The Army announced Friday that at the request of the female pilot’s family, it is withholding the name of one of three Black Hawk helicopter crew members killed in the mid-air collision with a passenger plane over the Potomac River while the plane was on final approach Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., Wednesday night. The Army said the name “will not be released at this time”, leaving open the possibility of later public identification.

All 60 passengers and 4 crew members on the PSA/American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas were also killed in the crash. As of Friday afternoon 41 sets of remains had been recovered with 28 of those identified, ABC News reported.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said the Army helicopter crew was on a routine training mission for “continuity of government.”

A spokesman for the Unified Command Post for the crash told reporters Thursday the unnamed pilot is a female with 500 flying hours (Telegraph excerpt):

“It was a very experienced group,” said Jonathan Koziol, a retired Army chief warrant officer with more than 30 years experience in flying Army helicopters. Koziol has been attached to the Unified Command Post created at Reagan National Airport to coordinate efforts following the deadly collision.

Koziol confirmed to reporters on a conference call that the male instructor pilot had more than 1,000 hours of flight time, the female pilot who was commanding the flight at the time had more than 500 hours of flight time, and the crew chief was also said to have hundreds of hours of flight time.

NPR reported on the controversy about the pilot’s identity (excerpt):

The third crew member on the helicopter was a female pilot with 500 hours of flying experience, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. The Army is withholding the pilot’s name at the request of her family.

The withholding of a name in the instances (sic) is a highly unusual move. The identity of the third crew member has already drawn intense scrutiny online.

Misinformation on social media falsely claims she was a transgender pilot from the Virginia National Guard named Jo Ellis. Ellis has posted a “proof of life” video on Facebook, denouncing the rumors and offering condolences to those killed in the crash.

An Army press release issued Friday identified two of the three crew members, noting that only one body has been recovered.

The press release was accompanied by photos of the two crew members who were identified:

The Department of Army identifies two of three Army Soldiers involved in Helicopter Crash

WASHINGTON — A United States Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed at approximately 9 p.m. while performing a training mission near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Jan. 29. There was a three-person crew on board the helicopter. The UH-60 helicopter from the 12th Aviation Battalion, Davison Army Airfield, Fort Belvoir, Va., collided in midair with an American Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet Flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The FAA, NTSB and the United States Army are investigating. The NTSB will lead the investigation. We are working with local officials and will provide any additional information once it becomes available.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, is believed to be deceased pending positive identification.

The remains of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, have not yet been recovered, therefore is duty status-whereabouts unknown (DUSTWUN).

At the request of the family, the name of the third Soldier will not be released at this time. That pilot is also DUSTWUN.

“Our deepest condolences go out to all the families and friends impacted during this tragedy, and we will support them through this difficult time. Our top priority is to assist in the recovery efforts, while fully cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and other investigative agencies to determine the cause of this tragic incident,” said Maj. Gen. Trevor J. Bredenkamp, commander Joint Task Force – National Capital Region/ U.S. Army Military District of Washington.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eaves, served in the U.S. Navy from August 2007 to September 2017, then transitioned to a UH-60 pilot for the regular Army from September 2017 to present day. His awards include Army Commendation Medal x3, Navy Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Navy Achievement Medal x3, Navy “E” Ribbon x2, Navy Good Conduct Medal x3, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Navy & Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbon and Army Aviator Badge.

Staff Sgt. O’Hara served as a UH-60 helicopter repairer (15T) in the regular Army from July 2014 to present day. He successfully deployed to Afghanistan from March 2017 to August 2017. His awards include Army Commendation Medal w/C Device, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal x4, Army Good Conduct Medal x3, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with campaign star, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, NATO Medal, Aviation Badge and Senior Aviation Badge.

Friday afternoon, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced new flight restrictions for helicopters near Reagan Airport:

NEW: With the support of @POTUS and in consultation with the @SecDef, effective today, the @FAANews will restrict helicopter traffic around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport airport.

Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic. This is part of the @USDOT’s ongoing commitment to safeguarding our nation’s skies and upholding the highest standards of air travel safety. We will continue to support @POTUS’ directive to achieve uncompromised aviation safety. The American people deserve full confidence in our aviation system and today’s action is a significant step towards restoring that trust.

The restricted area includes:
– Memorial Bridge to South Capitol Street Bridge, excluding the Tidal Basin
– Haines Point to Wilson Bridge
– Over the top of DCA

NEW: With the support of @POTUS and in consultation with the @SecDef, effective today, the @FAANews will restrict helicopter traffic around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport airport.

Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring… pic.twitter.com/Oo6B9H8z8S

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) January 31, 2025

The post Army Withholding Name of Female Crew Member in Reagan Airport Helicopter Collision with Passenger Plane appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Trump’s order to freeze federal funding to 22 states on public loans and grants.

On Monday, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) put a temporary pause of agency grant, loan and other financial assistance programs.

“The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar. In Fiscal Year 2024,of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans,” the OMB said.

“This memorandum requires Federal agencies to identify and review all Federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities consistent with the President’s policies and requirements,” the OMB memo said.

This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities. The temporary pause will become effective on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM. Even before completing their comprehensive analysis, Federal agencies must immediately identify any legally mandated actions or deadlines for assistance programs arising while the pause remains in effect. Federal agencies must report this information to OMB along with ananalysis of the requirement. OMB also directs Federal agencies to pause all activities associated with open NOFOs, such as conducting merit review panels,” the OMB added.

US District Judge of the District Court for the District of Rhode Island, John McConnell, an Obama appointee, temporarily blocked Trump’s freeze on federal in response to a request from 22 Democrat state attorneys general and DC.

Reuters reported:

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from freezing federal loans, grants and other financial assistance to 22 states, barring the Republican for now from implementing a policy that had stoked confusion and fears about critical government-funded services being disrupted.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island came at the behest of Democratic attorneys generals from 22 states and the District of Columbia and despite the White House saying it was rescinding Monday’s memo from its budget office detailing the policy.

The temporary restraining order will be in place until further order of the court while the judge considers whether to issue a longer preliminary injunction.

Earlier this week Judge Loren AliKhan, a Biden appointee, granted a temporary stay on Trump’s plan to freeze federal funding.

The post BREAKING: Obama Judge Blocks Trump’s Federal Spending Freeze For 22 States appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The Gateway Pundit’s Jordan Conradson attended Friday’s White House briefing and asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about Democrats in “sanctuary cities” potential violation of the law with their failure to protect American citizens.

TGP’s Jordan Conradson: Karoline, yes. Thank you so much for having me here answering a question. So I want to talk more about the success that ICE is having finding these violent criminal aliens, some of them being sexual predators.

But my friend Ben Berquam reports that the Chicago mayor and the Illinois governor are preventing ICE agents from going into jails and prisons to enforce detainers against illegal aliens.

In Maryland, the attorney general has also put out a memo hindering local police cooperation with ICE.

Does the administration have any comment on leftist state and local officials defying ICE and Trump’s deportation efforts?

Karoline Leavitt: Yeah, I think it’s very interesting that Democrat officials in these cities, who have been completely overrun and overwhelmed, by illegal immigrant criminals would refuse support and help to cure this problem that has especially taken over their cities.

I guess they don’t want to admit they’ve been wrong with their sanctuary city policies. I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask them about their intentions, but they would be very wise to comply with this administration because this administration is hell-bent on enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, and this administration will continue to arrest, and detain, and deport illegal migrant criminals.

And what we don’t do is defy our nation’s immigration laws like the previous administration, who had these orders of removal on illegal immigrants across the country, and we’re refusing to execute on them. We will continue to remove illegal criminals from our nation’s interior.

Jordan Conradson: Are these sanctuary city leaders….are they violating the law?

Karoline Leavitt: I would certainly think so. I’d have to check back on which specific law they’re violating. But certainly, if they’re not enforcing our nation’s immigration law, it sounds like they are breaking the law.

And I would also add that their constituents don’t approve of that. You’ve seen residents in Chicago show up at their city council meetings infuriated with their leadership in that city because they are working very hard to provide for their families.

They want public safety and law and order, and their officials have abandoned those very basic American principles in these cities.

And the American people want law and order.

It’s, again, an overwhelmingly popular policy to deport illegal criminals from our nation’s interior, and this administration will continue to affect that goal.

Watch:

The Gateway Pundit’s White House Correspondent @ConradsonJordan asks @PressSec on far-left city sanctuaries DEFYING Trump’s orders and PROTECTING criminal illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/OyLfMqgrJG

— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) January 31, 2025

The post “Are They Violating the Law?” – TGP’s Jordan Conradson Asks White House About Sanctuary City Leaders Defying Law on Illegal Aliens (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

CBS is considering settling a $10 billion lawsuit brought by Trump over its deceptively edited ’60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris and the network’s staffers are fuming.

According to CNN, reports that the network is in talks of settling with Trump ‘sparked outrage in CBS’ newsroom.’

“Trump’s lawsuit was a joke, but if we settle, we become the laughingstock,” a CBS correspondent said on condition of anonymity, according to CNN.

CBS executives are reportedly worried ongoing litigation with President Trump will interfere with a merger with Skydance.

“Paramount, owner of CBS, its namesake studio and several cable channels, has a major piece of business in front of the new administration: its planned merger with Skydance Media,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “It’s become clear to executives at both companies that Trump’s dissatisfaction with CBS News will make the review tougher than they anticipated, and that they’ll likely need to offer concessions to win approval, people familiar with the situation said.”

In October President Trump sued CBS News for $10 billion for deceptively editing its ’60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris.

“President Trump brings this action to redress the immense harm caused to him, to his campaign, and to tens of millions of citizens in Texas and across America by CBS’s deceptive broadcasting conduct,” the lawsuit stated, according to Fox News.

Fake news 60 Minutes was caught editing Kamala’s answers to make her sound coherent and normal.

In fact it was so bad that ’60 Minutes’ spliced her nonsensical answer and replaced it with a completely separate sentence she said earlier in the interview.

Mixing and matching questions and answers. This isn’t journalism. It’s fraud.

Here is the original 60 Minutes exchange:

Bill Whitaker: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?

Kamala Harris: Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.

And here is ’60 Minutes” edited exchange:

Bill Whitaker: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening?

Kamala Harris: We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.

WATCH:

Holy. Shit.

60 Minutes cut Kamala’s nonsense answer on Israel and replaced it with a completely seperate sentence she said earlier in the interview…

Mixing and matching questions and answers. This isn’t journalism. It’s fraud.pic.twitter.com/onXli46xL6

— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) October 8, 2024

The post CBS Staffers FUME as Network Reportedly in Talks to Settle $10 Billion Lawsuit with Trump for Deceptively Editing ’60 Minutes’ Interview with Kamala appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has refused to rule out the possibility of military action against Mexican drug cartels.

In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends on Friday morning, Hegseth said that “all options are on the table” when it came to dealing with foreign terrorist organizations.

Here is a transcript of the exchange:

KILMEADE: “If we find that they continue to fire at Border Control and they continue to put fentanyl into our country, as a secretary of defense, are you permitted now to go after them in Mexico or where they are?”

HEGSETH: Brian, I don’t want to get ahead of the president and I won’t. That’s ultimately going to be his decision.

But let me be clear. All options will be on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border.

We’re finally securing our border. We’ve been securing other people’s border for a very long time. The military is orienting, shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border.

That is something we will do and do robustly. So we’re already doing it. Should there be other options necessary to prevent the cartels from continuing to pour people gangs and drugs and violence into our country — we will take that on.

So the president will make that call. I’ll work with him in that decision making process. Ultimately, we will hold nothing back to secure the American people.

Pete Hegseth opens the door to U.S. military strikes against Mexican drug cartels.

“All options are on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border.”

pic.twitter.com/yQNHdDWUC2

— Ben Kew (@ben_kew) January 31, 2025

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order designating cartels and other organizations as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations and specially designated global terrorists.”

This order has led to fundamental changes in how law enforcement is allowed to handle counter-narcotics investigations because authorities are granted additional powers when dealing with terrorists or those deemed a threat to national security.

The order stated:

The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.

The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.  In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society.

The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.

Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.

Hegseth, meanwhile, is still adjusting to being in charge of the Pentagon after he was confirmed to the role by a 51-50 vote in the Senate in which Vice President J.D. Vance acted as a tiebreaker.

All Democrats voted against Hegseth’s nomination, while RINOs Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski also refused to support him.

BREAKING: Senate Confirms Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary — Vance Casts Tie-Breaking Vote After RINOs McConnell, Murkowski and Collins Vote “NO”

The post Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth Opens Door to Military Force in Mexico — Strikes Against Drug Cartels ‘On The Table’ (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.