Cross-Examination

• The latest on cash for the Big Guy: As House Republicans continue digging into their investigation of Joe Biden and his connection to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, they have unearthed another potential smoking gun. Subpoenaed bank records show that back in 2019, Hunter received $260,000 in wire transfers from China. The kicker is that these two transfers listed Joe Biden’s Delaware home as the beneficiary address. On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden repeatedly claimed that he “never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period.” Well, as House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) noted: “Joe Biden’s abuse of public office for his family’s financial gain threatens our national security. What did the Bidens do with this money from Beijing? Americans demand and deserve accountability for President Biden and the first family’s corruption.”

• MTG pulls a fast one: As House Republicans wrangle over passing a stopgap spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene took the opportunity to include an amendment that would slash Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s annual salary from its current $221,000 to less than $1. “Many Americans agree: We do not want the United States’ military led by failure, causing us to be weak,” Green argued in reference to the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. “We need to pass this amendment.” Her amendment was approved by a voice vote, but it won’t get past the Democrat-controlled Senate. Greene knows that, but it was a chance for her to highlight the ineptitude of the Biden administration’s foreign policy record.

• Trump’s lead is how strong? While Donald Trump still enjoys a commanding lead over all other Republican challengers for the presidential nomination in polls across the country, there is a recent poll that may hold some concern for the former president. A CBS News/YouGov survey of Republican voters in Iowa and New Hampshire found that over three-quarters of these voters are considering candidates other than Trump. In Iowa, 79% of Republican caucus voters said they are seriously looking at the other candidates, with just 20% saying they are only considering Trump. In New Hampshire, the numbers are similar, with 77% open to casting a vote for a candidate other than Trump. That said, 51% of Iowa caucus voters still preferred Trump over the rest of the field, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis coming in second at 21%. In the Granite State, it was much the same, as 50% prefer Trump and DeSantis pulling in just 13%.

• House almost unanimously slaps down Biden’s anti-hunting move: In a rare nearly unanimous vote against the Biden administration, the House voted 424-1 in favor of Tennessee Republican Mark Green’s bill dubbed the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act. Green’s bill was in direct response to the Biden administration’s decision to block federal funding to schools that have hunting and archery programs. “Hunters and fishers are the best conservationists,” Green observed following the vote. “Hunting, whether it be with a firearm or bow, is one of the most effective ways to control wildlife populations, protect our beautiful lands, and connect with nature.” Calling his bill “critical for our children,” Green noted that in his state of Tennessee alone, roughly 50,000 students benefit from these school hunting and archery programs. Back in July, Biden’s Education Department trotted out new rules that declared school hunter safety programs in breach of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Community Act due to using items that are “technically dangerous weapons” and that therefore “may not be funded under” the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. National Shooting Sports Foundation senior vice president Lawrence Keane called that a “blatantly misconstruing [of] the law,” and it appears that nearly everyone in the House agrees. Furthermore, based upon comments from senators on both sides of the aisle, this bill will easily pass the Senate, likely with a veto-proof majority.

• Biden taps anti-cop activist to head his “gun violence” office: Speaking of guns, Joe Biden has picked a leftist anti-cop and defund-the-police activist to head his newly created White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. Last week, Biden announced the anti-gun violence group, overseen by Kamala Harris, saying it will “combat the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our families, our communities, and our country apart.” It will be led by Greg Jackson, the former director of the leftist Community Justice Action Fund. Jackson has a history of calling for slashing police budgets, including during a 2021 seminar entitled “Re Imagining [sic] Policing” at the University of Maryland where he said that he was “struggling to survive while … police budgets thrive.” Jackson contended that “community-led violence intervention and prevention strategies” would be more effective to “ultimately reduce the need for policing.”

• China takes pandas, Fetterman reacts: China owns all the pandas in the world. All the pandas in zoos in America are officially on loan from China, even the ones that have been born at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Evidently, there is no birthright citizenship for pandas in America. Beijing is demanding that American zoos return all their pandas by December 7, demonstrating the growing tension between China and the U.S. Well, at least one U.S. senator is incensed over China’s demand. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman blasted the move, stating, “I hope many of our colleagues agree, the Chinese government and other U.S. adversaries should own zero — zero — agricultural land in our country.” He added: “They’re taking back our pandas! We should take back all of their farmland.”

Headlines

• GOP candidates clash in debate: Five memorable moments (The Hill)

• FBI refuses to release documents in probe into possible nationwide voter registration fraud (Just the News)

• Senate forces Fetterman to wear big boy pants, passing a formal dress code (PJ Media)

• California enacts first statewide gun and ammunition tax in the country (FOX 40)

• Only richest 20% of Americans still have excess pandemic savings (Bloomberg)

• Americans have poor math skills. It’s a threat to U.S. standing in the global economy, employers say. (AP)

• After the BLM riots, 94% of new S&P 100 corporate jobs went to “non-white” applicants, and they are bragging about it (Not the Bee)

• Philadelphia looting: Break-ins, 50 arrested as havoc continues for second night, leaving residents desperate (Fox News)

• Satire: Philadelphia shoe stores, liquor stores, electronics stores looted by starving people desperately looking for bread (Babylon Bee)

• Humor: GOP debate viewers overwhelmingly select “Mute Button” as top choice (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.