The Age Is the Question

Bill O’Reilly had immigration attorney Rosanna Berardi on No Spin News to walk through the legal path for denaturalizing Ilhan Omar. The conversation stays on one narrow point: whether Omar was under 18 and unmarried when she derived citizenship through her father.

Watch that segment here: [VIDEO]

Berardi’s reading is straightforward. Derivative citizenship requires the child to be under 18 and unmarried at the moment the parent naturalizes. If Omar was already 18 or older when her father became a citizen in 2000, the derivative status never attached. Criminal charges for false statements would run into the statute of limitations. Civil denaturalization would not. It needs clear and convincing evidence, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

That is the argument the October 12 search was built to test. Agents took phones, a laptop, notebooks, and a passport. Family members, including a sister, have been subpoenaed. The warrant remains sealed.

The older claim that Omar married her brother is still part of the discussion. Sources have told reporters that DNA is being used to test it. An earlier private collection of discarded items produced a lab report claiming a sibling match; that effort came from a consultant later convicted on unrelated charges. No public result from the current investigation has been released, and Omar continues to say she has no knowledge of any relationship. The age question is the one Berardi treats as decisive for the denaturalization path.

The Brazil Extension

On Sunday, incumbent President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva turned a first-round deficit into a runoff win and became the first Brazilian elected president four times. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, had finished ahead in early October. Three weeks later he was behind by roughly 4.4 million votes. The numbers themselves are not the part that stands out.

Ben Shapiro’s clip, “Brazil Is a Warning for American Elections,” treats the day as a practical lesson in what happens when the people who write the rules also play in the game. He walks through the first-round split, the runoff swing, and the intervention that arrived as the clocks hit five.

Watch Shapiro's clip here: [VIDEO]

The Unions Run This Place

The clip that stopped me was not the tax plan. It was the line about the unions.

Dave Rubin had Steve Hilton on today. Hilton is the Republican nominee for California governor, running against Xavier Becerra. Hilton is the former Fox host and, before that, the man who helped shape David Cameron’s early years in Downing Street. He has lived in California since 2012.

Watch the interview here: [VIDEO]

Hilton said he tried to put a housing initiative on the ballot. He needed roughly ten million dollars and never raised it. When he asked a Democratic legislator for support, the answer he got was that the unions run the place. That, Hilton says, is the moment he decided to run for governor instead of trying to work around the legislature.

The Glass Wall

The only piece of the Root interview I had seen was the short one where El-Sayed tries to explain that Mike Rogers is an NPC.

He says the term, then has to define it. Non-playing character. Someone who just goes along with the program. The clip is brief. The explanation takes longer than the insult. That was the only part I had watched.

The rest of the interview is longer. In it he talks about Black voters in Detroit.

He tells Ashley Allison that too many Black Detroiters have had bad experiences with “somebody who looks like me.” Then he describes the glass wall: the party store, the gas station, the distance that is already set before he speaks.

Here's a short clip of the exchange here: [VIDEO]

In the primary he carried the state. He did not carry Detroit. He was outspent. He says the money was aimed at the connection. The connection still needed work.

Current polls put Black support for him in the mid-to-high 60s. Democratic Senate preference in the same surveys sits closer to the low 80s. The gap is the softness. Soft enough that a Republican opening a field office in Detroit is worth noting. Soft enough that he is still explaining the wall in October.

Stratton v. Tracy: It Went as Expected

They met once. It went the way I expected.

Watch the full forum here: [VIDEO]

Brandis Friedman moderated the only joint appearance of the general election. One hour from the WTTW studios. Early voting was already underway. This was the last scheduled chance for voters to see Juliana Stratton and Don Tracy answer the same questions in the same room.

The Deterrence Message

I keep noticing when the stated goal of an investigation is not only the case itself but the calculation the next person is supposed to make before taking the job.

On Monday mornings PBD Podcast the panel discussed this cut of Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin speaking at the University of Chicago on October 13. It was a live recording of Vox’s America, Actually podcast with Astead Herndon.

Watch the PBD Podcast clip here: [VIDEO]

She was asked how Congress reasserts itself as a check if Democrats regain the majority. She talked about signature cases, not just the president but the people who enabled him. The people around him do not have the same immunity he does.

Then she said she wants young people coming out of school to ask whether working for the Trump administration is buying themselves a ton of problems they do not want, and to avoid participating. She wants that deterrence message sent.

The clip spread. Trump called her a lowlife who is ruining her state. She later said the point was accountability for corruption and lawbreaking, not targeting people for their politics, and that the outrage was manufactured. The full exchange is on the Vox podcast.

The full exchange is on the Vox podcast: Elissa Slotkin says it’s time for new faces | America, Actually

What I keep turning over is the part she named out loud: the deterrence. Not only the case, but the signal meant for the graduate still deciding whether to take the job.

Stratton v. Tracy: Side by Side, Finally

I almost missed this. Saw it on Capitol Fax this evening. The main thing is that the candidates for Dick Durbin’s open U.S. Senate seat are set to debate on Tuesday.

Tonight, October 20, 2026, at 8 p.m. on WTTW, Chicago Tonight anchor Brandis Friedman moderates the only joint appearance of the general election between Democrat Juliana Stratton and Republican Don Tracy. It runs one hour from the WTTW studios on the North Side, with a studio audience. The forum airs live on WTTW and streams on the PBS app, wttw.com, Facebook, and YouTube. Rebroadcasts follow later in the week.

Credit: WTTW

Early voting in Illinois started September 24. This is the last scheduled chance for voters to see the two major-party nominees for Dick Durbin’s open seat answer the same questions in the same room. Tracy accepted invitations from multiple outlets and groups earlier in the cycle. Stratton’s campaign accepted this one.

I wrote about the race in September. Cook looks settled. The collars are the question. The post is here: Illinois Looks Settled.

American Center Party candidate Whitfield Harrington is on the ballot but was not invited. WTTW’s published standards require a candidate to show at least 15 percent in a post-primary public poll (plus other criteria) to appear.

The race is the first open Illinois Senate seat in decades. Stratton is the lieutenant governor and the Democratic nominee after a competitive primary. Tracy is a Springfield attorney and the former state party chair. Polling has shown a double-digit lead for the Democrat. The last Republican to win a U.S. Senate race in Illinois was Mark Kirk in 2010. The forum is the public record of what they chose to say when the clock ran out.

Watch on WTTW at 8 p.m. or stream it from their site. When it’s uploaded to YouTube it will be shared here, and like I did with the governor’s forum, offer my own take once I watch it.

Europe Burned Over the Weekend

I haven't watched it yet. Ben Shapiro on the France and Italy riots that blew up over the weekend after a month of school protests: the crowds aren't there for better schools or lower prices. He says they are there to break the cities.

Watch Shapiro's recent podcast here: VIDEO

I put this on because the title was sitting there. The school protests that fed the weekend’s riots started about a month ago—teachers striking and students blockading a lycée in Créteil over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, and run-down buildings. It spread, with repeated marches and closures through early October. The large-scale violence (Limoges town hall torched, shops looted, thousands arrested) broke out Saturday when those actions joined a planned cost-of-living day with unions and former Yellow Vests.

The Wheelchair She Named

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was on MSDNC (or whatever the network calls itself after decoupling from NBC News) talking about the planned military firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan. She said this:

"The thing that just keeps breaking my heart: imagine the 20-year-old, maybe the 18-year-old that stepped up to serve, that gets orders and says, you’re going to go shoot this guy who’s in a wheelchair."

Michael Steele nodded. Steele is a Republican, and a never-Trumper, though that is secondary. The stare looked intense. I wanted to believe he had already checked out by the time she finished.

NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill on the execution of Nidal Hasan: "The thing that just keeps breaking my heart: imagine the 20-year-old, maybe the 18-year-old that stepped up to serve, that gets orders and says, you’re going to go shoot this guy who’s in a wheelchair." https://t.co/6WdVnDjvTt

— Ezydu (@ezradulis) October 17, 2026

Hasan is the Army psychiatrist who walked into the readiness processing center at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, shouted “Allahu akbar,” and opened fire. Thirteen people were killed. More than thirty were wounded. He has been paralyzed from the waist down since the police shot him to stop the attack. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2013. The appellate process finished. President Trump approved the sentence this month. The Army set December 3 at Fort Hood. There was discussion of livestreaming his execution; that part was walked back.

One of the thirteen was Private Francheska Velez, 21, from Chicago. She had just returned from Iraq. She was pregnant. Witnesses heard her crying “My baby! My baby!” as she was shot. The unborn child died with her.

h/t Newsalert

Blue States Need the Dream

You may have seen my two recent posts on the Illinois gubernatorial race. One asked whether the only televised forum between Governor Pritzker and Darren Bailey would move anyone who hasn’t already voted. The other was about what a solid opposition actually looks like in a state that has grown used to one-party rule. My point in covering it is simple: Illinois needs an opposition party that can win. As PBD has said about candidates running for president, the opposition still has to sell the dream.

California is another state in the same position. Steve Hilton finished second in the top-two primary and is the Republican nominee against Xavier Becerra. He has spent months making the case that the state can be more affordable and better governed. Polls still show him trailing by a wide margin. The election is unlikely to go his way.

Now we arrive at New York. Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul is running for another term against Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. If I am reading people like Bill O’Reilly correctly, Blakeman has a realistic shot at knocking off the incumbent.

Here are some highlights via NY Post: [VIDEO]

The exchanges are mostly about utility bills, sanctuary policies, spending on migrants, and Hochul’s attempts to tie Blakeman to President Trump. Blakeman’s side of the argument is that she has been governor for five years and the results are hers. Hochul’s side is that the alternative is Trump-style leadership.

The Playbook Has Not Changed

I keep seeing the same sequence described in different places. Universities first. Then the unions. Then their own outlets. Then the cities. The people who notice it early get called alarmists. By the time the pattern is obvious, the people who called it a pattern are already being told they imagined the order.

Matt Walsh put the Russian version of that sequence on YouTube this week. The episode is from his Real History series and is now free at the link: [VIDEO]

Walsh’s chapters run from academia in the 1890s, through the crises the Bolsheviks refused to let pass unused, the rise of left-wing violence, the seizure itself, the incompetent opposition that let it happen, an apathetic population, and then America today.

This Is on California

I hadn’t been following the California gubernatorial race much since the open primary in June. The right generally agrees the state is a mess under one-party rule, and the consensus is that Steve Hilton — former British political operative and Fox News host — will lose in November.

The usual exhibit is what happened to Spencer Pratt in the same June election. He hoped to reach the runoff for mayor of Los Angeles. There were the familiar complaints about mail-in ballots and California’s loose rules on what counts and when.

I have been to Skid Row twice in my lifetime. I still find it hard to believe a whole neighborhood in this nation is allowed to stay like that.

This video from Fox News Digital reporter Ashley J. DiMella is revealing. She walks the area with Hilton. He notes the federal help clearing streets, then makes the point that the condition itself remains on California.

🚨 ON THE GROUND: Fox News Digital joined @SteveHiltonx in LA’s Skid Row, witnessing human feces, open drug use, sprawling encampments and trash-filled sidewalks. Hilton calls it a “political scandal.” https://t.co/yPREpf7Qpq

— AJD (@AshleyJDiMella) October 12, 2026

Hilton calls it a political scandal rather than a natural disaster. Billions spent, nonprofits funded for “harm reduction,” streets still covered in encampments, drugs, and refuse.

Stephen A. Smith Won't Stay Comfortable

I keep hearing Stephen A. Smith outside the sports window.

Stephen A. Smith is the loud voice on ESPN’s First Take. He started as a newspaper writer covering high school and pro sports in New York and Philadelphia, then moved into radio and television. He has two daughters. He calls himself an independent and has spent more of the last couple of years talking about politics, including whether he would run.

He appears on Bill O’Reilly’s We’ll Do It Live podcast. [VIDEO]

Six Voices, One Caucus

I watched the New York Times Opinion video with the six Black lawmakers. They are asked, in different ways, why the Congressional Black Caucus still exists and why Black representation still matters once the numbers are no longer required by law.

Watch it here: [VIDEO]

Bailey Interrupted. Pritzker Stayed Cool

I had the chance to watch Tuesday’s WTTW-TV Illinois gubernatorial forum in its entirety. The original post with the full video is here: Will the Forum Move the Needle. At this time it has not caused me to move the needle on whether I am enthusiastic about a third term for Governor Pritzker or whether Darren Bailey should have his turn. I am guessing it has not moved the needle for anyone else either.

Credit: Chicago Sun-Times