SmartNews

The Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi are “leading the charge” to paint Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “bad guy,” according to a new analysis from Joyce Vance.

Abrego Garcia was mistakenly sent to a prison used to house terrorists and gang members in El Salvador.

A former Republican congressional candidate was admonished on CNN for hurling accusations at a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) finally made face-to-face contact with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a married father who was sent by the Trump administration to the infamous CECOT mega prison, but the White House pushed back on the senator's efforts in El Salvador by inviting the mother of a Maryland woman who was slain by an undocumented migrant from that country.

The refusal of Donald Trump's administration to accept that the courts have ruled that it must bring back to the U.S. Kilmar Abrego García from a maximum security El Salvador prison where he was mistakenly sent left the panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" grasping for reasons to explain their refusal to accept the loss, have him returned and put out the firestorm.

Citing a brutal appeals court ruling that Trump and his Department of Justice are brazenly flouting rulings from a unanimous Supreme Court on down, co-host Joe Scarbrough was incredulous the president and his advisers have failed to read the room when even conservative Trump allies have also taken the side of the Maryland father of three.

After pointing out that Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote the case “should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear,” Scarborough piled on.

ALSO READ: 'We know where this leads': How Trump’s crackdown puts Jewish people in peril

"It's pretty unambiguous," he exclaimed. "I mean in 2019 a judge ruled he [Abrego Garcia] couldn't be taken out of the country. The Trump administration then obviously agreed –– they didn't appeal it. The Trump administration this time said we made a mistake and, again, it's just like the Signalgate thing : know when to say, 'Hey, we made a mistake, we're going to bring you back and move on.'"

Donald Trump policy advisor Stephen Miller was raked over the coals late Thursday for what longtime conservative columnist Ed Whelan called his "brazen" Fox News appearance where he attempted to misrepresent a Supreme Court ruling on the return of deported Maryland dad Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

In his column for the National Review, Whelan broke down Miller's rambling attempt to defend the administration's decision to blow off a unanimous ruling from the conservative court for the DOH to "facilitate" the return of Abrego Garcia, with what the conservative critic called "delusional" reasoning.

A federal judge imposed new restrictions on the so-called Department of Government Efficiency's access to sensitive Social Security data.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander issued a preliminary injunction late Thursday that sided with a consortium of labor unions and retirees who alleged that DOGE's actions violate privacy laws and pose a massive security risk, although the ruling does allow billionaire Elon Musk's team to access data that has been redacted or stripped of personal identification if they have undergone background checks, reported the Associated Press.

Donald Trump’s overall approval rating is continuing to see a rapid downward decline, according to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who revealed that even the president’s signature issue is beginning to see cracks of disapproval.

Maddow on Thursday walked viewers through a new CNBC/Hart Research poll, which placed Trump underwater by seven points, with 44% of those surveyed approving of his overall performance as president – versus 51% who disapproved.

A Republican strategist found himself on the wrong end of pushback on CNN late Thursday as he tried to insist universities are screening out viewpoints that "don't adhere to your anti-Western civilization world views."

Scott Jennings, a frequent commentator on CNN's "NewsNight and other programs, briefly sparred with host Abby Phillip and guest panelist Jamele Hill, a contributing writer at The Atlantic.

Rachel Maddow unleashed a verbal takedown of the Trump administration over the growing number of immigration-related arrests and deportations that have unfolded nationwide, which the MSNBC host said is also having an unintended effect on the president.

“This doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Maddow said Thursday during her show’s opening monologue as she walked viewers through a review of protests opposing President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.

President Donald Trump's "border czar" insisted late Thursday that the administration has done nothing wrong despite multiple rebukes from judges blasting the president's Justice Department.

Tom Homan repeatedly insisted on "The Source" with anchor Kaitlan Collins that officials followed the judge’s written orders and that no one in the administration did anything wrong.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced on Thursday evening that he has finally managed to get in touch with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father mistakenly deported to El Salvador and detained in the country's infamous CECOT megaprison.

"I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance," Van Hollen posted to Bluesky, along with a picture of him speaking with Abrego Garcia, apparently still in good health. "I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return."

Former Pentagon special counsel and federal prosecutor Ryan Goodman delivered a blunt interpretation of an appeals court ruling on Thursday that blasted the Trump administration’s handling of deportations.

“It’s just damning,” Goodman, an NYU School of Law professor said on CNN.

The violent attempt to firebomb the mansion of Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) sent shockwaves rippling through the political sphere, particularly as it has become clear the suspect, Cody Balmer, has a deep-seated antisemitic hatred for the Jewish governor. But as far as the Pennsylvania GOP chair is concerned, Shapiro himself ought to be condemning his own party as responsible for the attack.

"My heart goes out to Governor Shapiro and his family, and we thank God that he's fine and they're fine," said Greg Rothman on Newsmax. "But he needs to, as a member of the Democratic Party, call out this violence. Just last month, the Republican state headquarters in New Mexico was firebombed, and you know what's going on in the Tesla dealerships."

Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks is widely seen as a measured figure who frequently calls out anything radical or removed from the center — but that's decidedly not the tone he struck in his latest article, calling for a "civic uprising" to defend American values against the assault of the Trump administration.

"Over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization: Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to preserve, transmit and advance the glories of our way of life," wrote Brooks. "These institutions make our lives sweet, loving and creative, rather than nasty, brutish and short."