At least 130 people have been arrested in the first several days of what DHS dubs Operation Charlotte s Web, headed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) headed by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in a major urban area of the country.
00:02:27.680Sanctuary City, Charlotte, North Carolina, the latest major urban area in President Trump's immigration crackdown.
00:02:34.940At least 130 people arrested in the first several days of what DHS dubs Operation Charlotte's Web, headed by Customs and Border Protection.
00:02:44.980DHS has not provided a timeline for how long the operation is expected to last, but it began over the weekend.
00:02:51.020An agency spokesperson telling CNN that criminal records of those arrested include known gang membership,
00:02:57.680aggravated assault, hit-and-run, DUI, DWI, illegal re-entry after prior deportation, and more.
00:03:05.180DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin yesterday on Newsmax saying federal agents are targeting Charlotte because local officials refuse to cooperate with ICE.
00:03:14.760Charlotte's a beautiful city, but in this case, its leadership has absolutely failed it.
00:03:20.220We know that there is more than 1,400 criminal legal aliens who are in their jails, and they refuse to turn over those individuals to ICE law enforcement,
00:03:31.760which really, that means a revolving door of justice, and these criminal legal aliens will go back onto Charlotte's streets to re-perpetuate their crimes.
00:03:40.940We're talking about serial child pedophiles, murderers, rapists, gang members, people who pose real public security threats to the American people.
00:03:52.060And so, of course, we are surging resources there, and we won't stop until Charlotte is safer.
00:03:58.000Hundreds of community members mobilizing in opposition to the operation marching through the streets.
00:04:02.640Students at a Charlotte high school staging a walkout on Monday.
00:04:07.240CNN reports a popular Colombian bakery closing after the owner says agents tackled people outside of his shop.
00:04:14.220In one Sunday incident, video posted to X showing the driver of a van, reportedly a U.S. citizen,
00:04:20.460steering toward federal agents while they were conducting an operation.
00:04:24.560DHS saying the driver fled the scene, triggering a high-speed chase with agents,
00:04:29.020recovering firearms from the vehicle upon apprehension.
00:04:32.700North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, on Sunday posting a video message to social media accusing federal agents of stoking fear.
00:04:41.120My team and I have been in regular contact with state and local law enforcement to ensure that they have the resources that they need to keep you safe.
00:04:52.580On Friday, before Customs and Border Protection came to Charlotte,
00:04:56.140I encouraged North Killianians to follow the law, remain peaceful, and bear witness to what you're seeing.
00:05:03.300To the CBP, if you know that we have violent criminals in Charlotte who are undocumented, we want them out, too.
00:05:10.600Everyone wants to be safe in their communities.
00:05:13.480But the actions of too many federal agents are doing the exact opposite in Charlotte.
00:05:18.020We've seen masked, heavily armed agents in paramilitary garb driving unmarked cars, targeting American citizens based on their skin color.
00:05:27.220Despite the governor's statement, Mecklenburg County officers, where Charlotte is located, do not assist with federal immigration operations,
00:05:41.360a policy reaffirmed in a joint statement released by Charlotte city and county officials just this past Saturday.
00:05:47.680It reads in part, quote, CBP operations are causing unnecessary fear and uncertainty in our community.
00:05:54.540We stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives, contributing to our larger community.
00:06:00.860Yesterday on Fox, CBP senior advisor Ron Vitello defending the operation.
00:06:06.160I would take umbrage of the mayor's comments.
00:06:09.660You know, she wants everybody to live peacefully in Charlotte, Mecklenburg.
00:06:51.260They're going to get exactly what they don't want, more agents in the communities, and more works on enforcement.
00:06:56.460Because if they won't let us arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a county jail, we're safer for the agent, safer for the alien, certainly safer for the community.
00:07:05.600If they're going to release them back in the community, then we've got to send a whole team to look for that person, which they release a lot of people and send a lot of teams.
00:07:13.340If we can't find them in the community, then we'll find them at the worksite.
00:07:16.880And when we go in the community, I want to make this clear, the sanctuary treaties, again, will get something they don't want.
00:07:22.120When we find a bad person, and we will, if they're with others that aren't a criminal threat, but they're in the country illegally, they're coming too.
00:07:29.940Charlotte drawing national attention this summer after 23-year-old Irina Zarutska was stabbed to death on public transit.
00:07:37.640Though the alleged perpetrator of that attack is a U.S. citizen, the brutal slaying committed by a repeat offender, highlighting criticisms that state and local leadership is failing to maintain law and order.
00:07:50.780President Trump ramping up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
00:07:54.580On Monday, the State Department announcing its intent to designate the Cartel de los Solis, a foreign terrorist organization, effective November 24th.
00:08:04.800This will allow the U.S. to freeze the group's assets and will make it illegal to support this group in any way.
00:08:11.060U.S. officials describing the cartel as a criminal network based inside Venezuela and led by Maduro along with other senior Venezuelan government officials.
00:08:20.140Maduro denies affiliation with the group.
00:08:22.240The designation comes amid expanding U.S. military presence in the region.
00:08:27.140The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, arriving Sunday off the coast, meeting at least seven other warships already stationed in the area.
00:08:37.780Since September, the U.S. carrying out at least 20 deadly strikes, killing at least 80 people on what the administration calls narco-terrorist drug vessels, mostly originating from Venezuela.
00:08:49.160Yesterday, from the Oval Office, President Trump declining to rule out direct military intervention in Venezuela.
00:08:55.140When ruling out U.S. troops on the ground.
00:08:57.680No, I don't rule out that. I don't rule out anything. We just have to take care of it as well.
00:09:01.780They dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons.
00:09:06.960You know, we have a tight border right now. Nobody comes in.
00:09:09.920But we had millions of people pouring through.
00:09:12.120A year ago, we had millions of people pouring through our border.
00:09:14.700Maduro, in power since 2013, is a longtime U.S. adversary, turning the country into a narco-state, triggering a wave of U.S.-bound refugees.
00:09:44.680And collaborating with countries like China and Russia.
00:09:48.000The Biden administration refusing to recognize Maduro as the legitimate ruler of the country following disputed elections.
00:09:54.580The Trump administration continuing that policy and doubling the reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest to 50 million bucks.
00:10:02.560Over the weekend, Maduro reacting to mounting U.S. pressure on him at a political rally with this bizarre call for peace.
00:10:11.420President Trump telling reporters he has, quote, sort of made up his mind on the issue, yesterday adding he is open to speaking with Maduro.
00:10:28.080Yeah, I probably would talk to him, yeah. I talk to everybody.
00:10:31.700Is there anything that he could say that you would be okay, you can say?
00:10:35.400It's hard to say that. It's just that, look, he's done tremendous damage to our country.
00:10:41.060He has not been good to the United States.
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00:12:01.580The DOJ's case against former FBI Director James Comey in the spotlight.
00:12:07.620In a sharp ruling issued Monday, Federal Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick ordering the government to turn over grand jury transcripts and materials to Comey's legal team.
00:12:18.880Comey facing obstruction of Congress and false statement charges stemming from his 2020 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee,
00:12:25.840relating to questions about whether he authorized anyone at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source in news articles.
00:12:33.040The charges brought by U.S. Attorney Lindsay Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia.
00:12:37.880Halligan swearing into the position on September 22nd, securing the indictment three days later, just prior to the statute of limitations expiration date.
00:12:46.780Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick identifying 11 separate issues with the government's handling of the case, citing what he calls, quote,
00:12:55.020a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, end quote, that he says could have undermined the integrity of the grand jury proceedings.
00:13:02.760The dispute partly centering on materials seized years ago from Comey's friend and former attorney, Columbia professor Daniel Richman, during a previous leak investigation.
00:13:13.760According to the judge, the government exceeded the scope of the original warrants issued in that case and may have failed to properly screen out potentially privileged communications between Comey and Richman before reusing that material in this new prosecution.
00:13:27.900The judge also finding that an FBI agent, who testified before the grand jury, had recently viewed potentially privileged Comey-Richman communications, calling that, quote, highly irregular and a radical departure from past DOJ practice.
00:13:42.540The judge criticizing several statements made by Halligan to the grand jury.
00:13:46.680The specific lines are redacted, but in one example, he says the government misstated the law in a way that implied Comey did not have a Fifth Amendment right not to testify.
00:13:55.860The Constitution protects a defendant's right not to testify, and jurors are not permitted to draw negative conclusions from that choice.
00:14:03.620Judge Fitzpatrick concluding this combination of alleged errors and missteps warrant the rare step of releasing normally highly secret grand jury materials to a defendant.
00:14:13.800Attorney Mike Davis of the Article 3 Project, posting to X, quote,
00:14:47.620U.S. District Court Judge Michael Nachmanoff agreeing to issue a stay on the order, alerting the feds to file their objections by the end of business on Wednesday, giving Comey's team until Friday to respond to the government's objections.
00:15:11.680If Comey's legal team is ultimately granted access to the grand jury materials, they are likely to use them in support of a motion to dismiss this case entirely.
00:15:21.140Comey denies any wrongdoing and is pursuing several challenges aimed at getting the charges thrown out before trial, which is currently set for January.
00:15:30.620Axios reporting on an interesting nugget gleaned from a recent research project conducted by Democrats' super PAC Future Forward.
00:15:38.040The most effective political ad in California's recent ballot measure asking voters to approve redrawing congressional districts did not come from California governor and obvious presidential hopeful Gavin Newsom,
00:15:50.960but rather was from U.S. Congresswoman from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
00:15:57.020Several high-profile Dems contributing ads framing California's vote as part of a larger national battle over who controls Congress.
00:16:36.800The group testing responses to 16 different ads in support of Prop 50, which did pass by a large margin.
00:16:43.640AOC's ad increasing support for Prop 50 by more than five points, outperforming every other message tested, including one from President Obama.
00:16:52.980Future Forward head of data Aaron Strauss saying, quote,
00:16:55.700Of all the ads on our side, one stands out as the clear winner.
00:16:59.740AOC's spot that connects the perhaps esoteric issue of redistricting to real-world impacts.
00:17:06.740Despite cagey answers about future plans, Axios reporting in September, 36-year-old AOC is bringing in more senior staff with the team positioning for a run, either in the Senate or perhaps for the top job president.
00:17:21.740This latest report signaling AOC could be a serious competitor to Gavin Newsom, who is not hiding his presidential ambitions, at least not very well, among primary voters in his own backyard.
00:17:40.300Join me back here for the MK Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel, 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly, and on all podcast platforms.