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For Immediate Release
July, 20 2023, 02:56pm EDT
Contact:
press@groundworkcollaborative.org
Groundwork's Lindsay Owens Applauds White House for Tackling Corporate Price Gouging
Yesterday, the Biden Administration announced new guidelines for corporate mergers and took steps to crack down on junk fees and price gouging in the food industry. Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, responded with the statement below:
“For too long, big corporations have hiked up prices to feed their record profit margins while families struggle to put food on the table. We applaud the White House for tackling the root cause of higher prices at the checkout line: corporate price gouging.”
The Groundwork Collaborative is dedicated to advancing a coherent and persuasive progressive economic worldview and narrative capable of delivering meaningful opportunity and prosperity for everyone. Our work is driven by a core guiding principle: We are the economy. Groundwork Collaborative envisions an economic system that produces strong, broadly shared prosperity and power for all people, not just a wealthy few.
LATEST NEWS
‘Hegseth Wants State Media’: Pentagon Chief Says He Can’t Wait for Son of Pro-Trump Billionaire to Control CNN
In a tirade against media coverage of the Trump administration's illegal assault on Iran, Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better."
Mar 13, 2026
Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth used part of his Friday press conference to complain about what he described as negative and "fake" news stories about the administration's illegal war on Iran, openly pining for the day the son of billionaire Trump donor Larry Ellison takes control of CNN.
"The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better," said Hegseth, pointing specifically to CNN's report Thursday that "the Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation."
"CNN doesn't think we thought of that," said Hegseth, a former Fox News host who is facing mounting backlash over the US military's bombing of an Iranian elementary school on the first day of the war and poor strategic planning overall.
"It's a fundamentally unserious report," Hegseth added.
Watch:
Hegseth: "Some in the press just can't stop. Allow me to make a few suggestions. People look at the TV and they see banners, headlines -- I used to be in that business, I know everything is written intentionally. For example, a banner -- 'Mideast War Intensifies.' What should the… pic.twitter.com/mbz70e7SsY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2026
David Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Skydance, which is poised to acquire CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery after a lengthy bidding war with Netflix. The deal still must receive regulatory approval from the Trump administration and in Europe, and some state attorneys general have vowed to closely scrutinize the agreement.
"Hysterical Hegseth wants state media," Jim Acosta, a former CNN anchor and White House correspondent, wrote in response to the Pentagon secretary's comments on the looming Ellison takeover.
Hegseth rejected as "patently ridiculous" the notion that the Trump administration—whose deadly incompetence has been on full display since the start of the war—would fail to adequately plan for Iran to retaliate against a military attack by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a route through which roughly 20% of the world's oil supply travels each year.
"Don't need to worry about it," Hegseth said Friday of the strait's closure, as oil prices skyrocket.
Hegseth's latest attack on the US media, which he called insufficiently "patriotic," came days after it was revealed that the Pentagon decided to bar press photographers from briefings about the Iran war after the secretary's staff reportedly deemed some of the photos taken during a March 2 briefing "unflattering."
"I, along with print photographers, have been denied entry to cover today’s Pentagon briefing," reported Nancy Youssef, a journalist with The Atlantic, on Friday morning. "All other media were allowed in."
Mark Schoeff Jr., president of the National Press Club, called the Pentagon's decision to bar photographers from briefings "deeply troubling," saying it "runs counter to the fundamental principles of transparency in a democratic society."
"A government confident in its actions welcomes scrutiny. It does not restrict it," said Schoeff. "When the government decides which images the public is allowed to see, transparency is replaced by control. Accountability doesn't take place behind closed doors."
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'Pete Hegseth Needs to Be Fired—Immediately' After Slaughter of 150 Iranian School Children
Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren make the case for the urgent ouster of President Donald Trump's Defense Secretary.
Mar 13, 2026
"Pete Hegseth needs to be fired—immediately," argues US Sen. Chris Van Hollen in a video statement posted Thursday night alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who also backs the demand. Their joint call arrived as global outrage mounts over the bombing of a Iranian school on Feb. 28 that killed upwards of 175 civilians, mostly young children.
Warren cited preliminary findings of a Pentagon report out this week that determined the US was the highly likely culprit behind the school massacre in the southeastern city of Minab, she noted, "killing mostly little girls between the ages of seven and 14."
Human rights groups have condemned the bombing of the school—which had happened on the very first day of Trump's unprovoked attack on Iran—as a possible "war crime" that demands independent investigation. Trump, for his part, has repeatedly lied about the bombing, claiming it was Iran who bombed the school, despite having access to internal intelligence assessments that appear to say otherwise.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Wednesday said there was more than enough evidence to conclude that the US was behind the attack, with reports bubbling up from inside the Pentagon only helping to confirm what outside analysts had determined. "Trump should be impeached. Hegseth should be fired," Tlaib said. "And the administration must be held accountable in international courts for their heinous war crimes."
For Van Hollen and Warren, the massacre in Minab is only the latest and most gruesome example of the US military's bloodthirsty and careless conduct under Hegseth, whose time at the Pentagon has been marked by controversy and accusations of human rights abuses, national security blunders, and violations of international law as a matter of policy.
Pete Hegseth needs to be fired.
New reporting seems to confirm our worst fears: it was a US missile that struck the girls school in Iran.
That strike comes at a time when Secretary Hegseth has systematically weakened US protections against civilian harm by our military.… pic.twitter.com/A34bcLQI3w
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) March 12, 2026
"We had 'Signalgate,' where he put out troops at risk," says Van Hollen in the video, a reference to Hegseth using a public encryption communication tool to share national security details of a military operation that had yet to be carried out.
"We had him blowing up ships in the Caribbean," he continues, attacks that have killed over 160 people and been called nothing short of murder by human rights experts. "We had them targeting defenseless swimmers" who survived some of those attacks, said Van Hollen.
"That's right," Warren interjects in the video, "with no accountability" for any of that behavior. On top of all that, Van Hollen adds, Hegseth has "no idea what he's doing in this war in Iran. And now an American missile hit an Iranian school, killing about 150 innocent school kids."
Hegseth has aggressively denounced restrictive "rules of engagement" for the military—calling such guardrails "stupid" and disparaging what he has termed "woke" warfare. As The New York Times details Friday, Hegseth's entire career has been colored by his criticism of what he views as the restrictive nature of rules designed to curb atrocities. Now serving as Secretary of Defense, he has been empowered to put his theories into action:
[Hegseth] has tried to reshape Pentagon culture, reveling in lethality with “no apologies, no hesitation.” He has portrayed this approach as a “warrior ethos,” one that is tough and manly.
He came up as an Army infantry officer and, as he wrote in his 2024 memoir “The War on Warriors,” loathed strict rules of engagement imposed to minimize risk to civilians, seeing heightened standards for when his platoon could open fire as putting soldiers at greater risk on the battlefield. He blamed judge advocate general lawyers, or JAGs, for such rules — even though it is commanders, not lawyers, who issue them.
Mr. Hegseth later continued that line of thinking as a Fox News contributor and host and as an advocate for U.S. service members charged with war crimes. In his 2024 book, he questioned the need to obey the Geneva Conventions and derisively referred to military lawyers as “jagoffs.”
In the video with Van Hollen, Warren says the key reason behind the call for his immediate ouster has to do with Hegseth's hostility toward mechanisms designed to mitigate "civilian harm" during war time or other military operations.
As legislators, Van Hollen and Warren describe how they helped put in place stronger rules to prevent civilian harm. "Whenever the military is thinking about an attack," says Warren, "where there are civilians in the area and innocent people could get harmed, it's how to think through 'What are the risks? Are there ways to minimize the risks? Have we checked and double checked?'"
"But what did Pete Hegseth do?" asks Warren. To which Van Hollen answers: "Hegseth came in and he dismantled the whole system. He said they were 'stupid rules of engagement.' But we know rules of engagement are intended to prevent civilian harm, they're intended to prevent war crimes."
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Unlike Security Council, UN Experts Condemn US and Israel for Waging ‘Illegal War’ on Iran
“The US and Israel should stop waging and expanding wars, and considering themselves as above international legality.”
Mar 13, 2026
A dozen United Nations experts on Thursday denounced the United States and Israel for waging wars of aggression against Iran and Lebanon, a statement that contrasted sharply with a UN Security Council resolution adopted hours earlier condemning Iranian retaliation without mentioning the US-Israeli bombing campaign.
“The US and Israel should stop waging and expanding wars, and considering themselves as above international legality,” said the group of experts. The statement's signatories include Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory and a target of US sanctions; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, special rapporteur on adequate housing; and Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on the right to food.
The experts decried US President Donald Trump's push for the Iranian government's "unconditional surrender" and regime change, warning that such demands could "lead to prolonged war and enormous human suffering."
“No violations of human rights in Iran or elsewhere provide any legal or moral justification for an unwarranted interference with the sovereignty of a UN member state and an illegal attack,” the experts said. "Any loss of life in an illegal war is a violation of the right to life."
UN experts denounce aggression on Iran & Lebanon, warn of devastating regional escalation: "U.S. and Israel should stop waging and expanding wars, and considering themselves as above international legality”.https://t.co/yYhNfFUMvN pic.twitter.com/8Qv4OSeVEr
— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) March 12, 2026
The statement came as evidence of US-Israeli war crimes in Iran and Lebanon continued to mount and the humanitarian crisis sparked by the regional war intensified, with millions already displaced and around 2,000 killed—including many children.
On Wednesday, the UN Security Council adopted by a vote of 13-0 a resolution condemning "in the strongest terms the egregious attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the territories of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan," countries that host US military installations. Russia and China abstained from voting on the resolution, which did not condemn or mention the ongoing US-Israeli bombing.
Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday that "yesterday was a shameful day for the Security Council."
"Those members, especially Western, who constantly assert their commitment to protecting civilians, especially children, proved that these claims are little more than empty rhetoric," said Iravani. "They were unwilling even to condemn—or express concern over—the heinous crimes committed by the United States and Israel against innocent people in Iran, including the massacre of 170 girl students at a school in Minab."
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