Cross-Examination

• Youngkin aims to turn VA more red: On Tuesday, Virginians will head to the polls, and control of both the Senate and House of Delegates is on the line. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has been campaigning hard for GOP candidates despite the fact that he is not up for reelection. Obviously, Youngkin is heavily invested in realizing the political vision he has staked out. “I think that we are driving towards an outcome that I think is best for Virginia, and therefore I’m going to go to work with everything I have in order to try to deliver,” Youngkin explained. His vision includes a potential template for Republicans across the nation regarding abortion legislation. Youngkin has thrown his weight behind a compromise — a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, with exemptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Should Republicans successfully take control of the statehouse, Youngkin believes his approach to abortion “should be a national message that Republicans can learn from.” Furthermore, should Republicans win the day in Virginia tomorrow, it will serve to greatly elevate Youngkin’s national popularity within the GOP.

• NYT: Trump leads Biden in five of six swing states: It’s officially panic time for the Democrats, whose future hold on political power appears ever more tenuous with Joe Biden making such an awful mess of things. Typical of the angst is the increasingly pessimistic New York Times, which can only mutter about its most recent poll: “Voters in battleground states said they trusted Donald J. Trump over President Biden on the economy, foreign policy and immigration, as Mr. Biden’s multiracial base shows signs of fraying. … The results show Mr. Biden losing to Mr. Trump, his likeliest Republican rival, by margins of four to 10 percentage points among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden is ahead only in Wisconsin, by two percentage points, the poll found.” Perhaps the most shocking numbers from the NYT poll concern Biden’s stark slippage among minority voters, especially young ones. In 2020, Biden enjoyed a 39-point lead with non-white voters under age 45. That lead is now a measly six points. Reacting to these numbers, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board opines, “As voters focus on the election next year, Mr. Trump’s manifest liabilities will reassert themselves.” We’re not so sure. Donald Trump, more than any other politician, is a known quantity. Those who support him now already know he’s a mean tweeter. What’s more to learn?

• Iowa’s Reynolds endorses DeSantis: As endorsements go, it’s a big one: the endorsement of a popular sitting governor whose state happens to be one of the first to choose its presidential candidate. But Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds doesn’t appear to be a kingmaker, nor does any other politician or pundit on the Republican side. In this election cycle, the kingmaker seems to be the Everyday Joe who’s assessed the GOP primary field and decided, overwhelmingly, to stick with Donald Trump. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who today will be the recipient of Reynolds’s endorsement, is no doubt happy for it, but not at all surprised. The writing was on the wall back in July, when Reynolds refused to endorse Trump while tacitly seeming to support DeSantis. Trump, who endorsed Reynolds in both her 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, saw this as a sign of disloyalty, and he promptly burned the Reynolds bridge. Since then, Trump’s aggregate lead in Iowa has edged up slightly, from a low of around 26 points to a high of around 32. A recent Des Moines Register poll has Trump as the first choice of 43% of Republican caucus-goers, with DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley tied at 16%.

• Pro-Hamas mob descends on DC: Last week, Joe Biden launched an anti-Islamophobia counteroffensive, perhaps because he saw his 2024 reelection prospects slipping away with Arab Americans, who’ve become increasingly upset by even his modest support for Israel in its war with Hamas. But if this weekend’s events near the White House are any indication, the people he meant to placate aren’t at all impressed. As Trending Politics’ Collin Rugg posted: “Monuments in Washington D.C. have been vandalized by pro-Palestine thugs as rioters rage against President Biden’s support of Israel. The monuments include: Andrew Jackson statue in front of the White House. The General Marquis de Lafayette Statue in Lafayette Park. Benjamin Franklin statue. The White House barrier and more. ‘Democracy dies in darkness’ … Where is the media?” It’s a great question. The crowd in DC was estimated at more than 100,000, but the MSM mostly yawned about it — especially the destructive stuff. Thankfully, America’s Best Newspaper, the UK’s Daily Mail, was on the job, reporting at length on the pro-Hamas hooliganism.

• Biden splurges on border wall: Remember back when Democrats said a border wall was “racist”? Back when candidate Joe Biden smugly vowed, “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration”? Those were the days. As our Nate Jackson noted last month: “During the Trump years, roughly 450 miles of border wall were erected. Though far from perfect, the problem of illegal immigration was far closer to being manageable than it had been or is now.” Since Trump left office, our southern border has been a choreographed catastrophe, a cynical effort by the Democrats to make America more brown and, so their thinking goes, make her more Democrat. But that doesn’t seem to be working. And public opinion being what it is, and Joe Biden’s reelection prospects being what they are, our open-borders chief executive is now trying to burnish his phony border-security credentials. As the New York Post reports, Biden now says he’ll spend $950 million on various repair projects along the existing barrier in Texas, Arizona, and California. We’d say “better late than never,” but that would lend legitimacy to this naked political ploy.

• Low EV demand has lithium sales tanking: America’s largest provider of lithium for the electric vehicle industry in the U.S., Albemarle Corporation, has reported a significant sales slump, as the company reported a third-quarter net income of $302.5 million, down from $897.2 million this time last year. Furthermore, the company downgraded its forecasted total sales for the year from an expected range of $10.4 to $11.5 billion down to $9.5 to $9.8 billion. The primary reason for the sales drop-off has to do with low and falling electric vehicle demand. Auto manufacturers find themselves stuck in an EV oversupply problem, as a majority of consumers are simply not buying into the “green dream.”

• New Jersey’s wind blows: Speaking of green dreams, a green energy mega-project that New Jersey Democrat Governor Phil Murphy has been touting since 2019 — a planned wind farm off the Jersey shore — recently blew up in his face. Danish renewable energy company Ørsted backed out of the project, citing cost overruns making it impossible. Ørsted explained that it had already written off some $4 billion this year. As part of the original deal that Murphy orchestrated, New Jersey state power company PSEG had invested a 25% stake in the offshore farm, but thanks to project cost overruns, the power company sold its stake this year. In order to keep money flowing to the green project, Murphy is now planning to funnel federal tax credits earned when the wind farm is completed to offset the increased costs. Previously, he promised to use those credits to lower residents’ electricity rates. Once again, the green dream is shown to be little other than a climate cult that is fundamentally unconcerned about the negative impact it has on people’s lives and welfare.

• FBI raids NYC mayor’s chief fundraiser: Last Thursday morning, the home of Brianna Suggs was raided by FBI agents. Suggs just happens to be New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’s chief campaign fundraising consultant. The raid happened on the same morning that Adams was in Washington, DC, meeting with members of Congress and Joe Biden’s White House over the border and illegal immigration crisis. Upon learning of the raid, Adams quickly cut the visit short to return to New York to “deal with an issue.” Suggs was targeted by FBI investigators in connection with an alleged conspiracy involving the Turkish government and a construction company to move money via straw donors to Adams’s campaign. Suggs, who has worked for Adams’s campaign team since 2021 while earning over $150,000, has not yet been arrested or charged with a crime.

• Woke AF colonel blocked: It took years for Barack Obama and Joe Biden to fundamentally transform our military, but they’ve succeeded beyond what we suspect are their wildest dreams. The rotten fruit of this effort is embodied in senior officers like Air Force Colonel Ben Jonsson, who, as The Daily Signal reports, “accused his fellow ‘white colonels’ of being ‘blind to institutional racism’” and is now “the subject of blistering criticism from subordinates at MacDill Air Force Base, where he served as commander from 2020 to 2022.” Thankfully, as the Signal continues, “Jonsson is among the more than 300 military officers awaiting Senate approval for a promotion.” And we have Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville to thank for it. Tuberville, as we’ve noted numerous times, has taken a principled stand against taxpayer money being used by the U.S. military to fly its personnel around the country for the purpose of getting an abortion. “Forgive me,” writes Not the Bee’s Harris Rigby, “while I LAUGH MY BUTT OFF at Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, and other RINOs for saying that not promoting THIS kind of dude is going to hurt our national security.”

• Good news: More high school students protesting “transgender” policies: Last week, students in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a second time held a school walkout in protest of the district’s Policy 8040, which permits students who identify as “transgender” to use bathrooms and locker rooms that are opposite of their biological sex. Back in September, hundreds of students in Perkiomen Valley School District in Pennsylvania walked out of school in protest after the school board failed to enact a policy barring students from using opposite-sex bathrooms and locker rooms. These are just two examples of growing student-led opposition to the pushing of “transgenderism” in their schools. As Meg Kilgannon of the Family Research Council observed: “American adults and parents should be ashamed of the fact that students are forced to protest for the right to not undress in front of someone of the opposite sex. The students and staff are protesting because the Left is forcing progressive adult sexual priorities on children as a way of justifying their own adult actions, and it’s not acceptable.” Kilgannon contends, “If these kinds of protests continue, it’s going to make the release of the Biden administration’s redefinition of Title IX and sex itself much more charged.”

Headlines

• Barack Obama insists we’re all “complicit” in Hamas war, omits his role in strengthening Iran (Fox News)

• More than 300 Americans escaped Gaza in last several days, but more remain (RedState)

• Rashida Tlaib posts video of protesters chanting “from the river to the sea” (Hot Air) | Bernie Sanders downplays Tlaib’s genocidal remark on Israel: Being for Israel “all the way” is “not going to work” (Daily Wire)

• The Hamas wing of the Democrat Party now numbers 45 (Hot Air)

• Jews are turning to Fox News for the first time (Hot Air)

• Top Dem strategist David Axelrod suggests Biden drop out of 2024 race (New York Post)

• Supreme Court will review federal bump stock ban (Daily Caller)

• Hunter Biden asks daddy’s judicial appointee to investigate snitch ex-business partner (Washington Free Beacon)

• DoorDash now warns that not tipping BEFORE your food arrives might mean drivers will deliver your food cold (Not the Bee)

• Policy: Why a ceasefire in Israel would backfire (The Hill)

• “Satire”: Researchers discover miracle cure for gender dysphoria called “deleting TikTok” (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.