Happy Wednesday!

Today’s Brew starts with a “Whoa!!!!!”

Hezbollah Terrorist Pagers Explode, Thousands Injured, Death Toll at Least Nine

Oh, beep! At least nine people were killed and thousands injured Tuesday when pagers used by members of the Hezbollah terrorist group exploded across Lebanon and Syria.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, put the number of wounded at 2,750. Among those were Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon.  

Beirut descended into chaos as the pagers went off, and the injured were rushed to the hospital. 

Absolute scenes of chaos in Southern Beirut as hundreds of pagers belonging to members of Hezbollah explode.

This is just one location.

Hospital videos show Hezbollah members with various injuries from fingers blown off, hands blown off, and significant eye injuries. pic.twitter.com/U6pKB2Xne4

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 17, 2024

Here’s a nonbloody video of one Hezbollah member whose number came up.

Video showing Hezbollah pagers blowing up, hurting individual fighters but no one else. Notice the amount of US dollars that were on this Hezbollah dude. pic.twitter.com/AcoDRDL7yG

— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) September 17, 2024

A Hezbollah operative told The Associated Press the pagers were newly acquired after the group’s leader warned members not to use cell phones because they could easily be tracked by Israel. This was also a brand of pager Hezbollah had never used before.

How did Israel do it? Officials in Lebanon say the devices, powered by lithium ion batteries, heated up before exploding. Did Israel sabotage the batteries? Not-the-Bee speculates Israel also might have been able to place small explosives in the devices before shipment, or the pager brand is actually an Israeli front company.

However Israel pulled it off, imagine the psychological victory, in addition to the maiming of the Iran-backed terror group. If you are a Hezbollah member, are you going to trust any electronic device from now on? I’d be worried that even a carrier pigeon was wired.

By the way, Israel did not give the United States a head’s up about the operation, according to Axios. Smart move when you’ve got White House staffers who actively took part in protests condemning Israel after its response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.

While Hezbollah terrorists having body parts blown off by exploding pagers has already lit up social media with funny memes, The Federalist’s Sean Davis says:  

(The) entire episode should be a warning to any country that outsources its technology, manufacturing, and infrastructure to foreign companies. You simply cannot have national security when you outsource everything to foreign nations. Every component you outsource — whether it’s for communications or weapons or vehicles or food or medicine — is a ticking time bomb.

Interesting point, meanwhile, from Jack Posobiec: “So there is tech that can make pagers explode remotely, but we are supposed to believe the intel agencies had no idea there were two assassins targeting President Trump within two months of each other.”

So there is tech that can make pagers explode remotely, but we are supposed to believe the intel agencies had no idea there were 2 assassins targeting President Trump within 2 months of each other

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 17, 2024

Chris Cuomo Gets It?

We’ve been talking for two days about all the mainstream media figures downplaying the attempts on Trump’s life, or trying to blame him for what has happened. So it’s only fitting to single out one that is getting it right.

That is former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. On his News Nation show, Cuomo spoke with an eloquence rivaling his father’s that he is “ashamed of how we are responding and not responding to the threats” on Donald Trump, saying he “feels for his family.”

That makes sense. Cuomo is both the son and the brother of two New York governors. He knows what it’s like to have a family member with a target on his back.

“We’ve got to get out of the judgment business, unless we are judging ourselves, and we’ve got to start rewarding what is better.”

That’s some good preachin’.

Chris Cuomo called Donald Trump after second assassination attempt: “I am ashamed of what’s happening”

pic.twitter.com/4emsQ1Ke3g

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 17, 2024

Cuomo said he called Donald Trump after hearing the news of the second shooting. My question: How does Cuomo have Donald Trump’s number? He made it sound as if it was as normal as ordering a pizza.

White House and New York Times Don’t Get It: Times Praises Would-Be Assassin, White House Repeats ‘Threat to Democracy’ Bit

The New York Times actually had this headline yesterday: “Man Arrested at Trump Golf Course Had a History of Crusading for Causes.” In fact Ryan Routh was “crusader for causes large and small.”

My gosh, he’s not Lee Harvey Oswald. He’s William Wilberforce!

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, not two days removed from Trump being one tee shot away from death, was right back with the “threat to democracy” rhetoric, saying, “President Biden has been clear-eyed about the threat that the former president represents to our democracy.”

Karine Jean-Pierre calls President Trump a "threat" to democracy — two days after a deranged psycho, inspired by that very same rhetoric, tried to assassinate him pic.twitter.com/JZIkl1CIwL

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 17, 2024

This was right after talking about the need to “take down the temperature.”

It takes a real talent to speak out of both sides of one’s mouth in such a way.

Assassination Attempt Update

DHS Refused Federal Request to Look Into Routh

Monday, we learned the FBI was tipped off in 2019 about Ryan Routh owning an illegal firearm. Tuesday, we learned from Just the News that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol flagged Routh as suspicious last year when he returned from Ukraine. They grilled him about his travels recruiting soldiers for Ukraine, and his answers gave them pause. They passed the case onto Homeland Security.

And DHS did … nothing.

Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas must have thought Routh was an illegal immigrant.

DHS “Stonewalling” Senate Investigation. Dem. Senator Threatens Subpoenas

Speaking of DHS, its lack of cooperation in the investigation of the first Trump assassination attempt has Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) “angry.” He accuses the Biden-Harris administration of “stonewalling” his Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, describing DHS — which houses the Secret Service — as “almost derelict in its duty by resisting our requests for documents, evidence, and information that are necessary to investigate.”

What are they hiding?  

Blumenthal, who last week said the American public would be “shocked” and “appalled” by what his committee has found, threatened to use his “subpoena power” to force DHS to cough up the evidence.

Second Attempt Isn’t Changing Trump’s Schedule

Despite the second attempt to assassinate him in two months, Donald Trump is not going to be changing his campaign schedule. Tonight he’s doing a town hall in Flint, Michigan with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. He’s got a rally in New York this week and another one in North Carolina. On Sunday, he’ll be joining Poland’s president for a visit to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

You know what’s funny? Smears didn’t stop him, lawfare didn’t stop him, and assassination attempts aren’t stopping him. You know what would have stopped Trump from doing what he’s doing right now? Properly verifying and certifying the 2020 election results. If he was wrong, he’d be golfing and taping a reboot of Celebrity Apprentice. If he was right, you’d be four months away from being done with him forever.

By the way, why didn’t the Secret Service sweep the perimeter of the golf course with dogs? Sure, if Haitian migrants or Kristi Noem were around, you might be a little nervous about bringing in the canines. But other than that, what’s the excuse?

Along the Stream

Jason Scott Jones hits hard with “Democrats Treat U.S. Soldiers and U.S. Allies as ‘Suckers and Losers’”

We mentioned this yesterday, but can’t help mentioning it again. You’ve gotta check out John Zmirak’s turn as Dr. Seuss in “I Will Not Eat Grilled Haitian Cat!”

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.