The RedState Weekly Briefing recaps five hot topics from the week: alleged internal USAID signal chats suggesting coordination against U.S. leadership, Senator John Kennedy’s blunt commentary on AOC and Chuck Schumer, Iran’s catastrophic water crisis threatening Tehran, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s sharp rebuke of Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, and controversy around Zohran Mamdani’s election — all presented with direct takes and verbatim quotes where applicable.
#1 – New: USAID’s Secret Signal Chats Document Plot Against U.S. Leadership
A purported Signal chat among former USAID staff has stirred alarm in conservative circles, with participants talking about “tackling corruption” and coordinating outside actors. The excerpt raises questions about internal coordination and whether political motives are driving those talks. The original excerpt included this exchange, which some readers found chilling in tone and implication.
During that conversation, the speaker said in part:
We don’t have to be intermediaries, either. We can bring in actors, or colleagues from around the world, that dealt with this directly, very specific issues (inaudible.) Whether that’s on tackling corruption or how to respond to corruption, mobilizing around corruption, we can bring those folks in, and kind of be those facilitators. And so, again, I think those coordinations and structures are just starting to take place.
The exchange is being framed as evidence of a coordinated campaign inside government-adjacent circles, and critics argue it reflects a deeper, politically motivated effort to influence outcomes. For skeptical conservatives, language about “mobilizing” and “facilitators” evokes unwelcome parallels to activist networks rather than neutral policy discussion. Here is where readers should note the embedded material and examine it directly:
#2 – Sen. Kennedy Delivers Savage Swipe About Chuck Schumer’s Manhood, Describes AOC As Only He Can
Senator John Kennedy offered a blunt assessment of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that plays to a broader conservative critique: media-created celebrity rather than substantive policy expertise. His comments highlight how some Republican figures view progressive leaders as style over substance, and he did not hold back when describing AOC’s appeal. The passage below captures his voice and the pointed nature of the critique.
The Senator proceeded to explain how AOC is smelling blood in the water. Realizing that her brand of extremism is not limited to success in just the liberal cesspool of the Bronx and Queens, but is now branching out, as evidenced by the recent election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City.
Still, he describes her as a creation of the media. And not a very deep, intellectual creation at that.
“They love her like the devil loves sin, man. I mean, they just uh—and I get why,” Kennedy observed. “She’s attractive. She’s pretty articulate on television. She’s bold in her statements. But I’ve never heard anybody describe her as a policy maven.”
“My experience with her is if you scratch the surface, you just get more surface.”
For many conservatives, Kennedy’s words underscore frustration with media amplification of personality while policy substance gets ignored. That frustration extends to charges that the left leverages celebrity to push agendas lacking serious policy roots.
#3 – The End Is Near. Tehran Faces Evacuation As Water Supplies Reach Zero and the City Sinks Into The Desert
Reporters and analysts are sounding the alarm on Iran’s environmental collapse, describing a drought aggravated by decades of mismanagement and overuse of groundwater. Officials warn that Tehran is sinking at alarming rates as aquifers collapse and infrastructure is put at risk. The situation is framed as national in scope, with land subsidence and depleted resources affecting nearly every province.
Iran is drought-prone; indeed, it is the middle of the most severe drought in 57 years, but that isn’t what is causing the current crisis. It is the logical and foreseeable outcome of decades of environmental neglect and Soviet-style mismanagement that has turned a naturally arid climate into a national emergency.
Iran’s groundwater has been depleted, primarily in an effort to surge agriculture to deal with a booming population. Tehran is sinking at a rate of 25 cm per year as the aquifers collapse. This poses a threat to utilities, subways, and the structural integrity of buildings. It is hard to imagine that the settling hasn’t caused leaks in water mains.
To be clear, this is not a Tehran problem; this is an Iran problem. The drought affects the whole country, and 30 of Iran’s 31 provinces are experiencing land subsidence due to unchecked groundwater extraction.
#4 – He’s the Boss: Youngkin’s Blistering Response to Spanberger After Gov.-Elect’s Attempted Power Grab
In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin publicly pushed back against Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger after she asked the University of Virginia Board of Visitors to pause a presidential search. Youngkin framed her request as improper meddling and warned against preemptive moves designed to reshape institutional leadership. The episode has become a flashpoint for debates over who controls appointments and how much incoming officials should interfere before taking office.
The commonwealth of Virginia does not have such a problem at the moment, and Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin would like Democrats, and particularly Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, to kindly butt out of his business. Spanberger, naturally, is eager to get a head start on wreaking havoc in the Old Dominion, but she’ll have to cool her jets for the next two months.
Youngkin was rightfully incensed to learn that Spanberger had taken it upon herself to write to the Board of Visitors (BOV) of the University of Virginia (UVA) this week asking them to hold on selecting a new president until after she is inaugurated in January. The previous president resigned earlier this year – under a great deal of pressure from both Youngkin and Trump’s Department of Justice, it should be noted – after he stonewalled an investigation by the DOJ’s Civil Rights division into UVA’s use of race in admission and employment decisions.
What Spanberger, a UVA graduate, is asking for here is for her alma mater to resume the stonewalling that got them into trouble in the first place until she can get into office and start putting her hand-picked minions onto the BOV. And once she’s got her far-left radicals in place, the university will undoubtedly revert to its DEI ways and go to war against the DOJ.
#5 – The Supposed Great Victory of Zohran Mamdani Stinks to High Heaven
The reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s win reflects long-running conservative concerns about left-leaning influence across schools and institutions. Critics argue that progressive education and DEI trends have produced a generation of voters sympathetic to radical ideas and hostile to traditional values. Allegations around campaign tactics add fuel to the fire, with critics insisting the victory smells of manipulation even if concrete illegalities remain unproven.
Granted, part of Mamdani’s victory is unfortunately all too real, as it comes straight from our deviant educational establishment on U.S. college campuses and K-12 schools. Since the 1970s, the DEI-loving leftist professors and teachers in the United States have produced class after class of miseducated-if-not-moronic “educated graduates” who love communism/socialism/leftism, hate white people, hate men, hate the U.S., believe men can be women, and think the Jews are the central evil throughout the world. Most of these new voters are Democrats, but a sizable number are Republicans as well.
This is well well-known fact, and the Trump administration should (and is) trying to do something about it.
But despite this real component, the 2025 Mamdani “Great Victory” is looking more and more like a fraudulent victory culminating from a campaign and its associates that, over the years, were conducting multiple (alleged) illegalities and “dirty pool” activities (activities which gamed the system but did not rise to actual illegalities).
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