SantaCon founder Stefan Pildes was mocked to his face after the FBI arrested him on wire fraud charges.
Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York alleged on Wednesday that Pildes diverted more than $2.7 million raised for charity to his personal expenses.
"As alleged, Stefan Pildes promoted SantaCon as an event grounded in charitable giving, but instead of donating the millions of dollars he raised, he ran his own con game," U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. "He took advantage of New Yorkers' generous holiday spirit to finance his lifestyle through personal expenses, big and small. No matter how you dress it up, fraud is fraud. We are committed to protecting New Yorkers from those who exploit their enthusiasm and generosity."
Following his release on $300,000 bail, reporters mobbed Pildes outside the New York courthouse.
"Would you like to comment on these charges against you?" one reporter asked.
"Do you think you're getting a lump of coal for Christmas?" another reporter said.
A reporter noted that nearly $3 million was missing from SantaCon, but Pildes continued walking without responding.
"The FBI says you stole Christmas," one correspondent pointed out.
"Our station has covered this for years," another said, "and we just wanted to know if there's any comment, anything you have to say to these people, anything to the allegations at all?"
Last month, Meenu Batra, 53, who has lived in the South Texas border colonia of Laguna Heights since 2002, was on her way to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to work another case. She’s been a court interpreter for over 20 years, the only one licensed in Texas for Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu. Her language skills are requested nationwide, where she’s contracted to help people making their way through the immigration court system, just as she did for herself 35 years ago when she immigrated from India to New Jersey before settling in Texas.
She planned to meet with her adult children in Austin after the Wisconsin trip, the only difference she foresaw in an otherwise typical trip. Her routine for years included flying from either Harlingen or Brownsville to far-flung parts of the country where South Asian immigrants needed language access. For this trip, the flight was out of Harlingen.
But, around 5 p.m. on March 17, Batra was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after passing through security at Harlingen International Airport. In a sworn deposition that was filed as part of a petition for habeas corpus—a legal request to be released on the grounds that the detention is unlawful—Batra said the people who arrested her did not have visible badges nor were they wearing uniforms. One of those agents had asked Batra if she knew she was in the country illegally and that she had a deportation order. She replied that her work authorization status, which she applied for regularly after being granted a legal status called withholding of removal by a New Jersey immigration judge decades ago, was good for another four years.
“That doesn’t mean you can be here forever,” the agent replied. Two more plainclothes agents would join the two that detained her, bringing her down the escalator and to the front of the airport.
“Having watched and read enough news, I know that the moment you say something, they accuse you of evading arrest or whatever other things,” Batra told the Texas Observer. “So, being mindful of all that, mindful of the whole line and being embarrassed in front of everybody, I just complied.”
Batra’s attorneys say the agents were targeting her. “This is someone who maybe had one speeding ticket in the last 30 years and [is] being treated like a notorious criminal,” Deepak Ahluwalia, a California and Texas-based immigration attorney representing Batra, told the Observer.
People who are granted withholding of removal are typically immigrants who face persecution in their home countries, like those who receive asylum. Batra, who is Sikh, left India after her parents were murdered during a state pogrom against Sikhs in the 1980s. But, unlike asylum, withholding of removal does not come with a path to a green card.
Though people with Batra’s protection still have deportation orders, they cannot be removed to where they came from. If they are deported, the United States must send them to a “third country” that will accept them. The United States has agreements with at least 27 nations, a list the Trump administration has grown, that it’s paid up to $1 million a person to accept deportees. Many of these deportation flights leave from the Harlingen airport where Batra was detained.
ICE has not said where it plans to send Batra, according to her habeas filing.
After placing her in handcuffs, she said, two of those four agents at the airport drove Batra to ICE’s field office in Harlingen in an unmarked van. She had been there many times over the years to renew her work permit and to help attorneys with translation. Office staff recognized her as she was being processed. Agents posed for photos with her handcuffed, which they said was for “social media,” according to the habeas filing.
Batra was moved through various holding cells for 24 hours without food or water, first in Harlingen then in the El Valle Detention Center outside of Raymondville, in neighboring Willacy County. As of mid-April, she remains there without access to the consistent medical care she needs following surgeries she had in December. Within days of being in the facility, she caught a respiratory illness and lost her voice. She was supposed to see her doctor, in Harlingen, the week she was detained.
“I think it’s a real example of what the administration is doing in terms of its mass deportation plan and who it’s targeting,” Edna Yang, the co-executive director of American Gateways, an Austin-based legal services nonprofit, told the Observer. “It’s not targeting criminals, it’s not targeting dangerous people, it’s targeting individuals who are members of our community, who have a lot to offer and continue to offer a lot of positive things for our entire country and our society.”
Batra’s habeas petition included dozens of letters from people in her community and beyond asking for her to be released from detention. Cameron County Precinct 1 Constable Norman Esquivel, a Republican elected official and fixture in Laguna Madre-area politics, and several judges across the country are among those who authored a letter.
Batra’s attorneys argue that in the decades she’s had her legal protection the U.S. government never told her that it was planning to deport her, and that her detention violated her right to due process. One of Batra’s children recently enlisted in the military and filed a parole application for her. If granted, Batra could remain in the country in one-year increments. Her attorneys have also filed a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent ICE from moving her to another detention center.
In response to an Observer request for comment, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson noted that Batra had “a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 2000” and said “She will remain in ICE custody pending removal and will receive full due process.”
The spokesperson continued: “Employment authorization does NOT confer any type of legal status in the United States,” adding that the department is encouraging all “illegal aliens” to “self-deport.”
Nationwide, Texas is leading in habeas petitions from people detained by ICE. Most federal judges are siding with detained people, ordering them to be released or to receive a bond hearing before an immigration judge.
Batra, who has spent nearly half her life working in immigration courts, stopped working for the government’s side in immigration proceedings—instead helping only the immigrants seeking status—after seeing the conditions in detention facilities and how detained people were treated. Now, on the other side herself, she’s seeing people at the Raymondville facility who don’t speak English or Spanish, who are without the same knowledge and connections she has after so many years of helping people like them through the same system.
“I am grateful also, because something bad has to happen in life for you to truly appreciate what you have,” Batra said. “But I am getting this experience, and I’m watching the other women and just realizing how much help they need. At least I have awareness. I know my rights.”
DHS has until April 21 to respond to Batra’s habeas petition, according to court filings.
Political analysts and observers thrashed a MAGA Republican on Wednesday after he told Pope Leo XIV to "stay out of politics."
Speaking to a reporter from the Meidas Network, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) said the Pope needs to "keep his business in leading his flock" and "stay out of the political arena." Nehls' comments came after President Donald Trump attacked the Pope on social media, calling him "weak" on crime and "terrible on foreign policy." Trump has also said that the Pope should not criticize the U.S. president or his policies.
"He doesn't need to be getting involved in the political arena," Nehls said. "Go lead your church, but stay out of the politics. We didn't elect the Pope to be our president, or to be anything else. So, just keep his nose in the church's business and stay out of the political arena."
Nehls' comments sparked backlash on social media.
"Siri, show me a cultist thug unfit for public office or public life," Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, posted on X.
"[Expletive] you, pedophile protector," Susanna Lopez, a retired opinion columnist, posted on X.
"This is the same anti-Catholicism that drove the second KKK, which had 5 million members," economist Tony Annett posted on X.
"It’ll probably blow over but tensions between conservative Catholics and evangelical Protestants within the Republican Party are always right under the surface. Trump attacking Pope Leo (who is more popular w/ Catholic [conservatives] than Francis was) will exacerbate that," attorney Blake Allen posted on X.
President Donald Trump has had an uneasy but reliable alliance with the Christian Right for over a decade, MS NOW's McKay Coppins said on Wednesday's edition of "Katy Tur Reports" — and now, after Trump has made clear he doesn't even care to go through the motions of behaving like a Christian, they are running out of excuses to keep going.
"I mean, it's like something that they were sort of used to and that they would not hold him to the same standard that they have," said Lincoln Project adviser Stuart Stevens. And I think all of that's gotten very old. And at a certain point, you do want to look at the White House and feel aspirational. When Bush ran in 2000, that was his number one message that worked well. People want to look at the White House and feel good about it, and I think now forgetting, you know, your own political sense, what is there to feel good about?"
"Yeah," agreed Tur. "I wonder, McKay, do you hear that anymore? Because I mean, we talked about this for a long time, and especially in Utah and the Mormon community, wanting somebody who's going to lead by example. Mitt Romney was so popular, certainly, there. Are you still hearing that or is that coming back among the Mormon community specifically?"
"Yeah, I'm actually in Salt Lake City right now, and I can't tell you how many conservative Latter-Day Saints I have spoken to who are just like, they're trying, you know, some of the really, you know, partisan conservative Republicans have tried for a decade now to make peace with the Trump-era GOP," said Coppins. "And they have fundamental disagreements, but they also can't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat. And they're trying to get on board with him."
"And then when he does something like this, when he starts a feud with the pope, when he, you know, when he posts a meme of himself as Jesus Christ, like, it just it makes it so hard for them to really feel at home in this Republican Party," said Coppins.
Ultimately, he said, "they're all just basically praying and hoping for, you know, a post-Trump revitalization or rediscovery of the importance of character and integrity in our leaders. But that gets harder and harder with every passing week when we see the leaders of the Republican Party making excuses for what's happening. Because every time this happens, you basically reduce the market value of integrity in public life, and it makes it that much harder for you to find new leaders who will rise up after Trump, who will steer the party back to what they want it to be."
The Maryland Democrat, who served as lead House manager in Trump's Jan. 6 impeachment trial, told Raw Story on Wednesday that he is introducing legislation to establish a permanent body under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, which has never been used in American history.
"I am for the body called for by the 25th Amendment as a standing permanent body for every president — Democrat, Republican, Independent," Raskin said. "The Republicans refuse to deal with this as a serious constitutional question, and that's sad."
Republicans confronted by Raw Story in the Capitol hallways were unmoved.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) dismissed the effort as "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and suggested Democrats suffer from "widespread mental illness." Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) called Trump "better than sliced bread."
"Listen, everybody's going to find a way to poke holes at Donald Trump right now, and I think it's sad, but that's just the way the Democrat Party plays," said Nehls.
Nehls scoffed at Raskin's 25th Amendment commission and waved off any notion that Trump has made "erratic decisions," despite soaring energy prices and the president taking aim at Pope Leo XIV.
"25th? Oh, come on. He's gotta talk about something, I guess. It's just absolutely ridiculous," said Nehls.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) called questions about Trump's mental acuity "absurd," while Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) fired back, "We should've done that during Biden's term."
Raskin noted the irony that his Republican colleagues on the Oversight Committee had already set the precedent by demanding President Joe Biden's physician testify about his mental fitness.
In a sharp coda, Raskin also weighed in on the resignations of Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) over sexual misconduct allegations, drawing a pointed contrast between the parties.
"I'm proud of the Democrats who take an emphatic stand against sexual harassment and for the rights of women across the board," Raskin said. "We don't see the same thing on the other side."
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche got defensive and backpedaled on his previous statements with a reporter on Wednesday when he was pushed to answer a question about the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Blanche was speaking with Semafor's White House correspondent Shelby Talcott during the Semafor World Economy summit when she brought up how last week first lady Melania Trump denied she had any ties to the late financier and convicted child sex offender. Talcott asked if Blanche and the Department of Justice would support giving Epstein survivors a chance to testify before Congress, something Trump had suggested in her statement.
"Of course, the DOJ has said that from the beginning," Blanche said. "We have said, repeatedly, from day one, that if there's any victim that wants to come forward and talk about what they know, whether it's something that happened by Mr. Epstein, who's dead, or another individual or individuals. That's what the FBI does. And we arrested 1,700 defendants last year for abusing women in some way, shape or form. That's the essence of what we do. Whether that victim testifies in front of Congress, if asked, whether that victim comes to the FBI, we have never, ever said that we would say 'No, that's OK. We don't want to hear from you.' Director Patel has said that repeatedly, Attorney General Bondi has said that repeatedly, I have said that repeatedly, and we have no issues with that and of course, that is what we'd want."
Blanche denied having mixed messaging for the survivors and public about the investigation.
"I've never said that we should move past it. If somebody has that, I'd love to see it," Blanche said, defending the DOJ's investigation.
Earlier this month, Blanche had told Fox News the following:
"I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward."
Earlier this month, Blanche told Fox News: “I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not… pic.twitter.com/mR95vgNQaM — Semafor (@semafor) April 15, 2026
President Donald Trump's own supporters are starting to realize his mental health is diminished and his behavior reckless after his repeated slights against the Christian faith, MS NOW's Katy Tur argued on Wednesday.
This comes as even House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) says he was "taken aback" by Trump's public attack on Pope Leo XIV for criticizing war in Iran.
"Now, as you well know, Donald Trump has never operated under the fear of angering anyone," said Tur. "And he's even gone after the pope before. He did it in 2016, calling Pope Francis 'disgraceful' after he said building a wall wasn't Christian. Trump did not lose that election, and he did not lose support from Christians or Catholics."
"So why is this new fight with this new pope any different?" said Tur. "Because it does feel different, doesn't it? Is it because he followed it up with his image of himself as Jesus? Is it because he launched a war Americans didn't want? Is it because prices haven't fallen, inflation isn't down? It's not like any of this is exactly new or all that different from the past when he could do anything and maintain support."
With that being the case, she said, "Could it be something larger, something on top of all of this that's making even his supporters uncomfortable? Perhaps it is a pervasive feeling that the president might not be well. Polling has shown this, that he's a nearly 80-year-old man who is staying up all night to post wildly erratic messages on his social media feed, that he appears more obsessed now than ever with putting his face or name on things, that he's making even less sense when he speaks than he used to. That he also seems to be falling asleep in important meetings, even when cameras are on him."
Regardless, said Tur, "there is something different about this fight with this pope, along with the Jesus image. His supporters are calling it disgusting, blasphemous, offensive and shameful. And now some are even starting to compare him or wonder if he's the Antichrist."
Two white narcotics officers with the New York City Police Department were caught on video beating a Black man in a liquor store.
A video shared on Instagram showed the two officers as they grabbed the man for unknown reasons. The officers quickly began punching the suspect. At one point, the man's head is slammed into a shelf full of glass bottles.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned what he saw on the video.
"The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Officers should never treat a person this way," Mamdani wrote on Wednesday on X. "The NYPD is conducting a full investigation into this incident."
A police source told the New York Daily News that the man matched the description of someone who allegedly just made a drug purchase. The suspect, however, was said to have no drugs on him when he was arrested.
"It is upsetting to view," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch noted. "I believe that the two officers have been or are being modified at this time."
The officers were reportedly placed on modified duty while the investigation was conducted.
President Donald Trump has gone after eight state senators in Indiana who have openly opposed his redistricting measures — and their party is now in the middle of a serious midterm battle, The Dispatch reported on Wednesday.
Trump had pushed to redraw the Hoosier State's congressional boundaries, but that move failed. Now, his "retribution campaign" against the senators who killed his redistricting efforts has "inflamed tensions and stoked divisions across the state’s normally collegial and staid GOP."
The situation has put loyal Republicans in an awkward position — and threatened the party's status quo as the president has now endorsed other primary challengers after they rejected Trump's move to redraw and remove its two Democratic House seats and give Republicans nine congressional districts to help keep the GOP majority in Congress.
"By the numbers, Republicans may yet lose this conflict, further jeopardizing their House majority in upcoming midterm elections," according to The Dispatch. "That is among the factors spurring recriminations by the pro-redistricting Republicans in Indiana, which, along with Democratic-run Maryland, was one of two states to outright reject party leaders’ demands for new congressional maps. But conversations with Republican operatives and lawmakers here revealed that disagreements over middecade gerrymandering were just one issue in a larger struggle for control of the party."
Republican caucus chairman, State Sen. Travis Holdman, has faced attacks from opposing candidates and has pushed back from Trump's demands — despite voting for the president and donating to his campaigns. He argued he disapproved of redistricting, saying he thought it wasn't what his constituents wanted.
"Holdman had other complaints," The Dispatch reported. "He said the White House was asking Republican legislators to rush through legislation enacting new maps in less than two months, even though custom was to spend up to five months on redistricting. Furthermore, Holdman said the proposed new congressional boundaries weren’t even released to lawmakers until just prior to the floor vote, which ultimately failed by a wide margin."
“We were being asked to vote for something we hadn’t seen,” the senator told the outlet.
He told Vice President JD Vance that he had concerns during a private meeting in October.
"I said: ‘You’re asking us to vote for something we haven’t seen. Can you get us the maps so we can see what the maps look like?’" Holdman said.
Vance apparently looked at Holdman and told him, "You'll have the maps tomorrow."
But Holdman maintained those maps didn't arrive until Dec. 1. And when he saw the maps, he questioned whether the redistricting move would be worth it, "arguing safe Republican seats would have been vulnerable to a Democratic flip."
"The president doesn’t even know me. I’ve never met the man. He wouldn’t know me if he saw me on the street, which is okay. That’s politics," Holdman said.
The longtime lawmaker was worried that the "scorched-earth" battle to redistrict Indiana would ultimately damage the GOP.
"We have lost our ever-loving mind over this issue," Holdman added. "The divisiveness of the language that’s being used—the name-calling. And if you’re not 100 percent loyal, you’re disloyal and therefore you’re an enemy—we’re coming after you. It will take decades to get the parties settled down to [get] to a spot where we can be unified again, because there’s been so much damage done."
Rep. Jamie Raskin said the Founding Fathers would be speechless at Republican lawmakers' refusal to hold President Donald Trump accountable, and lamented that the Constitution simply wasn't built for a president like him.
The Maryland Democrat and lead House manager in Trump's Jan. 6 impeachment trial made the claim in a wide-ranging interview on Slate's Amicus podcast, arguing that the Framers never imagined partisanship would override Congress members' loyalty to their own branch of government.
"I think Madison and Jefferson and Hamilton would be astonished that anybody in Congress would vote not to impeach or not to convict a president for inciting a violent mob to attack Congress itself, and to try to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. The antidote to us operating from fear, whether it’s fear of mob violence or fear of personal attacks or fear of nuclear war or fear of what an out-of-control president might do, is for people to act with some courage and with some common sense, as much as possible across party lines," Raskin said.
Raskin argued that the constitutional crisis posed by Trump has exposed the limits of the document the Founders wrote, noting that a president threatening nuclear devastation and vowing to destroy "an entire civilization" was "obviously outside of the contemplation of the Framers."
"The Constitution wasn't really set up for this," Raskin said flatly.
The congressman also dropped an explosive assessment of Vice President JD Vance, calling him "morally invertebrate" for being in Hungary campaigning for Viktor Orbán's reelection during the Iran crisis, and predicted Trump would attempt to steal the 2026 midterms.
"Will they try to steal the election? Of course they will try to steal the election. They’re trying to steal it every day, when they close down precinct polling places in Texas, and when they throw people off the rolls in Georgia," he said.
Raskin argued impeachment shouldn't be treated as a taboo or a "fetish," but as an essential tool in Democrats' broader strategy to hold Trump and Republicans accountable heading into November.
Chief U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley of the Eastern District of California slapped DOJ attorney Jonathan Yu with a $250 fine after Yu missed multiple deadlines in a habeas corpus case involving an immigrant detained at the California City Correctional Center.
The court had ordered the detainee's immediate release on April 3. Yu failed to file a required compliance notice by April 6. When the judge issued a show-cause order asking why Yu shouldn't be sanctioned, Yu missed that deadline too, in the same case.
Making matters worse, the freed detainee was stranded in Bakersfield without his identification documents, unable to travel home to Utah, and at risk of being re-arrested by DHS. The court ordered Yu to return the man's passport and driver's license and file a status update by April 10. Yu missed that deadline as well.
Yu said he was been assigned over 300 immigration habeas cases in three months and was overwhelmed. But the judge wasn't buying it.
"The Court does not take such failures lightly. Compliance with court orders is not optional; it is a fundamental obligation of any attorney appearing before this Court. Respondents’ counsel’s conduct reflects a pattern of disregard for that obligation. Indeed, this is not an isolated incident. Respondents’ counsel does not contend he could not comply with the Court’s order but rather, that he had higher priorities," the judge wrote.
"Thus, Respondents’ counsel’s noncompliance in this matter, and in others, demonstrates an unwillingness — not an inability — to adhere to basic procedural requirements," the judge added. "While the Court recognizes that mistakes can occur, repeated violations of court orders cannot be excused as mere oversight."
Vice President JD Vance was slapped with another withering correction by the leaders of his chosen faith after criticizing the pope.
The 41-year-old vice president warned Pope Leo XIV to "be careful" with his theological statements against President Donald Trump and his administration's war in Iran, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a scathing, 164-word statement denouncing Vance's criticism of the U.S.-born pontiff.
“For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war," wrote Bishop James Massa, chairman of the USCCBC Committee on Doctrine. "A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2308)."
"That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war,'" the bishop added.
Vance, a former atheist who converted to Catholicism in 2019, claimed that he liked to debate the pope, who had served the church for nearly 50 years before he was elected pontiff last year, on matters of theology after Leo issued increasingly critical statements about the U.S. military action in Iran.
“How can you say that God was never on the side of those who wield the sword?” Vance said in response. “Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated Holocaust camps?”
But the council of bishops scoffed at Vance's position on the matter.
“When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ," Massa wrote. "The consistent teaching of the Church is insistent that all people of good will must pray and work toward lasting peace while avoiding the evils and injustices that accompany all wars.”
The vice president has been widely and pointedly criticized for his response to the pope's statements, including a lengthy fact check by Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and bestselling author.
"Suffice to say, the Vice President doesn't seem to understand the tenets of just war," Martin wrote. "Nor does he seem to understand the fundamental position of the church, which is for peace. 'War is always a defeat for humanity,' as St. John Paul II said. If that authority isn't enough, then turn to Jesus who said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers,' not 'Blessed are the warmongers.' And after the Resurrection, the Risen Christ says to the frightened disciples not 'Vengeance is mine' but 'Peace be with you.'"
The United States UN ambassador was facing a tough line of questioning from lawmakers on Wednesday over the ongoing Iran war and President Donald Trump's dire threat to destroy "a whole civilization."
Mike Waltz was testifying to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on American foreign policy amid the ongoing military conflict, as the ceasefire between the United States and Iran was just days away from ending. His responses around the president's threats last week reportedly caught the lawmakers off guard.
Kyle Griffin, executive producer of The Weeknight on MS NOW, described on X how Waltz reacted when he "was asked by senators about Trump's threat to obliterate Iran — when he posted 'a whole civilization will die tonight.'"
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) posed a question for Waltz, describing how the United Nations and the United States have historically been involved in developing laws of war to prevent unnecessary civilian deaths in military conflicts.
"But President Trump has said that if Iran does not comply with his demands that he will 'end Iran's civilization' with specific threats to target civilian infrastructure," Murphy said. "This looks to a lot of us, and to the world, like a promise by the president of the United States to commit war crimes. I'm sure you don't agree with that assessment, but we've never had a president before threaten to 'end an entire civilization,' and double down on that claim, if that country does not accede to the demands of the United States."
"So what does the president mean when he says that if these negotiations don't work out, he will 'end Iran's civilization'?" Murphy asked.
"Senator, it was some tough talk," Waltz said, claiming that Trump's comments had led to a ceasefire and prompted ongoing negotiations.
Murphy pushed back on Waltz.
"I guess it's an open question whether we should pursue our aims by threatening another nation with mass civilian casualty," Murphy said. "I don't know if that's something we should celebrate that we are able to cow nations to our demands by threatening to kill civilians."
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) pressed Waltz to explain why the U.S. should continue fighting in a "deeply unpopular war."
"It might be some mean tweets, it might be some tough love, but they got the message," Waltz said, defending Trump's decision to post the threat on his Truth Social platform.
Users on social media commented on Waltz's response about "mean tweets."
"We are all in Middle School," former Republican and political commentator Nancy Ruth Gorelo wrote on X.
"Mike Waltz's response is totally unacceptable for a UN ambassador," Artist and commentator Art Candee wrote on X.
"Well, mean tweets are typical from Trump and JD Vance, the meanest p---- a-- b------ hanging with the other mean girls in the cafeteria," political commentator Robert Johnson wrote on X, sharing two photos of "Mean Girls" with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
