Cross-Examination

• “Treated like a toddler”: Excerpts from a soon-to-be-released book documenting Joe Biden’s first term in office by Atlantic writer Franklin Foer paint a rather unflattering view of the career politician. Following Biden’s speech in Warsaw wherein he went off script by saying that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” Foer writes: “Biden left for home … feeling sorry for himself. Rather than owning his failure, he fumed to his friends about how he was treated like a toddler. Was John Kennedy ever babied like that?” Biden’s rub is what has been glaringly obvious over his entire time in office — that his staff is consistently forced to run cleanup after him.

• Manchin and daughter’s $100M project: Questions surround Joe Manchin’s future decisions: Will the West Virginia Democrat senator decide on running an uphill battle for reelection, or will he instead launch a presidential campaign running as an independent, or will he do something else entirely? Well, Manchin recently joined his daughter Heather Manchin, the former CEO of specialty pharmaceuticals company Mylan, to pitch a centrist vision for American politics. With the goal of forming a focused coalition, the project aims to “mobilize the middle” by supporting candidates and policies that steer away from the fringes and into the center. The project is projected to cost over $100 million. In other words, this would be an effort to promote political unity for the sake of unity.

• California Democrat sees the light: At least one California Democrat has seen the light. San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa on Tuesday blasted the city’s leftist lax crime policies that have only served to increase crime. Canepa noted that the Board of Supervisors was proposing a new tax force instead of focusing on crime. “Enough is enough!” lamented Canepa. “All this retail theft. All this sort of crime. Enough is enough. We really need to look at state laws. What we have in place right now is not working. We can’t go on like this.” Canepa also admitted his own culpability for supporting California’s Prop 47, passed back in 2014, that downgraded many theft and drug possession crimes from felonies to misdemeanors if the total stolen amounted to no more than $950. “I made a mistake,” he said, “It was a big mistake, and you have to acknowledge your mistake.” He then observed: “By doing this, what we’ve done is we’re letting people take thousands and thousands of dollars. And why should people be subjugated?”

• BLM’s Denver jackpot: Riot, burn, and loot, and then get a fat check for doing so. That effectively is what has happened in Denver after Colorado’s capital city settled with roughly 300 Black Lives Matter protesters. During 2020’s summer of violence, those protesters were arrested for violating the city’s emergency curfew order, which had been given due to the rioting, burning, and looting that would often accompany BLM protests after dark. Now, the Denver City Council has unanimously agreed to reward these lawbreakers with a $4.7 million settlement — at taxpayer expense, of course.

• Good news: Anti-transing victory: A California mother who sued her local school district after officials secretly “socially transitioned” her daughter has won a $100,000 judgment. After Jessica Konen discovered that her daughter’s school in Monterey County had allowed her sixth-grade daughter to use male pronouns and the boy’s bathroom while not notifying or seeking her consent, she sued. Konen charged that the school intentionally kept her in the dark and, as the lawsuit noted, “attempted to actively deceive” by using her daughter’s “birth name and corresponding pronouns in her presence while using” her daughter’s “new name and pronouns when she was not present.” Following this trying but successful ordeal, Konen warned: “If you choose not to fight for your children, then they will fight and take your children. Stand up parents, it’s your right to be able to parent your own children.”

• CNN’s new CEO: Leftmedia outlet CNN has a new CEO, the fifth to jump on board what has become a carousel of leadership. Former New York Times CEO Mark Thompson will officially take the helm on October 9, making him the fifth boss (counting three interims) CNN has burned through in under two years. Former CEO Chris Licht lasted just over a year, as he unsuccessfully tried to steer CNN back toward a more centrist focus on hard news and away from the hard-left slant of the Jeff Zucker years. With CNN having lost so many primetime viewers, it is now well behind MSNBC and not even within shouting distance of Fox News. The question is just how hard left Thompson will push the media outlet.

Headlines

• “Lying again”: Biden trashed for embellishing house fire while trying to relate to natural disaster victims (Fox News)

• Biden: It was “strange” that DeSantis wasn’t political in managing hurricane response (Daily Wire)

• Biden administration forgives $72 million more of student loan debt, calls it “protecting” the “cheated” (Washington Examiner)

• Justice Thomas’s 2022 financial-disclosure form clears up past errors, undermines corruption allegations (National Review)

• Mitch McConnell just had another freezing episode while being asked about running for reelection (Not the Bee)

• Pentagon officials worked to finalize climate plan during botched Afghanistan withdrawal (Daily Wire)

• NBC is the only traditional network to cover Gold Star families’ hearing (Daily Wire)

• Ex-Catholic Cardinal McCarrick, age 93, found unfit to stand trial on teen sex abuse charges (AP)

• Canada issues travel advisory to LGBT people visiting U.S. (Washington Examiner)

• Satire: Biden comforts hurricane victims by talking about time the urinal splashed back at him a little (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.