Journalist Gets Caught Red-Handed After Claim of ‘Handmaids’ Standing Next to National Guard in D.C.

Crime in Washington, D.C. has dropped sharply since the National Guard was deployed to support local law enforcement. That should be good news for ordinary residents who are tired of carjackings, robberies, and violence in their neighborhoods. But for Democrats and their media allies, restoring law and order is apparently the worst thing to happen since Hitler invaded Poland.

Their latest tactic? Dusting off their favorite bit of political theater—The Handmaid’s Tale cosplay. On Wednesday, Huffington Post journalist Jennifer Bendery shared a photo supposedly sent to her by a “D.C. resident.” The picture showed two women dressed in red cloaks standing next to National Guard members inside Union Station, intended to suggest some kind of dystopian crackdown.

Here’s the problem: if you zoom in, one of the airmen is smiling and waving. Hardly the stuff of tyranny. The Guard isn’t running secret police operations; they’re simply standing watch. Their presence deters crime—because criminals are far less likely to carjack someone when uniformed National Guardsmen are on the corner. Local police still make the arrests; the Guard just provides backup and visibility. In other words, this is common-sense policing, not authoritarianism.

But the story takes an even stranger turn. If you zoom in further on the photo, you can see that one of the supposed “handmaids” appears to be Bendery herself. The glasses, hairline, and facial features all match. That means the “organic photo” sent to her by a “resident” may have actually been staged by the very journalist reporting it.

And here’s the kicker: Bendery has a pinned post on X lecturing others about the meaning of “gaslighting.” Yet she may have just executed one of the most blatant gaslighting attempts in recent political memory.

This is why trust in the corporate press has collapsed. Instead of celebrating safer streets, they manufacture outrage and dress up staged photos as grassroots resistance. It’s narrative over truth, theater over facts, and politics over public safety. Meanwhile, ordinary D.C. residents can breathe easier knowing that, for once, government is doing its most basic job: keeping them safe.