Cross-Examination

• Trump is not immune: The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this morning that Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution on charges that he tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election. The former president claimed that his alleged criminal actions on January 6, 2021, were protected by presidential immunity, but the court disagreed. “For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the panel of three judges wrote. “But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.” The defeat was expected for Trump, though he plans to appeal to the entire DC Circuit and then the Supreme Court. Special Counsel Jack Smith had asked for an expedited ruling as he hopes to have Trump in the courtroom by March over charges of “insurrection,” one of the four indictments against Trump that constitute Democrat lawfare against him.

• Joe Biden’s fake border urgency: When your left-leaning friend tries to blame Republicans for our current border mess, don’t let him get away with it. When he says Joe Biden needs border legislation in order to act, be sure to remind him that Donald Trump didn’t need special legislation to protect our border. Indeed, as Andrew McCarthy notes, “Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (codified at Title 8, United States Code, §1182(f)) clearly states in pertinent part: Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants. What part of that don’t Joe Biden and his open-borders apologists understand? In fact, columnist Tristan Justice has collected 65 examples of Biden willfully failing to enforce the law. Asked about the risk of torpedoing the current "border” bill rather than granting Biden his phony legislative mandate, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott pointed out: “President Biden undid the successful measures that Trump put in place. If you can undo them, you can put them back in place. So President Biden does not need legislative action to secure our border. That is simply a lie to the American people. What President Biden needs is intestinal fortitude to go ahead and do his job right now.”

• Biden stands against standalone Israel aid bill: On Monday, the White House warned that Joe Biden would veto a standalone bill that provided aid solely to Israel. The warning was issued as the House will soon take up a vote on the $17.6 billion Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. Biden is once again playing politics. He wants Congress to pass a Senate-proposed $118 billion “border” bill that he disingenuously claims he needs in order to secure the border. House Republicans have warned that the bill, which includes $60 billion in aid for Ukraine and $14 billion in aid for Israel, would be dead on arrival. Republicans blasted the border package deal for failing “in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.” The White House then disingenuously claimed that it was Republicans who were guilty of playing politics: “The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game.” If that was indeed the case, then why is Biden rejecting standalone legislation to grant aid to Israel? Evidently, Biden is only willing to stand with Israel if it comes with a whole litany of unrelated policy items that serve his own political agenda.

• Gov’t interference over vaccines: Remember who is actually responsible for first politicizing the COVID vaccine? It wasn’t Donald Trump or “MAGA Republicans.” It was Joe Biden’s VP pick, Kamala Harris, who back in the fall of 2020 said that she “would not trust Donald Trump” regarding any vaccine. When pressed if she would get the vaccine, she added, “I will not take his word for it.” Fast-forward a few months later, and the Biden administration not only changed its tune on the vaccine but sought to force as many Americans as possible into getting it. Now, the House Judiciary Committee has obtained emails that show the degree of the pressure campaign waged by the White House on Big Tech companies including Amazon to suppress any opposition to the vaccine. Feeling the pressure back in March 2021, Amazon employees sought a meeting with the White House to clarify if the Biden administration wanted the company to remove “anti-vax books” from its retail catalog. “Is the [a]dmin asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order (or both)?” was a question from one Amazon employee. Andrew Slavitt, then senior adviser to Biden on his COVID response, was communicating with Amazon about “the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation [on] Amazon.” In several emails from Slavitt to Amazon, he pressured the company over “concerning” material on its site related to vaccines. What becomes clear is a pattern of the White House pushing Amazon to effectively censor any material that didn’t further its policy objectives regarding the COVID vaccine.

• U.S. on “unsustainable” fiscal path: In a recent interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell admitted what many conservatives have long been warning about — that the U.S. government is spending too much money. Powell pointed to the ballooning national debt and noted: “In the long run, the U.S. is on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy.” He then warned: “Effectively we’re borrowing from future generations. It’s time for us to get back to putting a priority on fiscal sustainability and sooner is better than later.” Welcome to the party. The trouble is that there are still not enough lawmakers in Congress who are willing to truly put the brakes on the federal government’s spending.

• The media bloodbath continues: From the “Hate to See It” Files comes this latest tale of woe from CNN, The Most Trusted Name in News™, which on Monday scuttled one of its morning shows in the wake of the network’s worst viewership numbers since before the political rise of Donald Trump. Alas, when it comes to the Leftmedia, Trump giveth and Trump taketh away. “We will no longer produce morning programming in New York and will be disbanding the team that currently produces ‘CNN This Morning’ in that city,” said CEO Mark Thompson to staffers on Monday. In an effort to assuage the network’s dozens of loyal viewers, Thompson added, “Our New York-based primetime and weekend programming will continue.” As our Nate Jackson noted recently: “CNN, NBC News, CBS News, NPR, TIME magazine, National Geographic, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Business Insider, Vice, Vox Media, The Verge, and a long list of other media outlets have all cut jobs in recent months or plan to in the near future. Even our old pals at BuzzFeed shut down their entire news division last year. Pity. Far be it from us to revel in the misery of others, but this couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.”

• Most assailants use handguns, not rifles, in “mass shootings”: A new study from the Crime Prevention Research Center that looks at the data from public mass shootings over the last 25 years has confirmed what many Second Amendment advocates have long known — the most common firearms used in so-called “mass shootings” are handguns, not rifles. The study also noted that most shootings took place in supposed “gun-free zones” and would not have been prevented by a law requiring universal background checks. The study’s author and founder of the center, John Lott Jr., pointed out that one of the biggest problems is with the term “mass shooting,” observing: “The big thing that irritates me is you have somebody like [President] Biden go and say, ‘We have Uvalde, and we’ve had 600 more attacks like this.’ That’s simply false because they’re just putting apples and oranges together.” The anti-Second Amendment lobby loves to target the AR-15, erroneously dubbing it an “assault rifle,” as if that type of firearm is the problem and responsible for most mass shootings. But the facts don’t come close to backing up the narrative. Irrespective of the firearm used in these crimes, every one of these attacks is committed by individuals with criminal intent to break the law.

• Renato Moicano lives, Toby Keith dies: In an age when illegal alien thugs brutally attack our cops and then fire off a double-bird to the rest of us when they’re released from jail, we remind ourselves that not everyone hates America. One case in point comes to us from Brazil, the home country of UCF fighter Renato Moicano, who emerged from a tough win over Drew Dober Saturday night with an impassioned message of love for the United States, as well as an admonition: “I love f***ing America, you know? … I’m not an American … but in two years, I will be an American. And after I am done with fighting, I will serve [as a] police officer. I want to be [on] a SWAT team, and I want to kill the bad guys. Make no mistake, there is right, and there is f***ing wrong! … That’s why I want more kids, I want people to go to their church, I want people to respect the f***ing law. Otherwise, this [greatest] country in the world is gonna be a third-world country!” Elsewhere among patriots, country music star Toby Keith, 62, whose “Should Have Been a Cowboy” was the most-played country music song of the 1990s, died peacefully yesterday after a two-year battle with stomach cancer — a battle he says he was better equipped to fight because of his Christian faith. Keith, a former rodeo hand and semi-pro football player who famously defended then-President George W. Bush against the vile comments of fellow country stars The Dixie Chicks, wrote or co-wrote 20 number one hits and sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. Keith’s greatest songwriting legacy, though, must be his stirring “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” also known as “The Angry American,” which he wrote in response to 9/11 and the death of his dad earlier that year, and which inspired an entire generation of American warriors. Rest in peace, Big Dog Daddy.

• Woke NHL books pro-Hamas National Anthem singer: What is it with the woke NHL? In a sport defined by speed, grit, toughness, and determination, it confounds us to see such sorry leftism. Perhaps the league’s management hasn’t gotten the message. If it had, it certainly wouldn’t have invited 26-year-old singer Kiana Lede to perform the American national anthem at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. Instead, there was Lede, wearing pro-Hamas attire and causing the league some much-deserved heartburn. As The Daily Caller reports: “Lede wore a cardigan resembling a keffiyeh — something that has been gaining popularity with Palestinian supporters. The pro-Palestinian crowd uses the keffiyeh, black and white checkered, as a symbol of unity — the same symbol that Lede was wearing.” It’s not as if Lede’s behavior surprised the NHL brass — or at least it shouldn’t have. Her anti-Israel proclivities have been well known ever since the Jewish state began to defend itself against the murdering terrorists of Hamas. But in a world full of wonderful singers, this is the best the NHL could do?

Headlines

• Biden and Haley are on the ballot, but not Trump, as Nevada holds presidential primaries (Fox News)

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signals retreat from border bill (Daily Wire) | House Republicans shoot down Senate border bill (Daily Wire)

• Several migrants accused in beating of New York City police officers arrested in Phoenix (Fox News)

• Chinese migrants are the fastest-growing group crossing from Mexico into U.S. at southern border (CBS News)

• New York governor relaxes requirements for illegals to get government jobs (Daily Wire)

• Biden blasted for claiming abortion for “three trimesters” is not “on demand” (Fox News)

• Medical journal retracts major studies critical of abortion pill ahead of Supreme Court clash (Daily Wire)

• It’s not just Taylor Swift “nudes”: Millions of teen girls victimized as classmates turn them into deepfake porn (New York Post)

• Satire: New Senate anti-murder bill caps murders at 5,000 per day (Babylon Bee)

• Policy: “No” to the border deal (National Review)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.