JACKSON, Miss. — Beverly Geiger Bonnheim was 17 when the Ku Klux Klan bombed her synagogue in 1967. This weekend, at 75, she watched it burn again.
“It was horrifying and disbelieving to see it again,” Geiger Bonnheim said. “Does history change?”
The historic Beth Israel Congregation, the only synagogue in Jackson, was set ablaze shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday.
The fire badly damaged the 165-year-old synagogue’s library and administrative offices. Two Torahs — the sacred scrolls with the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — were destroyed, and five others were being assessed for smoke damage.
Stephen Pittman, 19, confessed to lighting a fire inside the building, which he referred to as “the synagogue of Satan,” according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Monday.
He was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive. He is also facing a similar state charge of first-degree arson of a place of worship.
Neither of the two public defenders representing Pittman have addressed the charges, nor have they returned The Associated Press’ requests for comment.
Geiger Bonnheim, who now lives in Dallas, remains an active member of the congregation. She is also on the board of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, a nonprofit that celebrates Jewish life in the South and is based out of the Beth Israel Congregation building.
She recalls visiting the synagogue with her father the night it was bombed in 1967, calling the sight horrific. At the time, her father was vice president of the congregation, which had just moved into the building, she said.
“There’s a Hebrew saying, ‘l’dor v’dor,’ from generation to generation,” she said. “The 1967 (bombing) and dealing with the Klan, that was my generation’s and my parent’s generation’s dealing with bigotry and hatred. Unfortunately now it’s this generation’s time to have to deal with those very issues.”
Geiger Bonnheim said the news of the arson was depressing but not surprising. Jewish people have been persecuted for more than 3,000 years, she said.
Benjamin Russell, the spiritual leader of Beth Israel Congregation who is going to school to become a Rabi, said recovering from hardship is part of the Jewish psyche. He said the Torah is filled with examples of people being reborn through hardship.
“From the ashes, something beautiful will rise,” Russell said.
Zach Shemper, the congregation’s president, has vowed to rebuild. Already, nearby churches are opening their doors, offering to let the congregation worship inside. Other synagogues have offered the Beth Israel Congregation new Torahs.
The fire has not interrupted the congregation’s programs, and they plan to gather Friday night to observe Shabbat, a weekly day of rest.
“We’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere,” Shemper said.
While the congregation has shown resilience, their anger and sadness is palpable.
Abram Orlansky, a congregant and former Beth Israel Congregation president, broke down when he thought about his two children and the role the synagogue plays in their lives.
“We told our kids the truth — that someone did this on purpose, and it’s because they don’t like the Jewish people,” he said.
At the same time, Orlansky said seeing the outpouring of support from the Jackson community and the worldwide Jewish community has been heartening, and his kids are excited to be a part of showing the world that their community isn’t going anywhere.
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LaFleur contributed to this report from Dallas, Texas.
The suspect charged with setting a fire inside a historic Jackson, Mississippi, synagogue over the weekend admitted it was because of the building’s “Jewish ties,” according to an FBI criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Monday.
Security footage showed thearson suspect, Stephen Spencer Pittman, inside Beth Israel Congregation around 3 a.m. on Saturday, pouring what appeared to be gasoline, according to the complaint. Pittman was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive.
Authorities said Pittman’s father reached out to the FBI, saying his son confessed to starting the fire, which was later corroborated by map data from a location-sharing app Pittman had on his phone. Pittman also texted his father a photo of the back of the synagogue, writing, “There’s a furnace in the back,” the complaint alleges, noting that his father “pleaded for his son to return home.”
Hours later, Pittman’s father confronted his son after noticing burns on his ankles. Pittman “laughed as he told his father what he did and said he finally got them,” the complaint said.
Damage from a fire that investigators say was arson at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, Jan. 11, 2026.
Beth Israel Congregation
That evening, investigators at the Jackson Fire Department and Hinds County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Pittman, who admitted to starting the fire and called the building “the synagogue of Satan,” according to the complaint. He told investigators he stopped to purchase gasoline, removed his license plate and broke into the building through a window with an axe, using a torch lighter to start the fire after pouring gasoline.
“As we learned that it was arson, the anger really comes to the top of what your mind thinks,” Beth Israel congregation president Zach Shemper told CBS News on Monday.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn condemned “acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred,” which he said will be treated as acts of terror against residents.
“Targeting people because of their faith, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation is morally wrong, un-American, and completely incompatible with the values of this city,” he said in a statement posted to social media on Sunday.
Beth Israel, established over 160 years ago, is Jackson’s only synagogue and was the first synagogue in the state.
“We are grateful that he was apprehended so quickly and he appears to have admitted to committing this heinous act out of hatred for the Jewish people,” Beth Israel said Monday following the release of the criminal complaint. “This news puts a face and name to this tragedy, but does not change our resolve to proudly – even defiantly – continue Jewish life in Jackson in the face of hatred.”
In 1967, Beth Israel was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members. Two months later, they bombed the home of the congregation’s rabbi as well, according to the Beth Israel website. The rabbi wasn’t home at the time and no one was hurt in the bombings.
There are still congregants at the synagogue who were members during those bombings, according to a representative for Beth Israel.
A note attached to a bundle of flowers left outside the Beth Israel Congregation reads, I am so very sorry,” on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Jackson, Miss.
Sophie Bates / AP
Parts of the building are damaged by water, smoke and soot. The sanctuary, where worship services are held, needs restoration but is still standing. Five Torahs — the sacred scrolls with the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — located inside the sanctuary were assessed for damage. Two Torahs inside the library were destroyed. One Torah rescued during the Holocaust and kept behind glass was undamaged.
The attack on Beth Israel comes amid a nationwide spike in antisemitism. There’s been an 893% increase over the past decade in antisemitic incidents, according to the Anti-Defamation League. A 2024 audit by ADL recorded more than 9,000 incidents – it’s the highest number recorded since the organization began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1980.
“We are still assessing the damage to the building, but will be continuing our worship services and other programs – locations to be determined,” Shemper said in an earlier statement to CBS News, adding that several churches have offered their spaces for worship.
“We are a resilient people. With support from our community, we will rebuild,” Shemper said.
A suspect is in custody after the oldest synagogue in Mississippi, and the only synagogue in the city of Jackson, was set on fire in a suspected arson attack. Shanelle Kaul has more.
A Mississippi synagogue famous for its role in the civil rights movement was significantly damaged Saturday in a fire that officials say was intentionally set. The Beth Israel Congregation, which is the state’s largest synagogue and the only Jewish place of worship in Mississippi’s state capitol, was burned some time before 3 a.m. Saturday, in a fire that destroyed its library and administrative offices. A suspect was arrested for the blaze later that day, but has yet to be publicly identified.
According to local broadcast station WJTV, firefighters were called to Beth Israel Congregation in the early hours on January 10. When they arrived, they discovered flames coming from the windows of the structure, which was locked down for the evening, Jackson Fire Department’s division fire chief, Charles Felton, says. Arson investigators with the department determined that the blaze had been intentionally set, he says.
Local police and fire investigators were soon joined by agents with the FBI and the ATF, as is standard when a fire is reported at a house of worship. According to Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bailey Martin Holloway, who spoke with Mississippi Today, the state Homeland Security Office is also assisting in the investigation.
Jackson mayor John Horhn tells the Alton Telegraph that the person suspected of setting the fire, which also damaged or destroyed several Torahs and other religious objects inside the building. As of publication time, officials have declined to speculate on a possible motive for the fire, and have yet to officially designate it as a hate crime. They have also declined to name the suspect, but confirmed that they remain in custody as of Sunday morning. (Vanity Fair has reached out to local and federal officials, but has not received comment.)
Congregation president Zach Shemper says via statement that the synagogue has already received support from local Christian groups. “We have already had outreach from other houses of worship in the Jackson area and greatly appreciate their support in this very difficult time,” he says.
This is not the first fire members of the Beth Israel Congregation have faced. In 1967, the house of worship was bombed by members the Ku Klux Klan, which took issue with then-rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s support of the civil rights movement. As with Saturday’s fire, the synagogue’s office and library were target. In that case, as well as Saturday’s blaze, no injuries were reported. The temple has been the focus of intimidation efforts multiple times in the years since, including a bomb threats emailed in 2023 that then-rabbi Joseph Rosen linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Horhn believes this weekend’s fire shares roots with these past incidents, saying Sunday that “Acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship … Jackson stands with Beth Israel and the Jewish community, and we’ll do everything we can to support them and hold accountable anyone who tries to spread fear and hate here.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans Thursday for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an antisemiticterror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season.
Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets Ahmed al Ahmed, who was injured while disarming one of the Bondi Beach attackers, at St George Hospital in Sydney on Dec. 16, 2025.
Australian Prime Minister’s Office / AP
The attackers, identified as Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, are accused of perpetrating Australia’s worst massacre since 1996.
Speaking at a press conference after a Christmas Day lunch at a charitable foundation in Sydney, Albanese described a holiday season defined by a sharp contrast between extremist violence and the “best of humanity.”
“This Christmas is a different one because of the anti-terror and the terrorist attack motivated by ISIS and antisemitism,” Albanese said. “But at the same time as we have seen the worst of humanity, we have seen the bravery and kindness and compassion … from those who rushed to danger.”
Acts of heroism amid the tragedy
The proposed honors would recognize those who are nominated and recommended for bravery or meritorious awards under the existing Australian Honors and Awards system for their actions during and after the attack. Officials have not yet said who would be honored.
In the days after Ahmed’s story came to light, members of the public donated more than $1.5 million to aid the 44-year-old father and shop owner who was seen on video tackling one of the gunmen from behind and wrestling the rifle from his hands. He was shot multiple times in the left arm, apparently by the second gunman, and was expected to face months of recovery.
“Ahmed did really a heroic job,” his cousin, Mohammad al Ahmed, told The Associated Press. “Without any hesitation, he tackled the terrorist and disarmed him just to save innocent people.”
Other accounts of heroism also emerged, including acts of extraordinary bravery by victims who did not survive.
They included a married couple in their 60s, Boris and Sofia Gurman, who were seen on video trying to stop the attack just before it unfolded. In the footage, Boris Gurman can be seen grabbing a rifle from one of the two gunmen as they unloaded multiple weapons from their car, which had an ISIS flag draped across the windshield. Moments later, the Gurmans were shot and killed.
“This encapsulates who Boris and Sofia were — people who instinctively and selflessly tried to help others,” their family said in a statement.
Another man, 62-year-old Reuven Morrison, was shot dead as he pelted one of the attackers with bricks.
“From my sources and understanding, he had jumped up the second the shooting started. He managed to throw bricks at the terrorist,” his daughter, Sheina Gutnick, told CBS News the day after the attack. His actions were also captured on video.
Gutnick berated the government and police for being “untrained for this massacre, untrained for what’s to come, untrained for what the Jewish community has been telling the Australian government is inevitable,” adding to a chorus of criticism after a documented rise in hate attacks targeting Australia’s Jewish residents.
An American who was at the Bondi Beach event, Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff, ran over to help a police officer who was shot, taking off his own shirt to use as a tourniquet, his father told CBS News. Moments later, Lazaroff was also shot and wounded, and his mentor was killed. “As I was talking to Leibel, he said, ‘I wish I could have done more,’” his father said.
Australia strengthening gun laws
Just a day after pushing through the country’s toughest firearm laws, New South Wales state leader Chris Minns issued a plea for national solidarity, urging Australians to support their Jewish neighbors during what he described as a fortnight of “heartbreak and pain.”
“Everybody in Australia needs to wrap their arms around them and lift them up,” Minns said at a news conference Thursday. “I want them to know that Australians have got their back. We’re in their corner and we’re going to help them get through this.”
The gun reforms, which passed through the New South Wales state legislature on Christmas Eve, include capping individual gun ownership at four and reclassifying high-risk weapons like pump-action firearms.
The legislation also tightens licensing by reducing permit terms to two years, restricting ownership to Australian citizens and removing the review pathway for license denials.
“Gun reform alone will not solve hatred or extremism, but we can’t fail to act on restricting access to weapons which could lead to further violence against our citizens, Minns said earlier in the week when introducing the proposed laws.
Other new laws will ban the public display of terrorist symbols and grant police expanded powers to restrict public gatherings in specific areas following terrorist incidents.
Albanese has also announced plans to tighten Australia’s already strict gun laws.
BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is vowing that her administration will move quickly to implement recommendations in a new report on antisemitism in Massachusetts, which found an “alarming” increase in hate crimes and discrimination targeting Jewish people over the past year.
The report by the Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism, released earlier this month, said hate crimes against Jewish students in the state have risen dramatically while gaps in anti-bias training and a lack of centralized reporting in public schools mean many incidents of antisemitism go unaddressed.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national gun buyback effort in the wake of the Bondi terrorism attack, describing it as the country’s most significant firearms reform since the measures introduced after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
Speaking to the nation from Parliament House in Canberra on Friday, Albanese said the buyback would target surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms and would be modeled on the approach taken nearly three decades ago following Australia’s deadliest mass shooting.
Why It Matters
The announcement marks the federal government’s first major policy response to the Bondi attack, which killed 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, during a targeted assault on Sydney’s Jewish community.
Gun control has long been a defining issue in Australian politics, with the post-Port Arthur reforms credited by researchers and successive governments with dramatically reducing mass shootings nationwide.
Albanese said there are now more than 4 million firearms in Australia—more than at the time of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre—underscoring what he described as the urgency of removing more weapons from circulation.
What To Know
Under the proposal, the federal government would introduce legislation to fund the buyback, with costs split evenly between the Commonwealth and the states and territories on a 50/50 basis. State and territory governments would be responsible for collecting firearms, processing claims and making payments, while the Australian Federal Police would oversee the destruction of surrendered weapons.
The effort would be linked to broader reforms being considered by the national cabinet, which unanimously agreed earlier this week to explore tougher gun laws. Options under discussion include accelerating a national firearms register, limiting the number of guns an individual can own, further restricting legal weapon categories and making Australian citizenship a requirement for holding a firearms license.
Albanese said the Bondi attack highlighted gaps in the current system, noting that one of the attackers held a firearms license and owned six guns despite living in a densely populated Sydney suburb.
“There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns,” he told reporters.
Australia’s modern gun laws were shaped by the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history. On April 28 of that year, a lone gunman killed 35 people and wounded 25 others at the Port Arthur historic site in Tasmania, using semi-automatic firearms.
Within weeks, the conservative government of then Prime Minister John Howard introduced the National Firearms Agreement, which banned semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, imposed uniform licensing and registration requirements across states and territories and launched a compulsory national gun buyback effort.
The buyback, funded by a temporary federal levy, led to the surrender and destruction of more than 650,000 firearms, representing around one-fifth of Australia’s privately owned guns at the time.
What People Are Saying
Albanese explicitly linked the announcement to the legacy of Howard’s post-Port Arthur reforms: “In 1996, the then Howard government did the right thing — intervened to have a scheme which Australians have been rightly proud of…We need to go further.”
NSW minister for police and counterterrorism, Yasmin Catley, on the buyback effort: “We are obviously working on that. It’s not been many days since our terrorist attack in Bondi. But I can give you an indication in Western Australia – they have put $63m aside for their buyback and they have 90,000 guns. So that gives you – ours would probably be ballpark figure three or four times, perhaps more than that.
What Happens Next
Legislation to fund the buyback is expected to be introduced to Parliament in the coming weeks, with negotiations continuing between federal, state and territory governments on the scope of accompanying gun law reforms.
The announcement comes a day after the government unveiled tougher hate-speech laws, part of a broader response to the Bondi attack.
This coming Sunday has been declared a national day of reflection to mark one week since the attack, with flags to be flown at half-staff on New South Wales and Commonwealth buildings. Albanese also said the government would work with the Jewish community to organize a national day of mourning.
The event moved indoors due to winter weather, not security concerns, organizers emphasized.
JCC leadership highlighted increased security efforts and community resilience since Oct. 7.
Speakers stressed unity, strength, and standing against hate across all backgrounds.
Leaders in Nassau County united to confront antisemitism at a public menorah lighting at the Mid Island Y JCC in Plainview on Monday.
What had been planned as an outdoor ceremony was moved indoors because of a weekend winter storm that brought bitter cold temperatures and snow to the region.
The move indoors was not, said Mid Island Y JCC and Suffolk Y JCC CEO Rick Lewis, “because of the events in Australia,” referring to a mass shooting in Sydney in which 15 people were murdered while celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach.
Lewis made a point about standing up to antisemitism.
“If it were 10 degrees warmer, we would be outside because this community will not hide from this fight,” Lewis said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
Still, he said, security was a major priority at the JCC.
“This building is a safe place on any given day, with a security budget that has doubled since Oct. 7,” he said, referring to the Hamas attack in Israel in 2023. “Sixty thousand people a year walk through our doors, and I along with the [JCC’s] incredible board of directors don’t take their responsibility lightly.”
The Plainview menorah-lighting featured community members, elected officials at the local and state level, and business and community leaders, including from the Plainview-Old Bethpage Chamber of Commerce. Over the last two years, community members had come together weekly to rally for the return of Omer Neutra, the Plainview native who was killed in the 2023 Hamas attacks and buried in Israel last month after his body was returned to his family.
Monday’s event was designed to shine a light against public hate and celebrate strength and hope. Lewis expressed gratitude for Ahmed al Ahmed, the Syrian-Australian Muslim shop owner who tackled one of the gunmen during the Bondi attack, wrestling the man’s shotgun from his grip and turning it on the attacker.
Monday’s event also highlighted that the Jewish community‘s. Lewis said that people of all backgrounds were welcome at the JCC, though its focus is on Jewish culture and knowledge.
“We are one family in this town,” Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joe Saladino said at the menorah lighting. “We’re going to let the world know that we’re not afraid of anyone who tries to strike out against the Jewish people.”
“I think it is very, very important that people in leadership positions stand up and remind the world how important it is to address antisemitism and not hide behind misinformation that you get off the internet,” Lewis told LIBN. “It is important that we stand proud and support the cause.”
He added that “if our community doesn’t stand up and remind everyone of the problem at hand, the situation will only continue to get worse.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday that the father and son suspects in the antisemitic terror attack on a Hanukkah gathering on Bondi Beach were inspired by ISIS, as officials in India confirmed that the older man was originally from that nation.
Authorities also revealed that gunmen had recently returned from the Philippines, where they traveled to an area known as a hotbed for terrorist groups.
The mass shooting on the famous beach left 15 innocent people dead, including a 10-year-old girl and an Holocaust survivor. The attack was “motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Albanese said Tuesday as he visited one of the heroes who tried to stop the attackers.
Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett also said Tuesday that it was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” referring to the now disparate group that, for several years, held a huge swathe of territory spanning the Syria-Iraq border.
The suspects, a father and son aged 50 and 24, used guns that were owned legally by the older man, whom officials in New South Wales state have named as Sajid Akram. He was shot dead at the scene, and his son was still being treated in a hospital on Tuesday, where Australian public broadcaster ABC said he had regained consciousness.
Indian police confirm father was from Hyderabad
Police in the southern Indian state of Telangana confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that Sajid Akram was originally from the city of Hyderabad. In a statement, the police said he earned a degree in Hyderabad before migrating to Australia in November 1998, where he married a woman of European origin.
Sajid Akram held an Indian passport, while his son Naveed and a daughter were both born in Australia and are citizens of the country, the police said, confirming previous statements by Australian officials about the son’s nationality. U.S. officials had told CBS News soon after the attack that at least one of the Akrams was believed to be a Pakistani national, but that appears to have been a case of mistaken identity, and a man with the same name as the younger suspect has come forward in Sydney to say he was wrongly identified.
The Telangana police said the elder Akram had “limited contact with his family in Hyderabad over the past 27 years,” visiting six times since he migrated to Australia, “primarily for family-related reasons.”
The police statement said family members in India had “expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalization, and that the son’s apparent radicalization appeared “to have no connection with India.”
Australian officials have confirmed that homemade ISIS flags were found — along with an improvised explosive device — in the suspects’ vehicle at Bondi Beach on Sunday, and police provided new information on Tuesday about their recent movements.
Suspected gunmen spent most of November in the Philippines
Both men traveled to the Philippines in November, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters on Tuesday, adding that investigators were still looking into the reasons for the trip and where exactly the men went.
The Philippines Bureau of Immigration said both Sajid Akram and his son, identified widely by Australian media as Naveed Akram, spent most of November — from the 1st until the 28th — in the Philippines, and listing the city of Davao as their final destination.
Muslim separatists, including the Islamist Abu Sayyaf group that once publicly backed ISIS, are active in that part of the southern Philippines. ABC, the Australian public broadcaster, said the men had undergone “military-style training” in the Philippines, citing security sources.
That group and others in the region have drawn and trained some foreign militants from across Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the past, according to the Associated Press, though Abu Sayyaf has been weakened in recent years by repeated military offensives.
The AP cited Philippine military and police officials as saying there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants operating in the south of the country.
Did Australian officials fail the Jewish community?
Australian officials confirmed Monday that Naveed Akram was under investigation for about six months during 2019 for suspected links to a Sydney-based terror cell, though the nation’s primary spy agency found he represented no threat, and officials said the probe had focused on associates.
Australia’s ABC network reported that his ties included “longstanding links” to members of a pro-ISIS cell in Australia, including contact with alleged jihadist spiritual leader Wisam Haddad and a man named Youssef Uweinat, who was convicted of recruiting young people in Australia to Islamic extremism.
A lawyer for Haddad has denied that the cleric had “any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi Beach,” according to the network.
Many people, from the daughter of one of the victims, to a former Australian leader, have told CBS News the men’s history should have raised serious red flags, if not stopped them before they claimed so many lives.
Israeli officials have harshly criticized Australia’s government for failing to protect Jewish people amid a sharp rise in recent years of antisemitic incidents.
Police set up a cordon at the scene of a mass shooting at Bondi Beach, Dec. 14, 2025 in Sydney, Australia.
George Chan/Getty
“We are now facing here a surge of antisemitism, and Australians of Jewish faith are not feeling secure in their own country, and this is insane,” Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon told CBS News on Tuesday, urging Australian leaders to create opportunities for young people of different faiths to come together, “and not once a year, but on a weekly basis.”
Maimon also said “boundaries should be set” by Australian authorities, referring to pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have been held in the country.
“I believe that it’s very important to make sure that while the principle of freedom of expression should be kept, there should be also a limit to the language that some protesters, and in some protests, we hear,” he said. “I always believe that there is room to do more. Always. I’m asking myself every day, ‘what can I do better? How can I do better?’ And I’m trying to do it. And I do expect the Australian government to do better.”
Former Australian leader says there are no easy answers
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told CBS News on Tuesday that the national government undoubtedly had some very big questions to answer, but he stressed that intelligence gathering — for all nations — is an imperfect science.
“This type of terrorism has been, the elements of that, have been present in Australia for a long time, and our agencies spend a lot of time keeping an eye on them, but it’s hard to track every single person,” said Turnbull, who was Australian prime minister from 2015 to 2018.
“Certainly, it’s a very big question: Why does somebody living in the suburbs of Sydney need six long arms, as he [Sajid Akram] had, even though they were licensed? Second question is, why were they licensed to a man who had a son who had been on an ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organization] watchlist because of links to ISIS-related entities? … And that trip to the Philippines raises another question: Why were they there? And so, you know, this gets back to the problem that I think we face all around the world, is databases talking to each other? Are we actually putting all the dots together in time?”
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks during a news conference in Sydney, Australia, in a July 30, 2017 file photo.
AAP/Sam Mooy/via Reuters
“There are holes in everybody’s intelligence gathering,” Turnbull said. “But as you know, the terrorist only has to be right once. The security agencies have to be right every time.”
Regarding the sharp criticism levelled by many in the Jewish community, in particular, over perceived failings in detecting the threat posed by the suspects, and also in sufficiently protecting the pre-planned Jewish event on Bondi Beach, Turnbull said he wasn’t sure how much more could have been done by his successor Albanese.
“I’ve been prime minister, right? And I’m on the opposite side of politics, so I’m not trying to be partisan about this, but I struggle to see what he could have done that was different. I mean there have been people saying he shouldn’t have allowed pro-Palestine marches. Well, you know, we do have freedom of assembly and freedom of speech in Australia. I mean we have restrictions in Australia on speech, on hate speech, and on guns, in particular.”
“When I ask people, they will say he should have condemned antisemitism more often. Well, I’ve never heard him do anything other than condemn it, but my question really is to say, what would difference would that have made? To those terrorists, you know, they’re not going to listen to a lecture on the evils of antisemitism from you or me or Anthony Albanese.”
“Remember, terrorism is a political act, right? So, you’ve got to try to interrupt people being radicalized, particularly young men, it’s the most vulnerable group, and that involves monitoring what is being said online, what they’re being taught, you know, in schools or in mosques or in other places. And the intelligence agencies are doing that all the time,” he said.
Northwestern University will pay a $75 million fine to settle allegations of antisemitism from the Trump administration, restoring hundreds of millions of federal funding, officials announced Friday.
As part of the agreement, Northwestern also said it will continue following federal anti-discrimination laws, review its international admission policies and terminate an agreement reached with pro-Palestinian demonstrators last year.
The nearly $800 million in federal research funding was abruptly paused in April. The money is expected to be fully restored within 30 days, according to a statement from Northwestern University interim President Henry Bienen.
“This is not an agreement the University enters into lightly, but one that was made based on institutional values,” Bienen said. “As an imperative to the negotiation of this agreement, we had several hard red lines we refused to cross: We would not relinquish any control over whom we hire, whom we admit as students, what our faculty teach or how our faculty teach.”
Other universities have agreed to pay fines to restore federal funding, as President Donald Trump pressures institutions to align with his political priorities. He has particularly criticized elite universities as hubs of antisemitism and progressive culture.
Northwestern’s $75 million settlement, to be paid over three years, is the second-highest amount agreed to by a university. In August, Columbia University pledged to pay $200 million in a similar deal.
“Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law — we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”
The deal will allow Northwestern to draw on all research funding, including overdue payments, lift any stop-work orders on non-terminated grants and protect the university’s eligibility for future grants. It will also close all pending investigations from the Department of Education, Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services related to anti-discrimination laws and race-based admissions.
As part of the agreement, Northwestern also said it would commit to Title IX — which prohibits sex-based discrimination — by providing single-sex housing and locker room facilities for women upon request.
Additionally, it will review its international admissions and develop training “to socialize international students to the norms of a campus dedicated to inquiry and open debate,” Bienen said. To ensure compliance, Northwestern said it will establish a committee on its board of trustees dedicated to the agreement.
The paused funds had sent shockwaves through Northwestern’s research infrastructure beginning in April. As administrators scrambled to cover expenses, they resorted to a string of budget cuts — including hundreds of layoffs this summer.
The intense federal pressure led to the abrupt resignation of former President Michael Schill in September. Schill had faced an onslaught of conservative criticism since last year over his handling of Northwestern’s pro-Palestinian encampment and the resulting agreement he reached with demonstrators.
President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, shown in February in the Oval Office, were steadfast allies.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS
AFP via Getty Images
One of the hallmarks of the Trump era has been the uncommon loyalty he has been able to command among Republican ranks, after decades of intraparty bickering that often hampered conservative success and gave Democrats the opportunity to take full advantage of their comparative unity.
But with the midterm election year of 2026 on the near horizon, there is appreciable political buzz about dissension within the MAGA ranks, some of it ramped up to narratives that portray President Donald Trump as a flailing, endangered lame duck.
Let’s be clear: From the wayward Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to the unending circular food fight over commentator Tucker Carlson and antisemitism, this is a season of sideshows designed to distract Trump from his policy goals and give the media culture something to discuss other than his successes.
Some may ask, what successes? Don’t we have an affordability crisis and a healthcare funding mess? Those issues have sound answers, which the administration would be crafting with greater impact if the news were not filled each day with hand-wringing over Jeffrey Epstein and breathless overanalysis of Carlson’s latest podcast guest.
Nothing irks Trump more than obstacles that arise in the path of his agenda. He would love to be spending his days reminding us of a repaired border, energetic job creation and a series of wars averted. When troublemakers create distractions from within his expected community of allies, he will sometimes hone his elbows to maximum sharpness.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s rebranding: a break with Trump
Few members of Congress have backed Trump with more reliability than Greene. But she has sacrificed that support on the altar of a curious rebranding scheme that involves slamming Trump on liberal media outlets while apologizing for the tactics she has brought to previous conservative fights.
There is no blanket requirement for Republicans to fuse themselves without exception to every line item of the Trump playbook. But she had to know that cozying up to CNN and “The View” with a grievance list from health care policy to shutdown strategy to deportations could jeopardize her status in his good graces.
Following the brash reaction from him that the world knew would come, she now paints herself as some aggrieved victim of a mean old president treating her horribly, complete with the always reliable tactic of blaming him for inappropriately harsh blowback from random citizens not fond of her change of tone.
President Donald Trump hugs Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, after addressing a joint session of Congress March 4 at the U.S. Capitol. Andrew Harnik Getty Images
Much of the grief MTG has given to Trump and other Republicans involved hesitancy toward the cause of the moment — the full release of the Epstein files. The Trump team did itself no favors floating the promise of such a release as catnip on the campaign trail, aimed straight at the conspiracy brigades who just know that big, famous, powerful names lurk within some file folder and that any hesitation toward complete unredacted release is evidence of complicity in a protection racket.
With resounding congressional votes Tuesday to release the files, it is worth noting the sound basis for seeking more disclosures than we have seen so far. There may well be names of bad actors who richly deserve consequences they have been spared for years. But there are also reasons why a complete document dump is fraught with hazards.
There is no “client list,” no handy tabloid-ready litany of big names ripe for the reputational fall craved by most cheerleaders for unfettered release. The files are scattered across dizzying volumes of protected grand jury testimony, ongoing civil cases, victim-privacy protections and even some foreign intelligence concerns. Unloading reams of raw discovery would trigger a blizzard of lawsuits, handing defense attorneys a decade of delay tactics. It could even reveal sources and methods that legitimate intelligence agencies are still using to pursue trafficking networks. Does that help the cause?
Democrats have a much worse antisemitism problem
For any MAGA critics who grow weary of ginning up an Epstein-based downfall for Trump, there is always the daily game of trying to manufacture an antisemitism crisis that might remotely approach the stains recently endured by Democrats.
From “River to the Sea”-style anti-Israel hostility to ambivalence over the Oct. 7 attacks to the ascendancy of an outright Islamist as mayor of New York, the party is grappling with the foul air of bigotry that has spilled out from college campuses to the halls of Congress. It had to be a relief to see Carlson welcome an outright Jew-hater such as Nick Fuentes for a back-rub interview that repelled many of the fans Carlson carried over from cable news. That spectacle launched a myth of equivalency, as if our two major parties are struggling similarly.
President Donald Trump greets, from left, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, and Tulsi Gabbard on stage during his campaign rally at Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia, on Oct. 23, 2024. Kennedy now runs the Department of Health and Human Services. Gabbard is now director of National Intelligence. Arvin Temkar Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS
That won’t fly. While there is a sad appetite in some circles of young conservatives for anti-Israel content, it is limited and it has an easy explanation. These are kids whose news diets are filled with reckless TikTok propaganda identifying Israel’s self-defense as “genocide” and America as a partner to global evil. The bridge to venomous antisemitism is a short walk for malleable young minds, even if they contain other worthwhile beliefs.
But no festival of podcast bro posturing rises to a brushfire that could damage the MAGA brand. Trump is the most pro-Israel president in American history, crafting peace through strength in the Middle East while making clear the strategic and moral necessity of maintaining that alliance.
The gleeful anticipation of infighting that will fracture Trump support is an empty exercise in wishful thinking, whether the hopes hang on an antisemitism squabble or continuing obsession with the Epstein files. Both are areas that deserve thoughtful consideration by thoughtful people on all sides. But there are not enough voices of discontent in the Trump base to cause him any lasting damage and not enough ammo available for his critics to extend for much longer their dreams of his collapse.
Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show in Dallas-Fort Worth on 660-AM and at 660amtheanswer.com. Follow him on X: @markdavis.
Mark Davis
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A Fairfax County, Virginia, private school agreed to overhaul its policies, undergo five years of external monitoring, and issue a public apology after expelling three Jewish siblings whose family reported severe antisemitic bullying.
A Fairfax County, Virginia, private school agreed to overhaul its policies, undergo five years of external monitoring, and issue a public apology after expelling three Jewish siblings whose family reported severe antisemitic bullying.
The Nysmith School in Herndon will also pay the family nearly $150,000 to cover attorneys fees and other costs associated with the incident as part of a settlement.
The settlement, announced Tuesday by the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, follows a discrimination complaint alleging the Nysmith School ignored escalating harassment, and then removed the victims from the school entirely.
Jeffrey Lang with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law,oversaw the case.
Lang said the family’s ordeal began when one of their sixth-grade daughters, age 11, became the target of a group of students who he said repeatedly harassed the girl because she is Jewish.
“She was being called a baby-killer,” Lang said. “She was told that Jews and Israelis are all baby-killers, that they were glad about what happened on Oct. 7. Just really awful things.”
The student was too afraid to tell anyone, until, according to Lang, a classmate became so disturbed by the bullying that he reported it to the girl’s parents.
In February, the parents met with the head of the Nysmith School and asked for an intervention. The headmaster promised to “investigate and take action, but nothing happened,” Lang told WTOP.
Over the next three weeks, the harassment reportedly escalated. The parents met with the headmaster again for help, and this time, he allegedly told the parents that their daughter “needed to toughen up.”
Two days later, all three siblings, two sixth-grade twins and their 8-year-old brother, were expelled from the school.
“Not only was that daughter expelled,” Lang said, “but their other two children, who had no idea what was even going on, were also expelled that same day.”
The family had attended Nysmith for four years.
“It was their world,” Lang said. “And in a day, it was taken away.”
A statement from the Brandeis Center said “The school fostered an environment that allowed anti-Semitic harassment.”
Earlier this year and before the alleged bullying, the daughter’s teacher asked the class to work together on a drawing depicting what makes “strong historical leaders.”
“The students produced a picture that featured the portrait of Adolf Hitler, and the Nysmith School posted a photo of the children showing off their drawing to the school community,” the Brandeis Center said.
In addition to name-calling, Lang said there was a group that launched a campaign to isolate the middle-school student socially.
“They were shunning her and saying, ‘We hate you.’ For an 11-year old in sixth grade, it was just crushing,” Lang said.
Kenneth L. Marcus, the chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center, wrote in a statement, “Justice has been served” for the family.
As part of the settlement agreement, the Nysmith School will “adopt new nondiscrimination polices,” including clearly defining what antisemitism means, establishing a committee to investigate discrimination complaints, hiring an independent monitor and providing antisemitism training to administrators.
The school will also reimburse the family for expenses incurred because of the expulsion, and the school’s headmaster, Ken Nysmith, will also issue a public statement, expressing “regret for expelling the children,” the Brandeis statement said.
“These steps are critical as antisemitism in K-12 education continues to rise,” Marcus said.
The family will not be returning to the Nysmith School.
WTOP has reached out to the school for comment.
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The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimination, a federal judge ruled late Friday in a sharply worded decision.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction sought by labor unions and other groups representing UC faculty, students and employees. She said they had provided “overwhelming evidence” that the Trump administration was “engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left,’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints from our country’s leading universities.”
“Agency officials, as well as the President and Vice President, have repeatedly and publicly announced a playbook of initiating civil rights investigations of preeminent universities to justify cutting off federal funding, with the goal of bringing universities to their knees and forcing them to change their ideological tune,” she said.
She added, “It is undisputed that this precise playbook is now being executed at the University of California.”
Messages sent to the White House and the U.S. Department of Justice after hours Friday were not immediately returned.
President Donald Trump has decried elite colleges as overrun by liberalism and antisemitism.
His administration has launched investigations of dozens of universities, claiming they have failed to end the use of racial preferences in violation of civil rights law. The Republican administration says diversity, equity and inclusion efforts discriminate against white and Asian American students.
The University of California is facing a series of civil rights investigations, according to Lin’s ruling.
In one case, the Trump administration over the summer demanded the University of California, Los Angeles pay $1.2 billion to restore frozen research funding and ensure eligibility for future funding after accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on campus. UCLA was the first public university to be targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations.
It has also frozen or paused federal funding over similar claims against private colleges, including Columbia University.
UC is in settlement talks with the administration and is not a party to the lawsuit before Lin, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. An email to the school system after hours on Friday was not immediately returned.
University of California President James B. Milliken has said the size of the UCLA fine would devastate the UC system, whose campuses are viewed as some of the top public colleges in the nation.
The administration has demanded UCLA comply with its views on gender identity and establish a process to make sure foreign students are not admitted if they are likely to engage in anti-American, anti-Western or antisemitic “disruptions or harassment,” among other requirements outlined in a settlement proposal made public in October.
The administration has previously struck deals with Brown University for $50 million and Columbia University for $221 million.
Lin cited declarations by UC faculty and staff that the administration’s moves were prompting them to stop teaching or researching topics they were “afraid were too ‘left’ or ‘woke.’”
“The undisputed record demonstrates that Defendants have engaged in coercive and retaliatory conduct in violation of the First Amendment and Tenth Amendment,” she wrote.
Lin’s injunction bars the administration from cancelling funding to the University of California based on alleged discrimination without giving notice to affected faculty and conducting a hearing, among other requirements.
ADL launches initiative to track Mamdani’s policies – CBS News
Watch CBS News
The Anti-Defamation League has launched an initiative to monitor New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s policies and appointments to help protect Jewish New Yorkers. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt joins “The Takeout” to discuss.
London — Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City’s mayoral race has ignited passions for and against him, from pride in his birthplace of Uganda and applause from his counterpart in London to anger from Israel’s top diplomat in the U.S.
Mamdani is a self-described democratic socialist who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, and his victory left some people in Africa beaming with pride for a hometown son. Mamdani was born in the East African nation of Uganda 34 years ago, then lived in South Africa for two years before moving with his family to New York as a child.
“What a moment! It was beautiful! I am excited!” cheered Joseph Beyanga, CEO of Uganda’s National Association of Broadcasters, pumping his hands in the air as he spoke with CBS News.
New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani celebrates during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York, Nov. 4, 2025.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty
Beyanga said he was Mamdani’s mentor when the now-mayor-elect interned at one of Uganda’s top newspapers, the Daily Monitor, during a vacation when he was in high school.
“Whatever he wanted to do, there was no middle point. Always he wanted the top,” recalled Beyanga. “Then I realized he was not just interested in current affairs. He was interested in how the current affairs affect the people. If you’re talking about big money, the budget and all that, how does this affect the last person … he was interested in how it affects the people.”
“When it was time to interact with people, he talked to people looking straight in the eye,” he said.
Beyanga added that even 17 years after he met Mamdani, he still sees the same person in the New York City politician.
“Nothing has changed. His heart is with the people, and I don’t think that will change,” he said. “I’ve seen other outlets calling him populist and opponents giving him all sorts of names. I see a man after the heart of serving people, serving the down-trodden people in society. And hey, that doesn’t come far away from who he is. He is a Ugandan boy, and the Ugandan boy cares for the people.”
Beyanga compared excitement in Uganda now to the exuberance among many Kenyans and Indonesians when former President Barack Obama was first elected.
“The Ugandans are having their Mamdani moment,” Beyanga told CBS News, “and yes, we say if he did it, yes we can!”
In the United Kingdom, London Mayor Sadiq Khan — who became the British capital’s first Muslim leader when he was first elected in 2016 — voiced solidarity with his new counterpart. Khan is currently serving his third consecutive term.
“New Yorkers faced a clear choice — between hope and fear — and just like we’ve seen in London — hope won,” Khan said in a social media post. “Huge congratulations to Zohran Mamdani on his historic campaign.”
Following Mamdani’s election win, Time magazine published an article by Khan, who called it “extraordinary” that two of the world’s most influential cities will be led by people of the same faith.
“But — in two of the most diverse cities on Earth — it’s a bit beside the point,” Khan said. “We did not win because of our faith. We won because we addressed voters’ concerns, rather than playing on them.”
“Mayor Mamdani and I might not agree on everything. Many of the challenges our cities face are similar, but they are not identical. Put policy differences aside, though, and it’s clear that we are united by something far more fundamental: our belief in the power of politics to change people’s lives for the better.”
Mamdani, a longtime supporter of Palestinian rights, has been accused of antisemitism and being pro-Hamas, which he denies.
He has also been called out for refusing to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.” Intifada is an Arabic word that means uprising, but which is widely viewed as a slogan inciting violence against Israel. However, during his campaign he said he would “discourage” others from using the phrase and that it “is not language that I use.”
“Mamdani’s inflammatory remarks will not deter us,” Israeli Ambassador to the United States Danny Dannon said in a social media post on Wednesday. “The Jewish community in New York and across the United States deserves safety and respect. We will continue to strengthen our ties with Jewish community leaders to ensure their security and well-being.”
CBS News’ team in Israel said domestic media reports and editorials covering Mamdani’s win were largely split along ideological lines. Left-wing commentary generally called for Mamdani to be given a chance, while more right-wing outlets leaned the other way.
On Wednesday morning, the Times of Israel‘s front-page headline read: “Far-left, anti-Israel candidate Zohran Mamdani wins New York City mayoral race.”
The Jerusalem Post‘s top featured editorial said: “Mamdani winning in NY means antisemitism can win elections, would impact Jews globally.”
South Asians have played a prominent role in President Trump’s universe, especially in his second term.
Second Lady Usha Vance is the daughter of Indian immigrants who came to California to study and never went back. Harmeet Dhillon, born in India and a devout Sikh, is currently his U.S. assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. And the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, is (like potential New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani,) of Indian descent by way of Uganda.
Some Republicans have taken pride in this kind of diversity, citing it for the gains Trump made in 2024 with Black and Latino voters.
But these days, the MAGA big tent seems to be collapsing fast.
Last week, MAGA had a total anti-Indian meltdown on social media, revealing a deep, ugly racism toward South Asians.
It comes amid the first real rebellion about rampant and increasingly open antisemitism within the MAGAverse, creating a massive rift between traditional conservatives and a younger, rabidly anti-Jewish contingent called groypers whose leader, Nick Fuentes, recently posted that he is “team Hitler.”
Turns out, when you cultivate a political movement based on hate, at some point the hate is uncontrollable. In fact, that hate needs to be fed to maintain power — even if it means feasting on its own.
This monster of white-might ugliness is going to dominate policy and politics for the next election, and these now-public fights within the Republican party represent a new dynamic that will either force it to do some sort of soul searching, or purge it of anything but white Christian nationalism. My bet is on the latter. But if conservatives ever truly believed in their inclusive talk, then it’s time for Republicans to stand up and demand the big Trump tent they were hailing just a few months ago.
Ultra-conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who opposes much of Fuentes’ worldview, summed up this Republican split succinctly.
Fuentes’ followers “are white supremacists, hate women, Jews, Hindus, many types of Christians, brown people of a wide variety of backgrounds, Blacks, America’s foreign policy and America’s constitution,” Shapiro explained. “They admire Hitler and Stalin and that splinter faction is now being facilitated and normalized within the mainstream Republican Party.”
MAGA’s anti-Indian sentiment had an explosive moment a few days ago when a South Asian woman asked Vice President JD Vance a series of questions during a Turning Point USA event in Mississippi. The young immigrant wanted to know how Vance could preach for the removal of nearly 18 million immigrants? And how could he claim that the United States was a Christian nation, rather than one that valued pluralism?
“How can you stop us and tell us we don’t belong here anymore?” the woman asked. “Why do I have to be a Christian?”
Vance’s answer went viral, in part because he claimed his wife, although from a Hindu family, was “agnostic or atheist,” and that he hoped she would convert to Christianity.
“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do wish that,” he said.
Vance later tried to do some damage control on social media, calling Usha Vance a “blessing” and promising to continue to “support her and talk to her about faith and life and everything else, because she’s my wife.”
But many South Asians felt Vance was dissing his wife’s heritage and attempting to downplay her non-whiteness. They vented on social media, and got a lot of MAGA feelings back.
“How can you pretend to be a white nativist politician who will ‘bring america back to it’s golden age’ … when your wife is an indian immigrant?” wrote one poster.
Dhillon received similar feedback recently for urging calm and fairness after a Sikh truck driver allegedly caused a fatal crash.
“[N]o ma’am, it is CRYSTAL CLEAR that sihks and hindus need to get the hell out of my country,” one reply stated. “You and your kind are no longer welcome here. Go the [expletive] home.”
Patel too, got it, after posting a message on Diwali, a religious holiday that celebrates the victory of light over darkness. He was dubbed a demon worshipper, a favorite anti-Indian trope.
Perhaps you’re thinking, “Duh, of course MAGA is racist.” But here’s the thing. The military has been scrubbed of many Black officers. The federal workforce, long a bastion for middle-class people of color, has been decimated. Minority cabinet members or top officials are few. Aside from another South Asian, Tulsi Gabbard, there’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez‑DeRemer and HUD head Scott Turner.
South Asians are largely the last visible sign of pluralism in Republican power, an erstwhile proof that the charges of racism from the left are unfair. But now, like Latinos, they are increasingly targets of the base.
At the same time anti-Indian hate was surfacing last week, a whole load of MAGA antisemitism hit the fan. It started when Tucker Carlson, who in his post-network life has re-created himself as a hugely popular podcaster with more than 16 million followers on X, invited Fuentes on his show.
In addition to calling for the death of American Jews, Fuentes has also said women want him to rape them and should be burned alive, Black people belong in prison and LGBTQ+ people are an abomination.
Anyone who is not his kind of Christian “must be absolutely annihilated when we take power,” he said.
Turns out far-right Charlie Kirk was a bulwark against this straight-up American Nazi. Kirk’s popularity kept Fuentes — who often trolled Kirk — from achieving dominance as the spirit guide of young MAGA. Now, with Kirk slain, nothing appears to be stopping Fuentes from taking up that mantle.
After the Fuentes interview, sane conservatives (there are some left) were apoplectic that Carlson would support someone who so openly admits to being anti-Israel and seemingly pro-Nazi. They demanded the Heritage Foundation, historical backbone of the conservative movement, creators of Project 2025 and close allies of Tucker, do something. The head of Heritage, Kevin Roberts, offered what many considered a sorry-not-sorry. He condemned Fuentes, saying he was “fomenting Jew hatred, and his incitements are not only immoral and un-Christian, they risk violence.”
But also counseled that Fuentes shouldn’t be banished from the party.
“Join us — not to cancel — but to guide, challenge, and strengthen the conversation,” Roberts said.
Are Nazis really all bad? Discuss!
The response from ethical conservatives — Jewish and non-Jewish alike — has been that you don’t politely hear Nazis out, and if the Republican Party can’t clearly say that Nazis aren’t welcome, it’s got a problem.
Yes, the Republican Party has a problem.
The right rode to power by attacking what it denigrates at “wokeism” on the left. MAGA declared that to confront fascism or racism or misogyny — to tell its purveyors to sit down and shut up — was wrong. That “canceling,” or banishment from common discourse for spewing hate, was somehow an infringement on 1st Amendment rights or even terrorism.
They screamed loud and clear that speaking out against intolerance was the worst, most unacceptable form of intolerance itself — and would not be tolerated.
You know who heard them loud and clear? Fuentes. He has checkmated establishment Republicans with their own cowardice and hypocrisy.
So now his young Christian white supremacists are empowered, and intent on taking over as the leaders of the party. Fuentes is saying what old guard Republicans don’t want to hear, but secretly fear: He already is dangerously close to being the mainstream; just read the comments.
Roberts, the Heritage president, said it himself: “Diversity will never be our strength. Unity is our strength, and a lack of unity is a sign of weakness.”
Trying to shut Fuentes up or kick him out will likely anger that vocal and powerful part of the base that enjoys the freedom to be openly hateful, and really wouldn’t mind a male-dominated white Christian autocracy.
So now this remaining vestige of traditional conservatives — including senators such as Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell — is faced with a painful reckoning. Many mainstream Republicans for years ignored the racism and antisemitism creeping into the party. They can’t anymore. It has grown into a beast ready to consume its maker.
Will they let this takeover happen, call for conversation over condemnation to the glee of Fuentes and his followers?
Or will they find the courage to be not just true Republicans, but true Americans, and declare non-negotiable for their party that most basic of American ideals: We do not tolerate hate?
