Cross-Examination

• Garland gave Weiss “full authority”? Back in March, Attorney General Merrick Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “The U.S. attorney in Delaware has been advised that he has full authority … to bring cases in other jurisdictions if he feels it’s necessary." That was merely the latest statement on record made by Garland claiming that he had given David Weiss unfettered authority to investigate and bring charges against Hunter Biden. Well, following a recent number of DOJ emails obtained by The Heritage Foundation per Freedom of Information Act requests, there is no evidence that Garland ever granted Weiss such authority. According to Heritage Oversight Project Director Mike Howell, Weiss couldn’t have been granted such authority without a paper trail. "The DOJ lives on paper,” Howell observed, and a granting of investigative authority “would have been written down.” Yet “there was nothing written down at the DOJ and sent to Weiss, indicating Weiss had any of the authority that Garland claimed he did.” So, did Garland perjure himself?

• Skyrocketing healthcare costs: Back in 2010, Democrat lawmakers passed ObamaCare, claiming to be confronting and even reversing the rising cost of healthcare. Results ever since have been the exact opposite, as healthcare costs have only continued to rise — at an even faster clip. It turns out that forcing everyone to buy health insurance has only made everything health-related cost more for everyone. Who knew? This year, health insurance coverage costs are expected to rise by an average of 6.5%, which is the largest single-year jump in over a decade. And the primary culprit is inflation. Even folks on ObamaCare will see their premiums rise by 6% over last year. When frustration over spiking health insurance premiums causes one’s blood pressure to rise, you know who to thank.

• Christmas Eve loses to Juneteenth: Speaking of healthcare, with this apparent boon in funding, why are hospitals looking for ways to limit healthcare workers’ pay? Instead of serving patients better by cutting healthcare expenses, Georgia’s largest hospital system, Emory Healthcare, has instead chosen a woke virtue signal. Emory Healthcare CEO Joon Sup Lee recently announced the company’s decision to eliminate holiday status for Christmas Eve and replace it with Juneteenth when calculating hospital employees’ holiday pay. “To minimize impact to patient care, we will not be adding another paid holiday to our calendars,” Lee asserted. “Rather, beginning January 2024, we will remove Christmas Eve from our holiday calendar and replace it with Juneteenth.” The real reason: the woke tenets of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

• Abortion radicals make the practice more prevalent: Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the majority of states that allow elective abortions have seen a significant uptick in abortions performed. Indeed, all but four of these states saw the number of abortions performed last year increase, and in some of these states the numbers more than doubled. New Mexico led the way with a 220% increase, going from 2,940 abortions in 2020 to 9,420 so far this year. Even more troubling are the numbers from several Republican-run states like South Carolina and Kansas, which both have seen the number of abortions more than double since 2020. Meanwhile, the states with the highest total number of abortions continue to be the usual suspects of California, New York, and Illinois. The good news is that states such as Texas and Georgia, which have actively sought to limit abortions, are seeing significant results, with Texas recording just 14 abortions so far this year and Georgia seeing an 18% drop in abortions since 2020.

• Mexico legalizes abortions nationwide: The lives of preborn children are under greater threat in Mexico following its Supreme Court decision Wednesday to decriminalize abortions nationwide. To make matters worse, thanks to Mexico’s federal public health service, this ruling not only legalized abortions but also serves as a mandate to the nation’s hospitals and medical workers, obliging them to offer and perform abortions for anyone making the request. Back in 2007, Mexico City passed the Marcelo Law, which legalized first-trimester abortions. According to pro-life organization Steps for Life, that “has caused more than a million abortions in Mexico, since the official figures from health centers in Mexico City must be added [to] those performed in private clinics.” Sadly, the abortion death cult is growing.

• Paul questions doc’s diagnosis of McConnell: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has endured a couple of recent health episodes, but his sudden “freezes” in public have been blamed on dehydration by the Capitol Hill physician, Dr. Brian Monahan. However, at least one senator, McConnell’s fellow Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, isn’t buying that diagnosis. “I’ve practiced medicine for 25 years, and it doesn’t look like dehydration to me," Paul stated. "It looks like a focal neurologic event. That doesn’t mean it’s incapacitating, doesn’t mean he can’t serve. But it means that somebody ought to wake up and say, ‘Wow, this looks like a seizure.’” What is clear is that the 81-year-old McConnell is far from a spring chicken, and he should be seriously looking at retirement sooner rather than later. Furthermore, Republicans better have a plan in place as to who will serve as their next Senate leader.

Headlines

• Two-thirds of Democrat voters want Biden to drop reelection bid (National Review)

• A lawsuit seeks to bar Trump from the primary in Colorado, citing Constitution’s insurrection clause (AP)

• Trump White House official Peter Navarro convicted of contempt after defying House January 6 subpoena (AP)

• Appeals court allows Texas to keep floating Rio Grande barriers in place (Washington Examiner)

• NYC braces as 21,000 migrant students push schools to overflowing (National Review)

• California Senate passes insane bill that would allow the state to take away your kids if you don’t “affirm” their gender confusion (Not the Bee)

• California judge halts school policy that would alert parents of child’s social gender transition (Free Beacon)

• 5th California school district says teachers must notify parents if kids identify as trans (Daily Signal)

• Disney narrows its lawsuit against DeSantis to focus on free speech (ABC News)

• American cities have been forced to pay out $68 million to rioters who caused more than $2 billion in damage during 2020’s “Summer of Love” (Not the Bee)

• Democrat leader who called to abolish the police changes her tune after she was violently attacked (Fox News)

• Satire: Eric Adams calls Texas to ask if they have any more of those cowboy guys with the whips (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.