DHS Secretary Says Democratic Senator Deserved to Get Pepper-Sprayed

Markwayne Mullin then played dumb about ICE detainees being on hunger strike.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin blamed New Jersey Senator Andy Kim for being attacked by federal law enforcement.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Mullin pointed the finger at Kim, who was among dozens of demonstrators who were pepper-sprayed outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark. The crowd was protesting in solidarity with immigrant detainees engaged in a hunger strike over their conditions.

“Now you have one of the senators complained because he got splattered with a, you know, with a pepper ball,” Mullin said. “I’m sorry, you probably shouldn’t have been there.”

Markwayne Mullin: "You have a senator complain because he got splattered with a pepper ball. I'm sorry, you probably shouldn't have been there" pic.twitter.com/vLXpR1UXNO— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 27, 2026

Markwayne Mullin: "You have a senator complain because he got splattered with a pepper ball. I'm sorry, you probably shouldn't have been there" pic.twitter.com/vLXpR1UXNO

Mullin also offered an outrageous denial to reports of the ongoing hunger strike that was as ridiculous as it was racist.

“There was only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat, because they want their ethnic group—or their ethnic-right food. Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want,” Mullin said. “The fact is, we’re giving them the calories they want. This isn’t Holiday Inn. We’re giving them sanitation.”

Mullin: There was only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat because they want their ethnic food. Well, they go back to the country and get whatever food they want. The fact is we're giving them the calories they want. This isn't Holiday Inn. Uh, we're giving… pic.twitter.com/FHpJAcfQce— Acyn (@Acyn) May 27, 2026

Mullin: There was only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat because they want their ethnic food. Well, they go back to the country and get whatever food they want. The fact is we're giving them the calories they want. This isn't Holiday Inn. Uh, we're giving… pic.twitter.com/FHpJAcfQce

In reality, demonstrators have alleged that the detainees at Delaney Hall have been denied sufficient food, sanitary facilities, and medical care.

One Guatemalan man held at Delaney Hall told the group of protesters via video call Monday that nearly 300 other detainees had decided to “stop eating and stop working” indefinitely, in order to demand improvements to the inhumane conditions inside the facility, according to NJ.com. “But that’s not all we demand,” the man said. “We are also doing this to demand freedom.”

Selenia Destefani, a managing attorney and CEO of Nova Law Group, which is representing the detainees at Delaney Hall, also described the “brutal” conditions. “People just sleep on the floor—overcrowded rooms, cold showers, no food, extremely cold in the cells with no blankets,” she said. “Not sound conditions to live in.”

Soto Hernandez, one of the detainees held at the privately operated immigration detention facility, has been served spoiled food with worms in it, according to Destefani.

Kim, who visited Delaney Hall Monday, reported that the bathrooms were “filthy,” that it was difficult to get hot water, and that each room housed 12 to 16 people.

Other members of Trump’s administration haven’t gone so far as to deny the hunger strike. Speaking on Fox News Tuesday night, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan appeared to confirm that there was a hunger strike. “Hunger strikes never work. We’re not gonna change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike,” Homan said, adding that if conditions were dire enough, federal immigration enforcement would obtain a court order to “force feed” detainees.

CBS Ousts 60 Minutes Reporter Who Tried to Cover Trump Deportations

Sharyn Alfonsi says she’s being punished for “refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting.”

Half a year since a 60 Minutes segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was cut last-minute by CBS News boss Bari Weiss, the journalist reporting the piece has lost her job.

Sharyn Alfonsi had worked with 60 Minutes for over a decade. On Wednesday morning, she told The New York Times that CBS News allowed her contract to expire while ignoring her agent for weeks, and that her dismissal was a “deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.”

CBS News has not publicly commented on the news so far.

Since Weiss, a former opinion columnist, took over as editor in chief of the TV network’s news division, her tenure has been marred by clashes with CBS’s more experienced reporters. The biggest of these came in December 2025, when she pulled a report on the suffering of Venezuelans deported to CECOT prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration, arguing the story wasn’t balanced enough. She also suggested the reporters reach out to Stephen Miller, the fascist curmudgeon behind Trump’s deportation policies, for an interview.

Alfonsi wrote an angry email bashing the decision that was subsequently leaked to the press. “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct,” Alfonsi wrote. “In my view, pulling it now—after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

Alfonsi alleged it was not explained to her why the story was killed, and noted that she had tried to get comment from the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the White House, but was rebuffed each time.

“If the standard for airing a story becomes ‘the government must agree to be interviewed,’ then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast,” Alfonsi concluded.

Weiss’s tenure has also........

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