Cross-Examination

• Jordan still working for 217 votes: Ohio Republican Jim Jordan won the nomination to run for speaker of the House, but he’s still working to nail down 217 votes to secure the spot. Fellow Ohioan Mike Turner said this morning that he’s “confident” we’ll have a speaker when the House votes later today. That’s good news considering that there were 55 Republicans who said Friday they were a “no” on Jordan. Nebraska’s Don Bacon said of the seeming stalemate: “We had a small group of folks who broke our rules and got rid of Kevin [McCarthy], and then a small group broke our rules and blocked Steve [Scalise]. Now, they want us to follow the rules and support Jim, and I don’t like that. I don’t play a game where the other guy can break the rules and win.” There will be inevitable horse trading behind closed doors before the public vote later today.

• That Trump gag order: Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan really doesn’t like Donald Trump, and on Monday she imposed a “tailored” gag order in Jack Smith’s case against the former president for his actions after the 2020 election. “Mr. Trump can certainly claim he’s being unfairly prosecuted,” Chutkan acknowledged. “But I cannot imagine any other criminal case in which a defendant is permitted to call the prosecutor deranged, or a thug, and I will not permit it here simply because the defendant is running a political campaign.” We’ll certainly grant that Trump is a rather unique defendant, one with his own social media network to boot. But Chutkan too readily dismisses the First Amendment freedoms of an active presidential candidate in a case she almost certainly has already prejudged. The Leftmedia cheered on the “narrow” and “limited” order as a show of restraint on Chutkan’s part. Now Trump gets to justifiably and loudly grumble about that, if not defy it altogether.

• More Americans think Biden’s corrupt: The Biden Crime Family may get away with their lucrative corruption legally, but more and more Americans — despite the wagon-circling of the media — know that the president has been up to no good. According to a recent Associated Press poll, “35% of U.S. adults believe the president himself has done something illegal,” while “an additional 33% say they think the Democratic president behaved unethically, but not illegally.” Just 30% think Biden is pure as the wind-driven snow, and one wonders what reality they inhabit. The AP, of course, downplays the whole thing as just over “ethical concerns,” but the poll shows that more Americans are getting wise to the game.

• Hamas bucks: The jihadists of Hamas receive a lot of backing from Iran, which is why our Mark Alexander said last week that Iran had attacked Israel. The Biden administration, of course, has spent nearly three years appeasing Iran, and that was after Barack Obama did likewise for eight years — literally sending pallets full of cash to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Hamas attacked not long after Team Biden unfroze $6 billion in Iranian assets. In an effort to cover that blunder, Biden said he’d once again limit access to that money. But Andrew McCarthy insists that hasn’t actually happened — and can’t happen because “the United States government no longer has power to freeze the funds.” Meanwhile, we’re learning that, just before Hamas’s assault, the Biden administration sent $75 million to Gaza, ostensibly for food. Always remember that money is fungible.

• Hamas apologists backtrack: To the consternation and alarm of decent human beings, too many people — primarily radical leftists — came out of the woodwork to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause against their Israeli “oppressors.” From Harvard to Congress, it’s been a disgraceful display. The good news is that some of these folks are backtracking in the face of public backlash. Several Harvard student groups distanced themselves from the infamous joint statement. The University of Pennsylvania quickly quelled pro-terrorist sentiments in the face of losing donors like former Utah Governor and U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman. Chicago’s chapter of Black Lives Matter apologized for messages “we aren’t proud of.” Media organizations are suspending or firing scribes and talkingheads who spout anti-Semitism. Free speech isn’t always free of consequences.

• Iranians at the border: Joe Biden’s open southern border is a huge humanitarian and economic crisis, but it’s also a matter of national security as potential terrorists make their way into our nation from the south. “From Oct. 1, 2022, to Aug. 31, 2023, Customs and Border Protection reported encountering 151 illegal aliens on the terrorist watchlist between ports of entry on the southern border, plus 76 more at ports of entry,” reports The Daily Signal. “This number does not include an unknown number of ‘gotaways’ who successfully evaded Border Patrol agents and entered the interior of the U.S.” The apprehensions include two Iranians whom the Border Patrol said could “pose a significant security threat.” The simple fact is that when millions of people illegally cross your wide-open border, not all of them are sweet families seeking a better life.

Headlines

• Joe Biden to visit Israel on Wednesday (Townhall)

• Hamas releases first hostage video in disgusting propaganda push (RedState)

• Neither Jordan nor Egypt will accept refugees fleeing Gaza Strip (Breitbart)

• Why has the Gaza ground invasion been delayed since Friday? (Jerusalem Post)

• U.S. selects 2,000 troops for potential deployment to support Israel (Daily Wire)

• Brussels shooting: Police shoot dead terrorist who killed Swedes (BBC)

• Tom Cotton says federal law requires DHS to deport foreign nationals who “expressed support for Hamas” (Daily Wire)

• Biden admin reaches deal with migrants separated from their families under Trump (NBC News)

• What would we do without experts? Runaway inflation “unlikely” to be reeled in under Biden administration, experts say (Daily Caller)

• Some of the nation’s top colleges are eliminating student loans (CNBC)

• U.S. companies increasingly eliminate college degrees as a requirement amid out-of-control school costs (Fox News)

• Satire: Terrifying haunted house just displays current gas and grocery prices along dark, creepy hallways (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.