Know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away: The Free Beacon’s Jon Levine spoke to several of the Americans who spent more than a year in Iranian captivity during the 1979 hostage crisis to ask a simple question: What do you think about a Trump nuclear deal with Iran? Most, he reports, “reacted with ambivalence—or outright dismay.”
Eighty-year-old Clair Cortland Barnes, a former government comms specialist who spent 444 days in captivity, said he doesn’t think Iran is “honorable” and will “break” any deal “as soon as they can.” William Gallegos, a 21-year-old Marine Corps guard when he was taken hostage, had this to say about the Islamic Republic: “Whatever happens once Iran gets what they want? Then they screw everybody else over, and then it’s done, and then it starts all over again.” Another Marine vet, Kevin Hermening, said any deal must be built on “non-negotiable principles”—in other words, “I can’t imagine my emotional state if this president made a deal allowing Iran to pursue the development of nuclear weapons.”
“The reactions from former hostages come at what appears to be an uncertain point in negotiations between the two sides,” writes Levine. “While Trump has declared that Iran may not continue to enrich uranium as part of any new deal, U.S. media reports indicate that his administration’s proposal may allow some enrichment.”
READ MORE: Former Iranian Hostages Speak Out: No Deal With the Ayatollah
Shots fired: Over the weekend, the Trump administration reportedly presented Iran with a nuclear deal proposal that would allow the Islamic Republic to enrich uranium in the interim. It would be a significant concession—though Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei doesn’t see it that way.
In a defiant Wednesday speech, Khamenei lashed out at Trump and “the rude and arrogant leaders of America.” He called the proposal “nonsense” and made his position on talks quite clear: “The U.S.’s first word is that Iran should not have a nuclear industry,” he said. “Our response to America’s nonsense claims is clear: they can not do a damn thing in this matter.”
“The remarks threaten to further derail already fragile diplomatic talks surrounding Tehran’s contested nuclear weapons program,” our Adam Kredo writes. “The Trump administration did not immediately respond to Iran’s hardline approach, though a sixth diplomatic session is tentatively scheduled to take place this weekend.”
READ MORE: Iranian Supreme Leader Lashes Out at Trump Admin Amid Nuclear Talks: ‘Rude and Arrogant Leaders’
The jig is up: Just a few months ago, Karine Jean-Pierre said she didn’t want to “rehash the past.” “Like many of the things she said from the White House podium, that wasn’t true,” writes the Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles.
Jean-Pierre on Wednesday unveiled her new book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines. As the title implies, Jean-Pierre is leaving the Democratic Party to register as an independent—”per the advice of a publicist, no doubt”—in a decision that was apparently driven by the party’s “betrayal” of her old boss, Joe Biden.
Within hours, the first black lesbian White House press secretary’s former colleagues panned the move, attacking Jean-Pierre as a “grifter,” revealing that she added a New York-based publicist to official White House emails in hopes of securing a cable news gig, and accusing her of only pursuing the book when she failed to secure that gig. Even Politico joined the pile-on, disparaging Jean-Pierre’s “halting, ineffectual briefings” that “exasperated reporters and routinely offered material for the Republican Party’s main account on X.” Fact check: true.
READ MORE: HISTORIC: Karine Jean-Pierre Becomes First Known Democrat to Leave the Party Because They Were Mean to Joe Biden
In other news:
- The Trump administration notified Columbia University’s accreditor that the Ivy League school is “in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws and therefore fails to meet the standards for accreditation.” Without accreditation, Columbia would not be eligible for federal financial aid, including student loans.
- USA Today is concerned about the anti-Semitic firebombing in Colorado—not the attack, but rather the Trump administration’s attempt to deport the attacker’s family, including his daughter, who “moved to the United States with a dream of studying medicine.” A federal judge blocked that attempt on Wednesday.
- The SAM project—Democrats’ $20 million attempt to understand young men—is out with preliminary results: “The focus groups found that young men feel they are in crisis: stressed, ashamed and confused over what it means to be a man in 2025.” What could have caused that?
- A cargo ship was abandoned in the Pacific after the EVs it was carrying from China “burned so stubbornly that the ship’s fire suppression system was unable to contain it,” according to the Washington Post, which described the incident as “another case of EVs catching fire, a chronic safety and public relations headache for the fast-growing industry.” You don’t say.
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