An engineer turns off the vent of a natural gas pump. Republicans in Congress want to turn off a Biden tax on natural gas, which they say will increase consumers’ energy bills. (Photo: Olga Rolenko/Moment/Getty Images)
Numerous Republican lawmakers have written to the newly elected speaker of the House asking him to repeal an emissions-reduction program from the Inflation Reduction Act, according to a copy of the letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, wrote the letter, which urges House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s Methane Emissions Reduction Program natural gas tax before the year’s end by including its repeal in a possibly forthcoming legislative package.
Pfluger and other prominent Republican signatories, such as Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Byron Donalds of Florida, and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, slammed the Methane Emissions Reduction Program as an excessive and unwieldy regulation that would stymie innovation and drive up costs for the American energy industry.
“The [Methane Emissions Reduction Program] is an inappropriate and highly unworkable tax on methane emissions,” the letter states.
“If implemented, the ill-conceived naturalgas tax will handicap technological innovation, reduce supplies of affordable energy, and increase both costs and emissions,” the letter continues, adding that “in order to lower costs for American families, we must repeal burdensome regulation, secure supply chains and unleash American energy.”
The Methane Emissions Reduction Program imposes a tax on emissions beyond 25,000 annual tons of carbon dioxide or an equivalent amount of pollution, according to the letter. Companies will be forced to collect the relevant data and pay a fee of $900 for every metric ton above 25,000 starting in 2024, which increases to $1,200 per extra metric ton in 2025 and then $1,500 per extra ton in 2026 and beyond.
The tax is a “statutory codification” of the forced collection of emissions data under a specific sub-section of the Clean Air Act, according to the letter. The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to overhaul that particular section of the Clean Air Act such that the agency can increase the scope and costs of the Methane Emissions Reduction Program.
New fees or taxes on energy companies will raise costs for consumers, creating a burden that will fall most heavily on lower-income Americans,” the letter states. “In fact, this tax alone will drive up the cost of household energy bills for the 180 million Americans and 5.5 million businesses that rely on natural gas. At a time of persistent inflation and record energy prices, this increase is unthinkable for consumers.”
The EPA and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Democrats appear to be sticking by Joe Biden as their only presidential candidate for 2024 and don’t seem interested in any debates involving Robert F Kennedy or Dean Phillips of Minnesota. How’s that for upholding democracy? Shouldn’t voters have the ability to hear the opposition in order to make an informed choice within their own party?
There’s a lot of rigorous debating going on within the Republican Party that more closely resembles what democracy actually looks like, as opposed to the Democrats running their party like a communist politburo out of the former Soviet Union or Communist China. Democrats always seem to be in lockstep with each other, especially when it comes to policies that hurt Americans and their constitutional freedoms at large.
Israel is totally surrounded by the Muslim world and is constantly threatened with genocidal rhetoric, along with rockets being constantly fired on their innocent citizens every day from Gaza. The threat is instigated primarily by the Islamic Republic of Iran, a well-funded state sponsoring terrorism across the globe with the help of their branches, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Sadly, whenever Israel acts to defend their population against this barbarism surrounding them, the left in America and much of the world defend Hamas and these bloody acts of Terrorism. Many of the LGBTQ-XYZ groups are also protesting against Israel and defending the Hamas attacks against innocent civilians without any understanding that they themselves would be killed for being gay, lesbian, or trans in Gaza or in much of the Muslim world.
The 1978 blizzard put the kibosh on “global warming,” so the climate scammers came up with “climate change.” That way, whatever way the wind blows, they’re always right! It’s like when the vax fanatics all started getting COVID: “Well, it would’ve been worse without the vaccine!” https://t.co/Mjjs8cxDXK
"Mom, this was $70 and you didn't even get anything"
"Before Covid my grocery bill was $350 per month, now it's $600 per month"
🔊 … 🤨
"They are inflating all of the prices and paying us poverty wages" "We cannot even afford to live in this country. We cannot even afford to… pic.twitter.com/ProA3yJEsq
Democrats have slowly changed what we consider normal in America. They have allowed for those that would need mental help to roam free under the disguise of being ‘bold’ and ‘different’ Democrats created the ideology that being different is independence. There is power in having… pic.twitter.com/Gok6Hk35qK
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) October 26, 2023
Thank you Sydney, Australia for this beautiful tribute to bring our hostages home 💔 pic.twitter.com/27OEpzBBfs
JUST IN: Hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman thinks college students have “s**t for brains” and is done donating to Columbia University after the school failed to fire a professor who called the Hamas attacks “awesome”
A woman in England was interrogated before being issued a penalty for praying silently outside an abortion clinic. Thought crimes will now get you punished in England pic.twitter.com/szq6ehephM
This is a great list.If the democrats dislike him, I am for him. America First Candidate! Thanks, Matt, for the information! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/uNRiLBmVRy
Why children can’t consent to puberty blockers in under 30 seconds!
Kids that choose 2 Oreos over $10,000 and still believe in the tooth fairy are being told they are able to make the lifelong decision to take chemical castration drugs.
Megan Rapinoe is gay & married to a Jewish woman. Yet she’s raising money for Palestine after the Hamas terror attack. Does she realize the people in Gaza would murder her for being gay and married to a Jew? Next level athlete stupidity: pic.twitter.com/tohhxWE4cB
🚨NEWS ALERT: An internal memo from federal officials warns that members of terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are likely crossing into the U.S. through Biden’s wide-open southern border ⚠️
Biden paid for his $3 million beach house in CASH. No mortgage. No loan. Cash. How did the poorest man in Washington get so rich? pic.twitter.com/yHmDYs4ZQ4
⚡️THE PEACE MAKER A President with the People, for the People. ▪️No Wars ▪️Booming Economy He EXPOSED them all, now they are coming after him and We the People!#TrumpGirlOnFire 🔥 pic.twitter.com/R8i8W0JPvo
The Pittsburgh-based U.S. attorney charged with screening evidence of Ukrainian corruption before the 2020 election testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Monday about the bureaucratic obstruction his team faced. The roadblocks detailed by former U.S. Attorney Scott Brady over the course of the six-hour hearing were so outrageous that at one point a lawyer for the minority party asked whether he was speaking in hyperbole. He wasn’t.
The situation Brady faced was also much worse than the media have reported to date, as the full transcript of the interview, reviewed by The Federalist, establishes. Here are the seven most shocking details revealed during Monday’s hearing.
1. FBI Drags Its Feet While Tying Brady’s Hands
Monday’s closed-door hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the DOJ and FBI’s handling of the probe into Biden family corruption, opened with Brady explaining that in early January 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr tapped him to vet evidence related to Ukrainian corruption. While he immediately moved to open a matter in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Brady testified that he didn’t believe the FBI opened its assessment until late March. Part of the problem, Brady explained, was that the FBI maintained it had to operate under the framework of the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) and that there was no procedure for handling a vetting assignment such as Barr assigned to the Pittsburgh office.
So, as Brady explained, he had a discussion with the Pittsburgh FBI agents about “how, in their administrative process, it should be characterized.”
“I said, ‘Well let’s all sit together around a table and talk this out; could you please share with me your DIOG,’” Brady testified, explaining the DIOG “is the FBI’s bible for their processes and procedures.”
The local FBI agents told Brady that someone from FBI headquarters directed the local agents not to share the DIOG with the U.S. attorney’s office. Brady’s response, as he relayed to the committee, perfectly crystalized the madness: “I’m a presidentially appointed United States attorney. We’re on the same team, part of the Department of Justice. What do you mean you can’t share your DIOG with me?”
“That’s what we were told, so we can’t, sir,” the local Pittsburgh FBI team replied, in his telling.
And they never did share the DIOG with him, the former federal prosecutor testified, explaining he instead resorted to finding an older redacted version online, and then referenced those standards when discussing with the FBI team how to open the investigation.
2. 17 Approvals Needed — and That’s Not Hyperbole
The FBI eventually opted to open an “assessment” for the material on Ukraine provided by the Pittsburgh-based U.S. attorney’s office. Under the DIOG, an “assessment” could only last for 30 days, after which it would need to be reauthorized. That meant every 30 days, the Pittsburgh FBI office needed to re-up the assessment, which normally wouldn’t be an issue, Brady testified, because a special agent’s immediate supervisor, a supervisory special agent (SSA) at the local field office could reauthorize an assessment.
But not in the case of the Ukrainian corruption vetting.
“In this case,” Brady testified, “it required 17 different people, including mostly at the headquarters level to sign off on it before the assessment could be extended.” Consequently, Brady explained, at times the FBI agents “had to go pens down sometimes for 2 or 3 weeks at a time … because they were still waiting on, again, on someone within the 17-chain signoff to approve.”
The ridiculousness of a 17-person approval was clear to even the Democrat attorney questioning Brady. After noting he had made reference to “17 layers of approval,” she asked: “Was that an actual number, or was that just hyperbole? Were there 17 boxes to check?”
“So it was our understanding, related by someone on the FBI team in Pittsburgh, that that was an actual number, that there were 17 approvals that were required to extend the assessment an additional 30 days.”
3. FBI Headquarters Had To Sign-Off on Everything.
Not only did more than a dozen individuals need to approve the renewal of the assessment, including many out of FBI headquarters, but Brady testified that FBI headquarters was required to “signoff for any investigative steps that FBI Pittsburgh was asked to take by” the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney’s office.
Brady reiterated this point, testifying: “It was my understanding that they could not take any steps absent the approval, the review and approval of FBI headquarters, not just the leadership of FBI Pittsburgh.” And later, when asked to elaborate on challenges with the FBI, Brady noted: “It was my understanding that FBI headquarters had to sign off on every assignment, no matter how small or routine, before they could take action.”
This level of signoff by headquarters was not normal, Brady confirmed, noting that in his experience, even in a sensitive investigation, the investigation is usually contained within the field office, with an SSA approving requests, or maybe an assistant special agent in charge or on occasion even the special agent in charge. But never in his career had Brady seen anything like this.
4. FBI Reluctance in Investigating
The former U.S. attorney’s testimony also made clear the FBI was reluctant to assist their investigation.
“It was a challenging working relationship,” Brady noted, saying he believed “there was reluctance on the part of the FBI to really do any tasking related to our assignment … and looking into allegations of Ukrainian corruption broadly and then specifically anything that intersected with Hunter Biden and his role in Burisma.”
When pushed on where the problems originated, Brady said, “It was somewhere at FBI headquarters,” but he “had no visibility into where that choke point was.” But it was somewhere below the deputy director and principal assistant deputy attorney general because whenever the FBI refused to cooperate, forcing Brady to elevate the issue to FBI headquarters or the DOJ, the issues were resolved by the various high-level officials.
Unbeknownst to Brady, that also proved to be the case when it came to his office briefing the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office on the results of his assessment. Brady testified that he had been trying for some time to arrange a briefing with the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office, only to learn later that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf had not wanted to take the briefing. IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley recently revealed that the meeting only came about after Main Justice ordered Delaware to meet with Brady’s team to be briefed on the results of their vetting.
5. FBI Headquarters Tells Pittsburgh Agents to Play Coy
“Reluctance” appears to be an understatement, though, as Brady further testified that a member of the Pittsburgh FBI team relayed that FBI headquarters had directed them “not to affirmatively share information” but rather “only to share information with [Pittsburgh] if we asked them a direct question relating to that information…”
That “is not typically how the investigative process goes,” Brady added.
That the FBI agents had directions only to share information with the U.S. attorney’s office if asked a direct question seems to explain Brady’s later testimony. The former U.S. attorney later testified that when the Washington field office discovered an older FD-1023 report that included a discreet statement mentioning Hunter Biden’s service on the Burisma Board, the Pittsburgh office requested to see the FD-1023. Apparently, relying on the FBI to convey relevant information to the prosecutors was not an option. In this case, that FD-1023 led to the confidential human source providing extensive additional information about the Bidens’ involvement and alleged bribe-taking from Burisma, so it is a good thing Pittsburgh asked to see the actual document.
When it came to the Hunter Biden laptop, however, Brady and his team of prosecutors didn’t know what they didn’t know, so they never asked whether the FBI had seized any of Hunter Biden’s electronic devices. With “don’t ask, don’t tell” being Delaware’s protect-Biden policy, the Delaware office opted against informing the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney’s office of the existence of the laptop. Rather, Brady testified that he first learned of the laptop’s existence when the New York Post broke the story in mid-October.
6. Delaware Refuses to Play Nice
Not only did Brady testify about the challenges of working with the FBI, but he also faced issues with the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office.
“[I]t was regularly a challenge to interact with the investigative team from Delaware,” Brady testified. “There was no information sharing” or “very limited” information sharing, from Delaware. In fact, “at one point, the communication between our offices was so constricted that we had to provide written questions to the investigative team in Delaware, almost in the form of interrogatories, and receive written answers back,” Brady testified.
“This was very unusual,” Brady continued, noting that “typical U.S. attorney to U.S. attorney office communications, even on sensitive matters, is fairly clear and transparent.” “We’re all professionals,” Brady explained.
Yet, with Delaware, the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney’s office had to resort to submitting a list of written questions to U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s team, which the Delaware prosecutors then responded to in writing, much as interrogatories are served on opposing parties in litigation.
Jim Jordan, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, asked Brady if he had ever seen anything like this during his time as an assistant U.S. attorney or U.S. attorney.
“Not where an office had to submit written interrogatories to another office for permission,” Brady said.
7. Lying About Brady
Another challenge he faced, Brady explained, was false representations being made to senior FBI leadership about what the U.S. attorney’s team was or wasn’t doing. “There was information that was being shared up that chain at the FBI that was incorrect,” Brady explained, and it rose all the way up to AG Barr.
Brady noted that while they resolved the issue, it presented an unnecessary challenge to handling the vetting process.
Of course, some of the same people likely used that same tactic by lying about the Pittsburgh vetting process to the press. And more recently, Democrats such as Jamie Raskin resorted to peddling falsehoods, such as that Barr’s handpicked prosecutor, Brady, had closed the assessment into the FD-1023.
During his Monday testimony, Brady also confirmed that Barr had accurately described the true scenario — that the FD-1023 had been passed on to the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office for further investigation — and that Raskin was lying, at I reported here in The Federalist.
But what else could a Biden apologist do but lie — after whistleblowers exposed the DOJ and FBI’s obstruction and the evidence of the president’s corruption?
Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. Margot’s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion (forthcoming), National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press. She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prive—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments—her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
The West is grappling with radical Muslims it voluntarily imported who march in the streets praising Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre as “liberation” of “stolen land.” Polling shows 57% of U.S. Muslims believe Hamas’ attack was at least “somewhat justified.” Pictured: Supporters of Israel rally in Times Square on Oct 19. (Photo: Ed Jones/Getty Images)
The weeks since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel—in which the most Jews were slaughtered in a single day than at any time since World War II—have seen an astonishing rise in global Jew-hatred. One might have thought that the mass carnage and unspeakable barbarism of the Hamas Holocaust would instead galvanize a concerted pushback against Islamic jihadism, but it is the ancient scourge of antisemitism—and not so-called Islamophobia—that is once again the world’s most politically correct and fashionable form of bigotry.
“In every generation, they rise up to destroy us,” Jews read in the Haggadah text every Passover, “but the Holy One, Blessed be He, delivers us from their hands.”
Now, less than 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany, today’s Nazis, an Islamist Reich hellbent anew on Jewish genocide, rises up to try to finish what Hitler could not. Like their brownshirt forebears, the jihadists will fail.
Our comfort in the Lord does not necessarily ameliorate the profound pain of the last few weeks, though. For many Jews, the appalling and disgusting mass demonstrations of support for the Hamas terrorists have been just as devastating as the Oct. 7 pogrom itself.
In Berlin—yes, Berlin—a synagogue was firebombed.
In Vienna, a one-time hub of Nazism, a synagogue was attacked and vandalized.
In Paris, a Jewish couple’s apartment door was doused with gasoline and set on fire.
In Los Angeles, a knife-wielding madman trespassed into a Jewish home while shouting, “Free Palestine.”
At George Washington University in the nation’s capital, student jihadists projected “Glory To Our Martyrs” onto the side of a school library.
At Cooper Union, Jewish students were locked in a library by pro-Hamas student demonstrators banging on the doors; the NYPD had to evacuate the students via underground tunnel.
In the heavily Muslim town of Dearborn, Michigan, Islamists thronged the streets while waving today’s swastika, the so-called Palestinian flag, and shouting for extermination of the Jews of Israel “from the river to the sea.”
Other examples abound.
There are many reasons for this dire state of affairs.
First, the chickens of once-fringe, leftist ivory tower piffle—such as critical theory and intersectionality—have come home to roost in a very menacing way. The avant-garde leftism of a half-century ago has led many to now justify, or outright cheer on, genocide perpetrated against the most genocide-d people in world history.
As this column observed in May 2021 during the last major Israel-Hamas conflict: “The American Left and the media organs it controls are exporting their paroxysms of ‘1619 Project‘ rage onto a foreign stage, expiating their ‘white guilt’ sins and armchair-quarterbacking a foreign conflict on a cosplayed chess board.”
It’s all just fun and games—no matter how many “eggs” are broken to make the “omelet,” to paraphrase Stalin-apologist New York Times bureau chief Walter Duranty.
But there is a second lesson from the past few weeks in addition to the harrowing real-world consequences of obscure leftist academic theories: the complete and total failure of mass migration.
For years, liberals and globalists have pushed for open-ended migration of people across borders, as if borders are entirely arbitrary (if not outright atavistic) and all cultures and ways of life are interchangeable.
As the West grapples with the very radical Muslims it voluntarily imported—hundreds of thousands of whom march in the streets of metropolises such as London and Chicago calling for Jewish genocide and thousands of others who lead vile “Students for Justice in Palestine” statements praising the Hamas massacre as a “liberation” of “stolen land”—it has become obvious that assimilation of huge numbers of non-Western immigrants into Western society is simply not working.
A shocking new poll found that 57.5% of American Muslims believe that the Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7 was at least “somewhat justified.” That is simply disgusting. Jewish day schools are canceling classes due to fear; the security needed at synagogues is now unprecedented. Jews all across America and Europe have not been this terrified since World War II. And the open-borders dolts who have peddled the insane notion that “all cultures are equal” bear much of the blame.
Many leading Islamists, such as the infamous “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel-Rahman, long counseled immigration to the West as one of the most effective ways of spreading the global jihad. For decades, Western liberals have been all too eager to assist.
Mass migration was always delusional; all cultures are obviously not equal, let alone interchangeable. Now, given the emboldened forces of jihadism the world over, it has never been more important to turn off the spigot. And for those subversive, fifth column actors already here, deportation and denaturalization must be on the table as the law permits.
There are monsters in our midst. They must be dealt with accordingly.
Josh Hammer, a syndicated columnist, is opinion editor of Newsweek and a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation. He also is counsel and policy adviser for the Internet Accountability Project and contributing editor for Anchoring Truths.
We all know that Biden isn’t running the show, and more than likely, it is Obama and hardcore left-wing zealots who are using Biden as nothing more than a meat puppet that can barely read their teleprompter. So, given the Obama administration in the past to institute weak red-lines, will the Obama-run Biden administration do the same?
The Biden administration has already shown to be weak when dealing with our adversaries like China, Iran, etc., so it’s a good bet he’ll be using the same old flimsy red-line rhetoric that Obama has used In the past.
After all many blame Obama and Biden for loading Iran with plenty of cash to institute terrorism around the globe.
Newly elected Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks in the House chamber after his election at the U.S. Capitol on October 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. | Win McNamee/Getty Images
Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives following three weeks of infighting among GOP members. He delivered his first speech as speaker Wednesday, stressing that God raises up those in authority.
SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: “I believe that scripture and the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you and God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time.” pic.twitter.com/IHAkeZb6hg
Johnson, 51, was elected in a 220-209 vote held Wednesday afternoon, in which all present Democrats voted for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and all Republicans present voted for Johnson.
The following features highlights of Johnson’s speech in the House chamber after his election.
A devout Baptist, Johnson said that he does not “believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this,” saying that “the Bible is very clear that God is the One that raises up those in authority.”
“He raised up each of you, all of us,” Johnson said to his Republican and Democrat colleagues. “I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment and this time.”
“This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country and they deserve it.”
Johnson said God called Congress to help “ensure that our Republic remains standing as the great beacon of light and hope and freedom in a world that desperately needs it.”
Johnson spoke about the national motto “In God We Trust” and how the words were placed in the House chamber as a conscious rejection of communism during the Cold War.
He stressed the value of the Declaration of Independence and its statement that “all men are created equal” by God, quoting Christian writer and apologist G.K. Chesterton, who once said that “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed.”
Johnson said that while he believes that right now is “a very dangerous time” and “the world is in turmoil,” he declared that “a strong America is good for the entire world.”
“We are the beacon of freedom, and we must preserve this grand experiment in self-governance,” he said. “We’re only 247 years into this grand experiment; we don’t know how long it will last.”
“We’re in a time of extraordinary crisis right now, and the world needs us to be strong; they need us to remember our creed and our admonition.”
Johnson touched on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, vowing that “the first bill that I’m going to bring to this floor in just a little while will be in support of our dear friend, Israel.”
“We’re going to show not only Israel, but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have all seen play out in our television screens is wretched and wrong,” he said. “We are going to stand for the good in that conflict.”
He also spoke of the dangers presented by the wave of illegal immigration and the ongoing fentanyl crisis, declaring that “we must come together and address the broken border.”
Johnson acknowledged that Americans “live in a time of bitter partisanship” and “it has been on display here today” in the House of Representatives.
“When our people are losing their faith in government, when they are losing sight of the principles that made us the greatest nation in the history of the world, I think we got to be mindful of that,” Johnson said.
“We’re going to fight; we’re going to fight vigorously over our core principles because they are at odds a lot of times now in this modern era. We have to sacrifice, sometimes, our preferences because that’s what’s necessary in a legislative body.”
Johnson noted that while “we will defend our core principles to the end,” noting that he considered the “core principles of American conservatism” to actually be “the core principles of our nation.”
“I boil them down to individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity,” Johnson listed.
“Those are the foundations that made us the extraordinary nation that we are, and you and I today are the stewards of those principles.”
During his speech, Johnson spoke about his father, who served as a firefighter in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, and how he had suffered a severe injury in 1984 that left him with a permanent disability.
“After the explosion on that fateful day, he nearly died, and it was a long road back. It changed all of our life trajectories,” said Johnson. “My dad, he lived with pain all the rest of his life.”
Johnson said his father died from cancer three days before he was elected to Congress in 2016, noting that “he wanted to be there at my election night so badly.”
“This was a big deal to him,” the new speaker explained, who added that in 2017, while he was serving as speaker pro-tempore, he felt that “somehow” his late father “knew” what he was doing.
“I just knew in that moment that my father would be proud of me, and I felt that he was. And I think all of our parents are proud of what we’re called to do here.”
Most people now realize that Iran is directly involved with Hamas and the recent attacks on Israel through the funding they have received from Biden, the $6 billion, and $58 billion through oil revenue when Biden ignored the embargo placed on their production by Trump.
This can even be traced back to when Obama was president, giving Iran pallets full of millions of dollars. Most of the money from Biden and Obama has most likely ended up in the hands of terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah that have killed Jews and Americans.
Obama has long been suspected of favoring Iran over the people of Israel and their welfare and having strong Muslim sympathies that may have been instrumental in his Middle East policies.
We have a New Speaker, Mike Johnson. Will he be the anti-RINO we all have been hoping for?
House Republicans came to their collective senses on Oct. 25 and elected U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as the new Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, ushering in new leadership three weeks after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted when 208 House Democrats joined a coalition of 8 House Republicans on Oct. 3 in removing his via motion to vacate the chair.
The vote among Republicans for once was unanimous on the House floor, with Johnson getting even more support than did McCarthy when he was finally elected in January. What remains to be seen is if Republicans will be able to keep the conference united when the House proceeds to imminent appropriations bills Johnson has promised to put onto the floor in the coming days and weeks.
In an Oct. 23 dear colleague letter to House Republicans prior to winning the internal conference election for the Speaker nomination, Johnson laid out the legislative calendar for appropriations for the next 18 months. Per the calendar, four appropriations bills will come up immediately in the next week: Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, Interior and Environment and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.
Four more would follow in the week after that, in time for the Nov. 17 when the current continuing resolution comes due. Johnson acknowledged that his proposed, expedited schedule for passage of appropriations was “ambitious,” and afforded that there might not be time to work out differences with the Senate.
If so, Johnson also offered another continuing resolution as a fallback: “if another stopgap measure is needed to extend government funding beyond the November 17 deadline, I would propose a measure that expires on January 15 or April 15… to ensure the Senate cannot jam the House with a Christmas omnibus.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
United States Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was elected House speaker with 220 votes on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier this month, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) led an effort to remove Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from speakership. McCarthy was elected House speaker earlier this year, but only after 15 rounds of voting. On October 3, for the first time in the nation’s history, lawmakers voted to remove a speaker. The following day, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced his plans to run for the position, but he failed to accumulate enough votes on Friday to secure a win.
Nine Republican lawmakers joined the race on Monday, including Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Byron Donalds of Florida, and Tom Emmer of Minnesota. Gaetz voiced support for Johnson, calling him a “good, godly man who’s going to advance Republicans.”
On Wednesday, three weeks after McCarthy was ousted, Johnson was elected House speaker with 220 votes.
“It is the honor of a lifetime to have been elected the 56th Speaker of the House,” Johnson wrote on X following the vote. “It has been an arduous few weeks, and a reminder that the House is as complicated and diverse as the people we represent. The urgency of this moment demands bold, decisive action to restore trust, advance our legislative priorities, and demonstrate good governance. Our House Republican Conference is united, and eager to work.”
“As Speaker, I will ensure the House delivers results and inspires change for the American people,” Johnson continued. “We will restore trust in this body. We will advance a comprehensive conservative policy agenda, combat the harmful policies of the Biden Administration, and support our allies abroad. And we will restore sanity to a government desperately in need of it. Let’s get back to work.”
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday added his name to the list of people congratulating newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who secured the gavel through a unanimous party-line vote, ending the weekslong impasse to pick a new speaker after the ouster earlier this month of Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the seat.
“Congratulations to Rep. Mike Johnson,” Trump posted on his Truth Social page, shortly after the House vote. “He will be a GREAT “SPEAKER.” MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
“My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!” Trump wrote in a post.
Johnson’s nomination came Tuesday, marking the fourth person to be nominated for the leadership seat. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., was nominated earlier in the day but dropped his bid, leaving the candidacy open for Johnson.
Trump, though, said he would not make an endorsement in the speakership race after offering his congratulations to other candidates, including “Reps. Byron Donalds (Florida), Charles J. ‘Chuck’ Fleischmann (Tennessee), Mark Green (Tennessee), & Roger Williams (Texas), & the ultimate winner of yesterday’s vote, by a significant margin, Mike Johnson (Louisiana).”
He said all of them had supported him “in both mind and spirit, from the very beginning of our GREAT 2016 Victory and commented that “In 2024, we will have an even bigger, & more important, WIN!”
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. He also said he was redoubling his commitment to working on a two-state solution to end the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Biden said the attacks by “extremist settlers” amounted to “pouring gasoline” on the already burning fires in the Middle East since the Hamas attack.
“It has to stop. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,” Biden said at the start of a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was being honored with a state visit to Washington.
Settler violence against Palestinians has intensified since the Hamas attack, and Palestinians have been killed by settlers, according to Palestinian authorities. Rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing them to evacuate to other areas.
The West Bank Protection Consortium, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations and donor countries, including the European Union, says hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the West Bank due to settler violence since Oct. 7. That’s in addition to over 1,100 displaced since 2022.
Deadly violence has been surging in the West Bank as the Israeli military pursues Palestinian militants in the aftermath of the Hamas attack from Gaza.
The violence threatens to open another front in the 2-week-old war, and puts pressure on the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank and is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, in large part because it cooperates with Israel on security matters.
Biden again condemned the brutality of the Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis and said that he was convinced that Hamas was driven in part by a desire undo U.S.-led efforts to normalize Israeli relations with some of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.
The president also said that after the Israel-Hamas conflict comes to an end, Israeli, Palestinians and their partners must work toward a two-state solution.
“Two State solution”. That is NOT a solution. The land the so-called Palestinians occupy was given them by Great Britton after Saudi Arabia kicked them out of the country. It is not their land. Naver have been their land, and God will demonstrate soon whose land it really belongs to.
“Israelis and Palestinians equally deserve to live side by side in safety, dignity and peace,” Biden said, adding, “When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next. And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution.”
The Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 6,500 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in retaliatory strikes. Biden said that it was critical for Israel to move carefully in its response to minimize civilian deaths.
“Israel should be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war,” Biden said.
Biden also that he has not directly sought assurances from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel will hold off on an expected ground invasion into Gaza before hostages can be released.
“What I have indicated to him is that if that’s possible, to get these folks out safely, that’s what he should do. It’s their decision,” Biden said at news conference at the White House. “But I did not demand it. I pointed out to him, if it’s real, it should be done.” About 10 Americans remain unaccounted for amid the Israel-Hamas war, according to the White House.
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Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
President Joe Biden conducts a joint press conference Wednesday outside the White House with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden voiced support Wednesday for Israel’s defense and warned against believing Palestinian estimates of casualties as the Jewish state continues to pound the Gaza Strip in retaliation for terrorist attacks committed by Hamas, which governs Gaza. During a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the Rose Garden of the White House, Biden also talked briefly about newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., China’s aggression against the Philippines, climate change, and the Russia-Ukraine war.
A PBS reporter asked Biden about Johnson, saying that after the 2020 election, the Louisiana congressman objected to certifying Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. On the House floor Wednesday, Democrats also attacked Johnson as an election denier.
The PBS reporter asked: “If you win reelection in 2024, are you concerned that Speaker Johnson would again attempt to overturn the election?”
Biden responded, “No.”
“Just like I wasn’t worried that the last guy would overturn the election,” Biden added, referring to his predecessor, President Donald Trump. “He had about 60 lawsuits. Every time, they lost. I understand the Constitution.”
During his opening remarks at the press conference, Biden asserted that Israel has the right and responsibility to defend itself after Hamas’ surprise attack Oct. 7 on Israel, massacring 1,400 and taking about 200 others hostage. The same PBS reporter told the president that the “Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed over 6,000 Palestinians, including 2,700 children.”
But Biden appeared skeptical of those numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry.
“What that says to me is that I have no notion the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people were killed,” Biden said. “I’m sure innocents have been killed … but I think we should be incredibly careful. I think the Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure they are going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel. It is against their interest when that doesn’t happen. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are giving.”
A reporter from the Australian press shouted, “Are they lying?”
What an incredibly stupid question. Gee. Do you think this reporter has an agenda?
On Monday, Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels in the South China Sea. The United States has a mutual defense agreement with the Philippines going back to a 1951 treaty.
“Just this past week, the PRC vessels acted dangerously and unlawfully as our Philippine friends conducted a routine resupply mission within their own inclusive economic zone in the South China Sea,” Biden said of China’s actions.
“I want to be clear. I want to be very clear. The United States’ defense commitment to the Philippines is ironclad. The United States’ defense commitment to the Philippines is ironclad,” Biden said, repeating himself. “Any attack on a Filipino aircraft, vessels, or armed forces will invoke our mutual defense treaty with the Philippines.”
Biden has been having a lot of problems with his dogs biting people at the White House. It seems as though Iran has a couple of dogs that are even more ferocious, but it seems as though they’re well-trained. Their names are Hezbollah and Hamas.
It appears these dogs, Hezbollah and Hamas, have been well fed by Iran with money paid to them by the US… Biden and the US gave Iran $6 billion or more and paid Hamas $6 million, not to mention the $58 billion Iran made from oil production unleashed by Biden’s policies. President Trump had put restrictions on Iran’s selling of oil that Biden canceled as soon as he came into office.
Bottom line, you could say for sure that it was Obama and Biden who funded the terror and genocidal attack on Israel on October 7th due to their weak and ignorant Middle East policies in a desperate attempt to secure a nuclear deal with Iran and their appeasement of evil dictatorships.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
At least 33 Americans killed in Israel-Hamas war, secretary of state tells UN
Israeli forces have escalated their bombardment of the Gaza Strip as the war with Hamas enters its 18th day. The war is now the deadliest war in Gaza for both sides. The Hamas-run Health Ministry claims at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed and 15,270 wounded. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed since the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas, in which 222 people including foreigners were taken captive into Gaza. Four people have been released so far.
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American troops attacked repeatedly in Middle East as war between Israel and Hamas continues
The Pentagon is seen from a flight taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on November 29, 2022 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
U.S. officials announced on Tuesday that American troops in the Middle East have been attacked 14 times in the last week.
The attacks were carried out with rockets and one-way drones. U.S. Department of Defense spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder explained that, between October 17 and 24, American troops in Iraq were attacked 10 times.
During the same time frame, U.S. troops in Syria were attacked three times.
At a Monday briefing, a senior defense official said that they expected to see a “significant escalation” of attacks against American troops due to the war.
“I think it’s fair to say when you see this uptick in activity in attacks by many of these groups, there’s Iranian fingerprints all over it,” the defense official explained.
Two U.S. defense officials confirmed later on Tuesday that Iran proxy forces fired a rocket at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base, which houses American troops.
No injuries or damages or reported from the rocket, which was intercepted.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Liz Friden contributed to this report.
Israel-Hamas war: IDF stops Hamas terrorists’ attempt to invade by sea
Israel continues to deploy soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles near the Gaza border in Sderot, Israel on October 24, 2023.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported early Wednesday morning that Hamas terrorists attempted to invade Israel by sea on Tuesday.
“Hamas terrorists attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory by sea were identified by naval forces in southern Israel earlier today,” the IDF explained in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The terrorists were thwarted and the tunnel was struck, in addition to a weapons warehouse used by the terrorists in Gaza,” the post added.
The IDF previously released footage of a naval squad stopping Hamas fighters from reaching Israel’s coastline on October 7, when the terrorist attacks began.
The soldiers took down Hamas speedboats, which ignited, and shot the terrorists who were swimming away.
Hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators gathered in Boston Common on Monday evening amid the war between Hamas and Israel.
Many of the protestors objected to the New York Times’ coverage of an airstrike at a Gaza hospital on October 17. The report claimed that hundreds were killed by an Israeli airstrike, based off of information from Hamas officials.
Israeli and American intelligence later found that Israel was not responsible for the incident. A rocket fired by Iran-backed terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfired and crashed.
A protestor named Lia, who hails from Israel, told Fox News that the article made Jews less safe.
“It’s anywhere from adults to kids in schools who later take this false information and use it to attack innocent Israelis just because they read some fake article,” she said. “People are being harassed and abused because of it.”
Another Israeli named Tamir said that the reports endangers Jews across the world.
“I can feel people being hostile towards us,” he said.
Fox News Digital’s Kassy Dillon contributed to this report.
Israel-Hamas war: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cracking down on pro-Hamas sentiment on campuses
Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the 2023 First in the Nation Leadership Summit on October 13, 2023 in Nashua, New Hampshire. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is working with the chancellor of the Sunshine State’s university system to crack down on pro-Hamas sentiment at universities.
Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, recently wrote a letter to Florida state universities condemning the terrorist attacks against Israel, which began on October 7.
“During a holy Jewish holiday, the recognized terrorist organization, Hamas, launched an unprovoked attack on Israel – among those killed were babies, women, and elderly,” Rodrigues wrote. “To date, approximately 1,400 Israelis have been killed, including 31 American citizens. Governor DeSantis, our State University System and the Florida College System have condemned these attacks.”
The letter added that it would be a “felony under Florida law to knowingly provide material support … to a designated foreign terrorist organization.” Rodrigues referenced that at least two universities in the Florida system had students tied to National Students for Justice in Palestine, which called the Hamas attacks “the resistance.”
“Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” the letter said. “These two student chapters may form another organization that complies with Florida state statutes and university policies.”
“The two institutions should grant these two chapters a waiver for the fall deadlines, should reapplication take place,” Rodrigues added.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Israel-Hamas war: Biden speaks with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia about conflict
U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at a ceremony for recipients of the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation in the East Room of the White House on October 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
President Biden discussed the Israel-Hamas war over the phone with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, as the leaders agreed to try to prevent the escalation of the conflict.
“The two leaders agreed on pursuing broader diplomatic efforts to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding,” a statement from the White House read. “They welcomed the delivery of humanitarian assistance from Egypt into Gaza and recognized that much more is needed for civilians to have sustained access to food, water, and medical assistance.”
The statement also acknowledged the $100 million donation to support humanitarian efforts on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which is headquartered in Saudi Arabia.
Biden and the Crown Prince also advocated for the immediate release of hostages that were taken by Hamas into Gaza.
“They also affirmed the importance of working towards a sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians as soon as the crisis subsides, building on the work that was already underway between Saudi Arabia and the United States over recent months,” the statement added. “They agreed to remain in close coordination directly and through their teams over the coming period.”
Several Hamas terrorists attempted to infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip by sea and were killed by Israeli Navy forces, the IDF said.
At least six Hamas terrorists were killed when Israeli fighter jets responded to a diver squad attempted to enter Israel by Zekim beach, sources tell Fox News.
Israeli forces have struck more than 400 terrorist targets in the past 24 hours, the military said Tuesday.
As part of its “wide-scale operation” to dismantle Hamas’ capabilities, the IDF said the targets struck include: Hamas gunmen setting up to fire rockets in Israel’s direction, an operational tunnel shaft allowing Israel to be infiltrated through the sea, and Hamas command centers and staging armaments in Mosques.
The focus continues to be on eliminating Hamas operatives and “weapons storage sites, underground terrorist tunnels, command centers, observation posts and more,” the IDF said in its daily recap.
The force also said it will continue operating with the safety of innocent civilians in mind.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Pritchett and Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this update.
A startling poll was released last week showing that a majority of voters not only view the opposing party as a threat to the nation but justifying violence to combat their agenda. The poll captures a crisis of faith that I have been writing about for over a decade as an academic and a commentator. Many now question democracy as a sustainable system of government. It represents the single greatest threat to this nation: a citizenry that has lost faith not just with our system of government but with each other.
The polls by the University of Virginia Center for Politics shows a nation at war with itself. Fifty-two percent of Biden supporters say Republicans are now a threat to American life while 47 percent of Trump supporters say the same about Democrats.
Among Biden supporters, 41 percent now believe violence is justified “to stop [Republicans] from achieving their goals.” An almost identical percentage, 38 percent, of Trump supporters now embrace violence to stop Democrats.
Not surprisingly, many of these people have lost faith in democracy. Some 31 percent of Trump supporters believe that the nation should explore alternative forms of government. Roughly a quarter (24 percent) of Biden supporters also question the viability of democracy.
Faith is the one thing that no system of government can do without. Without faith in the underlying values of a constitutional system, authority rests on a mix of coercion and capitulation.
For years, I have written about this growing loss of faith and how it has been fueled by our intellectual and political elites. In the echo chamber of news and social media, citizens constantly hear how the opposing party is composed of “traitors” and how the constitutional system works to protect enemies of the people.
Viewers now get a steady diet of figures like MSNBC commentator Elie Mystal who called the U.S. Constitution “trash” and argued that we should simply just dump it.
In a New York Times column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the Constitution to be “radically altered” to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”
Georgetown University Law School Professor Rosa Brooks went on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” to lash out at Americans becoming “slaves” to the U.S. Constitution and that the Constitution itself is now the problem for the country.
They are part of the radical chic that has become the norm in academia — and widely embraced by the media.
According to these law professors the problem is not just our Constitution, but constitutionalism in general.
Others have argued that key protections or institutions should just be ignored. In a recent open letter, Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet and San Francisco State University political scientist Aaron Belkin called upon President Joe Biden to defy rulings of the Supreme Court that he considers “mistaken” in the name of “popular constitutionalism.”
“Popular constitutionalism” appears a form of discretionary or ad hoc compliance with constituitional law. If only “popular” constitutional rules are followed, the Constitution itself becomes a mere pretense for whatever the shifting majority or forming mob demands.
Politicians have also contributed to this crisis of faith in challenging constitutional values or core institutions. Members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have questioned the need for a Supreme Court.
Others like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have called for the packing of the Supreme Court to simply create an immediate liberal majority.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., thrilled his base by going to the steps of the Supreme Court to declare “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price! You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
It is little surprise that one man showed up at the home of Justice Kavanaugh to kill him for his “awful decisions.”
Conversely, former President Donald Trump has regularly denounced his political opponents as “traitors” and “enemies of the people.” He recently declared “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”
With leaders engaging in such reckless rhetoric, it is hardly surprising that the Constitution itself is now viewed as a threat to our nation rather than the very thing that defines us. It is designed to restrain the majority and protect those who are the least popular in our society.
In the end, a constitution remains a covenant not between citizens and their government but between each other as citizens. It demands a leap of faith; a commitment that despite our differences we will defend the rights of our neighbors.
If nothing else, the Constitution has one thing to recommend it: we are still here. It is a Constitution that has survived economic and political upheavals. It survived a Civil War in which hundreds of thousands were killed.
It is not a particularly poetic document. It was written by the ultimate wonk, James Madison. If you want truly inspirational prose, try any of the French constitutions. Of course, they had more practice since they regularly failed. Other countries based their constitutions on aspirational statements of the values that we shared. The Madisonian system spent as much time on what divided us; it not only recognized the danger of factions but created a system to bring such divisions to the surface where they could be addressed.
The danger of other systems was realized when these divisions were left below the surface where they would fester and explode in the streets of Paris. The American Constitution allowed for a type of controlled implosion toward the center of the system; these factional interests would be expressed and vented in the legislative branch. The Madisonian system does not hide our divisions; it invites their expression.
The question is whether we have reached a time when the things that divide us will now overcome what unites us. This is not our first age of rage. Indeed, at the start of our Republic, rivaling parties were not just figuratively trying to kill each other; they were actually trying to kill each other through laws like the Alien and Sedition Acts. Thomas Jefferson would refer to the term of his predecessor John Adams as “the reign of the witches.”
Yet, that history is no guarantee that it can survive our current age of rage. The relentless attacks on the constitution from the political, media, and academic elite has turned many into constitutional atheists. Yet, the future of our constitutional system may rest with the rising number of constitutional agnostics — those citizens who are simply disconnected or disinterested in the defense of our founding principles.
Philosopher John Stuart Mill warned in 1867 that all it takes for evil to prevail is for “good men [to] look on and do nothing.” We are now in an existential struggle to preserve the values that founded the most successful constitutional system in the history of the world. It is our legacy that now can be either boldly defended by a grateful people or lost in the whimper of a disinterested generation.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and a practicing criminal defense attorney. He is a Fox News contributor.
For House Republicans to unite and move forward, reason must prevail over faction. Some refer to factions within the political parties as “tribalism.” The goal is really to diminish the merits of alternative policy perspectives. The reality is that both Republicans and Democrats form diverse coalitions in an attempt to contain America’s diverse political views within two political parties. By definition, each party is effectively its own form of coalition government.
Now, Republicans confront the reality of having far more government than we can afford as we debate the role of Speaker of the House. Speaker Kevin McCarthy wrestled for years to build the coalitions necessary to govern the narrow majority. Nevertheless, there were fatal flaws in his coalition, and it collapsed once a small group became convinced that the commitment to break the status quo on appropriations was either insincere or no longer on a path to being achieved. While their motion to vacate was foolish in my opinion, saying their action was purely personal or without merit willfully avoids the principled objection to failure.
As I and many others cautioned, the motion to vacate without a plan for what would happen next has in fact been disastrous. Frankly, the idea that their risky action to vacate the chair could somehow result in a more conservative coalition that would address the broken appropriations process, prevented Jim Jordan from restoring unity with a similar coalition to Speaker McCarthy’s. This, of course, exposed other factions who had other objectives with this crisis.
Now, my friend and colleague, Rep. Mike Flood from Nebraska, has a new proposal to restore unity to the Republican Party’s narrow majority in Congress. He is a good man, whose intentions in my estimation are pure. However, as I began, reason must prevail over faction. Unfortunately, Flood’s proposal formalizes the alternative outcome.
After violating this pledge to stop a threat to the status quo (Jim Jordan as Speaker with a plan), the system would insulate itself from the risk of further disruption. Regardless of intent, I anticipate this submission pledge will be coercive in the hands of the largest and most powerful faction in order to protect internal power for those who already have it.
Frankly, pledges typically fail or have significant drawbacks, but since there is one floating around, I’d like to offer an alternative proposal. We should agree that the next speaker be someone who commits to:
1. Never bringing an Omnibus bill to the floor. If an omnibus comes via discharge petition, I will remove the Appropriations chairman and resign as speaker.
2. No continuing resolution (CR) except the one envisioned by the Fiscal Responsibility Act that would extend well into the first quarter of 2024 and apply pressure to actually pass appropriations bills rather than another omnibus. If any alternative comes via discharge petition, I will remove the Appropriations Chair and resign as Speaker.
3. In a given fiscal year, if the primary appropriations bill for their jurisdiction ultimately never passes the House as standalone legislation, I will remove the respective cardinal as chair.
4. If a presidential or Senate supplemental funding request is even considered by the House, I will separate all supplemental funding requests by topic rather than accept the binary false premise of “this or nothing.”
Responsibility and authority must be aligned in order to provide accountability. Otherwise, there will simply be more excuses for the broken status quo.
As we debate the next speaker, everyone remains focused on the person, yet the focus must be on the plan to create change. Unfortunately, the current selection process is designed to focus on the person, rather than their plans.
My pledge seeks a commitment to a shared mission. It empowers a new speaker and provides accountability.
Republicans must resolve the agenda that unites the conference and provide accountability for results in order to ensure everyone is motivated to achieve it. This is the ongoing debate that seeks resolution.
Fortunately, reason can prevail. Getting everyone to trust a single person will be significantly harder than getting everyone to trust a shared mission. Whoever leads the mission should emerge as the next speaker and restore unity in our conference.
Republican Warren Davidson represents Ohio’s 8th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. He spent 15 years starting, acquiring and growing manufacturing companies before replacing former Speaker John Boehner in the United States House. Davidson is a former Army Ranger. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and received an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.
A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll determined that 2 out of 3 U.S. voters want Congress to quickly elect a new speaker of the House to prevent a government shutdown and provide aid to Israel and Ukraine. According to the survey, 67.1% of voters want a new speaker elected “as soon as possible” to ensure immediate funding needs are met, with 24.7% saying they didn’t care. Another 8.2% said they were undecided on the issue. According to Suffolk University, the poll was conducted with 1,000 registered voters in the United States from Oct. 17-20 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
“We got to have a speaker, [but] I don’t think we’re going to have anybody soon,” George Ramge, 72, of San Diego, a building contractor and political independent told USA Today in the survey. “There’s a lot of Hollywood politicians out there getting their time on TV, and I don’t think they’re really serving the people’s purpose.”
Maryland Democrat Carl Hickey, 85, agreed with Ramge.
“They need to be functioning, and that’s the only way they’re going to function,” the retired Methodist minister said in the report.
Despite political differences, large majorities favored a quick resolution to the speaker dilemma with 86% of Democrats, 57% of Republicans and 59% of independents saying they want a speaker elected quickly.
“How often do you see Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree on anything in D.C.?” said David Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center. “Look at every demographic: gender, geography, age, race, education level, income, political philosophy, even those who trust CNN vs. Fox News. They are all speaking the same seven words in unison: ‘Elect a speaker and do your job.’ “
Former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was voted out of the seat earlier this month 216-210 with all Democrats joining eight Republicans to oust him. Potential successors House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, could not gather the 217-vote majority required to win the position during several rounds of balloting, the report said.
The poll also found 61% of voters want Congress to reach a deal and not cause the government to shut down after a Nov. 17 deadline.
“I mean, don’t we live in a bipartisan world?” said Desiree Whitney, 64, of Boerne, Texas, an independent who voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020. “Why should it stop, you know, at our government, or does it begin there? I mean, it’s all about negotiations.”
In a letter to President Joe Biden, four House Republicans say they are “deeply opposed to any potential attempts to parole into the U.S. Palestinians en masse.” Pictured: Palestinians carry belongings as they seek refuge Oct. 9 in schools operated by a U.N. agency in the Al-Fakhoura area of the northern Gaza Strip. (Photo: Mohammed Zaanoun/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images)
Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., are trying to discourage the Biden administration from taking in Palestinian refugees and resettling them in the U.S., according to a letter dated Monday and obtained first by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., had requested that the U.S. take in Palestinian refugees after Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, and killed, kidnapped, and raped hundreds of civilians. Now, House Republicans request that President Joe Biden ask Egypt to take in Palestinian refugees and not abuse his authority to bring in foreign populations, according to Brecheen’s letter, also signed by Reps. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, and Clay Higgins of Louisiana.
Enough is enough! Denmark took in 321 Palestinian refugees in 1992.
By 2019, 64% had been convicted of a crime (including 34% of their children too).
“In light of recent news that members of your party are encouraging Palestinians to be paroled into the United States following Hamas’ attack on innocent Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, we write to you to remind the administration that no authority exists to grant categorical parole and we are deeply opposed to any potential attempts to parole into the U.S. Palestinians en masse following Israel’s counteroffensive against Hamas in Gaza,” the four GOP lawmakers say in their letter to Biden.
They then refer to a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General.
“Given concerns of terror attacks in our homeland, it is important as ever that matters are not made worse by attempting to parole Palestinians into our country. This should be obvious considering the DHS OIG report of Operation Allies Refuge, which found your claim false that Afghans paroled by your administration ‘already completed extensive background checks,’ and that information from many Afghan refugees like name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data, was inaccurate, incomplete or missing,” the lawmakers wrote.
Two former senior homeland security officials, Chad Wolf and Mark Morgan, recently told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the U.S. doesn’t have sufficient intelligence sharing with Hamas to vet refugees for terrorism ties.
Approximately 57% of those who live in the Gaza Strip maintain an opinion of Hamas that is at least “somewhat positive,” according to a recent poll from the Washington Institute.
“At this critical time, our nation must remain committed to defending our homeland,” the letter to Biden from the four House Republicans says. “We remind you that you do not have the authority to grant parole en masse as specified under existing U.S. law. We oppose any efforts to parole into the U.S. any Palestinians from Gaza.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
"I was born at the heart of Hamas leadership and I know them very well. They don't care for the Palestinian people. They are using the Palestinian cause only to achieve their goals, transforming the Middle East and the world into an Islamic state." pic.twitter.com/xUstyYCsf2
— Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) October 20, 2023
Hey @ucdavis, do you think it’s appropriate that one of your faculty advisors, @jemmaisOKeh, is publicly threatening to murder Jews at their homes and their children at their schools? pic.twitter.com/xAx97LHYbr
To the presidents of @Columbia, @nyuniversity, @Harvard and other universities who have stood SILENT as terror supporters have marched through campus and celebrated raping women, executing children and kidnapping grandmothers, you are cowards.
Great question, Lu. How many Biden supporters are willing to answer the call? You voted for Biden. You should go first. Belly up. #facts101pic.twitter.com/yiRU6RSNct
The U.S. response to Hamas’ Nazi-like massacre of Israelis, Americans, and anyone else in its murderous path has been, almost without exception, robust. But U.S. officials are largely missing the larger picture and risking being drawn into an escalation — on the enemy’s terms.
Hamas and Hezbollah are the symptoms; Iran is the disease.
But President Biden’s Oval Office address to the nation on Oct. 19 danced around the core issue of Iran’s financing, training, and encouragement of violent, brutal forces across the region and beyond, as well as its nuclear missile program. Thus, the gathering might of the U.S. Navy off the coast of Israel in the form of two aircraft carrier strike groups and a Marine Expeditionary Unit betrays unimaginative, linear thinking.
If used, American firepower would augment Israel’s own considerable military force. In theory, this threat helps to deter Hezbollah from unleashing its arsenal of 100,000 missiles on Israel, many of them sophisticated.
But, like Hamas, Hezbollah is expert at digging. They hide their missile launchers in an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers — all guarded by an air defense network that is likely to get lucky enough times to raise the specter of captured American pilots.
If the incremental addition of American airpower is helpful to the pending effort to destroy Hamas while deterring a wider conflict, that role can more than adequately be filled by the U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Navy should instead be concentrating 2,000 miles to the east in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. There, the U.S. Navy would be playing to its unambiguous strength, enforcing sanctions against Iran by controlling the sea lines of communication that Iran depends on to generate the cash for its empire of terror.
Unfortunately, this would require a Biden administration that was both imaginative and strategic — and not in the thrall of a recently revealed Iranian influence operation that managed to place several advisors friendly to the Iranian mullahs in key national security positions since the Obama administration. Chief among these, Robert Malley, a longtime friend of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and an architect of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, a deal that focused exclusively on Iran’s nuclear program, rewarding the mullahs with cash and sanctions relief while greenlighting their missile program and global support for terror.
Iran’s Nuclear Program
Instead, Biden’s systematic appeasement of Iran, a continuation of the Obama-era policy that weirdly sought to use Iran as a counter to perceived Israeli intransigence on the Palestinian problem, has resumed. Up until the gruesome events of Oct. 7, Biden’s national security team was willfully blind to Iran’s bloody history of sponsoring terror and its determined drive to produce nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them.
As a result, U.N. sanctions against Iran’s nuclear, missile, and drone program — never well enforced by Biden — expired on Oct. 18 with the U.S. announcing its own unilateral set of sanctions. The U.S. continues to pretend these efforts are somehow slowing Iran’s drive to push its nuclear program to completion, while Russian use of Iranian combat drones in Ukraine reveals the prior sanctions regime as inadequate to the task.
Reagan-Era Lessons
The U.S. never fully grappled with the Iranian theocracy after the shah was toppled in 1979. During the Cold War, it was assumed that the Soviet Union would come to Iran’s aid and that the military cost of defeating the regime would be too high. Instead, the U.S. was content to see Iran tied down in a bloody stalemate against Iraq after the latter invaded in 1980.
As the war started to threaten oil exports out of the Gulf, America responded by providing a U.S. Navy escort to six Kuwaiti-owned super tankers in July 1987. After an escorting U.S. Navy ship struck a mine on April 14, 1988, the Reagan administration responded only four days later with Operation Praying Mantis. It was the Navy’s largest combat action since World War II, sinking an Iranian guided missile frigate, crippling a second, sinking four other boats, and destroying two militarized oil platforms at the cost of one helicopter with two crew lost.
The operation was thoroughly wargamed a year before, when it was determined that an unambiguously aggressive response to Iran would likely prevent the conflict from escalating. In other words, a disproportionate response would rob Iran of the ability to control the timing and mode of escalation, reducing U.S. casualties and preserving the peace.
Applying Force
This lesson from the Reagan era opens up a final consideration. Rather than following through on the foolish precedent of incentivizing hostage-taking via negotiation and cash payments, America should ditch the carrots and pick up the stick.
Imagine the transformative discussion over the current hostage crisis — and the forestalling of future hostage-taking by Iran and its proxies — if the U.S. were to announce that every hostage taken is worth $1 billion (or $1.171 billion if we wish to account for Bidenflation). That amount would be deducted from seized Iranian assets or taken from oil tankers filled with Iranian oil. The proceeds would compensate hostages and their families, with the remainder used to replenish the Pentagon’s waning stocks of armaments.
This is exactly the kind of naval power application the U.S. Navy was built for. Unfortunately, the radical cadres infesting the Biden administration’s national security staff would never allow such an idea to reach the desk of our cognitively impaired commander-in-chief.
A lead attorney for the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was apparently present at the pro-Palestine demonstrations on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. According to Townhall contributor John Hasson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., allegedly took a photo of a protester’s phone, which displayed a group chat titled “Global Intifada.” “Intifada” is an Arabic term used for “uprising” or “rebellion.”
Among the protester names captured on the phone is Katrina Bleckley, who shares the same name as a pro-Palestine attorney at the SPLC. The SPLC denied Bleckley’s employment but would not respond to follow-up inquiries about whether Bleckley had ever worked for the group. On Thursday, Bleckley’s LinkedIn profile still listed SPLC as her current employer, but as of Friday morning, her profile appears to be deactivated.
During today’s Capitol protests, @mtgreenee allegedly took a picture of a protestor’s phone
The group chat, named “Global Intifada” features the name Katrina Bleckley
Maybe a coincidence, but a Pro-Palestine lead attorney at the SPLC shares the same name pic.twitter.com/cFsnR4Thk3
A profile for a “Katrina Bleckley” on X, previously known as Twitter, is now private. The online bio identifies her as an “abolitionist” and “migrant liberator” next to the hashtag “#FreePalestine.” The person in that profile picture appears to be the same person as on the LinkedIn account.
On Wednesday, more than 300 people were arrested after pro-Palestinian protesters took over the Rotunda in the Cannon House office building to demand a ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas. Demonstrators tore down pro-Israel signs and called on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to stand down while Hamas keeps Israeli men, women, and children as hostages. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., stood outside the Capitol with demonstrators, regurgitating terrorist propaganda that Israel launched an attack on a hospital in Gaza that killed more than 500 civilians. The false claim, contradicted by audio and visual evidence from Israeli intelligence, was similarly picked up by American outlets. On the contrary, evidence shows the blast occurred in a parking lot, came from a Hamas rocket that misfired, and killed “dozens,” not hundreds.
The SPLC has a history of engaging in far-left extremist activism. Last week, the SPLC, which targets churches and organizations with conservative ties as “hate groups,” refused to say whether Hamas sympathizers would similarly be placed on the SPLC’s famous list of more than 1,200 “hate groups.”
While a lead attorney for the SPLC was seemingly present at Capitol Hill on Wednesday, the group previously provided research and testimony for the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 to prosecute pro-Trump demonstrators.
“Over the past few months, our SPLC analysts have met with Jan. 6 Select Committee staff and submitted nearly 40 pages of written testimony and research to document the involvement of extremists in the planning and preparation for the insurrection,” Michael Lieberman, senior policy counsel on hate and extremism at the SPLC, told Politico last summer. “Our work has helped to document coordination between Trump, his allies and two extremist groups we’ve tracked for years.”
Yet in March, another lawyer for the SPLC named Thomas Webb Jurgens was arrested and charged with domestic terrorism amid protests against police in Georgia.
“An employee at the SPLC was arrested while acting — and identifying — as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG),” the SPLC said in a statement at the time. “The employee is an experienced legal observer, and their arrest is no evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protestors.”
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s New York fraud trial raised the possibility of jail time for the former president over his “blatant violation of the gag order” the judge issued earlier this month, according to multiple reports.
New York state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron made the remarks from the bench after it was brought to his attention that Trump never deleted a post he shared about the judge’s principal law clerk Allison Greenfield. According to the website Meidas Touch, the offending post remained on Trump’s website Thursday night but has since been removed.
Engoron ordered it removed Oct. 3.
“I ordered him to remove the post immediately, and he said he did take it down,” Engoron said.“Despite this order, last night I learned the offending post was never removed from the DonaldJTrump.com and in fact, has been on the website for the past 17 days. This is a blatant violation of the gag order. I made it clear [that] failure to comply will result in serious sanctions.”
“Incendiary untruths can and have led to serious physical harm. I will now allow the defendant to explain why this should not end up with serious sanctions or I could possibly imprison him,” Engoron went on.
Trump attorney Christopher Kise told the judge it was an oversight. Kise said the failure to remove the post falsely linking Greenfield as the girlfriend of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was “truly inadvertent.”
“The Truth Social post was taken down when the court asked,” Kise told the judge. “Truth Social was taken down and Trump never made any more comments about court staff, but it appears no one took it down on the campaign website. It is unfortunate, and I apologize on behalf of my client.”
The offending post that Trump shared was, “Why is Judge Engoron’s Principal Law Clerk, Allison R. Greenfield, palling around with Chuck Schumer?” It led to Engoron issuing a limited gag order.
“I will take this under advisement, but I want to make clear that Donald Trump is still responsible for the large machine, even if it is a large machine,”Engoron said.
Special counsel Jack Smith (left), seen here Aug. 1 in Washington, D.C., sought a gag order against former President Donald Trump. Trump, seen here Nov. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida, wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: “I shouldn’t have a protective order placed on me because it would impinge upon my right to FREE SPEECH.” (Photos: Saul Loeb and Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP/Getty Images)
This week, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing United States v. Donald Trump, issued a gag order prohibiting a leading presidential candidate, Donald Trump, from engaging in speech aimed at “government staff,” among others, during his trial.
Listen, I understand the disdain some conservatives feel for the former president. I share the sentiment. But if you’re cheering on a judge who’s inhibiting political speech on rickety grounds, you’re no friend of “democracy” or the Constitution.
“Mr. Trump may still vigorously seek public support as a presidential candidate, debate policies and people related to that candidacy, criticize the current administration and assert his belief that this prosecution is politically motivated,” Chutkan explained. “But those critical First Amendment freedoms do not allow him to launch a pretrial smear campaign against participating government staff, their families, and foreseeable witnesses.”
Who is Chutkan to dictate the contours of a presidential candidate’s political speech? What if one of the “participating government staff” or a family member is compromised by partisanship? Moreover, preemptively suggesting that without gagging, Trump will engage in a “smear campaign” is as prejudicial to the case as any of the inflammatory things Trump has thrown around. It implies that any accusation now aimed at prosecutors is untrue.
Trump contends that he is being railroaded by special counsel Jack Smith, the longtime federal prosecutor who works on behalf of Democrats and President Joe Biden. You might believe the special counsel is a chaste defender of Lady Justice, but there’s ample evidence that partisan considerations are in play.
Fears of a politicized Justice Department are real. As we speak, the head of the Democratic Party is being mollycoddled by the state in a very similar case involving classified documents. Whatever the case, the Justice Department now plays a big part in Trump’s campaign for the presidency—and probably his legal case, as well. If the state’s accusations can be spread throughout the media before a trial, why can’t the defendant speak openly, as well?
In the name of fairness, Chutkan contends that Trump does not enjoy unfettered First Amendment rights because he might intimidate witnesses. It’s already illegal to intimidate witnesses. Charge him if he does it. Laws already exist to cover all the other premises Smith has used to rationalize the gag order. The notion that a jury pool is going to be impartial in a trial involving a divisive former president, who is not only a leading contender for the presidency, but one of the most famous people on Earth, is absurd. And the notion a D.C. jury pool will be impartial when it comes to Trump is fantastical.
There is little that can be done about it. But further gagging the defendant only feeds, at the very minimum, the perception that this is all politically motivated.
Establishment media inform us that the gag order is just “narrow” and meant to “protect the integrity of the trial and the jury pool.” 1In her Solomonic wisdom, Chutkan cut the state’s request in half. A “narrow” gag order limiting free speech is still a gag order limiting free speech. The fact that Smith was seeking even broader limitations only makes Trump’s claims more plausible.
Smith has also argued that Trump should not be afforded “special treatment” because he’s a candidate. He’s right. No one’s right to defend themselves or to engage in speech should be inhibited, not even during trials (though any good lawyer will tell clients, for their own good, to shut up). Still, gag orders are almost always an unconstitutional prior restraint. For years, the American Civil Liberties Union and similar groups argued the same.
I’m sure many people simply believe Trump deserves it. Think, though, about the precedent: Administrations can now launch prosecutions against political rivals—calibrated to take place in favorable cities and timed to coincide with elections—and then demand gag orders be implemented on those running for office.
If you think they won’t do it to others, you haven’t been paying attention.
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
The House of Representatives’ bid to elect a new speaker ended in another stalemate on Wednesday after 22 Republicans voted against front-runner Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Wednesday’s vote marks the second in which enough Republicans defected to kneecap Jordan’s speakership bid. On Tuesday, 20 GOPers — including Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado, Don Bacon of Nebraska, and Jen Kiggans of Virginia — voted for House members other than Jordan. These members and many others also voted against Jordan in Wednesday’s vote.
As The Daily Caller reported, Jordan needs at least 217 votes to become speaker. Meanwhile, Democrats are casting their votes for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
BREAKING: Jim Jordan lost 22 votes on the second ballot for Speaker:
While the speaker’s gavel remains up for grabs, some moderate Republicans are reportedly floating the idea of colluding with Democrats to pass a resolution expanding the powers of the chamber’s interim speaker. According to Fox News, the effort is being spearheaded by Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, and has gained support from other establishment Republicans, such as Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, and Rep. Nick LaLota of New York.
Gimenez and LaLota are among the nearly two dozen Republicans to vote against Jordan’s speakership bid.
Republicans Hate Their Base
While not perfect, Jordan as House speaker would be a major upgrade for GOP voters. Not only does he sport a more conservative voting record than former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., he’s also one of the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus.
So why, despite a groundswell of support among conservative voters, have a handful of Republicans decided to tank Jordan’s speakership bid? While anonymously sourced conspiracies are likely to dominate legacy media’s coverage of the issue, the real answer is likely much simpler: Many of these Republicans despise their voters.
Don’t take my word for it. Bacon admitted as much when complaining to reporters earlier this week about the “pressure campaign back home” for him to back Jordan as speaker. The Nebraska congressman went on to say the reason he opposed Jordan’s initial speakership bid was to stick it to the few House Republicans who ousted McCarthy and prevented Scalise from becoming speaker.
“You don’t have a process where I play by the rules and some people can’t — and they get what they wanted, and now I’m supposed to play by the rules,” Bacon whined.
So, to recap: A grown man serving in the U.S. Congress is actively defying the will of his voters to spite some of his colleagues.
As petty and pathetic as his actions are, Bacon is merely a symptom of the greater cancer that’s infected the GOP establishment for years. On the campaign trail, these Republicans make grandiose pledges to stand up for conservative values and “drain the swamp,” only to discard such promises once they get to Washington.
It’s not that they forget what they promised. It’s that they never intended to fight for their voters in the first place. Whether on religious freedom, illegal immigration, or federal spending, conservatives can always count on the Republican establishment to sell them out.
If Republicans like Bacon spent as much time fighting Democrats as they did stabbing their own voters in the back, the battle for America’s soul would look more like a fight between two rivals than the one-sided shellacking Democrats are dolling out on a weekly basis.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
Corrupt corporate media outlets like The New York Times scrambled on Thursday to justify their role in disseminating terrorist talking points to the world without scrutiny.
NYT acknowledges that it was one of the “many Western news organizations” that regurgitated the unsubstantiated lie (sourced directly from the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip) that Israel killed hundreds by bombing a Gaza hospital.
Even though there was plenty of evidence absolving the Jewish state of the alleged war crime, the publication made no effort to issue retractions, print corrections, or even apologize for its role in the American press’s collective amplification of the propaganda.
Instead, NYT blames its feckless participation in the rumor mill — that incited violence against European and American embassies across the globe — on “fast-moving events” and “the difficulty of covering the war.”
NYT’s original coverage of the so-called blast, which was the result of a misfired jihadist rocket that landed in a parking lot near the hospital, featured a photo of a destroyed building that had nothing to do with the hospital in question.
By Thursday, the feature image on the Times’ breaking news article pinning blame on Israel was replaced with a nondescript photo of a Middle Eastern man being transported into an intact medical facility on a gurney.
NYT further tried to absolve itself of accountability by noting that it sent out a news alert about a “misfired Palestinian rocket” once Israel’s internal investigations revealed it was not the perpetrator. That little news alert hours after NYT first blamed Israel did nothing, especially since dozensofcorporatemediaoutlets merely pivoted their coverage to indicate that Israel and terrorists were “trading blame” for the blast.
In a continued attempt to build its case, NYT quoted a former executive editor of The Associated Press, the same outlet that hired a terrorist sympathizer to be its Gaza correspondent and even shared office space with Hamas at one point. The AP veteran lamented that it’s not easy for media outlets to get “firsthand or verified accounts” of the war easily.
NYT used the ex-editor’s quote as a springboard to suggest that the Israel and Hamas war caused “vast amounts of misleading and false information online.”
The tone-deaf statement came mere sentences after the outlet feigned shock that, after dozens of headlines purported Israel was in the wrong, “much of the Arab world united in support of Palestinians.”
“It takes time to independently verify the claims from all sides,” NYT insisted, less than 24 hours after it failed to verify terrorists’ claims before publishing them as facts.
War propaganda is tough to sift through, but it takes deliberate stupidity to think that the word of the same guys who just raped and murdered 1,400 people and counting is worth splaying across breaking news banners and above-the-fold stories. Trusting the people who use women and children as human shields and stockpile weaponry and munitions near schools and hospitals was NYT’s first mistake, if you can call it that.
As Federalist Senior Editor David Harasanyi pointed out on Wednesday, the Times has a long track record of “spreading similar disinformation.”
“The paper’s editorial board and its op-ed pages are teeming with Hamas apologists — as are its news pages,” Harsanyi warned.
The NYT’s terrible track record is the product of unchecked corruption that plagues every corporate media outlet in the U.S.
Terrorists know outlets like NYT are corrupt. That is why they pitch their latest public relations campaigns to newsrooms with full confidence that their talking points will dominate front pages. A majority of Americans know the media is a corrupt threat to democracy because most outlets are run by partisans who want to divide the country.
The latest NYT article even proves that the media know they are corrupt. They simply aren’t sorry about it.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
On Oct. 18, the intrepid Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak outed a former Palestinian spokeswoman and open Hamas supporter as an employee of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security tasked with “vetting” immigrants and asylum seekers. He followed up to report Nejwa Ali is now on administrative leave — no word on whether that includes full pay and benefits.
UPDATE: DHS/USCIS says the former PLO spox has been placed on administrative leave from her job vetting immigrants.
PLUS NEW AUDIO: She reaffirmed her allegiance to Hamas THIS AFTERNOON, saying of hang-gliders: "I abso-fucking-lutely celebrate them, asshole, fuck you!" https://t.co/BJry1EisZepic.twitter.com/FPrQbjAPak
Of course, it’s a no-brainer that someone who supports terrorism should not be employed by any national security agency, let alone given the power to determine who enters the U.S. At the same time, suspending Ali while probably still paying her is just a symbol, while the underlying policy of ushering across our border people who hate America remains firm. It’s tokenism.
Just consider the fact that Ali’s fellow DHS employees donated 70 percent of their 2020 political contributions to Democrats. If she does end up out of this job, the odds are another person who hates America will replace her. Democrats as a party now openly state their hatred for America by constantly smearing it as “racist” and “oppressive.” Their immigration policies admit similarly-minded people, starting with the reality that anyone who enters this country illegally thereby demonstrates contempt for the United States and its people.
Ali’s own history is more proof. Rosiak writes that Ali “is from Dearborn, Michigan, a hotbed of unassimilated immigrants where thousands reportedly took to the streets in support of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.” Dearborn’s mayor immediately responded to Hamas’s barbaric attacks on unarmed women and children by blaming…Israel.
Dearborn is approximately half comprised of immigrants from majority-Muslim countries. Their immigration poses obvious national security concerns given the propensity of these groups to favor and excuse terrorism, as Mayor Abdullah Hammoud did. Not surprisingly, to anyone who knows politics, Dearborn is considered a “Democrat stronghold” in Michigan, a presidential election swing state.
Hamas is committed to eradicating Jews. It’s rational to suspect they would send members to the United States to perpetrate atrocities here. With immigration and asylum vetters like Ali, they wouldn’t even have to avoid getting caught crossing our open southern border, as millions of border crossers have since Joe Biden took office. They can turn themselves in, get released inside the United States, and stay indefinitely. Eventually, they can even get citizenship!
This isn’t speculation. Border authorities are aware terrorists have gained access to the United States, and an open border only makes their goals easier to achieve. Terrorists here have already formed sleeper cells, and not only against Jewish targets.
As Todd Bensman reported in 2020, “Iranian avengers, in the form of Quds Force-supported Hezbollah operatives of the clandestine ‘Unit 910,’ are stationed in cities across America, set to activate pending distant command on target lists they have painstakingly developed over time. Hezbollah operatives also are positioned throughout Latin America, where American officials and economic interests are ubiquitous.”
A September DHS report notes that, due to historic increases in illegal U.S. entrances during Biden’s presidency, U.S. officials have “encountered a growing number of individuals in the Terrorist Screening Data Set (TSDS), also known as the ‘watchlist.’” Obviously, those are the potential terrorists border officials encounter. Since Biden took office, they’ve watched an estimated 1.2 million enter they haven’t been able to apprehend. Exactly who was in that group, and what were their motives? We have no idea.
HOW ABOUT ALL THE “GOT AWAYS”??????? How many of them could be these Hamas plants determined to continue their quest for America’s destruction?
Of course, we also don’t know how many people U.S. officials haven’t detected who entered the United States across its completely unenforced border. Democrats’ open border is a national security disaster, and it’s far more dangerous than one open terrorist supporter vetting immigrants.
This same tokenism dynamic also applies to Biden himself. Getting rid of him, whether through internal Democrat struggle sessions or the publicly decaying man’s nearing natural death, will not solve America’s problems. It will be merely a symbol change instead of an underlying reality change if he’s replaced with someone who runs similar policies.
The policies that have led to our nation’s failure on multiple fronts are the problem, not the figureheads representing them. Our national security is in danger not through random accidents but because of failing to enforce our immigration laws and politicizing the U.S. military. Those are policy choices. So are engaging in noncritical foreign wars, trying to inflate away our bankrupt welfare state’s increasing piles of debt, and setting up moral hierarchies between Americans based on their skin color and sexual activities.
The policies are the problem, no matter who fronts them. Although it’s the right thing to do, merely getting rid of Ali and replacing her with another college-educated America-hater solves no underlying problems. Neither does getting rid of Biden and replacing him with another leftist like Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsom.
The underlying problem is the systemic America hatred that fuels people like Ali and Biden and places their ideology in positions of power. Their threat to us all begins to end with prioritizing America’s legitimate interests over the left’s nihilistic self-hatred.
Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist, a happy wife, and the mother of six children. Her latest ebook is “101 Strategies For Living Well Amid Inflation.” Her bestselling ebook is “Classic Books for Young Children.” An 18-year education and politics reporter, Joy has testified before nearly two dozen legislatures on education policy and appeared on major media from Fox News to Ben Shapiro to Dennis Prager. Joy is a grateful graduate of the Hillsdale College honors and journalism programs who identifies as native American and gender natural. Her several books include “The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids,” from Encounter Books.
FIRST ON FOX: Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R-Ark., is setting the record straight on femininity in Arkansas, introducing an executive order to mandate the use of gender-specific terms when describing women and “prohibit the use of woke, anti-women words for official state government business.”
“The science is clear and real; There are things only women can do, like perform the miracle of birth,” Sanders wrote in the executive order shared first with Fox News Digital. “Government should reject language that ignores, undermines, and erases women; Government should celebrate gender distinctions between men and women — not erase them.”
Sanders’ order comes as states, workplaces and schools around the country are pushing the use of what they refer to as “culturally conscious” or “inclusive” language — initiatives that commonly attempt to remove femininity from terms used to describe women.
In the spring, the Arkansas Department of Health issued a memo on drinking water that described how small per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can have negative effects on “pregnant people.” Sanders’ new order will require the state to use the terms “pregnant women” or “pregnant mom” when describing someone who is expecting a child.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (Thomas Metthe/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
The governor wrote that rather than refer to females as a “menstruating person” or “menstruating people,” to use the terms “woman” or “women.” Rather than “birthing person,” use “birth mom,” and rather than “chestfeeding,” use “breastfeeding.” And rather than “laboring person,” use “birth mom,” and “woman” instead of “birth-giver.”
Sanders has firmly stood on the side of opposition to removing femininity from terms referring to women. As the first woman to serve as Arkansas governor, Sanders has slammed President Biden as “the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t tell you what a woman is.”
I’m the first woman to lead my state. Biden is the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can’t tell you what a woman is.
Everyday we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.
Amid a nationwide trend to replace gender-specific terms, the city of Portland, Oregon, recently urged city staff members to adopt a more “culturally conscious” vocabulary that included not using words such as “women,” “Caucasian” or “citizen.”
An elementary school in Vermont was criticized for telling parents it would be removing “male” and “female” language from its fifth-grade science lessons covering the human body and reproduction, while a Missouri school district decided to use “they/them” pronouns in math class to help kids’ “mathematical identities.”
In several other cases, the “inclusive” push stretches beyond gender to removing religious terms from vocabulary and allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports.
Riley Gaines is a former championship swimmer who was forced to compete against a biological male. (Riley Gaines)
Michigan State University released an “inclusive” language guide for its students that suggested “in winter and spring, avoid references to majority religious imagery and language, such as the word ‘merry’ or ‘Christmas trees,’ ‘wreaths,’ ‘holly,’ ‘bells,’ ‘gifts,’ ‘reindeer,’ ‘bunnies,’ ‘eggs’ and ‘chicks,’” the style guide suggested. “Use terms like ‘wishing you a wonderful winter/spring break’ or ‘best wishes for the new year.’”
Sanders will introduce the executive order Thursday “banning a number of all sorts of ridiculous words from state government documents.”
“We are all here to say enough. Enough trying to erase women and girls. Enough denying our biological differences from men. Enough of the craziness taking over our country,” the governor is expected to say at the signing on Thursday afternoon.
“They’re using nonsense words to erase women and girls — and more importantly, to erase our voices and experiences. Today, we’re taking a stand against woke nonsense… It’s the Left that decided that ‘woman’ is a dirty word. It’s the Left that decided that we needed to toss out basic biology — and basic grammar along with it.”
Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
Aubrie Spady is a Freelance Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.
WASHINGTON — Hardline conservative Jim Jordan vowed to continue his floundering bid for speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday, after his fellow Republicans abandoned a backup plan to allow the leaderless chamber to resume business. Jordan, who has lost two votes for speaker this week, emerged from an hours-long closed door meeting with fellow Republicans to say he would press ahead with a third vote.
“I’m still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race,” Jordan told reporters.
Republicans told Newsmax that Jordan is pushing for a third speaker vote at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. ET.
According to lawmakers in the room, Jordan had earlier said he would pause his speaker bid and called on them to extend the authority of Representative Patrick McHenry. McHenry has been acting speaker since Oct. 3, when a small group of party members ousted Kevin McCarthy.
But many Republicans objected to that proposal.
The House’s leadership vacuum has prevented Congress from acting on urgent legislative business.
Democratic President Joe Biden is expected to ask Congress this week to approve as much as $60 billion for Ukraine and $10 billion for Israel, and funding for U.S. government operations is due to expire in less than a month.
Jordan has twice failed to secure the 217 votes needed to claim the speaker’s gavel as he has faced opposition from Democrats and more than 20 of his fellow Republicans.
Republicans who have voted against him the first two times have predicted he will also fail on a third vote.
The prolonged leadership battle has laid bare divisions among Republicans who control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 margin. Investors say the turmoil on Capitol Hill is also contributing to market volatility.
Israeli airstrikes pounded locations across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including parts of the south that Israel told Palestinians to take refuge, heightening fears among more than 2 million Palestinians trapped in the territory that nowhere was safe. Israel’s defense minister told ground troops to be ready to enter Gaza, though he didn’t say when the invasion will start.
With authorities still working out logistics for a delivery of aid into Gaza from Egypt, overwhelmed hospitals tried to stretch out ebbing medical supplies and fuel for diesel generators to keep the equipment running. Doctors in darkened wards stitched wounds by mobile phone light. A doctor at the largest hospital said staff were using vinegar from the corner store to treat infected wounds.
The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for a devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel almost two weeks ago. Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north of Gaza and flee south, strikes extended across the territory and Palestinian militants continued firing rockets into Israel.
Meeting with Israeli infantry soldiers on the Gaza border Thursday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant urged the forces to “get organized, be ready” for an order to move in. Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border.
“Whoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside,” he said. “I promise you.”
Israel’s consent for Egypt to let in food, water and medicine provided the first possibility for an opening in its sealing off of the territory. Many among Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water.
Israel did not list fuel as a permitted item, but a senior Egyptian security official said Egypt was negotiating for the entry of fuel for hospitals. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
With the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah still closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza’s second-largest hospital deteriorated further, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel of Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most departments to save it for intensive care and other vital functions, and staff members were using mobile phones for light.
At least 80 wounded civilians and 12 dead flooded into the hospital Thursday morning after witnesses said a strike hit a residential building in Khan Younis. Doctors had no choice but to leave two of the incoming to die because there were no ventilators left, Qandeel said.
“We can’t save more lives if this keeps happening, meaning more children … more women will die,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry pleaded with gas stations to give whatever fuel they had left to hospitals. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, gave some of its little remaining fuel stores to hospitals, according to spokesperson Juliette Touma.
The agency’s donation to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, would “keep us going for another few hours,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia told The Associated Press.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority of them women, children and older adults. Nearly 12,500 others were injured, and another 1,300 people were believed buried under the rubble, health authorities said.
Do I have to remind you not to believe anything coming out of Gaza? Remember, their religion says it is Allah’s will that they lie to infidels.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion on Oct. 7. Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives.
More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes in Gaza City and other places in the northern part of the territory since Israel told them to evacuate. Most have crowded into U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters or the homes of relatives.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through Rafah, the territory’s only connection to Egypt, remained fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians in southern Gaza and that it would “thwart” any diversions by Hamas. U.S. President Joe Biden said the deliveries “will end” if Hamas takes any aid.
Egypt must still repair the road across the border, which Israeli airstrikes cratered in a no-man’s land and on the Gaza side. No equipment had arrived to start the repair work as of Thursday afternoon, the Hamas spokesman for the crossing, Wael Abu Omar, said.
More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near Rafah, according to Khalid Zayed, the head of the Red Crescent for North Sinai.
U.S. officials said the first deliveries would likely take place Friday at the earliest, with an initial group of 20 trucks. The Egyptian security official also said the first trucks were expected to go in Friday.
Asked if foreigners and dual nationals seeking to leave would be let out of Gaza, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told Al-Arabiya TV: “As long as the crossing is operating normally and the (crossing) facility has been repaired.”
Israel had previously said it would let nothing into Gaza until Hamas freed the hostages taken from Israel. Relatives of some of the captives reacted with fury to the aid announcement.
“Children, infants, women, soldiers, men, and elderly, some with serious illnesses, wounded and shot, are held underground like animals,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. But “the Israeli government pampers the murderers and kidnappers.”
The Israeli military reported Thursday that it killed a top Palestinian militant in Rafah and hit hundreds of targets across Gaza, including militant tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructure and command centers. It said it also hit dozens of mortar-launching posts, most of them immediately after they were used to fire shells at Israel. Palestinians have launched barrages of rockets at Israel since the fighting began.
Israel has said it is attacking Hamas militants wherever they may be in Gaza. It has accused the group’s leaders and fighters of taking shelter among the civilian population, leaving Palestinians feeling in constant danger.
After Thursday’s strikes in Khan Younis, sirens wailed as emergency crews rushed to rescue survivors from the crushed apartment building. Many residents were believed trapped under twisted bed frames, broken furniture and cement chunks. A small, soot-covered child, dangling in the arms of a rescue worker, was taken out of a damaged building.
Gaza’s Hamas-led government said several bakeries in the territory were hit in the overnight strikes, making it even harder for residents to get food.
Violence was also escalating in the West Bank where Israel carried out a rare airstrike Thursday, targeting militants in the Nur Shams refugee camp. Israeli troops raided the camp the previous night and were still battling Palestinian fighters inside. Six Palestinians were killed in the camp, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and the Israeli military said the strike killed militants. Ten Israeli officers were wounded when fighters threw explosives at the troops. More than 74 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war started.
Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on Thursday said it fired missiles into northern Israel, hitting a kibbutz. The Israeli military said no one was injured and responded with shelling on border areas in Lebanon. Hamas militants also fired 30 rockets from southern Lebanese toward Israeli towns. Violence on the border comes amid fears the Hamas-Israel conflict could spread across the region.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Newsmax Thursday that President Joe Biden’s proposed $100 million aid package to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza will not “make it” to the people who need the help.
“We would be very concerned that this would end up in Hamas’ hands,” Blackburn said during “Wake Up America” Thursday. “We know that even in the last week, as medical supplies, food, fuel has gone into Gaza that it has been intercepted by Hamas, and they are using it for the troops. It is not making it to people who were in need of humanitarian aid.”
Biden announced the aid package during a trip to Israel Wednesday.
“President Biden announced today that the United States is providing $100 million in humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank,” the White House said in a press release. “This funding will help support over a million displaced and conflict-affected people with clean water, food, hygiene support, medical care, and other essential needs.
“The United States provides humanitarian assistance through trusted partners including UN agencies and international NGOs.”
Blackburn, however, said Hamas has a record of taking humanitarian money from the Palestinians and using it to fund its military operations against Israel, such as the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that killed more than 1,300 Israelis. She said the theft of aid money in the past from an agency of the United Nations led former President Donald Trump to curtail the aid, while Biden reinstated $730 million to the agency.
“Trump cut all the funding to the agency, but Biden put it back, full steam ahead, and has put $730 million into that agency,” she said. “They hire Hamas affiliated people who steal the money and then use the facilities in Gaza to store weapons and ammo. So, we know what Hamas does, and we are very concerned that the president would consider U.S. taxpayer dollars going into this type of relief.”
Blackburn also criticized President Biden for not speaking about the 30 Americans killed in the attacks two weeks ago and the Americans among the more than 200 people held as hostages by Hamas in Gaza.
“I would have thought he would have mentioned that the Americans that have lost their lives,” she said. “I thought he would have mentioned concern for the Americans who are being held hostage.
“I thought he would have mentioned concern for the Israelis that have died, have lost their lives. We’ve got thousands of people injured. We don’t know how many Americans are in those numbers.”
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Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen blocked a resolution from Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley that would have condemned antisemitic student activities on college campuses. Pictured: Hawley is seen in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, May 11. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/ Getty Images)
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen blocked a resolution from Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley that would have condemned antisemitic student activities on college campuses.
Hawley introduced a Senate Resolution on Thursday condemning antisemitic student groups’ protests against Israel, protests that often celebrate and justify the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.
“We must stand together with Israel and against hateful, violent rhetoric that threatens the safety and security of Jewish Americans in the United States,” Hawley wrote. “My resolution unequivocally condemns Hamas and the hateful, antisemitic rhetoric that the recent terrorist attack has inspired on our college campuses.”
“This is particularly urgent,” he added, “given the rise in threats against Jewish Americans across our country. I invite you to join me in standing with Israel and against hate.”
.@HawleyMO just tried to pass a resolution condemning antisemitic student actions on college campuses across the U.S.
Sen. Van Hollen blocked it. Said it smeared students engaged in pro-Palestine/anti-Israel protests.
However, when Hawley introduced the resolution on Thursday, it was blocked by Van Hollen, who expressed concerns that the resolution “smeared” those students engaging in pro-Palestine protests.
“What this resolution does is condemn certain speech around the country,” he said.
“What this resolution does is attempt to smear students, many of whom engaged in antisemitic remarks, but many of whom did not,” Van Hollen continued. “My view is that when you come to the Senate floor to pass such a resolution and you’re talking about freedom of speech, it’s very important not to paint a broad brush and condemn everybody engaging in speech. This is what that resolution does. It’s an attempt to say even those who had legitimate statements to make about war and peace, to smear them all as making antisemitic remarks.”
Last week, Hawley had urged the Justice Department to investigate whether pro-Palestinian student groups have any potential financial ties to Hamas. Though the First Amendment protects the right to protest, he wrote, it does not protect “the provision of material support to terrorist organizations.”
“Public reports indicate that several far-left student groups have lined up to effectively cheerlead Hamas’s genocidal war against the people of Israel,” he wrote, Fox News reported.
“These student organizations are seemingly lobbying in support of the murder of innocent people, including children and babies,” Hawley added. “They are menacing Jewish Americans within our cities. And they are doing so in what appears to be a coordinated fashion.”
Organizers estimated that more than 1,000 people were in attendance at a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening. (Photo: Mary Margaret Olohan/The Daily Signal)
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters supporting Palestinians gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening. Many of the protesters carried signs calling for Palestinians to take over Israel and for the U.S. to stop sending aid to the Israeli government. Organizers estimated Wednesday night that more than 1,000 people were in attendance.
“End the occupation now,” they chanted. “End the siege on Gaza now.”
“Tear down Israel’s border wall!”
WATCH:
The leader just repeated misinformation spread by liberal outlets about the blast at the hospital in Gaza.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service were guarding the Israeli Embassy, the front of which was lit up with blue lights showing the Jewish Star of David. At certain points through the protest, the anti-Israel demonstrators attempted to project the words “GUILTY” onto the embassy.
No arrests were made related to the demonstrations, Secret Service spokesman Alexi Worley told The Daily Signal, noting: “The Foreign Missions Branch of our Uniformed Division protects more than 500 foreign diplomatic missions in the Washington metropolitan area, which can include assisting with handling demonstrations at diplomatic locations.”
Protest leaders repeated claims spread by Hamas and pushed by legacy media outlets that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds. Israeli authorities have denied responsibility and said that a rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad struck the hospital after misfiring.
WATCH:
The leader just repeated misinformation spread by liberal outlets about the blast at the hospital in Gaza.
One female leader of the protest compared inaction in the current political climate to inaction toward the Holocaust, telling the crowd: “I saw a post that said, if you were ever curious what you would have done during slavery, if you were ever curious what you would have done during the Holocaust … look at what you are doing right now.”
Wow, I think this pro-Palestine protest leader just compared those who do not stand up for Palestine to those who did not take action in the Holocaust… pic.twitter.com/whFodAQ44j
Photographs of signs captured by The Daily Signal exhibited antisemitic or anti-Israel sentiment, including one sign that said: “IS (not) REAL: terrorist, racist, baby killing, evil, apartheid ‘state.’” Another read, “LAND U KILL 4 IS NOT YOURS.” Yet others read, “ISRAEL BOMBS HOSPITALS, BIDEN PAYS FOR IT” and “ISRAEL’S DAYS ARE NUMBERED.”
“Nazi Israel leading the Palestinian Holocaust,”read another.
Well, I guess we know what “Free Palestine” means now – 📍Outside the Israeli Embassy in DC pic.twitter.com/w96ifmUdOJ
As has been the case at many pro-Palestinian protests in the D.C. area and across the U.S., many of those attending the protest covered their faces to avoid recognition and wore black-and-white checkered scarves, called keffiyehs, over their heads.
The protesters also took issue with legacy media coverage of the brutal Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, chanting, “Washington Post, you can’t hide. You encourage genocide.”
A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and President Trump.
Biden’s open-border policies have allowed innumerable criminals and terrorists into our country, leaving many Americans feeling fearful. Add to that Hamas’ barbaric invasion of Israel and pro-Palestine rallies on American turf, and citizens want to know how our leadership plans to keep the American people safe from terrorism.
Luckily, Donald Trump has a plan, and according to Pat Gray, it’s “brilliant.”
The plan is called “Agenda 47,” and it will “reinstate and expand Trump travel bans on entry from terror-plagued countries, territories, and places,” reports Pat.
“Let’s back off allowing Saudis into our country, Yemenis into our country, people from Kuwait – you don’t know what their intent is,” says Pat.
Jeffy agrees and adds that “all the other countries surrounding Israel and Gaza” are certainly “[not] opening up their gates for the Palestinians.”
“There’s a reason for that,” responds Pat, adding, “They don’t trust them either.”
The second part of Agenda 47 involves “[reimplementing] a full suspension of State Department Refugee resettlement that would include Gaza,” as well as “[implementing] strong ideological screening for all immigrants to the United States – sympathy for jihadists, Hamas, or Hamas ideology will be automatically disqualifying.”
“That just makes sense,” says Pat.
Thirdly, Agenda 47 will aim to “aggressively deport resident aliens with jihadist sympathies” and “revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at colleges and universities.”
Trump’s plan will also “proactively send ICE to pro-jihadist demonstrations to enforce our immigration laws and remove the violators from our country, continue and expand denaturalization of criminals, terrorists, and immigration cheats … and finally invoke the Alien Enemies Act to accelerate domestic deportations.”
Agenda 47 “doesn’t seem radical to me; it just seems like common sense,” says Pat.
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To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
A “disinformation” group is out with new reports flagging online information as “misinformation” for corporate tech giants known for censoring such info — even if the content is true.
VineSight, a Tel Aviv-based tech company with offices in New York, relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to scan the internet for “toxic narratives” and “misinformation.” A thorough examination of the company’s recent reports, however, reveals so-called “toxic narratives” and “misinformation” are synonymous with conservative arguments and inconvenient truths.
The company’s report on clean energy, for example, highlights a post from a “bot-like” account as misinformation that reads, “China emits the most CO2.” The statement, however, is verifiably true. China is by far the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions on the planet and has been for almost two decades.
VineSight’s clean energy report also highlights statements from human accounts as misinformation including, “Climate advocates are hypocrites,” and “[electric vehicles] repeatedly catch on fire.” Climate advocates, however, are often hypocrites when they endlessly lecture about fossil fuels while flying to glitzy conferences courtesy of private air travel. And electric vehicles, including bikes and scooters, are seeing a rise in spontaneous combustion triggered by the malfunction of lithium-ion batteries.
On Facebook, allegedly misleading viral topics include a claim from conservative radio host Glenn Beck saying an “EV battery factory needs fossil fuels to run” and another from Breitbart that “Biden’s green policies benefit China.” But studies have shown that electric vehicles are worse for the environment than their gas-powered counterparts — in part because of the pollution-inducing production of lithium-ion batteries, a market China dominates. In other words, the more President Joe Biden subsidizes rich Americans buying electric vehicles, the more Beijing stands to profit.
Almost every energy-related statement VineSight flagged in its “misinformation” report is backed by either an outright truth or, at minimum, evidence to support the claim. For example, VineSight identified as misinformation a statement attributed to former President Donald Trump that went viral on TikTok: “The Green New Deal is the Destruction of Our Country.” The Green New Deal is a far-left proposal to radically reengineer the nation’s economy and power grid to prioritize climate change above all else. Residents in California are already suffering the effects of state officials implementing aspects of the Green New Deal on a local level; frequent blackouts and strict rules on water use are the new norm.
VineSight’s reports on climate change and voter fraud are not much different. Its climate change report this month flagged topics such as “climate change is a hoax” and “there is no climate crisis” as top examples of viral misinformation. Yet earlier this year, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist became the second Nobel laureate to sign a declaration with more than 1,600 other scientists that emphatically says, “There is no climate emergency.”
“Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific,” reads the declaration, organized by the Climate Intelligence Foundation. “Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”
Another climate “topic” written off as disinformation by the misinformation group is, “China opens a new coal transportation network.” Yet here’s a headline from National Public Radio (NPR) in March: “China is building six times more new coal plants than other countries, report finds.”
A VineSight press release in May celebrated the firm’s updated disinformation technology to “not only identify and alert organizations to disinformation attacks faster but also help mitigate, counter-message, takedown or label content before it damages a company’s reputation and business.”
“Today VineSight’s premier solution is used by major Fortune 500 brands including financial, manufacturing and pharmaceutical institutions, political campaigns, and other causes across the globe,” the company wrote.
The same press release highlights how “VineSight works with the terms of service of each social platform and where possible, get [sic] messages labeled or removed, to counteract any attacks or minimize virality.” In other words, by VineSight’s own admission, it shares its reports with major tech platforms to flag posts for censorship.
The company also admits its concerns about “disinformation” are related to election outcomes. “Disinformation is disrupting the legitimacy of the election process, threatening democracy, and allowing extremist views to become prevalent,” VineSight said in its May press release.
VineSight’s “tracking report” on voter fraud identified conservative themes on election integrity as “viral misinformation and toxic narratives.”
Here are a few The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway highlighted on X:
The topics also included “allowing illegal immigrants to vote is an insult to Americans,” and “MAGA movement was able to make election fraud a top voters issue.” The group also flagged the topic: “the 2020 election was stolen and now Democrats are trying to interfere with 2024.”
Democrats did of course rig the 2020 election — a conspiracy they’ve admitted to — by way of exploiting Covid-19 to transform “Election Day” into election season with the radical expansion of mail-in voting, the least secure format to conduct elections. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also dumped some $350 million into the leftist nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, which funded and staffed local government election offices. These dollars flowed overwhelmingly to the blue areas of swing states, effectively making the operation a Democrat get-out-the-vote effort.
Then there was the collusion of Big Tech and the media, which openly suppressed blockbuster stories surrounding the corruption of the Democratic nominee and his involvement in his son’s potentially criminal overseas business ventures. Hemingway wrote an entire 448-page book documenting the myriad ways Democrats rigged the 2020 contest.
As for the upcoming election, Trump, now the Republican front-runner in his third run for the White House, is faced with 91 felony indictments just over a year ahead of the next election. On Monday, the leading candidate for the GOP nomination was slapped with a gag order from an activist judge who effectively barred the former president from even campaigning against his top political opponent: the federal government. It bars Trump from publicly defending himself against attacks from potential witnesses, court personnel, or his federal prosecutors, including Special Counsel Jack Smith. According to VineSight, none of that constitutes election interference. Saying as much is amplifying “misinformation.”
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.
After Hamas’ violent attacks on Israel last week, Rep. Ilhan Omar finally found someone she can condemn as a “terrorist”: Ohio Republican Jim Jordan. Omar chose this moment in world events to resurrect and post a quote from former House Speaker John Boehner describing Jordan as a “legislative terrorist” (a description Boehner apparently used to complain about Jordan’s ability to make “Boehner’s life miserable”).
Thankfully, others have stepped up to disavow the heinous behavior of Hamas. A San Francisco Board of Supervisors declaration condemned the “domestic terrorist organization” and blamed its sponsor states for putting “weapons in the hands of those who would harm and terrorize us.” Rep. Jamaal Bowman called for focusing “energy” on fighting “the Nazis” before “anything else.” The National School Boards Association wrote to the attorney general about the “immediate threat” posed by “actions of malice [and] violence,” urging a response to “terrorism and hate crimes.” Whoopi Goldberg of “The View” bravely denounced them as “terrorists.” Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage condemned the “terrorist” at the top.
Omar, to her credit, decried the “ethnic cleansing” and “war crimes.”
Just kidding! None of these principled condemnations were directed at the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians last week. Issued over the past several years, they respectively referred to the National Rifle Association, Republicans in Congress, concerned parents at school board meetings, congressional Republicans (again), and Donald Trump. Omar’s “ethnic cleansing” comment was actually about Israel urging residents and others in Gaza to evacuate before incoming airstrikes against Hamas targets, while her “war crimes” remark slammed Israel for turning off electricity in Hamas-controlled territory.
Meanwhile, left-wing college students, their professors, and other congressional Democrats have found themselves unable to condemn the actual terrorists who killed, raped, and kidnapped unsuspecting Israelis and their families. Student groups and Marxist outfits like Black Lives Matter have aligned themselves with the terrorists, while others have reserved harsher words for the defending Israeli forces than for their attackers.
Why is it so hard to call a terrorist — a real one, who murders families in their homes and, yes, beheads babies — a terrorist? For a known antisemite like Omar, the answer is easy enough to discern.
For Marxists like BLM and their drones in college classrooms, it’s only slightly more complicated. Having been taught to see everything through the lens of oppressors and oppressed, they buy into the lies about Israeli “colonizers” and must therefore stand with the terrorists “freedom fighters.” Hamas, after all, is only doing to Israeli civilians what true Marxists think should be done to all “settlers.”
But there’s another hurdle to leftists admitting the terrorist acts committed by Hamas are, in fact, terrorism. To do so would invite comparison between those terrorists — of the raping, killing, and beheading variety — and the Republican “terrorists” that Democrats have assured us pose the greatest threat to the republic.
It looks pretty silly to call a potential speaker of the House of Representatives a “terrorist” when there’s so much real terrorism going on in the world. It looks equally silly to call Republicans “Nazis” while your own side cheers the deaths of hundreds of Jewish victims. No serious person could take a person like that seriously!
The Hamas attacks in Israel are inconvenient for the narrative that paints Republican congressmen, pro-life demonstrators, and concerned public school parents as terrorists who pray to Donald Trump at night, hide out in booby-trapped compounds in the Texas desert, and work to rain violent jihad on the sexually frustrated elementary school teachers exposed by Libs of TikTok. If there are terrorists actually dragging women’s battered bodies through the streets and taking toddlers hostage, Americans might realize that “terrorism” is a touch hysterical to describe voting for Trump or questioning the effectiveness of Covid lockdowns online. And then where would Democrats’ efforts to defend “democracy” be?
Anyone who honestly opposes “terrorism” should have no problem blasting Hamas’ crimes in the strongest possible terms. But to be honest about the term would also require not applying it to suburban soccer moms, Jim Jordan, and Trump-supporting grandmothers. (To be fair, some leftists do condemn Hamas’ terrorism as such. Draw your own conclusions, I guess, about what that means they think of you when they call you the same word.)
If I were given the choice of being stuck in a room with a Hamas jihadi or one of the Trump voters, parent protesters, or congressmen who have been described as “terrorists,” I’d take my chances with any of the latter three — or heck, all of them combined! I bet most of the people who casually slander American conservatives as “terrorists” would too.
Then again, when people tell you whose side, they’re on, you should probably believe them.
Elle Purnell is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. Follow her work on Twitter @_etreynolds.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, listens as the House of Representatives holds its second round of voting for House speaker. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Conservative Jim Jordan failed in his second attempt at the top job in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday, as his fellow Republicans considered a backup option for the leaderless chamber to move forward.
Jordan, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, for a second straight day fell short of the 217 votes needed to fill the vacant speaker’s chair, as 22 Republicans and all 212 Democrats voted against him.
The House is now in its 16th day without a leader, which has left Congress unable to respond to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, or to take action to head off a partial government shutdown which will begin in less than a month without congressional action.
Jordan’s vote total of 199 was less than the 200 Republican votes he secured on Tuesday.
Republicans who control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority have been unable to unite behind a speaker candidate since a small faction of them ousted Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 3.
It was not immediately clear whether Jordan would mount a third attempt or clear the way for a fallback option that would give increased power to Rep. Patrick McHenry, who has been temporarily filling the speaker’s chair.
The idea has been floated by Republicans and Democrats, as well as two former Republican speakers, Newt Gingrich and John Boehner.
“We’ve got to decide today,” Jordan told reporters before the vote. “Both questions should be called. Let’s get an answer. We’ve been at this two weeks. The American people deserve to have their government functioning.”
One proposal submitted by Republican Representative Mike Kelly would name McHenry as speaker through Nov. 17 or until a permanent speaker is selected, which would remove uncertainty about his current ability to run the chamber. That temporary solution could also buy more time for Jordan to line up support for the job after that point.
Democrats, whose support would likely be crucial, have made clear they want Jordan out of the picture. “We want a bipartisan path forward. That does not involve Jim Jordan, who is a poster child for Republican extremism and a danger to our democracy,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Tuesday.
Jordan’s supporters say he would be an effective advocate for advancing conservative priorities in Washington, where Democrats control the White House and the Senate.
“I don’t think anybody in here on any issue of any substance would have to guess where Jim Jordan is going to stand. He doesn’t deceive. He doesn’t dissemble. He simply tells you straight up,” Republican Representative Tom Cole said as he nominated Jordan for speaker ahead of the vote.
But other Republicans have voted against him for a variety of reasons, including his positions on taxes, spending and disaster aid, and the strong-arm tactics of his supporters.
New Republican alternatives aside from McHenry could also emerge if Jordan does not pick up support. Potential candidates include Representative Tom Emmer, currently the No. 3 House Republican.
Jordan, a former wrestling coach, is a close ally of former President Donald Trump and a founder of the House Freedom Caucus.
President Joe Biden delivers falsehood-filled remarks at the pro-LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign’s annual national dinner at the Washington Convention Center on Saturday night. (Photo: Kent Nishimura/ Getty Images)
President Joe Biden spoke Saturday at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual national dinner. Biden said it was his fourth appearance at the annual event, which is billed as “a national gathering for champions of LGBTQ equality.”
Although the 80-year-old president rarely makes public appearances before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m., he made an exception for his close allies, and he delivered a reasonably coherent address to boot. As to the truthfulness of Biden’s remarks, the most charitable description is that the spin began before he started speaking and ran through his concluding paragraph.
From downright false testimony to invented stories, from ideological falsehoods to absurd non-sequiturs, the president’s speech had it all. Perhaps it would even have been comedic if the stakes weren’t so deadly serious.
Biden was introduced by his wife, Jill, and the false testimony began with her. But the president added his own false claims.
Lies About State Laws
First, the president lied about state legislatures acting to protect women and children from the harmful effects of transgender ideology. He denounced “over 600 hateful laws [actually, bills] introduced,” of which he said “more than 70” became law, “denying the existence of transgender people, silencing teachers, banning books, threatening parents with prison for getting their children health care.”
In June, the Human Rights Campaign had declared a national state of emergency for “LGBTQ+ people” in the U.S. over this wave of state legislation, and they deliberately mischaracterized the laws in ways quite similar to the president. The HRC’s move was a one-time political stunt that meant absolutely nothing, but Biden at least knew how to play to the crowd.
The bills to which Biden referred do things quite different from the things he claimed they do. A law “denying the existence of transgender people” in Biden’s estimation is any law that defines “sex” in verifiable ways—that is, in biological terms—instead of the nebulous vagueness of self-perceived feelings.
By “silencing teachers,” Biden referenced laws that regulate school classrooms to ensure that material being taught to children in kindergarten through 3rd grade is age-appropriate.
The policies Biden claimed were “banning books” merely removed sexually inappropriate materials from school libraries, but it did not prohibit private individuals from purchasing said books, which is the traditional understanding of a “book ban.”
Lastly, Biden mentioned laws “threating parents with prison for getting their children health care.” This is a reference to SAFE Act-style bills, which protect minors from the harmful effects of gender transition drugs and surgeries. For starters, these procedures are not health care.
Additionally, only five out of 22 (four out of 19 enacted in 2023) state laws carry any criminal penalties. Of those five laws, none targets parents: Laws in Florida, North Dakota, and Oklahoma specify the felony penalties are for health care professionals, while Alabama’s and Idaho’s laws carry felony penalties for activities only medical professionals can do.
Biden followed up on these wild accusations by claiming that families with LGBT-identifying children “now face excruciating decision to move to a different state,” making them feel like “refugees inside our nation.” His remark cheapened the plight of millions of actual refugees—even from his beloved Ukraine, not to mention Israel—who have had to flee from their homes because they lived in literal war zones.
Yet, even if we granted, for the sake of argument, the president’s contention that interstate migration provoked by bad governance implied a moral failure on the governing parties, what does that say about California and New York? Their strict COVID-19 lockdowns, soft-on-crime policies, and high taxation have provoked an exodus to the very states Biden condemned—and certainly a much larger migration than however many families decided to relocate to obtain harmful gender transition procedures for their children.
Lies About Congressional Action
Having borne false witness against state legislatures, the president proceeded to do the same against Congress. “In the United States Congress, extreme MAGA Republicans are trying to undo virtually every bit of progress we’ve made,” he argued. “They’re trying to wipe out federal funding to end the HIV epidemic, strip funding from community centers for seniors, reinstate the ban on transgender troops, ban the Department of Justice from enforcing civil rights laws, ban Pride flags from flying on public lands. … And they threaten the legal recognition of same-sex marriages.”
Let’s set the record straight.
“Federal funding to end the HIV epidemic” refers to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), America’s largest overseas aid program, devoted to preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in undeveloped countries. It’s five-year authorization expired Sept. 30.
Pro-lifers in Congress agreed that PEPFAR was “critical legislation” and were concerned that the Biden administration had reimagined PEPFAR’s strategic direction, turning it into a vehicle to advance abortion and the LGBT agenda overseas—mostly because that’s what the Biden administration said they were going to do.
After including some legislative protections to prevent the administration from pulling a fast one, House Republicans reauthorized PEPFAR for another year in the State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill, which now sits unpassed in the U.S. Senate. To Biden, passing a bill to fund the program amounts to “trying to wipe out federal funding.”
Next, Biden accused Republicans in Congress of wanting to “strip funding from community centers for seniors.” The factual basis for this claim is that in July the House Appropriations Committee struck $3.62 million for three LGBTQ community centers from the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. Only LGBT publications such as The Advocate say the LGBT centers are for seniors. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., said appropriators removed the funds because the community centers had programming supporting communism, drag shows, and the administration of gender transition hormones to minors. Some senior centers!
The president also said that congressional Republicans wanted to “reinstate the ban on transgender troops.” If not presented among so many other obvious untruths, this could be forgiven as careless wording more than an outright lie. But, in context, it’s clear that Biden’s word choices were deliberate, and this one too misrepresents the facts.
The Trump-era regulation which Biden called a “ban” would merely prevent the military from becoming a glorified clinic for people rendered undeployable by deep mental health issues, and who were seeking expensive surgeries. It did not automatically kick someone out of the military simply because they claimed to be transgender.
Biden further claimed that Republicans wanted to “ban the Department of Justice from enforcing civil rights laws.” Again, that’s not at all what Republicans want. Republicans have taken issue with the DOJ rewriting civil rights laws to extend them to matters Congress never intended the law to cover. Specifically, the DOJ is attempting to redefine “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected categories, extending the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision even to laws Bostock didn’t address.
In addition, Biden accused congressional Republicans of seeking to “ban Pride flags from flying on public lands.” Like the “book ban” Biden previously mentioned, this attempts to conflate regulations on something’s appropriate use with making that thing unlawful. Congressional Republicans are actually seeking to prevent government agents and agencies from flying the Pride flag with taxpayer dollars, or in a way that gives the controversial symbol the government’s endorsement.
But if, say, someone wants to hang a Pride flag from their camper in a national park, or if someone wants to turn it into a bumper sticker and drive down an interstate highway, congressional Republicans are not seeking to ban that.
Finally, Biden claimed that congressional Republicans “threaten the legal recognition of same-sex marriages.” Oh, if only that were true! Yet, just last year, 47 Republican representatives and 12 Republican senators voted to affirm same-sex marriage. There is currently no pro-marriage majority to undo that vote.
Lies About ‘Violence Against LGBTQ Americans’
Biden referenced “violence against LGBTQ Americans” to argue that “we have to do more to keep people and their communities safe.” He offered five examples, but he bungled nearly every single one.
First on Biden’s list was the murder of Matthew Shepard. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent to 303 Creative v. Elenis, Shepard was “targeted by two men, tortured, tied to a buck fence, and left to die for who he was.” Much like George Floyd for BLM, Shepard’s death became a rallying cry for an entire movement against anti-LGBTQ violence.
The only problem is, he wasn’t killed “for who he was.” Wrote National Review fellow Haley Strack, “Shepard, who was involved in the Wyoming meth drug culture, was murdered by a bisexual who confirmed that the murder had nothing to do with Shepard’s being gay.”
Next, Biden mentioned O’Shae Sibley, who he said was “killed while dancing and expressing joy.” The Associated Press reported that another teen began arguing with Sibley and his friends while they danced shirtless while filling up at a gas station, but that the argument broke up. Later, said The AP, in a video, “Sibley could be seen following the teen and then lunging at him. The stabbing happened out of a clear view of the cameras.”
Biden then mentioned Laura Ann Carleton, who “hung a Pride flag outside her home,”and Colin Smith, who was “stabbed while defending a friend being harassed.” From cursory research, these seem to be the most accurate descriptors, but they still miss key information. Carleton hung a flag outside her business, not her home. Smith was stabbed on a bar patio in lawless Portland, Oregon. Curiously, neither Carleton nor Smith personally identified as part of any LGBTQ group.
Lastly, Biden mentioned “the horrific shooting at Club Q [an LGBT nightclub] in Colorado Springs,” which killed five people and wounded nearly two dozen. The shooter—who identifies as “nonbinary” and uses “they/them” pronouns to refer to himself—has been sentenced to serve five consecutive life sentences plus another 2,208 years in prison. But Biden said the episode highlights the need for stricter gun laws.
In summary, Biden’s list of examples of “violence against LGBTQ Americans” included three examples where the perpetrator or instigator identified as LGBTQ and two examples where the victim was someone who did not identify as LGBTQ. It also ignored the trend of violence committed by people who identify as LGBT, such as the Covenant School shooter.
Lies About Personal Experiences
Not satisfied with unjustly slandering state and national legislators, Biden proceeded to fabricate stories about his own life. “I’ve told this story before, but I’ll tell it again,” began the 80-year-old president.
“I wanted to work in the projects as a lifeguard on the east side of Wilmington [in Delaware]. And [my dad] was dropping me off on his way to work at the City Hall to go get an application to be a lifeguard there. And as I got out of the car at the four corners at the center of town, two men—it turns out, one going to the Brandywine; one worked for the Dupont Company; the other worked for Hercules Company; this was back when I was a kid—and they leaned up and kissed one another. And I’d never seen that before. I turned and looked at my dad. And he just looked at me and said, ‘Joey, it’s simple. It’s simple, Joey. They love one another. It’s a simple proposition.’”
In a previous telling of this story—which Biden repeats often—he said the incident occurred in 1961, when he was 17 or 18. This was years before the sexual revolution launched and a full decade before the first known same-sex couple applied for a marriage license. It was one year before any state repealed its sodomy law, and 11 years before Delaware repealed its sodomy law. It was 12 years before the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.
Most problematic of all, neither building Biden referenced had been built when he said the story took place. The Brandywine Building was built in 1969, while Biden was practicing law in Wilmington. The Hercules Building opened in 1983, while Biden was serving his second term in the U.S. Senate.
Descent Into Confusing Nonsense
In fairness to Biden, not everything he said on Saturday was an outright lie. He correctly characterized Hamas as the villain in its contest with Israel:
“A week ago, we saw hate manifest in another way in the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust. More than 1,300 innocent lives lost in Israel, including at least 27 Americans. Children and grandparents alike kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas. A humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Innocent Palestinian families—and the vast majority of them have nothing to do with Hamas. They’re being used as human shields.”
But Biden followed that up with a statement that won’t hold up in many other contexts. “Folks, we have to reject hate in every form. Because history has taught us again and again anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia—they’re all connected,” he said. “Hate toward one group, left unanswered, opens the door for more hate toward more groups, more often, readily. But here’s what, which history shows: The antidote to hate is love. The answer to twisted, dehumanizing ideologies is solidarity and standing up for everyone’s humanity.”
Biden’s philosophy is clear: Everyone has a binary choice between love or hate. The LGBT movement paints the slogan “love is love” on its banners. Or, as a columnist wrote last week in Philadelphia Gay News regarding Hamas’s intolerance of LGBT lifestyles, “hate is hate.”
But there are many things to love or hate, and sometimes loving one thing means hating something else, or at least deprioritizing it. Hamas is the dictionary definition of antisemitism, and Biden would likely regard them as homophobic, too. But could Hamas ever succumb to Islamophobia?
Taking an example closer to home, many of the most antisemitic members of Congress are among the most rabid proponents of the LGBT agenda. One member has a Palestinian flag outside her office and refused to condemn Hamas’ terror attack. Next to it flies a Progress Pride flag.
In another illogical moment, Biden announced “an ambitious plan to end HIV,” boasting that his administration “finally did away with the outdated policy banning gay and bisexuals from donating blood.” In other words, allowing the group at highest risk of contracting HIV/AIDS to donate blood, which might be contaminated with the disease, is part of his plan to end the disease by 2030.
“We’re leading with science, not stigma,” said Biden. Such awkward dissonance of ideas—“The Office” would be proud.
But out of all of Biden’s confusing moments, this one takes the cake: Biden delivered a message to LGBTQ-identifying youth across America, “We see who you are, made in the image of God, deserving dignity, respect, and support. That’s why my administration is combating the dangerous, cruel practice of conversion therapy.”
Here Biden does a bait-and-switch. The “dangerous, cruel practice” refers to quack treatments such as electric shock therapy aimed at removing a person’s LGBT feelings; such practices are everywhere discontinued and nowhere proposed. Yet LGBT activists continue to push sweeping bans on so-called “conversion therapy,” a ban so broad that it encompasses any effort—including simple talk therapy, which is a widespread practice—to help a person move out of an LGBT lifestyle.
Such therapy would simply involve affirming someone in their biological sex. Given the fluidity of sexual orientation, there would be quite a demand for such counseling, without any force involved.
Thus, a Christian counselor might tell a troubled young person seeking help to leave behind an LGBT lifestyle, “God made you in His image as male or female. The person God made you deserves dignity, respect, and support, and you don’t need to change to feel whole.”
Biden wants to prohibit such counseling. But the reason he gives for wanting to ban such advice is quite similar to the advice he wants to ban.
Bad Theology, Too
Biden concluded his address with some very popular—but very bad—theology. “I see a great nation because we’re basically a good people,” he said. But Jesus disagreed, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).
“Folks, we’re the United States of America. And there is nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together,” said Biden. Here the biblical parallel is to the tower of Babel. “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them,” said God (Genesis 11:6).
So, God confused their language to divide them and stop their work. Confused language and division over language are widespread in America today.
A coalition that represents more than 2,500 Orthodox Jewish rabbis condemned Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s decision to blame Israel for an explosion caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Pictured: Tlaib speaks at a press conference calling for the expansion of the Supreme Court on July 18, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Jemal Countess, Take Back the Court Action Fund/Getty Images)
The Coalition for Jewish Values, which represents 2,500 Orthodox Jewish rabbis in American public policy, condemned Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for rushing to blame Israel for the Wednesday bombing of a hospital in Gaza, despite increasing evidence that a misfired missile launched by the terror group Islamic Jihad caused the blast.
“Rep. Tlaib has repeatedly made it clear that she doesn’t value human rights, she merely hates Jews,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday.
“In this case, her devotion to an antisemitic lie is of a piece with blood libels spread by bigots of the past,” Menken added. “That a woman whose rhetoric recalls Nazi Germany is a member in good standing of the House Democratic Caucus should alarm every American, even given President Joe Biden’s strong moral stance.”
“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” Tlaib posted on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday night.
She tagged Biden and directed her comments to him.
“@POTUS [President of the United States,] this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate,” Tlaib added. “Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.”
Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that. @POTUS this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate.
Palestinian officials said an explosion at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital killed 471 people Tuesday, Reuters reported. Hamas, the group the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization that runs the government of Gaza and the health ministry that reported the deaths, blamed Israel for the explosion. Yet Israel claims the explosion traces back to a misfired rocket sent by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Iran-backed terrorist group that took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Palestinian Islamic Jihad has denied involvement, saying it did not have any activity in or around Gaza City at the time.
“I’m telling you this is the first time that we see a missile like this falling, and so that’s why we are saying it belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” one speaker says.
“It’s from us?” another asks.
“It looks like it,” the first speaker replies.
Hamas terrorists in their own voices:
Listen to the conversation between Hamas operatives as they discuss the failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on October 17, 2023. pic.twitter.com/mz31MiePU3
The Israel Defense Forces shared footage around the area showing that the misfired rocket damaged a parking lot near the hospital, rather than the hospital itself.
A failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization hit the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City.
IAF footage from the area around the hospital before and after the failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization: pic.twitter.com/AvCAkQULAf
Pictures and video of the area on Wednesday confirmed that the explosion took place at a parking lot.
So let’s walk through it.
We now have video of the scene showing the explosion is from the parking lot and the buildings are in tact. There is no crater, no building demolished. This is inconsistent with the type of bomb many were suggesting yesterday. pic.twitter.com/HFKKxS8kvrpic.twitter.com/SpgG3Ktbiy
Biden administration officials including President Joe Biden warned over the weekend that Hamas’ attack on Israel has resulted in an increased threat of terrorism within U.S. borders. FBI Director Christopher Wray warned on Saturday that the “heightened environment” presented by the fighting in Israel and Gaza has caused “an increase in reported threats.”
“We’ve got to be on the lookout, especially for lone actors who may take inspiration from recent events to commit violence of their own,” Wray said during his address at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference. “I’d encourage you to stay vigilant because as the first line of defense protecting our communities, you’re often the first to see the signs that someone may be mobilizing to violence.”
Biden similarly confirmed during a “60 Minutes” sit-down that Americans are at greater risk of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil after the events of the last week and a half.
“Because of what we’re seeing in the Middle East, is the threat of terrorism in the United States increased?” CBS’s Scott Pelley asked.
“Yes,” Biden replied. “I had a meeting this morning with the Homeland Security people, with the FBI, in the Situation Room for the better of part of an hour to discuss how we make sure that we prevent a lone wolf and or any coordinated effort to try to do what was done in synagogues before, do what was done to Jews in the street.”
Biden claimed that his administration is “making a major effort to make sure that doesn’t happen,” yet he has no concrete plans to cut off the biggest potential terrorist pipeline into the United States.
Hama’s “global day of rage” prompted terrorist attacks and anti-Israel demonstrations not just in France, China, Jordan, Iran, and Italy, but also in states like Washington and California. In addition to the Iranian spies who made their way into the Biden administration and the terrorist sleeper cells already embedded in U.S. cities, foreign incendiaries who wish ill on Americans can literally walk right into the U.S. via our compromised Southern border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources confirmed to Fox News on Monday that two of the Iranians caught sneaking across the Southern border in the last month were pinned as “raising red flags that they could pose a significant security threat.” Their information was later located in the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).
The capture is not the least bit surprising to border officials who, since October 2022, arrested nearly 160 illegal border crossers whose information was found on the TSDB. The Department of Homeland Security even admitted last week that “[t]errorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States” via its open Southern border.
Yet, Biden has no plans to stymie the border crisis created by his commitment to undo Trump-era security policies. On the contrary, the Democrat has repeatedly reinforced that he does not care to stop the collapse of the Southern border.
When word spread that Biden, in a major reversal, sought to build part of the Trump border wall he had been “quietly”auctioning off, the Democrat regime scrambled to assure Americans that the administration did not care to secure the nation’s borders, especially with physical barriers.
I want to address today’s reporting relating to a border wall and be absolutely clear.
There is no new Administration policy with respect to border walls. My full statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ga1fEMqvN8
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) October 5, 2023
Biden is not blind to the fact that nearly 7 million illegal border crossers have marched into the country detected by border officials, though likely not detained for long. Instead of addressing the border crisis that is clearly used as a pathway by potential terrorists to infiltrate the states, however, Biden is planning a trip to Israel to discuss its border issues.
If the Biden administration can waive more than two dozen laws to begrudgingly erect part of the border wall, it could easily reinstate other border security measures that would keep illegal border crossings down and free up Border Patrol to capture the several potential terrorists who inevitably make up part of the 1.5 million gotaways who made it into the U.S. under Biden.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
Joe Biden’s presidency is tracking Jimmy Carter’s four years in the Oval Office so faithfully it must give his campaign team hives. Recent events in Israel create even more parallels. It was a Middle East crisis that brought down Jimmy Carter’s presidency; the current conflict in the region could prove Biden’s undoing as well.
In 1979, more than 50 U.S. citizens were taken hostage in Iran, and Carter failed to secure their release. Worse, a U.S. military mission sent to rescue the prisoners failed, infuriating Americans. Carter’s foreign policy blunders sank his reelection bid, but they were far from his only problem. His administration was considered weak and inept, and the events in Tehran reinforced those perceptions.
Like Biden, Carter was already in trouble when the hostage crisis occurred. The Georgia peanut farmer presided over sky-high inflation: so has Biden. Carter pushed enormous and controversial increases in government spending: ditto Biden. Like Biden, Carter started with high approval numbers that went pretty much straight downhill.
As he approached reelection in 1980, Carter faced a primary battle from fellow Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy; nearing next year’s presidential election, another Kennedy — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – was until recently attempting to mount a primary challenge against Biden. History may not repeat but it sure does rhyme.
Today, 30 Americans have been murdered by Hamas and more than a dozen are being held captive. Voters will hold President Biden responsible for punishing the terrorists responsible for those deaths, and for bringing both American hostages and those trapped by war home safely.
So far, the Biden White House has not impressed. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan boasted eight days before Hamas’ invasion of Israel that, “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades,” displaying either incredible ignorance or unjustifiable smugness.
Elsewhere, it turns out that Robert Malley, Biden administration’s “special envoy” to Iran, who is known to have had close contacts with Hamas, was put on leave from his State Department post several months ago. Officially, he has been accused of mishandling classified documents, but there is speculation that he has long worked on behalf not of the U.S. but of Iranian interests.
Biden and his national security team have refused to accuse Iran for complicity in Hamas’ attack on Israel, claiming repeatedly there is no evidence of Tehran’s involvement. That is untrue. There is increasing proof that the planning for the attack went on for months, discussed by senior officials of both Hamas and Hezbollah meeting with leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Beirut.
Biden is understandably loathe to implicate Iran in Hamas’ atrocities. Confronting Tehran could escalate the hostilities in the region, and would also boost oil prices, which would inevitably hurt Biden’s approval ratings. Also, Biden’s White House, foolishly pursuing a nuclear pact, has enriched and emboldened the mullahs, in part by loosening enforcement of sanctions; voters will not look kindly on that decision.
Wisconsin Representative Scott Fitzgerald wrote recently in an op-ed, “Relaxing sanctions has allowed Iran to generate oil revenues exceeding $80 billion annually while strengthening its relationship with China. As I warned in April 2021, using China to dodge U.S. sanctions allows Iran to funnel money to its proxy forces in the Middle East, including the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hamas, which is armed, funded, and led by the Iranian regime.”
At the same time, there has been a spike in the number of people on the terror watch list who have been apprehended at the uncontrolled southern border, through which millions of people have entered our country illegally since Biden took office. Fox News reports that four Iranians have been caught since October 1, heightening concerns.
Our State Department has been slow to help evacuate Americans from Israel, even as other countries have arranged to airlift their citizens to safety. In addition, recent news reports show U.S. citizens responding to our government’s advisory and arriving at the Egyptian border, only to find it blocked and being told to go home.
The Biden White House claims to be “surging additional military assistance” to our ally. Given that Biden goofed some months ago by admitting that the conflict in Ukraine has drained our stocks of munitions, it is not clear how much we can provide.
Hamas, on the other hand, appears to be well-equipped, thanks at least in part to mountains of weapons and ammunition abandoned by U.S. forces in their hasty exit from Afghanistan, which Joe Biden and his team continue to applaud as a “success.”
Meanwhile, while the world has been transfixed by the horrors taking place in Israel and Gaza, the president has carried on with his campaigning. Biden’s support for Israel may be unwavering, but his attention span is not. As Israel declared war, Biden and his wife hosted a barbeque for White House staffers; the next day the president spoke at a Rose Garden campaign event celebrating his efforts to cut down on “junk fees.”
The very next day, Biden traveled to Philadelphia to promote his green energy agenda. An agenda, we note, that includes curbing U.S. oil production and consequently driving prices higher, helping to fund Iran-backed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. The president may have received word that his campaigning was not well received; he abruptly canceled a trip to Colorado on Monday to “instead hold meetings with his national security team as Israel’s war with Hamas appears set to escalate,” as one news outlet helpfully explained.
Jimmy Carter, faced with the hostage crisis, had the decency to suspend campaigning and focus his government on the plight of the captive Americans. One of his aides at the time, Stuart Eizenstat, wrote that the Carter’s so-called “Rose Garden strategy” “personalized the crisis in the American media by focusing the responsibility on the Oval Office and showing the terrorists they could put the American presidency itself into dysfunction.” Maybe that’s why Biden is choosing to keep up his campaigning, but his behavior is unseemly.
So far, voters back our support for Israel; if more American lives are lost, or the conflict spreads, they will not be so forgiving, and they will blame Joe Biden.
Liz Peek is a Fox News contributor and former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. A former columnist for the Fiscal Times, she writes for The Hill and contributes frequently to Fox News, the New York Sun and other publications. For more visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter @LizPeek.
Iran is warning of a possible “preemptive” strike against Israel soon. The warning, reported by Aljazeera, came as Israel prepared for a major ground offensive in Gaza.
Tensions have flared along the Lebanon-Israel border between the Hezbollah group and Israeli military, The Associated Press reported. While shelling has been limited to towns along the border, there have been fears Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups would escalate their actions to support Hamas should Israel begin a ground operation in Gaza.
“All possible options and scenarios are there for Hezbollah … Naturally, resistance leaders will not allow the Zionist regime to take any action in Gaza, and when it feels reassured about Gaza, move on to other resistance areas in the region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on state TV late on Monday, referring to his meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah the previous day.
“Therefore, any preemptive measure is imaginable in the coming hours,” he added.
According to the New York Post, he further said: “The resistance front is capable of waging a long-term war with the enemy [Israel] … in the coming hours, we can expect a preemptive action by the resistance front.”
The Post noted that Iran had applauded the brutal attack on Israel by Hamas, which had targeted innocent civilians.
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
Republicans rejected Rep. Jim Jordan for House speaker on a first ballot Tuesday, as an unexpectedly numerous 20 holdouts denied the hard-charging ally of Donald Trump the GOP majority needed to seize the gavel. More voting is expected as Jordan works to shore up support to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy for the job but the House immediately went into recess as the firebrand leader of the GOP’s hard-right flank struggled to take a central seat of U.S. power.
After two weeks of angry Republican infighting since McCarthy was removed by hard-liners, the House vote quickly became a showdown for the gavel. Reluctant Republicans refused to give Jordan their votes, viewing the Ohio congressman as too extreme for the powerful position of House speaker, second in line to the presidency.
In all, 212 Democrats voted unanimously for their House leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, while 200 Republicans voted for Jordan and 20 for someone else. Jeffries has no chance of winning, and Jordan must pick up most of his GOP foes to win a majority.
The holdouts are a mix of pragmatists, ranging from seasoned legislators and committee chairs worried about governing to newer lawmakers from districts where their voters back home prefer President Joe Biden to Trump.
But with public pressure bearing down on lawmakers from Trump’s allies including Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, it’s unclear how long the holdouts can last. Jordan swiftly flipped dozens of detractors in a matter of days, shoring up Republicans who have few options left.
“Jim Jordan will be a great speaker,” the former president said outside the courthouse in Manhattan, where he is facing business fraud charges. “I think he’s going to have the votes soon, if not today, over the next day or two.”
The political climb has been steep for Jordan, the combative Judiciary Committee chairman and a founding member of the right-flank Freedom Caucus. He is known more as a chaos agent than a skilled legislator, raising questions about how he would lead. Congress faces daunting challenges, risking a federal shutdown if it fails to fund the government and fielding President Joe Biden’s requests for aid to help Ukraine and Israel in the wars abroad.
To seize the gavel, Jordan will need almost the full majority of his colleagues behind him in a House floor vote, as Democrats are certain to back their own nominee, Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. With the House Republican majority narrowly held at 221-212, Jordan can afford to lose only a few votes to reach the 217 majority threshold, if there are no further absences.
Jordan conferred immediately afterward with McCarthy, who fared nearly as badly in January, having lost almost as many votes on the first of what would become 15 ballots for the gavel.
As the somber roll call was underway, each lawmaker announcing their choice, the holdouts quickly surfaced. One, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a leader of the centrists, voted McCarthy, the ousted former speaker. Murmurs rippled through the chamber. Others voted for Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was the party’s first nominee to replace McCarthy before he, too, was rejected by hardliners last week.
Making the official nominating speech was another top Trump ally, GOP conference chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who drew from the lessons of the Old Testament before declaring Jordan will be “We the People’s speaker.”
On the other side of the aisle, Democrat caucus chairman Rep. Pete Aguilar of California nominated Jeffries and warned that handing the speaker’s gavel to a “vocal election denier” would be “a terrible message” at home and abroad. Aguilar recited all the times Jordan voted against various measures — abortion access, government aid and others, Democrats chanting “He said no!”
Upset that a small band of hard-liners have upended the House by ousting McCarthy, Republicans have watched their majority control of the chamber descend into public infighting. All House business has ground to a halt.
After a late-evening meeting Monday at the Capitol turned into a venting session of angry Republicans, Jordan acknowledged: “We’ve got a few more people to talk to, listen to.”
One holdout, Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, said Jordan’s role in the runup to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and his refusal to admit that Biden, a Democrat, won the 2020 election remained an issue.
“Jim, at some point, if he’s going to lead this conference during the presidential election cycle and particularly in a presidential election year … is going to have to be strong and say Donald Trump didn’t win the election and we need to move forward,” Buck said.
But Jordan can rely on Trump’s support as well as pressure on colleagues from an army of grassroots activists who recognize him from cable news and fiery performances at committee hearings. Republicans say it will be hard for rank-and-file lawmakers to oppose him in a public floor vote. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who engineered McCarthy’s ouster by a handful of hard-liners, publicly praised each lawmaker who has flipped to Jordan’s column — and berated those who have not.
“Thank you Rep. Ann Wagner!” Gaetz posted on social media, after the Missouri Republican announced her support.
One by one, others also announced their support. Still, it could take multiple rounds during House floor voting, not unlike in January when it took McCarthy 15 ballots to win the gavel.
Democrats have decried the far-right shift, calling Jordan the leader of the chaos wing of the GOP.
Jordan has been a top Trump ally.
Now the Republican Party’s front-runner to challenge Biden in the 2024 election, Trump backed Jordan to replace McCarthy early on and was working against the nomination of Scalise, who withdrew last week after colleagues rejected their own rules and failed to coalesce around him.use.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Top Stories • Court Prohibits Killing 26-Week-Old Unborn Baby in Abortion: “We Cannot Stop the Heartbeat” • Pro-Life Congressman Jim Jordan Hopes to Win Speaker Vote Tomorrow, Wants to “Unify” Republicans • Celebrating Justice Clarence Thomas’ Remarkable 32 Years on the U.S. Supreme Court • Pennsylvania March for Life Sees Thousands of Pro-Life People Stand Against Abortion
More Pro-Life News • Pro-Life Republican Jeff Landry Flips Democrat State, Wins Louisiana Governor Race • 40 Days for Life Campaign Saves 100 Babies From Abortion So Far • Woman Killed Her Disabled Newborn Baby, Dumped His Body on the Side of the Road • Ohio Debate Confirms Issue 1 Would Allow Abortions Up to Birth, Vote No • Scroll Down for Several More Pro-Life News Stories
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