Cross-Examination

• Gaetz tries to remove McCarthy: On Monday, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) followed through on his threat to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from leadership. Gaetz raised “clause two A1 rule nine,” wherein he gave notice of his “intent to raise a question of the privileges of House” to declare “the office Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant.” After the temporary spending deal, Gaetz made this politically motivated play while claiming that McCarthy “has not fulfilled his promises.” The last time a motion to challenge the speaker was made was back in 1910. In order for Gaetz to be successful in getting McCarthy booted, he’ll need help from Democrats — the same Democrats who back in 2021 launched an ethics probe against him over allegations of sexual misconduct, drug use, and accepting a bribe. The Ethics Committee has yet to produce a report on its findings, though House Republicans on Sunday promised to “seek to expel Gaetz if the ethics committee report comes back with findings of guilt.” Following Gaetz’s motion, House Democrats reportedly erupted in laughter. For good reason.

• SCOTUS denies 14A Trump disqualification ruse: On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid raised by John Castro, a Republican presidential candidate, to get Donald Trump disqualified from office based upon the 14th Amendment. Castro contends that according to the 14th Amendment’s provision forbidding anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. from holding office, Trump should be disqualified due to the January 6 Capitol riot. Castro lost his case in a lower court, though he has two others pending in courts in New Hampshire and Arizona. We’ve previously debunked his theory.

• Dem congressman robbed at gunpoint in DC: Texas Democrat Representative Henry Cuellar was carjacked at gunpoint by three individuals in DC late Monday night. The incident happened outside of Cuellar’s apartment building, where three black men wearing black clothing held a gun to his head and took his cellphone and his Honda C-HR. Police were able to apprehend the suspects and return Cuellar’s car. This incident is now the second criminal attack against a member of Congress in DC this year alone. It serves to highlight the growing crime problem in Democrat-run cities.

• Chicago O'Hare International Hotel: Thanks to Joe Biden’s open-border malfeasance, cities across the country are struggling to deal with the influx of illegal aliens. As homeless shelters have filled up, city leaders have run out of places to put migrants. In Chicago, O'Hare International Airport has begun doubling as a shelter for illegals. One of the airport’s terminals has been turned into a makeshift home for hundreds of illegal aliens who arrived by plane, not by bus. In other words, they are there not due to Texas Governor Greg Abbotts’s busing program but because the Biden administration has flown them there, as it has done all across the country. Situations like this never happened under the Trump administration.

• Iran official admits to 1983 Beirut bombings: Back in 1983, a bombing at the U.S. embassy in Beirut killed 17 Americans, and another one at a military barracks in Lebanon housing American and French personnel resulted in hundreds of deaths, including 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy sailors, and three U.S. Army soldiers, as well as 58 French troops. The U.S. blamed the terrorist organization Hezbollah and Iran for the attacks. Iran long denied it, but in a recent interview, Sayyed Issa Tabatabai, representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Lebanon, admitted to Iran’s role in the bombings. “I quickly went to Lebanon and provided what was needed in order to [carry out] martyrdom operations in the place where the Americans and Israelis were,” Tabatabai stated. “With the victory of the Islamic Revolution [in Iran], Hezbollah was established [in the summer of 1982]. For two years, [Hezbollah’s] military base was located in my home. ‘The group’ [supporters of the Islamic Revolution] signed a contract declaring their willingness to become martyrs. Perhaps more than 70 [of them] signed this contract in my home.” There is a reason Iran is widely and accurately designated as the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. And it is this historical backdrop that both the Obama and Biden administrations have ignored in order to make a nuclear deal that primarily benefits Iran’s terrorist regime.

• Good news — kidnapped girl found safe: A nine-year-old girl, Charlotte Sena, who was abducted on Saturday at a state park in New York was recovered alive on Monday night. The suspect, Craig Nelson Ross Jr., allegedly snatched Charlotte as she was riding her bike. He placed a ransom note in the family’s mailbox on Monday morning, leaving behind a fingerprint that led authorities to discover his identity and location and to make the subsequent arrest. Charlotte was recovered by a SWAT team that descended on Ross’s living quarters, an RV trailer, where she was found safe in a cupboard. State police credited the fast recovery of Charlotte to “a culmination of multiple agencies working together for the common goal of bringing this child home to her loving family.” It’s a rare happy ending to such a case.

Headlines

• Trump judge faces backlash after smiling, posing for cameras in courtroom (Fox News) | New York judge caught smiling during Trump trial is lifelong Democrat donor (Daily Wire)

• Bowman disavows talking points attacking “Nazi members” of GOP in office’s fire alarm messaging guidance (Fox News)

• John Kelly confirms Trump’s “suckers” remark about war dead (The Hill)

• Hunter Biden pleads not guilty on federal gun charges (NBC News) | Hunter expected to rely on Second Amendment ruling his dad said should “deeply trouble us all” (Free Beacon)

• The $8 billion Sam Bankman-Fried criminal trial starts today (CNBC)

• Supreme Court weighs CFPB legality in case challenging funding of financial watchdog (Washington Examiner)

• Supreme Court threat hovers over new Biden FCC net neutrality push (Washington Examiner)

• Voters see Democrat Party as more ideologically extreme than GOP by nine points (Free Beacon)

• Pope Francis expresses openness to same-sex blessings in response to cardinal critics (CNS)

• Humor: Rep. Bowman pulls fire alarm again while trying to flush urinal (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.