The ongoing dispute between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson took center stage on Thursday during the opening night of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, the organization’s annual gathering and its first since the killing of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk in September. 

Attempts by TPUSA CEO Erika Kirk, who took the helm after her husband’s death, to project unity within the MAGA movement at the summit — including by announcing her endorsement of Vice President JD Vance in the 2028 presidential election — were overshadowed by the barbs traded by Shapiro and Carlson in their respective speeches. The two men spoke within three hours of each other at the Phoenix, Ariz., event, with Shapiro taking the stage first.

In recent weeks, James Fishback, a 30-year-old Republican investor who last month launched a long-shot campaign for governor of Florida, has drawn online attention for a series of incendiary social media posts attacking Israel and invoking antisemitic tropes.

In addition to praising followers of the neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, comments for which he has refused to apologize, Fishback has promoted a range of extreme anti-Israel positions, including in a recent campaign ad vowing to defend those who accuse the Jewish state of genocide. He has taken repeated aim at the pro-Israel organization AIPAC, which he calls a “foreign lobbying group,” saying its supporters are “slaves” and that his own “allegiance is to America.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent a letter on Thursday to the National Education Association accusing the largest teachers’ union in the country of a “deeply troubling” pattern of antisemitism within its ranks.

“The Jewish people have suffered assaults on their identity, religion, culture, and lives for millennia. Disturbingly, we are witnessing a rise in antisemitic sentiment across the Western world, including in the United States,” Cassidy wrote. “Let me put it plainly: antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent and has no place within our society, especially at our K-12 schools, higher institutions of learning, workplaces, and within unions.”

Kinney Zalesne, a longtime Jewish community activist, is one of a slew of Democratic candidates mounting a bid to unseat the District of Columbia’s longtime nonvoting representative to Congress, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

Holmes Norton, 88, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, with mounting questions about her age and her continued capability to perform in her job, which have been fueled by conflicting statements from Holmes Norton and her own staff about whether she plans to seek reelection in 2026. Her muted response to the Trump administration’s efforts to exert control over the District has further stoked criticism.

A new bill introduced by several prominent House progressives blasts the Trump administration’s agenda and actions on combating antisemitism, while also implementing new posts and requirements across a series of federal departments to fight Jewish hate.

The new bill, the Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act, is led by Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Becca Balint (D-VT) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL).

Jamaal Bowman, the far-left former House member who is pursuing an appointment as New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s public schools chancellor, recently posted a comment on Instagram supporting remarks from neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.

Bowman made the comment on an Instagram reel posted by Fuentes in September, which featured the antisemitic commentator making the case that Republicans weren’t a “better” choice than Democrats for working people, but were instead “better” for Israel, the oil and gas industry, Silicon Valley and Wall Street. The caption on the video, which has 2.6 million views and more than 239 thousand likes, reads: “The type of Racist ifw [I f*** with].”

Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest, its first since the killing of its founder and leader Charlie Kirk in September, kicked off on Thursday with prominent names on its four-day agenda, including Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

Some speakers, such as Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, have spread anti-Israel and even antisemitic messages through their platforms, while others, including Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck, have been strong advocates for Israel.

After pressure from Capitol Hill — including a blockade by Democratic senators of the confirmation of the Coast Guard commandant — the Coast Guard struck from its disciplinary policies language describing swastikas and nooses as “potentially divisive,” rather than as explicitly banned hate symbols.

The Washington Post initially reported that the language around displays of such symbols would be changed last month, prompting bipartisan outrage from Capitol Hill. Though Department of Homeland Security officials denied the changes, acting Coast Guard commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday issued new guidance to clarify that such displays were still banned hate symbols and repeatedly reassured lawmakers as such.