Tulsi Gabbard live in New Delhi, Abe Hamadeh questions Mark Zuckerberg, Heard on the Hill and more!
Tulsi tells all in India; Abe Hamadeh questions Zuckerberg; Heard on the Hill; and more!
March 18, 2025
Let’s dive in.
INTERVIEW: Live from New Delhi: Tulsi Gabbard talks India, JFK files, and more while meeting Modi, Indian officials
Heard on the Hill
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Abe Hamadeh demands answers from Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg over whistleblower claims of CCP-compliant censorship
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Darrell Issa wants answers from the FBI on "troubling reports of a juxtaposition” with ActBlue's “terror financing"
SCOOP: Interior Department permanently increasing pay for thousands of wildland firefighters
K-STREET, 10,000 FEET: Goodbye Green-Bricked Road: BlackRock's evolution from Woke Wall Street to Trump's good graces
OPINIONATED: Rep. Bob Goodlatte on how seed oil farms can help Make America Healthy Again
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INTERVIEW: Live from New Delhi: Tulsi Gabbard talks India, JFK files, and more while meeting Modi, Indian officials
by Matthew Foldi
THE LOWDOWN:
Tulsi Gabbard traveled to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, high-level diplomatic sources, U.S. Embassy staff, and others.
Gabbard confirmed President Trump’s quote from a recent Washington Reporter interview that Joe Biden did nothing to extradite Abbey Gate terrorist attack mastermind.
Gabbard laid out what will happen with JFK, RFK files.
President Trump’s DNI also weighed in on the attacks on Houthis as the Iranian-backed terrorists try to undermine America and Israel in the Middle East.
NEW DELHI, India — Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI), was last in India roughly a decade ago as a Democratic member of Congress. Following Trump’s historic comeback campaign, Gabbard — now a Republican Cabinet member — returned to the world’s most populous country to address the prestigious Raisina Dialogue and to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, high-level diplomatic sources, U.S. Embassy staff, and others.
Gabbard spoke with the Washington Reporter at the Raisina Dialogue, where she emphasized the “longstanding relationship of trust between our two countries,” which helps America and India navigate geopolitical challenges.
“Layered on top of that is the relationship and actual, real friendship that exists between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi,” Gabbard said. “So, like with all relationships we have with different countries around the world, we'll make different decisions about what that partnership entails and what opportunities we have.”
“India is no different,” she added.
Gabbard, who was born in American Samoa and spent years living in and representing Hawai’i in Congress, is also the first Hindu member of Congress. During her confirmation battle, some Democrats zeroed in on her Hindu faith — to little success.
The DNI said she was appreciative of the “very, very warm” welcome she received with her return to India. Gabbard noted that “many of Prime Minister Modi's leadership team are people who I've gotten to know over the years, and so in many cases, in the meetings that I'm having, it's seeing old friends and having new conversations given this new role that I serve in.”
That deep trust is how Gabbard navigates India’s unusual status as both a founding member of BRICS, which is close to China and Russia, and an integral member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad of Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S.), which exists primarily to counter China. The face-to-face diplomacy Gabbard conducts on trips like this helps her ensure that intelligence sharing doesn’t result in bad actors receiving good intelligence.
As Gabbard has traveled the world, she is delivering a clear message to foreign leaders: “We have a president who has made very clear that his goal and objective, his legacy that he hopes to leave behind, is to be the president of peace and to be a unifying force.”
“We've already seen in the very short period of time how he is taking decisive action to that end around conflicts that have existed for a very long time, and how he is using his position to send a strong message that peace and security and freedom and stability are mutual interests that the United States has with many, if not most, other countries in different parts of the world. I think a really clear quality characteristic that both he and Prime Minister Modi share is that they are both very practical leaders.”
HEARD ON THE HILL
RECORD SETTING: Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) is raising more than $1 million in one week for his campaign on a fundraising swing through Arkansas, setting a record for an incumbent Republican in the state.
PART BY PART: Next week, Republican Senators plan to introduce legislation restricting use of components on voting machines made by companies with ties to China.
CREDIT BILL: Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) has reached out to Republican Senate offices seeking sponsors for his Credit Card Competition Act, telling Republicans that he has every Democrat on board, but they need more Republicans listed so the bill appears bipartisan.
SUIT UP: As Capital One faces a lawsuit from the Trump family for debanking the Trumps, Congressional Republicans are considering a full investigation into the bank’s political policies. Industry watchers say this could impact Capital One's attempted merger with Discover.
ADIOS: Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Guy Benson’s show that every person on flights to El Salvador “was in the country illegally, one way or the other.”
CLOCK’S TICKING: Vice President JD Vance’s team and the National Security Council have been talking to companies about the sale of TikTok. This comes as President Trump's EO deadline is set to expire in April.
A message from our sponsor.
Medicaid helps provide security to our friends and neighbors, providing high-quality care for more than 72 million Americans, including children, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities.
Congress should vote against efforts to reduce Medicaid funding and instead focus on policies that strengthen access to 24/7 care.
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Abe Hamadeh demands answers from Meta over whistleblower claims of CCP-compliant censorship
by The Washington Reporter
THE LOWDOWN:
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R., Ari.) demanded answers from Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg over whistleblower allegations of CCP “censorship policies.”
In the letter, Hamadeh said that, according to the whistleblower’s “78-page complaint augmented by internal Meta documents, Meta executives developed a censorship system, planned to install a CCP-approved ‘chief editor’ to oversee content.”
A Meta spokesperson told the Reporter, “This is all pushed by an employee terminated eight years ago for poor performance.”
The spokesperson also said, “We do not operate our services in China today. It is no secret we were once interested in doing so as part of Facebook’s effort to connect the world. This was widely reported beginning a decade ago. We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we'd explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019."
Arizona GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh is demanding answers from Meta over a company whistleblower’s allegations of “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censorship policies.”
Hamadeh sent Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg a letter, exclusively obtained by the Washington Reporter, regarding the whistleblower’s allegations of the social media giant’s kowtowing to CCP censorship efforts in America.
In the letter, Hamadeh wrote that the “whistleblower complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission from Meta's former global policy director, that Meta (formerly Facebook) engaged in efforts to accommodate Chinese Communist Party (CCP) censorship policies, suppress political dissent, and compromise user privacy in pursuit of market access in China.”
“According to the 78-page complaint augmented by internal Meta documents, Meta executives developed a censorship system, planned to install a CCP-approved "chief editor" to oversee content, and restricted the account of a U.S.-based Chinese dissident at the request of a high-ranking CCP official,” Hamadeh said. “These claims, if true, indicate a willingness to collaborate with an authoritarian regime to suppress free expression contradicting Meta's public statements on free speech and digital rights.”
“Meta's past actions such as deplatforming President Donald J. Trump, and censorship against American citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic at the behest of U.S. government agencies and to protect Chinese narratives-demonstrate a troubling pattern of compliance with government-driven speech suppression, both at home and abroad. The latest allegations raise urgent questions about whether Meta continues to assist foreign regimes in controlling online discourse or targeting U.S.-based dissidents of the CCP and other totalitarian regimes. Given Meta's substantial influence over public debate and democratic processes, this matter demands immediate transparency and accountability.”
Hamadeh also peppered Zuckerberg with questions, including whether Meta developed, tested, or proposed “a censorship system tailored for the CCP,” as the whistleblower alleged, and if Meta has “taken any action- directly or indirectly—to suppress accounts or content at the request of the CCP, including the alleged suppression of Chinese dissident Guo Wengui’s account.”
A Meta spokesperson told the Reporter, “This is all pushed by an employee terminated eight years ago for poor performance.”
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Darrell Issa wants answers from the FBI on "troubling reports of a juxtaposition” with ActBlue's “terror financing"
by Matthew Foldi
THE LOWDOWN:
For years, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) has demanded answers about the “fundraising platform ActBlue, its advocacy fundraising arm ActBlue Charities, and troubling reports of a juxtaposition with terror financing.”
Despite Issa’s efforts to get answers from then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, “the Bureau dodged my questions, many of which referred to potentially closed investigations,” Issa wrote in a letter, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, to Wray’s successor, Kash Patel.
Issa, one of Congress’s top watchdogs, noted to Patel that in the 18 months since one of his letters to Wray about ActBlue that “ActBlue Charities has also been exposed as providing services to the Alliance for Global Justice, which is tied to U.S.-designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as well as the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.”
Issa’s latest investigation into ActBlue comes as Republicans in Congress, like Reps. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), James Comer (R., Ky.), and Nick Langworthy (R., N.Y.) have started investigating the platform that almost every Democratic Party candidate uses to raise money.
For years, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) has demanded answers about the “fundraising platform ActBlue, its advocacy fundraising arm ActBlue Charities, and troubling reports of a juxtaposition with terror financing.”
Now, he wants the new FBI Director to brief Congress about possible violations of anti-money laundering and terror financing laws.
“For years, we investigated ActBlue and what we’ve found is again and again, the Democrat fundraising platform has advanced the financial interests of terror,” Issa told the Reporter. “ActBlue claims otherwise, but its credibility is at an all-time low. It’s time for the FBI to do its work.”
Despite Issa’s efforts to get answers from then-FBI Director Christopher Wray, “the Bureau dodged my questions, many of which referred to potentially closed investigations,” Issa wrote in a letter, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, to Wray’s successor, Kash Patel.
“I believe that if the Bureau ever conducted an investigation [into ActBlue], it was not allowed to come to fruition under the Biden-Harris Administration,” Issa wrote.
Issa’s letter follows years of reporting on ActBlue’s less-than-savory activities, including facilitating payments for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel since at least 2021, according to Issa.
Issa, one of Congress’s top watchdogs, noted to Patel that in the 18 months since one of his letters to Wray about ActBlue that “ActBlue Charities has also been exposed as providing services to the Alliance for Global Justice, which is tied to U.S.-designated terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as well as the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.”
This kind of “established and continued collaboration between ActBlue Charities and terror-tied entities amounts to the enabling of terrorism and may also constitute money-laundering crimes,” Issa cautioned.
SCOOP: Interior Department permanently increasing pay for thousands of wildland firefighters
by Matthew Foldi
THE LOWDOWN:
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that America’s wildland firefighters are in for a big raise and one of Congress’s top appropriators is thrilled.
There are 11,200 wildland firefighters across the country, and Burgum is poised to allocate millions of dollars towards making their salary increases permanent, a Department of Interior source told the Reporter.
Burgum’s moves complement work that Rep. Mike Simpson (R., Idaho) has pushed for for years in Congress. Simpson — who previously told the Washington Reporter that he was “really pleased” with Trump’s selection of Burgum to helm Interior — recently met with Burgum.
The two discussed how Simpson helped secure the provision in the CR that is allowing Burgum to raise firefighter pay, Simpson’s office told the Reporter.
While President Donald Trump and his Cabinet officials are cutting billions of dollars from the federal government’s budget, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that America’s wildland firefighters are in for a big raise — and one of Congress’s top appropriators is thrilled.
The continuing resolution passed by Congress allows the Interior Department to permanently increase pay for wildland firefighters, and Burgum is already on the task.
There are 11,200 wildland firefighters across the country, and Burgum is poised to allocate millions of dollars towards making their salary increases permanent, a Department of Interior source told the Reporter.
Burgum’s moves complement work that Rep. Mike Simpson (R., Idaho) has pushed for for years in Congress. Simpson — who previously told the Washington Reporter that he was “really pleased” with Trump’s selection of Burgum to helm Interior — recently met with Burgum.
The two discussed how Simpson helped secure the provision in the CR that is allowing Burgum to raise firefighter pay, Simpson’s office told the Reporter.
“The men and women who fight catastrophic wildfires across the nation deserve stability and adequate compensation for their courageous work,” Simpson said of his work. Simpson is the Chairman of the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.
“A permanent pay fix for our wildland firefighters will strengthen recruitment and retention while providing financial security to the first responders who protect our communities. I have long fought for this critical provision, and I am grateful to my colleagues and the Trump administration for their support in making it a reality.”
During the meeting, Simpson also discussed prioritizing Indian Country throughout America with Burgum.
K-STREET, 10,000 FEET
Goodbye Green-Bricked Road: BlackRock's evolution from Woke Wall Street to Trump's good graces
by The Washington Reporter
THE LOWDOWN:
BlackRock, the one-time boogeyman of Woke Wall Street is leaving the Green-Bricked road of the left, has found itself a home in President Donald Trump’s good graces after a business metamorphosis.
BlackRock is continuing its shedding of DEI, ESG, and other leftist corporate policies as the company’s changes take hold.
The move impressed conservatives, including President Trump, who gave the investment firm a Joint Address to Congress shout-out for their work in Panama ahead of the president’s second term.
A person close to the Trump administration told the Reporter, “BlackRock was correct to end DEI and ESG practices.”
BlackRock, the one-time boogeyman of Woke Wall Street, is leaving the Green-Bricked Road of the left and has found itself a home in President Donald Trump’s good graces after the business’ metamorphosis away from leftist corporate policies.
The top-tier financial investment firm announced it was abandoning its long trek into environmental, social, and governance (ESG), diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and other leftist corporate policies last year.
Since then, the company has bolstered America and the nation’s interests at home and abroad, and Republicans have taken note. BlackRock recently led a $23 billion deal to bring Panamanian ports under American corporate ownership as China eyes the Central American nation.
The move impressed Republicans including President Trump, who gave the investment firm a Joint Address to Congress shout-out for their work in Panama ahead of the president’s second term.
BlackRock has also received praise from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, vocal China hawk Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), and newly-minted Sen. Tim Sheehy (R., Mont.), a tough-on-China Republican.
A person close to the Trump administration told the Reporter that “BlackRock was correct to end DEI and ESG practices.”
“They are one of the most talented investment firms in the world and were savvy enough to help Trump get a win in Panama,” the source said.
“Somehow Blackrock, of all companies, has set the standard for rejecting DEI, embracing merit, and even giving Trump a win on the Panama Canal,” a Senate leadership aide told the Reporter.
“Wouldn’t have predicted this a couple years ago but good for them. Other woke banks like JPMorgan and Discover better follow suit fast or they’re going to have subpoenas from the new CFPB,” the aide continued.
BlackRock’s metamorphosis has continued into 2025, with BlackRock leaving the United Nations-backed Net Zero Alliance in January of this year.
OPINIONATED
Op-Ed: Rep. Bob Goodlatte: Seed oil farmers are not the enemy — they are essential to American agriculture, health, and our economy
by Rep. Bob Goodlatte
The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement is justifiably focused on improving our nation’s health. However, in their pursuit of a healthier America, some in this movement are misguided in singling out seed oils. Seed oils are extracted from the seeds of plants. These oils such as soybean, safflower, and grapeseed are commonly used in restaurants and cooking in homes across the country. Attempts to demonize and ban seed oils are the wrong approach — one that not only ignores the health evidence but also would hurt the livelihoods of American farmers and the pocketbooks of hard-working families.
As the former Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, I saw firsthand how much President Donald J. Trump cares about America’s farmers. As President Trump said during his joint address to Congress, “I love the farmer.” During his first term, President Trump was an unapologetic champion for agriculture, providing more than $30 billion in direct support when countries retaliated against our farmers, negotiating strong trade deals to make sure foreign countries treat them fairly, eliminating $262 million in burdensome regulations, and reducing the death tax that crippled many family farms. At the end of President Trump’s first term, farm income reached the highest level in years after bottoming out during the Obama administration.
American agriculture is the backbone of our economy and seed oils are a critical part of the agriculture industry. It has an economic impact of hundreds of billions of dollars annually and supports millions of jobs up and down the ag and food supply chain, particularly in rural America. While many of the alternatives to seed oils must be imported from other countries, the United States is a net exporter of seed oils to the world. As President Trump rightly confronts America’s unacceptable trade deficit, seed oils are an asset for our country.
As a result of failed policies of former President Joe Biden, Americans are still struggling to afford their rising grocery bills. Despite the headwinds of the last four years against them, our farmers work hard every single day to feed Americans more affordably. Seed oils are critical for delivering more affordable grocery prices because they are five to ten times more affordable than available alternatives.
Importantly, a key contribution from a majority of seed oils is protein, which is a feed ingredient for our domestic livestock industry, making our pork and chicken more affordable. When American workers process oilseeds like soybeans, canola, and sunflower for their oil, the remaining protein-rich meal is used as animal feed, which is essential for their nutrition. This helps support meat growth and production, which ultimately stabilizes meat prices for consumers and American families already struggling with inflation.
Yet, some in the MAHA movement advocate for banning seed oils, pushing for costly and impractical alternatives. What they fail to recognize is that these alternatives face severe supply constraints. Food security is not just important for our economy. It is important for our national security. Banning seed oils would create massive supply chain disruptions and would create instability here at home and abroad.
