Cross-Examination

• Clinton “likes them young”: So said dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, at least according to the testimony of one of Epstein’s accusers, Johanna Sjoberg, as recounted within a trove of newly released documents that were part of a since-settled 2015 lawsuit brought by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, against Epstein “madam” Ghislaine Maxwell. Asked whether Epstein ever talked to her about Clinton, Sjoberg replied, “He said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls.” That’s some sick stuff, folks. The documents, as the New York Post reports, name more than 170 names, including Clinton, former President Donald Trump, and Britain’s Prince Andrew, but they don’t implicate either Clinton or Trump in any wrongdoing. Yet Clinton is mentioned almost 50 times in these documents. Where there’s that much smoke, denying the fire somehow seems ludicrous. As for Trump, he has long maintained that he long ago severed ties with Epstein, even banning him from Mar-a-Lago. Prince Andrew is a different story, however, having been accused in the documents of having group sex with underage girls. In addition to being a sicko sex trafficker, Epstein was a powerful and well-connected financier, and there’s plenty of justifiable public outrage about the continued cover-up surrounding his customers. As our Emmy Griffin wrote last month, “This lack of transparency and obvious silencing by those in power are yet more indicators that the rot Epstein wrought is part of a much bigger ring of predatory behavior on the part of elites in power.” Other names that came out in the documents include pop sicko Michael Jackson, magician David Copperfield, and ALS-stricken physicist Stephen Hawking. “This doesn’t even do justice to his Rolodex,” says Fox Business journalist Charlie Gasparino, who once interviewed Epstein. And with another batch of documents expected to be released today, there’s likely a lot more yet to be written here — especially if we ever see the flight logs of Epstein’s trips to his private pedophile island.

• Biden’s red tape: Just as Democrats are the party of speech suppression while Republicans are the party of free speech, so too are Democrats the party of government regulation while Republicans are the party of deregulation. Indeed, as our Nate Jackson wrote back in 2020, “Deregulation has been one of President Donald Trump’s best calling cards over the last three-plus years, especially given how much he has done to undo the work of his predecessor.” As Trump pointed out at the time, “For every one new regulation added, nearly eight federal regulations have been terminated.” This is good for business, of course, but it’s also good for Liberty writ large. Unfortunately, Joe Biden doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. As the Washington Examiner reports, “Federal agencies under White House control issued the most regulations for every law passed in nearly three decades, the latest sign that the president’s team is using red tape to force its agenda on the country.” It gets worse. As the Examiner continues, “For every law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, agencies issued 46 regulations, the highest percentage since 1995.” And even worse: According to a report by Lafayette University professor Mark Crain, the U.S. ranks 16th globally in terms of regulation. As for the financial cost of overregulation, Crain has run the numbers. He says reducing the regulatory burden would increase U.S. GDP by approximately 8% — which amounts to about $2 trillion per year, or $15,000 per American household. Ouch.

• Trump’s bold border promise: In a Des Moines Register op-ed yesterday, former President Donald Trump begins by saying, “The most urgent task facing the next president is to end Joe Biden’s nation-wrecking nightmare on our southern border.” Who can disagree? He then recounts his border successes and compares them to Biden’s manifold border failures, which we’ve covered extensively and which we recently noted was the worst story of the year just past. No, Trump doesn’t mention his first-term failure to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it, but he lays out an aggressive and detailed plan that includes “a record-setting deportation operation” this time around. And, public sentiment being much more attuned to border security than it was seven years ago, a second-term Trump should have more favorable headwinds. “We do not have time for on-the-job training,” Trump writes. “Unlike every other candidate, with me, there is no question. I promise you that I will get this job done.”

• Trump adds two big GOP endorsements: If runaway polling and early endorsements are a sign of political inevitability, Donald Trump should be feeling pretty good these days. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton announced their endorsements for the former president this week, and they come as Trump’s rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, are struggling to remain relevant. “When Donald Trump was president,” said Scalise, “American workers and families were thriving.” As Cotton put it: “When Donald Trump was president, America was safe, strong, and prosperous. With Joe Biden as president, everything has gone to hell: Families can’t afford groceries, our border is wide open to a full-blown invasion, and our enemies are starting wars everywhere.” As for the state of the race, RealClearPolitics has Trump leading DeSantis by 33 in Iowa and Haley by 22 in New Hampshire. Nationally, he leads both challengers by a whopping 52 points.

• Keep it up, Gov. Abbott: With Democrat mayors from the “sanctuary cities” of Chicago and New York calling on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to end his migrant busing crusade, the Republican responded by doubling down. In a post on X, Abbott stated: “Texas has transported over 95,000 migrants to sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities like NYC & Chicago have seen only a FRACTION of what overwhelmed Texas border towns face daily. We will continue our transportation mission until Biden reverses course on his open border policies.” Speaking of important numbers, in FY2023 alone, U.S. Border Patrol encountered 2.4 million illegal border crossers. Democrat mayors need to take their complaint to Joe Biden, not Abbott, who has been seeking to do everything in his power to stop the flow of illegal aliens across Texas’s southern border. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is trying to prevent Abbott from addressing the problem, as the Justice Department filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Supreme Court to force the removal of razor wire on the southern border that Texas has set up. Abbott responded, “See you in court.”

• GOP’s two-seat majority: The Republicans’ already small House majority keeps thinning — it’s now down to only two seats with the announced resignation of Ohio Representative Bill Johnson on Tuesday. Republicans now hold 219 seats in the House, just one more than 218 needed to secure majority control of the chamber. Johnson will be leaving office on January 21 to become the president of Youngstown State University in Ohio. A special election will be held to fill his seat for Ohio’s 6th Congressional District, which is solidly Republican. However, when it will be held has yet to be determined. In the meantime, Johnson’s departure only adds to the Herculean task facing Speaker Mike Johnson in uniting a fractious Republican majority.

• Swift helps Hamas? The biggest pop star on the planet, Taylor Swift, had a memorable year in 2023. Last month she teamed up with her celebrity friend Selena Gomez and attended a fundraiser for Gaza. The fundraiser was hosted by comedian Ramy Youssef, who signed a letter to the Biden administration and Congress calling “for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost.” The trouble is, Swift has been criticized for failing to speak out against Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel. Swift’s silence was highlighted by her former bodyguard who said: “Don’t be on the wrong side of history. Don’t stand on the sidelines and say nothing. … Stand with Israel, stand with humanity.” Well, with Swift attending the pro-Gaza fundraising event, whose proceeds will be going to the anti-Israel organization American Near East Refugee Aid, it would appear that she has let her actions speak for her.

Headlines

• Biden to kick off campaign with J6 speech on the threat of white supremacy and Donald Trump, because of course (Not the Bee)

• Trump appeals Colorado ballot-removal decision to Supreme Court (National Review) | Trump appeals Maine secretary of state’s move to bar him from ballot (National Review)

• Claudine Gay writes pathetic op-ed playing the victim, gets fact-checked into oblivion (RedState)

• AP targets conservatives who criticized Harvard’s prez, compares them to “white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans” (Not the Bee) | The AP made a stealth edit to its article about Chris Rufo and Claudine Gay, acknowledging “some” Native Americans used to take scalps too (Not the Bee)

• GOP puts immigration front and center with border visit and a new push to impeach Mayorkas (NBC News) | Mayorkas calls out Texas for “failure of governance” amid illegal immigrant crisis and impeachment (Fox News)

• Cartels make $32 million a week off migrants in one stretch of Texas border (Washington Times)

• Leftist judge strikes blow to election integrity in Wisconsin with ballot “curing” decision (The Federalist)

• Male murderer sent to women’s prison (Hot Air)

• Florida surgeon general declares COVID jabs “not appropriate” for any “human beings” over DNA fragment concerns (The Federalist)

• Policy: Nuclear provides way to decarbonize without sacrificing energy affordability, reliability (Daily Signal)

• Satire: Claudine Gay claims white supremacists went back in time and forced her to plagiarize at gunpoint (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.