Social media erupts as progressive mayor plays race card when pressed about luxury car
Brandon Scott, the Democratic mayor of Baltimore, is facing questions about the taxpayer funds he uses for his transportation as well as social media pushback over a press conference where he suggested racism was a factor.
Scott, a progressive who has served as mayor since 2020, is facing pressure over a Fox Baltimore report showing his primary vehicle, a 2025 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, is the most expensive government-issued vehicle operated by any mayor, governor, county executive or county commissioner in the state, costing taxpayers $163,495.
Scott has responded to the report, which claims his SUV costs nearly twice as much as the next most expensive taxpayer vehicle in the state, by pointing to the cost of President Donald Trump’s “Beast” vehicle, arguing that inflation is not being factored in and suggesting politics are at play.
Scott, after being pressed by a reporter in a back-and-forth exchange, called the question “idiotic” and part of a “right-wing” effort to discredit him.
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“Just because you didn’t get the answer that you wanted in your racist slant, that’s one thing,” the mayor said.
Scott has championed himself as a fighter against the “status quo” as the city faces an $85 million budget deficit and has also been an advocate against climate change despite choosing a Jeep Wagoneer, a vehicle with modest gas efficiency at 14 MPG, to get around.
Scott’s exchange with the reporter made waves on social media from the mayor’s conservative critics.
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“Mayor Scott could not defend using tax dollars to buy his luxury vehicle, so he called the reporter a racist,” Maryland Republican state Delegate Kathy Szeliga posted on X. “Classic deflection. His gas guzzling $165K Jeep Grand Wagoneer must be a sweet ride!”
“When a reporter simply asks about the outrageous cost? Scott immediately screams ‘racism’ and accuses the station of a ‘severe right-wing effort,’” social media commentator Officer Lew posted on X. “Classic deflection. Waste money, play the race card, dodge accountability. This is what happens when identity politics runs City Hall.”
“Cry racism to dodge the grift,” conservative commentator Brandon Tatum posted on X. “Unqualified virtue-signaler supreme.”
“Can’t make this up,” conservative influencer account LibsofTikTok posted on X.
Scott has repeatedly criticized the “old way” of Baltimore politics, which he associated with prioritizing image over substance.
“For too long, corrupt and inept leaders of this city have prioritized flashy, yet unsuccessful transportation options that have done nothing to substantially improve the safety and quality of our transportation network,” Scott wrote as a mayoral candidate in 2020.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital the 2020 quote has “no relevance whatsoever” to the city’s government vehicle fleet and is “clearly a response to a question about utilizing state and federal resources for Baltimore’s public transportation system.”
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The spokesperson also pushed back on the Fox Baltimore report, saying the vehicle was procured in February 2025 at a normal MSRP through the normal procurement procedure, and “the supplier contract was approved without incident by the Board of Estimates on September 18, 2024.”
“First, I want to clarify that the vehicle did not cost $163,495. That figure is the total project cost, which includes the cost of the vehicle and the cost of necessary safety modifications. As with any executive vehicle, which is utilized by the Baltimore Police Department’s Executive Protection Unit (EPU), the vehicle is required to be compatible with police operations. This means that the vehicle needed to be fitted with appropriate safety, security, and communications features (emergency vehicle lights, sirens, a microphone, etc.).
“According to best practices for reliability and safety, the City budgets to purchase a new mayoral vehicle every four years. This vehicle replaced a previous executive vehicle originally purchased in 2016. These vehicles are scheduled to be replaced every four years because they are used far more often through their official duties than an average personal vehicle; as such, they accumulate miles quicker and require more regular maintenance and replacement. Once the vehicles are replaced, the old vehicles are either repurposed for other official duties or sold at auction to ensure cost effectiveness.”
The spokesperson also pushed back on the reporting that the mayor’s vehicle is the most expensive taxpayer vehicle in the state for an executive, saying the reporting “does not actually provide the evidence to fully support that assertion.”
“The story admits that they did not receive documentation from all jurisdictions in the state and utilizes comparisons to vehicles that are substantially older or from jurisdictions that work on a different vehicle replacement cycle or have different executive protection protocols. It also did not include context that the 2016 vehicle served beyond the standard replacement cycle,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson’s statement did not address Scott’s comment about a “racist slant.”
Major firearms and outdoor sporting goods distributor serving thousands files for bankruptcy
A major distributor in the gun and outdoor sporting goods industry has filed for bankruptcy.
Big Rock Sports, LLC, a key supplier serving tens of thousands of retailers across the U.S. and abroad, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to court documents obtained by FOX Business.
The North Carolina–based company reported more than $100.9 million in liabilities, compared with estimated assets of between $10 million and $50 million.
The bankruptcy filing does not specify what triggered the liquidation but indicates that Big Rock Sports was overwhelmed by a surge of lawsuits from property owners, suppliers and business partners, SBG Media reported.
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Roughly $83 million in unsecured claims are expected to go unpaid, according to SBG Media.
Although the company’s website is currently inaccessible, archived versions reviewed by FOX Business show Big Rock Sports claimed to serve more than 20,000 retailers across the fishing, shooting, camping, taxidermy and marine industries.
The distributor said its operations spanned the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean region and eight other countries.
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Big Rock Sports also reported working with roughly 1,200 vendor partners and operating approximately 850,000 square feet of distribution space at warehouses in North Carolina, Minnesota and Nevada.
“Although Big Rock is one of the largest outdoor sporting goods distributors in North America, we’re much more than that,” the company stated on its website. “We offer an exclusive array of tools and resources that are designed to give retailers a competitive edge.”
Big Rock Sports traces its roots back to 1955, when All-Sports Supply was founded in Portland, Oregon.
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“The history of Big Rock Sports goes back more than 60 years to the founding of All-Sports Supply in Portland, [Oregon],” the company wrote. “At that time, sporting goods was a much more personal business, and distributors knew the names of their retailers as well as their families.”
The company’s Canadian subsidiary was liquidated prior to the U.S. bankruptcy filing, according to The Street.
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Big Rock Sports could not immediately be reached by FOX Business for comment.
Amazon cancels ‘Melania’ movie for Oregon cinema after sign backfires
A theater in Oregon claimed Amazon asked it to stop screening the film “Melania” after the theater joked about the movie on its marquee while promoting the release. The Lake Theater & Café in Lake Oswego, Oregon, advertised the film using lines referencing the first lady.
First reported by The Oregonian, the marquee included references such as, “To defeat your enemy, you must know them. Melania starts Friday,” a quote attributed to Sun Tzu, author of “The Art of War.” Another line read, “Does Melania wear Prada? Find out Friday.”
The theater later took to Instagram to announce that someone from Amazon had contacted them, saying the studio was unhappy with the marketing and wanted the film pulled from the cinema.
“Got a call that the higher ups (i.e., at Amazon) were upset with how our marquee marketed their movie (i.e., Melania), that, per them, Sunday would be its last day here,” the theater wrote on Instagram Monday.
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After the film was pulled at Amazon’s request, the theater shifted its marquee to comment on the situation, writing: “Amazon called, our marquee made them mad. All Melania shows canceled. Show your support at Whole Foods instead :(“
Another marquee added: “Join Amazon Prime for free 2-day shipping.”
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The theater said it was flooded with emails and voicemails from both supporters of the film and those opposed to it being shown. They also received pushback from viewers who felt the marquee was mocking the first lady.
Writing online, the theater said people were “wondering why the hell we had Melania here, or disdaining our disparaging of her.”
The theater also noted that after news of the film booking became public, its online reviews suffered, though many were eventually taken down by Google.
One review remained visible as of Wednesday: “Loved this theater until now. Deeply disappointed the business is supporting an administration that kills innocent Americans in the street. I will never be a patron again.”
Theater owner Jordan Perry released a statement on the theater’s website explaining his decision to show the film.
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“I do not view our film programming as political. I try to choose films for the community that they want to see,” Perry said, noting the theater serves a diverse audience.
He said he thought showing the film would be “funny” and described the current film marketplace as a “desert” for new releases. While acknowledging that many of the theater’s patrons are liberal, Perry said the goal was to remain inclusive.
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The “Melania” film followed the first lady in the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Amazon has not released a public statement confirming the screening rights were revoked.
Amazon MGM Studios and the Lake Theater & Café did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Dangerous TikTok trend leaves boy badly burned as doctors issue warning
A 9-year-old boy is recovering after a popular toy caused second-degree burns to his face and hands.
Caleb Chabolla, a fourth-grader in Illinois, was injured after heating up a NeeDoh in the microwave late last month.
The NeeDoh, a sensory toy similar to a stress ball, is described on the company’s website as a “gratifying super soft, super stretchy dough filled groovy glob.”
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After microwaving the toy to soften it, Chabolla removed it and began squeezing it when it exploded in his face.
“I heard him screaming loudly and saw him take off running toward the bathroom, and he just kept yelling, ‘it burns, it burns,’” Whitney Grubb, the boy’s mother, told Fox News Digital.
Grubb saw that the right side of Chabolla’s face was covered in a thick gel, with bright red skin underneath. She initially tried to wash off the substance, but it was too painful, so she drove her son to the emergency room.
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Chabolla was ultimately transferred via ambulance to the Loyola Burn Center, where he stayed overnight. Doctors “debrided” the burn, which involves cleaning burn wounds by removing dead, damaged or infected skin and debris.
“Because his eye ended up swelling all the way closed, they also brought in ophthalmology to make sure he didn’t have any injury to his eye,” Grubb said.
The doctors at Loyola informed Grubb that they had recently treated four other children who had been burned by heating up NeeDohs, stemming from a viral trend on TikTok.
“Caleb had heard about it through word of mouth through friends at school,” Grubb said.
After two weeks of recovery and daily wound cleanings, Chabolla was released to return to school on Wednesday.
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“His face is looking a lot better,” Grubb said. “There are a few spots that are still healing, but the majority of his face is pretty healed over.”
He will continue to need vitamin E lotion as well as sunscreen to keep the skin protected from burns, she added.
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“For the most part, Caleb is just happy to be back at school to see his friends, so he’s in better spirits now.”
Grubb wants to spread the word to warn other parents about the potential dangers of putting these types of toys in the microwave.
“It’s hard to micromanage every little thing your kid does, and unfortunately, kids are going to experiment and try things — they don’t know the risks of these kinds of things, and they don’t know how hot things can get in a short amount of time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the manufacturer of NeeDoh and to the Loyola Burn Center requesting comment.
Israeli military wipes out Hamas terrorist who brutally executed female hostage
The Hamas terrorist who murdered surveillance soldier Corporal Noa Marciano while she was held captive in Gaza has been eliminated, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Wednesday.
The strike on a group of terrorists, including Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, had reportedly followed a Hamas attack overnight that wounded IDF troops in northern Gaza, in violation of the ceasefire agreement.
Al-Habil, a key Hamas cell commander, was killed in the airstrike in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, the IDF said in a statement.
“In response to the blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement overnight, earlier today (Wednesday), the IDF and ISA struck and eliminated the terrorist Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, head of a Hamas terrorist cell,” the IDF confirmed.
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The IDF also said that via Israeli Security Agency (ISA) questioning, al-Habil had brutally murdered Marciano, 19, while in Hamas captivity.
The IDF soldier had been abducted from the Nahal Oz outpost during the terrorist organization’s October 7th massacre.
She was wounded in an IDF airstrike on Nov. 9, 2023, while being held by Hamas and was later taken to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. At the time, Hamas claimed Marciano died in an Israeli airstrike.
Her body was eventually recovered by Israeli forces in November 2023 and returned to Israel for burial in Modi’in, where she had lived with her family.
Following the announcement of al-Habil’s death, Marciano’s mother, Adi Marciano, said the family had been promised that everyone involved in her daughter’s murder would be brought to justice, according to The Times of Israel.
“There is no real comfort in this,” she said. “But there is knowledge that justice was done, even if only partially. Nothing will bring Noa back to us.”
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“This elimination brings closure for the Marciano family, and to the IDF and ISA,” the IDF said.
“The IDF and ISA will continue to operate against any terrorist involved in the brutal Oct. 7 massacre and against any attempts by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to carry out terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians.”
Israeli forces had been responding to multiple security incidents overnight, including attacks on IDF troops when al-Habil was killed.
At around 1 a.m., terrorists had opened fire on IDF forces in the Daraj Tuffah area, severely wounding a reserve officer.
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IDF troops returned fire and carried out additional strikes in the area to eliminate the threat.
In the attack, suspects were identified approaching the yellow line in southern Khan Younis and were deemed a threat to the troops. The suspects were subsequently struck, the IDF said.
In addition to al-Habil, those killed included Bilal Abu Assi, a Hamas Nukhba platoon commander who led the massacre at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7.
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Abu Assi was believed to have taken part in holding deceased hostages in captivity while directing terrorist plots against IDF troops.
Ali Raziana, commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade of the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization was also killed, according to the IDF.
MTA chief tells GOP senator ‘shut up’ during heated $35M security contract showdown
A joint New York State budget hearing devolved into a shouting match when a Long Island Republican challenged the MTA’s Hochul-appointed chairman over a $35 million security deal, questioning why contracted guards appear to be letting fare evaders walk amid claims the agency is rife with waste.
State Sen. Mario Mattera, R-St. James, sharply questioned Janno Lieber over a $35 million contract for private security guards at subway stations as the transit authority grapples with rising fare evasion amid higher fares for paying straphangers.
Mattera previously spoke out in opposition to the major contract with Allied Security Services of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, as the latest example of systemic waste from the transit agency’s coffers.
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Lieber initially objected to the line of questioning, saying that anyone working as a gate guard for Allied is a New Yorker.
“It’s not a bunch of Pennsylvanians,” he said.
Mattera pointed to reports in the New York Post and elsewhere saying guards are letting people essentially jump the turnstiles, including when riders have issues scanning in during the city’s post-Metro Card era.
“Why do we have people helping people avoid tolls? We have videos,” he said.
Lieber became similarly angry after Mattera spoke over him.
“Let me finish. Let me finish,” Lieber said.
“You’re rambling,” Mattera said. “Why do we have this?”
Lieber replied that Allied’s guards reduced fare evasion by more than one-third since the contract was signed, but the two kept shouting over each other before Lieber could be heard yelling, “Shut up.”
“Be quiet,” he said, before Mattera demanded — and received — an apology from the Hochul appointee.
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Committee Chairman J. Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon, soon slammed his gavel and also yelled “shut up,” admonishing both men.
“Raising voices will not be tolerated,” Pretlow was quoted as saying by the South Shore Press amid the crosstalk.
One guard interviewed by the New York Post said a lot of people don’t want to pay their fare.
“They say, ‘You’re not a cop, you can’t stop it’,” Romuald Zampou told the paper.
One of New York City’s few Republicans in the state Senate, Steve Chan of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, said in a statement before the hearing that the guards are no better than “scarecrows.”
“Instead of paying outrageous salaries to people who stand around like scarecrows and do absolutely nothing to stop fare evasion, the MTA and the city must take the handcuffs off our police officers,” said Chan, a former cop.
“Let them issue summonses, make arrests and pressure district attorneys to prosecute fare evaders. We’ve done it before. We know it works.”
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State Sen. Bill Weber, R-Clarkstown, whose suburban commuters often rely on MTA heavy rail out of Suffern, Spring Valley and Tarrytown, said the security guard expenditure is just the latest transit boondoggle.
“It’s clear the MTA needs a full audit, and, now, so do its subcontractors,” Weber said in a statement.
US scrambles to reopen Cold War base as Russia deploys 54 icebreakers vs America’s 2
EXCLUSIVE: After U.S. officials detected a sharp rise in Russian and Chinese military incursions near Alaska — including a growing number of joint operations — Sen. Dan Sullivan is warning that the Arctic has become an active security front. And he’s pushing Congress to accelerate icebreaker construction, reopen Cold War–era bases and bolster U.S. defenses in the region.
Sullivan’s warning comes as new data show foreign military traffic near Alaska climbing sharply, a trend he says has gone largely unnoticed outside the region even as Moscow and Beijing coordinate more closely. He argues the activity has exposed how thin U.S. Arctic capabilities have become and why Washington is now scrambling to catch up.
“Let’s just say the world’s largest fleet of oceanographic survey ships wasn’t off the coast of Alaska to ‘save the whales,’” Sullivan told Fox News Digital in an interview.
President Donald Trump’s ongoing friction with Denmark over Greenland reflects the growing importance of the Arctic for the administration, Sullivan said. As melting ice opens new shipping lanes, energy access and military routes, Alaska is becoming a front line in the contest for economic and strategic dominance.
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Plans to reboot far-flung military operations off Russia’s back door — recently revisited in Tom Cruise’s latest “Mission: Impossible” installment — along with crucial new port infrastructure and a major cash infusion to the U.S. Coast Guard are all efforts to demonstrate the only thing America’s adversaries respect, Sullivan said: “Power.”
Sullivan, R-Alaska, recently chaired a Senate Commerce Subcommittee hearing examining the U.S. Coast Guard’s Arctic presence and discussed a new U.S.-Finnish deal to secure crucial new icebreaker craft and funding from the recent tax-cut law funding for at least three USCG Arctic security cutters amid a record $25 billion total investment in Coast Guard prowess.
The U.S. currently has two, one of which is out of service, while the Russians have 54 icebreaker craft, “nuclear-powered and weaponized,” he said.
Sullivan shared data with Fox News Digital showing a sharp rise in Russian, Chinese and joint Sino-Russian military aircraft and maritime incursions into the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, a security buffer stretching beyond 12-nautical-mile sovereign U.S. airspace where foreign craft are required to identify themselves.
Since 2019, there have been more than 100 Russian aircraft, four Chinese vessels and, most alarmingly, more than a dozen joint operations that have entered the ADIZ, Sullivan said.
Trump’s recent focus on Greenland underscored the urgency of Arctic national security, Sullivan said, echoing warnings from NATO commander USAF Gen. Alexus Grynkewich that China’s expanding “research” presence in the region is becoming increasingly aggressive.
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While the Russians identify with the Arctic, China’s self-moniker of a “near-Arctic power” is confounding and concerning, he added, pointing to its actual location on the globe.
Sullivan said the situation is reminiscent of Vladimir Lenin’s mantra that when you probe an enemy with a bayonet, “if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw.”
The U.S., he said, must steel itself against these threats, and Congress must be on the front lines, ensuring the resources and defenses are ready and in service.
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“The only thing authoritarian regimes that are our adversaries understand is power. That’s U.S. energy security, Coast Guard, military assets and infrastructure.”
As the chairman of the Senate Commerce Coast Guard subcommittee, Sullivan said he is working hard to ensure that is what Moscow and Beijing will see, noting the new Storis icebreaker vessel received funding to home port in Juneau, along with 16 more icebreakers and $4.5 billion in shorefront infrastructure.
In addition, a World War II-era base on far-flung Adak in the Aleutian Chain is on track to be reopened, Sullivan revealed.
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The base, somewhat dramatized in “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning,” which featured a counter-Soviet listening post on nearby St. Matthew Island, was key to Allied defenses as Japan bombed present-day crabbing port Dutch Harbor and invaded Attu and Kiska islands, events less remembered than the Axis’ other Pacific attack at Pearl Harbor.
Adak’s Base largely closed down in 1994 after the end of the Cold War.
Sullivan revealed he secured $115 million to begin rebuilding Adak, paired with $500 million to establish a deepwater port in Nome, one of the closest cities to both Russia and the Arctic Ocean.
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The state of Alaska matched that Nome investment and put $30 million of its own funds toward the new Adak project, Sullivan said. Gov. Mike Dunleavy separately told Fox News Digital that enhancing Alaska’s icebreaking capabilities and expanding the Coast Guard’s presence to safeguard the state’s coastline are key.
“[Further,] supporting life-saving missions and countering foreign influence in the Arctic are vital not only to our state but to the nation as a whole. Alaska stands ready to receive these icebreakers and leverage our geostrategic position to advance Trump’s America First agenda,” Dunleavy said.
Brent Sadler, a naval warfare expert and veteran at the Heritage Foundation, said the Arctic — and Antarctic — are also critical for space-based sensors detecting long-range missile attacks.
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“China and Russia have impacted our fishermen’s livelihoods with military exercises in our EEZ (exclusive economic zone) … (and) should be viewed as a threat. It needs to be deterred and pushed back on appropriately with an increased Coast Guard presence,” Sadler said.
Many of Russia’s incursions lately have originated in Anadyr, directly across the Bering Strait from Nome, and Adak sits just a few hundred miles east of Kamchatka, Russia.
Paired with Trump’s Golden Dome security initiative, Sullivan said now is the time to “plus-up” Arctic defenses as malign activity continues in his backyard.
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The “peace through strength” mantra is best served this way, he said, as each area targeted in the latest appropriation brings U.S. might right to Russia and China’s face, versus more populated but less strategic areas to build up like Kodiak and Anchorage.
“We’ve got to keep pedal-to-the-metal, and I give President Trump and his team a lot of credit. He was talking about Arctic issues and icebreakers and missile defense during his first term, and now we’re doing it,” Sullivan said.
“It’s important because the Chinese and Russians understand one thing: power — big flashy speeches without backing it up with military force don’t really mean anything.”
Bernie Sanders’ 2025 private jet habit exposed while preaching against ‘oligarchy’
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who crisscrossed the country last year on a Fighting Oligarchy tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., spent over $550,000 in 2025 on private jet travel for himself using campaign funds, a Fox News Digital review of Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings found.
The majority of the spending came in the first two quarters, which cover up until July. That is also when Sanders and AOC had the majority of their tour stops across the country.
In April, between stops on the tour, Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a photo of Sanders boarding a luxury Bombardier Challenger private jet at the Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California. The source also indicated seeing the New York congresswoman boarding the private jet as well.
The pair were subsequently also seen in footage obtained by Fox News Digital exiting the plane in Sacramento later that evening, near where the self-identified democratic socialists hosted a second rally in one day.
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The Bombardier Challenger private jet the pair flew on was operated by Ventura Air Services, which touts “one of the widest cabins of any business jet available today” and provides “superior cabin comfort for its passengers.” According to its website, the private jet can cost up to $15,000 an hour.
In 2025, according to Sanders’ FEC filings, he spent at least $354,000 in campaign funds to pay for private jet services through Ventura Jets. The other private jet companies Sanders spent campaign funds on included N-Jet and Cirrus Aviation Services.
According to N-Jet’s website, the company prides itself on its “personal touch,” adding that customers will “arrive in style with your luxury, comfort and safety always top of mind.”
Sanders, who has been a vocal supporter of the Green New Deal, the aggressive climate change policy targeting carbon emissions and fossil fuel production, and has called climate change an “existential threat” to the world, was pressed about his private jet use last year, prompting him to tell Fox News’ “Special Report” host Bret Baier that “that’s the only way to get around.”
“You run a campaign, and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. [It is] the only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. You think I’m gonna be sitting on a waiting line at United … while 30,000 people are waiting?” Sanders said.
“That’s the only way to get around. No apologies for that. That’s what campaign travel is about. We’ve done it in the past. We’re gonna do it in future.”
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Sanders has a long history of using private jets on the campaign trail. During his failed 2020 presidential campaign, the Sanders campaign spent over $1.9 million on private jets, including Apollo Jets and the Advanced Aviation Team, a Virginia-based private jet company.
Private jets have faced the ire of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow climate activists. According to the 2021 Transport and Environment report, private jets are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes.
“For real, how many private jets do these CEOs need? It is insatiable. It is unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez said in 2023, in one example of the New York congresswoman herself railing against private jets.
Fox News Digital reached out to Sanders’ office and his campaign for comment on the spending but did not receive a response in time for publication.
“You don’t expect a socialist to fly commercial do you?” quipped conservative political communications consultant Matt Gorman. “There’s no bigger hypocrite than the liberal who chastises us for eating meat and using gas stoves, yet flies in private jets.”
In addition to Sanders’ hefty private jet spending that came during his tour with AOC, the New York democratic socialist also spent big sums of campaign dollars at luxury and “boutique” hotels in states where the pair held their Fighting Oligarchy tour.
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For example, AOC’s campaign paid The Leo Kent Hotel, a boutique high-rise in Tucson, $3,165.76, around the time of a Fighting Oligarchy rally that was held there, according to an FEC filing from April 25.
In 2025, AOC also spent thousands at luxury hotels like the Asher Adams Hotel in Salt Lake City, the Hotel Vermont in Burlington, The Langham-Huntington hotel in Pasadena, Calif., Hotel El Convento in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Lansdowne Resort & Spa in rural Virginia and others.
Fox News Digital asked representatives for AOC if the congresswoman felt like she needed to explain her more than $53,000 in campaign spending on upscale hotels across the country in 2025 but did not receive a response.
Last pitcher to win three complete games in World Series dies, Tigers announce
The baseball world is mourning the loss of a player who made history with the Detroit Tigers.
Mickey Lolich, remembered as the Tigers’ hero in the 1968 World Series, has died, the Tigers announced. He was 85. Lolich is the last MLB pitcher to win three games in the World Series. He was named World Series MVP that year.
The Tigers said Lolich’s wife informed the franchise that Lolich was recently in hospice care. The cause of death was not released.
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Lolich is No. 23 on the all-time career strikeouts list with 2,832.
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Lolich was an unlikely star of the Tigers 1968 title run. During a reunion of the World Series team, he recalled how manager Mayo Smith had sent him to the bullpen for much of August. He returned to the Tigers’ starting rotation and was 6-1 in the final weeks.
“I was having a few problems, but I had been a starting pitcher ever since 1964,” said Lolich, who was upset about the bullpen move. “I remember telling him, ‘If we win this thing this year, it’s going to be because of me.’ But I was only talking about the season. I wasn’t talking about the World Series.
“I got my revenge back in the World Series.”
Lolich pitched Game 7 after only two days rest. He figured he would get a Corvette from General Motors for being the Series MVP but had to settle for a Dodge Charger GT because Chrysler was the sponsor in 1968.
“Nothing against Chargers, nothing at all,” Lolich said in his book, “Joy in Tigertown.” “It’s just that I already had two of them in my driveway.”
Since Lolich, only two pitchers have won three games in a single World Series — Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2001 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2025. But they pitched fewer innings and got their third victories in relief.
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In a statement, the Tigers expressed condolences to Lolich’s family and said his legacy “will forever be cherished.”
After his baseball career, Lolich went into the doughnut business in the Detroit suburbs, making and selling them for 18 years.