On September 11, 2001, while thousands of people were trying to get away from the danger in lower Manhattan, my brother Stephen was heading straight toward it. His shift as a New York City firefighter was over and he was supposed to meet his brothers for a round of golf, but the moment he heard that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, he turned his truck around. For Stephen, there was never really a choice—people needed help, and he was going to help them.

My brother Stephen barely had time to think when news of a plane hitting the World Trade Center’s North Tower came across the scanner inside his black 1990 GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck just after 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001.

Perhaps that was fitting. In the few seconds that Stephen had to consider whether to keep driving from Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood—where his shift at FDNY Squad 1 had ended just sixteen minutes prior—toward Staten Island, where he was supposed to meet up with the rest of us Siller brothers and head down to central New Jersey and play golf, there was no decision to make. A major accident or attack had just occurred—and countless innocent people needed help. The only direction for Stephen to drive was not away from the fire, but straight toward it.

As golf balls rattled and his clubs whipped to the other side of the truck, Stephen quickly turned around on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, put his foot on the gas, and began racing in the direction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, where he could drive under the river to lower Manhattan. He could see the thick smoke emanating from lower Manhattan as he tore down the BQE, wondering exactly what had happened and how fast he could get there. Having known Stephen his entire life, I am certain that one question dominated his mind in those frantic yet simultaneously measured few minutes: How many lives can I help save?

FRANK SILLER: 'I LOVE YOU, BROTHER': THE 9/11 LOSS THAT INSPIRED A MISSION OF SERVICE

At some point while driving as fast as he safely could on the BQE, Stephen called his wife, Sally. He told her that some sort of aircraft had hit the World Trade Center and that even though he’d already finished his overnight shift at the elite Squad 1 in Brooklyn, he was now driving toward lower Manhattan instead of home. Right after he said "I love you" and started getting ready to put down his Nextel phone, Stephen also asked Sally to please let his brothers know that he wouldn’t be able to play golf that day.

Other than saving lives and the well-being of his wife and kids, I believe that there was an additional prominent thought going through Stephen’s mind as he got closer to the tunnel. This is no accident. This is a terrorist attack.

9/11 HERO’S MEMORY PRESERVED THROUGH MASSIVE EFFORT TO ‘DO GOOD’ FOR VETS, FIRST RESPONDERS: ‘HIS LEGACY’

For years, Stephen had told myself and others that it was only a matter of time before New York—and specifically the World Trade Center—would be targeted a second time by international terrorists. He also believed that it was going to be a lot worse than the 1993 bombing, which happened the year before Stephen became a firefighter. While my brother deserves credit for his foresight, his prediction was hardly unique within FDNY ranks, as many senior department leaders (like my friend Sal Cassano) all the way down the totem pole to firefighters like Stephen believed that another attack was imminent. Tragically, they were right.

Stephen’s golf equipment kept bouncing around as he maneuvered among cars like he would ordinarily do while driving his beloved red Chevy. Many of these vehicles had stopped right in the middle of the BQE to watch the terrifying events that were unfolding in the lower Manhattan sky. Stephen, who was urgently trying to reach the mouth of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, undoubtedly knew that anything could happen in the next few moments. Yet as Sally could hear in his voice, Stephen was undeterred. Nothing short of an ensuing nuclear missile attack could stop my brother from getting through that tunnel and reaching the Twin Towers.

WHERE TUNNEL TO TOWERS' STEEL ACROSS AMERICA TOUR WILL STOP AHEAD OF 9/11

Robin and Joe Raiso were sitting at that very spot at the mouth of the tunnel after witnessing the surreal sight of the first plane—American Airlines Flight 11—hitting the North Tower. Their car, which had almost made it inside the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel before the NYPD quickly shut it down, was now covered in soot. Even on the Brooklyn side, debris was raining down from a previously bright September sky that was suddenly clouded by smoke and fire.

Naturally, Robin and Joe were both baffled and scared by what they were seeing. They became even more frightened when they heard the screeching sound of a black pickup truck screeching to a stop beside them, on a median. If what was unfolding in the sky above them was some kind of terrorist attack, could the man getting out of his truck be a part of it? Was the tunnel about to be bombed or subjected to another kind of mass casualty incident? A million thoughts raced through Robin’s and Joe’s worried minds.

NYPD CHIEF: 9/11 HEROES’ LEGACY LIVES ON IN EVERY GENERATION OF OFFICERS

That was when they saw my brother. As calmly as possible in the middle of what he correctly assumed was a terrorist attack with sirens blaring, thick black smoke filling the air, and debris falling around him, Stephen got out of his truck, went around back, and started rummaging through the bay of his pickup. After maybe a minute or so, Stephen returned to the front side wearing sixty pounds of firefighter’s gear. Then, without hesitation, my brother started running toward the mouth of the tunnel.

A few moments later, Robin and Joe saw a few NYPD officers stop Stephen in his tracks at the tunnel entrance, which was completely blocked by police barricades. It didn’t take them long to realize that Stephen was indeed an FDNY firefighter, so they nodded, patted Stephen on the back, and let him through.

9/11 MUSEUM UNVEILS EXHIBITION FOR GENERATION TOO YOUNG TO REMEMBER THE ATTACKS: 'CALLED EVERYBODY TO LEAD'

"We were shocked and amazed. Everyone was trying to run out," Joe would later say. "He was running in." The last time Robin and Joe saw Stephen was when he ran full speed into the uncertain darkness of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Above him was fire, dust, smoke. In front of my brother was a 1.7-mile path through North America’s longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel toward the only thing in the world that mattered to him in that moment: the victims of what would soon become known as 9/11. With each step forward, even with that heavy gear on his shoulders and chest, Stephen was closer to helping the helpless.

9/11 DEATH TOLL KEEPS GROWING DECADES LATER AS TOXIC EXPOSURE HAUNTS SURVIVORS

It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine precisely what happened next. Because of Robin and Joe’s eyewitness account, I believe it is most likely that while Stephen was running through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the unthinkable—at least for most New Yorkers and Americans who weren’t part of the FDNY, NYPD, or intelligence services—happened in front of millions of eyeballs watching from the ground and on television screens across America. At 9:03 a.m., a second hijacked plane—United Airlines Flight 175—hit the South Tower.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

If Stephen was indeed inside the tunnel when the world as we all knew it changed forever, I can only imagine the tunnel shaking and the deafening sounds that Stephen must have heard. That terrible experience probably made him run even faster—not because he was afraid, but because he knew from the sounds of new explosions that thousands more innocent people were almost certainly in grave danger.

What I cannot imagine is what Stephen saw when he first reached the other side. We know that there was no light at the end of the tunnel—lower Manhattan was covered in darkness and filled with the sounds and smells of fire, smoke, and death.

For Stephen Siller, however, I do believe that he managed to find some light in that darkness. Even amid the chaos, I think my brother knew that his life’s defining moment had arrived.  Going backward was not an option—Stephen’s only direction was forward, toward the innocent people he wanted so desperately to help save.

Stephen’s final run through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel has come to represent everything he stood for: courage, sacrifice, and putting others before himself. In his honor, our family started the Tunnel to Towers Foundation to carry that spirit forward and support America’s heroes and their families. To learn more about Stephen’s legacy and our mission, visit T2T.org.

Excerpted from "LET US DO GOOD: My Brother Stephen, 9/11, and the Mission to Honor America’s Heroes" by Frank Siller. Copyright 2026 by Frank Siller. Published with permission from Broadside Books and HarperCollins Publishers.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM FRANK SILLER

When Americans mark 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Friday, Kathleen Palladino will remember the day through the eyes of a New York City 6-year-old who did not yet understand what she was seeing.

Palladino was a kindergartner in Brooklyn when classmates suddenly began being called over the school PA system to go home.

Eventually, her mother arrived to collect Palladino and her older sister, and as they walked home, the little girl looked toward Manhattan.

"It was like a dividing line," Palladino recently told Fox News Digital. "From the bridge backwards was just blackness."

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: 9/11 IS JUST A HISTORY CHAPTER FOR A NEW GENERATION OF AMERICANS

The other side of the afternoon sky remained clear and blue.

"Mommy, why is the sky black?" Palladino remembers asking. "She just kept squeezing my hand, and we just kept going," she said.

A quarter-century later, Palladino teaches nursery school at St. Patrick Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where her 3-year-old students were born more than two decades after the attacks that shaped their teacher's childhood.

She is one of several educators at the school whose memories of 9/11 stretch back to their own school days.

As the nation remembers Friday, they are teaching children about an event that remains deeply personal to them but that their students know only as history.

AS AMERICAN PRIDE HITS A 25-YEAR LOW, A NEW 9/11 EDUCATION PLATFORM URGES THE NATION TO NEVER FORGET

Their principal, Kathy Curatolo, carries an even more personal connection — she watched one of the towers collapse from a school roof that morning, unaware her youngest brother, 31-year-old FDNY firefighter Robert Curatolo, was underneath it.

For Palladino's young students, the lessons begin simply.

"I don't go into the events of 9/11," she said. "They are too young, and the scope of what happened is just beyond their understanding right now."

Instead, she teaches them what they can do when someone is hurting.

"Can we clean up our toys without being asked? Can we go give them a hug?" she said. "Anything to show the ones that we love that we're here for them."

MASSIVE PIECE OF 9/11 HISTORY MAKES STUNNING 10,500-MILE JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICA

For fourth-grade teacher Elizabeth Giacchino, 9/11 begins in her memory with a ringing telephone.

Giacchino was a sixth grader at Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Brooklyn when her teacher answered a call and told the class something had happened involving the Twin Towers.

"So many of my classmates around me just started screaming and crying because they had family members that were working in the city," she said.

Outside the window, Giacchino could see smoke. Parents began arriving, but Giacchino and her older sister remained because their mother worked at the school.

"All I wanted to do was just be with my family at that time," she said.

I LOST MY WIFE ON 9/11. PLEASE LET THIS 25TH ANNIVERSARY BELONG TO THE FAMILIES

Years later, after becoming a teacher herself, another memory took on new meaning. Giacchino remembered how calm her own teacher had remained while children cried around her.

"I don't even know if she was feeling some type of way or if there was any personal situation she was going through, because all she thought about was us," Giacchino said. "So that's what I always make sure to do with my students too."

Nikki Fregara, now a third-grade teacher at St. Patrick, was a high school senior when a phone call interrupted her first class of the day, history.

"I hate to tell you all this, but I'm afraid that the Twin Towers got hit," she remembers her teacher saying.

The students went to the window.

"We saw the smoke," Fregara said.

NYPD CHIEF: 9/11 HEROES’ LEGACY LIVES ON IN EVERY GENERATION OF OFFICERS

She remembers crying and screaming in the hallway and students gathering in the auditorium around a small box television to watch the news. Fregara worried about her father, whose work took him to buildings around the city, and her sister and brother-in-law, who worked nearby.

Today, she steers her third-graders away from the graphic details and toward the first responders who ran toward danger.

"Helping others is so important, especially when they are in need," Fregara said.

Her message to them is simple: "Never forget to be an everyday hero."

For Curatolo, however, the hero she tells students about was her younger brother.

Curatolo was headed to a principals' meeting on Sept. 11, 2001, when she heard on the radio that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. 

At the meeting, she and the other principals watched the second plane strike on TV before returning to their schools.

9/11 VICTIM'S IDENTITY EMERGES NEARLY 25 YEARS LATER AFTER DNA BREAKTHROUGH CRACKS MYSTERY

Curatolo had four brothers, three firefighters and a police officer, and her mother initially called with reassuring news: all four were OK.

Curatolo turned her attention to her students and eventually went onto the school roof.

"I saw the second tower fall, not realizing that tower killed my brother," she said.

Robert Curatolo had been an FDNY firefighter for six years and was assigned to Ladder 16 in Manhattan.

Kathy said Robert had just gotten off duty when the attacks began and headed toward the World Trade Center with two other firefighters in a police car. One survived, allowing the family to later learn some of what Robert did that morning.

AMERICA’S HEARTLAND COMES FACE-TO-FACE WITH 9/11 HISTORY AS 25TH ANNIVERSARY NEARS

Robert began directing dazed people away from falling debris, Kathy said. When the first building collapsed, he was in a walkway between the towers. Curatolo survived and then returned to the rubble.

Kathy said her family learned that Robert pulled a man with two broken legs through the debris and into the street. When the second tower collapsed, Robert dove beneath a fire truck, she said, but it could not withstand the collapse.

People have asked Kathy why he didn't leave after surviving once. "That's not who he was," she said. "That's not how we were raised."

Yet that is not the only Robert she wants her students to know. The youngest of eight siblings, Robert was funny, easygoing and athletic. He loved movies and traveling and was, Kathy remembers, almost always late.

"So he actually ended up at the Trade Center on time, where we're like, the only thing you ever got to on time," she said.

Robert had married at Disney World just three weeks before 9/11. The wedding was the last time Kathy saw him, though she spoke to him by phone the day before he died.

"I want them to know that Robert was — he was a regular kid growing up just like them," she said.

Curatolo remembers realizing around the 10th anniversary that students increasingly had no memory of 9/11.

"These kids have no idea what I'm talking about unless they learn it from us in school or their parents who had experienced something," she said.

Today, she said, children accustomed to smartphones and instantaneous communication are astonished to learn survivors sometimes couldn't contact their families.

She tells them about grounded planes, postponed baseball games and packed churches and remembers that after the attacks, "people were kinder to each other."

Twenty-five years later, Curatolo said she also wants students to understand that remembering tragedy does not mean allowing it to define a life.

"My brother is always with me, but I don't let 9/11 define me," she said. "You can survive a tragedy and still live a good life because the people who were lost don't want you to stop living your life."

Her family continues to honor Robert through a scholarship foundation, charitable work and support for Tunnel to Towers.

Kathy still counts him among the eight Curatolo siblings.

"There are eight of us," she said. "Four live in Florida, three live on Staten Island, and one's in heaven."

Finally, settling on a starting quarterback days before the NFL regular-season begins is not a good thing. It's not tactical craftiness to deny the opposition time to prepare, nor is it typically a choice between two good options.

It is a poorly veiled cry for help.

Meet the Atlanta Falcons.

FALCONS NAME SIXTH DIFFERENT WEEK 1 STARTING QUARTERBACK IN SIX YEARS

On Monday, the first day of their week's preparation for a Sunday season-opener at the Pittsburgh Steelers, they announced Tua Tagovailoa as their starter. But beyond that opener?

"I don't think it's fair to really go past this week on anything related to our football team," head coach Kevin Stefanski said.

Left unsaid is Michael Penix Jr. is advancing to a place where he can play in the regular season. So his starter status is looming.

Also unsaid: The Falcons are in some trouble.

The fact is, great teams typically get great quarterback play. It doesn't mean they have great quarterbacks. It means the ones they have play great.

Jalen Hurts is not a great quarterback. But he played great in helping the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl. Josh Allen is a great quarterback. But he hasn't played well enough, especially not in the playoffs, to get the Bills to a Super Bowl.

Based on that, we celebrate the Wednesday night kickoff of the 2026 NFL season with a ranking of what the league's 32 starting quarterbacks are likely to do in the next five months.

THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!

This is a predictive ranking of which QBs are about to ball and dominate. And which are about to curl up in a ball and disappoint:

32. Jacoby Brissett: He's a fine backup quarterback, but as a starter, he's a fine backup quarterback. 

31. Deshaun Watson: Unless he has a time machine that teleports him back to 2020, this isn't going to go well.

30. Tua Tagovailoa: Might not make it to Week 2 as the starter.

29. Cam Ward: He's growing as a QB, but he's far from full-grown.

28. Malik Willis: The 2026 Dolphins have rejected the idea of surrounding the QB with a good supporting cast and Willis will pay a price for it.

27. Geno Smith: It'll be better than the first NYJ stint (doesn't say much), but not good enough to lift his team above third place in the AFC East.

26. Kirk Cousins: This will work great if Brock Bowers catches 300 passes and Ashton Jeanty and Mike Washington Jr. combine for 2,500 rushing yards.

25. Tyler Shough: He's about to turn 27, so the kid gloves developmental period ends or else his replacement comes next season.

24. Jaxson Dart: Over-under on season trips to the blue tent is 4.

23. Bryce Young: Promises more improvement, which means a one-time draft bust might be really good in 2026.

22. Daniel Jones: Good in spurts but never consistently great.

21. Jalen Hurts: Great in spurts, but an excellent team needs him to be more consistently good.

20. C.J. Stroud: The defense is the NFL's best so just don't mess things up.

19. Trevor Lawrence: Last season was excellent but was it his ceiling? 

18. Aaron Rodgers: He needs to make his final NFL season entertaining based on how he plays rather than things he says.

17. Jayden Daniels: The failure to add enough bulk and offensive line injuries is a bad combination for someone wanting to stay healthy.

16. Baker Mayfield: He was supposed to be motivated by his search for a new contract but now must find something else to play angry about.

15. Justin Herbert: He has the arm, the work ethic, the coaching, but has not proven he's got the it-factor in the biggest moments.

14. Jordan Love: Production has declined each of the past two years even as he's been more careful with the ball.

13. Brock Purdy: We saw his ceiling in 2023 and the competition in the NFC West will make it very hard for him to reach that level again this season.

12. Sam Darnold: A good quarterback on an excellent team but it is a huge step to super-stardom.

11. Caleb Williams: If Luther Burden III is healthy and very good, Williams will be great. Otherwise, Williams will be merely good.

10. Bo Nix: Breakout season coming.

9. Kyler Murray: Career season coming.

RAIDERS NAME KIRK COUSINS AS WEEK 1 STARTING QUARTERBACK, FERNANDO MENDOZA WILL BEGIN CAREER AS BACKUP

8. Jared Goff: Underrated by many outside of Detroit, but this guy is consistently outstanding and that isn't likely to change.

7. Drake Maye: Last year was not a mirage. Next stop is super stardom.

6. Lamar Jackson: He can still carry his team, but the Ravens have failed to make the burden lighter so, more of the same.

5. Patrick Mahomes: This rating probably means I must move to Kansas. He remains arguably the NFL's most clutch late-game QB, but the magic of 2020-2022 has faded.

4. Dak Prescott: The only thing stopping him and his offense this year is injuries – or a Jerry Jones impromptu press conference during a drive.

3. Matthew Stafford: Nobody played the position better last season, but it's hard to predict he'll do it again at age 38.

2. Josh Allen: Last season was a bitterly disappointing regression, so a recovery this season is the expectation.

1. Joe Burrow: If he and his offensive teammates stay healthy, they have the best offense and best QB play in the NFL.

FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO

The direction of the Democrat Party is the talk of the 2026 midterms. Will it go farther left or somehow moderate? The simple answer is that Democrat Party will move even farther left.

As the nation considers this question, it is a mistake to look at the current Democrat Party in a vacuum. We should not be focused on individual candidates. The focus should be on the trend.

What is happening in the modern Democrat Party is the natural progression of parties on the left.

HOW THE 'LONG MARCH' THROUGH THE INSTITUTIONS LED TO SOCIALIST TAKEOVER OF DEM PARTY: 'NEED TO WAKE UP'

Consider this: In 1887, President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, vetoed a drought relief bill stating that "Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people."

Cleveland’s message was stark. Government was not our brother’s keeper.

A half century later, however, the times and the Democrat Party changed dramatically, with government support of the people at the center of their policies. The first major step toward occurred when Democrats used taxpayer dollars to provide government jobs under Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

A decade later, when passing the Employment Act of 1946, the Democrat Congress declared: "that it is the continuing policy and responsibility of the federal government to use all practicable means…to promote maximum employment."

The second major step came during the 1960s with the Democrats' passage of Great Society legislation, which changed Democrats’ focus from jobs to welfare. Since then, the size of the welfare state has exploded. All the while, the Democrats have convinced voters they could vote themselves rich.

Here is why there will be no turning back from that for the Democrat Party.

Government is the largest industry in America today – by far. Tech is less than 10% of the economy. Government spending, local, state and federal, is around 35% of the economy.

HOUSE GOP LAUNCHES PROBE INTO 5 MAJOR LABOR UNIONS OVER DEM SPENDING DESPITE MAGA MEMBERSHIP BASE

Our governments are also the largest employers in the United States. One third of all those government employees are unionized. Their bounty of union dues is then used to make campaign contributions to Democrats. Indeed, over 95% of government union contributions go to Democrats.

The Democrats know that unions seek to grow their ranks, which would result in even larger amounts of political donations for Democrats. The Democrat Party is not going to bite that hand that feeds them. As a result, the Democrats will remain the party of ever larger government employment.

SCANDALS, SOCIALISTS AND TRUMP ROIL PRIMARIES, SEND INCUMBENTS PACKING AT NEAR-RECORD PACE

As I wrote recently, the political parties have lost control over campaign spending. We live in the age of the super PACs, which includes union PACs.

MEET THE FAR-LEFT INSURGENTS WAGING WAR ON THE DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT IN 2026 MIDTERMS

In the olden days, before 2010 and Citizens United, the political parties were the super PACs. The parties received the vast majority of contributions and decided which candidates got money and endorsements.

Now super PACs fund the candidates more than the political parties. As a result, socialist/communist candidates like New York Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who were not favored by the Democrat Party establishment, can overcome the party influence and win major offices and primaries.

'SQUAD' SOCIALIST SCORES RE-ELECTION NOD AS RADICAL WAVE CONTINUES TO SWEEP PARTY

This cycle, the success of candidates not preferred by the Democrat Party is almost exclusively on the left, in significant part, because the party lost control to super PACs and the reasons below.

It is the nature of political parties that (a) the base of each party is more to the left or right of their party’s establishment, and (b) is more politically active and motivated than their party’s establishment.

They also show up in greater numbers to vote in party primaries than the moderate voters of their party. That has always been so.

That gives the edges of both parties a greater say on who wins primaries. In today’s Democrat Party, that means the far left of their party is deciding primaries. They also want to move the party further left.

According to a 2025 Gallup poll, among liberal Democrats, 45% wanted their party to become more liberal, 22% wanted it to stay the same and 30% wanted it to become more moderate. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents overall, however, 45% wanted the party to become more moderate, 29% wanted it to become more liberal and 22% wanted it to stay the same.

Among liberal Democrats, that means 67% wanted the party to remain as liberal as it was or become more liberal.

According to a 2025 Gallup poll, "Liberal Democrats would prefer that their party become more liberal (45%) or stay the same as it is now (22%) rather than be more moderate (30%)."

That means 67% of liberal Democrats like how liberal the Democrat Party is now or want it to be more liberal.

Elections are about the future. Almost all voters want to know what you are going to do for them tomorrow.

For Democrats, who have been promising government assistance to voters for 90 years, with each new election and each new candidate, the only path to victory has become promising more than whatever was promised yesterday.

They are not alone in that addictive spiral toward socialism.

That was the path of the Labor Party of England over the last century. Long before that, it was the path of those on the left just before the end of the ancient Greek Democracy and the left in the years before the end of the Roman Republic.

Stated simply, there is no path to victory for a Democrat candidate who promises to spend less. History also demonstrates that today’s socialist is never extravagant enough for tomorrow’s socialist.

Finally, socialists and communists rarely change their stripes. Note how the 1901 platform of the first Socialist Party of America reads like the DSA platform of today, including this 125-year-old pledge: "The collective ownership of all means of transportation and communication and all other public utilities as well as of all industries controlled by monopolies, trusts, and combines."

Also, reaching the socialist goal has always meant ever greater government control of the economy. As that occurs, the economy weakens under the burdens of big government, employment then lags under weak economic growth and the calls for ever-larger welfare state grow louder.

That is a lesson of history.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

At the center of that dynamic has always been the Party of Government. That is the Democrat Party of today, which is repeating an age-old pattern in pursuit of power.

So, do not expect the modern Democrat Party to change direction. It has been more than 100 years in the making, and it is gaining steam towards its destination – the Party of Socialism.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TOM DEL BECARRO 

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier says his office will seek the death penalty for the two adults who allegedly confined four children to the cab of a tractor-trailer, some for more than six years, and sexually abused them.

Keisha Monique Epps, 51, and Tamra Marshon Stewart, 37, have been charged with sexual battery, molestation and neglect of two girls and two boys – two 5-year-olds, a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old, Uthmeier said.

Epps and Stewart, who has been identified as her fiancé, had been living in the cab with the children. Epps worked as a truck driver, frequenting a route between Miami and Atlanta, according to court documents.

FLORIDA COUPLE ALLEGEDLY HELD FOUR CHILDREN IN TRACTOR-TRAILER CAB FOR NEARLY SEVEN YEARS

"These children were trapped in a rolling prison and abused by the adults who were supposed to protect them," Uthmeier said.

"We will pursue with everything we have the death penalty. We will seek executions, if you want to come in here [in Florida] and you want to physically molest, abuse, and violate our little kids."

Florida law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty for adults convicted of sexual battery against a child younger than 12.

The two girls were sexually abused by Stewart for years, Uthmeier said. When the two boys witnessed sexual abuse and confronted Stewart, he "beat them by punching them in their heads," reports show.

The children told authorities that they had told Epps about the sexual abuse and saw her witness it. She called one of the children "derogatory names" and continued to leave them alone with Stewart, reports show.

Stewart told investigators he had committed three sexual batteries against one of the girls, according to Uthmeier’s office.

One of the children was found to have an untreated sexually transmitted infection, Uthmeier’s office said.

But the horrors allegedly went far beyond sexual abuse.

The couple confined the children in the truck cab without "time to take showers, use the restroom" or "exercise outside," investigators wrote in their reports.

FLORIDA-LED OPERATION RESCUES 163 CHILDREN AROUND GLOBE IN HISTORIC STATE SWEEP, HUNTS SUSPECTED PREDATORS

"This case is one of, if not the most, horrific that my team has ever had to work on," Uthmeier said at a news conference in Kissimmee, Florida, on Sept. 1.

Over the years of their imprisonment, the children were forced to "use the bathroom" in cups and paper bags, he said. When making stops, "the adults would go to the restroom," Uthmeier said. "They might take a shower, but they would leave the kids locked in this rolling dungeon."

"As a result of the abuse" over the years, he said, the children "suffer severe physical infirmities."

The children were kept inside the vehicle "for the majority of their days," court records show.

The children said they hadn’t been "allowed to attend school for approximately five years," according to an arrest report. A detective on the case reported the children were "walking with an unnatural gait from being confined to the cab."

FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X

They were "fed poorly," and they never received medical or dental care—even for emergencies, the report shows.

Two of the children suffered untreated burns that left significant scarring, according to Uthmeier's office.

One of the girls recalled a time she "burned herself badly with cooked noodles."

SIGN UP TO GET THE LATEST TRUE CRIME NEWS

"There was a lot of blood," the girl told investigators.

LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Neither Stewart nor Epps took her to get medical treatment, she told investigators. Now, she has a "permanent scar" from the burn, court records show.

SEND US A TIP

Stewart was in charge of supervising the children when Epps was sleeping, showering and driving the truck, the children said.

GOT A TIP?

All four shared a bunk in the cab so small that they had to lie "curled up side by side," reports show.

LISTEN TO THE NEW 'CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO' PODCAST

Stewart is charged with "two counts of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of battery of a child by expelling certain fluids or materials, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, and two counts of child neglect causing permanent disfigurement," according to Uthmeier’s office.

GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL

Epps is charged with "two counts of sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority, two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12, two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, two counts of child neglect causing permanent disfigurement, and four counts of failure to report child abuse."

Epps and Stewart were arrested on Aug. 6. On Sept. 3, both were held in the Duval County Jail.

The Duval County Office of the Public Defender is representing Stewart, and Epps is represented by Florida’s Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel.

Neither office responded to a request for comment before publication.

A political earthquake is brewing in Germany's east as working-class and young voters appear set to deliver an unprecedented victory for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Sunday’s state elections in Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD, which was famously backed by Elon Musk in last year’s national election, has been criticized for being pro-Russia and was accused of being a "right-wing extremist endeavor" by Germany’s domestic intelligence office, has the chance to become the first party outside the mainstream center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) or center-right Christian Democratic Union and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), to win an outright majority in a German state parliament, or Landtag, since World War II.

"The reason Saxony-Anhalt matters," foreign policy expert and author Daniel Schatz, who holds a doctorate in political science from Berlin's Humboldt University, told Fox News Digital, "is that the AfD is no longer just knocking on the door of power. It may be close to kicking it open."

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FAR-LEFT PROTESTERS CLASH WITH POLICE IN ANTI-CONSERVATIVE PARTY RIOTS

Other minor parties have led governing coalitions in German states, but no party outside the SPD or the CDU and the CSU has ever held a single-party governing majority in Germany since the Federal Republic was re-established in 1949.

Janek Treiber, a political science researcher at Dresden University of Technology, told Fox News Digital that if the AfD does win outright in Saxony-Anhalt, their policy influence would be limited due to the German federal system, but warned "you must not underestimate the political symbol this would give. That a single party, and a right-wing party, could rule a German state… The symbol that these parties, that have been ruling Germany since 1949 or the East since 1990, they now lose control. They now lose power. I think this is a much more important symbol than just saying, OK, (the) AfD will change this or that in its local school system or university system."

Schatz described the AfD "a nationalist, anti-immigration party on the far right that has become a powerful vehicle for voter anger at Germany’s political establishment — especially in the former East Germany. It campaigns for much tighter immigration, a stronger emphasis on German national identity, rejection of much of the green agenda and a softer line toward Russia."

An outright win for the AfD, even in Germany’s 6th smallest state, would break through the political establishment’s so-called "Brandmauer," or "firewall." Simply put, other parties refuse to work with the AfD, which is currently the second-largest party in the Bundestag, officially the opposition party, after winning 20.8% of the vote in the February 2025 federal election.

'SEND THEM BACK' CHANTS ROCK EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AFTER LANDSLIDE VOTE TO SPEED UP DEPORTATIONS

In an interview on German broadcaster ZDF, the AfD’s national co-chair, Alice Weidel, advocated for closing Germany’s borders and exiting Europe’s Schengen treaty, saying, "Illegal migration, unchecked open borders, anyone can get in. Our internal security is suffering. People are honestly fed up with this situation."

Weidel added, "All Syrian refugees must have their protected status revoked because the reason for their flight no longer exists. These people must return to their homeland. If they don't leave voluntarily, then they must be deported by force." Adding that many of the 1.3 million Syrians in Germany are being naturalized, "we must stop naturalizing these people who should actually be leaving our country. We have Islamization."

GERMAN OFFICIALS WANT TO KNOW WHY BERLIN ATTACK SUSPECT WAS FREE DESPITE ALLEGED ISIS SUPPORT

In May 2025, Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) classified the AfD as a "confirmed right-wing extremist" group, citing "anti-migrant positions and an ancestry-based definition of German identity." This past February, according to Deutsche Welle, that classification was put on hold by a German court after "Judges found that while there was evidence of potentially unconstitutional statements and policies within the AfD… it said that there was not sufficient evidence to characterize the party as a whole as extremist."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently told state broadcaster ARD, "I cannot imagine international investors attending a ground-breaking ceremony with an AfD Minister-President to set up new plants and establish new businesses in Saxony-Anhalt… However, that is a decision for ​the voters in Saxony-Anhalt to make. The state will suffer ⁠considerable damage if things turn out as we now fear they ​might."

This has done little to damage the popularity of the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund. In a state of just over 2 million people, he has a TikTok following of over 700,000.

A Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) report said Siegmund’s "polished appearance and professional tone lend respectability, and radical demands blend with footage of a community-oriented politician responding to audience questions… The AfD’s physical presence in the streets and omnipresence in the media helps to push the common populist ‘us versus them’ narrative: The AfD is here for you, the other parties are not."

NEW GERMANY SEX-CRIME FIGURES REIGNITE MIGRATION FIGHT AS EXPLOITATION PROBE EXPANDS

According to the independent, non-partisan German website Wahlrecht.de, which tracks federal and state election polling, ahead of Sunday’s vote in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD holds a 41%-23% lead over the CDU, followed by three leftist parties. A party or a coalition needs at least half of the seats to control parliament and name a state Minister-President, essentially a governor. So how can a party with only 43% win an election outright? That comes down to Germany’s unique election system.

"German voters cast two ballots," Schatz says, "One for a local candidate — like voting for your congressman - and one for a party. That second vote, the party vote, is the one that counts. It decides how many seats each party gets in parliament." But there is a caveat: "Any party that falls below 5% gets nothing — zero seats — and those votes are effectively thrown out. Right now, several smaller parties are hovering right at that line. If they miss it, 42% or 43% of the vote can translate into more than half the seats. So Saxony-Anhalt could wake up to an AfD majority government even though a clear majority of voters chose someone else. That would be a first in postwar Germany."

The CSIS report said voters are drawn to the AfD "because, or despite of, its extremist ideology. 60.5% of AfD voters hold a right-wing extremist worldview… At the same time, more than two in five AfD voters think that the party does not sufficiently distance itself from right-wing extremist positions." The report also found that AfD’s "strongest recent gains have been among voters 18–25 years old, where the party tripled its results compared to the 2021 national election."

Treiber said economics is pushing younger voters to the AfD, due to rising expenses and unemployment. He also said that younger voters are "kind of polarized because the other part of the youth in Germany is voting for the left party (Die Linke)."

Saxony-Anhalt may just be the beginning for the anti-establishment parties. Voters in neighboring Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where former Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up and began her political career, go to the polls in two weeks. Polling data from Wahlrecht.de shows the AfD leading the ruling SPD 35%-32% there. 

Conversely, in Berlin, where voters in the capital also go to the polls in two weeks, the average of recent polling has the far-left Die Linke in a dead heat with the CDU at 20%, followed by the AfD at 18%, with the Greens and the SPD each around 15%. While the majority of the AfD’s support does come from the former East Germany, the party is represented in 14 of Germany’s 16 state legislatures and holds 15 of Germany’s 96 seats in the European Parliament.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway on Friday filed an emergency appeal urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the new congressional map backed by President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders to be used in November's midterm election.

The appeal comes after Missouri's high court blocked the redistricting map and ordered a statewide vote in November on whether to keep it.

Hanaway asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the state high court's decision immediately.

"We have just appealed yesterday's catastrophic ruling to the Supreme Court of the United States. We look forward to the Court's prompt review of this critical matter, as our ability to hold timely and lawful congressional elections hangs in the balance," Hanaway, a Republican, said in a statement.

MISSOURI HIGH COURT BLOCKS GOP-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL MAPS AHEAD OF MIDTERMS; TRUMP BLASTS 'RIDICULOUS' RULING

State law sets a Tuesday deadline to make changes to the November ballot. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who hears appeals of cases from the region and can decide alone or refer to the full court, asked opponents of the new map to respond to the appeal by Monday.

The Missouri high court ruling on Thursday was among the latest rulings in a national redistricting battle backed by Trump. The GOP had aimed to use Missouri’s new congressional map to help win an additional seat and hold onto its slim House majority.

The state Supreme Court ruled that the referendum petition, filed in December after opponents submitted more than 300,000 signatures, prevented the new districts from taking effect unless approved by voters.

Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins waited until primary Election Day last month to reject the petition, arguing that Missouri's constitution does not allow referendum petitions on congressional redistricting. A lower court sided with Hoskins, but the state Supreme Court overturned his decision.

"The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise," the court said in its ruling. The measure with the new districts "did not go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters."

Missouri’s new districts were used in the primaries last month, but the state Supreme Court said they cannot be used again unless voters first uphold the new districts passed by the GOP-controlled legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe last September.

Now, the congressional map adopted after the 2020 census "remains in full force and effect for the November 2026 general election," the court said.

Five of the seven current justices on the Missouri Supreme Court, including the chief justice, were appointed by Republican governors.

Hanaway said no other court has ordered congressional maps after a primary but before a general election.

"No court in American history has ever given such an extraordinary remedy, which inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri," her office wrote in the appeal. "Looking forwards, the State is genuinely unsure whether it can switch its governing congressional map in time to run a timely federal election."

DEMS DERIDED TRUMP'S MIDTERM GAMBLE — UNTIL HE ENDED UP WINNING BIG

Congressional districts are typically redrawn at the start of each decade, based on new census data, but Trump's mission to tip the scales in favor of Republicans in the midterm election sparked a mid-decade redistricting battle that spread to more than a dozen states across the nation.

Trump called Thursday's ruling "ridiculous" and argued it was unconstitutional, saying there will not be enough time to change the map before November's elections. Missouri's governor said he is "extremely disappointed" in the decision "by unelected judges and their lack of respect for the legislative process."

The new Missouri map targeted longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-area district by shifting it eastward to include rural right-leaning voters. The map was intended to make Cleaver's district more favorable to Republicans, who hoped it would produce a 7-1 advantage in the state's congressional delegation.

"More than 305,000 Missourians demanded a say in who will represent them in the halls of Congress," Cleaver said on Thursday. "Despite the cynical and deeply shameful attempt to silence many of our neighbors, the people fought back and won. This reaffirms that the people should choose their politicians, not the other way around. Democracy prevails."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.