House Republicans wanted to use a hearing with former special counsel Jack Smith as an opportunity to demonstrate that he was involved in a political hit job on Donald Trump. The president undercut their (flimsy) argument by demonstrating in real time what political interference in the judiciary really looks like.
Former special counsel Jack Smith testified on Thursday that his investigation into Donald Trump conclusively demonstrated that the current president engaged in “criminal activity” when trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and then again when he hoarded classified documents at his private residence and obstructed justice.
This isn’t news, of course.
Smith has detailed Trump’s actions in a pair of lengthy and detailed indictments that grand juries in two jurisdictions handed down, and the only reason the president didn’t have to stand trial is that he managed to run out the clock. And while Smith was eager to defend his work, the hearing didn’t provide him a lot of opportunity to do so. That’s because it was long on theatrics and short on substance.
For their part, Republicans, who were reluctant to allow Smith to testify in public, sought to portray the former special counsel as a partisan hack on a mission to get Trump.
While their efforts to do so, such as maligning the investigators’ decision to seek a court order to collect the metadata of several GOP lawmakers who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, weren’t particularly convincing, they didn’t have to be.
That’s because conservative audiences will end up seeing the hearing through the lens of Fox News and right-wing media accounts in the form of short clips, which is why Republicans shouldn’t even have bothered to cut off Smith whenever he tried to answer their questions in detail.
They did it anyway.
And Judiciary Committee Democrats were also happy to perform for the cameras more than anything else.
As a result, the hearing will serve as yet another political Rorschach test: Most casual observers will take away from it what they want to, depending on how they feel about Trump.
Speaking of the president, he undercut the GOP’s argument that it was the Biden administration that weaponized the Department of Justice.
While Smith testified that nobody from DOJ tried to influence his investigation in any way, Trump demonstrated that this isn’t the case in his administration.
In a pair of social media posts, he called on “Deranged Jack Smith” to be prosecuted.
Referring to the former special counsel as a “deranged animal, who shouldn’t be allowed to practice law,” Trump said he hopes that Pam Bondi, his attorney general who has shown an eagerness to do his bidding, “is looking at what he’s done.”
Smith made it clear that he expects retribution but added that he will not be intimidated.
However, he expressed regret that his team faced “threats to our safety and unfounded attacks on our character and integrity.
“I am saddened and angered that President Trump has sought revenge against them, and others who worked on cases related to the attack on this Capitol, for simply having worked on these cases, for simply having done their jobs,” he said.
The president’s social media posts proved him right.
Perhaps the most poignant moment of the entire hearing came during Smith’s opening remarks, in which he warned Trump’s supporters that they are traveling down a dangerous road.
“Adherence to the rule of law is not a partisan concept or endeavor,” he said. “My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in this country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. But, the rule of law is not self-executing — it depends on our collective commitment to apply it.”
On Thursday, the panel’s Republicans did not heed this call.
Klaus MarreKlaus Marre is a former congressional reporter and current senior editor for US politics for WhoWhatWhy. He writes regularly here, and you can also follow him on Bluesky and Substack.
Twin Cities residents are weeks into the Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents in an operation that has seen a legal observer and young mother fatally shot; US citizens dragged out of their homes and vehicles by masked officers; one of President Donald Trump’s top Border Patrol officials lobbing a gas grenade at lawful protesters; children as young as 2 detained; and armed agents seemingly lurking around every corner.
But the trauma inflicted on the cities during “Operation Metro Surge” appeared only to have strengthened residents’ resolve to push US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of Minnesota on Friday as residents filled the Minneapolis’ downtown area to march in subfreezing temperatures and assembled at a nearby airport through which an estimated 2,000 people have been deported.
Demonstrators carried signs reading, “ICE Out Now,” “Stop Pretending Racism Is Patriotism,” and “Stop Disappearing Our Neighbors.”
Businesses and cultural institutions were closed in solidarity across the city and the state on Friday; Truthoutreported that about 700 businesses shut their doors across Minnesota, while businesses that remained open planned to donate their proceeds from the day to immigrant rights groups.
Organizers said about 100 clergy members were arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport protest. They were among the protesters who blocked the road at a departures terminal, singing, “Before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail, everybody has a right to live.”
Thousands here at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, the site of deportation flights. Clergy have blocked the road at terminal 1 departures singing “before this campaign fails, we’ll all go down to jail. Everybody has a right to live.” pic.twitter.com/FDtUYyyjNL
According to union leaders, 12 airport workers are among the Minneapolis-area residents who have been detained by ICE in recent weeks.
A massive number of workers have descended on the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport for the general strike today, forming an extended picket line, with some blocking a main airport road at this time. pic.twitter.com/2JZPZpS4hR
Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minnesota Regional Labor Federation (MRLF), AFL-CIO, acknowledged that the weather on Friday was “dangerously cold.”
“Negative-10°F with wind chills. Like the high is going to be -10°F with wind chills of up to -20F,” Glaubitz Gabiou told the Guardian. “We are a northern state, and we are built for the cold, and we are going to show up.”
Organizers said the goals of the general strike were for ICE to leave Minnesota, the ICE agent who killed Renee Good earlier this month to be held legally accountable, and no additional federal funding for ICE operations.
Seven US House Democrats joined the Republican Party in passing a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security this week. The legislation still needs to get through the Senate.
Nationwide, data has shown that nearly three-quarters of people arrested by ICE have had no criminal convictions, but the Trump administration has continued to claim it is detaining the “worst of the worst” violent criminals, even as agents have clearly been shown arresting people who are authorized to be in the US and have no criminal records.
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As state Senator Scott Wiener continues to try to thread the needle of being a moderate Democrat who has historically supported Israel but now kind of needs the pro-Palestinian vote, he is stepping down from a role he’s held for five years in the state’s legislative Jewish Caucus.
Scott Wiener made headlines last week when he reversed his stance on calling Israel’s military actions in Gaza a “genocide” — something he’s declined to do for years, and something that his challengers were more than willing to do in the first candidate forum two weeks ago for the race for Nancy Pelosi’s House seat.
Obviously sensing that this will be a political problem for him, Wiener posted a video to Xitter last Monday, trying to stanch the fallout from the news cycle, and reversing his long-held silence on the genocide question.
“For many Jews, associating the word ‘genocide’ with the Jewish state of Israel is deeply painful and frankly traumatic,” Wiener said in his prepared statement. “But despite that pain and that trauma, we all have eyes, and we see the absolute devastation and catastrophic death toll in Gaza inflicted by the Israeli government. And we all have ears, and we hear the genocidal statements by certain senior members of the Israeli government. And to me, the Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza, and to push Palestinians out, and that qualifies as genocide.”
For years, I’ve condemned Netanyahu and his extremist government and the devastation they’ve inflicted on Gaza. It’s why I’ve been clear I won’t support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore. pic.twitter.com/71nIt6K527
Now, having angered some Jewish supporters, Wiener is stepping down from his leadership role in the California legislative Jewish Caucus. As KRON4 reports, in making the announcement Thursday, Wiener said he’d already suggested he should step down from the leadership position when he announced his candidacy for the US Congress, but he says he “was asked to stay to provide a continuity of leadership during a difficult time for the Jewish community.”
“Now, my campaign is accelerating, and my recent statements on Israel and Gaza have led to significant controversy in the Jewish community,” Wiener said Thursday. “The time to transition has arrived.”
Wiener has been in the caucus leadership for five years, and he has served as a state senator since 2016.
He added that, since reversing his stance on the word “genocide,” he has had “many in-depth conversations with members of the Jewish community with a range of perspectives.”
“While many in the community strongly disagree with my view, I am grateful for their willingness to engage with me and hear my perspective, showing once again the deep respect for difference in our community,” Wiener concluded.
In running for Pelosi’s seat this November, and in a primary this June, Wiener is up against Supervisor Connie Chan, who will likely bring with her significant support from the city’s large bloc of Asian voters, and onetime AOC campaign manager Saikat Chakrabarti, who will likely siphon off a number of progressive votes.
Unitarian Universalist Reverend Tom McAninley holds his hands in prayer during a rally where faith leaders participated in a silent meditation, marking the start of a 24 hour hunger strike in protest of ICE presence in Minneapolis on Jan. 22, 2026. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
The usual hustle and bustle of protests — the loud chants, megaphones and fists in the air — was absent on Thursday afternoon as faith leaders and activists sat in meditation outside San Francisco City Hall, starting a hunger strike to protest ICE.
About 100 rabbis, reverends and activists gathered on the City Hall steps to start a 24-hour fast to condemn what they called Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s militaristic and violent policies.
Some of the faith leaders were barefoot, sitting cross-legged on yoga mats on the cement steps; others wore stoles painted with butterflies, a symbol of migration. Still more walked in slow circles, wearing posters around their necks displaying photos of immigrants who have died in ICE custody.
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Bruce Reyes-Chow, a minister in the presbyterian church, delivers a speech against ICE action in Minneapolis at a gathering of faith leaders at City Hall on Thursday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
At least four people have died in ICE custody so far this year, according to the Detention Watch Network, and 32 people died in the agency’s detention centers and holding cells last year, which the Guardian said was the highest total in two decades.
Democrats in Congress on Thursday sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, demanding she improve conditions.
There have been no ICE custody deaths in San Francisco, but the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups sued ICE last year, alleging its holding cells downtown were “freezing” and “inhumane.”
A federal judge ruled that the conditions were likely unconstitutional, and ordered ICE to improve them, but attorneys said at the end of December that the agency had not done so.
Faith leaders participate in a silent meditation at City Hall on Thursday. The event marked the start of a 24 hour hunger strike to protest ICE presence in Minneapolis. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
Thursday’s protest was organized by the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, and organizers said it was intended to “resist the violence inflicted on our own neighbors, friends, and families.”
In a crowd largely composed of older adults, a young girl wearing a pink jacket and riding a pink tricycle with streamers stood out as she rode her bike amid a somber march of faith leaders.
Omar, a construction worker from Mexico who wore a yellow vest, said he happened upon the meditation during a break from his work, across the street.
“I am grateful for it all,” he said in Spanish before returning to his job.
San Francisco resident Phillip Jeffries participates in a silent meditation alongside Bay Area faith leaders at City Hall in protest of ICE presence in Minneapolis. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
Near 1 p.m., the sun began to shine through the clouds, and the megaphones emerged. What had begun as a silent meditation and walk turned into a rally, with faith leaders speaking to a crowd of about 100 people.
“It’s important to acknowledge that there are a lot of things that happen in our city that are unseen,” Reverend Bruce Reyes-Chow from the Presbyterian Church said “It’s telling the rest of the world that we are still paying attention.”
Another faith leader participating in the hunger strike is Reverend Ranwa Hammamy, an organizer with the Unitarian Universalist Association.
“We want ICE out of Minnesota and ICE out of our communities. We want ICE to no longer be funded,” Hammamy said.
When asked whether elected officials had been notified of the protest, she said that they have had conversations at the state and federal level around changing immigration policy to be less “inhumane.”
“I hope that it gets attention, and that more people will join us” in the fight, said Julie Litwin, a member of the Kehilla Community Synagogue who lives in the East Bay.
Ry Crawford, a volunteer with the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, holds a sign reading “No war, no ICE” at a rally against ICE presence in Minneapolis at City Hall on Thursday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
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Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., center, during a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security in Washington on May 7, 2025. Photo: Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Top Democrats in Congress are turning against a deal that some of their caucuses’ most powerful members reached with Republicans over the weekend to maintain steady funding for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Only a day after Senate and House Democratic appropriations leaders said the bill was the best they could do, some of the Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Wednesday they would oppose it during a final vote.
Civil rights advocates worried that, if the bipartisan deal the appropriations committees reached passes, it will provide cover for ICE after the killing of Renee Good.
“Every dollar more is a dollar that is enabling this bad behavior, and every dollar emboldens these agencies.”
“Every dollar more is a dollar that is enabling this bad behavior, and every dollar emboldens these agencies,” said Kate Voigt, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “Giving these agencies this much money right now in a business-as-usual appropriations bill is a stamp of approval on their behavior.”
The House could vote on the measure Thursday, with a make-or-break Senate vote coming next week.
Even the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee who led negotiations on the compromise, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., offered a tepid defense at a House Rules Committee meeting later in the day.
“It is complicated,” she said, “when you’re both trying to govern and you’re trying to resist what may be infringements, to thread that needle and try to be able to move forward.”
The compromise on funding ICE had barely been announced before drawing a furious response from progressives.
Congress is trying to craft a package of bills that will provide continued funding for the federal government past a January 30 deadline, which was set at the end of the last government shutdown.
The package includes the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which itself houses Border Patrol.
Instead of defunding or abolishing ICE, as some progressives have demanded, the bill keeps the agency’s funding flat. Customs and Border Protection would see its regular funding drop by $1.3 billion.
Democratic leaders in the House heard an earful about the bill at a caucus meeting Wednesday. During the meeting, Jeffries said he would vote against it, according to multiple reports.
The bill is already playing into Democratic primaries, where challengers have seized on it as an example of out-of-touch Democratic incumbents.
Chuck Park, a former New York City Council staffer who is challenging Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., said the bill was “not a compromise. It funds ICE at current levels and offers reforms that don’t get anywhere near solving the problem.”
“Any Democrat who supports this needs to be primaried.”
He continued, “Any Democrat who supports this needs to be primaried.”
Meng, a House Appropriations Committee member, said in a statement that she would oppose the bill on the House floor.
“It’s clear that ICE must be held accountable. This bill fails to meet this moment,” Meng said. “For the constituents in my community who have been violently detained, for Renee Good and other U.S. Citizens who have been wrongfully targeted by ICE agents, and for the law-abiding immigrants throughout the United States whose rights have been trampled on, I cannot in good conscience vote for this bill.”
Guardrails That Aren’t
In defense of the bill, Democratic leaders on the House and Senate appropriations committees have pointed to a handful of provisions they say could provide a check on some of ICE and CBP’s worst abuses.
The bill would increase reporting requirements when DHS shuffles funds between agencies. It boosts funding for oversight offices that President Donald Trump’s administration has tried to gut. It would also provide $20 million in additional funding for body cameras.
In a statement, Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., said that even if Democrats were successful in tanking the bill, another shutdown would be worse.
“The suggestion that a shutdown in this moment might curb the lawlessness of this administration is not rooted in reality: under a CR” — a continuing resolution that funds the government for a limited period — “and in a shutdown, this administration can do everything they are already doing — but without any of the critical guardrails and constraints imposed by a full-year funding bill,” Murray said.
Murray and DeLauro argue that Democrats in the minority have limited tools to block funding for DHS, and that even preventing additional funding for the agency represents a win.
Still, it remained unclear Wednesday whether some appropriations leaders — including DeLauro — will themselves vote for the bills. Others, such as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have said they will vote against the DHS funding bill.
There do appear to be some centrist Democrats open to voting for the measure. Appropriations Committee member Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told The Hill that he would vote for the bill, citing the oversight and body-camera provisions.
The purported guardrails will do little to curb ICE and CBP, advocates said on a press call on Wednesday.
“Agents are committing egregious abuses day in and day out while wearing body cameras, and I would remind everyone that Jonathan Ross was in fact holding up his phone and voluntarily filming in the moments before he shot Renee Good,” said Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center.
Moreover, DHS can still shuttle funds within and between agencies, with some restrictions. Altman said members of Congress cannot “wash their hands” of fighting funding for DHS by pointing to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Every member of Congress is responsible to their constituents,” she said, “and right now, we are hearing quite the outcry from across the country to do every single thing in their authority to take away power and take away money from this agency that is hurting their community members.”
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WASHINGTON—In a statement calling for more guardrails around ongoing immigration operations, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives publicly condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thursday for routinely employing fatal use of force without obtaining the proper warrants. “For weeks, Democrats have pushed to require ICE agents to obtain the necessary judicial warrants ahead of any murders they plan to commit,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a joint statement on the current Homeland Security funding bill, which would allocate $500 million to developing “common sense” accountability measures for any extrajudicial killings carried out at the behest of the federal government. “It is vital that the Department of Homeland Security uphold the rule of law when indiscriminately gunning down innocent civilians in the street; otherwise, the whole system could fall apart. Rather than doing things by the book, these officers are out there slaughtering everyday Americans without first filing the proper paperwork with the appropriate agencies. Our framework is designed to ensure that ICE conducts itself like every other law enforcement agency in the nation, enacting violence upon our populace with impunity and without consequence.” Jeffries added that he empathized with immigrant communities who live in fear knowing that at any moment they could be killed without administrative due diligence.
A Border Patrol member pepper-sprays observers after getting into a car accident on Blaisdell Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 21, 2026.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
“The billions in funding in this bill will only embolden ICE and CBP to continue arresting our neighbors—immigrant and US citizen alike,” warned one ACLU attorney.
Seven Democrats in the US House of Representatives voted with nearly all Republicans on Thursday to pass a Department of Homeland Security funding bill despite growing calls from across the country for Congress to rein in the Trump administration’s deadly immigration operations, which are led by DHS agents.
Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (NC), Laura Gillen (NY), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), and Tom Suozzi (NY) joined all Republicans but Rep. Thomas Massie (KY) for the 220-207 vote that sent the legislation to the Senate—where the GOP also has a majority, but it’s so narrow that most bills need some Democratic support to pass.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) notably refused to pressure members of his caucus to oppose the bill, even though voters clearly oppose federal operations featuring violence and lawlessness by agents with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) everywhere from California and Illinois, to Minnesota and Maine.
Jeffries and other Democratic leaders have faced growing public pressure to use a rapidly approaching deadline—if Congress doesn’t pass legislation by January 30, the federal government shuts down again—to freeze ICE funding. The bill that advanced out of the House on Thursday would give ICE $10 billion and CBP $18.3 billion.
“I just voted HELL NO to giving ICE a single penny,” declared Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who’s part of the progressive Squad. “Congress should not be funding an agency that has terrorized our communities, kidnapped our neighbors, and killed people on the street with impunity. We must abolish ICE and end qualified immunity for ICE agents NOW.”
Two weeks ago, ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old US citizen and mother of three, in the Twin Cities, where President Donald Trump has sent thousands of federal agents. Videos, eyewitness accounts, analyses of the shooting, and an independent autopsy have fueled calls for Ross’ arrest and prosecution.
Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose district includes Minneapolis, said ahead of the vote: “Deportingchildren with cancer. Using a 5-year-old as bait. Shooting moms. ICE is beyond reform. And today the House is voting to bankroll more terror. Hell no.”
AOC: An agency that is attacking U.S. citizens, kidnapping five-year-olds and using them as bait, and privately circulating the idea that they can violate the rights of Americans by busting down their doors—they deserve to be defunded, and I’ll take any step in that direction. pic.twitter.com/DYuJ31kV0m
Another Squad member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), said: “DHS is using our tax dollars to terrorize our neighbors and detain 5-year-olds. It’s shameful. ICE must be abolished. Kristi Noem must be impeached. And not one more penny should go to this rogue agency.”
The entire Congressional Progressive Caucus opposed the bill. CPC Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) said in a video posted to social media after the vote that “this mass deportation machine is out of control: detaining and deporting US citizens and veterans, arresting little kids, ripping up families, killing innocent people. It’s got to stop.”
“Our taxpayer money does not need to got to Donald Trump’s out-of-control mass deportation machine,” Casar added. “We should be sending it to our schools and to childcare, and to bringing down the cost of living for everyday people.”
I just voted HELL NO on legislation to fund Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.
Democrats can't be complicit as ICE & Border Patrol terrorize our communities and violate our laws & constitutional rights daily. We shouldn’t give DHS another cent until real reforms are made. pic.twitter.com/SyGexjRkSm
MoveOn Civic Action spokesperson Britt Jacovich said in a Thursday statement that “Americans want healthcare and lower costs, not masked ICE agents kidnapping kids from playgrounds and schools. The House just failed their latest test to hold Trump and his dangerous ICE street gang accountable for killing innocent people like Renee Nicole Good and many others. Senate Democrats need to step up for the American people and block any funding bill that gives another dime for ICE to abduct 5-year olds and kill citizens.”
Kate Voigt, senior policy counsel at the ACLU—which has been involved in multiple lawsuits over recent DHS operations—similarly stressed that “the House vote in favor of excessive funding for ICE with no meaningful accountability measures is wildly out of touch with polling that shows the majority of voters oppose ICE and Border Patrol’s attacks on our communities.”
“The bill fails to rein in ICE and Border Patrol at a time when they are engaged in an unprecedented assault on our rights, safety, and democratic way of life,” she continued. “The billions in funding in this bill will only embolden ICE and CBP to continue arresting our neighbors—immigrant and US citizen alike—no matter the costs to our communities, economy, and integrity of our Constitution.
”While the House narrowly passed this bill, we thank the members of Congress who held the line and voted against this harmful legislation,“ Voigt added. ”Now we need our senators to hold firm and refuse to be complicit in fueling ICE’s reckless abuses in our communities.“
The group Indivisible emphasized that “the House had an opportunity to impose meaningful restrictions on ICE and it failed. As the regime terrorizes our communities with masked federal agents and unchecked violence, Congress stood quietly by and passed a DHS funding bill that continues to funnel taxpayer dollars into ICE’s slush fund.”
“Passing this bill without any meaningful check on this lawless agency is beyond the pale,” Indivisible added. “In an egregious failure of leadership, House Democratic ‘leaders’ personally opposed the bill while declining to whip against it.”
The DHS legislation advanced alongside a three-bill appropriations package, which passed by a vote of 341-88. According to the Hill: “The House will combine the four bills with a two-bill minibus it passed last week and send the full package to the Senate. The upper chamber is expected to take up the bills when it returns from recess next week ahead of a January 30 deadline.”
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Aloka accompanying the monks on their Walk for Peace.
It was a normal winter’s day in Charlotte, North Carolina, when the Buddhist monks came to town. Soft gray clouds blanketed the city without a trace of wind in sight. A few people complained about the 96% humidity, while others put their heads down and went on with their damp day.
Then, like a scene from a movie, there they were: a single-file line of men, each wearing flowing saffron and ochre-colored robes, steadily marching along the shoulder of the highway. Some wore sandals while others cheerfully went ahead barefoot. Trotting alongside them—and at times, leading them—was a scruffy, tousle-haired rescue dog eagerly wagging his tail—Aloka, whose name translates to “Divine Light” in Sanskrit.
In October 2025, approximately two dozen Buddhist monks hailing from various Theravada Buddhist monasteries across the globe, along with Aloka, embarked from Fort Worth, Texas, on a 2,300-mile pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. This “Walk of Peace,” and the participating 18 monks, stand on the shoulders of giants: the countless of those who came before them in this time-old tradition of spiritual activism through walking meditation, from the Buddha himself to Gandhi’s groundbreaking 240-mile “Salt March” in 1930, to Dr. Martin Luther King’s immortalized March on Washington in 1963 and the marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
The journey, expected to conclude in mid-February 2026, has attracted millions of social media followers and drawn thousands of participants to major stopping points, transcending the religious and political divide during a period defined by deep division.
A pilgrimage of resilience
The journey began in Fort Worth, Texas, on October 26, 2025, at Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center, the Vietnamese Buddhist temple that organized the Walk for Peace. It’s also the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara’s home temple, who serves as the group’s spiritual leader and primary spokesperson.
While this is Pannakara’s first pilgrimage in the States, the Vietnamese Theravada Buddhist monk has reportedly walked across several South Asian countries, including a 112-day walk across India in 2022, where he met Aloka, the stray dog that’s become somewhat of a mascot for the walk. Aloka has been with Pannakara ever since.
In a written statement to USA Today, Pannakara encourages others to reframe the purpose of their mission. “We walk not to protest, but to awaken the peace that already lives within each of us,” he writes.
He continues: “The Walk for Peace is a simple, yet meaningful reminder that unity and kindness begin within each of us and can radiate outward to families, communities, and society as a whole.”
He means it. For Pannakara, this walk represents a national act of healing rather than a political statement. At every stop, he offers lessons about mindfulness, peace as an inner quality, forgiveness, healing, unity, and the importance of meeting people where they are.
2,300 miles is no walk in the park
The journey hasn’t been easy—though that was never the point for this group. As if walking 2,300 miles across ten states wasn’t difficult enough, Pannakara and the other Theravada Buddhist monks live in accordance with the earliest teachings of the Buddha and dedicated themselves to extreme monastic living and to following strict Buddhist codes of living.
As a result, the monks sleep in tents and rely on the kindness of strangers for shelter or sustenance. They’ve faced the physical reality of walking on asphalt for months. Then, in November, tragedy struck near Dayton, Texas. An escort vehicle was hit, resulting in an accident where one monk was severely injured and lost a leg.
Yet, the group continued.
At their stop Thursday in Saluda, South Carolina, Audrie Pearce—who had driven four hours from her village of Little River to see them—teared up as Pannakara handed her a flower.
“There’s something traumatic and heart-wrenching happening every day in our country,” Pearce told Newsday. She describes herself as spiritual, but not religious. “I looked into their eyes, and I saw peace. They’re putting their bodies through such physical torture, and yet they radiate peace.”
Aloka, the four-legged peacekeeper
While the monks inspire reverence, the true celebrity of the group might just be their canine companion.
Aloka is an Indian Pariah dog, a breed known for its intelligence and loyalty. His story with Bhikkhu Pannakara began thousands of miles away in India during a previous peace walk. When Aloka fell critically ill as a puppy, Pannakara carried him and nursed him back to health.
Thevada Buddhist monks greeting fans on their Walk for Peace.Credit: Des Moines Register
Now, the roles have reversed. Aloka is the one keeping spirits high. He happily trots alongside the monks, offering a furry reminder of loyalty and joy. When the group reached North Carolina, locals didn’t just bring water for the monks; they brought dog treats for Aloka.
Strangers becoming neighbors
Perhaps the most beautiful part of this journey is how it has brought people together. As the monks traverse states like Mississippi, Alabama, and the Carolinas, they have been met not with suspicion but with overwhelming hospitality.
The Heraldshared stories from people in the crowd as the monks traveled through Rock Hill and Fort Mill on their way to Charlotte.
“I like the idea of peace, and I’m concerned about the state our country is in,” said Penny Sheppard of Rock Hill, as she waited for the monks to walk by. “The peace walk exemplifies where we could be…. I just want to support them… They just impress the heck out of me.”
The monks as they enter North Carolina.Credit: 7News
Stevie Goudui of Fort Mill echoed this sentiment. “We could definitely use a little more peace in the United States right now,” he said.
Then, from Rock Hill resident Carolyn Hall: “No matter your religion, it makes sense that the purpose of the walk was for peace,” Hall said.
“Women, children, people getting killed. It’s a sad day in America right now,” she added. “I think it’s great what (the monks) are doing. I love it, and I just want to be a part of it.”
Streets lined with onlookers on a cold, wet Wednesday made for an emotional morning. “That really touched my heart,” said the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara. “These days, you all make me cry so much. A lot. But happy tears. Joy.”
A quiet request for a national holiday
While the spiritual goal is paramount, the monks do have a tangible objective for their arrival in the nation’s capital. Upon reaching Washington, D.C. in mid-February, they plan to ask Congress to recognize Vesak—the day celebrating Buddha’s birth and enlightenment—as a federal holiday.
The hope is that recognizing Vesak will officially acknowledge a day dedicated to reflection, compassion, and unity for all people, regardless of their faith.
Judging by the overwhelming response to the Walk of Peace, the monks will always have the public’s support, regardless of the outcome in Congress.
The viral trek gained more than one million followers on both Facebook and TikTok since the monks started walking in October. Even Aloka the dog has enjoyed Internet stardom, gaining 752,000 followers on Facebook.
“Together, we are proving that peace is not just a dream—it is alive, it is real, and it is growing stronger every single day,” Walk for Peace organizers posted to Facebook.
Finding your own “peaceful day”
You don’t have to walk 2,300 miles to feel the impact of this journey. The monks’ message is that peace is accessible to everyone, right where they are.
Becki Gable, a woman grieving the loss of her daughters and parents, drove nearly 400 miles to meet the monks in Saluda, South Carolina.
“I just felt in my heart that this would help me have peace,” she told a local news station. “Maybe I could move a little bit forward in my life.”
She spoke about how the encounter helped her move forward, adopting a simple practice suggested by Bhikkhu Pannakara. Every morning, she writes down five words: “Today is my peaceful day.”
You can follow the monks on their journey to Washington, D.C. through their live tracker here.
FRONTLINE PBS | Official Premiered Nov 25, 2025A stunning and immersive portrayal of the men fighting on the front lines of the war in Ukraine, from the Oscar®-winning team behind “20 Days in Mariupol.” This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate. “2000 Meters to Andriivka” documents the toll of the Russia-Ukraine war from a personal and devastating vantage point. Following his historic account of the civilian toll in Mariupol, Ukrainian filmmaker and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov turns his lens towards Ukrainian soldiers — who they are, where they came from, and the impossible decisions they face in the trenches as they fight for every inch of their land. The documentary follows a Ukrainian brigade battling through approximately one mile of a heavily fortified forest on their mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka amid a failing counteroffensive in 2023. Weaving together original footage, intensive Ukrainian Army bodycam video and powerful moments of reflection with haunting intimacy, the documentary reveals how the farther the soldiers advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that, for them, this war may never end. “2000 Meters to Andriivka” is written, filmed and directed by filmmaker and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov. It is produced by Chernov, FRONTLINE’s senior documentary editor and producer Michelle Mizner and FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath. It is edited by Michelle Mizner. The film is co-produced and includes additional cinematography by AP journalist Alex Babenko, and is composed by two-time Grammy Award®-winning composer and music-producer Sam Slater. Distributed domestically by PBS Distribution and internationally by Dogwoof, “2000 Meters to Andriivka” is a FRONTLINE FEATURES and The Associated Press production. 00:00 – Film Open 00:13 – In the Trenches With the Men Fighting the War in Ukraine 10:21 – Ukraine Launches a Counteroffensive Against Russia in 2023 23:53 – Ukrainian Soldiers Battle Through a Fortified Forest to the Village of Andriivka 49:41 – Ukrainian Officers at Headquarters Guide Soldiers Through the Battlefield 01:02:34 – A Ukrainian Soldier Reflects On His Hopes & Worries 01:14:44 – Surveying the Death & Destruction of the Russia-Ukraine War 01:21:29 – The Liberation of Andriivka 01:45:28 – Credits
Protesters participate in a ‘Stop ICE Terror’ rally against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, January 20, 2026.PHOTO BY MADISON THORN / ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES
Maximillian Alvarez: As we speak — and we’re recording this on January 19, 2026 — the state of Minnesota is under siege by our own federal government, and residents, immigrant and U.S.-born alike, are living in fear. With the deployment of over 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota in recent weeks, this is the Trump administration’s largest and most violent so-called “immigration enforcement operation” yet.
And with President Trump threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota in response to protests over ICE’s terror campaign, the situation on the ground is extremely volatile. Unions, community organizations, faith leaders and small businesses in Minnesota are calling for a statewide day of no work except emergency services, no school, and no shopping to take place this Friday on January 23.
Our panel of guests, Doug Williams, Janette Corcelius, and Dan Troccoli are all union members and organizers in Minnesota, and they are all speaking here today only on their own behalf, not on behalf of their unions or any organizations that they’re a part of.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Daniel Troccoli: The response by ordinary people in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities in general has been very uplifting. I think you painted a very good picture, Max, of how bleak the moment is and how it just drives hope out of you. This has actually instilled a lot more hope in a lot of people.
“This should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following the events in Minneapolis for the last 10 years.”
We don’t even have a Labor Party in this country, to say nothing of the sort of working class organization needed to pull off something like that.
Well I guess I’m sort of like the Grinch, except I’m like a month late.
My heart is growing three times because what I have seen here has been beyond inspiring. People are coming together. They are not only saying that this has to stop now. They’re not only saying this is a system that no longer works for us. But they’re doing more than talking. They’re acting.
They’re in the streets. They are engaging in new forms of mutual aid that they might not have engaged in in the past. They’re engaged in high level organizing of their memberships, of their neighbors, of their friends, families, their communities.
There’s something like 10,000 people in the city or more who have joined rapid response networks in their neighborhood to try and patrol dog ICE. It has had a good effect at stymieing ICE and making it difficult for them to continue their operations.
There’s something I don’t know if people heard, but there was like a moment of silence for Renee Good at the Timberwolves game and someone yelled out, “Fuck ICE,” and it just exploded. The whole stadium was just cheering. I’ve never heard of that kind of thing before — frankly, even during the Black Lives Matter movement. So it’s very interesting to me.
They are choosing not to stay inside, not to stay silent, not just to say, “I approve of every strike except the current one,” or “I approve of every human rights movement besides the one that’s happening right now.”
There’s something I don’t know if people heard, but there was like a moment of silence for Renee Good at the Timberwolves game and someone yelled out, “Fuck ICE,” and it just exploded. The whole stadium was just cheering. I’ve never heard of that kind of thing before—frankly, even during the Black Lives Matter movement. So it’s very interesting to me.
Janette Corcelius: I feel so inspired and moved and, frankly, optimistic because of the labor movement and this opportunity to fight and to lead for Minnesota, to lead in this moment.
I’m getting people from around the country who want to replicate what we’re doing here where they are at, and that feels so good, especially in a time with so much despair.
The labor movement has had a long history in the last 50 years of really not doing shit, especially labor leadership. But we’re seeing rank and file and leadership and even non-union people rise up in this moment – willing to take that day and not work, not shop, not go to school.
I also want to connect that Palestine, and the organizing that labor unions have been doing the last few years around the issue of the genocide, has geared us up and propelled us to this moment and was honestly quite necessary.
I think it’s clear that a vast majority of people in the Twin Cities are absolutely against this occupation. In my union, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, members have been actively trying to do something – pulling together networks of people in their buildings and around the city – in schools – to try and help immigrant students and families. Anticipating something like this happening, organizing began over a year ago and that network has been really important in helping schools respond quickly.
There’s a lot of participation now from many buildings. I don’t know the exact number, but I would imagine it’s somewhere near 90%.
Most buildings have some sort of control system, including contacting families who are affected, enacting mutual aid – whether it’s getting people rides to work and back, or food, or things that they need to do that they just are too scared to leave their house to do.
It’s uneven, as most things typically are in organizing. But it’s there, which is just a new thing for me and my experience of union organizing. I’ve been doing it for a long time.
This should come as no surprise to anyone sort of who’s been following the events in Minneapolis for the last 10 years. The George Floyd uprising literally instilled in people in this city a sense of a fight for racial justice, and I would argue, that was carried through in a number of different actions that various organizations have done since that time.
Our own union went on strike in 2022 for the first time in something like 50 plus years. Centering the demands for our ESPs (support staff) was like a key demand of that strike that elevated it above everything else and made a lot of people see it as another piece in the fight for racial justice.
So it’s not surprising to me that tens of thousands of people come out to protests. Some of our big days of protests are upwards of 30−40,000 people.
Douglas Williams: As I’ve been telling anyone who asked me in the Twin Cities right now, our response is as easy as 123. January, 23. ICE out of Minnesota: no work, no spending, we are going to show our working class power.
Every Central Labor Council in this state has endorsed this day of no work. I fully agree with Dan that they are trying to see whether we will allow ourselves to be brutalized without a response, and we cannot allow the answer to that to be yes.
When I am teaching about organizing I always say that the first job of an organizer is to shut up and listen, but the second job of an organizer is to raise the expectations of workers and to broaden their horizons of what’s possible.
Dan, Janette, and I have had so many conversations about a general strike. What they would tell you is that I am someone that is very skeptical of the idea that we could pull off a general strike anytime in this lifetime.
When I am teaching about organizing I always say that the first job of an organizer is to shut up and listen, but the second job of an organizer is to raise the expectations of workers and to broaden their horizons of what’s possible.
A rally to “Stop ICE Terror” in Minneapolis on January 20, 2026.PHOTO BY MADISON THORN/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES
I’m not one for counting the chickens before they’ve hatched, but I think that January 23, this Friday, we are going to see something in this country that perhaps we haven’t seen since the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, which is what you could call the closest thing to the last sort of major nationwide general strike that we’ve had in this country.
People understand and more are understanding every day, not only where we are in history, but also their place in where we are in history. They are choosing not to stay inside, not to stay silent, not just to say, “I approve of every strike except the current one,” or “I approve of every human rights movement besides the one that’s happening right now.”
They are choosing to push forward in the hopes of crafting a better society. At the end of the day, that’s all the social movement is, man. That’s all our labor movement is. It is a collection of imperfect people working to create a more perfect world. And our creation of that world will make its debut, I believe, on January 23 and we have to do everything we can to make sure that it goes off as a success on that day, and that we keep the momentum going towards something better in the future.
Jake Lang, a conservative activist and January 6 insurrectionist who was pardoned by President Donald Trump, winces as he is sprayed, in the freezing cold, with water.PHOTO BY MADISON THORN/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES
Many of us knew that the Imperial boomerang was going to come back around on us. And I want to be quite frank: while things are very terrible right now, it’s nothing compared to what our government has done to Palestinians and to other countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Central and South America. Or what they’ve done in the past to Native American people and black Americans who are descendants of slavery.
We know that this could get worse. So I’m hoping that this day will become either a week long or month long, statewide, regional, or nationwide general strike.
Protesters in Minneapolis rallying against ICE and the abductions of residents.PHOTO BY JOHN WHITNEY/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
I’m seeing it as a moment to get ready to flex our muscles that haven’t been flexed in a long time. There are unions that have never gone on strike before.
Less than 10% of American workers are in a union right now. I know that the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee and DSA and the organized labor movement is working to organize the unorganized and take advantage of this moment.
I hope that every organizer and union member realizes that they have a duty to go around and organize regular people, like talking to people they don’t even know.
Canvas around your neighborhood to different businesses. Talk to the workers. There are union members whose unions didn’t officially sign on to this, but I went to their store and I said, “Hey, I wanted to know, are you all participating on January 23” and they’re like, “Oh yeah, we are, to the point that actually our owners are shutting things down because of it.”
That shows that militant shop floor organizing is essential. We can’t replace that. This is a bottom up movement. Yes, some nonprofits and NGOs did call for this day of action like Faith in Minnesota, ISAIAH, Unidos, and SEIU Local 26.
But the bottom up element has been crucial to making this successful and impactful. I’ve been seeing a lot of small businesses who are taking major hits right now that have posted, “We’re closing on this day in solidarity.”
Federal agents fire flash bombs and chemical irritants at protesters in Minneapolis on January 14, 2026, a week after resident Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.PHOTO BY RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII/THE MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE
That’s been really inspiring. And I’m taking note of every single one of these businesses. Before the 23rd and after the 23rd I’m going to spend my money there.
Strikes, workshop stoppages and other workplace actions are most effective, in my opinion, alongside boycotts. There are people who are still shopping at Target, Amazon, Starbucks, and Caribou.
These are some of the businesses that are supporting ice. Spotify is another. We need to stop feeding into this system. We’re doing that with mutual aid.
I sure as hell want to see socialism in my lifetime. People say that’s pie in the sky ideal, but I’m feeling invigorated knowing that we might have a nationwide general strike in our lifetime, and it’s because of awesome people like you all on this call who have dedicated your life and will dedicate your entire life to this movement. We just need more people bought in on our project.
MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, available at InTheseTimes.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke.
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