the Department of Justice. The exact nature and scope of the investigation is unclear, but reports indicate that it involves his finances.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Cory mills, Florida, Miss united states, Republican primary, Politics 

Mexican officials are upset that the Trump administration is quietly deporting Mexican nationals to countries beyond their country of origin reportedly in order to deter re-entries.

President Donald Trump had promised to institute mass deportations in his second term in office, and so far, he has taken many steps to fulfill that pledge.

‘Mexico consistently takes the steps necessary to ensure the safe and dignified return of all its nationals to national territory.’

According to CBS News, the administration is quietly deporting Mexicans to Honduras and Guatemala despite the Mexican government saying it will gladly take in its citizens.

The CBS report cited official sources from the Department of Homeland Security who requested anonymity.

The officials said at least hundreds of deportees had been sent to Honduras and Guatemala in recent months, but it was unclear when the policy had begun.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry told CBS the administration objected to the alleged policy.

“The government of Mexico accepts the return of all its nationals. It therefore rejects the deportation of Mexican nationals to third countries and has no such agreement in place,” read the statement from the agency.

“Mexico consistently takes the steps necessary to ensure the safe and dignified return of all its nationals to national territory,” they added.

A spokesperson for the DHS told CBS that the U.S. administration was “utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised.”

Adam Isacson, a Washington Office on Latin America researcher, told CBS that the policy was “almost entirely punitive.”

RELATED: College student went to Chicago park to see northern lights — and was lethally shot by illegal alien: DHS

He added, “It’s the same as the purpose of sending them to Ecuador or Africa or anywhere else: to broadcast the hardship, to make sure people know that this is a possible consequence of remaining undocumented in the United States and to encourage people to self-deport.”

CBS requested comments from the governments of Honduras and Guatemala but did not receive a response.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Trump administration, Illegal alien, Illegal immigration, Mexico, Deportations, Politics 

An Idaho coffee shop apparently locked down its social media accounts after getting backlash for kicking out a pro-life group from its business.

The owner of the Wydaho Roasters Coffee House in the city of Driggs confronted the group and compared it to the Ku Klux Klan, according to video posted by Kristan Hawkins, CEO of the Pro-Life Generation and other organizations.

‘The backlash only reminds us that we’re making an impact. We will keep showing up. We will keep speaking the truth. And we will keep fighting for Life.’

Hawkins said she and her group were acting peacefully when owner Jim Sheehan told them they had to leave over their pro-life advocacy.

“I don’t want this group meeting here,” Sheehan tells them in the video posted by Hawkins.

“Sir, we’re just meeting for the first meeting,” a woman protests.

“I don’t care! Go to the public library! This is my place of business,” he responds.

The woman and Sheehan argue in the edited video before he compares pro-lifers to the KKK.

“I did a lot of work to get people on the ballot so women would have the right to choose [abortions] in the state of Idaho, and this is something I do not support, nor does my wife. And it’s our business, so we have that choice,” he says at one point.

“It’s like if the KKK asked to meet here, I would say no,” he adds later in the video.

“So you’re saying pro-lifers are like the KKK? Is that what you’re saying?” the woman replies.

“In my world, it’s the same sort of concept,” he responds.

“I’ve made point clear. I asked you guys not to meet here.”

Earlier in the video, Sheehan admits that he said, “Everybody is welcome.”

Others online posted screenshots showing that the social media accounts for the business were locked down after the video was posted to social media.

“They compared US to the KKK … even though Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, spoke for the KKK. We paid for our food. We weren’t protesting or disrupting anyone,” wrote Hawkins on social media.

“We were simply sitting together having a peaceful conversation. We were kicked out because we’re pro-life and work to protect babies. But we aren’t backing down. The backlash only reminds us that we’re making an impact. We will keep showing up. We will keep speaking the truth. And we will keep fighting for Life.”

The Sheehans’ coffee shop had previously hosted a meet-and-greet event for an Idaho candidate who is proudly a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. The shop also held a vigil for Renée Good and Alex Pretti, the left-wing activists who were shot and killed while protesting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

RELATED: Social media erupts with fury at liberal editor justifying harassment of JD Vance’s children at Disneyland

Sheehan responded to a request for comment from Blaze News and said that the video had been “selectively edited to skew the interaction” he had with the group.

“They were not kicked out,” Sheehan claimed in an emailed statement.

“I asked them to find another place to hold their meeting — she repeatedly asked if I was kicking them out, and I didn’t respond one way or the other — not sure how I would kick out dozens of people,” he added in a second emailed statement. “Typically if someone want[s] to use a private business the[y] seek permission — I don’t align with their agenda, and I made that clear in my request the day before that they not hold their meeting at Wydaho — they ignored [the request] because this was about starting a controversy.”

One user noted that the shop had a lawn sign reading “EVERYONE WELCOME” and posted an image taken from Yelp.

“Connecting, that’s the ultimate reason we have this place,” Sheehan said in an interview about his shop from May. “I want it to be a beacon that everyone is welcome here.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Idaho, Pro-life movement, Abortion, Viral video, Politics