Good morning, I’m Thom Hartmann, and I’m bringing you breaking news for Raw America.
Here are the headlines: Journalist Don Lemon was arrested by federal agents yesterday in Los Angeles for reporting on a protest in Minneapolis. The Director of National Intelligence was spotted at an FBI raid targeting Georgia’s election office. The Senate scrambles to prevent a government shutdown as Democrats demand ICE accountability. And Jeff Bezos prepares to gut The Washington Post while his fortune grows.
But first—if you value independent journalism that holds power accountable, please subscribe to Raw America. Your support keeps us going when corporate media looks the other way.
Now let’s get into it.
Don Lemon arrested for speaking truth to power
We begin with a disturbing development out of Los Angeles. This country just hit another crisis with the arrest of independent journalist Don Lemon by federal agents in Los Angeles. This was for reporting on a protest at a Minnesota church.
And make no mistake—this isn’t just a legal spat. This is intimidation aimed at the free press itself. Federal officials are pursuing charges, even after a magistrate judge initially refused to approve a complaint against him. And his lawyer says Lemon was there doing what journalists have done forever: reporting the truth. And that’s exactly what the First Amendment protects.
The message being sent here is clear: if you speak truth to power, you could end up in handcuffs. That’s how authoritarianism creeps in. This cannot stand. And we need to rise up and call our elected officials, support independent journalism, and demand that the First Amendment means something real in this country. Because if it doesn’t, it means nothing at all.
Trump Intelligence Director spotted ‘investigating’ ballots
There’s been a disturbing development out of Georgia that has election security experts and lawmakers sounding the alarm.
Tulsi Gabbard—Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence—was photographed Wednesday night outside the Fulton County elections office near Atlanta as the FBI executed a search warrant to seize ballots and records from the 2020 election.
Let me be crystal clear about what makes this so troubling: The DNI has zero domestic law enforcement authority. Gabbard’s job is to coordinate intelligence agencies on foreign threats, not to personally oversee criminal investigations into American elections.
Yet there she was, captured on camera near an FBI evidence truck, apparently investigating the very same debunked conspiracy theories that Donald Trump has been pushing for over four years.
Senator Jon Ossoff didn’t mince words during a hearing Thursday morning: “My constituents in Georgia and the American public are quite reasonably alarmed after the director of national intelligence was spotted bizarrely and personally lurking in an FBI evidence truck in Fulton County.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Gabbard has been regularly briefing Trump and other administration officials about her investigation into the 2020 election—an election that has been certified, audited, and litigated dozens of times with the same result every time: Joe Biden won Georgia fair and square.
This isn’t just irregular. This is a five-alarm fire for our democracy.
When the person responsible for our nation’s intelligence apparatus starts personally involving herself in state election operations based on conspiracy theories, we’re watching the blueprint for authoritarian control take shape in real time.
Trump has already demonstrated his willingness to weaponize federal agencies against his perceived enemies. Now he’s got his DNI running point on his election fraud fantasies.
The question isn’t just why Gabbard was there—it’s what comes next. If this administration can deploy intelligence officials to intimidate state election authorities in Georgia, what’s stopping them from doing it in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, or Michigan before the midterms or even before 2028?
This is how democracies die: not with tanks in the streets, but with federal officials showing up at election offices to make sure the “right” results get certified.
Democrats win a round on ICE
Meanwhile in Washington, senators reached a last-minute deal Thursday to prevent a partial government shutdown set to begin Saturday.
The agreement splits the Department of Homeland Security funding from the broader spending package, giving DHS a two-week extension at current funding levels while the rest of the government gets longer-term funding.
The House will need to approve the revised package. Speaker Mike Johnson told the AP he’s “vehemently opposed” to splitting the bills but acknowledged “we can’t have the government shut down.”
Here’s what’s really happening: Democrats are refusing to write a blank check for ICE in the wake of the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis—American citizens killed during immigration enforcement operations.
Democrats are demanding real reforms: an end to mask-wearing by federal agents operating without accountability, enforceable codes of conduct, and independent investigations when those codes are violated.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer put it plainly: “Republicans in Congress cannot allow this violent status quo to continue. They must work with Democrats on legislation—real legislation, strong legislation—to rein ICE in.”
This is what oversight looks like. When federal agents can operate with impunity, wearing masks to hide their identities while conducting raids that kill American citizens, Congress has not just the right but the responsibility to impose guardrails.
Republicans want to fund Trump’s deportation machine with no questions asked. Democrats are saying: not until there’s accountability for the abuses we’re already seeing.
Billionaires continue to destroy the American free press
And finally this morning—the slow-motion murder of American journalism continues.
The Washington Post is preparing for massive layoffs next month, with over 100 newsroom positions on the chopping block and possibly 300 jobs cut across the entire company.
The sports, arts, metro, and foreign news departments are reportedly facing the deepest cuts, the very sections that make The Post more than just a political bulletin board.
White House reporters at the paper—who aren’t expected to be affected—wrote a letter directly to owner Jeff Bezos this week, explaining how their work depends on collaboration with the desks now facing elimination.
They’re using the hashtag #SaveThePost to grab Bezos’s attention.
But here’s what makes this truly obscene: Jeff Bezos is worth over 200 billion dollars. The Washington Post’s financial difficulties wouldn’t even register as a rounding error in his portfolio.
If Bezos truly valued a free press and genuinely believed in the paper’s mission to hold the powerful accountable, he could fund The Post indefinitely without noticing the expense.
Instead, he’s allowing his handpicked leadership to gut one of America’s most important news organizations while he adds billions to his fortune.
This is the oligarch’s playbook: Buy prestigious institutions, extract whatever serves your interests, then dismantle them when they become inconvenient or insufficiently profitable.
Bezos didn’t buy The Post to lose money. But he certainly didn’t buy it to make money either. Not at his scale. He bought it for influence, for prestige, for access to power.
And now that Trump is back in the White House—now that challenging power might actually cost something—Bezos is showing us exactly how much he values democratic institutions when the chips are down.
From intelligence officials investigating phantom election fraud, to Congress battling over accountability for deadly ICE raids, to billionaires dismantling newsrooms—today’s stories share a common thread: the systematic dismantling of democratic guardrails.
This is why your support for independent media like Raw America matters now more than ever.
I’m Thom Hartmann. Stay informed, stay engaged, and stay fighting.
