The Daily Signal - Matt Van Epps Wins in Tennessee, Minnesota's ICE Stand-off, War Crimes that Weren't | Dec. 3, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 Republican Matt Van Epps beats Democrat Afton Bain in the special election for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District. Minneapolis threatens to intervene in a major federal immigration operation and the latest from the War Department on the war crime scandal that wasn't. I'm Tony Kennett, host of the Daily Signals Tony Kennett cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern. It is Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025. This is the Daily Signals, top news in 10. Well, last night, Republican Matt Van Epps, former Army helicopter pilot, beat Democrat Afton Bain, the AOC of Tennessee, in a special election just outside of Nashville in Tennessee's seventh congressional. The Associated Press called the election shortly after the decision desk at about 9.30 p.m. yesterday evening, while the president of the United States Donald Trump won the seventh,

Starting point is 00:01:00 by 20 points in 2024. The margin appears to be just a bit closer this time around. Now, as of 9.53 p.m. Eastern when I'm currently recording this, the margin looks to be around 10 points. We'll have the final updates when those are fully tallied by the State Department of Tennessee and the Tony Kenned cast later this evening. Of course, Afton Bain was the subject of quite a bit of scrutiny during the election season, after going on the record to say that she hated Nashville. Later when she was asked about those particular comments, she said that those were comments made when she was a private citizen. Once again, I was a private citizen. Nashville is my home. Do I roll my eyes at the Bachelorette parties and the pedal taverns that are blocking my

Starting point is 00:01:47 access to my house? Yeah, every Nashvilleian does. But meanwhile, officials in the city of Minneapolis have threatened to intervene in a major federal immigration customs enforcement operation. Mayor Jacob Frey, Democrat, went in front of the public yesterday to call the actions of immigration customs enforcement un-American before speaking to the crowd in Somalian. That's not American. That's not what we are about. And we're going to do right by every single person in our cities. And so to our Somali community, Daman Shabka, Somaliyed Kunul, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Waan,

Starting point is 00:02:28 Kuhjeehahai, Wahn, Kuh Gereb, Taganahan. This was followed by the Minneapolis Chief of Police, suggesting that he might have to intervene if ICE came to individuals' doors with a warrant for arrest.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Folks that are masked, that they're not sure if they're law enforcement, that they may be kidnapping people. Like, we have had those reports. I want to be clear to the community. The community should know that if you see something like that, that is legitimate, that you don't know if someone is law enforcement, you should call 911. And you should provide as much information as possible because let's not forget.

Starting point is 00:03:12 We very recently had tragedy in this state by someone who is purporting to be law enforcement. So please, let's be clear. That's something everyone should report and that we will immediately respond to and we will document, whether it's somebody's not sure if there's a kidnapping happening, somebody's not sure if there's law enforcement present or not, and that's something else that's additional policy requirements that we are implementing. Borders'ar Tom Holman responded to that particular comment later yesterday evening. Look, I'll say the same thing I said to other chiefs of police in sanctuary city. Shame on you. I mean, your number one responsibility is the safety and

Starting point is 00:03:49 security of your communities. And ICE is targeting criminals. Criminals. So for you not to partner with ICE to make your community safer, it's shameful. He ought to put his badge in the desk drawer and walk away because he stopped being a cop, become a politician. If a true law enforcement official would work with ICE, okay, look, I don't want to be an immigration officer. I'll leave that to you guys. But when we have an illegal alien and public safety threat in the community, I want to be shoulder to shoulder with you.

Starting point is 00:04:16 I want to help you make my community safer because the chief of police, that's my number of responsibility. If he wants to watch, stand aside, do it. But if you cross that line, Pam Bonding and the U.S. attorneys are waiting to prosecute anybody that impedes law enforcement, ICE law enforcement, border law enforcement, and doing their job. Zero tolerance for impeding ICE in their operations.

Starting point is 00:04:39 The situation is developing, so we'll bring you more details later this evening on the Tony Kennedcast. And last but certainly not least, a cabinet meeting yesterday included Secretary of War Pete Heggseth explaining to the president, as well as the gathered press.

Starting point is 00:04:55 A little bit more on the questioning strikes in a September operation in which the United States Navy and Air Force struck narco-terrorists in the Southern Caribbean. We're proud to do it. So you didn't see any survivors to be clear after that first strike? I did not personally see survivors, but I stand because the thing was on fire.

Starting point is 00:05:15 It was exploded and fire or smoke. You can't see anything. You got digital. This is called the fog of war. This is what you and the press don't understand. stand. You sit in your air-conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nitpick and you plant fake stories in the Washington Post about kill everybody phrases on anonymous sources, not based in anything, not based in any truth at all. And then you want to throw up really

Starting point is 00:05:38 irresponsible terms about American heroes, about the judgment that they made. I wrote a whole book on this topic because of what politicians and the press does to warfighters. We spoke with our Daily Signal president, Rob Bluey, a little bit more, who was with our colleague, Bradley Devlin in the Pentagon press room yesterday. Check it out. All right, you've heard the Bluey music. So now we bring on a totally different bluey. Rob Bluey, the president of the Daily Signal,

Starting point is 00:06:04 who had my spot this morning. Thanks, Indianapolis International Airport. In the Department of War press briefing this morning, thanks for taking my spot. I appreciate it for covering for me. Well, Tony, I wish I could have lived up to the expectations and actually asked a question, but there were, the briefing room was mostly full. Not every single seat was full, but for the most part, Kingsley Wilson, who is the press secretary, answered a series

Starting point is 00:06:34 of questions over the course of 25 minutes, including one from our colleague Bradley Devlin. Yes, Bradley. We're now 90 days into these Venezuelan drug broke strikes. A growing number of members on Capitol Hill are getting their medal up with regard to war powers. If they do move forward with some sort of war powers effort. Will the administration seek to challenge the validity of the war powers resolution or will it comply? I wouldn't want to get ahead of the president's decision-making process in regard to Venezuela,

Starting point is 00:07:04 but I can tell you what I mentioned earlier is that the department is a planning organization. We are always ready. We have plans for every single contingency and we are going to make sure that when it comes to narco-terrorism, we're dismantling that throughout the Western Hemisphere. And you've seen that in the success of our strikes.

Starting point is 00:07:19 One follow up, if I may. 53% in a recent CBSU-Gov poll said they support the strikes on these drugboats, but 70% said no military operations within Venezuela. Nevertheless, members of Congress are increasingly calling for regime change there. What's the Department of War's message to those members of Congress? The Department of War stands behind the President 100%, and we will execute on the orders that our commander-in-chief gives us, and we're proud to do so.

Starting point is 00:07:46 That will continue. And again, any decision that is going to be made about certain military, military actions in the Western Hemisphere region will be the President Salon. It was great to be there for all of my time working in Washington, D.C., including as a reporter, editor, this was the first time I was in the briefing room for a press conference. That's hard to believe. But I do, there was a sign there right near the, the lectern that said that this is the most transparent war department ever.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Now, I know that folks at the Associated Press and Washington Post and other outlets would strongly disagree with that, but I do have to give this administration credit. it for reaching out and making space available to individuals who in the past have been shut out. And in fact, as you know, from our own experience at The Daily Signal, quite literally blocked from the White House and Congress. And so it's great to have a seat in the room. So this is obviously a rather contentious week for the Department of War, the Washington Post story and the merciless war crime rumors of whatever. I will say it is a little on the nose. We covered this on the show yesterday evening.

Starting point is 00:08:52 Now you have Jackie Rosen coming out dressed like a very exhausted kindergarten teacher demanding that Secretary Hegzeth resign immediately. Do they really think this is going to be like their striving moment? What's the Beltway

Starting point is 00:09:07 attitude about this whole business right now? Well, let's face it, there are very few Democrats, if any, you have any affection for Pete Heggsett. So I'm not surprised by their calls for his resignation or or these you know trumped up charges of war crimes as kingsley pointed out at the briefing today the new york times has since refuted what the washington post reported so it's

Starting point is 00:09:34 interesting that you have two liberal media establishment kind of at two ends of the spectrum when it comes to the september second incident but setting that aside i think what's most important here is for for the american people viewers listeners of the tony kinnocast to understand understand that there's a lot of political posturing going on on the part of Democrats. As you and I've talked about on numerous occasions, the Democrats can't find a message this resonating. And so they're just grasping for anything that they think might hold. And this is just the latest one. It's the first week of December.

Starting point is 00:10:05 So they're on to something new. Pete Hanksuff happens to be the guy. You can find a link to the rest of that interview in the description below, where you can also find a link to subscribe to the Tony Kinnettcast, where you should join us this evening at 7 p.m. for a roundup of the day's news and nonsense. I'm Tony Kinnett, and this has been the Daily Signals. Top News in 10. Take care.

The Daily Signal - Matt Van Epps Wins in Tennessee, Minnesota's ICE Stand-off, War Crimes that Weren't | Dec. 3, 2025

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