Iran said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz again and announced that while its negotiators are going to Switzerland for talks, not much is likely to happen there.

Friday on FBN's "The Evening Edit," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) reacted to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's claim that former Biden health adviser Anthony Fauci played a role in the Wuhan research labs.

The post Issa: Fauci Should Be Investigated, Charged for Perjury, Cover-Up appeared first on Breitbart.

Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement posted Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz has been closed to vessel traffic, accusing the U.S. of violating the recently negotiated MOU intended to end the U.S.-Iran war and restore maritime access.

At least 30 people have died since the start of May in one camp for displaced civilians in northeastern Congo, a death rate that camp officials said was unprecedented, with some confirmed to have died from Ebola in a sign the disease could be spreading fast there. It was...

Bryson DeChambeau missed the U.S. Open cut at Shinnecock, marking his third missed cut at a major this season with no weekend rounds played.

A Chicago native who allegedly ran a $1.2 billion healthcare fraud conspiracy targeting elderly victims on Medicare was captured in the Philippines and shipped back to the United States — becoming the second suspect nabbed on the FBI's new "Most Wanted Fraudsters" list.

The post Most Wanted Fraudsters List: Fugitive Who Pled Guilty in $1.2 Billion Medicare Scheme Nabbed in the Philippines appeared first on Breitbart.

For generations, Democrats have portrayed themselves as the party of ordinary Americans — factory workers, waitresses, truck drivers, police officers, construction workers, and middle-class families trying to get ahead. Yet one of the most striking features of modern American politics is how often Democratic leaders, activists, and media allies seem genuinely baffled by the very people they claim to represent.

The latest example comes from Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse, whose reaction to President Trump’s appearance at a packed UFC event on the White House lawn last weekend revealed a familiar pattern among America’s cultural elites.

Time and again, Democrat leaders appeared surprised that Americans cared more about grocery prices and border security than about the priorities emphasized by elite institutions.

To tens of millions of Americans, UFC is simply entertainment. It is competitive, exciting, patriotic, and increasingly mainstream. To Hesse and myriad other journalists and political commentators, however, its popularity seems to require explanation — as though they are studying the customs of a distant tribe.

That reaction says far more about elite America than it does about UFC fans, and few institutions better embody elite opinion than the modern Democratic Party.

The inability to understand ordinary Americans has become a recurring problem for Democrats. Consider one of the most famous campaign images in modern history. In 1988, Democrat presidential nominee Michael Dukakis climbed into a tank in an effort to project foreign policy credibility. Though the campaign intended the image to demonstrate Dukakis’ strength and command in order to reassure wary voters, the photograph instead became a political disaster.

To many Americans, Dukakis did not look like a commander in chief — he looked like Alfred E. Neuman from Mad magazine, wearing an oversize helmet and generally appearing out of his element. The embarrassing image became iconic because it captured something larger than a single campaign mistake: a cohort of American elites — consultants, strategists, and media professionals — who apparently thought the photo was a good idea.

The same kind of blindness occasionally appears among establishment Republicans as well. George H.W. Bush’s comments upon seeing a new and improved grocery store scanner became a symbol — fairly or unfairly — of a politician disconnected from everyday life. But while both parties have produced elite figures detached from ordinary concerns, the problem is far more pronounced today on the left.

Indeed, many of the institutions that now shape Democratic politics are populated almost exclusively by people who live, work, and socialize within a remarkably narrow slice of America. They attend the same universities, read the same publications, and live in the same metropolitan areas. They follow the same social media accounts. Their children attend the same schools, and their friends share the same political and cultural assumptions.

And increasingly, they seem unable to comprehend how other Americans think.

When Hillary Clinton dismissed millions of voters as a “basket of deplorables,” many Americans viewed the comment not as a gaffe but as a rare moment of honesty. It reflected a prevailing attitude among Democrats, and elites more broadly, that disagreement could be explained only by ignorance, prejudice, or moral deficiency.

President Biden repeatedly displayed a similar tendency. During the 2024 campaign (before he was ousted), he and his allies often portrayed concerns about illegal immigration, inflation, crime, and cultural change as either exaggerated or illegitimate, even as polling showed those issues dominating voters’ concerns.

Time and again, Democrat leaders appeared surprised that Americans cared more about grocery prices and border security than about the priorities emphasized by elite institutions.

Vice President Kamala Harris often suffered from the same disconnect. Her public appearances frequently projected the impression that she was speaking to an audience of policy experts rather than to working Americans — when she was not donning fake accents, that is. Her campaign’s struggles were not merely ideological; they were cultural. Many voters simply concluded that she did not understand their lives.

The pattern extends well beyond politicians.

RELATED: Who wants to eat a trillionaire?

Leon Neal/Getty Images

Millions of Americans attend NASCAR races, pack country music concerts, and watch UFC fights. Elite commentators scoff and express bewilderment in response. Millions more display American flags, fill church pews, and worry about rising crime and open borders. Too often, the response from elite circles is not curiosity but contempt.

The Democratic Party once excelled at connecting with ordinary Americans precisely because it better understood their views. Franklin Roosevelt, known as a “traitor to his class,” spoke the language of workers because he wanted them to be part of the Democrats’ coalition for generations. Harry Truman connected with voters because he shared many of their instincts. Even Bill Clinton possessed an intuitive feel for middle-class anxieties and aspirations.

Today’s Democrat coalition increasingly draws its leadership from elite universities, media organizations, nonprofits, foundations, government bureaucracies, and professional-class enclaves. These institutions exercise enormous cultural influence, but they are not representative of America as a whole.

As a result, Democrats increasingly mistake the views traded in faculty lounges, newsroom editorial meetings, and Washington policy conferences for the views held around kitchen tables. That confusion helps explain their shock at one political surprise after another, especially Trump’s victories in 2016 and 2024.

Democrat strategists express astonishment after yet another batch of election results defies their expectations. Panels of “experts” search for explanations, and reports are circulated that blame political circumstances or voters’ various “isms.” But the possibility that the Democrats have lost touch with ordinary Americans is rarely, if ever, considered.

RELATED: The left’s icons keep face-planting in public

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images

A political movement cannot represent people it does not understand. And it cannot understand the views of many Americans whom it increasingly views with a mixture of confusion, suspicion, and disdain. For a party that still considers itself the party of the people, that is a major problem it has yet to reckon with.

And it is also a problem for America as a whole. A healthy republic depends on officeholders who can understand — and respect — the culture and traditions of their fellow citizens, even when they do not share them. When America’s governing and cultural elites lose the ability to see the nation as it actually is, they make poorer decisions, deepen political divisions, and erode the mutual trust on which self-government depends.

A republic cannot long endure if those who wield influence come to view ordinary Americans not as fellow citizens to be understood but as strangers to be belittled and ignored.

Editor’s note: This article appeared originally at The American Mind.

Pochettino has Team USA playing fearless soccer with an all-gas mindset, and Americans are finally jumping on the bandwagon for this World Cup run.

Christian Pulisic's injury absence didn't hurt the United States one bit. The Americans advanced to the knockout round of the World Cup without their injured star forward, beating Australia 2-0 on Friday for their second straight victory in the expanded 48-team tournament....

The head of Latin America’s top development bank made a pitch to Pope Leo XIV this week in the face of the Vatican’s call to divest from the mining industry: that the mistakes of the past can be avoided in extracting rare earth minerals to supply a global tech boom.

Disney’s Star Wars star Mark Hamill had an orgasmic reaction to Barack and Michelle Obama’s Presidential Center speeches on Thursday, calling the former president and former first lady “master orators.” “What are the odds of TWO master orators married to

The post Mark Hamill Has Orgasmic Reaction to Barack & Michelle Obama’s Presidential Center Speeches: ‘Master Orators’ appeared first on Breitbart.

American Action Network surpasses $37 million in messaging on cost-of-living issues, highlighting conservative policies ahead of the 2026 midterms.

GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide and liraglutide do not appear to suppress male hormones and may boost fertility in obese men, new research suggests.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says AI will transform the workforce like the Industrial Revolution, creating new jobs while reshaping how Americans work.

Dana Perino shares five lessons from her late father Leo E. Perino that shaped her success, offering heartfelt advice for girl dads on Father's Day.

Texas Senate nominee James Talarico reportedly attended tech fundraisers in the San Francisco Bay Area despite his anti-corporate campaign rhetoric.

Nine people were in critical condition on Saturday after a collision between two passenger trains in central England the night before killed the driver of one of the locomotives, police said.

The post One Dead, Nine in Critical Condition After Train Collision in England appeared first on Breitbart.

A British medical trial on puberty blocking drugs will involve girls as young as 11 years old, despite the government banning such drugs for children in 2024.

The post Puberty Blockers to Be Given to Girls as Young as 11 in UK Medical Trial appeared first on Breitbart.

Actress and wannabe expat Rosie O'Donnell says she believes President Donald Trump will use an "assassination attempt or terrorist bombing" to cancel this year's midterm elections.

The post Rosie O’Donnell: Trump Will Use an ‘Assassination Attempt or a Terrorist Bombing’ to Cancel Midterms appeared first on Breitbart.

Australia's Nestory Irankunda says referee Felix Zwayer had a "stinker" in their 2-0 World Cup loss to the U.S., accusing him of favoring Americans.