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Vice President JD Vance is drawing on a decades-old conspiracy theory that falsely claims antidepressants are responsible for mass shootings.

Speaking to steelworkers in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday, the Vice President addressed the mass shooting a day earlier at a Minneapolis Catholic school—where two young children were killed during Mass and 17 others were wounded, including a dozen children—when he declared that America faces a mental health crisis and alleged that Americans take too much psychiatric medication.

The Trump administration is being sharply criticized after President Donald Trump fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who had been confirmed by the Senate just one month earlier. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is facing condemnation over her stated reason for the abrupt termination.

When asked during Thursday’s White House press briefing what Dr. Susan Monarez did wrong to be fired, Leavitt claimed that the microbiologist and public health official did not share President Trump’s mission.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., already under scrutiny for attempting to fire the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is now attacking the CDC for information on its website that he wrongly claims characterizes “abortion” as one of the 10 greatest advances in medical science — while also appearing to suggest vaccines and fluoridation should not be on that list.

There are several versions of the list, one titled, “Ten Great Public Health Achievements — United States, 1900-1999,” and dated April 1999 — more than a quarter century ago.

Medical, legal, and political experts are sounding alarms amid the Trump administration’s attempt to fire the newly confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which triggered a mass exodus of top CDC officials resigning in protest, including one with a damning public resignation letter that went viral.

“The White House said late Wednesday that it had fired Susan Monarez, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after a tense confrontation in which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to remove her from her position,” The New York Times reported. “A lawyer for Dr. Monarez said in response that she was refusing to step down.”

A Fox News host is blaming mass shootings on access to guns and young white males, after the latest school shooting that left two young children dead and 17 others injured during mass at a Catholic school. The gunman reportedly was in his early 20s and is now deceased.

“Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter — armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol — approached the side of the church and shot dozens of rounds through the windows toward the children sitting in the pews during Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School. Police believe the gunman then killed himself,” the Associated Press reported. “The children who died were 8 and 10, and 14 other kids were among the wounded, the [police] chief said. Dozens of youngsters were inside.”

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is under fire for claiming credit for new Amtrak trains, as well as funding and improvements, all of which came from President Joe Biden’s landmark bipartisan infrastructure law — the nation’s largest infrastructure investment in more than half a century.

“Announcing the NextGen Acela!” Secretary Duffy declared on Wednesday. He touted the “brand new beautiful trains” delivered by U.S. DOT and Amtrak that will, he wrote, “increase reliability,” “lower ticket costs,” and “improve Amtrak profitability.”

In a further expansion of its occupation of the District of Columbia, the Trump administration announced it will take control of operations at Washington, D.C.’s historic Union Station, citing crime and homelessness as justification. Crime in the nation’s capital fell by double digits last year, and dropped by double digits again this year.

“We’re gonna take it back, and we’re gonna drive out the homelessness,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News on Wednesday. “We’re gonna drive out the crime.”

For the second day in a row, President Donald Trump insisted he is not a dictator, but also insisted that many Americans would like to have one running the country. Some critics are calling his remarks a “trial balloon.”

“So the line is that I’m a dictator — but I stop crime,” Trump said at his televised Cabinet meeting on Tuesday (video below). “So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’ But I’m not a dictator. I just know how to stop crime.”

After President Donald Trump asserted that the United States obtained a 10 percent stake in computer chip manufacturer Intel at no cost, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick now says the government should pursue similar deals with other major companies, a proposal some critics liken to communism.

“I paid zero for Intel, it is worth approximately 11 billion dollars,” Trump wrote in his signature all-caps style on Monday. “All goes to the USA. Why are ‘stupid’ people unhappy with that? I will make deals like that for our Country all day long. I will also help those companies that make such lucrative deals with the United States States (sic). I love seeing their stock price go up, making the USA RICHER, AND RICHER. More jobs for America!!! Who would not want to make deals like that?”

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is responding after President Donald Trump announced that he will direct the U.S. Department of Justice to sue California over its plan to put new congressional maps before voters, a move state officials say is a response to the president’s directive requiring Texas to redraw its maps to create five additional Republican districts.

In a nearly unprecedented move last month, Trump told Texas Gov. Greg Abbott he wanted new congressional maps drawn in the Lone Star State, to create five new GOP-held seats. The move would help Republicans in their efforts to hold the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterms.

Vice President JD Vance is facing criticism for reshaping the historical record of the past century of wars in a way seen as aiding Vladimir Putin, and for appearing to defend Russia by refusing to denounce the Russian President over the bombing of a U.S. factory in Ukraine.

Speaking to NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday, the Vice President was asked if he was “enraged” when he learned that Russia had “targeted an American company based in Ukraine?”

Vice President JD Vance is facing strong criticism from legal and political experts after commenting on the FBI’s seven-hour raid on Friday morning on former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, D.C. office, reportedly in a search for classified documents.

“The information that provided the basis for the warrant to search John Bolton’s home was based on intelligence collected overseas by the C.I.A., according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation,” The New York Times reported. “It involved the mishandling of classified material by Bolton, the people said.”

George Conway, the prominent conservative attorney and “never Trump” Republican turned independent, sounded a dire warning hours before President Donald Trump overnight threatened a “complete and total” occupation of Washington, D.C.

The president has already executed a takeover of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and has deployed thousands of National Guard troops and FBI, ATF, DEA, DHS, and ICE agents to patrol the streets of the nation’s capital, despite massive opposition from the city’s residents. Trump declared a “crime emergency” on Aug. 11, when, according to experts, there was none.