Cross-Examination

• Biden calls a lid as U.S. and UK launch airstrikes in Yemen: If you want to hit your enemy hard, don’t telegraph your punch. That’s just one of the lessons for Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden, whose joint operation airstrikes against targets in Yemen were leaked by the UK press two hours beforehand. The strikes — which included support from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Bahrain — hit some 60 targets at 16 Houthi sites but killed a measly five bad guys. The White House issued a joint statement yesterday, which called for “the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews,” but Biden himself went snuggerbunnies before addressing the media or the American people. According to the Pentagon, he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who’s still hospitalized with prostate cancer, have spoken only twice in the past two days. We imagine all this has the Iranian mullahs, for whom the Houthis are a proxy, just quaking in their turbans. We won’t deter Iran without hitting Iran. This is the aggression that Biden’s weakness has provoked. Last week, after repeated sternly worded memos from Team Biden, the Houthis laughed and then launched their most complex attack on shipping vessels to date. This commercial component is likely what forced Biden’s hand, as shipping costs have spiked significantly since the onset of the attacks. Recall that Donald Trump had rightly designated the Houthis as a terrorist organization, and Biden undid that designation almost immediately upon taking office.

• DOD IG to probe Austin’s absence: It’s a sad sign of our nation’s military decline that Lloyd Austin still has a job, but at least the Department of Defense’s inspector general is going to take a look at why and how Joe Biden’s DEI defense secretary abandoned his post. As The Washington Times reports, “The Pentagon’s internal watchdog announced Thursday that it will investigate the circumstances surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s secretive prostate cancer surgery and a subsequent lengthy hospital stay and will examine whether the secretary’s office has effective procedures in place for the ‘transition of authorities’ when such an emergency arises.” Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now rightly calling for Austin’s resignation, with Pennsylvania Congressman Chris Deluzio being the first Democrat to do so. Deluzio, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and an Iraq War veteran, said he has “lost trust” in Austin’s leadership. And, better late than never, the White House is now requesting a review by its cabinet secretaries regarding their process for delegating authority.

• Trouble in EV world: West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin has not been happy with the Biden administration’s green energy agenda. Specifically, Manchin is upset over the Biden administration’s “unlawful” use of the falsely named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and he’s threatening to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its “illegal” implementation of the law. “My problem is not with EVs,” states Manchin. “My problem is this administration’s crusade to convert everyone over to an EV regardless of where the battery came from or what the law actually says.” The crux of the issue for Manchin is the Biden administration’s attempt to go around the law’s domestic sourcing requirement for EV battery components. Since few EVs currently on the market meet this requirement to qualify for federal tax credits, likely dampening EV sales, the Biden administration has been seeking a workaround. As Manchin adds, “Unfortunately, it seems this administration is so hellbent on implementing their radical climate agenda for political gain that they are willing to bend and break the law and watch our manufacturing base continue to fall behind.” Speaking of EVs, Hertz rental car company, which has been touted by the Biden administration for embracing its climate agenda by purchasing a fleet of EVs, recently decided to reverse course. Hertz announced it will sell off 20,000 EVs, roughly a third of its U.S. EV fleet, as the company cited higher “expenses related to collision and damage, primarily associated with EVs.” To throw even more cold water on Joe Biden’s EV green dream, Hertz will take the money from the sale of these EVs and reinvest it in the purchase of more gas-powered vehicles.

• Gay predators gang-rape toddlers in Houston mall: In what is no doubt the most disturbing story of the day, and of recent memory, two toddlers were sexually assaulted by a group of seven men in the restroom of a popular Houston mall. As Fox 26 Houston reports: “A former Galleria employee was arrested and charged for recording the sexual assault of two toddlers involving at least six other men. Arthur Hector Fernandez III, 29, is charged with the sexual exploitation of children after the FBI said videos were found on a forum on the dark web by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.” The FBI was able to identify Fernandez and the two male toddlers, who were between the ages of two and three, because relatives of the toddlers recognized the clothing being worn by the children when they viewed a sanitized version of the video. The incident appears to have happened last May. As Fox 26 continues: “Court documents say the relative of the first toddler had been called into work at the Galleria on her day off but did not have time to find care for the young boy, so she brought him with her to the mall. Fernandez, who also worked at the Galleria Mall at the time, offered to watch the toddler while she worked.” Where on earth is the death penalty when we need it?

• All Trump supporters will be labeled “militia”: In yet another sure sign that the Democrats are freaking out about Joe Biden’s awful polling numbers against the likely Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump, a pair of hard-left Democrats introduced bills in both houses that would prohibit private paramilitary activity nationwide. The legislation’s authors are Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. As The Washington Times reports, “The ban would hold individuals liable who directly engage in certain types of conduct, including intimidating state and local officials, interfering with government proceedings, pretending to be law enforcement, and violating people’s constitutional rights, while armed and acting as part of a private paramilitary organization.” The next step, of course, would be to label all groups of Trump supporters as “militia.” Fortunately, the bill has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled House, and its future in the narrowly divided Senate is also in doubt. Still, it gives us a sense of the panic and hatred that drive Democrats’ politics these days, and it tells us that Biden’s twisted “democracy” rhetoric is just one symptom of a larger illness.

• Racism in Maryland: The chief diversity officer at the famous Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, recently sent out an employee-wide email to effectively educate them on the tenets of wokeness. The email first defines “privilege” using the classic Marxist oppressor vs. oppressed framework and then proceeds to list social identity groups who have this “privilege.” Unsurprisingly, the list begins with “white people” and includes “heterosexuals,” “males,” and “Christians.” In other words, the email advances straight-up racism, sexism, and anti-Christian bigotry. After word of the email got out, the Johns Hopkins DEI office retracted the email and apologized. Meanwhile, at a comic book convention in Montgomery County, Maryland, vendors who are white and male will be charged a higher fee to reserve a table space than will female or minority vendors. The rates for women or minority-owned businesses are listed at $225 or $250 with electricity, while the rates for “regular” people, meaning white male-owned businesses, are listed at $275 or $325 with electricity. The word “regular” was later removed, but the race/sex-based rate divisions remain. That’s some “privilege.”

• Washington State’s “privilege” ammo tax: The latest attempt to further erode Americans’ Second Amendment rights comes from Democrat lawmakers in Washington State. On Tuesday, they introduced House Bill 2238, which would impose an additional “privilege” sales tax on all firearm ammunition. As the bill reads, “A use tax is levied on every person in this state for the privilege of using ammunition as a consumer at the rate of 11 percent of the selling price.” Of course, the legislation exempts “state, local, or tribal governments” from this ammo tax. The legislation justifies the tax by noting that the “revenue from this will go to programs that aim to prevent suicide and to reduce firearm-related domestic violence.” The Second Amendment is a right, not a privilege. Ammunition, by definition, is an “armament” and therefore included under the Second Amendment. Yet Democrats consistently demonize firearms as the problem in their effort to avoid responsibility for the lawlessness their soft-on-crime policies have fueled across the country. Furthermore, this is an attempt to significantly limit Americans’ right to bear arms without directly calling for the elimination of firearms.

• Biden admin ignores Nigerian genocide of Christians: More than 5,000 Christians across the world were martyred in 2023, 90% of whom were killed in Nigeria alone. That continues a trend of Islamist terrorism from the group Boko Haram that has claimed the lives of more than 52,000 Nigerian Christians since 2009. Nigeria has led the world in this ongoing genocide of Christians, and yet for the third year in a row, Joe Biden’s State Department has failed to include Nigeria on its list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC), which includes nations that are engaged in “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” Back in 2020 under Donald Trump, with the rise in Boko Haram’s violence against Christians, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added Nigeria to the CPC list, which triggered diplomatic and economic penalties. Without explanation, Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed Nigeria from the CPC in 2021. Notably, says the Family Research Council’s Arielle Del Turco, “The removal of Nigeria’s CPC status came one day before Blinken went to Nigeria to visit with state leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari.” And ever since, the Biden administration has effectively turned a blind eye to Nigeria’s persecution of Christians. FRC President Tony Perkins observed: “The Biden administration is where religious freedom goes to die. Unfortunately, thousands of people are dying, too.”

Headlines

• Smirking Hunter Biden pleads not guilty to nine federal tax charges at LA court, gets June trial date (New York Post)

• Trump lashes out at judge in closing arguments of civil fraud trial (Politico)

• Trump 14th Amendment political challenger arrested on federal tax charges (The Hill)

• Biden announces fresh wave of early student debt cancellation for some borrowers (NBC News)

• Texas seizes control of park, blocks Border Patrol from entering as part of anti-illegal immigration efforts (Fox News)

• FAA to increase oversight of Boeing production and manufacturing following Alaska Airlines emergency landing (NBC News)

• Meta to restrict more content for teens as regulatory pressure mounts (Reuters)

• Judge orders California district to reinstate teachers who refused to hide students’ gender transitions (Washington Free Beacon)

• Politifact founder predicts social media will be used to “suppress misinformation” more often this year (Hot Air)

• Chicago schools missing $23 million in laptops, iPads (Daily Caller)

• All Washington State public high schools to get overdose kits; health officials cite fentanyl surge (Daily Wire)

• Army sees sharp decline in white recruits (Military.com)

• Baking company hosts competition barring white participants (Daily Wire)

• Number of children living with two parents increasing, data shows (Washington Stand)

• Canadian police warn that posting videos of alleged package thieves could be a “violation” of their privacy (Fox News)

• Policy: What would happen if climate alarmists enact their full agenda? (Daily Signal)

• Humor: White liberal in New York quietly removes “All Are Welcome Here” sign (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.