WEDNESDAY: The lonesome arrest of Rep. McIver!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 2025

For basic chronology, start here: We return to the basic chronology of what happened in Newark, New Jersey on Friday, May 9.

It happened at the Delaney Hall detention center, a facility run by ICE. The events in question have produced an assault charge against Rep. LaMonica McIver (-NJ)—but also a rather large ball of confusion, even twelve days later.

Even as the event was unfolding, it triggered the standard lunatic conduct from inside MAGAWorld. The next morning, the claims by Homeland Security's Tricia McLaughlin got even crazier. For the basic background concerning these largely abandoned claims, see yesterday afternoon's report.

McLaughlin was making hysterical claims; over at the Fox News Channel, the children began reciting. That said, what actually happened in Newark that day? What was the basic chronology?

As fa as we know, a few basic parts of that chronology remain unclear at this time. As we noted yesterday, yesterday's report in the New York Times was a study in chronological incoherence. 

Amazingly, the Times didn't even report the account of the day's events which has emerged from Rep. McIver and her two congressional colleagues. We'll offer links below.

As we noted yesterday, the three House members appeared on several cable news shows from May 9 through May 11. Just to establish the basic state of play, this seems to be the basic chronology, at least as they have described it:

Basic chronology, May 9

With respect to the basic chronology, here's what the three reps have said:

The arrival and the sitting around: According to the congressional reps, they arrived at the facility seeking an unannounced inspection. They've described as their statutory right. It's obvious why an unannounced inspection might be preferable in many situations.

According to the House members, they were ushered into the Delaney Hall facility. For whatever reason, they say they were then left to sit in a room for an hour and a half without being allowed to conduct an inspection. 

The turmoil involving the mayor: After they'd sat around inside the building for roughly ninety minutes, the three House members began to wonder if they were being stonewalled.  In a way we can't describe, they then ended up outside the building. That's where the turmoil occurred, including the arrest of Mayor Baraka for alleged trespassing.

That trespassing charge against Mayor Baraka is now being dropped. It was also there that Rep. McIver engaged in the conduct which has now been termed a criminal act of assault. We haven't seen an account of the way the three congressional reps ended up back outside the building. 

At long last, the tour: After the mayor had been frog-marched away, the three House members were then escorted back inside the building and were finally given their tour. As far as we know, everyone seems to agree with this basic part of the chronology. If it's accurate, that means that Rep. McIver was allowed back inside and given a tour after she had criminally assaulted two (2) federal officers.

Those are the three parts of the chronology which seem to be in place. We'll also mention the three basic locales which seem to be part of this story:

Also, the three locales

Three different locales play a part in this story. These are the three locales:

1) Inside the facility—inside the building itself
2) Outside the building itself, but still inside the security fence
3) Outside the security fence—back on public property

Those were the three locales.

Who was where, and at what juncture? When did Mayor Baraka arrive? How did the scuffle get started? In what way did the three reps end up back outside?

Only the Shadow seems to know! For reasons only the Times can explain, yesterday's news report pretty much wasn't telling.

For extra credit only: Watch the House members describe these events!  We offer three opportunities:

On May 9, Rep. Menendez appeared on Deadline: White House. To see what he said, click here.

On May 10, Reps. McIver and Menendez appeared on The Weekend: Primetime. To see what they said, click this.

On May 11, all three members were interviewed on CNN's State of the Union. For the transcript, just click here. For videotape, click this.

This is known as "information gathering." It isn't stupendously hard.