A Kentucky businessman attempting to replace former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is ripping the left’s woke trend of offering up “land acknowledgments,” arguing the narrative behind it is misleading and “anti-American.”

Nate Morris, a multimillionaire and former CEO of one of the largest software companies in Kentucky, argued in a video posted to X that America was “negotiated for” and “fought over,” not stolen as the left often claims. Meanwhile, Morris referred to the trend as “one more left-wing attempt to weaken America from within.”

“We bought Alaska from Russia and the Lousiana Purchase was purchased from France,” Morris pointed out. “We negotiated, traded and signed treaties covering millions of acres. Compare that to how Europe, Asia, or the Middle East shifted borders for thousands of years … the left wants to judge America by standards no other nation in history could meet.”

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Meanwhile, Morris blasted those on the left engaging in these land acknowledgments for not even knowing the history of the American-Indians they claim to want to defend. 

“The Apache and the Sioux – they weren’t into Disney movies – they were warrior nations. Heck, even the Comanche were cave dwellers in Wyoming until they got horses and conquered half of the United States,” Morris pointed out, adding that it is peculiar how “all the people trying to acknowledge this land” aren’t leaving it. 

Morris continued that anyone who tells you America was “stolen,” not “conquered,” is either trying to “rewrite history” or “make America weaker.”

“It was fought over, and it was settled by ancestors who believed in private industry and law and order – manifest destiny,” the Senate candidate argued.

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As a Republican, Morris likely has many supporters that agree with his take on the left’s “land acknowledgments,” but even some Democrats have called out the trend. 

Several months after Republicans ushered in a red wave during the 2024 elections, veteran Democratic Party strategist James Carville blasted his own party when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) opened a high-profile meeting in Minneapolis with a “land acknowledgment,” calling it the kind of gesture that has cost Democrats elections.

“Please stop this, in the name of a just, merciful God,” Carville pleaded. “Don’t you see what’s happening? Don’t you see where this has brought us to? For God’s sake, lady. And what is [DNC chairman] Ken Martin doing, doing that? You don’t have but one job, kid! It’s to win!”

Meanwhile, liberal talk show host Bill Maher also weighed in on the fad ahead of this year’s elections in November, which ultimately saw more Democrat victories than Republican, but not long after the Republicans achived their red wave during the 2024 elections. He agreed with Carville that the gesture could be hurting Democrats electorally. 

“Democrats, if you ever want to win an election again, the absolute most important first step is to stop doing this,” Maher said during a monologue in March on his show “Real Time with Bill Maher.”   

“Either give the land back or shut the f—k up,” Maher continued. “Look, I understand the desire to right the wrongs of the past, especially when you get to take the moral high ground and then build an 8,000 square foot mansion on it.”

Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — No one seems to know what happened to Vicente Ventura Aguilar.

A witness told his brother and attorneys that the 44-year-old Mexican immigrant, who doesn’t have lawful immigration status, was taken into custody by immigration authorities on Oct. 7 in SouthLos Angeles and suffered a medical emergency.

But it’s been more than six weeks since then, and Ventura Aguilar’s family still hasn’t heard from him.

The Department of Homeland Security said 73 people from Mexico were arrested in the Los Angeles area between Oct. 7 and 8.

“None of them were Ventura Aguilar,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant Homeland Security public affairs secretary.

“For the record, illegal aliens in detention have access to phones to contact family members and attorneys,” she added.

McLaughlin did not answer questions about what the agency did to determine whether Ventura Aguilar had ever been in its custody, such as checking for anyone with the same date of birth, variations of his name, or identifying detainees who received medical attention near the California border around Oct. 8.

Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center who is representing Ventura Aguilar’s family, said DHS never responded to her inquiries about him.

“There’s only one agency that has answers,” she said. “Their refusal to provide this family with answers, their refusal to provide his attorneys with answers, says something about the lack of care and the cruelty of the moment right now for DHS.”

His family and lawyers checked with local hospitals and the Mexican consulate without success. They enlisted help from the office of Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose staff called the Los Angeles and San Diego county medical examiner’s offices. Neither had someone matching his name or description.

The Los Angeles Police Department also told Kamlager-Dove’s office that he isn’t in their system. His brother, Felipe Aguilar, said the family filed a missing person’s report with LAPD on Nov. 7.

“We’re sad and worried,” Felipe Aguilar said. “He’s my brother and we miss him here at home. He’s a very good person. We only hope to God that he’s alive.”

Felipe Aguilar said his brother, who has lived in the U.S. for around 17 years, left home around 8:15 a.m. on Oct. 7 to catch the bus for an interview for a sanitation job when he ran into friends on the corner near a local liquor store. He had his phone but had left his wallet at home.

One of those friends told Felipe Aguilar and his lawyers that he and Ventura Aguilar were detained by immigration agents and then held at B-18, a temporary holding facility at the federal building in downtown Los Angeles.

The friend was deported the next day to Tijuana. He spoke to the family in a phone call from Mexico.

Detainees at B-18 have limited access to phones and lawyers. Immigrants don’t usually turn up in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement online locator system until they’ve arrived at a long-term detention facility.

According to Felipe Aguilar and Toczylowski, the friend said Ventura Aguilar began to shake, went unconscious and fell to the ground while shackled on Oct. 8 at a facility near the border. The impact caused his face to bleed.

The friend said that facility staff called for an ambulance and moved the other detainees to a different room. Toczylowski said that was the last time anyone saw Ventura Aguilar.

She said the rapid timeline between when Ventura Aguilar was arrested to when he disappeared is emblematic of what she views as a broad lack of due process for people in government custody under the Trump administration and shows that “we don’t know who’s being deported from the United States.”

Felipe Aguilar said he called his brother’s cell phone after hearing about the arrests but it went straight to voicemail.

Felipe Aguilar said that while his brother is generally healthy, he saw a cardiologist a couple years ago about chest pain. He was on prescribed medication and his condition had improved.

His family and lawyers said Ventura Aguilar might have given immigration agents a fake name when he was arrested. Some detained people offer up a wrong name or alias, and that would explain why he never showed up in Homeland Security records. Toczylowski said federal agents sometimes misspell the name of the person they are booking into custody.

Vicente Ventura Aguilar, who has been missing since Oct. 7, had lived in the United States for 17 years, his family said.

(Family of Vicente Ventura Aguilar)

But she said the agency should make a significant attempt to search for him, such as by using biometric data or his photo.

“To me, that’s another symptom of the chaos of the immigration enforcement system as it’s happening right now,” she said of the issues with accurately identifying detainees. “And it’s what happens when you are indiscriminately, racially profiling people and picking them up off the street and holding them in conditions that are substandard, and then deporting people without due process. Mistakes get made. Right now, what we want to know is what mistakes were made here, and where is Vicente now?”

Surveillance footage from a nearby business reviewed by MS NOW shows Ventura Aguilar on the sidewalk five minutes before masked agents begin making arrests in South Los Angeles. The footage doesn’t show him being arrested, but two witnesses told the outlet that they saw agents handcuff Ventura Aguilar and place him in a van.

In a letter sent to DHS leaders Friday, Kamlager-Dove asked what steps DHS has taken to determine whether anyone matching Ventura Aguilar’s identifiers was detained last month and whether the agency has documented any medical events or hospital transports involving people taken into custody around Oct. 7-8.

“Given the length of time since Mr. Ventura Aguilar’s disappearance and the credible concern that he may have been misidentified, injured, or otherwise unaccounted for during the enforcement action, I urgently request that DHS and ICE conduct an immediate and comprehensive review” by Nov. 29, Kamlager-Dove wrote in her letter.

Kamlager-Dove said her most common immigration requests from constituents are for help with visas and passports.

“Never in all the years did I expect to get a call about someone who has completely disappeared off the face of the earth, and also never did I think that I would find myself not just calling ICE and Border Patrol but checking hospitals, checking with LAPD and checking morgues to find a constituent,” she said. “It’s horrifying and it’s completely dystopian.”

She said families across Los Angeles deserve answers and need to know whether something similar could happen to them.

“Who else is missing?” she said.