The Morning Brief — March 24, 2026
Markwayne Mullin Confirmed As Next Homeland Security Secretary
Mullin cleared 54-45, with Fetterman and Heinrich crossing the aisle — which tells you everything about how radioactive the open-borders caucus has become in an election year. Rand Paul voted no, presumably because Mullin once offered to fight a union boss on the Senate floor, and Paul has principles about something or other. A new DHS chief is good news; now someone needs to actually reopen the agency so those nine-hour TSA lines at Atlanta stop being a thing.
Travelers Spent Nine Hours In TSA Line As Major Hub Becomes DHS Shutdown Flashpoint
Nine hours in a TSA line is genuinely medieval — and Democrats are hanging their hats on this as leverage to keep ICE reforms off the table. Let that sink in: they’ll let Hartsfield-Jackson turn into a purgatory of rope lines and recycled air rather than let the government enforce immigration law. The party that told you government is the solution is now using government dysfunction as a negotiating chip.
Pritzker Signals He Won’t Turn Illegal Alien Accused Of Murdering College Student Over To ICE
Sheridan Gorman was 18 years old, out at 1 a.m. to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights, and now she’s dead — allegedly at the hands of a man who had no legal right to be in this country. J.B. Pritzker, a man who has never once been inconvenienced by the consequences of his own sanctuary policies, can’t quite bring himself to say he’ll honor the ICE detainer. Governing as a sanctuary state is an ideological luxury. The body count is the bill everyone else pays.
Department of Education Under Trump Just Took Its ‘Largest’ Step Closer To Shutting Down
The $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio is headed to Treasury, which is where it belonged in the first place — managed by people who understand money rather than people who understand lanyard lanyards and diversity seminars. The Department of Education has existed since 1979 and American test scores have done nothing but decline. This is what DOGE was built for, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch in slow motion.
Boston Mayor Celebrates ‘Historic’ School Graduation Rates — After Banning ‘F’ Grades, Hiring $120K Equity Consultants
Boston hit a record 81.3% graduation rate, edging past the previous record of 81% — after they simply abolished the concept of failure and paid consultants six figures to explain why that was brave. At some point the diploma stops being a credential and starts being a participation ribbon with a tassel. Mayor Michelle Wu is celebrating; the employers who have to remediate her graduates are not.
Netanyahu Voices Support For Trump’s Potential Iran Deal
When Netanyahu — a man not famous for trusting other people’s Iran diplomacy — signs off and says a potential deal protects Israel’s vital interests, that’s worth paying attention to. Trump pressing for a negotiated settlement rather than the ground-troops adventure the Wall Street Journal op-ed crowd is salivating over is exactly the right instinct: maximum pressure, minimum American blood and treasure. The neocons can write all the op-eds they want from their think-tank offices.
Around The World, Assisted Suicide Laws Are Losing Support
Scotland said no. Alberta moved to protect patients. Countries that sprinted ahead with assisted suicide are quietly discovering that “death with dignity” has a way of expanding its definition until the vulnerable aren’t so much choosing death as being nudged toward it. This is the consistent-life ethic in real time — the same logic that says every unborn life matters says every elderly or ill life matters too. Turns out the rest of the world is catching up.
Robert Mueller’s Legacy Is Self-Destruction Because He Failed To Stay In His Lane
Mueller’s epitaph wrote itself the moment he announced he couldn’t exonerate the man he also couldn’t charge — a logical pretzel that no prosecutor with a straight face should ever attempt. The “Russian interference” probe found no crime by Trump, but Mueller apparently felt the country needed a parting cloud of suspicion as a consolation prize. History is rendering its verdict, and it rhymes with “fishing expedition.”
Bottom Line
When a governor won’t hand an alleged murderer to ICE, a city brags about banning failure, and nine-hour airport lines are someone’s negotiating tactic, you’re not watching a policy debate — you’re watching a party that has completely lost the thread.