As the U.S. reflects on the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, new details from a prominent Texas politician could upend the narrative surrounding one of the defining moments of his presidency: the Iran hostage crisis. According to reporting from The New York Times, former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes claims that a high-ranking member of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign took him on a secret diplomatic tour of the Middle East in a bid to damage Carter’s re-election campaign by convincing Iran not to release its 52 American hostages until after the election.

As former President Jimmy Carter nears death, an aging Texas politician has come forward to get something big off his chest -- claiming that, in 1980, he accompanied former Texas governor John Connally on a whirlwind Middle East tour aimed at keeping Americans hostage of Iran until after the presidential election that elevated Ronald Reagan to power. 

Countless people across the globe celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s greatness on MLK Day. However, one clip shared on Twitter reminded people that during Dr. King’s last years, he had many denigrators, including some Black Americans. 

One of his most vocal critics was Julia Clarice Brown – a Black woman who later proudly admitted to being an informant and agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

What happened next Mr. Barnes has largely kept secret for nearly 43 years. Mr. Connally, he said, took him to one Middle Eastern capital after another that summer, meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal.

Beyond the Death Wall and the prisoners` barracks, past the ruined gas chambers and crematoriums, at the edge of the Auschwitz death camp, is a row of 19 concrete memorials.

The memorials are dedicated to the victims of the Nazi killing machine that operated here with such horrific efficiency. But gone now from the memorials are the 19 inscriptions that said in 19 languages that four million people died here.

The memorials are blank because they were wrong.