Cross-Examination

• UAW strikes: Failing to come to an agreement on Thursday, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain announced the initiation of a workers’ strike, which hit all Big Three Detroit automakers today. “The world is watching. And the UAW is ready to stand up,” Fain stated. “This is our defining moment.” Meanwhile, the Big Three automakers have been struggling with slumping sales, likely due to high inflation; Joe Biden’s war on fossil fuels, which has kept gas prices high; and the push for EVs, which are higher priced and not nearly as popular as gas-powered vehicles.

• Dems beginning to bail on Biden: Earlier this week, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius finally jumped on board a growing sentiment among Democrats: “Joe Biden should not run again in 2024.” Ignatius joins a group of Leftmedia pundits that is reading the tea leaves and concluding that the age-addled Biden is a threat to the Democrats holding onto the White House. As Ignatius puts it, “If [Biden] and Harris campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement — which was stopping Trump.” Leftmedia outfits from The Atlantic to Politico to The New York Times have increasingly been willing to publish columns calling for Biden to step aside. Of course, the problem that Ignatius included while at the same time glossing over is Kamala Harris. Democrats know Harris is no more of a winner than Biden, but how do they dump her without being called out as racist and sexist?

• Hunter sues over (not) his laptop: On Wednesday, Hunter Biden raised a lawsuit against Garrett Ziegler, a former White House aide to Donald Trump, and his nonprofit Marco Polo. Interestingly, Hunter’s legal team attempts to maintain the fiction that Hunter’s infamous laptop isn’t his laptop, while at the same time claiming that the material obtained from the laptop belonged to Hunter. They allege that Ziegler violated state and federal law when he published the contents of Hunter’s laptop. Hunter’s legal team further asserts that the data published was “to at least some extent … tampered with, manipulated, altered, copied and damaged.” It’s an argument that boils down to, “It’s not Hunter’s, but it is Hunter’s.”

• Biden’s DOJ wants ban on its social media contacts lifted: On Thursday, the Justice Department requested that the U.S. Supreme Court lift the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to uphold an injunction against federal agencies communicating with social media companies. In his decision, Judge Terry A. Doughty noted that the federal government agencies had pressured social media companies to censor speech on their platforms, which was possibly “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.” While the Fifth Circuit in its decision revised Doughty’s injunction, it upheld it. Now the Biden administration is seeking to get the injunction lifted expressly because it wants to censor Americans’ speech, all under the guise of limiting the spread of “misinformation.”

• Amazingly, common sense prevails in California: A bill classifying child sex trafficking as a serious felony passed the California legislature on Wednesday. The Golden State’s legislature unanimously approved SB 14, which will allow the state to pursue life sentences under the “three strikes” provision. State Senator Shannon Grove, a Republican who authored the bill, responded to its passage by stating, “SB 14 will serve to protect future generations by stopping people from engaging in this horrific crime.” Furthermore, it “will send a direct message to those committing this horrific crime of selling our children for sex in the state of California that we will no longer stand by and tolerate this, and you will serve a lengthy prison sentence.” Newsom is expected to sign SB 14 into law.

Headlines

• Hunter Biden indicted on federal gun charges (Fox News)

• Key testimony alleges Biden met with son’s business partner, Kazakh bank official (Daily Wire)

• Speaker McCarthy demolishes AP reporter over false report that House has “no evidence” for Biden impeachment inquiry (PM)

• Biden says Republicans want to impeach him to “shut down the government” (National Review)

• Biden berated for claiming he taught “political theory” at University of Pennsylvania (Fox News)

• Remember that promise of no new audits below $400,000? The IRS doesn’t (Hot Air)

• August wholesale inflation rises 0.7%, hotter than expected (CNBC)

• No evidence that UFOs have extraterrestrial origins, NASA finds (Washington Post)

• Chinese shipbuilding capacity over 200 times greater than U.S., Navy intelligence says (Fox News)

• Former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis ordered to pay $100,000 to gay couple over refusing to sign their marriage license (Not the Bee)

• Satire: White House says there is no direct evidence that Hunter Biden actually exists (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.