Haiti is battling an insurgency, with gangs terrorizing the citizenry and international actors fearing the beginning of a refugee crisis. You could already label the situation a low-scale civil war, but things are set to get worse, as the leading gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier continues to mobilize for regime change.
The conflict has gotten so out of control that Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry, who the Biden administration energetically backed following the assassination of former prime minister Jovenel Moïse in 2021, announced early Tuesday that he would resign following the creation of a transitional presidential council.
The announcement came hours after officials including Secretary Antony Blinken met in Jamaica to discuss an urgent solution as the Pearl of the Antilles descends into chaos.
As officials try to get a grip of the island, Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday that he would authorize the use of additional boats and aircrafts, as well as 250 officers, to defend the state from illegal immigrants that are expected to head in on vessels to the Sunshine State as turmoil escalates in the Caribbean country.
In Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, the most powerful criminal organization on the island, the G9 and Family gang, has successfully raided two large prisons, burned down police stations and taken over an airport.
The international community mostly supported former PM Henry prior to the gang takeover, but his recent unpopularity caused some international backers of his government to reevaluate. Pressure from some former allies, including the United States, led to the creation of the transition council. What comes next remains unknown.
In Washington, DC, the Senate responded by promptly confirming Dennis Hankins as ambassador to Haiti. The vote was 89-1, with Louisiana senator John Kennedy being the only vote against it. The quick confirmation of a new ambassador as chaos erupts in another country mirrors the appointment of Israel ambassador Jack Lew in late October 2023.
While the United States government makes diplomatic decisions to prevent a full-blown war, there is concern not only about the Americans caught in the middle of the conflict but the prospects of an uncontrollable wave of refugees, especially at a time when immigration has become a hot national issue.
Aside from Governor DeSantis’s response, no actions have been taken by the federal government. If the situation gets worse, pressure to close the border and reorient migratory policy more broadly would likely grow. As congress figures it out — or attempts to — Florida Republican representative Cory Mills has risen as an unexpected hero, helping evacuate ten Americans, who worked at the Have Faith Haiti orphanage, on Tuesday.
-Juan P. Villasmil
On our radar
DEALER’S CHOICE Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday that either Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis or lead prosecutor Nathan Wade have to step aside from their case against former president Donald Trump. The judge stopped short of accusing them of a conflict of interest, but found their alleged romantic affair created at least an air of impropriety. Wade resigned that afternoon.
DEFENSIVE COVERAGE New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers hit back at CNN after the media outlet claimed he questioned the Sandy Hook school shooting. The report is based on a single-sourced account by reporter Pamela Brown based on an encounter she allegedly had with Rodgers in 2013.
RNC STRIPPED The Republican National Committee is undergoing radical staffing changes after GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump named Michael Whatley and Lara Trump as co-chairs of the party. At least sixty staffers have been fired under the new leadership structure, reports say.
Chuck Schumer’s regime change
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer caused quite a stir this week when he backed new elections in Israel, calling them the “only way” for the Jewish state to determine its future “at a time when so many Israelis have lost their confidence in the vision and direction of their government.”
Israel notably held the same number of elections for prime minister in 2019 alone that the Palestinian Authority has had since their first election in 1996. Schumer, however, did not call for new elections in Gaza — which elected the terrorist group Hamas in its most recent presidential election in 2006.
Schumer got some back-up on his remarks from President Joe Biden, who called it “a good speech” before his staffers ushered journalists out of the room. Schumer’s remarks come as the Democratic Party grapples with how to keep the pro-ceasefire of its coalition in the fold heading into November’s elections.
Across America, hundreds of thousands of Democratic primary voters cast “uncommitted” primary ballots in the hopes of sending a message to the White House, resulting in nonsensical policies like sending troops to build a temporary pier to deliver aid to Gaza.
Schumer’s remarks received predictable condemnation from Jewish Republicans, such as Congressman Max Miller, who told me that the New Yorker is “an embarrassment to the Jewish community,” and from former senator Norm Coleman, who now helms the Republican Jewish Coalition — and who was high school classmates with Schumer.
“That personal connection made it especially painful for me to watch Senator Schumer stab Israel in the back in his public remarks on March 14,” Coleman wrote.
The condemnation from Democrats and the center-left Jewish establishment of Schumer’s remarks was similarly fast and furious.
“We do not believe it is appropriate for US officials to try to dictate the electoral future of an ally,” the American Jewish Committee said. The AJC is helmed by a former Democratic member of Congress, Ted Deutch. Beyond AJC, the Democratic Majority for Israel group, which works closely with party leadership to elect pro-Israel Democrats, also distanced itself in part from Schumer. “While we do not agree with everything in Leader Schumer’s speech, we thank him for reminding the country, and the world, that Israel is a democracy and has a right to defend itself,” its president Mark Mellman said.
On the Hill, pro-Israel Democrats such as Senator John Fetterman strongly disagreed with Schumer’s remarks. “I would demand that there be no foreign influence on our elections, so I’m not in that,” he told reporters.
Schumer didn’t climb to the pinnacle of the Senate by being foolish and uncalculating — his remarks either signify him leading his caucus in a new direction, or will prove a massive miscalculation if Democrats like Fetterman drag him back to the center.
–Matthew Foldi
Democrats block Laken Riley Act
After twenty-two-year-old Laken Riley was killed during a jog near the University of Georgia by suspect Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, House Republicans passed the Laken Riley Act, along with thirty-seven Democrats. As the bill heads to the Senate, however, Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock is leading the charge against its passage, calling the legislation “smoke and mirrors.”
In an interview on MSNBC’s The Reid Out, Senator Warnock said:
Let me, first of all, just say that my heart goes out to this young woman’s family. Laken Riley did not deserve what happened to her. To answer your question succinctly, this is smoke and mirrors by people who are not serious. We had a bipartisan piece of legislation in front of us. It had a lot of provisions, some provisions that some folks on my side didn’t like. But the only way to get comprehensive immigration reform, the only way to address the current crisis on the border in divided government, is on a bipartisan basis.
The Laken Riley Act, according to Senator Tim Scott’s website (Scott is a bill co-sponsor), “requires US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest illegal immigrants who commit theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting offenses. The bill also mandates that illegal immigrants who have committed a crime are detained until removal from the US so they cannot re-offend or commit further crimes, and it ensures states have standing to bring civil actions against federal officials who refuse to enforce immigration law or who violate the law.”
On X, Senator Lindsey Graham called on Senator Chuck Schumer to bring the bill for a vote, writing, “Ms. Riley’s murder is likely a result of the Biden administration’s open border policy. Senator Schumer should bring the Laken Riley Act to the Senate floor for a vote immediately.”
–Teresa Mull
Why is Nancy Mace’s email in the Ashley Madison leak?
In 2015, hackers accessed the user data of Ashley Madison, a website that helps facilitate clandestine romantic affairs. The logins of millions of users were leaked. Politicians, reality TV stars and ordinary people just trying to cheat on their spouses were exposed. To this day, the database remains searchable on a series of websites, such as Ashley.Cynic.Al and CheckAshleyMadison.com.
Many of the people whose emails were in the hack have since gone on to illustrious careers, happy to know that their 2015-era obscurity saved them from embarrassing revelations and awkward conversations. Cockburn confirmed this week that the old realtor email of Congresswoman Nancy Mace was found on one such database.
Now, there could be an innocent explanation for this. Perhaps anti-Mace activists registered her email address at the time in an attempt to smear her. Or, like US Senate candidate Bernie Moreno’s very plausible explanation for why his email was attached to an account seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex” on AdultFriendFinder, a disgruntled colleague signed up with it as a joke. If some dastardly dog is trying to slut-shame Nancy Mace, Cockburn for one won’t stand for it.
Ashley Madison, for its part, was incredibly loose with both morals and email verification — they did not require it to create an account. One Trump administration official said he made an account to do “opposition research,” for example. It is likely that any user of the site knew what they were signing up for — or signing someone else up for — whether for “research” purposes or for more conventional affair-having purposes. “Life is short. Have an affair,” remains the site’s slogan.
The congresswoman was far from a frequent Sunday show guest in 2015; she was a businesswoman and author who had recently come in a distant fifth in a US Senate primary.
Mace, who was married at the time of the hack, had been divorced once before and divorced her then-husband in 2019. She got engaged for a third time while in the House and then broke that off last year, supposedly because she caught her beau on, ironically, dating apps — hopefully not Ashley Madison!
Cockburn reached out to the Mace email, which sent an auto-reply due to it being “overwhelmed with messages.” Subsequent requests for comment to both that email and to Mace’s office have thus far gone unanswered.
–Cockburn
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